For the first ten minutes, we were both sitting in an embarrassed half silence. Every few moments I would make an aborted attempt at conversation, a laugh that died in my throat, a joke cut off at the first word or half way through my sentence, and one particularly memorable promise where I assured her, straight-faced and serious, "I'll be the perfect gentleman, doll, I swear," I told her.
I think she wanted to laugh out loud, because this was me we were talking about, and we both knew that I could try, but there was no possible way that I would ever be a 'perfect gentleman'. What she did instead was giggle, biting down on any urges to say anything that she was thinking.
I don't even know how it came to this. We were having a joking conversation about sex and boys and girls and virginity at the circus. I remember spilling half of my popcorn in my lap when she nonchalantly admitted to being a virgin, the way I stared at her for a moment, a flush turning the bridge of my nose red, chewing on my lower lip and clearly fighting down an urge to turn the conversation into a joke of some kind.
We were both just friends, even if she teased and flirted with me, and I did the same with her, that didn't change our relationship status. And really, if she couldn't admit to me that she was a virgin, then we obviously weren't that great of friends. So she told me as we both sat on the haystacks with the sound of several kids' laughter as background noise, that no, she'd never actually done it before. I stared at her and then burst out laughing before murmuring into my popcorn that was almost quiet enough for her not to hear, "Me too."
It was during the walk back to her place that the conversation had turned more serious. Gone were the laughs about how long guys were supposed to last the first time and how girls were lucky because of how many times they got to orgasm. It was all because I laughed and said, "Well we always have each other."
She had looked sideways at me, a bright pink blossoming across her cheeks, and she asked, "Seriously? You're for real?"
I eyed the stars above us, not looking at her when I smiled and said, "Sure, why not?"
And now her sheets were scratchy beneath her legs, her thighs quivering with me sitting across from her at the end of the bed, alternating between not looking at her at all and then staring back at her beautifully shaped legs.
The room was too quiet and the sound of her clock ticking was deafening to my eardrums. I started looking about the paintings and the pictures that hung up on her wall. I found myself glancing back over to her thighs, and I was sick of waiting.
And then my hands were on her, and that was more than enough to make her tighten up around nothing, a new wave of heat flooding her body, leaving her cheeks ever so slightly stained pink. She wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled me against her tighter. I took her scent in, she always smelled so nice, I always loved her signature perfume she wore.
Without giving it another thought, I pressed my mouth straight onto hers, giving her a quick but firm kiss. I could hear her heart slamming in my ears, her hardened nipples pressing into the slope of my chest. I cupped her face in my hands as I kissed her, and she uttered a hurried, slurred whisper that sounded like my name. I pulled away to tip her head to meet her eyes and looked into them for what felt like centuries, and it looked like she was seemingly searching for something. I wasn't sure what she could be looking for, and if she even found it.
I didn't break eye contact with her until I leaned down to press our lips together again. It was different, this time. Longer. Softer but more eager, increasingly needy. Eyes fluttering closed, she parted her lips the second my tongue asked for entry, moaning softly when it brushed against hers. She melted in my arms, reveling in the way my fingers twisted in her hair to drag her closer to me, and I continued to kiss her until I couldn't breathe.
I brushed my nose over hers when I pulled away for air, staying so close that every breath I took ghosted over her lips, and we stared at each for a second, wordless, before she caught my mouth again. In the midst of our kiss, she took my hands into hers and guided them up to her chest, squeezing them over her, pressing her nipples into my palms. I could feel myself stiffening upon the way she allowed me to touch her so intimately.
"I want you so much, please," she whispered into my mouth, much to my surprise. Oh we were getting to that. But fuck, she sounded so beautiful begging for it. I pulled away and nodded almost instantly, kissing my way over her jaw and down to her neck, coaxing another little moan from her.
"Don't you worry, doll, we're getting to that," I replied, "I've wanted to since the first time I saw you," I admitted. My words surprised her, her eyes widening a little before she smiled coyly. With my hands on her and her mouth so close, her body so willing, the ache I had been trying to ignore had taken a life of its own, leaving me desperate and nearly animalistic almost immediately.
