Lynn stretched her arms over her head, pressing her palms flat against the wall tiles of the shower room. Head down, she leaned forward, stretching the tense, aching muscles in her shoulders and back and neck. The hot water sprayed all over her, massaging her, rolling down her skin in steady, streaming rivulets.

Eyes closed, she breathed through her mouth trying to expel the toxins in both her body and mind. No matter what she did, she couldn't steady her heart beat or clear her brain for just one rational thought.

She shook her head slowly, biting on her lower lip. Despite consciously trying not to, she uttered his name, "Adam." She tried to convince herself that she was saying it spitefully or with frustration. She also tried to remember him as the precocious boy she had met three years ago, not that young man who was coming onto her with surprisingly calculated advances.

"Dammit," she grumbled.

She knew she had played her part in this. For whatever reason, she never set her foot down and curbed his flirtations completely. At first she just thought it was cute and harmless coming from the hormonally confused boy. However, even as she watched as the boy grew up, and she realized there was a real weight and deliberateness in his words and lingering glances towards her, she still didn't stop it. Truthfully, she probably fed it.

For whatever reasons, she always held more concern for Adam, gave him more attention. She used to tell herself it was because the guy needed it or else he would completely screw things up. Now she wasn't so sure.

This could be major trouble for her at work. Feeling wretched, she smiled derisively to herself.

"Yes...it's all about the job," she muttered sarcastically.

Work was the least of her worries right now. Right now, there was very thin line on the ground that kept her and Adam from...

A sudden thought flashed through her head. She looked up, wide-eyed, towards the change room. Staring at the empty entrance way to the showers, her mouth fluttered open and closed before she called out softly, cautiously, "A-Adam?"

She counted five heartbeats then reached behind to turn off the shower. The water streamed to slow, steady droplets on the tile floor. It was quiet in the room.

Lynn brushed the hair from her face and asked again, "Adam? Are you there?"

Holding her breath, she heard nothing, saw no one. She felt the thumping in her chest slowly subside. Staring at the entrance way for nearly a minute longer, she finally shook her head and grimaced. She reached for her towel and wrapped it around her body. What made her think the he would come in there? Adam was bold and cocky...but he knew the limits of this flirtation.

Right?

Just when that thought wended its way through her mind, that's when she heard them: foot steps in the change room...heavy, steady foot steps. There was no attempt to mask them at all.

Lynn froze, standing on the tile. With the shower turned off, the room was cooling quickly, the steam of the hot water clearing. The footsteps became louder and louder. Then, she blinked slowly once and when she opened her eyes, he was there, twelve feet away, filling the shower entry way.

Adam, hands in his pockets, standing tall, chin downward, gazed at her with his unflinching blue eyes. There was a stoic, stern line drawn across his lips.

Lynn couldn't pull herself away from the look in his eyes. That was third time today he had given her that look. She finally knew what it implied, maybe she always knew.

It was a look of intent – forceful, explicit, undeniable intent. There was absolutely nothing 'boyish' about Adam at the moment.

The water continued to drip behind her, trickling down the drain, the only sounds echoing through the shower room, but Lynn could hear her heartbeat thumping erratically in her head. "Adam," she said clearing her throat, trying to calm herself, "You shouldn't be here."

It was barely a kitten-slap rebuke, given the situation. Not nearly enough to keep the young man from starting to approach her slowly.

The heels of his heavy hiking boots thumped on the tile floor, the sound rattling around the room, unnerving the woman even more. She stepped back and felt the tile wall press against her back.

"You should go," she said, swallowing on nothing, still unable to muster any conviction in her voice.

She knew she wore an anxious expression as he continued to approach her steadily. She felt like she was trying to get to the higher ground on a hill made of marbles.

The determination on Adam's face became more evident the closer he came. The bold swagger, the cocky stare was all there, all channeled towards her. He stopped within a foot of her looming over Lynn.

Lynn kept her head low, only rolling her eyes upward to look at him. Her unsteady breaths dried her small lips and she rolled them inward trying to wet them. She could never have imagined such intensity and focus from Adam.

"Adam, please leave," she said in earnest.

"Every Wednesday night," Adam remarked thoughtfully.

Lynn shook her head slowly, confused. "What?"

"I've noticed you run and swim every Wednesday night," he said. He stood in front of her letting his words sink in like rain drops on fertile soil.

"You..." A nervous chill coursed through the woman's body. He had been planning this, maneuvered himself to this moment. She was at a total loss for words and almost without thinking, she stammered, "You...you'll be late for your birthday party."

It was then that Adam did something that put a pause in Lynn's heart, and an unnerving chill up her spine: he smiled at her. It told her so much.

His youthful, impulsive blood allowed him one last brash, immature thought. Through sharp teeth he said, "I always treat myself to a gift."

The young man moved his mouth towards her, pausing as Lynn flinched, the back of her head lightly tapping against the shower wall. She turned her face away slightly, clutching the towel close to her chest with one hand while the other pushed against Adam.

"Don't," Lynn gasped softly.

Adam squinted, a firm, crooked curl on his lips. A mental trigger went off in his mind. With a deliberate brush of his arm, he swept Lynn's hand away from his chest. Then in his next motion, he cupped his fingers around her chin and slowly but firmly turned her face towards his.

Her dark, anxious eyes staring into his blue, determined gaze, Lynn said in a trembling whisper, "Adam...w-we can't do this."

“Shh,” he hushed. Adam had no patience for words any longer. Still holding her chin, he moved in, pressing his lips against hers.

They stood motionless, silence surrounding them aside from the drip of water from the shower.

