‘Yes, whacking away. And he just kept on and on for absolutely ages, and I didn’t know what he was waiting for, you know?’
Luca struggled to keep a straight face. ‘Well, he was probably waiting for you.’
‘Yeah, but that’s what I didn’t know. I didn’t know if he was waiting for me to… you know…’
‘Come.’
‘Yes. I mean, maybe he thought if he kept at it long enough, I’d have an orgasm. But I was just getting bored.’
‘God, I’m almost starting to feel sorry for this guy,’ Luca said.
Claire sighed. ‘I kind of felt sorry for him myself.’
‘I saidalmost,’ he said sternly, frowning at her. ‘He should have taken care of you.’
‘Well, anyway, I thought if he was just holding out for my sake, maybe I should fake something. But I wasn’t sure how to go about it.’
‘No,’ Luca said firmly. ‘You should never fake it. Jesus, if he thought what he was doing was getting you off, he’d just keep doing the same thing every time and it’d never get any better.’
‘Well, I just wanted it to end. But I didn’t know how to… bring it to a conclusion.’
‘You could have told him to stop.’ Luca frowned.
‘It would have seemed rude to do that. I didn’t want to hurt his feelings. It’s not like he was forcing me or anything. I was into it – at the start. I wanted it to happen. I just thought it would be… better. More fun, you know?’
‘This was your first time?’
‘Yes.’ She nodded.
‘Well, it’s usually not great the first time.’
‘But it was the same every time. Not that I’ve had sex very often.’
‘How often?’
‘Um… three times,’ she said, looking away.
‘Three times?You’re twenty-eight and you’ve only had sex three times?’
‘Well, three and a half, really.’
‘Three and a half?’ Luca chuckled. ‘We’ll come back to that later. But you say you didn’t know how to fake an orgasm?’
‘Not really. Obviously I’ve seen it in movies, but it always seems a bit over the top – like that scene inWhen Harry Met Sallywhere she keeps shouting, “Yes,” and banging the table. I’d have felt really stupid doing that. I’m not much of an actress.’
‘You probably weren’t on a table anyway.’
‘No.’ To his relief Claire laughed.
‘So does that mean you’ve never had an orgasm?’ Luca asked.
‘Yes. No. I mean, yes, I have, but?—’
‘You’re not sure?’
‘No, I definitely have, but not—’ She stopped, going bright red. ‘I’ve never had one when, um… when there was someone else in the room,’ she mumbled.
‘Oh,’ he said, a wide grin breaking across his face. ‘Well, we can definitely work with that. I don’t suppose you’d…’