She slid her hands up the front of my shirt carefully. I sighed pleasantly when her hands met my skin and the streak of hair between my belly button and the waistband of my pants, and again when she felt the firmness of my chest. She ran her fingers over my stomach for a moment, tracing the dips of my rib cage and the slopes of my muscles, taut and unexpected, before she pushed my shirt up over my head. She leaned in to press her mouth against the place where my jaw met my neck, kissing over every freckle on the way down, stopping somewhere between my shoulder and bicep. She tossed my shirt away on the floor in a way that might have seen casual if her hands weren't trembling, then she looked back at me, wearing that coy soft smile.
"Just relax, okay? I'm going to make you feel so good," I told her, and she nodded her head shyly in response. I pulled her body closer to mine, crushing us as closely together as I could, a soft whine came from her throat that made my stomach flip. I brought my legs together and pulled her on top of me, arching my hips to press the firm bulge of my cock against her.
We were still for a moment, the two of us, with our mouths pressed together and our eyes closed, taking sharp, shaky breaths. Her heartbeat continued to hammer in my ears, an overwhelming sound that seemed to be tangible, hanging thick in the air around us, tangled with desire and nerves and something I couldn't place, and it was enough to make me feel like I couldn't breathe. I was snapped back to reality, back to her by a sudden, quick roll of her hips. There wasn't as much friction as she had wanted, because she was already wet, wet enough that her hips slid easily against each other, my cock pressed between her lips almost perfectly, making her clit swell, her back arched, her knees weak.
"You're gonna make me come like this, Jerome," she whispered after a moment, and it was true.
"What's wrong with that?" I asked with a smirk, chuckling as I watched her come undone before me.
"Not like this. I want to be on your cock," she told me, voice just barely over a whisper now. It was breathy and labored, and fuck, this girl was going to be the death of me saying things like that. I wasn't sure how to reply to that at first. There was countless ways I wanted to fuck her, taste her, make her come and scream my name out until her voice broke. I couldn't remember all of the fantasies, even, there were so many.
She made me aching and desperate, totally insatiable. She started grinding herself against me again, rolling her hips in a slow, teasing circle before she slid along the length of my shaft, closing her eyes. Her head fell forward and she hummed softly. My hands came to rest on her ass and I squeezed, guiding her hips to slide along the length of me again, and then again, and I could feel just how soaked she was.
"Fuck, doll, I can feel how wet you are through these leggings. Are you wearing panties?" I asked, and the question made her cheeks flush, it had been something that I was wondering for a while.
"Why don't you check?" she replied, her voice teasing and playful.
Before she knew it, my hand was sliding down the front of her panties, calloused fingertips sliding over the smooth, sensitive skin of her mound. Feeling the heat of her without any fabric between them coaxed a groan from me. My hand came to rest on her sex, cupping the bare skin. Three of my fingers slid down further, with two of them coming to push her lips apart while my middle finger slipped between them, sliding over the slick well of her clit, stopping only when it reached her slit, where I teased, rubbing the pad of my finger over her. I couldn't believe how wet she was,
"Holy fuck, Y/N," I whispered, "you're so fucking wet, I-" I stopped abruptly, pulling my hand out of her pants. She was going to ask what was wrong, had her mouth open to, until she saw that I was sucking my fingers into my mouth, making a show out of rubbing my tongue over them. I just had to taste her desire for me, it was going to fucking drive me crazy if I didn't. She was stunned, silent, until I leaned up to press my mouth against her ear.
"Why don't you sit on my face before I fuck you? I want to take care of you, Y/N, make you feel good," I told her.
Her cheeks reddened more in response, nodding her head, silently agreeing with the idea. She reached down to push your leggings down so you could kick them off.
"Yeah, okay, Daddy. Take care of me," she uttered softly, smiling at me before she moved up to straddle my shoulders, hovering just over my face. Fuck, that had such a nice ring to it, I wanted to hear her say it again.
"What did you say?" I asked.
She took a second, sucking in a sharp breath before she answered, "N-Nothing," she swore, shuddering a little. No, I was not going to let her get away with that.
"Can we pretend I didn't just say that?" she tried to brush it off but I wasn't going to allow that.
"No," I told her, "that wasn't nothing, say it again," I ordered.
"But-" she started but I cut her off quickly.
"Say it again," I demanded, and she gave in, much to my delight.
"Please take care of me, Daddy," she pleaded, and it made my insides hot when she said it again.
"Yeah, let Daddy take care of you," I told her.
