She dropped her breasts- they bounced hard against her rib cage. Her eyes narrowed and she unhooked the garter belt, tossing it aside. Then she put her hands on the inside of her thighs, pulling them apart. She was as hairless as a baby, not even a trace of a razor's shadow in the moonlight. A whiteatipped fingernail disappeared inside her, orange eyes steady on mine. "I used to taste this too. So I'd know..."

"Know what, Heather?"

"Why he did it," she whispered. "It seemed so strange to me." She pulled her hand away, put the tip of her finger into her mouth.

"Did you ever figure it out?" I asked her.

"No. It even...hurt a little bit. It doesn't hurt now, though."

"Did he want you to...shave everything too?" I asked gently. Getting close to it, but leaving her room to run if she wanted to.

"It's not shaved," she said, spreading her thighs even further. "It's gone forever. Electrolysis. I had it everywhere."

"Damn! That must have been painful. Why did- ?"

"I told you before," she said. "I don't mind pain. I know how to take it."

"Do you- ?"

"I don't want you to talk about it. I want you to look, okay? Just look. How old do you think I am? To look at me, I mean."

"Twentyaeight?"

"I'm not, you know. I'm...older than that."

"It doesn't matter."

"Yes it does. You know it does. To a man, I mean."

"Different men are- "

"Men are the same," she said in a harsh whisper. "All the same. Everyone I ever met. Except...one."

"Look, girl, you don't have to- "

"I don't have to do anything, do I? I know. That's true, now. I don't have to do anything. You don't have to either. But it looks like you want to. Do you?"

"Yes."

"Would you...do it like I want? I only..."

"What?"

"Could you...stand up? And not say anything?"

I got to my feet, watching her face.

"Come around. Behind me. Please."

I walked around to the foot of the bed. Heather bent forward and pulled a pillowcase off the pillow. She carefully fitted it over her head, all the way down to her neck. Then she dropped her shoulders to the bed, her buttocks high and elevated. The way she'd been on the floor of Kite's apartment after I'd climbed off her and released my hold on her neck.

I felt the baby oil girding my cock as I entered her. She was tight, but I couldn't feel even a trace of stubble- her sacrifice had gone deep. I felt the talcum powder on her wide hips, followed her deepaset spine with my eyes from the cleft of her rump until it disappeared under the pillowcase, heard her stifled breathing, felt the spasms inside her as she let go.

I was right behind her, locked in hard. She slowly slid forward on her belly, disengaging from me. Then she turned on her side and slowly pulled the pillowcase off her head. I lay down next to her. She burrowed her head in my right shoulder, whispered, "That was good, wasn't it?" a halo of anxiety around the soft words.

"Perfect," I lied, patting her blackacherry hair.

She drifted in and out of sleep after that. Every time she'd come around, she'd start talking. She never kissed or cuddled, but she'd always reach for my hand before she said anything.

"You didn't say anything about the...pillowcase," she whispered.

"I..."

"I know what you think. I have low selfaesteem, right? But that's a lie."