By the end of the cleansing portion of the shower, Riley had thoroughly touched, cleaned, explored and fondled just about every inch of Vanessa’s body with worshipping reverence.  Simultaneously, she reciprocated, finding herself boldly exploring every part of Riley’s body willingly and fearlessly, for she had never been comfortable with such explorations before.  She could think of nothing more beautiful than a naked Riley Tate, especially one with the look on his face, as if he had seen nothing more beautiful than her.  She couldn’t remember a time when she had wanted someone to look at her naked.  Most other times she had sex were hurried, darkened fumblings that left her unsatisfied.  She not only wanted Riley to see her, she loved it, particularly how he seemed to relish his exploration. 

He kissed her, his tongue tantalizing hers with its teasing, a prelude for what was next on his agenda.  He tracked his mouth and tongue down her neck, over her collarbone to her breasts.  He held each in his hands, reminding her live and in color of what he did the other night to both nipples, kissing, tonguing and scraping with his teeth.  She wrapped her arms around his neck, wishing she could pull him closer so he wouldn’t disappear.  He guided her to the bench behind her and urged her to sit, placing her on the edge, and pushing her knees apart as wide as they would go.  He studied her for a moment, and his stare made the heat pool between her open thighs.  She never thought she would feel comfortable with anyone seeing her so exposed, but as he trailed his finger from the inside of her left knee, down her thigh to the juncture between her legs, he felt her wetness, making her jump.  She found it so hot, she almost came at his touch.

“I’m safe, by the way.  You don’t need to worry about anything.” she breathed.

“What do you mean?” he asked, as he kissed the inside of her right knee.

“You said you wanted to get protection first.  I’m protected.  I’ve been on the pill for years.  And I always,” she rolled her eyes,  “I mean usually, until today that is, have sex with a condom.  And I’ve been tested twice since the last time.  You can…I mean, we can… again.” 

He smiled.  “Good to know, but that’s not what I have planned.”  He trailed kisses up the inside of her thigh slowly, cautiously, carefully, lightly sucking her skin into his mouth, then running it over with his tongue.  “Not yet, anyway.”  His mouth hit its target, and she purred.  His tongue danced against her in glorious fashion, gliding from her nub to her center and back again.  Once he guided his finger inside her, she could hold back nothing.  She fiercely released all her inhibition, all her stress and worry gone in that moment.  He watched as she groaned, quite loudly, panting and whimpering, arching her back and squirming.  He held on firmly, not stopping until she quieted, and when the torrent subsided, she lay there for a second, unable to form words or even move.

“That… was awesome,” Riley whispered, as he kissed up to her belly.

“Damn, that’s never happened,” she huffed, almost embarrassed it left her lips.

“What?” He dipped his tongue into her navel.  “What I just did or what you just did?”  Riley smirked.

“Well… neither.”

He stood up, offering his hand to help her stand.  “Never?”

“Not from anyone else.” She blushed, hoping he didn’t catch her meaning.  “Apparently, I haven’t had great experiences.”

“Hmmmm, another good thing to know.”  He moved to turn off the shower, but she grabbed him in a way that would certainly get his attention, and he stopped.  She ran her hand up and down his length, enjoying his hiss, his tightly closed eyes, and how he threw back his head.

“Since this is a shower of firsts, I’d like to try something else I’ve never done.”  She kissed her way down his chest, incredibly uncertain of what to do, but remembered Emily saying how it wasn’t exactly rocket science and how there was really no wrong way to do it.  Kneeling in front of him, she kept her eyes locked on his.  He stilled once she kissed his tip.  After a few nervous moments, she mustered her courage and took the plunge, taking as much into her mouth as she could.  Slowly drawing him out, she swirled her tongue around the tip and slightly nibbled, gripping the rest with her hand.  She moved her mouth and hand in sync, slowly, adding slight suction, and based on Riley’s reactions, she was doing things quite nicely.  She sped up, pumping with her hand, mimicking the action with her mouth.  Every so often, she would suck and nibble the tip, dipping her tongue into the slit at the end.  He grabbed both sides of her face, just to touch her, allowing her to move at her pace.  With every grunt and moan of his, it spurred her to do more of the same. 

After a few minutes, he released her face and grabbed her shoulders.  “Vanessa.”  She released him, a string of saliva linked from her lip to the tip of him, and looked up at him.  He lifted her up, moved himself to the bench, sat down, and motioned for her to straddle him.  She grabbed his shaft to guide him inside her.

