Cherry reached for the bottom of her sweater, her anxiety catching up with her giddiness. (This was it, the big reveal. She wondered if Russ Sutton had ever seen a fat girl naked...) She pulled it up.
Russ groaned long and low, and started shaking Cherry’s hips againbefore the sweater was clear of her chin. She laughed and dropped it on the floor.
“Cherry,” Russ sighed, manically kissing the tops of her breasts.
Cherry was wearing a very pretty pink bra with extra straps crisscrossing her cleavage. All of Cherry’s bras were very pretty. (It put her in a real bind whenever she went to get acupuncture—finding something plain to wear so that the acupuncturist wouldn’t think she was making a pass at him.) Cherry was wearing pretty underwear, too. She liked to lean into her strengths even when no one else could see them.
“God, you’re just...” Russ bit her breast.
She yelped. And touched the top of his head. His floppy brown hair. So different from Tom’s.(Stop.)“Russ,” she let herself whisper, playing with his hair.
“This is a very vexing bra...” His face was still in her chest. He pulled at the decorative straps with his teeth.
She coiled her fingers in his hair. “Why?”
“Because it looks so good on, I want it off. But then it will be gone, and I think I’ll miss it.”
Cherry laughed again, humming. She was doing a lot of laughing—she might be a little delirious. She was already so turned on, and not because of anything Russ was doing. It was because he washim. Everything Russ was doing was on top of the him-ness. (Everything he was doing was too much, really.)
He pulled one of her bra straps down and kissed her shoulder. “Remember those dresses you used to wear? With the cowboys? And the lassos? The little horseshoe buttons...”
Cherry closed her eyes. “Uh-huh.”
“Fuck...” He pulled the strap farther down her arm and kissed the newly exposed inch of her breast. “Were you wearing bras like this under those dresses?”
“I couldn’t afford bras like this in college.”
He growled. “I’m still going to pretend that you were, the next time I think about them.”
She tugged his hair. “When do you think about my dresses?”
He looked up at her. “Every time I see a cowboy. You fucking ruined Westerns for me, Cherry. I got turned on duringThere Will Be Blood.”
Cherry laughed. “Liar.”
He kissed her cheek. “I’m not a liar.” He kissed her chin. Her neck again. He nosed between her breasts. “I thought about you,” he said softly. “I thought about this.”
Cherry swallowed.
Russ pulled the cup of her bra down over her nipple. “Fuck,” he whispered, and kissed her there.
Cherry dragged her hands down his hair, down his neck. She held on to his shoulders. He was much slighter than Tom.(Stop.)“Russ,” she said.
Russ bit her nipple and sucked. Cherry swallowed again. Her face fell into his hair. He smelled good. Unfamiliar. He was sucking so gently. It was surprising—she didn’t think of Russ as gentle.
Everythingwas surprising. It had been so long since Cherry had been touched, and so very long since she’d been touched by new hands. Bitten by new teeth.
She whined a little. Russ put an arm around her waist and pulled her in closer. His belt buckle pushed into her bare belly. She thought she could feel his cock.
He was trying to pull the other side of her bra down now, but all the fiddly pink straps were in the way. “Okay,” Russ said, like he was fed up. “This has served its purpose.” He reached behind Cherry with both hands to unhook her bra. She smiled up into his eyes, letting him do it. He crowded her against his chest, working on it.
“Do you want help?” Cherry asked. They were looking in each other’s eyes.
Russ shook his head. “I want to beat this level by myself.”
She laughed. “You’re so different than I was expecting...”
The clasp opened, and Russ made a noise like “ha!” Cherry’sbreasts fell loose. (She wasn’t worried aboutthisreveal—her breasts were very good. Round. High. She’d spent all of her teen years worrying about stretch marks and then her first boyfriend had made some rude comment about her nipples—but now that the internet was full of bare breasts, Cherry had seen enough to appreciate her own.) She made room for Russ to pull the bra away.
