“I do have a, well, an alternative of sorts. If you would like to consider it.”
“Pardon?”
“You are a handsome man, Longarm.”
“Thank you. You’re a very pretty woman.” That was real close to being true.
“We both know better. But we also know,that to someone of your, uh, impulses, that does not matter in any event.”
“Clarice, I think there is something I should tell you before you go any further.”
“No, please. Let me finish. I’ve … the truth is, Longarm, I have spent most of the entire night past in deep contemplation about this. And I want to propose an … experiment, I suppose you might call it.”
“Yes?”
“I think, that is to say there really is nothing to stop, I mean to tell you that …” She stopped and seemed quite unable to go on.
Longarm waited patiently for her to get herself together. For some reason that he could not begin to fathom, Clarice—he had no idea what her last name was and did not think this would be a good time to ask—seemed quite flustered. She was breathing heavily and was flushed of a sudden, her normally fair complexion mottled and splotched with varying shades of red and purple.
“I would like to offer myself as a substitute, Longarm. It would be, like I said, an experiment. For both of us. If you, um, see what I mean.”
“I’m not real sure that I do. I mean, it kinda sounds like ..
“There isn’t anything that a boy can do for you that I can’t. Really. And … won’t you at least try? What harm could there possibly be in trying? Just once. To, well, to see how it goes. So to speak.”
She was blushing right furiously at this point and looking everywhere, anywhere except at him. Her hands were knotted in her lap, clenching and unclenching, rending and tearing at one another. It was a wonder she didn’t hurt herself.
“Are you really saying …?”
“I am saying… I am saying I would like you to come upstairs with me. To … to my bedroom. To my bed. That is, uh, that is exactly what I am saying.”
“Oh, MY.” How the hell did he get himself into these things? He hadn’t really meant anything by that foolishness yesterday. And now this. Shee-double-it.
“Please,” she asked in a barely audible whisper. She stood and without looking back started toward the front door of the once-fine house.
Chapter 26
For such an eager little thing she didn’t seem all that eager. That is, it was plain that she wanted to. But she sure as hell was shy and awkward about the whole thing once she got it started.
She took him upstairs to a pink and fluffy bedroom that smelled of rose water and a dozen other delicate scents and that looked like no male had ever seen it nor was ever intended to. Once there she kept her back to him, as if in a display of modesty, yet she wasted no time shucking out of her clothes.
With a slick, quick display of speed she got herself naked … Very nicely naked at that.
The damned wart wasn’t at all noticeable once her dress was tossed onto a nearby chair. She had a lovely body, slim and in perfect proportion. Her breasts were small but set above such a tiny waist that anything more would have seemed gross and unattractive. Her nipples were wee, proud buds of a soft and lovely pink, and her pubic hair was scant and pale atop a plump and lovely little mound. Her skin—the soft texture of fine velveteen— was flawless, not marred by so much as a freckle much less any warts or pimples. Had she been formed of marble she would have been exhibited in the finest of museums. As it was, she was lovely, and Longarm’s response was immediate and hearty, his erection shoving insistently at the fly of his trousers.
“Do I disgust you?” she asked, slowly turning fully around. Her back was as perfectly formed as her breasts, the soft musculature well defined and completely visible beneath her flawless skin. Her hips swelled nicely, the cheeks of her ass were small, softly curved, and apple shaped. Longarm thought it might be rather nice to take a bite out of them. Or, um, something to that effect.
“You’re beautiful,” he assured her. And he meant it. The imperfection on her face was completely forgotten now. He probably could not have seen it now if he’d looked for it.
Clarice smiled. And shyly came to him.
He bent, and she lifted her lips to his. The taste of her mouth was sweet and clean. Her lips were so soft and warm they seemed to have no substance, yet the tip of her tongue was saucy and tantalizing. In a way she seemed almost virginal to him, but it was clear that she was a girl who knew how to get the most out of—and give the most back with—her kisses.
Her flesh was cool and incredibly smooth, and he ran his hands lightly over her back and down to her waist, cupped the left cheek of her butt in one hand and felt the small of her back with the other.
He slid one hand in between their bodies and was shocked to discover that the hand at her back and the one touching her belly were but a few scant inches apart. She was so slim it seemed barely possible that a woman’s fully grown-up body could be complete in so small a space.
Her mouth moved gently on his, and her tongue flickered and lightly darted, fencing and playing with his as he savored the taste of her kiss.
She pulled back from him a fraction of an inch but remained so close that he could feel the feather-light touch of her moving lips on his when she whispered, “May I?”
He nodded, neither knowing nor caring what it was she wanted to do, and after a moment he could feel Clarice’s fingers gently tugging, pulling, slipping buttons, and undoing buckles. He let her undress him.
