Good Karma (24 page)

“What do I do with those?”

He handed the ball to her. It was cold and
shiny and just a little on the heavy side for its size. “There are
a lot of uses for Ben Wa balls. Pleasure, feminine health, that
sort of thing. Many women use them to increase the strength of
their vaginal muscles, and that’s how I want you to use them.” He
grinned. “Well, at least at first. We can explore their pleasurable
side later.”

Her face heated, and she placed the ball back
in its indent on the satin pillow. “Okay, so how do I use them to
‘increase the strength’ of my muscles?”

Mark reached into the Amazon box and pulled
out a book.
A Woman’s Guide to Pelvic Health.
He handed it
to her. “By doing Kegels. This book explains how.”

“Kegels?”

“Yes, you’ll thank me later.”

“What do you mean?”

“You’ll see.” His wry expression sent a
thrill through her body.

Mark lifted more books out of the box. One
had a papaya on the front. Another a red chili pepper. Another was
a massive, yellow tome that looked like a softcover encyclopedia on
all things sexual.

“What’s all this?” she said.

“An education.” He sat down again. “Remember
how I said I was going to build you a reading list? Well, this is
just the beginning. If you read these, you’ll know more about sex
than at least seventy-five percent of the population.”

Karma looked at her pile of booty, feeling a
little overwhelmed but excited nonetheless.

“How do you know so much about…” she waved
her hand at her gifts. “All this.”

He sat back in his chair. “Are you asking how
it is that I know so much about sex? Or about a woman’s body…her
needs? Or how I knew where to buy all these things?” He glanced at
her stash.

“Take your pick.”

With a contemplative dip of his head, he
said, “I was once in your shoes.”

“What do you mean?”

He sat forward and crossed his forearms on
the table. “I didn’t know what I was doing. I thought I did, but it
became clear I was pretty clueless. I thought I was Casanova, but I
was just a bumbling fool.”

“You? Bumbling?” Karma found it hard to
believe that Mark could ever have “bumbled” when it came to sex.
The guy looked like he knew his way around a woman’s body the way a
running back knew his way around a football field.

A beguiled expression crossed Mark’s face.
“Is that so hard to believe?”

“Well, yeah.”

“Why do you think that?” Ulterior motives
laced his tone.

She gestured toward him. “Well, I don’t know.
I guess you just don’t strike me as the bumbling type.” Her mind
replayed their moments together. “You seem like a man who knows
what he’s doing.” A nervous spat of air burst through her lips.
“And the way you kiss…” Heat flushed her face. “You just…you’re
definitely not a bumbler.”

He reached for her hand. “And how do you
think I got this way?” He played his fingers over hers.

She shrugged. “I don’t know. Experience
maybe?”
And lots of it.
She couldn’t meet his eyes.

“No.” He shook his head. “Experience only
takes a person so far. If experience was all it took for a man to
know what a woman wants and to become an expert lover, then all
those idiots out there who’ve slept with scores of one-night stands
wouldn’t be idiots, but fabulous lovers.”

He had a point. “Okay…?”

“Remember when you told me how awful your
first time was?”

Of course she did. But what did that have to
do with him? “Yes.”

“My first time wasn’t quite that bad, but it
was pretty damn close. I was an idiot, but I got better as I went
along. Not great, and certainly with a lot to learn, but better.”
He hesitated, and a ghost of dark emotion flitted across his face.
“Then I got into a serious relationship. By then, I thought I knew
what I was doing, but I was still so ignorant. It took losing her
to realize I needed to change. If I was going to become the kind of
man women felt could take care of them, I needed to learn what they
wanted, and I needed to learn what I wanted, too.” Shadows passed
over his face as if he was remembering a time from his past. “I
couldn’t continue being ignorant about women, and I couldn’t
continue being selfish in the bedroom.” His face marginally
brightened as if he had cast aside whatever memory had briefly
haunted him. “So, I started reading. A lot. I devoured every book I
could find on the subject. I even began reading women’s
magazines.”

The mystery that was Mark began to unfold.
So, this was how he was so attuned to her.

