Nice Couples Do by Joan Elizabeth Lloyd Page A

say, “That sounds interesting,” or “I don’t think I’d enjoy that,” with equal equanimity. One who can suggest things to you and will accept your response, whatever it may be.
    A perfect new sexual experience, the first time with someone who really turns you on, is the basis of many sexual fantasies. In the next two stories, you’ll see how two quite different couples reacted to that initial delicious awkwardness. Maybe you’d enjoy marking one of these.
    PEGGY AND GARY’S STORY
    Gary lay stretched out on the bed, a copy of the newspaper propped on his heavy thighs. Contentedly, he turned to the last page and spent several leisurely minutes reading about his high school lacrosse team’s latest victory. Nostalgically, he thought about the days before his waistline thickened and his hair thinned. He remembered the “big game,” in which he had actually played only two minutes but which, over the years, had become his greatest triumph.
    With a dreamy look on his face, he put his newspaper aside and glanced at Peggy, his wife of almost twenty years, as she lay beside him. He smiled at the way she lay, almost prone, with her head on her scrunched pillow. Every few moments, she absently pushed her glasses back up to the bridge of her nose. He looked at the cover of the paperback novel she was reading.
    “Why do the covers of all the books you read look the same?”
    Absently, Peggy looked up. “Were you talking to me?” she asked.
    “I was just wondering about the covers on those novels you read. They all look alike.”
    Peggy looked at the cover of her book. It showed the handsome, virile hero bent over the lush body of the heroine. He was shirtless, showing off his rippling chest and shoulder muscles. She wore a gown, cut low enough to leave little of her full breasts to the imagination. Her red hair was spread over her shoulders in deep, thick waves. The lovers gazed into each other’s eyes, oblivious to the rest of the world.
    Peggy looked at the cover illustration and giggled. “I guess they all do look alike.”
    “Why?” When Peggy looked puzzled, Gary continued. “Why do you read the same book over and over? Granted, the characters have different names and the setting is different, but the story is always the same. I’ve always wondered. What’s the real appeal?”
    “Romance, I guess,” Peggy answered after a bit of thought. “I suppose I read them because there’s always romance. My favorite part is when the hero finally makes love to the heroine for the first time. He holds her and kisses her and drives her wild with passion. She usually wants to resist him for some reason, but she finds herself unable to. His expert lovemaking ultimately wins her over.”
    She rolled partway over and propped herself on one elbow. “Like the scene I just read.” She turned back a few pages and handed the book to Gary. “Read from here,” she said, and pointed to a paragraph.
    Five minutes later, Gary handed the book back. Reading that scene had turned him on more than he would have imagined. “I see what you mean. It’s very erotic, like an orgasm in print.”
    He wanted to be the man in the story. He wanted to be able to reduce a woman to a quivering mass of desire. He wondered whether he could do that to Peggy or whether he even dared to try. The idea was too tempting to ignore.
    “We could make love like that,” he said softly.
    Peggy thought about her recent lovemaking with Gary. It was comfortable, but predictable. She would love it if he could behave like one of the heroes of the novels she loved so much. But the whole idea was ridiculous.
    “Real people don’t make love like that,” she said.
    Gary reached over and took the book from Peggy’s hand. Without a word, he put it on his bed table. He turned back to Peggy and ran his fingers over her forehead, then took off her glasses, folded them, and placed them on her bedstand.
    In the story, the hero and the heroine had just married, over