Forever After
Part One of the Forever Series
MIRANDA EVANS
~~~
Copyright © 2012 By: Miranda Evans
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of characters to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. Miranda Evans holds exclusive rights to this work. Unauthorized duplication
is prohibited.
Chapter 1
Leah was lost in thought as she pulled into the vast Cascadia Circle shopping center and parked her blue Jetta. She was there to meet her best friend Crystal at the bar but as she pulled on her emergency brake, her mind was somewhere else.
Mere minutes earlier, when she was at the red light waiting to turn into Cascadia Circle, she thought she had seen her ex-boyfriend, Charles, passing by in the oncoming lane. What was worse was that, if it really was him, he appeared to have been with another woman: A pretty, bubbly blonde with what, if the quick glance was to be believed, had a massive rack on her.
Not like it should have mattered. Leah and Charles had been broken up for at least three months and he was well within his rights to move on and find somebody new. And though he appeared to have been with a spray-tanned blonde, who by all rights wasn't his type, it wasn't like Leah was chopped liver over here. Sure, her breasts were a more demure 32B, but they were nice, supple, and beautifully in harmony with her lithe, 110 lb. body. Her jet dark hair stood in stark contrast to the blonde filling up his passenger seat. But Leah's hypnotizing green eyes actually made her deep black, hair look almost more luxurious.
Still, as Leah locked her car door and began to walk toward the stylish, impeccably decorated outdoor tavern, she couldn't help thinking of the irony of it all. Here she was meeting her best friend, Crystal for the first time in months, and Charles, who she hadn't seen at all up to this point, was the exact reason for Leah's recent self-imposed exile. It wasn't like it was a particularly bad breakup. Both parties agreed that a split was imperative, but Leah didn't realize how alone and lonely she would feel back then.
It wasn't like it was all Charles, either. Sure, he was cute and sweet in his own way, but he wasn't the type to get hung up on for months or even years after he left you. No, the truth was that Leah began to think a lot about herself and her problems during her breakup phase. When they were together, the sex was, in Leah's mind, just fine. For she had never really been a sexually-charged being. She liked being intimate with Charles, cuddling and spooning and kissing all night, but he had a voracious sexual appetite that bordered on the depraved sometimes. This was something that was quite a bit out of the ordinary for poor Leah, who had only had one partner before him and who was brought up in a very conservative Catholic household.
Now, to be fair, Charles wasn't against having proper, clean, missionary sex. He did love Leah and they were together for nearly a year, but poor Leah and her low sexual aptitude and simply couldn't handle Charles' insatiable lust. He would start with missionary to appease her but soon the lust in his eyes was unmistakable and he would try to flip her around to enter her doggy style. Leah disliked doggy style for quite a few aesthetic reasons, to say nothing of the uncomfortable position she felt herself in. And that was just the tip of the iceberg. When he was drunk, Charles would suggest or proposition sexual positions and activities far more insidious to Leah's ears than mere rear entry. She would shyly try to change the subject and that would make Charles even more upset. A few times Leah attempted to perform oral sex on Charles but it was clear that he was enjoying himself about as much as she was. That is, not much at all. She had only gone down on one other man, the man who took her virginity, and he was a virgin too so he had no way to gauge how well or poorly she gave head. As it turned out, it was more on the poor side. Leah tried to read the Cosmo articles that offered tips – 'Use your hands in a clockwise motions,” “exhale while going down to let it in deeper,”- but none of them seemed to work. At least not for Charles.
And even worse, Charles began to question his own sexual aptitude because Leah couldn't seem to orgasm with him. It wasn't his fault at all. He was a virile, sexually dynamic twenty-three year old and the same age as Leah but years ahead of her when it came to intercourse. It was Leah's own issues with her body, with the idea of lovemaking, which caused her to clam up and seem frigid in bed. Leah never masturbated but if she had, she might then have learned that the human body is something worth exploring and discovering and not something that is to be despised as a temple of sin.
Still, at this point, all the masturbating in the world would have been too little, too late. Charles was long gone and, though Leah missed him in some ways, she was more upset about the fact that she might never be able to please a man in bed due to her prudish tendencies. And that as much as any other reason was why Leah hadn't gone out with friends or enjoyed herself in the past few weeks. It was fitting that she should catch a glimpse of Charles right as she was turning into Cascadia Circle.
And now she was walking up to the bar, “Hobbes' Tavern,” better known as “Hobbies” to locals, and she would meet Crystal. Crystal might just make it all better. One thing was certain; you could always count on Crystal to get you out of a funk, especially if the funk involved relationships. As an almost perfect counterpoint to Leah, Crystal practically exuded sexuality. She had lost her virginity at 14 to a freshman in high school and she never looked back. Leah had met Crystal when the two were in Algebra in sophomore year and Crystal was already a sexual dynamo. Leah sometimes took a guilty pleasure in hearing Crystal's tales of debauchery. It was really her only connection to a world that she really didn't feel a part of. She was unnerved by some of the stories though. Once Crystal told Leah of a man who was heavily into sadomasochism. He had the whips, chains, cuffs and other accessories that Leah considered torture devices. Still, she couldn't believe the flushed face and smile of Crystal as she recounted how the man choked her, put clamps on her nipples, and generally treated her body like a battering ram.
