"Nothing like a rewards system." He chuckled. "Let's see how it works?"

Cat found herself living for the heaven and hell of her time with David, the vexation of her personal math struggles, the frustration of trying to think with his thigh brushing hers at the kitchen table, and the inevitable dissolution of his adamant insistence on separating work from pleasure. There was no stopping them once it started, it seemed.

He would be trying to help her with a proof, leaning over her, his large hand working the pencil and she would remember how his hand worked her and it would all immediately become garbled nonsense, not that it usually wasn't anyway. The minute that happened, she became unable to focus and would whimper and press back against him in the chair. At first, he could simply shift and look sternly at her, and she would attempt to concentrate again, wanting to please him. Eventually, though, she discovered she pleased him a great deal more if she slid her hands up her thighs-Paj kept remarking on her wearing skirts all the time now-and pulled her panties aside to finger herself.

She grew more and more bold with every encounter, and so did he, as they faced the issue of her inexplicable but tightly held fear of letting go of her virginity. She had learned to suck him, stroke him and rub him from every angle, with every part of her, but she couldn't let him inside of her. Every time he got near, the throbbing stretch and heat of him impossible, she would panic and tell him no. If he would groan and beg and press a little more, she would cry and say,

"But you promised you'd stop if I said…" and so he would.

They both had their own frustrations now, and both were keen with a growing need for resolution. She would sit for her SATs in two weeks, and she still didn't really understand what Pythagoras was theorizing all about. David's panting and increasing dissatisfaction of not being buried inside of her was driving him to distraction, and in fact causing her a great deal of inner turmoil, as she feared another big, beautiful blonde might show up who would be more than willing to ease his ache.