A Regular Guy Valentine

I feel her nails again. This time it sends a shiver through me.

"How about now?" she breathes, "you turned on now?" I feel another scratch across my back, and envision the parallel pink lines she's leaving there. Again, I don't answer in words, but I do pick up the pace and intensity of my fingering. The way Justine is reacting, I don't think she's really in a state for words anymore either.

We remain there, our bodies locked together in a passionate embrace, heaving and moaning. Justine is squeezing against my fingers while I rub myself on her thigh. I feel her leg begin to quiver, the one I am grinding against, and it sends a shudder through me as well. "Oh, Jax," I hear. "I think I'm gonna ..."

I'm too far gone to find the words 'me too'. Instead, I pick up the intensity again, slamming in and out of her entrance as I grind away on her.

I stiffen.

Justine's body stiffens too.

"Oh god, yes," we moan simultaneously. Our bodies shudder in unison. I am in awe of this woman pressed against me, her ability to so quickly take me to such a peak. As I move to kiss her, I catch the look on her face, the sparkle in her eyes that lets me think that the feeling just might be mutual.

No words are spoken for a minute, we're both heaving and basking in the afterglow. I feel Justine's finger trailing over my sternum. "Thank you, Jax," she whispers, "that was incredible."

I smile and give her a peck on the lips.

She takes my head in her hands, pulling me back in for a longer, more passionate lip-lock. I'm moaning into her mouth, my hand seeking out the wall to steady myself. Before I know it, she releases me. "You can make me breakfast now," she whispers. Apparently, her loss for words has ended.

As we step out of the shower, Gracie is standing there looking at us with her head cocked to one side. I just grin, and reach for the towel bar.

"Jax," she whispers, "can I ask you something? Something personal?"

"Sure," I say. After our adventure in the shower I'd probably agree to anything.

She traces her finger across my chest, just below my nipple, and I know what she's going to ask. "Where did you get these scars?"

"Surgery," I say. "Hormone treatment can't do everything."

She's tracing over my scars with her fingertip, her eyes never leaving my chest. I can tell she's thinking. "So," she says. "So why not down below?"

"I dunno," I respond. "It's not visible under clothing, so I guess I just don't need it to feel like a man. It's like when I was a kid. I always knew I was a boy, but then puberty came a long and messed it up by giving me boobs. But the lack of a penis -- I guess I think of that more as a birth defect. If that makes any sense."

Justine is quiet for a moment. "So, like if you were born without an arm and needed a prosthetic?"

"S-something like that," I manage to choke out. It's not that I'm embarrassed, it's just that Justine has started running her tongue over my scars, and I have a hard time speaking. "Mmm," is about all I can manage at the moment.

Smack! I am quickly brought back to the here-and-now by Justine's hand connecting with my ass. "What was that for?" I complain.

"You're supposed to be making me breakfast."

Smack! I land a lucky shot on her backside as she giggles and runs down the hall.

*

We do manage to keep our hands off of each other long enough to make breakfast. Well, let me rephrase that -- I manage to keep my hands off Justine, because I'm doing the cooking. Justine? Well, she claims to be 'helping', but mostly she's just finding excuses to get in my way so that I have to rub against her to reach anything.

"You call this helping?" I tease, as she stands behind me, on her tiptoes, supervising my cooking. I don't even have to turn around to know that her robe has fallen open again. I can feel her nipples poking into my bare back. I'm wearing flannel pants and no shirt. Justine said it was sexy, plus she's wearing my robe.

"I've never made pancakes from scratch," she says. "I'm curious that's all."

"You're a distraction," I reply, grinning. "And probably a safety hazard too." I feel her tongue sliding over my back.

"I really got you good last night," she says, tracing over a few of the scratch marks. "Good thing you're tough."

I feel her breasts jiggling against me as she laughs. I just grin and try to concentrate on not ruining breakfast. Eventually, I am able to complete my task without burning the pancakes or myself. "Vegan pancakes with mixed-berry compote, m'lady," I announce, placing the food on the table with a flourish.

To my surprise, there is already coffee waiting for me. "When did you do that?" I ask.