As Adam tilted his head, molding his mouth over her lips, Lynn breathed unsteadily through her nose. Her eyes widened anxiously. The drops of water on her skin and in her hair cooled and dried and she trembled slightly. She felt his hand slide away from her chin and around the nape of her neck, the other around her waist, pulling her close, holding her steady.

The kiss lasted forever. His mouth barely parted from hers, only the slightest break appearing between them whenever he adjusted his position before pressing in even more firmly.

Everything Adam was doing, from holding her tightly, to kissing her relentlessly, kept Lynn from having a moment to think or to mount a protest. Whatever she tried to say was lost as muffled gasps of air into the young man's mouth. Her free hand pulled and pushed at him with increasingly feeble attempts. Lynn was quaking inside, all too aware of where this was leading. She knew Adam had every intention tonight to go far beyond just kissing.

As if on queue, Adam's hand reached for the edge of her towel and tugged. Lynn clutched at it desperately to her body. He took a step back, momentarily breaking from the kiss, still holding onto the towel.

Lynn shook her head slowly from side-to-side, her eyes pleading with him but unable to vocalize her thoughts. Adam looked at her, the confident grin of his telling her precisely what the results of her meagre attempts to slow this down would be. Again with a forcefulness that seemed to surprise them both, his strong hand jerked roughly at the towel, once pulling it out of Lynn's grasp, then again this time stripping it away from the woman's body with a snap and flourish.

Lynn gasped audibly as the towel dropped to the wet floor. Backing up against the wall again, she glanced quickly down at her nude body now on full display for Adam. Instinctively, her arms and hands moved to cover what they could of her exposed flesh. Her eyes then shifted nervously and aimlessly around the room momentarily before settling onto his gazing blue eyes.

Adam took a long, deliberate look at her enticingly slender body and creamy skin. Her running had done wonders for her tone and form. Her softly curving and pert breasts glistened and shook and she was clean-shaven revealing an inviting dark line along her crotch. He didn't even try to conceal his appreciation or swelling desire for her. He reached down and pulled his t-shirt off quickly revealing a svelte, sharply cut, maple-tanned upper body that funnelled attractively into a lean torso.

Though she could find no voice, Lynn's mind was screaming. “Oh my God,” she thought, “This is really happening.”

She stood nude and vulnerable before this boy, this man, a coworker...a friend. If she had been told that three years after meeting Adam for the first time, she and her subordinate would end up in the shower like this -on the cusp of some unthinkable encounter- she would have bet her life savings against it and then sat back to plan what to do with her winnings.

In a heartbeat he was on her again, pressing his mouth against her with rhythmic, closed-open motions of his lips. Lynn gasped and loosed sharp-pitched, trembling breaths every time their lips parted slightly, her own fearful desires spilling into the walls and corners of the shower. Adam's advances were so incessant, sweeping her away like an undertow. His tongue shot past her lips and flicked inside her mouth. She felt his smooth, muscular chest press warmly against hers as he pulled her in close. He pressed his torso against her. The fine lines of her brow suddenly arched upward in the middle, startled by what she felt nudging stiffly against her lower belly -- a hard, aroused shaft of muscle jutting out from beneath Adam's loose shorts.

Adam moved his lips away from her mouth, kissing down along her chin and her neck. His technique was tantalizing...just the fact he had a technique amazed Lynn. As he moved his mouth along steadily, each time the tip of his tongue would slip out and barely skim the surface of her creamy skin. That slightest tickle was followed by his lips as they engaged in tender kisses and nips sending a delectable sensation racing through her.

As her body began to tingle, Lynn closed her eyes, trying to think. "Adam," she breathed, pausing to gasp, "D-don't..."

"Don't what?" he replied between his indulgences. He was down at her collarbone now. His French accent lingered over his words, "Don't do this? Kiss you like this? And like this? No?"

He was playing with her, unable to stop grinning as he slid further down her luscious body.

"Don't do this?" he asked before flicking his tongue against her stiff, hazel brown nipple. He breathed, "Tell me to stop Lynn. Just say stop."

Lynn gasped again as she felt him wrap his mouth over her breast, sucking and licking lustfully.

"No? You're not going to say stop?" he breathed. His tongue swirled around her nipple and he teased her with soft pinches of his teeth. He moved his lips and slick tongue over to the other one. Her trembling breasts were soon glistening with his cool saliva and tingling from his warm breaths.

Her nipple popped out of his lips. "Do you like that, Lynn?"

Lynn swallowed hard, moistening her lips.

"Is that a yes?" he asked.

She felt his hand on her waist caressing her soft skin along her hip bone as he continued to indulge in his passionate licks and kisses. It slowly slipped down her hips and then around to the back. His fingers clutched her smooth, firm butt. He inhaled the tender breast he had been sampling and sucked on it hard, lifting her back momentarily away from the shower wall. Lynn, braced her hands on his shoulders, her mouth rounding wide as a sharp gasp slipped past her lips.

Lowering her back against the wall, Adam's hand swiftly curled back to the front and in between her thighs. Lynn swooned, her eyes rolling upward slightly as she felt his fingers circle and stroke the outer lips of her tender snatch. One finger slid firmly up and down the line of her opening sending a tantalizing flutter through her belly.

"Uh-uhh," Lynn's voice trilled.

Still caressing her with his fingers, Adam finally lifted his mouth from her breasts and looked up at Lynn. Her face was flushed pink, her mouth was hanging open as wisps of air rushed in and out, and her dark eyes were unfocused, dreamy.

"Don't do this, Lynn? Hmm? That is what you're saying, n'est pas?" he said, always kissing her flesh in between his teasing words, "You want me to stop?"

