The Floating World Pt. 03

***

"What did you do, Gabs?"

"I was tormented, is what I was, teased. I loved it."

Felicity lay back on her bed in her sweats. She'd just come in from a run when her phone rang and it was Gabriela, so she went straight to her room, dragging her runners and socks from her feet as she did so.

"He lay on my shoulder for I don't know, ten minutes, fifteen, I can't really say. Then it was just like another switch went click in his head. He didn't say a word, just started stroking my throat. God, Flick..."

Felicity lay there, picturing Gabriela with this man, wishing it was herself in their room. She was hot from her run, and peeled her top from her torso to reveal a simple tight sports bra, lines of sweat curved under her shallow breasts. Flick brushed her fingers through her short hair, pushing it away from her face.

"... my skin shivered with goosebumps when Adam ran his finger down my cleavage...."

"Wait, Gabs, how many buttons? Cleavage? How much cleavage?"

Flick was beyond curious, she wanted to know everything. It wasn't fair, here she was, fairly experienced with boys and men; and her sessions were clothes off, jump into bed, quick fuck, usually OK and sometimes she came. And there was Gabs who didn't have a clue, being romanced and charmed, seduced properly by someone who...fuck, someone she wanted. Someone who knew what he was doing. Felicity gripped the phone closer with one hand.

"Three buttons. I even measured the length of them with my fingers spread. But he's not even seen my bra yet, Flick. He's so polite, reaching down to pull me up from the couch, holding me steady." Gabriela paused, remembering. "Not so polite, really." She giggled.

"What Gabs? Why not polite, really?"

"Because when he held me close, I could feel him against my thigh." Gabriela paused, waiting for Flick's response.

"Against your thigh? That's a pretty close hug, Gabs."

"Not just a close hug, Flick, that's not what I meant."

"What are you ta...?" Felicity finally got it. "Jesus, Gabs, what the fuck, he's hard for you?"

"Don't sound so surprised, Flick. I can be pretty hot too, you know."

Gabriela flicked her hair back, and even though Flick was a thousand miles away, she knew exactly what look was on Gabs's face.

"Sorry baby, I know you can." Felicity was quick to calm her friend before she took off like a colt. Fuck, I'm so jealous, she thought.

Flick looked down at herself, and her nipples were hard and long, pushing up points through her bra. Her breasts ached, and between her legs her cunt wettened and she knew what was going to happen next.

"Tell me, Gabs, what happened next?" Her voice was low, with a huskiness from her growing arousal.

Felicity peeled the bra over her head, and looked down to her long nipples, like the tips of her little finger, hard and tight. She cupped one palm over a breast and pushed hard to stop the ache. Her cunt bloomed and she sighed.

"Was that you, Flick?" Gabriela's voice softened. She knew it was.

"Adam got my long grey coat from behind the door, and draped it over my shoulders. 'To keep you warm, Gabriela,' he said. He always calls me Gabriela. It's so sophisticated when he says it. Gabriela."

She paused, letting her friend picture them both together. "Then he escorted me to his car. Properly escorted me, Flick, opened the car door and everything, handed me the seat belt even."

Felicity twisted a nipple between a finger and a thumb, and pulled it tight, pinching a small pain into her breast. Oh h, that felt good. More. "Where did you go, Gabs? Tell me." Torment me, because it's not me, going in the car. "Wait."

Gabriela heard movement, and the single squeak of a bed spring, and she knew Flick was shifting on the bed, lifting her bum, no doubt, to pull her bottoms and knickers down. Gabs and Flick, they knew each other so well.

Gabriela pictured Flick's strong, toned belly, and the hard curve of muscle at the base of her gut, diving into plain cotton-tails, her sexy knicks, as Felicity called them. Down now, kicked off from the ankle, her long legs spreading wide, one knee bent, cooling her cunt to the air. Her long smooth cunt was neater than Gabriela's little crinkled butterfly wings, her lips smooth and fine, a high clit exposed.

"We just went to a restaurant, Flick. A beautiful one, perfect food, we shared a bottle of wine. Adam knew the chef, who came out and made a fuss."

"What did he do, Gabs?" Felicity moaned, as she spread her lips and slid her fingers inside. "Tell me."

"We chatted, this and that. He listened to me." Gabriela was thoughtful. "He probably indulged me, let me go on about myself too much. And you, Flick, I told him some more about you."