“I don’t like being a failure. At
anything
.” He met her gaze. “I refuse to be a failure, and
that’s what’s driven me.” A moment of silence passed between them
before he continued. “You’re changing like I did. This very moment,
you’re changing. I can see it in your eyes. I’ve seen the change
since the benefit in Chicago. You’re not the same woman you were
two weeks ago.”

Karma’s mouth went dry. Once again, he pegged
her, because she had felt the change, too. And not just with her
clothes. She felt the change on the inside. “I know. I’ve felt
it.”

“And the more you learn, the more changes
you’ll make.”

Meeting Mark felt almost preordained. How
else could she describe it? He had entered her life at the exact
moment she had needed him to—at the very point in time when she had
realized there was more to life than she was living—and now he was
becoming her personal guide to the sexual universe.

“Now,” he said, “I have one more gift to give
you, but you’re not allowed to use it until I say so, which should
be about the time you’ve gotten comfortable with the second
dildo.”

She leaned forward, trying to sneak a
peek.

He lifted a velvet drawstring bag from the
box, opened it, and pulled out a purple contraption that looked
like some high-tech, phallic tool from
Star Trek
.

She ricocheted backward. This was not a glass
dildo, but something else entirely. The thing had a bulbous head
and ridges down the side like a real penis, and it had this
protrusion that curved up and away from the main unit with what
looked like little ears on the end. And there were all sorts of
bumps along the exterior, with silver beads inside

“It’s just a vibrator.” He held it toward
her.

At first, she shook her head. That was not
“just a vibrator.” And how do you hold something like that? The
thought of wrapping her hand around the shaft was pure humiliation,
even after the conversation they’d just had.

“Oh come on, take it.” He laughed at her
bashfulness.

Tentatively, she wrapped her fingers around
the base and pulled it out of his grasp.

“I take it you’ve never used a vibrator?”
Mark sounded amused.

She shook her head, staring at the purple
gadget in her hand. “No.”

“Okay, well this is called a G-spot Rabbit
vibrator.” He pointed to the little ear things. “That stimulates
your clitoris, and when you turn it on…” He switched the power on
and the whole thing began vibrating in her hand, and the penis head
began rotating.

“Oh God!” She dropped it on the table. “What
the hell! What’s wrong with it?”

Mark nearly fell over laughing as he picked
up the squirming, churning, appendage of death. “It’s supposed to
do that.”

“What? Turn into Linda Blair from
The
Exorcist
?”

He laughed harder and shook his head. “No, but yes.
It stimulates your G-spot when it rotates.”

“G-spot?”

This conversation was getting beyond out of
control. What the hell was a G-spot?

Appearing bewildered, Mark stopped laughing.
“You don’t know about your G-spot?”

Had she missed something? The way he
continued staring at her like she had something between her teeth
made it clear she had.

Mark’s stare intensified, morphing into
concern. “Haven’t you ever learned about your G-spot?”

“Um…” She searched for words. Obviously, he
knew something she didn’t, and it was important, or he wouldn’t be
looking at her as if she had just told him she didn’t know how to
drive a car. “I don’t…well…”

Mark set down the vibrator and leveled her
with a look so full of compassion it nearly took her breath away.
“And I receive yet another piece of the curious puzzle that is
you.” He glanced down briefly before looking at her again. “Let me
try and explain what your G-spot is.” He took a breath. “Inside
your vagina, along the front wall, is where you’ll find your
G-spot. It’s part of your clitoris. Or rather, your clitoris is
part of your G-spot. When stimulated, it gets hard and a little
rough. Like it has ridges on the surface. Once it’s stimulated, it
provides a woman with a great deal of pleasure, and it creates a
more intense orgasm than with just clitoral stimulation. Women who
experience G-spot orgasms say they’re incredible.” He looked at her
expectantly, as if prompting her to fill in a blank.

All she could do was frown. Clitoral orgasms
and G-spot orgasms. Wasn’t an orgasm just an orgasm? She had always
thought so, but now here comes Mark Strong—Mr. Sex Ed—and he turns
her sexual universe on its head. Was he saying that there was more
than one type of orgasm and that clitoral orgasms were only the
beginning? That G-spot orgasms were the crème de la crème? Hell’s
bells! The only way she had come before was by playing with her
clit, and those orgasms were fabulous.

