Paul hated math. He loathed arithmetic, he despised algebra and geometry made him want to puke. A month short of his 19th birthday, he excelled at just about every other subject in school, but at maths he was a hopeless failure.
As he bent closer over his homework, trying to grasp just an inkling of what a co-sine might be and whether it had big tits, the doorbell rang. He heard his mother walk to the door to answer it, and two seconds later her voice rang out: "Paul, we've got an unexpected visitor."
Paul stepped from his bedroom and leaned over the landing to see who was calling. His heart leapt. Directly below him, chatting to his mother in the hallway was the delectable shape of his cousin Rosemary.
Paul had six first cousins, and was fond of them all. But Rosemary, 10 years his senior, had always been his firm favourite. When he was young, she had always looked out for him, and as he grew older, they had become firm friends.
But over the past two or three years, Paul had detected a difference in their relationship. Puberty's volcano had been welling up inside him for some time. Today, when he looked at Rosemary he saw a lot more than a friend with a laughter-lined face and a warm personality. He also saw round, shapely buttocks, broad, childbearing hips, a slender waist and, above all, the most wonderful pair of breasts on God's earth. When she was around, he often caught himself drinking in the contours of her body, longing to touch and caress those ample curves.
Rosemary, too, had noticed the change in their friendship. Whereas before, her role in their relationship had been that of tomboy older cousin, now she often flirted with him. Paul was a good-looking boy with a firm, muscular body, and Rosemary was secretly flattered by the way he looked at her.
At the school where she taught science she was regarded as something of a bookworm. She had not had a serious relationship with a man of her own age for three years, but like any red-blooded 29-year-old woman, Rosemary had physical needs and desires.
Unknown to Paul, she too desperately wanted their relationship to go further. She wanted him badly, and again unknown to Paul, that was the main reason for her visit today.
Blissfully ignorant of all this, Paul paused for a second at the top of the stairs to take in the view beneath. Rosemary was wearing a blue skirt and low-cut white cotton top. Paul gazed down her deep cleavage and felt a stirring in his pants.
He skipped downstairs, two at a time. "Well if it isn't Rosy Lee, my favourite cousin," he called out to her. "Have you come to check up on me?"
As he reached the foot of the stairs, Rosemary put a hand to his face and pecked him on the cheek. "Just tell me you're at last getting to grips with that maths, that's all."
Paul laughed and pulled a face. "Yuk," he said. "Please don't mention excrement quite so early in the conversation."
"Paul, don't be so vulgar," his mother chided him.
Rosemary interrupted. "Actually, Auntie Ruth, it occurred to me that I might be able to help Paul with his maths. As you may know, I studied maths right up to my first year of university, and although my degree is in physics and chemistry, my maths is pretty hot and I am a teacher. I was wondering if Paul would like some extra tuition during the school holidays β maybe even before."
"That's very kind of you Rosemary, but as you know money is tight and we couldn't afford to pay you much."
"Don't worry about that, Auntie Ruth. Just take me out for a nice meal to celebrate Paul getting a grade A in his maths exams. Do we have a deal?"
Rosemary was a woman used to getting her own way, and within two minutes it was agreed that Paul would attend his first extra-curricular maths session at Rosemary's house at 10am the following Saturday.
Ruth and Rosemary wandered off to chat about the progress of a dress Rosemary was making β ostensibly the reason for her visit β and Paul was left to reflect on Rosemary's gently undulating backside heading for the living room and what a wonderful world it was that he inhabited.
On Saturday, a day that Paul habitually regarded as an excuse for a long lie-in, he was up and about by eight. By 9.30 he was freewheeling on his bike down the cul-de-sac where he lived to make the five-mile journey across the city to Rosemary's house. His saddlebag was full of maths textbooks, his loins full of desire and his mind full of Rosemary.
His Auntie Gracie, his father's sister and Rosemary's mother, answered the door to the house she shared with Rosemary and her husband Basil. "My, you're early," she said. "Barely ten to ten. Basil's working today, but Rosemary will be down shortly."
Paul deposited his books on the dining room table, and sat down, pretending to read.
After two minutes, Rosemary came in. She was wearing tight blue ski pants and a scoop-neck pink cotton blouse that was secured above her breasts with just three buttons and descended only as far as her navel. The ski pants accentuated the undulating contours of her backside and legs, and the fabric of the top was so thin Paul could clearly see her black bra beneath it.
Rosemary flicked a strand of light brown hair from her forehead and bent over the table towards him to look at one of his books. As she did so Paul was rewarded with a view of her round and firm breasts, encased in a bra that barely contained them. She leaned forward further, and the blouse opened a little more, giving him an unrestricted view to the waistband of her ski-pants, with those priceless twin black and white mounds in between.
Apparently unaware of Paul's preoccupation, Rosemary flipped open the book cover and said: "Oh yes, Basic Trigonometry, I remember this one. Perhaps a bit too far advanced just for now, don't you think? We don't want to run before we can walk, do we?"
She turned a fond and smiling face towards Paul, and he took a split second to remove his gaze from her breasts and meet her eyes. Rosemary was gratified. Her choice of wardrobe today was no accident, and as she met his gaze, she deliberately reached inside her blouse to adjust a bra strap.
Paul reddened to his roots and Rosemary's brown eyes, fixed on his, twinkled mischievously. "There's one thing you must never forget over the next few weeks," she said, with heavy double entendre. "And that is that I am the teacher and you are the pupil. Do exactly as I say, and I guarantee β she paused wickedly for emphasis β I guarantee you will enjoy every minute of it."
She sat down opposite him. "Right, put the books to one side for a moment. I've put together some very basic algebra questions for you, and I'd like you to work on them for the next half-hour, so I can see roughly how far along the road you have come."
Rosemary pushed two sheets of foolscap paper across the table to him. He took out a pen and started scanning the questions, but found it difficult to apply himself to the task. His mind was elsewhere βon Rosemary's sparkling, wicked hazel eyes, on her big and sensuous mouth, her slender neck, her wonderful breasts. Paul took a deep breath and found himself inhaling Rosemary's subtle perfume, which didn't make things any better.
Just then, Gracie called out from the hallway. "I've got to pop into town for some stuff," she shouted. "I'll probably be about two hours. I'll get some fish and chips for our lunch on the way back, Rosemary."
With that the front door slammed, and Paul and Rosemary were left alone in the house.
Paul turned back to the algebra and began to see that Rosemary had chosen her questions wisely. The first two or three he found straightforward enough, but as he moved lower down the page, he found his mind stretched, though not stretched so far that he was incapable of making a decent stab at them.