She bit her bottom lip and nodded, lowering herself closer to my face. I opened my mouth and slid my tongue out, winking up at her. My breathing ghosted over her, making her shiver. She could barely stand the wait, I knew that, I just liked to teased her.
"Come on, Jerome, Daddy. Eat me out," she urged through a breathy whisper, making my member stand at attention.
"All you had to do was ask, princess," I teased, my hands moving up to rest on her ass. She let out an impatient moan, pressing her hips forward, trying to get to my mouth, but my hands on her ass stopped her. I started blowing over her clit, and leaned up to tease her more before moving right past the aching parts of her and pressed a gentle kiss to her mound, rubbing my lips over her bare skin.
She gasped, but kept her hips still, stayed exactly how I positioned her, and I fought to ignore the pit of lava in my stomach just so I could continue to tease her, so I could have her at my mercy, it was hottest fucking thing.
My mouth moved from her mound to pepper gentle kisses over her lips, soft pecks crisscrossing over the places she needed me to touch the most. It was maddening, almost, but she didn't complain. I pressed a lingering peck to her clit, flicking my tongue out for a split second, and she let out a sound caught somewhere between a gasp and a moan.
"Ask nicely, and I'll do it," I said, my tongue darting out once more, dragging a slow circle over her clit, and she couldn't help herself.
Most of the resolve she had crumbled, melted away by the heat between her legs. She was ravenous, as much as I was, her mouth dry and her breathing short, and I think she would have done anything I asked her to, because she was that needy, for me.
"Please," she whispered, closing her eyes. I could tell she was a little embarrassed that she had to beg me, but I loved every second of it. It made her cheeks burn again, more than any time before, and the humiliation mixed with her desperation and desire made my stomach twist pleasantly.
"That's a good girl," I praised. Both of my hands slid around to her pussy, spreading her lips open. She glanced down at herself, swollen and pink, flushed, glistening even in the dim lighting of her bedroom. The scent of her flooded the air so strongly, a sweet musk that seemed to linger, and it was as addictive as a drug. My tongue dragged along the length of her lips, on the inside, from the top of the right one to the top of the left, stopping to press just the tip into her slit before it darted away again. I don't think she ever felt so exposed, so embarrassed. She whimpered yet again.
"Do it right," she whispered, urging me on. "Please," she kept begging, and I think she could make me come just from her pleading but I just licked another circle around her, even slower this time.
"C'mon, princess. You can do better than that. Tell Daddy what you want," I jested, and every word I spoke sent a gust of warm air over her clit, making her shiver.
She hesitated for a moment, with her dignity creeping back on her. The one iota of resolve she had left fought against the desperation bubbling in the pint of her stomach. I sensed this, and I coaxed her with a long swipe of my tongue from her slit all the way up to her clit, pursing my lips to suck at it gently. Her eyes fluttered closed again. Her dignity vanished along with her resolve, anything other than the pounding heat between her legs and how desperately she needed me vanished.
"Lick my pussy, Daddy," she murmured softly. "Make me come in your mouth, please, oh fuck," she paused as my tongue pressed against her clit, flattened and firm, with my hands slipping back to grasp her ass, guiding her hips to grind her against my mouth. She took the direction, moving herself too, unable to hold back a soft moan. She was already close, but she tried to fight the sensation off by distracting herself with continuing. I could listen to her all fucking day, and it was the most perfect thing having her at my mercy like this.
"I want to be so wet that your cock slides right into me, Daddy. I want you to stretch my tight little pussy out over your cock, and let me kiss you with the taste of me on your tongue. I- fuck, I'll do anything you want," her voice was still a murmur, and I moaned lowly against her clit because this was so fucking perfect, I didn't ever want it to end. I wanted her like this, always, begging for me and needing me as much as she needed air. The vibrations spread through her and she cried out softly, reaching out to brace herself on the wall behind her bed.
She was still close, right on the edge. She needed to be distracted more, but her mind was already going blank in the blissful haze, only able to concentrate on the sensation of my tongue on her clit, my hands guiding her hips.
"I'd let you pick a hole and fuck it, Jerome. Any hole, I don't... It doesn't matter. All of them," she uttered around a heavy pant. She was a sweaty beautiful mess, and fuck, it made me want to take her in every way I possibly could hearing her like this.