Oh God, she didn't know what she wanted anymore. What was happening right now, shouldn't have been happening, she knew that. Where they were headed was still unimaginable, impossible, to her despite how explicitly intimate they already were. She had to stop it, but her frenzied mind and pulsing heart didn't know if she wanted to stop it. She didn't even know if the raging impulses of Adam could be stopped.

She gave her head a quick shake, side-to-side.

Adam's eyes narrowed slightly, the shade of blue in them darkening. He dropped to his knees on the floor. He slid his hands up her thighs and around to the back of her firm bottom, pulling her pelvis forward as his face moved in.

Lynn frowned and tightened her lips but gasped suddenly with the feel of a brash lick of Adam's tongue. With the first, slick touch of his tongue up along the line of her slit, her knees buckled. Adam's tight clutch on her butt held her steady as she braced her back against the wall. Her thighs trembled as he pressed his lips against her folds. She swallowed hard and loosed shuddering moans as she looked anxiously down upon Adam. She ran the fingers of one hand through her damp hair as it fell across her flushed face, the other gripped his shoulder. She wasn't certain if she was trying to push him back or just hold on as his tongue and lips and teeth teased and stroked her quivering petals.

Adam continued to savour Lynn with his mouth as one of his hands slipped around from the back. Pressing with two fingers, he spread apart her slit revealing the warm pink inner flesh behind. Without hesitation, his tongue swiftly went to work with devilishly tantalizing swirls along her inner, soft flesh.

"Ah-Adam! Ahh!" Lynn raised her head and her words and moans flew up towards the ceiling and echoed all around in the shower room. She swallowed and closed her eyes, furrowing her thin brow. "Oh my God," she groaned.

Adam could feel her body trembling around his tongue. He plunged a finger into her and probed her deeply. She was warm, soft and moist inside. The sounds of her sweet voice moaning her incessant approval drove him on. He rubbed his lips gently on the hood of her clit before flicking his talented tongue against it. His face pressed up against her thigh, he breathed warm air against her inner flesh eliciting more aching sensations from deep within.

Her mind couldn't make sense of it all. The riveting combination of youthful verve yet skillful, focused kisses and touches was something she could never have imagined coming from Adam. Yet her electrified body told her he was doing everything right. He was good...so very good.

Lynn's legs started to buckle at the knees. As Adam's finger slipped into her faster and faster, as his tongue and lips feverishly pleasured her inside and out, she was unable to catch a breath. Her shuddering sighs and moans filled the room. The water from her shower dried on her skin and was replaced by a sheen of perspiration.

"Huhn! Huhn!" Lynn's tummy curved and tightened, hitching as her whole body quaked and her thighs parted further.

"Tell me, Lynn," Adam gasped between licks, his finger always thrusting into her, "Tell me you want me to stop." He sucked on her quivering clit.

Adam was such a bastard. He knew her answer. Her body was telling him implicitly. Lynn grit her teeth, thumping her head against the shower wall, unwilling to give him the satisfaction of a vocal reply. Yet, she couldn't restrain her pitchy gasps of pleasure as her body continued to betray her thoughts.

Quicker and quicker his finger thrust into the woman unabated, stopping only to rub and pinch her tender clit. His kisses along her outer flesh were hungrier and more demanding. He wasn't giving Lynn anytime to think, just encouraging her desires to seize control of her body.

"Oh! Oh!" Lynn groaned. Squeezing her brows together, she dug her nails into his shoulder, her body tensing. Turning her head aside, burying her chin against her smooth shoulder, her mouth rounded wide as she groaned aloud, "Ah-AHN!"

A splash of glistening, warm fluids spilled over Adam's hand as he continued to pump his finger into her. He pulled Lynn close, holding her up, as she came in a streaming rush chasing the surge with a deep, languid groan of ecstacy.

Lynn's whole body succumbed. She couldn't feel her legs and her back started to slide down the wall with only Adam's confident hands holding her up. Her belly ached and she struggled to catch a steady breath.

After a moment, Adam stood up, his hands still holding her at the waist. She wrapped her arms around his back and leaned heavily against Adam's bare chest, burying her face against his shoulder, shaking, regaining her breath. She could feel a trickle of dampness running down her inner thighs, evidence of the impossible situation she had put herself in just a moment ago. She tried not to think about what had just happened. She tried to hold off the thoughts of how wrong it was for as long as possible.

She tried not to think of how good it had felt.

Adam stepped back, holding Lynn with one hand and brushing away the strands of dark hair that had fallen across her flushed face with the other. Her dark eyes were glossy and a little weary looking but there was a lovely pink glow all around her cheeks and neck. He kissed her forehead softly. He steadied her face, his fingers at her chin, before kissing her again on the lips. She didn't resist.

As he stepped back again, Lynn's eyes refocused. She looked long towards Adam. The brashness hadn't faded at all. The grin had sharpened, the eyes narrowed on her. She knew what that expression meant.

"My turn, Ms.Xuan," Adam boldly declared, giving voice to Lynn's thoughts. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a condom labelled garishly with the words "Cherry Bomb". "Someone gave me a box of these for my birthday," he grinned holding the packet up to Lynn's face.

The tellingly sharp angle of his lips as he looked down to open the packet sunk into Lynn's mind. This was going to happen. It really was going to happen. Unbelievably, Adam had mustered every bit of lust and desire in his youthful body, focused it and channelled it and now she was the prize for that effort. Even in her drained state she couldn't get past that telling grin on his lips, lighting up his intent like a beacon, ready to claim his reward. The stark image of the two of them fucking right there on the wet shower floors was as bright and vivid as the sun in the blue sky. It was just as alluring as it was painfully blinding.

"Adam," she said.

He paused.

Lynn cleared her throat. "Stop."

