The Private Tutorial

Chapter Two: Wet, Warm and Steamy

Chloe stepped out of the last bus at 10:42 PM. The street was quiet, only a few street lamps glowing soft yellow. Her bag felt heavy on one shoulder, and her legs ached from sitting hunched over her desk for hours. She walked slow, dragging her feet a little, until she reached her building. The elevator was broken for a hundredth time, so she forced herself to climb up three flight of stairs, one step at a time...

When she unlocked her door and stepped inside, the familiar quiet of her place wrapped around her. She locked the door behind her, dropped her bag on the small chair by the entryway, and let out a long, slow breath.

She’d stopped at her favorite small eatery on the way home, the one run by an older couple who always gave her extra rice. She ordered grilled chicken and vegetable soup, ate fast while sitting by the window, and finished before 10:15. That saved her the trouble of cooking or washing pots later, and it was exactly what she’d planned. All she wanted now was to wash the day away and stop thinking about spreadsheets, deadlines, and Sarah’s hurried apologies.

First, she filled the kettle. While it boiled, she plugged the drain in the bathtub and turned on the tap. She added a handful of lavender bath salts she’d bought on sale last week. The scent spread through the small bathroom right away. It was soft, not too strong, just the kind that made her feel like she could stop worrying about everything.

While the tub filled, she pulled her tablet from the drawer and set it on the shelf above the faucet, propped up so she could see it clearly. She opened the app and picked the movie she’d been curious about for weeks... It was a retro erotic romance, the kind that focused more on slow moments than loud drama. She’d never watched anything like this all the way through before, only caught bits and pieces when other people played them. But tonight, she didn’t feel like stopping herself.

When the tub was full enough, she turned off the water. Steam curled up toward the ceiling. She undressed, folded her clothes neatly and set them aside, then stepped in. The water was hot, just the way she liked it... It was warm enough to make her skin tingle, to loosen the tight knot between her shoulders. She sank down until the water reached her chin, then rested her head against the folded towel she’d placed on the tub’s edge.

For a few minutes, she just closed her eyes. She listened to the water ripple when she shifted her weight, smelled the lavender, and felt all the stress from the day slowly melting away. No spreadsheets, no deadlines, no worrying if she’d formatted something wrong, no voices talking around her. Just her and the quiet.

Then she tapped her tablet. The movie started.

She watched the opening scenes half-heartedly at first, her mind still drifting a little. But then the scene shifted to a quiet room, soft lighting, just the two main characters.

The male lead stood close to the woman, not saying anything. He didn’t rush. He just looked at her, his eyes moving slowly from her eyes to her lips, like he was seeing something he’d been wanting for a long time.

Chloe held her breath a little. She leaned her head back against the towel, her eyes fixed on the screen.

He leaned in slowly, so slow you could see every small movement. His face got closer and closer until his breath brushed her cheek. Then he pressed his lips gently to her forehead, then her cheek, then the corner of her mouth... Soft, quick kisses, like he was testing what she liked.

Chloe’s heart beat a little faster. She pressed her palms flat against the edge of the tub. Butterfly kisses, she thought, the name she’d heard once. Light, like wings brushing skin. She’d never had anyone kiss her anywhere. She wondered what that would feel like... Maybe warm or tingly?

On screen, the man pulled back just an inch, still looking at her lips. Then he leaned in again, and this time his lips stayed on hers. They were soft at first, just pressing together, no movement. Then he opened his mouth a little, and she saw his tongue brush lightly over her lower lip.

Chloe’s own lips parted a little without her noticing. She stared, wide-eyed. She’d seen people kiss in regular movies, but never like this. It was never so slow and so open.

The woman in the movie tilted her head, and her lips parted too. She put her arms around his neck, and then their tongues touched. It wasn’t rough or messy. It was slow, like they were learning each other, like they had all the time in the world.

Chloe’s face got warm. She sank a little lower in the water, her cheeks burning. Her heart was thumping now, hard enough that she could feel it in her ears. She felt a strange, light flutter low in her stomach, like when you’re about to do something exciting but scary.

She lifted one hand and touched her own lips. They felt soft, just like always, but now she wondered what it would feel like if someone else was touching them...

I someone was looking at her the way that man looked at the woman, like she was the only thing that mattered.

Stupid, she told herself, but she didn’t look away. You don’t know anything about this. You’ve never even been close enough to anyone to try.

But then her mind drifted, like it always did lately. She stopped seeing the actor on the screen and started seeing someone else. Tall, broad-shouldered, dark hair neat. The voice she’d only heard from far away, sharp and steady. Julian Montserrat.

She imagined him leaning over her, looking at her the exact same way... Intense, like he was seeing every part of her. She imagined him brushing her hair back from her face before leaning in. She imagined his lips on hers, slow and sure, not rushing.

“Is that… what it feels like?” she whispered to the empty room, her voice quiet and a little shaky. The words echoed softly off the tile walls.

She felt her breath get faster. The warm water felt good, but suddenly she felt restless, like she wanted something more, something she couldn’t name. She shifted her legs under the water, and the sloshing sound made her jump a little, like she’d been caught thinking something she shouldn’t.

She looked back at the screen, but her mind was still stuck on him. On what it would be like if he was the one kissing her like that. On whether he’d be gentle, or if he’d be firm, like he was when he spoke in meetings. On whether he’d make her feel safe, or if she’d get too nervous and freeze up.

Chloe closed her eyes for a second. She pressed her hand over her stomach, where that strange flutter was still moving. “I don’t know how to do any of this,” she said softly, like she was admitting it to herself for the first time. “I don’t even know what I’m supposed to want.”

She watched a little more of the scene... How the man held her face, how they took turns, how neither of them seemed in a hurry to stop. Slowly, the warmth in her face faded a little, but that soft, restless feeling stayed. She wasn’t scared of it anymore, not really. It felt like… curiosity. Like there was a whole world of things she didn’t know about, things she’d never even let herself think about clearly before.