Nathaniel managed to say, “No, not close.”

Domino’s voice came from behind us. “Why in the name of God not?”

“I’m with Domino on this one,” Jason said; he’d moved to the bedpost on this corner so he had a view from the side, rather than staring at the women’s heads.

J.J. raised her head up, and her mouth and chin shone in the lamplight. “I hadn’t thought about Nathaniel going from this; can he take more, or do we need to move her?”

“No moving,” Jade said, in a voice that was thick with the screams she never let herself have.

“Don’t move,” Nathaniel said; his tone was distracted, but his words were clear.

“Okay, then,” J.J. said, and turned to look at me. “Did you see anything I did?”

I shook my head. “Not really.”

“Then come down here where you can see.”

“Yes, ma’am,” I said, hesitated, and then thought, How else am I going to learn? Screw it; we’d make it a tutorial.

10

I GOT DOWN beside J.J. so I could watch more closely. I was vaguely aware that Jason and Domino were both behind us, still not on the bed, but getting the best view they could. I didn’t care, they were both my lovers, they’d seen me before. They were both seeing one new naked lady apiece, but even Jade had stopped caring about that; something about the second orgasm had helped her get over her insecurities about Jason seeing her nude for the first time.

“Wait, what did you do just now to make her body react like that?” I asked.

J.J. rose back from the other woman’s body enough to say, “I licked here along the edge instead of down the center. She doesn’t seem to like a lot of direct clitoral contact until she’s closer to going.”

“How can you tell she’s ready for more direct contact?”

“Breathing quickens, and she clenches her hands; it’s like a tell in poker.”

“So everyone’s tell is different,” I said.

“Sort of; almost every woman’s breath speeds up, and her face reacts in some way, unless the orgasm catches her by surprise.”

I nodded. “I do that sometimes, so I get that.”

“You want a turn?” she asked.

“Yeah, that way if I’m not getting the same reactions you can help answer questions.”

“It’s like a lesbian tutorial,” Jason said.

We both turned and gave him a look over our shoulders. He held his hands out, like no harm meant, but honestly it might have been a record for the longest he’d ever gone without making a joke of some kind.

“Maybe you’ll learn a few things, too,” J.J. said.

“Are you saying I need to learn?” he asked.

She grinned. “Well, no, you’re excellent, but still, it’s not just a lesbian skill.”

Domino raised his hand. “I’m learning things.”

That made me smile at him. “Good, me, too, now let’s see if I can put practice to purpose.”

“Better check on Nathaniel first,” J.J. said.

I looked up at my bound sweetie. His face was nearly slack with concentration, eyes focused to the side, staring at nothing. He did that sometimes when we had sex; he said it was his way of concentrating on not going.

“He’s fine,” I said.

“You sure?” she asked.

Nathaniel made a thumbs-up gesture.

“He’s good.”

J.J. moved over so we could trade places. There was always a moment before I went down on Jade where I hesitated and sort of looked at her body and thought, so many little parts, and not sure what to do with them. Men made more sense to me and were a lot easier to play with: bigger parts, less guesswork about where you should be licking and sucking.

People joke about women tasting like fish, but Jade always tasted more like meat, red meat. I’d asked Nathaniel and he’d confirmed that I did, too, but he’d also said that some women did taste like fish. If you were willing to ask the questions you could learn all sorts of things.

I teased my tongue along the edge of her, between the tiny folds of skin. She shuddered for me, and I realized that because J.J. had already brought her twice I had a head start on the next round, but that was okay, I needed the head start. I was so damn good at oral sex on men that it had sort of hurt my pride to be less spectacular with women. It had been one of the things that had made me willing to ask the questions. I would get better, damn it.

I licked on the other side of her, mirroring what I’d done, and she shuddered again—nifty! I started licking from side to side, not directly over the center of her, but going lower, so that I didn’t lick over her clitoris, but below it. That would have driven me nuts, because I liked more direct contact, but Jade’s body began to shiver as I licked back and forth. Her hands convulsed on the pillow, and her breath got faster. I licked higher over her clit as I went from side to side, and her breathing sped even more, so that she started making little almost-sounds as she panted. I went back over her one more time and her body bucked, startling me, but I stayed on that sweet spot in the middle with quick flicks of my tongue, as fast as I could, like J.J. had showed me. It was a lot harder than it had looked, and I felt the beginnings of a charley horse in my tongue, so I switched to sucking, because nothing kills the mood like a muscle cramp at the wrong moment.

I sealed my mouth over her, drawing more and more of that small, happy bit of her body into my mouth, so that I was sucking it a lot like I’d suck a man, but totally different, it was just the only analogy I had. Her body bucked, up and down on the pillows and Nathaniel’s body. Jade slid off the pillows, and only my grip on her thighs and other things kept her from sliding off the other side of Nathaniel.