She was rewarded for her words by one of my hands slipping between her ass cheeks, dragging its way over her asshole and down to her slit, where it teased her for a split second before pressing inside. She stretched to accommodate it, feeling each of my knuckles slide past her slit until my hand was pressed flush against her, and she crooned quietly.
"More," she whispered softly.
"Nicely," I replied, voice muffled. "Ask nicely."
She was quick to say, "Please, please give me more. I need - fuck, I need to be filled up, please, I need you, Daddy," she implored, her voice breathy. Fuck, she knew everything to say to keep me going, making the ache deep inside me only increase.
She knew my tongue wouldn't be enough on its own, and one finger wasn't going to do much for her, either. But she didn't have to worry about that, because I added a second finger without hesitation. I started working her by pulling my finger out just a bit and sliding it back in slow, opening her pussy up for me.
"Oh fuck," she whispered, grinding down eagerly. She was about to whine again, about to beg for more still, but then I pulled my fingers almost completely out, leaving just the very tips, and pushed back in slowly, letting her feel them in their entirety. She moaned lowly, and my fingers were perfect for her, sliding in and out of her pussy like they were made for it.
"Fuck yes, Daddy. Oh my god, Jerome, that feels so good. You're gonna make me come, baby, don't stop," she begged, and I knew she needed to come more than she needed to take her next breath.
I pulled away from her clit, giving her a few apologetic licks, and then said, "Come for me, princess. Show Daddy what a good little slut you are," I told her. She was shuddering violently and with a cry of my name, she came almost on command. She kept grinding down against my fingers even after she came, still unsatisfied. The ache was there, always there, burning her up from the inside. I pulled my fingers out of her and groaned quietly.
"Look what you did," she said softly, her eyes opened and took in the sight she was met with. The majority of my face was sticky and glistening, and my fingers were soaked as well. I spread them slowly to show her before I brought them up to my mouth, sucking them clean. My hands moved back down and I dragged them over her, gathering more of her juices to suck off of my fingers.
"You got so wet, princess, all for me," I growled lowly as I sucked on them, losing myself in her scent and her sweet taste.
"All for you, just... fuck me, like you said. I need - I don't know, I just need your cock. Yours. Fuck me, please," she was barely able to string a sentence together, even a plea, but it didn't bother me, no, I loved seeing her like this.
"I don't see how I could say no when you ask so nicely like that," I said, my smirk widening.
With that, my hands came to her hips and I picked her up with ease, moving her onto her back. I reached down to undo my jeans, shoving them down and kicking them, along with my shoes and boxers. I was back between her legs quickly, and she took a moment to drink in the view. Her cheeks were flushed, mouth watering at the sight, and then she suddenly reached out to curl her fingers around my cock, squeezing. I was hard and throbbing, all for her. She rubbed the pad of her thumb over the head, teasing the slit just barely, ghosting over the freckle. The sound I made was somewhere between a groan and a sigh, and my head fell down to her shoulder, my hips rocking into her hand. She turned her head to kiss my temple.
"Wait, I don't have a condom," I admitted, pulling back to look at her, and then I asked, "do you?"
"Neither do I," she replied, biting her lip. "Um, I don't have anything, so we don't..." she trailed off.
I picked up for her, "Need one?"
She nodded shyly. I stared at her for a few seconds, before I finally told her, "I'll pull out."
She shook her head in return, and I couldn't believe what I was hearing.
"No, please don't. I want you to come inside me," she replied, a statement with no room for argument. I felt my cock twitch in her hand and I nodded, and I honestly didn't care just as long as I was fucking her in the next few moments.
"Yeah, okay," I said, unable to hide the smirk that formed its way on my face.
She moved her empty hand up to my hip, guiding my body up to hers, arching her hips to rub the head of my cock against her clit. Both of us moaned, so she kept it up for a few seconds, until she couldn't take it anymore. Then she slowly slid my cock down, dragging it over her pussy, getting it as wet as she could, to help me. She pressed me against her slit, and raised her eyes up to my face.
"C'mon," she urged softly, leaning in to kiss me. It was soft, lingering, and then she pressed her forehead against mine, dropping her gaze down to where my cock dipped into her ever so slightly. My hand wrapped around the base of my cock and I held myself steady while I pushed into her, both of us holding our breath.
