Sometimes Harder is Best

How could anyone do things like that where anyone could see them? Terri sprang immediately into her mind. Terri probably would. Terri probably was right now.

"Want to sit down and have a drink?"

The guy was talking to her. His voice was as mellifluous as his eyes were blue. And his face. Masculine, chiseled jaw, silky blonde hair. Not exactly handsome but totally attractive. She could even smell him, slightly sweaty and very masculine, just like he'd smelled last night except maybe not as sweaty. Not that she minded the sweaty. Not on him. Not at all. And those muscles on his arms. She remembered what he'd looked like in shorts and a tight t in the gym last night. How could anyone be so perfect? Penny found herself wanting to just roll and purr all over him like a kitten. Her nipples. Oh my god, they were so hard, pushing the thin halter top out. Visibly. She was so going to kill Terri.

"Yes please." God, she sounded so girly and polite. Surely she could say something more intelligent. But her brain seemed to have died. All she wanted to do was look at him and have him hold her hand. Maybe even hold her the way he had when she was bumped. Could she pretend to fall into him so that he'd hold her again?

"Hey, what's your name anyhow?"

"Penny."

"I'm Eric and I wanted to ask you that in the gym last night. But I was too shy." He grinned.

Penny giggled. "I wanted to ask you the same thing. And I was too shy too."

They smiled at each other. That smile made her feel as if she'd suddenly come alive, as if she'd been plugged in to something that made her more alive, more ... more her. She realized neither of them had said anything for ages. They'd just been looking at each other. They both seemed to realize it at the same instant in time. They both laughed, a laugh that shared that knowledge without words.

"Hang on a minute Penny, stay right here, don't go anywhere, okay, I'll be back in two minutes with a drink, I promise."

Before she could say "don't go" he was gone, jumping down the stairs, threading past people. Penny watched him until he'd disappeared. She waited, watching for him to reappear. Instead, she saw Greg climbing the stairs, looking around dopily. Oh God, was he looking for her? Penny searched desperately for an escape. No way was she going into those rooms where she could see all that making out going on. She glanced again. Not just making out either. Yuck! That was just so disgusting that people did stuff like that in public, where anyone could see them.

Greg was getting closer. He was on the landing below, any second he would glance up and see her. Penny stepped back hurriedly. If she couldn't see him, he couldn't see her. Maybe he wouldn't come up that last flight of stairs.

She saw the top of his head. She so did not want him to find her.

Penny panicked.

Backing up, she was stopped by the wall. Turning, she saw a closed door, opened it and bolted through, hurriedly closing it behind her, heart pounding. What she'd thought might be another room was instead a stairwell. Narrow carpeted stairs that led upwards. To the attic? Through the door, she heard Greg's voice, not what he said but the tone. Penny bolted up the stairs, almost running. At the top, she found herself with two choices - two doors, one on either side under the V-shaped roof. The door below opened, light shone in, illuminating the stairs below. The top of Greg's head appeared.

Penny opened the nearest door, slipped through, closing it gently behind her. The room she found herself in was dark, lit only by the streetlight coming in through the small attic window at the room's other end. There were people already in the room though. A large bed under the window on which two guys and a girl lay, making out. Penny didn't care. Disgusting or not, it was better than Greg finding her. To one side was a couch with someone at one end. Some couple, Penny quickly corrected herself as she eased herself down onto the end furthest from them. The end where she'd be almost hidden by the door if someone opened it.

Seated at the darkest end of the room, right beside the door, she couldn't help noticing that the couple on couch next to her were locked in a passionate kiss - and the guys hand was under the girl's skirt. Neither of them had even noticed her. Opposite her was another old couch, with yet another couple on it. Nobody even looked at her, nobody said a thing. She could have been invisible for all the attention they gave her, for all they cared.

God, was everyone at this party except her making out? She blushed and tried to look away, wondering what to do. Whatever direction she looked in, she saw the same thing. Looking away from the couple opposite her wasn't such a great idea - the first thing Penny saw was the girl on the bed between two guys with her top pushed all the way up to her armpits, exposing both her breasts. One of the guys was busy kissing and sucking one of those breasts. The other was kissing the girl, their mouths locked together, his hand inside her panties while her jeans were half way down her thighs.