Flick's fingers stopped sliding between her cunt lips. "What did you tell him about me, Gabs?" Her fingers penetrated, and she started a slow fuck into herself, wet and slow. The idea of this man, even filtered and made fanciful through Gabriela's narrative, was penetrating deep into her mind, and she wanted him. Her fingers pushed.

"I told him we'd known each other since we were teenagers at school."

Felicity lay the phone on her pillow, and rolled onto her front. She raise her ass high, placing her weight on her knees, long, lean thighs spread apart. "What else, what else did you tell him about me?"

"I described you to him."

Felicity's fingers spread aside her lips and she wet her fingers, sliding them around and over the nub of her clit. Pleasure started to cycle deep into her body. She pressed her breasts down onto the sheets, the friction grazing her nipples, tightening them. "Tell me, Gabs, talk to me. Tell me about Adam."

"In the restaurant, Flick, or later?" Gabriela teased her darling, who couldn't keep the springs quiet any more.

"Oh h Gabs. Later? You lucky bitch, fuck. Not fair, I want him too." Felicity would soon knock the phone onto the floor, and faintly hear Gabriela's giggle, then her whisper.

"Come, my darling, make yourself come. I'll stay with you while you do. Naughty Felicity, playing with herself while I talk to you on the phone."

Gabriela told Flick what happened next, her voice low and husky with the memory of it. With her phone on the floor, Gabriela's voice was small and distant. Felicity came, nearly sobbing with her own pleasure, but not quite.

***

After dinner, where Gabriela had charmed the chef and wondered whether Adam thought the waitress delectable, they drove down to the sea. The low surf was moonlit and phosphorescent, the night sky sprinkled dark with distance. A gentle breeze blew the swirl of Gabriela's dress against her legs and she spun around twice, to show Adam the movement of the skirt. She was luminescent, her long hair midnight black and falling long to her waist.

"The moonlight, Adam, your hair is silver in the moonlight." She took his arm, and they were a couple by the sea, en promenade.

"The flow of your dress, Gabriela, it reminds me of a poem. 'Like a skein of loose silk against a wall.' The woman in the poem is not like you though, she's bored and wants an indiscretion." Adam looked down at the young woman on his arm. "You're not bored."

Gabriela glanced up at him. "No, not at all bored, Adam, not when I'm with you."

"Is this an indiscretion, do you think, you having dinner with me? I'm twice your age. More than." Adam was curious for her response. The confidence revealed in the phone number written in her looping cursive impressed him; but the nervous twisting hands, they intrigued him too. She was two contradictory women, almost, in one lovely package.

"More than twice my age. Yes, you are, but so what?" Gabriela looked straight at him, and her eyes were black, jet black. "All it means is I'm half your age. I don't have a problem with that." She interrogated him. "Do you?"

"No, I don't. Some people might though."

"Oh goodness, who cares? You're not my father, that's the kind of silly thing he worries about." She paused. "Actually, Dad's not so bad. Mum's the nightmare, she's always on at me. 'Gabriela, when are you going to bring a nice young man home?' she'll say. And my answer is always the same. 'I've not met anybody yet, Mum.'" She looked at Adam, thoughtfully. "I wonder what she'd think of you?"

"Gabriela, I'm not a nice young man," Adam replied. "And I'm not sure I'm ready to meet your mother." He laughed. "Is she like you, Gabriela?"

"Stop it. You're teasing. You mustn't. We've only had dinner, and you've taken me to the Japanese Gardens. That's all." She was defending her mother and justifying herself, and knew it wasn't all, not one bit. God, Flick, she thought, I've got three buttons undone on my dress and my sleeves are a lost cause, and I have a velvet choker around my throat; and Adam's talking about my mother. Help, what I do?

"What were you like as a young man, Adam?" She changed the subject, and it was a genuine interest. She tried to picture him at her age, but couldn't. She took his arm again, and leaned her head against his shoulder, steering him back to the car. A cool breeze had sprung up, and she shivered.

"Gabriela, are you getting cold? I shouldn't have brought you here, that was thoughtless of me." Adam placed his arm around her shoulder, draping her with his coat. And it was natural that she placed her arm around his waist and they had a perfect pace together. "There, darling, are you warmer now?"

Gabriela thought of her father, that was exactly the kind of thing he would have said. Would you approve of Adam, Daddy? she thought, and vaguely thought he might. She smiled to herself, and this time Adam didn't see it.