“Give me a minute,” he breathed against her breasts, kissing gently against her cleavage, while his hand worked to inside her thigh again, testing and teasing, gently caressing and spreading her wetness from nub to slit.  Once he seemed to gain a little control, he guided himself to slowly plunge deeply inside her, the hand on her waist helping to work her slowly against him.  Her nipples hardened in his mouth.  His thumb rubbed exactly the right spot between her thighs.  She leaned back a little, arching her back slightly, so he could get a better angle.    They moved together perfectly, able to read each other’s signals almost instinctively, knowing exactly when to speed up or slow down. 

Time escaped them, lost in each other.  They locked eyes, watching each other, until Vanessa felt her end approaching.  She welcomed it, exploding into a million pieces, sighing his name as she did.  He watched her closely, and he followed not far behind.  They remained joined, but they rested against each other, wrapped in each other’s arms, neither of them moving except to breathe. 

She spoke first.  “We should probably turn off the water.”

He laughed.  “I will hate to see my water bill.”  He kissed her shoulder.  “But worth every penny.”

She moved her hips slowly to release him, but stayed on his lap.  “May I tell you something?” she asked.

“Anything,” he huskily answered.

“Next time you want to make sure someone falls for you, lead with that.”

He smiled.  “Which part?”

She paused, pretending to consider her options.  “All of it.”

“Well, I don’t plan to make anyone else fall for me, Vanessa.”  He kissed her tenderly.  “You are the last one.”

 

***

 

“You know, Riley, under normal circumstances, I’d be really pissed that you turned off my music during my shower,” Vanessa teased as they dried each other carefully.  “But since you kinda already made it up to me, this time, I forgive you.”

“You do, huh?” he hummed against her neck.  “I didn’t realize how important your music was.”  He grazed his teeth along her shoulder.  “Forgive me for not wanting our first time to be to your hate rock.”

She elbowed him lightly and stepped away, grabbing her lotion while glaring at him in mock irritation in the mirror.  “Hate rock?”

He smiled, stepping toward her and slipping his hands around her waist.  “C’mon.  Manson, Korn, Papa Roach?  What was that other band you mentioned?  Something about Death Punch?  I bet they don’t sing about adopting puppies.  All the music I’ve heard you listen to is pretty angsty.  And kinda old.  I didn’t think anyone listened to this stuff anymore.  Do you even listen to anything mellow or happy?”

She considered his question for a moment.  “Not all of it is angry.  I like Muse; they’re not angry.”

“They don’t exactly perform happy love songs, either.”

“I dunno.  I guess for the most part you could be right.  All the happy music seems stupid and frivolous.  I like music that is raw, edgy.  Take Linkin Park.  Their first two albums include some of my favorite music.  Deep lyrics, driving beats, pure ire and angst.  Not sure what happened before the third album, but the band lost its edge.  Since then, their music has turned into one big snore fest. 

“There’s no better therapy than a good song, catharsis in its most beautiful form.  Better to sing about it than to work it out in an unhealthy way.  There are no stronger, purer emotions than hatred and anger.  Makes for more interesting music.”

“What about love?” he asked nibbling her shoulder one last time before stepping away from her to allow her to apply her lotion. 

She applied some lotion to her legs and arms, giving her time to carefully construct her answer to his question, which had unnerved her.  She was almost completely distracted by some unrecognizable emotion she could not pinpoint, almost a cross between awe and desire, in his eyes as he watched her.  When his gaze returned to her face, she found her words.  “I can’t say I know much about love, except that it makes for really boring music.”

He held out his hand for the lotion bottle and poured some into his hand.  His fingers lightly caressed her shoulders, neck and back.  “You’ve never been in love?” he whispered against her neck just below her ear.

She turned to face Riley, taking the lotion bottle from him and placing it on the counter.  “I thought I was in love at the time, but looking back, I’m pretty sure I wasn’t.”  I wasn’t at all.  But there is no way I am ready to admit that I know that because of the way I feel about you.  This feeling way overshadows anything I felt for anyone else.  I don’t want you to run like Steven did right after I said those three words.

He grabbed her hands and led her to the bed.  “So, you know about Melanie and Bailee.  I think I deserve to know a little about your dating history,” Riley ventured, after they both slipped under the covers of her bed, facing each other.

“I wouldn’t exactly call it a history.  More like a farce.” 

Riley chuckled, running his finger from her shoulder to her collarbone and back.  “I’m sure it wasn’t that bad.”