Crystal sometimes served as a great source of advice for all things sexual, but even then Leah never had the courage to go through with some of her tips. Besides, Crystal was far more extreme. She had had anal sex, something Leah found truly horrifying. Aside from the usual sanitary and moral issues, Leah imagined that the pain was unbearable. Once Charles had tried to slip his thumb in her ass during sex and Leah immediately recoiled. But to hear Crystal explain it, recounting the great feeling of the nerve endings as the cock slid out of her ass, one would think that it was a great time to be had by all. Ah well, different strokes as they say.
Chapter 2
Leah entered Hobbies and immediately saw Crystal at the bar. She was easy to locate because of her ostentatious style of dress. Today she was wearing a short skirt that revealed her smooth, toned legs. Around the apartment Crystal wore those shoes that Leah hated – The ones with the curves on the bottom that supposedly toned your lower body. Apparently they worked at least a little bit, but what Leah didn't consider was that her legs were more shapely and appealing than Crystal's. She would have never known this, because nobody was honest enough to tell her up to this point. So, alas, she often covered up her sexy lower body with jeans that weren't tight enough to show off her figure. As she sat down at the bar, Crystal turned to her.
“Hey girl!!” she said.
“Hi Crystal, how have you been?”
“Me? How have YOU been?! I haven't seen you in weeks. Please tell me you're over that Charles prick.”
“Well, I mean, I guess.
....I don't know....yeah, I'm over HIM. It's just......well, forget it. But incidentally, you know I saw him when I was pulling into the plaza?”
“What?! Get fucking real! Damn, what a world. I don't see my best friend for more than a month and then when I can finally get her to come out for a drink or two, that dickhead has to come and try to fuck it up again!”
Crystal stirred her whiskey and Diet Coke and took another sip and the bartender came up and motioned to Leah.
“What can I get you?” he asked.
“Oh, just a water please.”
Crystal’s eyes looked furtively from her drink to Leah as she put down her glass.
“A water? No.....no, Bartender? She'll have a mojito and I'll have another one of these.”
The bartender nodded and went to mixing the drinks.
“Crystal, I don't really want to start drinking this early in the day.”
“Oh just have a couple. I mean I never see you anymore and now that you're out....and besides, you look flustered as hell. You just need to relax a little bit.”
“Fine, I'll have a couple.”
Two drinks turned into three. Well, it turned into three for Leah. Crystal was on her fifth drink. By this time the conversation began to get a bit looser. Leah had virtually no tolerance and probably wouldn't have had a single drink if she hadn't seen Charles and then been reminded of her inexperience with sex. And now she was a bit tipsy. This caused her to ask something that she would have never brought up had she been sober.
“Crystal, how do you please a man in bed?”
“Oh wow. Well, I'm glad you came to me, but it really isn't as difficult as it sounds. I mean they're MEN, you know? They have a dick and you just gotta get the juice out in the most effective way possible. We're far more complex than them. If you can get yourself off, you can definitely get a guy off.”
“Err....sure.”
“Oh yeah, I forgot, you don't like to flick the bean. Well it doesn't matter. That's a conversation for another day. Now listen, I've found that the best way to make a man come is to start with a little bit of oral.”
“Ugh, I hate oral.”
“That's because Charlie was a grotty pig whose dick probably smelled like limburger cheese. Now when you're down there, don't listen to all that stupid Cosmo shit. Just get as far down as you can and use plenty of spit. Douse his pubes in saliva until he starts moaning. Then he'll throw you on the bed and all you need to do is spread your legs and let him do what he's going to do.”
It wasn't the best piece of advice, and even though Leah wasn't as sexually knowledgeable as Crystal, she still knew that there had to be more to it than that. And still, just getting a guy off didn't necessarily mean that she would enjoy having sex. She was confused and a bit forlorn and the drinks weren't exactly helping.
Just then, a man walked upstairs to the outside bar and sat down on the other side. Crystal and Leah took notice of him right away. He must have been in his late forties, but he didn't have an aged look. On the contrary, it was as if his age suited him perfectly and made him even more attractive. He probably was marginally good-looking for the first thirty years of his life and then as age began to set in, like many men, he filled himself out perfectly. His hair was salt and pepper – but not like a lying politician. More like an esteemed actor who may or may not have had a former role as a doctor on a hit NBC drama.
