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Chapter 4 Ten Meters of Corridor
Chapter 4 Ten Meters of Corridor
The corridor was the same corridor. Deep blue carpet ate the footsteps. The sailboat painting hung a little crooked. No one straightened it. Ten meters is not long, but Chen Hao felt he had walked a whole season.
Gu Wanning stood in the doorway of 1210. The hem of her white shirt had been pulled out of her skirt. She wore the hotel slippers. When she saw Chen Hao she gave him her key card first, then took the other from his hand. The two cards changed hands in the air. Plastic touched once.
"Where is your wife?" she asked.
"In our room, waiting for your husband. She said I should come over first, so four people wouldn't jam the corridor like a negotiation that had broken down."
"Lin Zheng went to wash his face." Gu Wanning stepped aside. "Come in. The door locks from the inside. You can open it whenever you want."
The layout was almost the same as 1208. The smell was not. There was her perfume, a pale white-tea scent, and another drier smell, like cotton that had been in the sun. Lin Zheng's dark gray shirt was over a chair. Gu Wanning went to it, folded it, put it into the open suitcase, and closed the zipper.
"I'll put his things away first," she said. "Not to deny him. I don't want you to walk in and feel you're stealing."
Chen Hao stood by the luggage rack and did not know where to put his hands. Gu Wanning looked at him and laughed.
"You're more nervous than I imagined. Sit."
He sat at the foot of the bed. The mattress gave. Gu Wanning did not come over at once. She brought two bottles of water and a box of the hotel's condoms, set them on the nightstand, and drew the curtains halfway. The sea was still there. The light had gone soft.
"We talk first." She sat beside him, a fist's distance away. "Tell me. Do you want to stop now?"
"No."
"Do you want to kiss me?"
"Yes."
"Then kiss me. After the kiss we decide whether to take clothes off."
Chen Hao turned his head. The first kiss was too light, as if he were only confirming where her mouth was. Gu Wanning did not laugh at him. She put her hand on the back of his neck. The second kiss became a real kiss. When her tongue touched his, his back tightened. Her mouth was smaller than Xu Siyi's. The pace of the kiss was slower, slow enough that he could not answer it with habit. He had to stop, forehead against her forehead.
"My wife kisses fast," he said. "Just now I was kissing you the way I kiss her. That seems wrong."
"Whether it's right, you ask me." Gu Wanning's thumb crossed his lower lip. "This is all right. You stopped just now. I liked that. Go on."
They kissed for a long time. Chen Hao's hand moved from her waist to the hem of the shirt and stopped. "I want to undo the buttons."
"Undo them."
The buttons opened one by one. She was not wearing a bra. When her breasts were bare, Chen Hao's breathing visibly broke. Gu Wanning's breasts were not large. The shape was beautiful. The areolas were pale. The nipples were already standing. He looked at her eyes, got a nod, and only then bent to take one in his mouth. He circled the point with the tip of his tongue, then sucked gently with his lips. Gu Wanning's hand went into his hair. She was not pressing. She was resting it there.
"The other side too," she said.
He moved. Her waist softened, but her back stayed straight, as if she would not give over all her weight too early. Chen Hao pushed the shirt down to the bend of her elbows and stopped again. "All the way off?"
"All the way. Yours too. I want to see you."
Clothes hit the carpet with a light sound. Chen Hao's body was not lean. There was a ring of soft flesh at his waist from sitting in an office. He moved, without thinking, to cover it. Gu Wanning took his hand away.
"Don't cover it. I didn't come to inspect you." Her palm lay on his stomach and moved down, and stopped at the edge of his underwear. "May I touch here?"
"Yes."
She held him through the cloth. He was fully hard. A little wetness had come from the tip and darkened the cotton. Gu Wanning's grip was steady, neither light nor heavy. Her thumb circled the head. Chen Hao braced himself on the edge of the bed. A sound left his throat. He wanted to touch between her legs. His hand reached her knee and stopped.
"Yes." She opened her knees herself. "With your hand. Don't go in yet."
Her underwear was light gray, and a small patch of it was already wet. Chen Hao moved the cloth aside. The pad of his finger met her labia. Hot, slick, softer than he had expected. He found her clitoris and only pressed. He did not rub at once. Gu Wanning drew a breath.
"Lighter. Circles. Yes. Don't keep changing."
He did as she said. His middle finger took wetness at the entrance and went back to her clitoris. Gu Wanning's breathing gradually broke. The white shirt was still hanging from her arms. She shook it off herself. Chen Hao looked down at his finger going into her only to the first knuckle, then looked at her face. She was biting her lower lip. Her eyes were open. She was looking at him.
"Does your wife like being looked at?" she asked.
"Sometimes. Sometimes she wants the light off."
"I like it on." Gu Wanning said, "Look at me. A little deeper with your finger. You may."
When the second knuckle went in, her inner walls caught once. Chen Hao's thumb stayed on her clitoris. The speed did not change. Gu Wanning began to push her hips toward his hand. She did not cry out loudly. Her breath broke into pieces. Now and then a very short sound escaped her. Chen Hao's penis hurt with how hard it was. He still did not take his hand away to get his own underwear off. He remembered what was on the paper. Not being able was not a breach. Rushing was.
When Gu Wanning came she caught his wrist. Not to push him off. To hold him still, so he would not suddenly go faster. The insides of her thighs shook. Her vagina contracted in waves and drew his finger tighter. Afterward she laughed, and the laugh had a little breathlessness in it.