Penny's blush turned from pink to a furious burning scarlet red. That girl? How could she? With people watching? With two guys? It was shocking, it was embarrassing, somehow it was also exciting. All at one and the same time. She'd thought Terri was shocking. This was worse. It was also impossible to tear her eyes away. Penny's breath came faster as she continued to watch, aware that she could even hear the girl, hear her moaning softly as the guy's hand moved inside her panties. She wondered when it would be safe to leave. How long would Greg take to disappear? When could she go back down? Eric would think she'd run out on him. She hoped not. She really did. She'd screwed up in the gym. She so did not want to blow it again. But she probably had.

The door beside her opened slowly. There was a moment of suspense, that sinking in her stomach, the dread that Greg had somehow followed her up here.

The head that peered around was him.

Her blue-eyed guy.

Her savior.

Eric.

Penny smiled as their eyes met. Eric slipped into the room, easing the door shut behind him, seating himself on the end of the large old couch, squeezing Penny closer to the couple making out. He handed her a drink, a bottle of something. She drank gratefully without even looking to see what it was. Then spluttered a little at the unaccustomed alcohol. He grinned.

"I lost you in the crowd." His voice was a whisper. Up here you could barely hear the music. On the other hand, it meant she could hear that girl on the bed. She was almost as noisy as Terri. Eric's arm slipped around her shoulders, so huge and strong, so gentle. Penny nestled into him happily. She felt as if she belonged in his arms.

"That's Okay," Penny whispered back, relieved. "I was hiding from my date."

She took another drink. The mango coconut flavor was lovely, cold and slightly sweet. She drank thirstily. It was much quieter up here, for which she was grateful. Eric looked at her and even in the dimness of the room, she read his expression.

"Blind date," she whispered, "my housemate set it up, he was awful, I was going to catch a cab home when you rescued me. Then I saw him coming upstairs so I came in here to hide." She tilted her head to smile up at him. "I was worried you might not find me."

"I'd have searched the whole house from top to bottom before I gave up." His smile lit his face up, made her heart beat faster. "Then I'd have hung out in the gym waiting for you." His eyes swallowed her, held her enthralled. She could look into those eyes for hours.

Penny giggled. "I went to the gym this morning to hang out and wait for you."

His body shook with silent laughter. "I guess we missed each other, so did I. I was really hoping I'd see you again."

"Well, you found me." His arm felt so good holding her.

He glanced around at the couple on the couch beside Penny, chuckling silently before whispering in her ear. "You found a great place to hide."

Penny looked. The girl's top was unbuttoned, the guy's hand was inside that top, moving. The girl's eyes met hers. She smiled. Penny blushed, looking away from them, looking across the room instead, only to see the girl and the guy there entwined in a tangle of moving limbs and disheveled clothing. The bed by the window held an even more disconcerting sight. The girl there now had her jeans and panties down around her ankles now, her t-shirt up still pushed up around her armpits, making it all too obvious what the two guys with her were doing. From the noises she was making, she was enjoying herself.

Eric leaned in towards her, his arm drawing her closer. He wasn't. Was he. Her heart did its little flutter-thing again. Next second he kissed her softly on the cheek. Penny felt almost grateful for the distraction. He settled deeper into the couch, his arm urging Penny a little closer to him.

"Your hair smells nice." His voice was a soft murmur in her ear.

"Uh-huh," Penny was non-committal but she liked that he liked the smell of her hair. She liked the way he smelt too. She raised the bottle to her mouth. Whatever Voli Mango Coconut was made from, it tasted great and it certainly made her glow. She giggled at the thought that Eric couldn't try to kiss her if she was drinking. Thinking about it, she decided she wanted him to kiss her. He seemed to be a nice guy as well as looking good. Good. He looked great, and those eyes. But she didn't even know him. Apart from last night in the gym where they'd both been surreptitiously looking at each other for an hour, she'd only met him fifteen minutes ago. She found herself thinking about kissing him anyhow as she took another sip. That was ridiculous. Besides, her last experience with kissing hadn't been great and it had been last year, back at High School.

At her Bible Study class at church of all places.

