(Now) Lauren: What You Like

"Do we have to go camping?" I whine, pouting at Alex like a child.

He laughs, which makes my pout turn into a glare.  "Of course we don't have to," he replies, leaning back in his chair.  "But you want new and exciting right?"

"Camping is not what I meant," I grumble.

"Well, I want to go.  If you don't want to go, I won't be mad if you stay home."

"So you're just going to go without me?" I ask indignantly.

He nods and stands, stretching.  "Yup, unless you want to go too."  I narrow my eyes at him and he grins and says, "You don't want me rolling over for you anymore, remember?  I'm going to go take a shower."  He smacks my ass as he walks past me, stretched out on the bed on my stomach.
I sit and call after him, "I didn't mean for you to do it when camping is involved!"  When he doesn't respond, I yell a little louder, "You're a jerk that takes things out of context and uses it to your advantage!"  I hear him laugh and I glare in the direction of the bathroom door.

When he comes out of the bathroom, wrapped in a towel and wet hair flopping over his forehead, he looks over at me.  "Do you really not want to go?" he asks, pushing his hair back and raising an eyebrow.

"No, we can go," I relent.  "You're right, it's something different."

"I'm sorry, what did you say?" he asks, smirking at me.

"We can go?" I ask, confused.

"No, after that."

I roll my eyes, catching on.  "You're right?"

"Yes!  That was hot.  Say it again!"

"Only if you lose that towel," I reply, raising an eyebrow.

He grins and pulls the towel off, dropping it on the floor.  "You're right," I repeat, letting my eyes drift down his body.  He walks over to the bed and grabs me by the ankles, yanking me closer to the edge of the bed.  I offer no resistance when he reaches for my shorts and peels them off, sliding them down my legs and discarding them.  Alex wraps his arms around my legs and pulls me all the way to the edge of the bed before kneeling on the floor in front of me and lowering his head between my legs.  He alternates between just barely flicking his tongue over me and then kissing and nibbling at my inner thighs.

When he suddenly presses his mouth to me and sucks, I gasp in surprise.  "Alex," I moan, pushing my hands into his hair.

"Hmmm?" he asks, without taking his mouth off me, causing me to shudder.

"So good," I groan, tugging on his hair.  I can't form complete sentences while he's doing that to me.

He briefly pulls his mouth away from me and demands, "Keep talking."

I freeze, because that's not something I'm used to.  Alex massages my leg and then presses a finger into of me, causing me to forget to be self-conscious.  "Oh, fuck," I groan.  "Alex, I...don't stop!"  And then I'm coming, and my fingers are twisting in his hair and my legs are clamping around his head.

He gives me a minute to catch my breath, then stands and leans over me.  He presses his body to mine and I can feel him against me.  I groan as he kisses my neck and moves against me, and he's sliding back and forth against my skin without actually entering me.  "That was hot," he whispers against my neck.  "I love when you pull my hair when you come."  I am again taken aback by this.  Aside from your standard moans and groans, neither of us are ever very vocal during sex.  He continues to slowly slide himself against me, and I whimper beneath him.  I grip his hips and try to pull him harder against me, moving my hips to try line things up.  "Do you want me inside you?" he growls against my neck.

"Yes," I breathe.  "Jesus, Alex.  Fuck me."  I feel his lips move into a smile and he finally pushes into me.  I groan and shiver, and he straightens back up, guiding one of my legs to wrap around his hip and the other up onto his shoulder.  "Yesss," I hiss, pulling him tightly against me with my leg.

He slides one hand up my leg and drags his fingertips across the bottom of my foot, which makes my toes curl involuntarily but also feels kind of amazing.  "God, you're beautiful," he says, before he twists his head down to experimentally lick and nibble at my ankle.

"Ohh, I like that," I groan, and he responds by gripping my hip harder with his other hand and continuing to suck and nip at my ankle.  Then his hand moves between my legs, and I'm done.  My back arches up and I reach desperately for something to hold onto, finally settling for handfuls of the blankets around me.  Alex lowers my leg from his shoulder and pushes me up on the bed far enough to get one knee up, then bends down to kiss me as he thrusts hard into me.   I grab desperately at his back as I feel another orgasm building.  "I'm going to come again," I pant, and he moves his mouth to my neck, sucking and nipping and making me crazy.  "Oh, Jesus, Alex, fuck!" I yelp, no longer making any sense and no longer caring if I sound ridiculous.  He finishes shortly after my third orgasm, and we're both breathless in awkward heap half on and half off the bed.

Once I catch my breath, I turn my head towards him.  He's watching me, and the look he's giving me is almost enough to make me roll him over and climb on top of him...except I'm not sure if I can move.  My legs are still dangling off the bed, and I'm thoroughly uncomfortable, but I also don't really care right now.  "Where did that come from?" I ask.

He pushes a damp piece of hair off my cheek and shrugs.  "You don't usually say things during sex.  When you did, it was hot.  You said you wanted to do different things, so I figured I'd encourage it."

"Well, it was definitely different," I agree.  I finally have enough of being uncomfortable and I struggle to sit up.  Alex moves and pulls me up, and we lay on the bed properly.  I groan as I stretch my legs out, then curl myself against Alex.