Adam's brow angled up sharply as he eyed her. The grin was still there.

"I...I want you to stop," Lynn said firmly. She met his gaze, her own dark eyes unflinching. She swallowed, steadying her breaths further. "I'm telling you to stop."

Adam's lips twisted to a crooked smile as he straightened to his full height and stepped back slightly. He squinted a little as he looked at her. "Yeah?"

Lynn nodded. A tickle of uncertainty inched its way up her spine like a little ant. For a brief moment, as she glimpsed his steely cool stare, she thought for sure he would brush her insistence aside and just take her. She tried not to think of what would happen if he tried. She couldn't back down, though, because in all likelihood, she would have let him.

Lynn pushed herself upright against the wall. Her head was turned slightly but she still levelled her eyes upon his like a matador staring down a bull.

Save for a few trickles of water, the room was silent. Adam's smile softened but it didn't fade away completely. He had been breathing hard as well, but now his bare chest rose and fell with a steady rhythm. After a long, heady moment, he nodded once and bent down. When he stood up, he held his shirt in one hand and Lynn's towel in the other. Without saying anything he offered it to her.

Lynn's lips folded into her mouth and she blinked and nodded as she accepted her towel back. Now for some reason, as she covered herself up gingerly in the cloth, she couldn't quite look at him.

Adam slipped on his shirt. He breathed deeply, pointed a thumb to the exit of the shower room and said, "I'm just going to finish up in the office and then head out to my party."

Lynn just nodded again.

As he made his way out, he paused and turned. He grinned and said, "You...wouldn't happen to want to come..."

"Adam," Lynn closed her eyes and shook her head, "Please, just go already."

He sighed and shrugged, then left.

Lynn listened to the door to the change-room shut. A deep, shuddering breath of air flowed out her lungs, "Oh, Christ."

She crouched down low to the floor, rubbing her temples with her palms.

After a few minutes, she finally made her way into the changing area. There on the bench in front of her locker, she found a pack of cigarettes and a short note on top of them: "Thought you might need these. I took a few for myself. - A.D."

Lynn shut her eyes again as she frowned. Her inner voice repeated expletives in her head.

* * * * * * * *

16 months ago...

In the dim glow of the red-shaded bedside lamps, Adam and the woman he had only ever known as "Janine" dutifully gathered their clothes which had been laid out on a chaise chair. Silently, they got dressed.

Adam walked from the bedside to the window. The fragrance from an oil lamp wafted in the air and he inhaled deeply, drawing an assured breath. Apart from the first time he had entered it, there was something about this room that had always calmed him.

Janine slipped on her black bra and then smoothly slid her sheer stockings up her long, smooth legs, clipping them to her garter belt as she stood up from the bed.

"You know," the raven-haired woman spoke thoughtfully as she picked up her grey evening dress, "You've really become quite good."

Adam, standing by the window with his back to her, stayed silent as he buttoned up his shirt. He enjoyed listening to Janine talk after each of their sessions. Her assessments were always much more rewarding than any of his teachers'.

“I remember when I first met you, you were so nervous, so anxious, you could barely undo your own buttons,” she laughed, “So much pressure that first time, poor boy.”

Adam remembered. It was so awkward, that first night.

“ But didn't I tell you?” Janine continued, “With great pressure can come great fulfillment. Just focus yourself, don't let the moment eat at you, and when you succeed, then the reward is boundless, n'est pas?”

He nodded.

"You have a style now, not just going through a handbook or fumbling your way," Janine mused, "You know what you enjoy and you do those things well."

What she said was true, Adam thought. He always seemed more focus, more attentive when he was with her.

She pulled the straps of her dress over her shoulders, then paused and laughed, "Certainly, practice does make perfect. It must be the swimmer in you. Find your passion for something then hone that skill."

Adam smiled to himself. She was a good teacher.

He leaned forward and pushed aside the curtains to peer out onto the city streets 10-stories below Janine's condo. It had been raining for most of the weekend, a reflective glow of street-lamps on the numerous puddles made for a melancholy setting below. It mimicked how Adam was feeling right now.

Feeling a gentle tap on his shoulder, he turned around and faced Janine. Her full, red lips cast an elegant smile towards him. Then she turned her back towards him and lifted up her flowing hair over her neck.

"Zip me up, s'il vous plaît?" she asked.

Adam diligently pulled up the zipper of her dress. He finished with a kiss on the back of her exposed neck, drawing a subtle sigh from the woman.

The same elegant smile was still on her face as she turned around again. "Merci," she said. Pausing again for a brief moment as she looked at him, she raised her hand, hesitated, then touched his face with her palm and fingers as if she were touching a cool marble surface. Her green eyes searched across his face before settling onto his. "Remember Adam, it goes both ways. A woman has things she enjoys as well."

Her fingers moved upwards and played and teased with his soft, light brown hair. She continued, "There's a time when a woman needs to take control of the moment, just as much as when a man needs to do so. Lust and desire are a sensational feeling, but so is patience. Sometimes, just let things build naturally. Let her take over. Enjoy it. Then when the man and woman are both at their pinnacle, it can feel just...rapturous."

Janine was beginning to spin off into her flowery notions, again. It was also something Adam enjoyed listening to. The words and ideas suited the woman. He reached for her, resting his hands gently against her hips. The woman he held was the first he would describe as demure and beautiful. It came from deep within, an inner sense of who she was and a refined maturity that served to ease the very subtle lines that were just beginning to threaten to crease her well-kept, glowing skin.

He had never looked at a woman other than Janine so closely, so deeply. The younger women he encountered never seemed to sit still long enough for him to do so.

There was something to be said about being with a more mature woman, something he was really beginning to appreciate.