Wilson was a nice Chinese guy, but his kiss had been all wet and sloppy. He'd tried to stick his tongue in her mouth as well. Gross! Penny took another drink quickly. This guy probably knew how to kiss really well. He looked and acted like the sort of guy that would. Penny blushed as she realized she really was thinking about kissing Eric. Or at least, letting him kiss her. She wished now she had more experience. She really wanted him to kiss her. His arm wrapped more intimately around her shoulders, he eased himself closer. Drinking postponed any decision though, so she finished the contents of the bottle. It was only after nothing came out that she realized the bottle that was her temporary protection was empty.

Eric's hand reached around and took the empty bottle from hers. He dropped it behind the couch. His face moved closer as Penny glanced at him. Her heart seemed to stop as she realized he actually was going to kiss her. He was. He actually really was. She waited for what seemed an eternity but in reality it was probably only a second or so. His lips touched hers, brushed them lightly. A jolt of pure excitement surged inside her as his lips brushed hers again, pressing more firmly against hers as his arm eased her even closer to him. His tongue pressed against her lips. His mouth seemed to want hers to open. A brief memory of Wilson flickered through her mind as her lips parted tentatively. His tongue somehow slipped between them, slipped into her mouth as her mouth opened wider, brushing Penny's teeth, brushing her tongue.

His kiss wasn't at all what Penny thought it would be. She liked the taste of him. She liked the feel of his tongue inside her mouth. He wasn't sloppy and wet either. Before she knew it, her mouth was wide open, his lips meshed firmly against hers, his tongue probing deep inside her mouth. Penny realized she was enjoying this. If her dates last year at High School had kissed like this, she would have let them keep on kissing her. She forgot all about the eminently forgettable Wilson as, instinctively, she half turned towards Eric, one of her arms sliding around his neck as their kiss went on and on.

Her hand brushed across his neck, her fingers stroking across his skin, feeling the solid muscles, the thickness of his neck, the solid strength of his shoulders. Just the feel if him under her fingers drew a breathless little moan of pleasure from her, a moan that filled his mouth. She hadn't meant it to be, but Eric definitely took that as encouragement to do more than kiss her. One of his hands almost immediately cupped one of her breasts through the thin material of her halter-top. Penny's eyes widened. Only one of her dates had ever tried to touch her like that. For a very brief moment she regretted wearing the flimsy little halter-top.

The regret lasted only momentarily. His hand moved on her breast, caressing, exploring; sending little rockets of pleasure shooting through her body. It was okay, she told herself, she was wearing her halter-top. The material was between his hand and her. It wasn't like he was actually touching her skin. It was okay for him to touch her like this. She could let him do that, it wasn't like his hand was inside her halter top.

"Oohhhhh." A soft low moan escaped from her lips into his mouth. He kissed her harder, his mouth more demanding, his tongue sliding deep into her mouth, her own mouth opening even wider to his. Even as he kissed her, Penny felt his other hand behind her, at her back, then a sudden relaxation of the tightly fitting halter top as he unfastened the tie that held it together behind her back. Penny's eyes widened even more as the now loosely hanging top allowed his hand to slip under it, cupping her naked flesh, running a thumb lightly across a nipple that she now realized was swollen and achingly hard.

"Oooohhhh." Again she moaned into his mouth. The feel of his hand on her naked skin generated a shocked excitement, an intimate invasion that was as unexpected as it was enthralling. It was delicious but she knew this was where she should draw the line. She should stop this right now before things went too far. And this was too far, she knew. But it felt so good. It felt really really good. There was no harm in letting him touch her there. It wasn't like his hand was inside her panties. Her indecision led her to continue kissing him as his hand caressed both her breasts alternately. She sighed her enjoyment into his kiss.

She'd stop him if he tried anything else, she told herself. The loose halter top at least concealed what his hand was doing to her from the gaze of the others in the room. Not that they would care. What the other three girls were doing was far more obvious than what Eric was doing to her. Eric chose that moment to brush the halter top around and up to one of her shoulders, turning it into a cape of sorts, exposing both her small breasts to his eyes. To the eyes of anyone else in the room who made an effort to look.

Eric looked.