She remembered the boys who courted her at school. "You look after my girl now, she's the only one we've got." Her dad was only half joking when he said it, and the lads were bright enough to know that. "Yes sir, Mr G, I will." Gabriela was always home by eleven, and her dad would pop his head in her door. "How'd it go, Gabs?" Sometimes she would tell him, patting the bed cover for him to sit beside her, her eyes bright with the tell of it. And Gabriela's father learned that his daughter was strong willed with a mind of her own, and unreachable standards all of her own.

"What were you like when you were young?" she repeated. Gabriela was more interested to discover what his young women were like, but didn't know how to lead that question. She thought he might come around to them, his own moments and tells.

"A young man, Gabriela? I don't know if I can remember back that far. It's a long time ago."

"You're not Methuselah or Noah, Adam, even if you do have a biblical name." She wasn't going to let him get away without an answer. "It's not that long ago. You can tell me."

Even in the dark, Adam knew her lashes fluttered up at him and her eyes were innocent and huge. She hugged his arm, to let him know she was playing, and he loved her confidence in teasing him. They were nearly at the car, and he turned to her and placed both hands on her waist. Gabriela wanted to place her hands on his upper arms to feel his strength, but didn't. She left her arms loose by her sides.

"When I was young, Gabriela, someone taught me to do this."

Adam pulled her to him, one hand circling around her waist, the other moving confidently to her back, between her shoulder blades. And he pulled her to him, tilting her head to his. "Taught me this, Gabriela," and he kissed her, long and passionate, holding her close, oh so close.

Gabriela's hands came away from her sides, and one was around his neck, the other on the back of his head, pulling his mouth to hers, pulling him to her, don't let go, don't let go.

She broke the kiss. "Who was she, Adam? What happened?"

"She left me, Gabriela, that's what happened."

My god, thought Gabriela, didn't she know what she was doing, this woman? She reached her hand to his cheek, and felt a tiny weight as Adam rested his head on her palm, like a pillow. Oh, Adam.

"Adam, can we go now? I want to go."

Their moods had changed, like switches suddenly do, and Gabriela wanted him so much. She didn't know what to do, and her heart pounded. Her breasts ached and her nipples were like jewels, hard and firm, and her cunt bloomed. She could picture Adam's head on her shoulder, and that had to be enough, she didn't know any more. Five buttons, Flick, but I don't know what to do.

***

"Sweet Jesus, Gabriela," moaned Flick, her fingers wet within herself, "what did you do?"

***

Adam took her back to his apartment. It was on the tenth floor of a small high rise, its display windows looking over the parklands, with a distant view to the eastern hills and a glimpse of the bay to the west.

On the way there they were both silent in the car, the shifted mood from the sea and Adam's lost loves hovering over them like ghosts. Gabriela understood this man was carved and bound by the women in his past, and she understood too her innocence ill equipped her for competing with them. She resolved then, that she could only be herself, and that would have to be enough. She could be no more.

Her fingers toyed with the velvet band around her neck, and the movement of her red-tipped fingers was slow. Gabriela was no longer nervous; she walked in the footsteps of his teachers and she did not think he would have known frail and fragile women. Her hand rested on his thigh, a cat's paw quietness, no weight at all.

As they walked from the basement car park to the lift her small hand found his, and they said not a word. Adam knew, even if she did not, her touch was a lifeline. He was still formal with her, ushering her through his door with his hand in the small of her back, then taking her coat from her shoulders like a cloak.

"A drink, Gabriela, what will you have?"

Adam showed her the lounge room, and she stood absorbing the view while he clattered cupboards and clinked glasses in the kitchen.

"Here, my lovely," and Adam stood by her, slightly behind, his tall presence solid in the room. Gabriela rested her head against his shoulder and felt safe. His hand rested gently on Gabriela's waist, just beside the curve of her hip.

Adam placed his glass on a table and moved behind her, his hands cupping the small swell of her belly. Gabriela was astonished by the silent intimacy of this touch, and grateful for his gentleness. She was realising this man was full of care and devotion, so careful towards her, and slow.

The rest of her body was burning with a hot heat, her cunt was molten and smouldering for him, and her high breasts hard and tight, her nipples full. Yet this man held her softest swell, her centre, with respectful hands, gentle hands. She didn't know a man could be so gentle.