"And so?" he asked as he continued to hold her, flashing a tight smile and arching his brow, "How did it feel tonight?"

Janine's lips stretched open as she softly chuckled. "Oh Adam," she sighed, as she wrapped her hands around his neck, "Still a boy in so many ways, seeking approval like that. That's alright. I love seeing the man in you start to emerge."

Adam looked down at the floor between them, grinning.

A curled finger on his chin raised his face back up to gaze into her calming eyes. "You were wonderful. You don't need me to tell you that, but I suppose you like to hear it, oui?"

He couldn't help but feel a strange swell of pride in his young chest. He nodded once, then reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet.

"Are you sure you have enough left for your tuition after all these visits?" Janine asked, half-jokingly, "University can be expensive, you know."

"I have my means," Adam replied with a grin as he reached into his wallet, "There are worse things I could spend my money on."

"C'est vrai. Like cigarettes," Janine scolded with a cluck of her tongue.

"I don't mind spending on quality," he added.

Janine laughed and rubbed her hand through his hair affectionately, “You're such a scoundrel.”

Adam liked it whenever she called him that.

She watched wistfully as he pulled out several bills. Her hand suddenly reached out and touched him on the wrist.

Adam looked up quizzically.

With a cool shift of her hand, she pushed three of the bills back into his wallet and simply took the remainder into her palm.

When his mouth opened to question her, a steady finger interrupted it. Janine pursed her lips and shook her head. "I believe after a night such as this, the compensation is fair," she said.

She then took a long deliberate look into his eyes. A faint twinge at the sides of her mouth dampened her otherwise long-lipped smile and the light in her eyes dimmed ever so slightly. It caught Adam off guard, but before anything could come of it, she pulled him in for a warm embrace.

Adam paused for a moment then reached his arms around her back as held her as well. The two of them sighed together.

"Au revoir," she whispered into his ear.

He had begun his visits with Janine on his 18 th birthday, to experience and to learn. After tonight, this room, this woman...he would never see either of them again. His lessons were done.

* * * * * * * *

Adam entered the club and waded through the people to a back corner. His friends had commandeered an area, posting the same "Happy Birthday, Adam" banner from the community centre party on the wall.

"About time you showed up!" Trevor announced over the pulsating music beats in the air with a stiff punch against Adam's shoulder. He held up a digital video camera and trained it on Adam from head-to-toe. "Took you long enough to change into this gay-loser clothing!"

Adam fixed his shirt and slacks mockingly. "Takes a bit of time to look this good," he joked, "Told you I had to help out a bit after hours at the centre!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever!" Trevor said dismissively, "Just sucking up to the supervisors."

Adam shrugged. "Well you know, anything to get in good with them, right?"

"Don't you mean anything to get into Lynn good?" Trevor bellowed over the music. He turned the camera on himself, "Ho! Booyah baby!"

Adam looked calmly at his over-stimulated comrade, obviously swinging high on some sort of 'enhancement'. He wondered how much it would just wreck the crazed Trevor to know how close he had come to fulfilling his shower-room fantasy a little earlier that evening.

Yet he felt no inclination to do so. He didn't have the slightest urge to brag to anyone about what happened.

"Get into what?" Cassie asked as she snuck up from behind and rested her hands on Adam's shoulders. She propped herself on her toes, pressing her soft bosom against his arm as she planted a kiss on his cheek. Her lips left a glossy red mark on his skin.

"Into your panties!" Trevor laughed. He zoomed the camera lens into her robust cleavage surging against her champagne party dress.

Cassie rolled her eyes as she swatted away the camera. She swept back her soft brunette hair. "He's supposed to be older than us, isn't he?" she asked Adam.

"C'est vrai. Some people develop more slowly than others," Adam said as he wrapped his arm around her waist and gave her a peck on the lips. He pointed to Trevor, "And some prove the theory of regression."

"Hey! Hey! I'm fully developed where it counts, bub!" Trevor said, grabbing his crotch.

The rest of the group swept around them and pulled them into their area of the club. The drinks were quickly passed into Adam's hands but he just as quickly and deftly managed to pawn most of them off to someone else. He just didn't feel like getting smashed this evening. Cassie, however, had no reservations about tossing back a few shots.

While most of the group, including Cassie, went out onto the dance floor, Adam, Trevor, and Juan lingered in a booth. They gathered themselves around Trevor's digital video camera, watching the display screen.

"That's not you, is it?" Adam asked, squinting as he watched the movie on the little screen.

"No man," Trevor said, waving his hand, "Cousin's friend and a chick they met on campus."

"Thank God. I wouldn't want to be caught looking at your pale dick," Juan snickered, "The girl's hot, though."

The trio sat quietly, crooked grins on Juan and Trevor's faces.

"They let you film that?" Juan asked.

"Hell yeah," Trevor replied, "They told me to!"

Adam shook his head and leaned back in his seat. "This isn't going to just stay in this camera. These people...they never heard of the internet thing?"

Trevor laughed, "That's the idea, yo! My cousin wants to start streaming this stuff and make some shitload of coin."

Adam grimaced and looked away. He was feeling more and more detached from the proceedings as the minutes ticked by.

"The girl is really damn hot!" Juan repeated, leaning in a little closer.

Adam shrugged.

Trevor, glaring out the women dancing on the floor, snorted, "Meh. Seen better."

Juan leaned in front of Trevor. "You mean Cassie?" he asked, "Do you think she would?"

Adam winced. "I don't know. Maybe we can just drop this talk already, yeah? I don't like the way this conversation is going. I know I wouldn't want to be involved with any crap like this."

