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Chapter 3 She Bent Down First
Chapter 3 She Bent Down First
The next Tuesday, Zhang Xue wrote in the group chat that an old classmate was in from out of town, she would not be back for dinner, and they should not wait. Wu Ziyi looked at the line, set her phone face-down on the desk, and walked over to Li Gan's station with a set of minutes that did not need to be handed over in person. Her voice was a work voice. "Help me check the page numbers on the Beiwan attachment against the projector in the meeting room. After hours. Fewer people."
"All right," he said.
By evening most people had gone. Only one bank of lights was on in the meeting room. She stood at his side and watched him turn the pages. Her shoulder nearly touched his and did not. When the last page had been checked she shut the projector off. The room went a little darker.
"Li Gan, Zhang Xue isn't coming back tonight. I don't want to go straight home." She looked at him. "There's a parking lot by the river. On a rainy day almost nobody's there. I want to go there with you. After we get there I'll kiss you, if you want it too. You can say we should go home right now."
His heart beat stupidly. "Let's go."
"Then say a complete sentence." She did not let him off. "You're willing to go to a parking lot with me, willing to be kissed by me, and willing to stop when you want to stop. Is that right?"
"Yes," he said. "I'm willing. Ziyi, I'll go with you."
The rain was denser than last week's. He parked behind a row of closed snack stalls by the river. The only light left was one under the bridge in the distance. He cut the engine. Rain knocked on the roof as if someone were urging them on with a knuckle, tap by tap. Wu Ziyi undid her belt and did not lean over at once. She looked at his eyes first.
"I'm going to kiss you," she said.
"Kiss me."
She leaned in. The first touch was only mouth against mouth, dry, testing, almost restrained. Li Gan did not know where to put his hand. It hung at the side of her waist. She said, low, "You can hold me." Only then did his hand come down and press her waist through the coat. She made a small sound, and the kiss went deep. The tip of her tongue pushed his teeth apart and came in slowly, clearly. She tasted of the bitterness of tea, and of a heat that was hers. Li Gan was kissed until he went dizzy. When he kissed back he was too urgent, and their teeth knocked once. She laughed into his mouth and did not pull away. Instead she reached up and pinched the back of his neck. "Slower. I'm not going to run."
"If you say that I'll be more urgent."
"Then be urgent for me." She drew his hand over and set it on the outside of her chest. "Through the clothes first. Tell me whether you want to touch."
"I want to." Under his palm her breast was soft and rose with her breath. "Ziyi, I want to touch you. I want to undo your buttons."
"Undo them," she said. "I want you to undo them too."
The buttons of the coat opened one by one. Under it was a shirt, and under that a dark bra. His fingers stopped at the clasp. He looked up at her. There was a shine of water in her eyes, not all of it desire. Some of it was the strain of handing herself over. "Yes," she said. "Undo it. I want you to see."
When the clasp let go she drew a small breath. Her breasts came out of the cups and settled in his hands. The color of the areolas was deeper than he had imagined. The nipples were already hard. His thumb passed over one, and her waist jumped. Her forehead came against his. "Harder with your hand. I'm not glass."
He took one into his mouth and circled the nipple with his tongue, and his hand worked the other. Wu Ziyi's fingers went into his hair, not heavily, but they held him to her. The rain in the car covered her breathing, but he was close enough to hear every sound. She said, "Li Gan, are you hard? Let me feel."
"I'm hard." He pressed her hand between his legs. The place pushed hard against his trousers. She gripped him through the cloth, and he sucked in a breath. She lifted her head. The corner of her mouth was wet, and her eyes were clear. "I want to use my mouth on you. If you don't want that, say so now. If you do, put the seat back."
"I want it." His voice nearly broke. "I want it. You don't have to do this to pay me back."
"I'm not paying you back." She looked straight at him. "I want you in my mouth. I want to see what you become because of my mouth. This is my idea, not a reward. Do you understand?"
"I understand."
The seat went back. When she bent down, her hair swept his lower belly. The zipper was loud in the rain. She opened his trousers. His cock sprang out, hot, hard, the head already a little wet. She looked at it first. Her thumb wiped across that wetness and made him jerk. Then she put out her tongue and licked slowly from the base to the head, and opened her mouth and took him in.
Li Gan's hand caught the door handle. Her mouth was hot and tight. Her tongue pressed the underside. She took him to a certain depth, drew off, and took him in again. She was not in a hurry to swallow him to the deepest. She watched him. Each time she drew back, a little shine stretched between her lips and the head. She asked, low, "Does this feel good?"
"It feels good." He was panting. "Too good. Ziyi, your mouth — if I watch you I'll come fast."
"Then watch." She said it and took him in again, deeper this time, her nose almost touching his belly. Her throat tightened once. She came off, breathed lightly, and was not embarrassed. "If it's too deep I have to go slower. Don't push my head. I'll do it myself."
"I won't push." He took his hand back and only gathered her hair lightly, so she could see he was not forcing her. "If you want to stop, stop."
She made a small sound, as if the sentence satisfied her. Then she took him in again, her hand around the base, mouth and hand moving together. The sound of saliva in the quiet car was clear enough to make a person flush. Li Gan felt his whole lower belly burning. He said her name, and the name came out broken. She looked up at him with him still in her mouth, and that look nearly made him come. He said in a rush, "I'm going to come. Let go. I'll come outside."