She gave him a frustrated glance. “Are you
saying they’re stronger?” This was so much to take in.

He frowned and tilted his head curiously to
the side. “Haven’t you ever had a vaginal orgasm? Haven’t you ever
given yourself one?”

Vaginal orgasm? Was this a third type of
orgasm? She had to be the most pathetic, inexperienced, naïve woman
on the planet.

He sat down and scooted closer. “A vaginal
orgasm is another name for a G-spot orgasm,” he said. “See, there
are two types of female orgasm.” He spoke matter-of-factly, as a
teacher would to his students. “Clitoral and vaginal, or as some
call it, a G-spot orgasm.” He lifted his hands as if they were
scales and he was presenting each to her. “Obviously, both feel
good, but a vaginal, or G-spot, orgasm is much more intense.
Deeper.” He lifted one of his hands higher than the other as if to
show that one held the vaginal orgasm. Then he dropped both hands
into his lap as he sat forward. “Let me put it this way: A vaginal
orgasm is to a clitoral orgasm the way a fresh-from-the-oven,
chocolate chunk brownie drizzled in warm caramel and vanilla bean
cream is to a piece of Dove milk chocolate. Both are good, but one
makes you moan while the other just makes you smile.”

Chocolate chunk brownie versus a square of
Dove milk chocolate? There was an analogy she understood. Yes, she
would definitely enjoy the brownie the way he described it much
more than the milk chocolate, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t
devour a whole bowl of Dove squares if given the chance.

“Have you ever had a chocolate chunk brownie
drizzled in warm caramel and vanilla bean sauce, Karma?” Mark took
her hand.

She thought about it for a moment, still
flushed and feeling deer-in-the-headlights. “I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?”

She hadn’t even known what a G-spot was. How
would she know if the thing had given her a chocolate chunk
brownie?

“How would I be able to tell?” She
self-consciously dropped her gaze.

When she glanced back up, his wicked grin
stirred the warmth between her legs back to life. “Trust me. You’d
know if you had.”

His thumb caressed the backs of her
knuckles.

She took a deep breath. “Obviously, my love
life has been pretty pathetic. I think you know that because of
what I’ve told you.”

Tender strokes of his fingers lent silent
encouragement. “I wouldn’t say pathetic. You’ve just had poor
lovers. They didn’t know how to make love to you. I’m going to
change that.”

“You’ve got your work cut out for you.” She
felt so small.

“Do I look intimidated?” His gaze locked to
hers like a promise.

“No,” she said.

“That’s because I’m not. I like a challenge.
And I know what you’re capable of.” He looked at the items on the
table then pulled her onto his lap and locked his fingers at the
small of her back. “I’m so glad your friend’s husband was sick the
night of the benefit.”

It was an odd thing to be happy about, but
she understood how he felt. Grinning, she bit her lip and covered
her face with her hands as she shook her head. Was this really
happening? She still couldn’t believe it. She dropped her hands to
his shoulders. “So am I.”

He inhaled then exhaled slowly, gazing at her
mouth. “We’re going to have so much fun together, Karma.” His gaze
lifted to hers. “I’m going to teach you things about your body you
never knew…show you things you’ve only ever imagined.” His hands
glided up and down her back. He leaned forward and pressed a tender
kiss to the corner of her mouth then one on her cheek, and several
more as he drew a line to her ear. “I
will
take care of
you,” he whispered. “You can count on that.”

And for the third time that night, heat fired
low in her belly. Every moment with Mark, every breath she took,
and every secret glance led her one step closer to the woman she
wanted to become. And further away from the uncertain, naïve girl
she wanted to leave behind.

Chapter 20

If you can
make a girl laugh, you can make her do anything.

-Marilyn Monroe

Back at his condo, Mark packed a duffel for his trip
back to Chicago tomorrow morning then peeled off his shirt and
jeans and slipped into a pair of flannel pajama pants.

He was still semi-erect from his evening with
Karma.

She was quite the character. He chuckled as
he went to the bathroom to brush his teeth, recalling the look on
her face when he had pulled out the vibrator. Priceless. In an
instant, he had known she’d never used one before.