"Did you like it?" he asks.  I feel my cheeks getting warm as I consider this.  I'm a terrible adult because I'm not used to talking openly about what I like during sex.  I can easily have a conversation about getting tested and using protection (I would have gotten myself into all kinds of trouble in my pre-Alex days if I couldn't), but talking about what turns me on?  No way.  It's weird.  As he waits for me to answer, he kisses my forehead and strokes the inside of my forearm, and I sigh contentedly.

"I don't know," I admit finally.  "It was uncomfortable at first, and I felt really self-conscious.  I mean, it's not like we were even saying anything particularly filthy, but it felt weird still.  I cared less as we got more into what we were doing, though."

"It was kind of weird at first," he agrees.  "But I liked hearing what you liked and wanted."

"I think I'd be willing to try it again and see if it gets less weird," I say, almost shyly.  This conversation is painful to me but I recognize its importance; and even more than that, I'm thrilled that Alex is pushing us outside our routine and comfort zone.  As much as I want new and different things, he was right when he said I thrive on routine.  And for as much sex with as many different people as I've had, my preferences are generally pretty straightforward and simple.  I rely on other people to push me out of what's familiar and safe.  I've come to crave it and need it, but I still can't make the leap myself.  That was part of what had always drawn me to Alex--first as a friend and now as my boyfriend.  He had always pushed me and challenged me, and when he stopped doing that is when the boredom crept in.  I realize that it's not fair for me to put that all on him, but I'm trying.

I roll over onto my other side, pulling out of his arms and physically ending the uncomfortable conversation.  Alex gives me about 30 seconds, then rolls onto his side as well and loosely drapes an arm over my hip.  "Hey," he says softly.  "What's up?  And don't say 'nothing', little liar."

I laugh despite myself, because I was definitely just about to say "nothing."  "I'm just done with the conversation, I guess," I reply.  "I'm glad we talked about it though."

"Hmmm," he says skeptically, scooting closer and tightening his arm around me.  "That's all?"  He presses his face against my neck, brushing his lips across my shoulder first and making me shiver.

"That's all, I promise," I assure him.  "You know I get weird talking about that stuff."

"I know," he replies, his lips and breath tickling my neck.  "I don't get it, because you certainly don't seem to have a problem talking about sex in general."

"It's weird talking about what I like," I protest.

"Probably because most of the people you've had sex with don't care much about what you like," he points out.  I know he doesn't mean it hurtfully, but it still stings a little for some reason.  He eases the sting a little with his next comment of, "I care about what you like."

I roll further, onto my stomach and away from him.  "I don't want to talk about this anymore, Alex," I say.

"Okay," he agrees.  "I'm sorry."  He strokes the back of my neck lightly with his fingertips and I relax a little.  "Should we talk about camping instead?"

I snort and roll onto my other side so I can look at him.  "Don't push your luck, I already agreed to go.  Do you even have a tent?"

He grins.  "I have two.  I'll even bring an air mattress so you don't have to sleep on the ground, princess."

I gasp in mock outrage and yank his pillow out from under his head before smacking it against his shoulder.  "You are such a dick," I say, laughing.  "But why do you have two tents?"

"They're different," he replies.  "One is bigger and it has--"

"Yeah, I actually don't care about the differences between your tents," I cut him off.  "As long as things aren't going attack me in the middle of the night."

"Only me," he says, smacking me with the pillow then wrapping his arms around me and playfully biting my neck.  I yelp and shove him away, laughing.

"We have a weird relationship," I inform him, shaking my head.

He bursts into laughter, then says, "I'm pretty sure we have you to thank for that."

"I'm pretty sure you're goddamn lucky I love you," I retort.

His face gets serious really quickly and it makes me nervous, but he lifts his hand and brushes his fingertips across my forehead, pushing away a few strands of hair.  Then his hand lowers to rest on my jaw and neck, and he strokes my cheek with his thumb.  "I am," he agrees.  "I really am.  And I love you too."  He leans closer and kisses me, and it's a slow, soft, lingering kiss.  This is exactly what is "weird" about our relationship--going from harassing each other to being all sappy (him, not me.  I don't do sappy.) in a matter of seconds.  It's what I love the most about our relationship.

After our lips separate I scoot back over to him, snuggling against him and relaxing.  We lay in bed for awhile, alternating between talking quietly for a few minutes then laying in comfortable silence.  Finally, Alex sits up and stretches and heads downstairs to find something to eat.  I stay put, too comfortable to move.

When Alex returns, he's balancing a plate with a sandwich and two glasses of water.  He hands me a glass of water and half of the sandwich.  "I'm going to tell your friends that you make me sandwiches after sex and they're going to take away your man card," I say, smirking.

"You can give back the sandwich, then," he replies, getting back into bed next to me.

"Not a chance!" I retort, taking a big bite of it and grinning at him.  He rolls his eyes and takes a bite of his half of the sandwich to hide the grin he's fighting.  "Hey," I say, confused.  "There's no mayo on here."

He gives me a confused look.  "You don't like mayo."

"But you do."

"Yeah, I do," he agrees, still looking confused.  "There's mayo on my half."  He peels back the top piece of bread and shows me.

"You put mayo on half of the sandwich?" I ask.

"Yes," he replies, nodding.  "Because I like mayo, and you don't."

"Oh," I say.  "Thank you."

He shakes his head, then smiles.  "I told you, Laur.  I care about what you like."

"I guess you do," I agree, finally.