"It's the girls that they'll pay for, stupid," Trevor prodded, "Cassie would be 'bank', no doubt. Mediterranean chicks are in demand. You know who else at the centre I'd pay major bills to see get her tight little ass screwed on camera?"

Pausing for a moment to think, Adam frowned then said, "No way. Never. Don't go there."

In unison, Trevor and Juan laughed, "Lynn!"

Adam rubbed his palm against his forehead then dragged his fingers back through his hair, shaking his head side-to-side. He didn't feel like joining in his co-workers' revelry about Lynn.

"Those Asian whore websites are just racking up the hits," Trevor grinned as he went on, "Lynn would be a hot item, you could be damn sure!"

Adam shook his head, his annoyance clear by the harsh frown over his eyes. "Look. Can we just stop talking about Lynn for today, for fuck's sake?"

"What about that bitch, Lynn?" Cassie asked, sneaking into the conversation again as she slid into the booth and leaned up against Adam. She looked hot and bothered, her face red and glowing from a light sheen of perspiration. A distinct scent of alcohol fluttered from her lips.

Still chuckling, Trevor said, "Nothing...except we may be coming down with a little bit of 'Yellow Fever' in this booth!"

"Are you for real? She's so old!" Cassie scoffed.

"No she isn't!" Juan insisted, "Thirty ain't old and, whatever, the woman is still smokin' as hell!"

"Amen, brother," Trevor chuckled.

Juan and Trevor laughed. Adam continued to sit quietly, looking away, lips tight as he tried to remain calm.

"She's always picking on me!" Cassie groused, "I just want to take her out already!"

"Sounds like someone wants to get into a catfight!" Trevor goaded, "Bitch slap, baby!"

"I'd pay to see that, too!" Juan laughed.

"Think she's all that," Cassie continued to grumble as she clutched at Adam's arm, "She thinks she's so hot still. She's just old and bitchy!"

"Well, Lynn still has it all going on. No doubt, Cassie," Trevor replied.

Juan nodded. "Most definitely."

Cassie turned her green eyes upon Adam, hoping for some show of support.

Without looking at her, he said, "Pardon, Cass. Can you slide out? I have to go to the washroom."

Slightly dejected, she stood up from the booth and let Adam get out. Pouting her red lips, she watched him as he headed down the corridor towards the washrooms. Trevor and Juan went back to looking at the viewscreen.

Adam leaned over the counter in the men's washroom, staring into the mirror. He was actually feeling a bit tired and was more than a little reluctant to go back into the club and join his party. The chatter of his friends was wearing him down. After the exhilaration he had experienced earlier that evening back at the community centre, he was definitely having some difficulty mustering any comparable energy. He wondered what Lynn was thinking and feeling at this moment.

Lynn. She had asked him to stop and he had done so with very little further insistence. The fact that his desire for her had been so overwhelming just before their encounter in the showers made it all the more surprising as he thought about it now. To have respected her decision simply felt like the right thing to do.

He had always respected Lynn.

Yet the chase, the seduction, had been just as thrilling. Her groans and her shuddering climax told him that he had satisfied her. He realized that was more than enough for him at the moment.

For the moment.

Adam's eyes narrowed in the reflection as his jaw stiffened. This wasn't over.

Summer wasn't done by a longshot.

Adam emerged from the washroom, excited by his own resolve. Suddenly, he felt a soft, warm hand clutch at his wrist from behind.

"Adam!" Cassie said, pulling at him.

"Cass?" Adam answered, turning.

The young woman stepped up close to him and, taking his chin with her fingers, planted her full, red lips onto his, delivering a soft, wet kiss.

Adam stepped back, looking genuinely surprised, and breathed, "Well, happy birthday to me!"

Cassie giggled. Her usually large, white smile was so accentuated, the edges of her lips seemed to touch her ears. Her round cheeks were red and sparkling. Taking his wrists with both hands now, she shimmied backwards, never taking her big, twinkling eyes off of him as she pulled him down the corridor.

She bullied them through a rear exit of the club out into the embrace of the hot summer evening. Adam said nothing but let her pull him through a back alley around the side of the building. Cassie paused only for a moment to glance around the area before again tugging him into an alcove along side the building next to the club.

In the shadows of the dim doorway, she pressed Adam's back against the brick wall and leaned into him, holding him close, and wrapping her mouth around his hungrily. He could taste the alcohol on her moist lips and tongue. He supported her gently at her hips as she pressed her breasts seductively against his chest.

Cassie backed away, grinning, and leaned against the wall on the other side of the alcove.

She winked at Adam and said, "Got ya a little something for your birthday." She reached into her small purse.

Adam remarked,"Ah, Cass. You didn't have to..."

"Shh. Shh. Shh," Cassie hushed shaking her head, still rummaging through her purse, " And...voila!"

The gold chain wrist-band glittered in her hand as she held it up proudly to Adam. The small, rectangular tag linked between the chain was engraved with an 'A' and a 'D' with a Fleurs-de-Lis symbol between the initials. Cassie bit her lower lip and giggled, obviously pleased with the gift.

Adam blinked, unsure of how to react. "Uh...this is for me?" he asked, unable to muster much enthusiasm.

Giddy from excitement and drink, Cassie barely noticed his rather dull reaction and proceeded to take his hand and attach the chain on his wrist. "Who do you think the initials stand for, dummy?"

"You didn't have to get me something like this."

"Just wanted to brand my man," Cassie giggled. She admired the chain for a moment then added, "I got something you could wear on your wrist so everyone can see it."

Adam looked down at the gleaming gold chain. It was light but it made him very uneasy to wear it. "This looks expensive, Cass."

