"Is there something about me…" She was reluctant to go on, but she knew she had to do it. She could not rest easy until she knew. "… well… something you don't like?" She realized her heart was pounding. His answer meant a great deal to her.

"Heck no!" he replied at once. He blushed, then continued more quietly. "You're the nicest secretary my dad ever had, Miss Pope."

She took his first spontaneous response more seriously than his added careful explanation. She flushed with pleasure. "Then why… well, Steve, I just don't understand why you seem so nervous around me, when we're alone together."

He looked away from her, pretending to concentrate on his fishing pole which hung just as quietly in the water as he had before. She knew he had not forgotten her question.

"If it's something about me that bugs you, Steve, I'd like to know about it. Honest. I really want us to be friends. I think you're very nice, Steve, and it hurts me when I think there's something about me that keeps us from being good friends."

The look on his face was getting strained, as though he were holding his breath. She sensed he was struggling with himself. There were words trying to get out, but he did not know if he should dare. They exploded from his lips all at once. "It's just that you're awfully pretty, Miss Pope! I can't help it! I just get nervous around a beautiful woman!"

The youthful frustration of his confession touched Gwen deeply. Completely unexpectedly, it set up a hungry throbbing in her pussy. She grinned at him tenderly and reached out to stroke his face. His skin was soft and smooth to the touch. Her fingertips trembled as they grazed his cheek.

She did not recognize the moment when she made her awesome decision, but suddenly she was doing something she had had no conscious intention of doing.

She was kissing him. Kissing him hard.