Free Substitute by Isobel Rey

vulnerable and then he played on it. I’d only ever had sex with one other guy, in college, and he was – well …’
    Richard tried to finish her sentence. ‘Crap in bed?
    She scrunched her eyes shut, trying to stop the tears.
    Richard ploughed on. ‘Came too fast? No foreplay?’
    Alexia blurted, ‘Boring!’
    Richard roared with laughter and Alexia found herself joining in.
    ‘Man, that hurts!’ said Richard. ‘I feel for the guy.’
    Alexia was giggling now.
    ‘He was really bright and brainy and he was all about the books. And he was sweet, I really liked him, but sex was just so pointless! I couldn’t understand why everyone else was raving about it. It was, well, just not …’
    ‘Fun?’ asked Richard.
    ‘No, it was definitely not what you’d call fun.’
    ‘Then he definitely wasn’t doin’ it right.’ Richard laughed.
    Alexia went quiet again. ‘No, no, he wasn’t,’ she said after a long pause.
    Richard got up and walked into the kitchen. As he stood, Alexia noticed a bulge in his trousers. She was drunk and feeling the lust that comes with intoxication. She was sure Richard knew how to “do it right”; the confidence in his fingers in her pussy had shown her that. She wanted that again, she wanted to feel that fire. She shifted on the floor; she could feel her pussy getting wet, and she didn’t want leave a puddle on the rug.
    Richard returned with another bottle and filled her glass and then his own. She took it gratefully and swigged down the thrilling, cold, gooseberry taste.
    Richard waited for a moment before he spoke. ‘And then …?’
    ‘I met Carter,’ Alexia said flatly.
    ‘The cunt?’
    She snorted to hear her words coming back to her. Had she really said that? ‘Yes,’ she said, blushing.
    ‘Was he boring in bed too? I’m guessing not, but not in a good way.’
    ‘No, not in a good way.’
    Alexia went quiet and Richard waited. He could tell she needed to share, but he knew she shouldn’t be rushed. She took another long swig of wine.
    ‘He didn’t like me too wet.’ She was being very bold this evening, the wine loosening her tongue as well as her inhibitions. She felt Richard’s gaze on her.
    ‘He didn’t want me too wet, because he said it felt better if I wasn’t.’
    ‘That’s crap … God, half the fun is to feel a hot, wet pussy clamped around your cock.’
    Alexia felt another hot squirt of moisture at Richard’s bluntness. God, then Carter would hate me now, she thought. She felt the wetness in her own pussy. She was absolutely soaking; she could feel it on the top of her thighs.
    ‘That guy was just an asshole, honey. That was about control, not about sex.’
    Alexia looked at him. He smiled with closed lips and raised his eyebrows, nodding gently to assure her he was right.
    ‘He only ever really liked it –’ Alexia realised she was talking in intimate detail, but the wine had made her bold and she wanted to unburden herself ‘– liked it from behind. He was always trying to stick it in my –’ she faltered ‘– and it hurt so I used to shout for him to stop. Then he’d ram into me, you know, normally, because he couldn’t get what he wanted. He used to hold my head down. Sometimes I felt like I was suffocating, but I just wanted him to finish and get off.’
    ‘Oh sweet girl, that ain’t right. Hey, anal can be great but only if you’re with someone who wants you that way. No guy should ever force a girl. If she wants it, great; if she don’t, move on, buddy, find another girl or another way to please the one you got!’
    Alexia listened to his soft drawl. It was so seductive, those deep, southern vowels, like melted molasses.
    ‘It’s about pleasing a girl?’
    ‘Hell, yeah!’ Richard smiled. ‘A hundred per cent.’
    She looked into his face and knew she wanted him now, really wanted him. He wasn’t like Nathan, he wasn’t powerfully masculine, but he was all man. The stubble on his chin looked as if it would be