“Know what I used to do for Gina sometimes? When she was crampy?”
“Voodoo?” asked Cora carelessly.
“Uh… haha. No, I used to… get her off.”
The look Cora turned on him just then was priceless; it was incredulous, disgusted, and curious all at once, and if Paolo hadn’t been dead serious, he would have burst out laughing.
Silence lingered for a few seconds, and then Cora said, “Seriously? That’s – no offense, Pablo, but that’s –”
“No, it’s not,” Paolo said automatically, before Cora could tell him exactly what it was. “It’s just blood.”
“Yeah! It’s blood. It’s blood, dude, that’s what I’m saying.”
Paolo rolled his eyes. “Don’t be an idiot, Cora. Women have sex during their periods all the time. And orgasms are supposed to help with cramps.”
“What the hell? Tell me you don’t have some thing for being a human tampon…”
Opening his mouth incredulously, Paolo was about to huff out some kind of annoyed response when Cora pushed on.
“And how could all that help, anyway? Wouldn’t getting all worked up just make it worse? An’ I can tell you, dude, that’s such a load of shit. I am not in the mood. You can’t tell me chicks wanna get it on while they feel like this. I’ve never been less horny in my life.”
“Could’ve fooled me,” retorted Paolo, “with the way you’ve been feeling’ yourself up.”
“I told you, my tits hurt,” said Cora testily, crossing her arms over them suddenly. “Like you’d know what the hell it feels like. They’re all fuckin’ sensitive and they ache and they feel heavy as hell.”
Paolo paused, the gears in his head turning in strange and grinding ways. Then, before he fully understood and approved of what he was doing, he leaned in over Cora, a thoughtful frown creasing his forehead.
“They hurt when you touch them, or does that make them feel better?” At that, Cora gave him a look and uncurled her arms so she could get a rough elbow into Paolo’s chest. Paolo flinched — more at the unexpectedness of it than in any actual pain — then rolled his eyes again. “Seriously, I just want to know.”
“Whatever – neither, you little perv. They ache either way. ‘S like poking a bruise or something, y’know? ‘S just weird.”
“Here, let me try,” said Paolo, and he had a hand cupped gently around the slight curve of the one closest to him before Cora could say anything.
But Cora didn’t say a word; she just furrowed an eyebrow deeply and looked up at Paolo with this skeptical, slightly offended ‘Are You Friggin’ Serious’ expression.
Then her stare leapt away to some unknown point as Paolo gave that warm swell a tender caress with the side of his thumb. Beneath the warm cotton of the t-shirt, he could feel the nub of Cora’s nipple tightening, and it wasn’t until he heard Cora catch her breath that he realized he wasn’t breathing at all.
“That hurt?” he asked, only barely audible.
Cora’s eyes pinned onto his again. She ground out, “What d’you think?”
“I don’t know,” murmured Paolo honestly. “You tell me.”
“Jesus – yeah, it…”
“Mm-hmm,” Paolo let out softly, skeptically. His stomach was starting to go leaden and hot, because Cora’s nipple was so hard under the fabric that he was flicking it, all slow and stiff and reluctant, back and forth over the pad of his thumb.
There was a warning tone to the breathless way Cora said, “Paolo…”
And Paolo, running on pure instinct, just ignored her and bent in to close his mouth over Cora’s nipple, right through the cotton of her t-shirt. Beneath the sudden touch of mouth and the hand he slid comfortingly up Cora’s sternum, Paolo could feel her going rigid.
“Paolo.”
This time there wasn’t even any voice behind it; it was like the barest of gasps. Paolo could feel his breath heating the cotton of the t-shirt, feel his tongue wetting it as it moved roughly over the papery fabric and the rigid knot beneath it. He could feel his own heart thundering and the traffic jam his brain had suddenly become with all of the colliding impulses and squashed-down desires.
He scrabbled his hand down to the hem of Cora’s t-shirt, and it came up with a couple of rough jerks, exposing the tense muscles of Cora’s stomach and the white elastic band of the bikini briefs she was wearing under the boxers. The realization that somewhere under both of those, Cora was wearing a pad hit Paolo like a punch to the gut, and he was practically choking on a breath as he pressed his heated face into Cora’s tit and gently slurped a swollen nipple into his mouth.
“Jesus Christ, P- Paolo –” Cora hissed brokenly.
It wasn’t anything like doing it to Gina; nothing like all the myriad of women he’d encountered including the adventuresome girl Paolo had lost his virginity to freshman year of high school. It was Cora, and her perky tits weren’t anything like theirs — they were sweet in the way untouched flesh is, her nipples were shriveling up all tight and sensitive. Paolo could feel Cora’s chest working in jerking breaths under his mouth, and it made his lips pull over Cora’s nipple in a little suck that had Cora giving this harsh bark of a breath.
“Ow.“
Paolo ran his tongue soothingly, apologetically over the hard little point his lips were clinging around and backed off to see Cora staring down at him with a strangely vulnerable expression, heat and confusion in her eyes.
“Pablo,” she managed, like Paolo’s name was the only thing she could say, and meant everything anyway.
“You in the mood now?” asked Paolo lowly, making Cora’s mouth fall open in breathless disbelief. “Let’s see,” he continued, not knowing where this sudden certainty was coming from, but sort of knowing what he was doing from the times he’d done it to Gina. His hand was slipping down Cora’s stomach and digging into her briefs before Cora could say hell no — which, this time, she kinda did.
“Dude, no –”
“It’s okay,” Paolo rasped, his nerve endings all lighting up at the wiry scratch of Cora’s pubes against his fingertips, at the sudden plastic edge of the pad that was sitting up against Cora’s…