She drew off, but she did not leave him entirely. Her hand went faster. Her lips stayed against the head, and her voice was thick. "Come in my mouth. I want to swallow it. If you don't want that, say so."
"I want it, I want it, Ziyi—"
When he came, the small of his back went numb and his come shot into her mouth. She did not flinch. Her brow creased a little. Her throat moved, and she swallowed most of it. A little spilled at the corner of her mouth. She wiped it with the back of her hand, then put her tongue out and licked the rest from her lip. Then she pushed herself up and looked at him. In her eyes there was an emptiness after finishing, and a brightness.
Li Gan pulled her up and kissed her. Kissing the taste still left in her mouth made him hot again. His hand went under her skirt and stopped at the top of her thigh. "And you? I'll give it to you. May I?"
"Yes." She opened her legs a little, caught his wrist, and pressed his hand onto her underwear. "Touch me. I'm very wet. When you came just now I had my legs clamped. I was about to go off by myself."
The underwear was soaked through. He pushed the cloth aside. His fingers met the slick seam, and both of them breathed out. He found the clit, already swollen, and circled it lightly with the pad of his finger. Wu Ziyi's forehead dropped onto his shoulder. The sound came through her teeth. "Yes, there. Not too hard. Rub like that first. Li Gan, put one finger in. Slowly."
When he entered her she was hot and tight inside, drawing on his finger. His thumb stayed on her clit. He crooked his finger, looking for the rough place. She suddenly caught his arm, and her nails went in. "There. Bend a little more. Yes. Don't stop."
Rain blurred the windows. She rocked her hips in his hand. The bra was still hanging on her arms, and her breasts trembled lightly with the movement. She stopped making whole sentences. There was only "faster," "I want it," "look at me." He looked at her. When she came, her cunt bit his finger in waves. Her whole body went taut and then collapsed into his arms, and the sound she made was bitten into his clothes. Wetness came out and covered his palm.
He did not pull out at once. He waited until her breathing evened, then drew out slowly and held her tight. Wu Ziyi leaned on him. Her heartbeat struck his chest one beat at a time. A good while passed before she said, "I'm thirty-eight. Brought to this state by your hand in an old car. I ought to find it absurd."
"Do you?"
"I find that I want it again." She lifted her head. Her eyes were red, and she was smiling. "And I'm afraid. Afraid you'll treat me as a secret that starts after I get in the car and doesn't exist once we're at the office. Afraid I'll use my age and push you forward. Li Gan, if you regret it now, we stop this tonight. I won't make a scene, and I won't give you a face in the flat. That doesn't mean I won't be hurt. I'll digest the hurt myself."
He held her face. His hand still carried her smell. "I don't regret it. What I regret is not kissing you at the red light last week. You've been clear about work. I believe you. I won't pretend not to know you in the weekly meeting, and I won't put on an act in front of Zhang Xue. But I still don't know how to tell Zhang Xue. That's what I'm afraid of."
Wu Ziyi was silent a moment. She pulled the bra back into place and did the buttons up one by one. Her fingers were still a little unsteady. "We don't tell her yet. Not a permanent secret. If we pull her in to referee before the two of us are standing steady, it isn't fair. If she sees it herself, we won't lie to the point of insulting her. All right?"
"All right," he said. "But I don't want to treat her like a fool."
"Neither do I." Wu Ziyi sat back in the passenger seat and looked at the blurred river. "Zhang Xue isn't a fool. She's faster than either of us. So we especially can't use her home as the backdrop for an affair and pretend the rain is very loud. Tonight ends here. Drive me back. After we go through the door, we're roommates."
He started the car. The wipers moved again. Her hand did not go back onto his leg. The silence between them was not the silence of the first night. In it was the taste left in her mouth, and the tightness his fingers remembered. Near the compound she said suddenly, "Next time, if you're going to enter me, use a condom. I have them. If you don't, say so, and I'll buy them. You don't have to tough that out."
"I have them." His ears went hot again. "At home. I didn't bring them in the car."
"Then bring one next time," she said. The corner of her mouth finally took on a curve that was truly relaxed. "Or we don't use the car. We'll see whether we dare."
In the garage, before she got out, she kissed him once, very lightly, only the corner of his mouth. "This one doesn't count. This one is because I'm glad."
In the elevator they stood properly. When the door of the flat opened, Zhang Xue's room was dark. The sensor light in the entry burned for a few seconds. Wu Ziyi said good night and went into the master bedroom. Li Gan stood in the kitchen and washed his hands twice, and then felt there was nothing the washing could take off. When he lay down, his phone lit. It was Wu Ziyi.
Only four characters' worth: I'm all right. And you.
He answered: So am I. I miss you.
The other side was still a long time, then came back: Sleep. I'll see you in the meeting tomorrow. Don't look at me too obviously.
He read the line several times before he laid the phone on his chest. Beyond the wall her bed made a sound. He was hard, and he did not touch himself again. He wanted to leave tonight in her mouth and on his hand, not rub it away in a hurry.
