Command Performance by Annabel Joseph

wrinkle.”
    “There’s always a wrinkle with you.”
    “I’m serious. This is a big wrinkle. It won’t be Botoxed away.”
    “Jesus Christ, you can be corny. Okay, what’s this big wrinkle?”
    “Mireille Durand is a virgin.”
    Satya burst out laughing.
    “I’m serious. I wish to God I wasn’t.”
    “And you know this how? She told you?”
    “She didn’t have to tell me. I know when I’m hovering over a virgin with a hard-on. I had the most awkward fucking makeout session of my life last night.”
    Satya paused on the line. “So what does this mean? Who really cares?”
    He bit his lip, but the words burst out anyway. “I’ve wanted to fuck a virgin my whole life. Really, really huge fantasy for me.”
    “What the—?” Satya sputtered. “No, no, no, you can’t. Don’t even think about it. You can’t take her virginity when your relationship isn’t even real.”
    “Our relationship wasn’t real either.”
    “I wasn’t a virgin!”
    “I might never get another chance like this.”
    Satya made a sharp sound. “Good God, can you please think about what you’re saying? This relationship isn’t supposed to be fantasy fulfillment. You’re only dating her because you needed a ‘wholesome’ girlfriend to fix your image. How sick would it be to angle for her virginity?”
    Mason moaned as blood rushed to his cock. “Really, really sick,” he admitted in a strained voice. “And therefore really, really hot.”
    “Mace, listen to me. I’ve known you for as long as I can remember, and you’ve always been a nice guy. I’ve always seen you as a nice guy. You are a nice guy. But if you do this thing, you will no longer be a nice guy. It would really depress me.”
    “I’m not going to do it.”
    “You’re thinking about it right now. You’re hard, aren’t you? Damn it, are you stroking your cock?”
    Mason dropped his dick like it was on fire. “I’m not stroking my cock,” he said. He didn’t bother to deny his hardness. She knew him too well.
    “Actually, you know what? Stroke it,” she said. “Jack off a billion times if you have to, but don’t mess with her. That poor girl is doing you a favor.”
    “If she asks—”
    “If she asks, that’s different. But women don’t usually get to be twenty-four year old virgins unless they have some kind of moral or emotional stance about it all.”
    “How old were you?”
    “What?”
    “How old were you when you lost your virginity?”
    “Twenty-two,” Sats said grudgingly. “But it’s different with Indian girls, and besides, I’d seen a lot of things in my work that turned me against men. Who knows what’s going on with her? I mean, what was she doing during this makeout session? That you assumed this mysterious virginity?”
    Mason thought a moment. “She was lost.” He tried to think of a better way to explain it but couldn’t. “She was just...lost.”
    “Please be careful,” Satya begged. “Your perversions aside, she’s a person, not a sex toy. Don’t forget.”
    As if he could forget anything about Miri. The events of their date played in his head every time he closed his eyes. Her smiles, her careless laughter, her golden blonde hair piled so seductively on her head. Her panic as he smeared her lipstick. With a groan of frustration, he started stroking his cock again. The virgin thing was one of his deepest, longest-held fantasies. To introduce an innocent woman to the carnal mysteries of sex. To breach her with his cock and feel her squirming to accommodate him. To bring her to her first penetrative orgasm with patient, explicit coaching and manipulation.
    Holy fuck. He couldn’t even think about it. It was too much, too strong of an impulse. Two rounds of masturbation later, he picked up his phone again.
    *** *** ***
     
    Miri’s grandma had been uncharacteristically lucid for the first part of her visit today. Miri had even told her about Mason Cooke, and while she knew her grandmother had no idea who he