Cassie sighed, flipped back her hair, and smiled. "I can afford it," she remarked through a sharp grin, "And you're worth it."

Adam cocked his brow, gazing intently at her. He knew how she could 'afford' it, just like she could 'afford' that branded purse and likely most of the ensemble she was wearing. Over the years as the community centre's receptionist Cassie had been skimming from the till whenever someone paid their fees or for other items. It was a talent she felt she needed to share with Adam at one point, showing him in detail how she could deftly pocket a fair amount of cash. Though he wasn't actually the slightest bit interested, he didn't bother to confront her about it. Instead, he just made sure she never spent any money on him.

Which made it quite difficult to for him to hold his tongue now. He shook his head and started to reach for the chain.

"Don't take it off!" Cassie said, "It looks good on you!"

"This is too nice," Adam replied, trying to be polite and unaffected, "I can't..."

His words were cut off by a forceful kiss as Cassie devoured his lips in her mouth. It was a deliberate kiss, one that declared, "We're moving on now." She pressed into him, pushing his back against the brick wall. Adam's thought were interrupted just as his words were by a flourish of her tongue and a stream of warm air from her mouth to his.

Cassie pinched at his lower lip with her teeth as she pulled away from the kiss. She grinned at him sharply and said, "So, you gonna tell me what you wished for when you blew out your candles, M'sieu Dupuis?" She poked him playfully on his nose.

Adam, trying to stay cool and keep up with the fiery young woman, tilted his head and said, "Can't do that. Won't come true, then."

"Can I guess?" she asked as she undid the top buttons of his dress shirt.

Before he could reply, Cassie was already making her way downward. She pushed apart his shirt and tickled his smooth chest with a smattering of quick kisses and licks, slipping in soft giggles every other breath.

Adam, breathing hard, looked down, watching the young woman, caressing her fine brunette hair as she continued downward, offering him a lovely view of he deep, inviting cleavage. He listened as she deftly undid his belt buckle and pulled down his fly. All the while, he realized he was frowning, feeling the weight of his brows coming down over his eyes.

Cassie pushed and tugged at his pants and his shorts beneath until his twitching shaft slipped out. Quickly she gathered him gently, yet firmly, in her hand. With a knowing smile on her lips, she looked upward and said, "Did I guess right?"

Adam sucked his lips inward, keeping them shut in a tight line. He gazed down at Cassie, his hand at the side of her head but no longer stroking her hair.

Either it was too dim in the covered doorway, or else Cassie was too giddy with her own anticipation, but she didn't notice the unusually troubled expression on Adam's face. Instead, she rounded her grinning mouth open and slipped her lips over him with a satisfying hum.

Within a few moments, Adam was quickly reminded at how good Cassie was at this. As she drew his shaft deep inside her mouth and slicked his sensitive flesh with her tongue, she breathed rhythmically, loosing cooing moans and soft, wet gulps. She pumped her fist up and down along the exposed length of his shaft, her fingers following her lips, until his entire length was gleaming with her saliva.

"I love your cock," Cassie purred, slipping him out of her mouth for a moment, "It's so long and hard and it makes me so hot to suck it like this. Mmmm!" She took him deep into her mouth again, his tip nudging her throat.

Despite his distracted thoughts, Adam felt the burning sensation coursing through him each time Cassie's lips slipped up and down his stiffening shaft. He slid his rows of teeth across one another and inhaled deeply. He raised his head, pushing it against the brick wall, and closed his eyes. He felt his cock gliding into her damp, warm mouth relentlessly, and frowned.

Adam realized it wasn't Cassie he was picturing with him there at the moment.

"Cass," Adam said. There was a strain on his voice as he struggled with the urges making their way to the surface of his mind. Still, he opened his eyes and looked down and said again, "Cass."

Cassie withdrew him from her mouth and looked up. Her face was flushed red and glowing from perspiration.

Taking a few seconds to catch his breath, Adam started to say, "Cassie, I..."

The young woman stood up and covered his mouth with her lips, cutting him off with a lustful kiss. As she continued to muffle him, she started to hike up the skirt of her party dress.

"Wait. Cassie, just wait," Adam insisted, pushing her back at the shoulders.

Cassie stepped back, blinking. "What? What is it?" she asked. Her frown deepened as she watch him quickly pull up his briefs and pants. Her face flushed red, she said, "What are you doing?"

Adam, looking down as he buttoned his pants and tightened his belt, shook his head and replied, "It's ok. We don't have to do this here."

Cassie continued to watch him with a stunned look plastered on her face. "You want to stop?" she asked, incredulous.

Adam looked up and into her eyes. He saw a the possibility of a major scene erupting at any second. Quickly he explained, "Not here, Cass. Not in some shitty alley."

Cassie pushed her long hair back over her forehead. As he buttoned his shirt she asked, "Should we go back to your place?"

He shook his head. "Parents."

"We could go to my car or maybe a hotel..."

"No. You know what, Cass?" Adam interrupted, putting on a grin, "It's okay, yeah? We don't have to do this tonight."

The young woman took another step back, her head tilting and a hard frown affixed on her face. "You don't want to?" she said, confused, "But it's your birthday."

Adam paused for a second. He was tempted to just walk away. Instead, he forced a broad smile and took her hands. His eyebrows bounced up and down as if they were rubber bands as he leaned forward and said, "C'est ca! It's my birthday! Come on!"

Adam could see the confused look in her face. It had the distinct edge of annoyance in it and before it could boil over, he added, "Thank you for this." He held up the chain adorning his wrist then gave her a peck on her cheek, "I love it. I'll wear it always, mon cheri."

His gesture and words seemed to appease her slightly. But before Cassie could make sense of it all, Adam pulled her from the alcove and she followed along as they ran back to the club. "Come on! Let's got back to the club and have some fun!" he called to her.

