"Hey!" Ava exclaimed, with a tone that was obviously a teasing protest.

"What? You have more to say?"

"Mmm-hmm, I do."

She extended her arm and retrieved another fat aloe leaf. She twisted her arm back and handed it to Adam. "More, please?"

Inside, Ava was thinking: Damn him! He's dodged my questions again. Oh well, fine for now. But she knew that Adam's past was something she had to soon deal with in a proper manner... before he had an opportunity to deal with it improperly, and fatally.

But all these thoughts crumbled into fragments and dispersed somewhere into her subconscious. Because Adam had spread his upper body over hers. His lips were brushing the outline of her ear. And she was keenly aware of a growing presence burning hard against her right buttock. He breathed, "I need this baby."

"Ooh, me three, Sailor," she moaned. "You have no frickin' idea."

"No, this baby," Adam announced breezily as he sat upright, resting on her bare butt.

Ava screwed her head round and cast a backward glance to find Adam's face plastered with a huge, self-satisfied grin. He had been reaching over to the bedstead. Now, he was waggling the paring knife in the air.

"L O L, you are some funny boy, Adam East. It's a great act; you oughta take it on the road."

"Right now?" Adam teased back.

"Shut, up, you. Let's see what other talents you have first."

"Comin' up, Slim. But first first, I gotta ask: What in hell is OMG, WTF, and now LOL?"

The audition began well. Adam shifted onto Ava's thighs and performed a number on her tush that had her squirming and cooing like a nineteen-year-old virgin.

He massaged her, and kissed her, and applied gentle bites all over the firm ivory-colored orbs that formed her butt. Adam seemed to cherish each and every part of her body. Ava got the impression he was loath to divert his attention from her rump. She lost track of time –Adam's magical hands had her in a semi-hypnotic state– but she knew a healthy slice of it had tick-tocked away before he altered the focus of his attention.

He changed positions, knelt at her side. He caressed the back of her knees and thighs, her flanks. She became completely unaware of her surroundings, of time. She was conscious of nothing except the pure pleasure resulting from his touch: relief, comfort, a sensuous dream-like euphoria. And as her legs parted –a reflex action more than anything else– a splendid, sweet drowsiness came over her.

Ava had a fanciful notion that she'd experienced an elemental disconnect; that the physical and spiritual aspects of her essence had become two distinct entities; that she'd abdicated control of her limbs and her power of rational thought: Adam could do whatever he wished; she was powerless under his masterful, loving touch. And while he methodically smoothed the cool aloe gel over her finely muscled legs, Ava's five senses receded within, merged to one, so that she could scarcely discern whether she was living, dreaming or dying. But each time one of Adam's hands slid up her inner thighs, skimming the apex before receding, proof of life was re-actuated. It eventually became such a frustration that Ava's own hands were compelled down under her pelvis to try and squeeze away the aching desire. She uttered faint sobs; sobs that would have made a child think she was in pain.

When Adam took her feet into his hands, Ava's sensory quotient jacked-up another notch. She withdrew her arms and covered her mouth with her hands, buried her face in the pillow.

Ava's toes and the underside of her feet had always been hyper-ticklish. But when Adam began kissing her soles and suckling her toes, it was an excruciating sensation. Not ticklish, however; it was a brand new kind of pleasure. Ava bit her fingers to suppress the sobs and gasps and squeals that surged up from her throat in response to each subtle movement of Adam's lips and teeth and tongue. Her upper body thrashed occasionally when it was too much to endure; she felt she might actually come. But even so, she was careful not to disturb Adam's performance; her feet remained limp to his control. He seemed to revel in the crazy torturous desire that his artful touch invoked. And Ava wasn't about to deny him one second of it.

He did finally let go her feet. Ava felt giddy and weak, as though she had completed an Ironman competition and then been used as a guinea pig for some kind of "Barbarella" sex machine. She could have passed out and slept till noon... or died.

But the night was young.

Adam crawled up alongside her, placed one hand under her shoulder and the other under her hip. He rotated her onto her back. She let her arms flop limply above either side of her head. She sighed contentedly then opened her eyes to look up at Adam. She smiled lazily and feasted on the beautiful vision. His eyes looked like precious jades, and they were smiling at her adoringly. She saw sexuality swimming at the surface and kindness and generosity not far beneath. It was hard to believe this was the same man who, brief hours ago, had kicked a fellow human-being near senseless. Ava experienced a stab of shame at how that excited her in some bizarre way. She shook it off.

She let her gaze wander over his body. Adam was smooth, coffee-brown and cut hard all over. Anywhere Ava touched him he was as firm as tire rubber. She reached down and gripped the shaft of his prick in one hand –she could have used two. Ava had to swallow back her next breath –it had caught in her throat. Her voice had a husky, breathless quality when she spoke, "Hi."

"Hi, yourself," Adam returned.

"Hey, mister, did you slip something into my orange juice?"

"Uh-uh, not my style. Why d'you ask?"

"Hmm," she let her lips protrude, "I feel funny, as if I were stoned, or hypnotized... or something." She moved her hand down and cupped his boys, jostled them delicately. Adam sucked-in a breath.

His voice was husky and breathless when he responded, "Is it a good feeling, or bad?"

"Good... really, really good." Ava sighed deeply. "I wonder who invented this."

"I was born with it, and it grew from there. Now I think you've added another inch or two." Adam suppressed a chuckle.

Ava rearranged her lips into a look of admonishment. She took his cock in her other hand and gave it a shake. She said, "Not this bad boy. I'm referring to sex. It's such a smashing invention."

"Oh, that. Yes, that's another story. Legend has it the Devil, disguised as a snake, suggested the idea to the First Lady, and she took it from there. The Original Sin must've been committed within spitting distance of where we now lie."

Ava began to pull herself upright, her violet bedroom-eyes locked with Adam's. She let her eyelids fall closed, her lashes touching her high cheekbones. She tilted her head toward the pulsing sex cradled in her hands.

Adam placed his hands on Ava's shoulders. He said, "Whoa, whoa. Maybe later, Slim." He gently pushed her onto her back. "I'm not auditioning for a one-night stand here." He leaned in and brushed his moist lips over hers. He tasted like mint toothpaste and smelled like shaving cream... and trouble. "You've only seen the first act of my routine; give a guy a chance, huh?" Then he covered her dewy, rose-petal lips with an open-mouthed kiss that she hoped would last all the way through Act Two.

As far as Ava was concerned Adam could have all the chances he wished. As it turned out, his 'routine' comprised five acts; three of which ended with finales that Ava found immutably grand.

They made love all night long, with brief intermissions when they slept and dreamt as if they were young children.

Ava was a temperamental lover: her demeanor, actions and reactions dictated by her mood. And when she was making love, her moods were as varied and changeable as ocean squalls. She knew this about herself and had always struggled to moderate the effect... to little avail. But with Adam she discovered she could let herself go. She could be a virgin, a vixen and a vamp, all in the space of an hour.

Adam was a chameleon in bed, acutely aware and sensitive to all her immediate needs and desires. It was delicious.

At one point during the night Ava woke and listened to Adam's slow, even breathing. He was sound asleep. She turned and kissed the corner of his eye, light as a butterfly. She whispered, "I could love you, Adam East. But I suppose we're both too damn stubborn to let that happen, huh?"