"Greg Egan - Oceanic" - читать интересную книгу автора (Egan Greg)

I said, "I'll use my tongue. You liked that."
"I did. But I want something more now. And you do, too. I can tell." She smiled imploringly.
"It'll be nice for both of us, I promise. Nicer than anything you've done in your life."
"Don't bet on it."
Lena made a sound of disbelief, and ran her thumb around the base of my penis. "I can tell
you haven't put this inside anyone before. But that's nothing to be ashamed of."
"Who said I was ashamed?"
She nodded gravely. "All right. Frightened."
I pulled my hand free, and banged my head on the bunk above us. Daniel's old bunk.
Lena reached up and put her hand on my cheek.
I said, "I can't. We're not married."
She frowned. "I heard you'd given up on all that."
"All what?"
"Religion."
"Then you were misinformed."




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Lena said, "This is what the Angels made our bodies to do. How can there be anything sinful
in that?" She ran her hand down my neck, over my chest.
"But the bridge is meant to..." What? All the Scriptures said was that it was meant to unite
men and women, equally. And the Scriptures said God couldn't tell women and men apart, but in the
Deep Church, in the sight of God, the priest had just made Daniel claim priority. So why should I
care what any priest thought?
I said, "All right."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes." I took her face in my hands and started kissing her. After a while, she reached down
and guided me in. The shock of pleasure almost made me come, but I stopped myself somehow. When
the risk of that had lessened, we wrapped our arms around each other and rocked slowly back and
forth.
It wasn't better than my Drowning, but it was so much like it that it had to be blessed by
Beatrice. And as we moved in each other's arms, I grew determined to ask Lena to marry me. She was
intelligent and strong. She questioned everything. It didn't matter that she was a Firmlander; we
could meet halfway, we could live in Ferez.
I felt myself ejaculate. "I'm sorry."
Lena whispered, "That's all right, that's all right. Just keep moving."
I was still hard; that had never happened before. I could feel her muscles clenching and
releasing rhythmically, in time with our motion, and her slow exhalations. Then she cried out, and
dug her fingers into my back. I tried to slide partly out of her again, but it was impossible, she
was holding me too tightly. This was it. There was no going back.
Now I was afraid. "I've never --" Tears were welling up in my eyes; I tried to shake them
away.
"I know. And I know it's frightening." She embraced me more tightly. "Just feel it, though.
Isn't it wonderful?"
I was hardly aware of my motionless penis anymore, but there was liquid fire flowing through
my groin, waves of pleasure spreading deeper. I said, "Yes. Is it like that for you?"