The Slow Seduction of Claire McDonald

Chapter 6

She looked uncertain.

“That’s if Phil will let you,” I chuckled. Phil was the pushy guy who seemed to be the self-appointed leader of her Christian group.

“Phil? Wh…what’s Phil got to do with it?”

“Don’t look behind you, but he’s giving me the kind of look that I think a butcher would give to a side of beef. He’s standing over by the table you were at last week. Gee; I hope he doesn’t own a knife!”

To her credit she didn’t look behind her.

“I’d love to have dinner with you, Tony. Thank you,” she said with a smile.

Our dinner went wonderfully well. Claire told me she’d never tried sushi, and I knew a place that was halfway decent – not like you get in the States, but not bad for England. I think Sushi is made for a first date because it meant I got to ask Claire lots of questions about things she liked to eat; then I chose the food for her; and then when it arrived I fed her with my chopsticks. Sushi can be a sensual playground and Claire absolutely loved the experience. I knew she wasn’t just being polite when she started asking for more adventurous stuff from the menu.

I found out she was twenty two. She’d studied Math in a place called Durham, and had just started a post graduate degree in teaching here at Imperial College. She came from a small village near to Cheltenham – which I guessed explained her fancy accent. We steered clear of her religious beliefs – I thought that could wait for a second date. I told her about my research project, and growing up in New Jersey. We touched on the work I was doing in computer algorithms, but it’s pretty specialized and boring so even though she’d have understood the basic math, I deliberately moved the discussion on.

“Where are you living?” she asked, but then blushed almost right away; did she think that was a come-on?

“I have a place near Holland Park,” I told her.

“Nice area! That must be expensive…how many people are you sharing with?”

“Err. Nobody. It’s a pretty small place – just a couple of bedrooms. I use one as my study. The bathroom is really nice and the plumbing seems to work.”

She looked at me in surprise.

“You have your own apartment in Holland Park? What are you – a millionaire?”

I laughed. “Hardly…I do some commercial work on the side. About four years ago I wrote some software that’s used by a number of specialized search engines. I have a few patents and they bring in a decent income each year – at least it avoids me taking student loans or relying on my parents.”

She chewed a piece of tuna thoughtfully. I know Brits are reluctant to discuss money so I wasn’t surprised when she changed the subject.

“I love this food…it’s really good,” she told me.

I leaned forward in a conspiratorial sort of way.

“To be honest you need to taste the real thing,” I whispered. “Don’t get me wrong – this is great. But the best place to eat sushi is Tokyo. San Francisco isn’t too bad either – after that I’m guessing New York.”

She eyed me suspiciously. “And you’ve had sushi in all those places, have you?” she asked.

“Sure – I mean I’m no expert…my dad took me to Tokyo and the West Coast on business. New York is pretty close to where I grew up and I spent some time there with a friend this summer.”

“What was Japan like?”

I sat back and considered the question.

“Clean – really clean, actually; and everything sort of just works there. Like the trains, and the cabs, and the service in restaurants. There are a lot of people in Tokyo; it was crazy busy. And of course almost everything’s written in Japanese characters, so it makes it really tough to know what you’re doing. Luckily my dad’s agent took us around Tokyo, so it was easy for us.”

“Your dad was working there?”

“No, I was; Dad came along as my business advisor.”

She blinked.

“OK…so you’re one of these computer geniuses then?”

“No; like I said – I just wrote some software that a few people seem to think is useful. It’s not going to make me mega rich, but sometimes I get invited to come help make it work in a specific application…Tokyo was one of those. My dad used to work at Bell Labs, and in other high tech places before he got an offer to do some research here in the UK, so he was happy to help me complete the negotiations for the software licenses. Please don’t get hung up on that, Claire. I got lucky with some code I wrote – it’s not a big deal.” I paused. “Tell me about your home town.”

We’d finished our food now and I let her speak about herself for a while. I was fascinated by her face. I thought she was beautiful right now, but I knew she’d still look gorgeous when she was fifty, or older. She had the right bone structure and a character to her expressions that was all her own. But apart from those eyes it was her lips that had me hooked; I longed to kiss them, but I knew that even on a second date – well maybe this was really our first date – she might be spooked if I came on too strongly. There was a brittle fragility to this girl that I knew I had to treat with respect.

To my amusement, Claire drank three glasses of white wine. I’d ordered a bottle, and nursed my first glass most of the evening. It wasn’t like I was trying to get her drunk – I had no intention of rushing this lovely young woman into bed. But she seemed to be happy to fill up her own glass, and I’d already seen that sort of behaviour in other English girls. They really liked to drink!

“This wine is nice,” she told me – slurring her words slightly.

“It’s from Alsace – a Riesling. It does go nicely with the food…I have to admit I don’t really like Saki.”

“I thought Rieslings were German; Alsace is in France.”

I smiled. “You may remember that was part of Europe that France and Germany fought two wars about! But sure – it’s in France these days. And they make French style wine with a German grape. I guess the distinction between countries is less important now that you guys have the EC.”

She giggled. “You guys?”

“Sorry.”

She tipped her glass up and took a big mouthful. Holy cow – maybe I should try to slow her down!

“Let me top you up!” she told me as she picked up the bottle.

“I’m fine, thanks; I don’t drink much.”

She looked me in the eyes.