She made a grimace that I noticed immediately, but it was overpowered by something else. A sting that she loved, maybe even craved, the feeling of her body stretching to accommodate my cock, of every muscle within her contracting around me, trying to pull me deeper. The sensation of stretching her out, of filling her up, finally of completion totally overwhelmed anything else. She gave a breathless gasp and pressed up, helping me to slide deeper inside her.
"Oh fuck, Y/N," I uttered around a whimper. "You're so fucking tight, I'm not sure you can take it," even as I said it, I pushed forward, losing myself in her perfect body.
The sight was so arousing, and her mouth started watering again. I couldn't get enough of the way she opened up around me so I sunk deeper and deeper inside her. How wet I made her showed now even more than before, with her juices gushing out of her around my cock, making me glisten.
"Make me," she responded, pushing up against me, struck again by that amazing feeling, the fullness. She cried softly, "Force it, Daddy. You said I was a slut for you - your slut, so c'mon. Fuck me, fuck me, please," she pleaded.
Her choice of words continued to surprise me, I hadn't ever heard her talk like this before and it was driving me insane, there wasn't anything I wouldn't do for her.
"You're so good for me," I told her around a grunt, "fuck, your cunt... it's mine now, you're mine now," I said, and she nodded her head eagerly. Damn right she was all mine.
She brought her hands up to cup her tits through her blouse, catching her nipples between her fingers. She pinched them just a bit, hoping to alleviate some of the pressure steadily building between her hips. She didn't expect my hands to come up and bat hers away, but feeling them made her moan all the same. One of them pushed her shirt up while the other snaked beneath it, finding one of her breasts and cupping it, pressing her nipples between my pointer and middle finger. She spilled out over the edge of my palm, and she couldn't help but emit a gasp as I fondled her.
I moved my hand a bit, pinching her nipple between my thumb and my index finger, rolling it between them. She whined, but it quickly escalated into a moan as I finally pushed forward hard enough to force my cock into her, my hips pressed flush against hers. I tore off her blouse, and it made a loud ripping sound before I threw it across the room. I ogled her bouncing breasts as we thrust together, not able to take my eyes off how gorgeous she looked. I took in the sight of her, how desperate she looked, she was shaking, her eyes closed, sweat covering her face.
I leaned down to swipe the sweat off of her collarbone, moaning softly at the taste. Desire, desire, desire. That was all she tasted like. Just for me.
"Move faster, Jerome," she pleaded, her voice gentle. When I stilled just to tease her, she said it again, louder, "Daddy? Daddy, move."
That was just what I wanted to hear. My hips pulled back just a bit, with about an inch of my cock sliding out of her before I pressed back in, rolling my hips when they met hers again.
Her eyes fluttered, she struggled to keep them open but she couldn't help them from closing. I did that a few more times, until she begged for more again, bucking her hips up to mine. I got my hands on her thighs then, pulling her legs up over my shoulders and leaning over her, plunging my cock in deeper. She moaned when my caressing touch over her rib cage turned to nails, digging them into her skin and dragging downward.
I needed to explore her body more, while I still had the chance. I bit down on several areas of her neck, without a doubt leaving welts, and I pulled away to lave over the red marks, tongue soothing the scratches, creating a sensation that had her shivering. Then she leaned up to give me the same treatment, her teeth sinking into my neck that left a sharp sting followed with a dull burning, coming to a strange, sensitive high when the warmth of her tongue slipped down the skin, and she traced them affectionately. I fucking love how we marked each other, and her bites had my cock throbbing uncontrollably.
I reached behind her back to dig my nails into it, leaving several scratches into her soft skin. They were red, wide, and stinging. She cried out, arching up into me as we relentlessly thrust. As I slid into her, I lowered my mouth down to take her nipples into my mouth. She moaned loudly, the sound only spurring me on. I bit and sucked, enjoying the small sounds she made in her throat each time I switched between her breasts. Her hands came to my shoulders, her nails biting into my skin.
"Such a good princess for Daddy," I praised, "don't stop that, keep going," I told her, and she instantly obeyed, raking her nails up and down on my skin as I purred. I bit her nipple harder in response, and she screamed, the pain mixing in with her pleasure. She moved her body against mine, her nails carving a path from my shoulders and down my back.
"Fuck, that feels so good," I cooed against her hot skin.