"I thought we were going to have fun," Cassie mumbled, mystified, as she tried desperately not to trip in her high-heels.

Adam still was wondering what Lynn was thinking at the moment.

* * * * * * * *

"My God, Lynn. What the hell were you thinking?" Lynn hissed to herself as she walked aimlessly in circles throughout the community centre. How many times had she asked herself that question in the last fourteen hours?

The memories of what went down in the showers –the sensations, the sounds-- haunted her throughout the night. Though she couldn't remember doing so, she had managed to drive herself back home to her apartment without getting into an accident. Tossing her things onto the foyer floor, she immediately made a path to the fridge, pulled out a vodka cooler and sucked it down like a baby having her bottle. She didn't even really notice or care that her air-conditioning was on the blink again, the apartment filled with stale, warm air.

Then she let out a long, frustrated groan into the darkness of her apartment. It didn't make her feel any better. Reaching back into the fridge, she grabbed another bottle. She stomped to her sofa, fell into the cushions, and, in the dark, popped the cap of her drink. After about an hour of sitting there in silence, drinking, she passed out.

The thing was, the next day, she still had to face the same problem. And those coolers still weren't sitting that great in her tummy. "I should have stayed in bed," she muttered to herself.

She had let it happen. At the end, though Adam was barrelling towards the impossible moment like a stampede of cattle, he actually managed to stop with just her saying so. She was aware of his extreme arousal, seen it in his eyes, felt the hardened resolve behind his shorts. He was young and immature, supposedly unable to control himself in that state. Yet, at her utterance, he did. There was no forced attempt by him to continue, no angry retorts, no pouting, or fuming. He just stopped. Just like that. He wasn't supposed to be able to do that.

So if she had told him from the very beginning that she wanted him to stop and just get the hell out of the showers, he likely would have and that would have been the end of it.

Yet, she hadn't. And then...

"And then..." Lynn thought to herself. She frowned and rubbed the side of her head roughly with her palm, barely able to restrain herself from letting out a muted whine. They had crossed the line. Hell, they had taken a bucket of borax and erased the line from existence.

Yet, in between every self-berating thought was another more troubling one. For all the guilt she felt now, at the time, at the moment, it felt incredibly good. Not just how Adam was touching her and pleasuring her physically, but to just mentally let go. It was an incredible release to not give a care about anything after weeks of pent up anxiety and frustration. Lynn needed that so much. She still did.

She just never imagined it would be Adam who would draw those feelings from her.

Lynn's pace slowed as she walked down the hallway. She stared at the floor as she thought. "Okay," she thought to herself, "What happened, happened. Can't do anything about that. What do we do now?"

Lynn smirked. She knew for damn sure it wasn't going to happen again. Morally, they had done nothing wrong. Both were consenting adults...well, Adam was barely one, but whatever. Alright, doing what they did in the community centre would not go over well with the directors...so, they just wouldn't find out about it. Lynn raised her eyes upward and nodded as she thought this through.

First things first, she had to talk to Adam. Just talk, adult-to-adult.

She rounded the corner that led to the entrance of the centre. Olivia was standing by the reception desk, leaning against the counter, and talking to Cassie. As she approached, her friend turned to her and smiled.

"Hey, you," Olivia said, "You've been kind of ducking in-and-out this morning. What's up?"

"Nothing," Lynn shrugged, "Just checking up on things in the gym." She had been hoping her little treks around the complex would shake off some of the distraction in her face.

She noted that Cassie was looking a little more miserable than she was for some reason but didn't think much of it.

"Seen Adam?" Lynn asked.

Olivia shook her head. "Not yet. He's late shift today," she replied, "Should be coming in about 20 minutes."

"Ah, that's right. Completely forgot," Lynn said.

"Probably needed the morning to recover a bit, anyway," Olivia noted, "Must have had a good time last night."

Lynn pursed her lips and peaked her brows. "Hmm?"

"I mean he probably enjoyed himself at his birthday party," Olivia said. She turned to Cassie, "You guys all had fun?"

Cassie looked up from her seat. With a pause and an unusually dull expression on her face, she sighed and said flatly, "Yeah."

Olivia chuckled, thinking the girl must have had a bit of a hangover. "But are you sure you're okay?" she asked turning back to Lynn, "You look a little flushed."

Lynn checked her watch, anxiously trying not to meet Olivia's eyes. She knew her heart rate was beating more rapidly at the moment. She felt like a child trying to sneak a fallen bird in her pocket past her mother.

She turned and stared blankly at a clipboard on the counter. Shaking her head, she replied, "Nope. Everything is good. Maybe I overdid it with the running and swimming last night. Anyway, do you want to go over next week's sche-..."

Lynn cut herself off as she finally looked towards Olivia. Her friend, however, was looking past her over her shoulder, and Cassie was also gazing blankly off to her side.

"Dominic," Olivia said uneasily.

Still facing Olivia, Lynn's eyes widened and her heart stopped. All that blood that was under her flushed cheeks suddenly drained away. She held her breath and slowly pivoted around. It took a moment for her eyes to readjust, but the image of Dominic, her ex-boyfriend, became clear very quickly.

A half-second later, she noticed the brunette woman standing beside him, staring back at her with green eyes, cold enough to send an uneasy shudder through her from head-to-toe.

"Should have stayed in bed," Lynn thought to herself, once more.

To Be Continued...

Thanks again for reading. Hope you're still enjoying the tale. Let me know what you think. The next part may be a little delayed, but will try to get it out by the end of the week. Enjoy the ride, ladies and gentlemen. - F.P.R.