“Tony – I think you’re trying to get me drunk! Fancy ordering a whole bottle of wine if you’re not going to drink any!”

I took her hand – she glanced down at it and blushed.

“Claire – you could hardly blame me if that was what I wanted. But believe me; you’re safe; for tonight anyway. But I’m warning you…I’m not making any promises about our next date.”

She licked her lips and looked uncertain.

“You have really lovely eyes,” she whispered.

“So do you…I wonder what our kids would look like?” She looked at me wide-eyed.

“I really need to go for a pee,” she blurted out. “Sorry…I mean…”

“Go ahead,” I chuckled. She was so breathtakingly innocent. I vowed right there and then that if Claire and I did get into any kind of relationship I’d never, ever hurt her.

While she was gone I paid the bill, and I was waiting with her coat when she came out of the bathroom. She’d reapplied some lipstick and looked totally lovely.

“But I wanted to pay my half!” she said, looking slightly wobbly.

“My treat – you get the next one,” I told her, smiling.

Since she looked a little unsteady on her feet I hailed a cab rather than use the subway.

“Where do you live?” I asked. She gave me the address and I jumped in with her. As we fastened our seat belts in the back of the cab she rested her head on my shoulder and took hold of my hand…I liked that.

“Mmm. I like your cologne,” she sighed, snuggling into my chest.

“It’s probably my shower gel…are you sure you’re feeling OK?” I asked her. “You kind of hit the wine pretty hard tonight.”

“Sorry…I was really nervous; and I drink when I’m nervous.”

“Why are you nervous? We had a good time, I thought. Is there something I’m doing to make you feel nervous?”

She eased herself up and looked at me.

“I don’t…get chatted up very often, Tony,” she told me. “You’re…you’re not the kind of man who seems…seems to be interested in me normally. Why did you ask me out?”

I paused for a second. s**t! Did she think this was one of those stupid fraternity stunts – “ask the shy girl out and f**k her”? My God, no wonder she was feeling nervous. It also occurred to me that she had a very low opinion of herself for some reason.

I squeezed her hand. “Because I like you,” I told her. “You’re beautiful; and smart; and I like to talk to you. Heck – do I need any other reasons?”

Her hand was on my cheek and her lips were inches away from mine. I knew she wanted me to make the move…and close that last gap between us, but if she thought this was some kind of prank I suppose that’s exactly what I’d do next. I also knew she was pretty tipsy – I didn’t want our first kiss to be because of a bottle of wine.

Her tongue darted over her lips and I could smell the wine on her breath. It would be so easy to take advantage of her right now – the anticipation was killing me.

“Ten pound fifty mate!” the cabbie suddenly said over the intercom. We’d arrived outside her building – it was a flat above a row of shops.

“I’m just going to see the lady to the door and I’d like you to take me to Holland Park please,” I told him.

“I don’t want you doing a runner!” he said. “Pay me now and I’ll wait.”

I sighed…human nature. I handed him a twenty and helped Claire out of the cab.

“Are you sure you’ll be OK?” I asked her.

“I’m fine – really. You’re welcome to come up…just for coffee. It’ll be a madhouse with all the girls there so it’s not like…anything could happen.”

I laughed. “Claire…I’ve had the most amazing evening. But honestly I prefer you sober…I know you drank too much because you were nervous. So I’d like to ask if we can have another date – and this time you won’t need to be nervous because you’ll know exactly why I’m asking you out.”

She was trembling slightly. “W…will I?”

I shook my head in exasperation. “You’ll figure it out!” I chuckled. “I gave you my phone number and email address. I’m asking you right now if we can go out again…I’m not going to d**k around playing games about how long we wait to call each other. I want to see you again…but if you don’t…”

“I do!” she said quickly. “Really…I…”

I lifted her hand to my lips and kissed it. “That’s good. Goodnight then, Claire.”

She let go of my hand and slipped hers behind my head.

“One thing about being drunk is that it makes me do silly things,” she whispered.

She pulled me to her and kissed me. It was far better than I’d imagined. If her lips looked good at a distance they felt great as they touched mine. Neither of us used our tongues, but I knew I wanted to do this again for sure.

“Gosh…maybe that wasn’t silly after all,” she said, smiling. “Thank you for a lovely evening, Tony.”

Her kiss had left me speechless…so I just smiled, hopped into the cab and waved to her as it pulled away. I remembered the touch of her lips; and the softness of her fingers – and I smiled happily.

Upstate New York, July 12th 2010

Rebecca’s ass had been tight – and it had taken me a while to calm her down enough to enter her without hurting too much. I knew that penetrating her there could be painful if she was too scared, so I gently stroked her c**t until she was on the brink of a climax – then I stopped.

“Please!” she screamed. “Oh God…please!”

“Remember in the basement, Rebecca?” I asked her. “As you left me to go back to the party you knew I’d jerk off…and you gave me permission to come, didn’t you?”

She looked at me for a second, then nodded.

“Was that part of some ritual? Some element of humiliation you wanted to assert over me?”

“It’s…it’s just…something that…”

“Something that you were used to asking from your victims?”

“You were never a victim!” she whispered.

“From now on you’re going to ask my permission before you come, do you understand me?”

“You bastard!” she whispered, but I saw a gleam of excitement in her eyes.

“Answer the f*****g question!” I said firmly.