“Yeah, it was.  Steven, he was a pre-med major.  I was a sophomore in college.  We dated for about seven months.  He dumped me over text message saying I wasn’t really his type and things ‘just aren’t working out.’ 

“Then there was Jason.  I dated him for about a year.  He was really into his research, chemistry or biology or biochemistry and was always in the lab.  We really didn’t spend a lot of time together; he was more in love with his experiments.  Now that I look back on it, he only called me when he did something good in the lab, and then it was only for a really awkward celebration dinner and even more awkward sex.  I found out we were no longer a couple when he changed his Facebook status to single.  Luckily, I took Dr. Philips seminar right after that or else I might have been slightly bummed about it.

“Since then, it’s been a string of first dates, all of whom were jerks,”  she lowered her eyes, “well, except for you.  But our date really didn’t count, since it was pretend.”

“Don’t forget, we have a real date Wednesday night.  And we can go out tonight if you want.”  He tucked her hair behind her ear.  “What about high school?”

“I didn’t really date then.” He raised his eyebrows in question.  “Daddy,” she answered.

“Your dad didn’t let you date?”

“Not exactly.  I just didn’t.  For two reasons.  One, he became really over protective of me after mom’s nervous breakdown.  I’m pretty sure he felt guilty that he didn’t see all she had done to me.  He tried to make up for not noticing, so he did a complete one-eighty.  I think he even looked into LoJacking me.”

Riley laughed.  “He did not.” 

“Yeah, well, he’s a cop, and that brings me to my second reason.  The police-officer-as-a-father thing scared away any boy who was interested in me.”

“Wait, your dad is a cop!”  he pulled his hand back quickly and seemed to move a foot away from her.

“Why is that always the reaction?  Yes, he is a sheriff.”  She scooted closer to him.  “You know, you should consider yourself lucky.  Usually before I have sex with someone, I have Daddy run a background check on them.”  He looked surprised.  She laughed.  “Kidding, but at least I did know their middle names.”

“You already know my middle name.  It IS Riley.”  He paused.  “It was my mother’s maiden name.”

“So are you going to tell me your first name?” 

“I don’t want to.”  He looked away.  “I really hate it.”

“Is it worse than Vanessa Lynn Taylor?  I sound like a friggin’ country singer from the sixties.”  She rolled on top of him and straddled him, teasingly grazing her breasts across his chest.  “C’mon.  It can’t be that bad,” she whispered against his neck. 

“Using your body to get your way?  You’ve resorted to that?”  She kept up her teasing.  “Not that it won’t work, I’m just shocked you would try it.”  She kissed his neck right under his ear.  “Ugh, okay, okay.  It’s Melvin.”

A giggle escaped her mouth before she could catch it.  “Your name is Melvin Riley Tate?”  He nodded.  She rolled off of him, giggling uncontrollably. 

“Not real big on the sympathy, huh?”  He was getting really annoyed.  “Now you know why I didn’t want to tell you.”

“No, I’m sorry,”  she tried to get her laughter under control.  “It’s just that you are the exact opposite of what I picture a Melvin to look like.”

His expression softened.  “Please try to understand.  I was teased unmercifully as a child.  I started to go by Riley when we moved to Texas.  Mom named me after my grandfather, Melvin Riley.  At least she picked the lesser of two evils.  Melvin is bad enough, but I could have been Orville.”

“Yeah, I’m not sure about that.”  She giggled again.

Riley rolled over on top of her and grabbed her face with both of his hands.  “No one else knows my name, Vanessa.  Please, you have to keep this to yourself.”  He stared intently and deeply into her eyes.  “I am trusting you with a lot here,” he said with such seriousness, that she sobered.  She knew he was hinting to more than just the knowledge of his embarrassing first name.  “Vanessa Lynn Taylor, can you handle it?”

She answered him by pressing her lips to his. 

Vanessa realized at this moment that she had only had ‘sex’ in her lifetime.  Embarrassingly bad sex at that, which she didn’t know how bad it had been in the past until the morning’s earth-shattering shower escapade.  But this particular kiss ignited something between them.  Never had she ever felt anything like this.  She felt special, desired, cherished.  She used to make fun of people who referred to sex as love making, but now she got it.  Slow and methodical, tender and romantic, much different than this morning, but just as earth shattering.  Sometime while they were joined, she looked in Riley’s eyes and knew that she was totally, one-hundred percent, without a shadow of a doubt, falling deep in love with him.  At that moment, she surrendered to it and trusted in it completely. 

Something about this scares the shit out of me.  You can ignore it now, but you won’t be able to  ignore it much longer, Nessa.