I slammed my hips into her harder as she writhed beneath me like a little bitch in heat, she gasped, "Yes, oh fuck, yes," she pushed up against me again, "give me all of your cock, Daddy, please."
I fucking loved it when she begged me like that, and especially how she continued to call me her daddy. I owned her, she was my personal little obedient slut, and she even said it herself. I wanted to make her burst, come all around my cock with her hot juices spilling over me, fuck, I needed it.
My cock twitched within her, making her whine, and then I started to thrust into her again, harder and faster than before. The sound of my balls slapping against her ass filled the room, along with our loud moans, soft bursts of pleas and praises, the sound of skin against skin. I was so fucking thankful that her parents weren't home, because I couldn't bear it if she had to be quiet.
"Oh fuck, I'm so close," I warned, my body shaking as I took her. "Tell me you want me to come inside you, princess. Tell Daddy you want his come to fill you up," I urged.
She shuddered and gave a quick nod, before she started to speak, "Fuck, come for me, Daddy. Fill me up, fill my pussy up. I - oh my god, I want you to leave me gaping. Dripping. Mark me. I'm yours," her voice was higher than usual, shaking. She sounded so fucking beautiful like this, I could've listened to it for the rest of my life.
I tensed for a moment, my entire body trembling before I let out a guttural of her name. A sudden flood of warmth made her shake too, and she brought a hand down to rub her finger against her clit in quick, desperate circles. It didn't take long for her to push herself over the edge, with another cry of my name, and she melted when she did, finally feeling satisfied. She closed her eyes and heaved a shaky sigh with me.
"Oh my god," she whispered, her chest heaving.
"Yeah," I replied, sounding awestruck myself. I came to lay beside her and she rolled onto her side, putting her head on my shoulder.
"My parents won't be coming back until late tomorrow... So," she trailed off, her eyes looking at mine searchingly.
"What are you getting at, doll?" I asked, knowing fully well, as I peppered kisses over the marks on her neck and shoulders. "You asking me to stay?"
She nodded languidly, and I hummed against her skin. "Yeah, okay, I'll stay for my princess," I said with a curl of my lip.
She draped her arm over my waist and pressed closer. My arms came down to wrap around her, gathering her up against my body. I think she probably never felt safer, really, and she had a look on her face that she was thinking about telling me that.
"This is nice," she started but then stopped immediately. That didn't sound right, it was more than 'nice'. She licked her lips, trying to calm the trembling of her thighs, and approached the situation again after a few more seconds, calmer now.
"You make me feel safe. I'm happy, here. I'm happy when I'm with you," she told me. It was a simple thing to say, but it was huge, something she would only say in the safe tranquility of the night, with me so tangled up in her.
I leaned down to press my mouth against her forehead.
"Yeah?" I asked.
"Yeah," she replied.
"Me too," I agreed.
She couldn't help smiling, and neither could I. She tried in vain to press closer to me even though we were as close as could be. We laid in silence for a while, with me finding her hand to lace our fingers together tightly. It was so pleasant being with her, she was at my side where she belonged, the only space for her. She was kissing over the freckles on my skin, smiling to herself as she did.
"You know how Daddy can take care of me now?" she teased, dragging her lips over my shoulder and neck, up to my jaw.
I smirked and cocked my head, looking back at her and replied, "How?"
"Turn off the light, dork," she said, still chuckling to herself, and her cute laugh couldn't help but make me smile as well. She nudged me with both of her hands to get up.
"Alright, alright," I replied, getting off the bed. As I reached up to place my hand next to the light switch, I paused and leaned against it, glancing at her over my shoulder. I was smirking again, with the same look in my eyes that had gotten us here in the first place, with her sprawled over her bed with my come dripping down her thighs and my body covered in scratches along with a bite mark or two that decorated my shoulders. It was a perfect night. I didn't want it to be over, but at least the night was ending with us snuggling up to one another.
"What?" she questioned when she noticed me staring.
"I was just thinking, princess, about how I'm forever grateful that you let me pop your cherry," I teased, and then I flipped the light switch, cloaking us in darkness, and I crossed the room to get back to her.
"Oh shut up," she whined, and it was quickly followed by a giggle.
I returned to the safe embrace of her arms before I laughed in response. I held her then, just held her, and there was nothing I wanted more than her body shifting against mine, chest heaving as she buried her face under my neck.