His face and arms were tanned; not the kind of even, overall tan you get from lying lazily in a UV bed though. This was the skin tone of a man who seemed to work outdoors with his hands. And though he was at some considerable distance, it was still apparent to Leah that his hands were big and muscular. But this salt of the earth appearance was at odds with his dress. He wore a very fashionable vest and his long-sleeved shirt was rolled up to reveal his muscular forearms. His khaki pants fit perfectly and showed off his muscular thighs, indicating that he spent some free time in the gym. His eyes were the color of a cluster of emeralds, the light tone of them further highlighting his grey and black hair.
Crystal, naturally, was the first one to say something.
“Damn, that guy is hot as fuck.”
Leah laughed. “Yeah, he's pretty attractive.”
“You ever screw an older guy?”
“No. I mean Charles was same age as me, and....”
“Yeah, yeah, I know. And the other one was just as young,” interrupted Crystal. “But let me tell you, you might think that young guys have it all going on because they're always horny and ready to jackrabbit you in the dressing room of an Old Navy, but that's all it is: Just frequent, uninteresting sex. It's the older guys who really know what they're doing. They've mastered a woman's body the way a veteran violinist can handle the instrument better than a youngster starting out.”
“A veteran violinist?”
“Leah, will you stop being so clinical for one second and listen to what I'm telling you? You're a twenty-three year old woman. You've got a world of fabulous sex ahead of you but you're going to miss out on all of it if you can't get comfortable with the idea of fucking.”
“It's a lot harder to do that when you call it that.”
“What? 'Fucking?' Okay, well you're going to miss out on a lifetime of great 'lovemaking' if you just sit around being disgusted by all of it. Your problem is twofold.”
“You mean I have two problems?” interrupted Leah.
“Leah, I am going to strangle you. Now listen, your problem is twofold: First, you haven't had sex with that many guys. Second, the guys you have hooked up with have been dopey douche bags who wouldn't know what to do with a woman's body if you gave them a field manual and 72 hours of practice.”
“Well, that's really a relative statement, isn't it? Sure, I haven't had the kind of experience that you have, but you're making it seem like I'm some kind of nun.”
“That's because you are! You're talking to your best friend here. Now be straight up with me. A couple months ago, when we were having some drinks, just like now, did you or did you not admit to me that you don't think you have ever had an orgasm?”
Leah was quiet for a second.
“Well, the whole idea of an 'orgasm' is kind of abstract.”
“Anybody who has ever truly come would never say such a thing. I mean, what the fuck was Charlie Boy doing with you the whole time?”
“I don't know....it was mostly my fault. I was never really into it as much as maybe I ought to have been.”
“Yeah, that's another thing. You need to learn to love your body and love yourself. Until you do that, you will continue to think of sex as a chore. And guys like Charles aren't doing you any favors. He just wants to get his nut and then roll off you so he can flip the Xbox back on.”
Leah laughed in spite of herself. The Charles bashing helped, but still she had to admit that Crystal had a point. Of course, true to Crystal's nature, she went too far when she had already hit the nail on the head.”
“I mean, guys of this generation are just a complete waste. You don't have the manly aspirations of the older guys and you don't have the freshness of the upcoming crop of sugar babies. Half the guys our age either live at home, don't have a job, play fucking “Call of Duty,” wear jeans skinnier than us, or write gay songs on acoustic guitar. It's a serious man-drought for women of our age.”
“So it's all their fault that I'm frigid in the sack?”
“Don't say that about yourself! Only I can say that. You just haven't been with a man who can treat your body the way it deserves to be treated. Now, that being said, you're not giving them as much to work with as you could. Look at those awesome tits you've got.”
Leah instinctively crossed her arms to cover her chest, despite the fact that her slightly large t-shirt was already doing the job handily.
“I mean those are solid upper B's and I've seen 'em when I've stayed over.”
“Crystal!”
“They look great! What do you want me to say? I wish I had those kind of titties.”
> “Okay, I'm hereby electing that we change the subject.”
“Motion denied. And so you've got those awesome knockers that you're completely covering up with that faded-ass shirt. And I just know that Charles wasn't treating them properly. A real man can get you in the mood just from kissing and caressing you there. Charles probably tried to shove the whole thing in his mouth like a garter snake trying to swallow an orange.”
“Well, I'm not saying you're wrong......”
“And that totally perfect ass that you're rockin'? Why in God's name aren't you showing it off? I mean you've got these fucking Jordache looking jeans...”
“They aren't Jordache.”
“Well they might as well be. I mean wear something that hugs your hips that shows off that fabulous caboose!”
Again, Leah chuckled. She was about to say something when Crystal interrupted her.
“Okay, look, see. That hot older man over there is about to pay his tab and get the fuck outta this dump. Now's your chance to see what it's like with a real man.”
Forever After Page 1
