Annie turned on her side. Jane was still lying half on her arm. She kissed Annie’s biceps and flashed her a smile.

“Do you want to talk?” Annie asked with a soft voice.

“Not really.” Jane wouldn’t know what to say. And hadn’t they talked enough the past few weeks?

“You just want me to drive you wild?” Annie brought a hand to Jane’s belly and let it rest there.

A slew of memories rushed into Jane’s mind of all the times Annie had effectively driven her beyond a point of no return. It made her realize that this was not down to Annie at all. It was Jane’s task to get out of her head, to let go, to let all the events of the past few months wash away from her and start anew. Even though that was easier said than done when her hormones were raging in a way that threw her so much that she didn’t know what was happening with her own body.

It wouldn’t be Jane’s doing alone. She needed Annie as her guide. Her trusted companion. She needed her because, as she had told Annie reluctantly during their last conversation, when she tried to come on her own, it hadn’t been a big success.

“Just do what you always do and we’ll take it from there,” Jane said.

“You got it.” Annie let her hand slip down, a finger already reaching beneath Jane’s panties. “Let’s get these off you.”

But Annie didn’t push her panties down, not yet. She just let her finger dip down deeper, stroking Jane’s hair down there, then scooting even lower. She pushed the panties up with the back of her hand, creating some room for movement. Annie’s finger lightly skimmed her nether lips, its fingertip meandering up and down.

This wasn’t what Annie usually did. Not the past few years, anyway. It was what she used to do, back in the day, in the beginning of their affair, when Jane knew next to nothing and she believed Annie was privy to all the knowledge she so desperately lacked.

When Jane was in her mid-twenties and Annie had taken her to bed, Jane was brimming with youthful enthusiasm and vigor and impatience. And it was Annie who had taught her to slow down, to take a moment to enjoy a gentle caress. It was Annie who had first made her climax—no other woman had previously been able to get her there.

Annie was creating the sort of charged stillness she had schooled Jane to enjoy. Jane was glad for that moment, before her panties would be discarded and her wetness—or lack thereof—would be on display. Annie kept caressing her and the old impatience stirred in Jane for a split second. She took it as a good sign.