أكبر مني باثنتي عشرة سنة وأخذتني أولا — Chapter 10 The Passenger Seat

Chapter 10 The Passenger Seat

In the week after that, the air in the flat changed density. In the mornings the three of them still queued for the bathroom. Whoever was late got cold toast. At the office they went on speaking by surnames and titles. The word red light was not used in bed, but Li Gan kept it in his mind, like the real lamp beside the steering wheel that actually lit.

On Thursday it rained again. A client kept Zhang Xue until seven. Wu Ziyi's meeting ran long too. Li Gan waited in the garage. The windows fogged. When the two of them came down, Zhang Xue did not reach for the back door. She pulled open the passenger door, then stopped herself and looked at Wu Ziyi.

"I want to sit in front today," she said. "Not to seize it. I want to sit there once. If that makes you uncomfortable, I'll go back to the rear. Say so now."

Rain hit the roof. Wu Ziyi looked at the open door. The jealousy came fast and clear. She did not hide it inside a smile. "I'm uncomfortable, a little. These past few days the passenger seat hasn't been a seat inside my body. But you said it isn't seizing. If I occupy this place forever because I'm uncomfortable, then I turn into the contract itself. You sit. I'll sit in the back. If I'm sour enough that I don't want to hear the two of you talk, I'll say I want music."

"Then you pick the song," Zhang Xue said. "Don't pick that deliberately relaxing instrumental stuff. I can't stand it."

Wu Ziyi actually laughed. She got into the back, set her bag beside her, and chose an old song with a steady drum. Li Gan started the car and glanced at Zhang Xue. There were raindrops on her skirt. Her knees were together. She overlapped with Wu Ziyi on many nights, and she was entirely herself. His throat was dry. "Seat belt."

"I know." She buckled it and turned her face. "Don't wear that look of a man about to cause trouble. I'm only sitting here. The road home is still long. I don't necessarily want to do anything in the car. I only want this car to remember that I've been in the front too."

The car left the garage. The wipers went back and forth. In the back, Wu Ziyi looked at the backs of their heads. Her hand rested on the top of the front seat and touched no one. A red light. Zhang Xue's hand suddenly covered Li Gan's right hand, covered it for one second, and took itself away. "That was me wanting you. Not a start."

"Received," he said.

Green. Traffic was slow. Zhang Xue looked out the window and said suddenly, "I want him to touch me before we get home. Ziyi, I'm asking you now. You're in the back. You can join, you can only listen, or you can say not in the car today. If you say not today, I'll take my hand back and we'll go home and eat."

Wu Ziyi was silent for a few breaths. The drum was still going. She said, "Yes. But not on the main road. Find a place you can stop, then stop. I don't want us in the news because of this. After you stop, I want to watch, and I want to hold you from behind. Li Gan, follow her pace. If all you can manage is driving, then drive with your whole attention. We aren't worth proving who wants whom more by means of a crash."

His palms were all sweat. "Two kilometers ahead there's a market that's already closed. The lot is almost empty at night. I'll drive there. Nobody unbuckles now."

Those two kilometers drove like a very long stretch of foreplay. Nobody spoke again. Rain, the drum, breath. The lot was indeed empty, only a row of dead lights and puddles on the ground. He parked at the innermost space, cut the engine, and the rain got loud at once.

He undid his own belt first and did not lunge. He turned to Zhang Xue. "Do you still want it?"

"I want it." She had already undone her belt and pulled her skirt up a little. "Put your hand over here. Pushing the underwear aside is enough. Don't take my skirt off. It's cold outside. Ziyi, come here. When you hold me from behind, say first where your hand is going."

Wu Ziyi leaned into the space between the two seats. The room was narrow. Her hair swept Li Gan's cheek. Citrus mixed with the rain. "I want one hand inside your clothes, on your chest. I won't use the other, so the two of you don't have your hands fighting down below. All right?"

"All right," Zhang Xue said. She pulled Li Gan's hand over and pressed it between her legs. The underwear was hot. The strip in the middle was wet enough to be nearly soaked through. The moment his fingers lay against it she bit her lip. He pushed the cloth aside, found her clit with the pad of his finger, and rubbed lightly. Her legs opened in the passenger seat as far as the seat allowed. Her knee was against the door. Wu Ziyi's hand slid in at the collar. Her palm covered one breast, and the nipple went hard in her hand at once.

"Li Gan." Zhang Xue was panting. "Look outside the streetlight and see if anyone's there. When you've looked, look at me. I want your fingers in. Two. Slow. Ziyi, pinch me. Today I want it a little clearer."

