Claudia thought George was weird. Smelling and tasting each other is a normal part of making love, but George carried it too far.
“Just what do you think you’re going to find in there?” she said when he pressed his nose between her upper arm and rib cage.
“Another part of you,” he answered sincerely.
She resisted, worried that the smell or the stubble or whatever would be disappointing and embarrassing. But he persisted, stroking her chest to try to get her to relax and reopen her armpit.
His scientific mind did not like the inconsistency. “You had your arms over your head while I was licking your pussy just a few minutes ago,” he pleaded. “Why are you so shy now?” George wisely avoided comparing the relative olfactory and gustatory intensity of the two areas.
Claudia was not in the mood for a debate. She had been enjoying the afterglow of the orgasm that George’s able mouth had given her and had been ready to invite his cock inside her when he moved up her body. But then he went off on that tangent.
They had met two months earlier and had been fucking for a few weeks. She had thought things were going well but suddenly wondered if this was going to be a problem.
George decided not to push it further that day. Over time, he figured he would get her to let him explore all of her territories. It was biological destiny, he thought. He would show Claudia that there were muscles to massage, nerve endings to soothe and titillate, textures to feel, and flavors and aromas to experience. The distinction between one spot and another, inches apart, was pretty arbitrary.
For him, it was obvious. George was a microbiologist and studied the human microbiota. That’s the several pounds of you that aren’t you at all, but rather various microorganisms that are on you and inside you. If you’ve seen those yogurt commercials, you know they help digest your food, but they do so much more. In fact, if you consider the total number of cells or how many different genes they have, there is more of it than there is of you! And they affect you more than you think.
Most people know that bacteria on your skin will create different smells and tastes. Grape juice has a fresh scent and simple sweetness, but let bacteria work for a while and you get the much richer aroma and complex flavor of wine. Wait longer and you’ll get the pungent odor and acidic tang of vinegar. Vinegar may be a disappointment if you are expecting grape juice, but on a salad or in Hot and Sour Soup, it’s just what you want.
Studies have shown that bacteria in your mouth and throat release aromatic compounds as they contact wine or food or whatever else you put in your mouth! This means some flavor notes are produced by the mouth of the taster. Family members, roommates, and lovers inevitably exchange parts of their microbiome. True love may be determined as much by the partners’ microbes as their brains and hormones.
One night George raised the topic during a deodorant commercial while they were watching TV. “You know,” he teased, “if it weren’t for the clitoris, no woman would ever let a man lick her pussy!”
Claudia poked him in his ribs while she tried and failed to think of a comeback. “You’re probably right,” she laughed. He was just happy that, as she grew more comfortable around him, her private parts tasted less soapy.
When she finally agreed to let him access her armpits, Claudia first shaved and showered. She rinsed well and skipped the deodorant as he requested. He wanted to taste her, not some inorganic chemicals. Rather than diving in, George began as they usually did, waiting to cross that bridge until he reached it.
They kissed like new lovers, which in many ways they still were. Although lying in bed naked, they took turns, each holding the other’s face, kissing forehead to chin and ear to ear, straying no farther than the neck at first. Lips were sucked between lips, then tongues made brief forays, then mouths opened and tongues tasted each other.
By the time George’s hand moved to her chest, Claudia’s nipples rose like two dollops of whipped cream on the low mounds of her natural B-cup breasts as she lay on her back. He sometimes fancied that their distinct prominence when she was turned on was trying to compensate for the modest size of her boobs. She thought her slim build made her more elegant than the overstuffed shapes that were popular, and would never consider inflating them. She never tried to turn her medium brown hair into blonde, only wore high heels when absolutely necessary, and used makeup rarely and sparingly. She didn’t want to be anyone else, and George was falling in love with her exactly as she was.
When at last his hand moved up the side of her chest and his fingers grazed her armpit, he kept going to raise her arm and stroke its underside. Claudia tanned brown more than gold, so the rarely exposed hollow was pale in contrast. George got a small thrill from the sight, appreciating the privilege he was being afforded. Feeling her tension dissipate as he gently raked her skin with his fingertips, he successfully made the case that chest, breast, collarbone, shoulder, arm, ribcage, and armpit were all part of the same person.
His mouth dropped kisses along the same trail that his fingers had blazed. He could not resist taking a deep breath through his nose when it reached the previously forbidden area, but he tried not to make a big celebration of it. Claudia was still fresh from her shower, but her building excitement from his ministrations added traces of musk. Content with a brief sample, he moved on, planning to return when the intensity was greater.
His move to her right side would be more strategic. His mouth lingered on her left nipple, inspiring a sigh as he swirled her areola, then a gasp as he sucked it between his lips and gently munched. His thumb and forefinger attended her right one until he switched sides, relocating his mouth inches from his goal. Making the caress symmetric elicited a moan from Claudia, so he knew her physiology would be responding.
His right hand abandoned its post and ranged back to her open armpit, both arms raised as she acceded to his wishes. He massaged her muscles, then pressed into the concavity, making her tense then relax as the unfamiliar caress provided only pleasant feelings. Gradually, the stroking and kneading ranged wider, moving down her torso.