Or so certain. Adam lifted a hand from Gabriela's belly and slowly unlooped the fourth button on the front of her dress, exposing the full creamy curves of her breasts and the laced tops of her bra cups. Gabriela gasped, and her breasts swelled high. He didn't say a word, but cupped her belly and then slid his other hand inside the cut of her dress and cupped a full breast. He trapped her there, in his hands, and even if Gabriela wanted to, she could not have escaped.

She leaned her head back towards his and turned her face up, seeking a kiss. Oh sweet god, Adam, you hold me so close. How do you know what to do?

Oh, my sweet Angel, you turn your lips to mine and your eyes never let me go. Sweet Jesus, is this how love begins? Not again, not now.

***

"Oh fuck, Gabs, I can't bear it." Felicity clamped her thighs tight on her hand, two fingers deep inside herself in a solitary fuck, her other hand squeezing her breast oh so hard. She ached, but couldn't ease it.

***

Adam held Gabriela, a full breast in the palm of one hand and the swell of her belly soft in the palm of the other. They were motionless like that for a long moment, then her fingers came up to the fifth silken button on her dress, and she undid it. The undoing revealed both her breasts high, the whole embroidered lace of her bra and its silken cups. Gabriela held the back of Adam's hand and pressed it to her heart.

"Adam, I need to tell you something." It can't wait, not now, not any more.

"Is it important, Gabriela?" He held her close, his hands warm and his body standing firm behind her. "Of course, it must be important, or you wouldn't be telling me."

He let her go, and turned her towards him, smoothly pulling the sides of her dress together so she was unrevealed. Gabriela held the unbuttoned dress together with one hand, pulling it up close to her throat. She held his gaze. He held both his hands to her waist and looked upon her. She placed her hand on one of his, taking confidence from the touch of him.

"I... you're my first, Adam, you'll be my first man." She didn't look away. "If you continue to undress me, that is." Undress me, Adam, I want you to.

Adam's hands remained motionless about her, and the moment turned in on itself.

Her heart beat faster and she took another breath, a double intake that was almost a sob, but not quite.

"I...." Adam stopped. Ahh, I see. Me? "You've never.... Me, you want me to be the first man you sleep with?"

"Yes. No. I don't know. Yes."

Gabriela, normally so sure of herself, was no longer sure at all. Could she trust this man, trust him fully and deeply enough to give him her greatest gift? Between her legs her cunt opened and bloomed and wetness slipped, and she ached to give him herself. The gift of her trust, her complete and unconditional trust. To feel a man within herself, finally, fully and completely and hers, all hers.

Gabriela wanted this. Her cunt wettened and the base of her belly tightened, and a long ache began. Gabriela's fingers turned and were nervous at her wrist, playing with the cuff on her sleeve. She held the folds of her dress together, hiding her breasts as she revealed her truth.

Adam gazed at her, his mind shifting quickly through the imponderables of her request, at the enormity of her gift, the responsibility.

"Why me?" She had reduced him to fundamental questions.

"Why you? Why you, Adam? Don't you know?" Gabriela looked at him, more certain now. "It's you, Adam, because I trust you. You'll never let me fall. You're too kind for that." She held his eyes, refusing to let her gaze drop, and reached her hand up to his cheek.

Adam tilted his head to rest it against the tiny pillow of her palm and could sleep there.

"Silly boys and young men, Adam, they could never catch me if I fell." Gabriela believed in him. "You'll always keep me safe."

Adam lifted his hands from her waist to her face, and cradled her cheeks like a prayer. He held her for a moment then fell into the blackness of her eyes. She closed her eyes, trapping the vision of him in her mind, and now her world was touch. Gabriela gave herself up to him completely, and didn't need light to see.

Adam gently took her hand from her throat, and she let go of the cloth. Her hands dropped by her sides, and she stood before him.

Slowly, and without a word, Adam undid the remaining three buttons of her dress, three silken buttons and they were all undone. He took one step back from her, and slid the dress back from her shoulders. It fell to the floor with the softest sigh of silk, and she stood before him, her head high, proud. Her eyes were closed, but she knew Adam gazed upon her, his eyes revelling in her revelation.

Gabriela stood before him in simple lingerie, delicate and tasteful, soft against her skin, lightly embroidered. The garments were a paleness against her tanned skin, hiding and revealing every curve. Black stockings on her legs, black straps to a plain garter around her waist.

"Your shoes, you don't need them anymore." Adam's voice was low.

Gabriela stepped from her heels, and they fell inside the puddle of her dress. She stood delicate before him, her hands by her sides, her long hair falling.