The burning flush spread from Penny's cheeks down her neck as he lifted his mouth from hers to look down at her nakedly exposed breasts. Her first reaction was to cover herself with her free hand, a jerky movement that his hand intercepted, taking her hand, holding it in his as his eyes examined her. That burning flush spread downwards from her neck, over her chest, across both her breasts, her nipples engorging even further, jutting outwards, swollen to a size that seemed to her to be enormous.

Penny watched him looking at her, watched him looking at her breasts as she sat next to him on the couch, half turned towards him. His hand left hers, cupped one naked breast, caught one swollen nipple between a thumb and finger and squeezed it lightly. At the same time, his head lowered, he engulfed her other breast with his mouth and licked it with his tongue, licked at her swollen nipple.

"Oooohhhhh." Penny forgot the words of rejection she'd been planning on. She forgot her intent to reach up and remove his hand. She forgot her intent to cover herself with her own hand or even her halter top. Instead, her back arched, her eyes opened wide, she moaned out loud. It wasn't just ripples of sensation that washed through her, it was waves. She pushed her breast hard into his mouth while his hand continued to gently tease and tug at the other nipple that it held so firmly. That it seemed to know how to handle so well.

"Nnnoooohhh ... ooohhh ... ooohh." Penny's protest turned into a prolonged moan as his tongue swirled across and around her nipple and over her skin. Pushed backwards into the centre of the couch, she flushed bright red, acutely aware of her sudden exposure, horrified that the others in the room would see her exposed breasts. Horrified that they might hear her uncontrolled moan of pleasure. Horrified that they would see what Eric was doing to her. She was almost more worried about that than she was about his mouth and hand on her breasts, although that was worrying enough.

Almost.

Because what Eric was doing to her was sending waves and sudden explosions of pleasure washing through her body continuously. One of his hands was behind her, supporting her as her back arched in a completely involuntary movement. The hand that Penny had intended to use to remove his from her breasts was instead betraying her, resting on his head, stroking his hair as his mouth suckled at her. She gave a hurried glance across the room. The couple on the couch opposite were too engrossed in what they were doing to each other to be interested in what was being done to Penny.

Too engrossed?

Her eyes widened in shock. The girl on the couch opposite was almost naked, her top open, her jeans discarded on the floor, the guy on top of her, between her widespread legs. Even as Penny looked, the girl moaned softly, the guy moved. Even in the dimly lit room, Penny could see the guy's cock sliding in and out of the girl's body. She found herself watching them over the top of Eric's head as he suckled at her breast, unable to tear her eyes away from the sight, shocked at what they were doing so publicly. Shocked, and at the same time, wildly excited.

The sight of them, seeing what the guy was doing to the girl, made what Eric was doing to her seem minor by comparison. She tried but she couldn't tear her eyes away. The sight of the guys cock moving in a steady rhythm as it penetrated the girl opened up a black hole of sensations within her own body. The mouth on her breast, sucking gently at her nipple now, kept adding to the rippling excitement that she felt. Eric's hands turned her, pushing her back and a little sideways towards the other couple with which they shared the couch. And all the while his mouth worked on her.

Penny looked at her hand stroking his head, almost absent-mindedly, unable to think a coherent thought. Her body was on fire, burning with the excitement she felt. Her hand somehow seemed detached from her, alive with excitement, alive with scared anticipation, doing what it was doing of its own accord, not under any conscious command of hers. Shivering, she arched her back a little more, pushing her breast at Eric's mouth. Her eyes remained fixed on the couch opposite, watching the guy moving on the girl, his butt lifting and plunging, his cock sliding in and out of her body, the girl's legs drawn back, far far back so that her knees clasped the guys ribs.

The girl's feet bounced against his hips as he moved on her. Penny found herself fascinating by the way those feet moved, by the clearly audible noises the girl was making. She sounded as if she was enjoying herself. She could hear her moaning, sobbing, whispering. She could hear her breathing hard. Penny could hear herself too, she was making little noises of her own as Eric's mouth continued work at her breast. She could feel the guy behind her as well, his body suddenly hot against her naked back as Eric eased her back a little more. Eric's hand left her breast, moved down to her hip, then high on her leg, stroking her, sliding across her skin.