"Did you honestly think I was bumping into you just to get you excited? I was raiding your cupboards. A girl's gotta have her caffeine fix, you know." She was grinning, obviously pleased with herself for pulling one over on me. "Thanks for stocking the caramel syrup by the way. That was sweet. If you keep this up, I might just think you like me."

I just smile, completely speechless. How does she do it?

As we dig into our breakfast, Justine steers the conversation to last night's activities. This no longer shocks me.

"My god I'm sore today," she announces, as if she were reading the day's weather forecast.

"You're sore?" I chuckle as I stab another forkful of pancake. "You should see my back."

"Oh, I did. In the shower," she says as I'm busy chewing. "Don't try to tell me you didn't love every minute of it."

"Yeah," I admit, "I kinda did."

"Kind of?" she smirks. "That's not how it sounded to me last night."

"If we're comparing notes, I'd say you were having a pretty good time too." I pause, enjoying the fact that I think I just made her blush. "So you did like it! Did you like after that? When I ...?"

"Jax!" she scolds. "A lady does not speak of such things at the breakfast table."

I grin, and Justine grins back at me. "So you're a proper princess now? Hmm, last night I'd swear ..."

Suddenly she's interested in discussing breakfast. "So where'd you get the pancake recipe?"

"It's out of a magazine. And you didn't answer my question."

Justine is studying her plate, pushing a forkful of pancake around and making trails with berry compote. Is she actually speechless? This is a new feeling for me. Not since I first asked her to Valentine's dinner have I ever felt that we've been on equal footing in a conversation.

She reaches across the table and rests her hand on mine. Very slowly, Justine raises her gaze to meet mine. "Yes. Yes, I liked it." She strokes my hand. "I've liked everything about you this weekend. Since we met actually."

Wow! I was not expecting that. Not that I'm complaining of course. We finish up breakfast in relative silence. But, it's not an awkward silence of two people unable to find anything in common. It's more of a comfortable silence, like just being in each others presence is enough for the moment.

The silence is broken by the sound of Justine's chair pushing back from the table. "Oh Jax," she says wistfully. "I wish I could stay longer." She seems to be studying the tabletop for a moment. "I've just got some things that I have to get done before tomorrow."

"It's OK." I take her hand and lead her to the door. "I had a great time."

"Me too." She leans in and kisses me. "Let's do it again."

We stand there for a bit, just holding hands, neither of us wanting to let go. Gracie is nudging me with her nose. She thinks we're going for a walk.

Justine looks over at a photo on the wall. "Who's that in the picture?" she asks.

"Hmm? Oh, that's my brother and his wife."

"Did you take that photo? It's really good."

"Yeah, I did. I usually do landscapes and stuff, 'cause I don't really have the lighting for portraits," I said. "They didn't have a lot of money when they were first married, so I kind of did this as a favor for him."

Justine laid her hand on my arm. "Oh, thank god," she said. "I thought you were going to tell me you worked in advertising and this was part of your portfolio."

I cocked my head to the side. "Um, no. I work in ..."

"Doesn't matter," she blurted out. "But now I know what we're going to be doing on our next date." She kissed me quick and dashed out the door.

"Um, goodbye?" I smiled as I began contemplating our next date.

*

Gracie is barking and running for the door. I know who it is, and it takes all my will power not to run too. "Hi," I say, as I open the door on Justine's smiling face.

"Hey you," she says, and leans in to give me a peck on the lips. "I couldn't decide, so I brought three different outfits. I hope that's OK."

"Not a problem." And honestly, it wasn't. The extra lights and strobes I had rented weren't due back until Sunday afternoon, so if this took all day that was fine with me. "You look nice."

"I'm wearing sweats, Jax. My outfits are in the garment bag." She laid the bag on the couch and wrapped her arms around my neck. "So where are we doing this?"

"I've got everything set up in the back bedroom. I thought ..."

"You thought you could get me into bed didn't you?" She was smiling, so I knew she was just teasing me, trying to get a reaction.

"Yes, darling," I tease in return. "I'm thinking of you naked on the bed. Or maybe tied up. Would you like that?" She doesn't answer, just smiles. One of these days I'll catch her off guard again, but not today. "Actually, there's no bed in there, I use it as an office."

She follows me down the hall to the back bedroom, garment bag thrown over her shoulder.

