On the short drive home, Steve could think or talk about nothing but the girl.
"She's as pretty as a China doll," Penny finally got a word in. "But a little strange – don't you think?"
"Strange? I didn't think she was strange. Everything about her was absolutely tantalizing."
"Yes, but she didn't carry on a conversation. Just answered your questions and was polite."
"But every move she made was sensual. The way she moved her hips almost made me come in my pants."
"Did you get a date?"
"Well… not exactly. The best I could get was a 'we'll see'. But I haven't given up."
CHAPTER THREE
It was a dismal Monday morning, raining and quite cold for September. Penny had set the alarm for nine o'clock and called the office, still in bed and half asleep, to advise them she wouldn't be in. She was assistant to the editor of a woman's magazine and was losing interest in the job anyway. However, she had hoped to avoid speaking to the editor, who was a woman in her fifties, with a sharp tongue. But as luck would have it, the editor answered the phone and they had harsh words.
By noon Penny was dressed in a plaid, pleated skirt, with matching vest, a white sweater and high heels. Conservative, she thought. But the short skirt didn't detract from her long, shapely legs, and the white sweater emphasized her conical breasts. And besides, older men prefer "cute" clothes, someone had told her – probably a jealous bitch.
She drove to his house in her brother's Cadillac convertible – top up – and found herself getting a little nervous. How silly, she told herself, I don't even care for him sexually. Just a friend. Someone who's interesting to talk to. But it didn't help drive out her anxiety.
It came as a bit of a shock when the front door was answered by Liz, the girl Paul was with at the party. She was wearing a short white dress that clung to every curve of her naked-underneath body and Penny hated herself for being so conservative. But Elizabeth continued to be the same polite, sweet, innocent child she was at the party and led Penny to the closed-in patio, where Paul was tinkering with some plants, while another scantily clad young thing was setting the table.
Paul's warmth immediately put. Penny at ease, and the two girls hastily departed. Then before she knew it, they were involved in conversation, sipping martinis, which Paul mixed; almost an uninterrupted continuation of the evening before. She was hardly aware of the presence of Elizabeth and the other girl when they served lunch and played tidy servant girls; there to carry out any little deed to please their "master".
Paul led Penny to a low, comfortable couch to have coffee and for the first time Penny was reminded of sex by the admiring glance Paul gave her legs as she sat down. Right up to the crotch, she thought, as she instinctively crossed her legs to cut off the view.
"Why don't you tell me how you got your reputation as a great lover?" she asked teasingly.
"Ha! That's a big laugh. I'm far from a great lover… just… well, you might say I'm more of a lover of sex."
"That's very interesting… at a time when everyone else seems to be getting bored with sex."
"Yes, but why are they bored with sex? Because they rush into it one-two-three and it's over. The mystery and intrigue are gone and they soon lose interest."
"But how can you maintain interest in something that you've found to be over-rated?"
"Simply by conditioning yourself."
"All right then, how does one condition herself?"
"First of all, what makes sex interesting? It's a desire, an urge. Once the desire is fulfilled it vanishes. So one must cultivate the desire to its full capacity."
"That's easier said than done. It's the man who suffers from an urgency that he can't contain and rushes the act to a conclusion, satisfying himself and his urgency, but leaving the girl on the first step of the ladder."
"True. But what if the girl is suffering from an even greater urgency? She would have two or three orgasms during his rush to reach his first."
Penny's silence was unmistakably caused by her doubts, he thought. He smiled and called to Liz.
"Let me demonstrate how conditioning works," he said, as Liz entered. Then turning to address Liz, said, "Show Penny your rose."
The girl blushed and lowered her eyes, which seemed to be filling with tears. Slowly, shamefully, she reached down and began lifting the hem of her skirt.
Penny was taken by surprise at the demonstration and didn't know what to do or say. She was embarrassed for the girl's sake and didn't know where to look as the hem was slowly lifted higher and higher. Liz hesitated as the bottom of the skirt reached a point just below her sex and Penny dropped her own eyes when Paul told Liz to lift it all the way up. Now Penny was getting uneasy because she was expected to look and wasn't. She shot a quick glance at the girl and turned to face Paul. He was smiling back at her and she decided to have another look.
Perched at a point that barely touched the girl's pubic hair was an inverted red rose.
"It takes a lot of concentration to walk with a rose between your legs – without dropping it or squashing it," Paul said, as Penny stared wide-eyed in amazement.
"But why?" Penny asked.
"By concentrating on the rose you give your full attention to that part of your body, controlling every muscle from the waist down. It also stimulates the mind, thinking about the soft rose brushing and teasing that area. And the stem, of course, is inserted in her."
"I really don't think I'm the 'vase type', Paul," Penny said and Paul began laughing.
His laugh had a calming effect on the two girls and the tension was gone, but Liz remained motionless, her eyes still downcast as she held up her skirt. Paul reached between her legs and removed the flower.
"Feel between her legs," Paul said.
Penny hesitated, then reached out her hand and slid it between the girl's legs. Elizabeth's cunt was dripping with juices. As she fingered the hot mushy lips, Penny glanced up into the girl's face and saw that her expression had changed from shame to agony. The agony of a girl having an orgasm! And Penny accommodated her by letting her fingers linger until she was finished. "Liz hasn't had sex with a man for almost two weeks," Paul said, signaling Liz to drop her skirt by waving his hand. "When she does… it will be the best ever."
"For whom?"
"Both."
At the moment, Penny was having her own problem with dampness between the legs. The little scene had stirred up the juices in her and she couldn't help thinking about the shame Elizabeth had shown when Paul made her lift her dress. Penny couldn't wash the sight of the vivid red rose from her mind. The way it was held delicately between the girl's white legs, with the green stem planted in the forbidden garden and hidden by the soft turf of hair. The fragrance from the juices between Elizabeth's legs was still in Penny's nostrils, on her fingers – or maybe it was her own juices, she thought, closing her legs tighter, just in case, to keep the odor locked in so it wouldn't reach Paul.
However, Paul changed the subject abruptly and they were talking about his plants, leaving Penny with a mist between her legs and a bit confused about her host. Next she found herself on a walking tour of the house, which to Penny was just another expensive Great Neck home – not as expensive as her father's – quite ordinary, in fact. The itch between her legs gradually subsided. But by the time they reached the indoor swimming pool, Paul was discussing health, exercise, and the benefits of a sauna bath. Penny's confusion was compounded when she found herself in a small dressing room getting undressed to take a sauna bath. She wondered how Paul had maneuvered her into this idea – then vaguely recalled that she was the one who suggested it. But how? Why? She drew a complete blank.