Thorn in the Flesh by Anne Brooke Page A

alcohol, especially not so early in the day, and anyway all this week she’d been building friendships on the fragility of coffee. But the fact he’d given her a different choice didn’t surprise her. It was right to feel different, now.
    ‘Beer,’ she said.
    Without looking round, Peter reached out and grabbed a bottle from the shelf. He opened it against the edge of the desk and handed it to her silently. Then he did the same for himself. She couldn’t tell what brand it was. In her mouth, it tasted bitter, stale and too warm, but Kate swallowed it as if it were nectar. She could feel the heat of it searing her throat and setting her stomach on fire. Her companion placed his unfinished bottle onto the shelf and sat down on the edge of the bed, facing her.
    She finished her drink. All of it, not one drop wasted, although when she stretched out and let the empty bottle fall into the bin, there was no hint of intoxication in her.
    Dragging the one chair from the desk nearer the bed, Kate sat down. When Peter reached forward and pulled her tee-shirt loose from her jeans, she trembled but didn’t say anything. His hand felt rough and warm against her skin and she gave a small moan.
    ‘That okay?’ he asked.
    ‘Yes.’
    She should be with Penny right now, she thought, getting to know her a little better, comparing notes on what the tutors had said, thinking about what they could do together next, but she knew she wouldn’t be. It didn’t matter. Here, her new friend seemed to be a thousand miles away from the fierce beating of her heart. Was she about to be unfaithful? Promiscuous? She couldn’t grasp the answer and besides no promises had been made. By anyone. Had they?
    Peter ran his hands around her waist and eased her tee-shirt over her head. She pushed her chest out to try to make her breasts bigger, more pleasing to him, and he smiled. As if he understood. With an uncertain movement, he scrambled to unhook her bra and dropped it on the floor next to her. She was naked, from the waist up, in the room of a man she’d only met twice.
    She didn’t care.
    Leaning forward to kiss him was as if he’d given her permission to be free. His tongue tasted of beer and smoke, and the shiver of his fingers on her stomach, her breasts, her nipples made her moan again.
    ‘Kate?’
    ‘Yes?’
    ‘Have you done this before?’ he murmured between kisses.
    ‘Yes,’ she said, shuddering.
    ‘No, I mean, with a bloke. Properly. Because you do it with that dyke from your department, don’t you?’
    ‘No, I …’ she broke away, still tasting him in her mouth. ‘It’s not like that, I …’
    ‘Really? That’s not what I’ve heard. Don’t you do it with Penny Saunders, Kate? That’s the rumour.’
    She looked at him. His eyes were a clear blue, so much like the sky.
    ‘Yes,’ she said, and in the air between them the truth tasted bitter. ‘I’ve done it with Penny. But I’m not a virgin either. Not in your sense. Does it matter? Now?’
    He grinned. ‘No, I don’t think it does. Not in either case.’
    Then, with no more words, he removed her sneakers, jeans and knickers, and unzipped himself. His penis sprang upwards, already hard. When Kate stretched forward to touch him, he shook his head and then lifted her gently, as if she might break, onto his lap. As he eased her down, she felt him enter her, filling her up, and arched her back, shaking her hair free.
    ‘Peter,’ she said as great waves of joy shuddered through her body, an uncontrollable tide sweeping through every part of her. She cried out, clinging to his shoulders, while he moaned and rocked beneath her.
    Afterwards he laid her down, slick with sweat and semen, onto the bed and, still clothed though she remained naked and shameless, kissed and stroked every part of her body, making her come again.
    She saw Penny only once after that, and the meeting between them was inconclusive. Penny talked in words that seemed to fly over Kate’s