"You can hang that in the closet if you want. I'd like to get some test shots first, just to make sure I've got everything set up right."

"Where do you want me?"

"Well ..." I say, trying to shock her again. It's still not working. She just tilts her head and looks at me sideways. I lead her over to where I have the lights and backdrop set up. "Right over here will be fine. Smile."

Not only do I get a smile, but I get a little pose as well. Justine is a natural, and it makes me rethink my decision of limiting myself to landscape shots. A few hundred dollars in lights and I could do portraits too. And with a model like Justine ... "Let's not get ahead of ourselves," I think.

Click. "Perfect," I tell her. "Give me a little twirl." She spins half-way round. "Nice. Come have a look."

Justine presses up against me. I've got the photos up on the larger screen of my tablet, so there's no reason for her to be this close, I think she just does it to get me flustered. I've gotten used to her flirtiness, but I'm still not immune. I pause for a moment, enjoying the feeling of her against me, the smell of her perfume.

"I like it," she says, and begins undressing right there in front of me. I just stare. How does she do that? Every time I think she can't possible shock me, she does it again. "See anything you like?" Justine has stripped down to her panties and is barely covering her nipples with her fingers.

I can't even speak, I just nod my head and try not to drool.

"You want to be a gentleman and turn your head while I change?" She's grinning in a rather devious way. I start to turn away. I feel her fingers on my chin, dragging me back around. "You'd honestly want to miss out on this? Really?" She throws her head back in a raucous laugh, bringing her hands under her breasts to thrust them out on display. "I'm just teasing you baby. You know I'm not shy."

"Yeah, I know." That's all I manage to articulate.

Justine is actually concentrating on getting dressed now. I give her a quick peck on the lips and take the opportunity to run through one final check of my equipment. A few different poses in a few different outfits.

It shouldn't have taken us all day, but it did, and mostly because we couldn't manage to keep our hands off each other for more than five minutes at a time. Considering it took Justine ten minutes to get into her last outfit, there was a lot of time out for recreation. In fact, for the final poses, we both end up shirtless.

It wasn't planned, and it wasn't a total porn shoot either. Just the two of us making good use of the camera's self timer function. "Ready baby?" I say.

Justine responds with, "I'm always ready. You know that," and we both break out into huge grins. We can see the image on the tablet wired up to the camera. Justine is in the foreground, looking very sultry in panties, stockings, and no top. I am behind her with my hands cupping her breasts.

My head is lowered to kiss her shoulder, so she is definitely the star of this one. But then again, I can't imagine her any other way. We get a few more. My favorite is the one where my arms are wrapped around her, again covering her breasts, but she's turned her head around to kiss me. I like that one a lot.

"I'm going to have that one blown up and framed," I say. "I'm going to hang it by my bed so I can see you every morning and every night."

Justine turns and takes my face in her hands. "Why don't you just ask me on another date?"

*

Epilogue

So here I am, still just a regular guy. It's been twenty years since that photoshoot with Justine. "God, that long?" I think. I still remember it like it was yesterday.

Meanwhile, I'm keeping myself busy doing regular guy stuff, like trying to find out how those damn pigeons keep getting in the attic. I'm still scratching my head, wondering, when my thoughts are interrupted by a sweet smell wafting up from below. I decide to concede another victory to the birds, and trudge downstairs.

"You find out where they're coming in, honey?"

"No, but you're gonna die when you see what I did find up there." I show her the dusty old photograph, still in its frame.

"Oh my god, I was so young!"

"And quite a troublemaker if I remember that day correctly."

She smiles. I see her green eyes haven't lost any of that sparkle of her youth. "I'm still trouble," she says, "but you should eat your pancakes first, before you find out just how much."

I just grin, and take my first bite. "I found the photos from Machu Picchu as well. If you think you can control yourself long enough, I thought we might look at those too."

* * *

Afterword

I'd like to thank Jax, formerly Poppy, for letting me write his story. This was something pretty far outside of my normal tales, but no less satisfying to write. Actually, maybe it's not that different after all. It's just another sappy romance, with some steamy bits, and that's pretty much my thing these days. I hope you see it that way too.

Thanks for reading,
-WP-