He looked once through the curtain of rain. Nobody. Then he looked at her eyes and sent two fingers in. She was wet and hot, and the angle of sitting let him go deep. Her head went back and landed in the hollow of Wu Ziyi's shoulder. Wu Ziyi kissed her temple. Her fingers pinched the nipple on a rhythm offset from his thrusts. Caught between the two, Zhang Xue finally could not keep her voice down.

"Like that," she said. "Don't be so gentle. I'm sitting in her place. I'm not here to be set up on an altar. Li Gan, do you want me to use my mouth? There's no room to turn around in this car. I'll use my hand. Undo your trousers. Ziyi, do you allow it? This is in the seat that used to be yours."

"I allow it." Wu Ziyi's voice had gone rough too. "Don't call it my seat. You're sitting in it now. I want to see your hand around him. I want to see him come apart because of you. I'm sour, and I still want to see."

When Li Gan opened his trousers his cock sprang out, the head already wet. Zhang Xue's hand closed around him. Her thumb wiped across that wetness, and his fingers paused inside her. She laughed once, soft and wicked. "Move. What are you stopping for. I'll grip your hand with me and work you at the same time. Is that fair?"

"It isn't fair." He was panting. "But I like it. Zhang Xue, a little tighter. Yes. Ziyi, if you want to kiss me, you'll have to come from the side. Don't bump her."

Wu Ziyi turned her face and kissed him. The kiss was awkward. Their teeth knocked once. Neither of them minded. Her hand was still inside Zhang Xue's clothes. The three of them were packed into that small space of the front seat. Rain had completely pasted the windows. Li Gan crooked his fingers, pressed the place inside Zhang Xue, and set his thumb against her clit. Zhang Xue's hand lost its pace and did not let go of him. Her hips twisted in the seat. The skirt bunched into a knot.

"I'm close," she said. "Don't stop. Li Gan, when I come, don't come on my hand unless you want to. I want you to wait until I've finished, and I'll bend down and take you in once. Just once. Then we go home. I don't want you to come all the way in the car. I want to leave the last of it for the bed. Is that demand too much?"

"It isn't too much." His voice had already broken. "You come first. I'll wait."

When she came she buried her face in his shoulder, bit his clothes with her teeth, and her cunt locked hard on his fingers. Her hand still gripped his cock without thinking. The grip whitened his vision. He stopped hard at the edge, panting as if he had just run up the building. Wu Ziyi felt her orgasm. Her own legs pressed together in the back seat. Her underwear was wet too, and she did not ask to be tended at once. She only held Zhang Xue steady and waited for the shaking to pass.

Zhang Xue took a few seconds, then really did bend down. The car was too narrow. She could only take the head in. Her tongue circled the ridge once and forced back up the edge he had just held down. Li Gan's hand went into her hair and did not push. "Zhang Xue, up. I'm really going to come. Say again what you want."

She came off. Her lips were shining. She looked at him, then at Wu Ziyi. "Then I'm changing my mind. Come in my mouth. Ziyi, if you don't want to watch this, say so. This feels more like a kind of possession than I imagined. I don't want to do something you hate while I'm still in your seat."

Wu Ziyi's eyes were very dark. "I want to watch. Not because I'm generous. Because I want to watch him break for you. Take him in. I'll be at your ear. Li Gan, you can come. This is what she wants now."

Zhang Xue took him in again, only the front half, and her hand worked the base fast. Li Gan lasted less than ten seconds. When he came he said her name, and his come poured onto her tongue. She held it. Her brow creased a little. She still swallowed most of it and wiped the rest away with a knuckle, then lifted herself, and she was a little unsteady. Wu Ziyi pulled a tissue from the box and gave it to her. The gesture was so ordinary it almost hurt Li Gan's chest.

The three of them breathed. The windows were all fog. Nobody straightened their clothes at once. Zhang Xue spoke first. "I've sat there. Next time you sit back. I don't need this seat every day. What I need is that I can sit in it. I got that sentence today."

Wu Ziyi tucked the hair at her forehead behind her ear, and only after she had done it did she feel the gesture was too intimate, and she did not take it back. "You got it. I'm done being sour. Now I only want to go home and change the wet underwear. Li Gan, can you still drive? If you can't, wait five minutes. Nobody is rushing you."

"I can." He rested his forehead on the wheel for two seconds, then pulled his trousers up and looked back at the two of them. "We don't have to talk before we get home either. I need to call my soul back. Otherwise I won't be able to stop at the barrier arm."

Zhang Xue laughed out loud. Wu Ziyi laughed too. After the laughter the rain was still in the car. Li Gan wiped a small clear patch in the fog, and the car eased out of the empty lot. The person in the passenger seat was Zhang Xue. The person in the back was Wu Ziyi. The thing had not thrown anyone out of the car. The rain was still falling. Red lights would still come on. Only, when they came on, all three of them knew the meaning of the light could be said by themselves.