"All right," she said. "Your hand is more honest than your opening line. Up here. I want you in my mouth. No condom yet. We said oral was allowed. If you're close, tell me. Don't come in my mouth. That's something I'm adding now. If you don't accept it, we use hands."
"Not in your mouth," Chen Hao said. "I accept."
She had him sit back against the headboard and knelt on the carpet herself. The hotel carpet was not kind to knees. Chen Hao wanted to pull her up. Gu Wanning shook her head and put a pillow under her knees. "I chose the place. Don't rush to feel sorry for me. Pity too early feels like charity."
She pulled his underwear down. His penis came free, the tip wet and bright. Gu Wanning looked once, held the base, and licked one stroke with the flat of her tongue from underneath to the top. Chen Hao's thighs locked at once. When she took him in she took only the head. Her tongue turned around the slit. Her lips closed tight. Saliva soon made the shaft shine. She took him halfway, then drew off, and her hand made up the depth. She did not force a deep throat on herself.
"Look at me," she said, and took him in again.
Chen Hao looked. The picture hardly seemed real. Sometimes Gu Wanning's eyes closed. Her lashes moved. Then she opened them and looked at him. He put his hand on her hair and did not press. She made a sound, like permission. The pleasure stacked up fast and straight. Chen Hao felt his lower belly tighten.
"I'm close," he said, rough.
She pulled off at once. Her hand let go too. The stop was clean. Chen Hao even swayed, nearly complained, and then swallowed the complaint. Gu Wanning stood, kissed the corner of his mouth, and let him taste a little of himself.
"Good," she said. "You said it. We stop for ten seconds. Water."
They actually drank water. Ten seconds became more than ten. Chen Hao leaned against the headboard and watched her tear a condom open, check which way it faced, and roll it onto him. The smell of rubber made the thing more concrete at once. His heart was still fast. The fear had retreated a little from his body.
"I want to be inside," he said. "Do you want that?"
"Yes. You lie back. I'll do it. That way I can control how deep. If it hurts I'll stop. If you want to stop, say so."
Gu Wanning straddled his waist. Her hand held him. She rubbed the head slowly between her labia until her own breathing steadied, and only then sat down. The entry was very slow. Chen Hao watched his penis disappear into her an inch at a time. He watched her brow crease and then let go. When she sat all the way down, both of them let out a breath.
"Move?" he asked.
"Wait. Let me get used to your shape." Gu Wanning's palms were on his chest. "You fill more than you look like you will. Don't thrust. I move."
She began to rock. The range was not large. The grind was deep. Her clitoris met his stomach each time. Chen Hao's hands held her hips. His fingertips sank into soft flesh. He wanted to push up, remembered what she had said, and only held her. Gu Wanning looked down at him. Sweat rolled from her collarbone to her chest.
"You can thrust. Now you can. Slowly."
He thrust up. When their rhythms met, the sounds in the room became clear: skin against skin, the small noise of the mattress, the sound she kept in her nose. Chen Hao felt himself near the edge, and the tightness of the condom held him back a little. He freed one hand and rubbed her clitoris the way she had taught him. Gu Wanning's movement broke. She swore, "Right there," and sat down faster.
At her second orgasm she folded onto him. Her teeth knocked his shoulder. Her vagina clenched hard. Chen Hao held her, and ten or so seconds later he came too. When he came his vision went white. In his mouth there was only her name and a blurred good. Gu Wanning did not get up at once. She lay on his chest and listened to the two heartbeats slowly separate and become two people again.
"When you pull out, pinch the base of the condom," she said, muffled. "I don't want you getting it on the sheet. We still have to sleep in this bed tonight."
Chen Hao did it. He knotted it, wrapped it in paper, threw it away, and went to the bathroom for a hot towel. Gu Wanning lay spread on the bed, her legs still slightly open, watching him wipe her. After the orgasm her face had gone soft, too soft for the woman who had spoken the rules so clearly.
"Come here," she said.
He lay back. She pulled the quilt to their waists and put her face into the hollow of his shoulder and smelled him.
"You have your wife's perfume on you. Very light. I could smell it the whole time."
Chen Hao's chest tightened. "Does that hurt?"
"A little. I can take it." Gu Wanning's finger drew circles on his chest. "And you? Do you regret it?"
"I don't regret it. But I miss her. Is that a bad thought?"
"No." She said, "What's bad is pretending you don't. We agreed this isn't love. You miss her, which means you're still inside your marriage. When I came just now I thought of Lin Zheng's hands. I'm telling you because I don't want this to become a secret I keep from him. If you can't accept that, you can go back now."
Chen Hao was silent for a few seconds, then held her a little tighter. "I accept it. Thank you for telling me. I can tell you too. When I came, you were in my head, and so was what she said this morning, that we still go home together. The two sentences stacked, and that was when I came."
Gu Wanning laughed once. Her eyes were a little wet. "That's more honest than telling me I'm good-looking. We can sleep for a while, or not. If they finish early they'll knock twice, the way we agreed. Two knocks means all right. Three means your own spouse needs to come back at once. Do you have that?"
"I have it."
Outside, the light had gone dark. The sea was still sounding. Chen Hao looked at the ceiling. In his hand was another woman's hair. In his mind his wife's face was clearer than before. He did not take that as a contradiction. He only breathed carefully, afraid that if he moved he would lose this brief, permitted weight.
