On the eve of her twenty-first birthday, she and her elder sister had arranged to visit a play, some petty thing which she could no longer rember the name of. They planned for months, visiting seven dress shops before finding the tailor they believed would be able to dress them perfectly. It was all planned out from the silverey green silk of her skirts, down to the very last peace of lace above her large bosom. Her sister Mellissa would be wearing a matching gown in a soft orange to match her dark brown hair. In the final hours of preparation before the carriage would arrive to take them to the theater, they both bathed, which they rarely did. They had their young servant girls comb out and style their long straight brown tresses. The sisters wore powder and rouge, and coal around their gray eyes. Their lips were painted bright rose red. To any man, the two would seem the picture of perfection.They were stunning in their gowns, and Alesandra cought many a man making eyes at her before the production began. "Let them stare, for they will never see thee again, and they may never see such a sight as us forever in their long lives," she thought to herself bitterly. She knew she would never be back to a place as splendidly homely as this little theater as long as she lived under the thumb of her father. He believed it was her duty as the countess in waiting to meet other men of noble blood and to start a family of her own. Alesandra knew in the end she would obey her father's wishes as she had always done, and marry a man for whom she had no love, and birth his children from her loins, and die in the bed bought by her husband's inheritance. For now, though, Alesandra would live the life of a free woman, tempt any man she pleased, drink any drink, see any play, do any deed. If this included giving up her life of chastity, so be it.

After the first act had broken out, the young woman decided she needed some air and would step out onto the balcony for a moment to catch a cool breath. Instantly, the sweet, somewhat hearty aroma filled her nostrils. She had no idea what it was, but it pulled all other thoughts out of her mind. So alluring, so intoxicating, so deliciously exquisite. Her body had gone faint.There was no controlling it. First, her knees buckled, and then her shoulders drooped, and then she fell forward to lean on the stone railing. She could control no part of her now numb body. Her fingers and toes were curling of their own volition. Suddenly her stomach churned painfully, and then all feeling came back to her limbs. Knowing not what had happened to her, she spun around, only to find there was nothing there but the open doorway to the theater. The stage was clearly visible, and she realized the actors were beginning to walk back onstage. In a moment the door would be shut again until the second act was finished. Unable to stand the thought of being locked on this balcony, defenseless to this strange phenomenon, she walked back into the dimly lit building and wandered back to her seat. Mellissa glanced at her and smiled sweetly. She loved her little sister, and it pleased her greatly to see her enjoying the celebration of her birth all those years ago.

The young countess managed to sit through the next two acts without any sign of the strange odour, or any fits of near paralysis. Nor did she notice any more men staring at her. This slightly unnerved her, seeing as how it had been so common before. This is not to be mistaken for vanity, however, more of an awareness that something had changed around her.

As the curtain went down after the final actor said his last line, Alesandra looked around her at the audience. The moment on the balcony was still puzzling her. None of the spectators around her looked even vaguely familiar, and this unnerved her. There was no sort of familiarity in this strange world. Nothing to anchor her to her home.

Mellissa grabbed her sister's hand and squeezed it gently. She was overwhelmed with all that she had seen tonight. The two young women rose to their feet and glided towards the exit, their carriage, and safety. Alesandra tried several times to make eye contact with men she found appealing, but it were as if she were not there. Not a single person laid a glance on her. She even put her hand on the shoulder of a stout heavy man, and he did not even flinch. Alesandra was starting to worry. This did not seem normal. The only person making any recognition of her was her sister. She gripped Mellissa's hand tighter and stayed close to her moving frame. If she lost her sister, what would happen to her in this new world?

Suddenly, the crowd parted slightly. They knew not why, but the sisters took the opportunity to make their way towards the open doorway to freedom. As soon as they were through, the crowd closed up again, and there was almost an audible popping sound as the people were sucked back together. Alesandra drowned out all the chatter of the people behind her and focused on getting home. Her eyes were on the floor while she walked, careful not to trip in her high heels, or step on some sort of sticky globule of theater snacks. She felt the warmth on her face before she smelt the wonderful aroma again. Her face felt as if she were sitting a bit too close to the harth on a cold winter night. She looked up. She knew him before she'd even fully focused on the face. The beautiful face. He was stunning, beautiful, magical. Alesandra's knees had locked before she even realized that she was no longer walking. His black trousers hung to his polished black shoes, and his black overcoat hung perfectly over his white silk shirt and his sculpted back and chest. His mahogany hair was sleeked back, his eyebrows and facial hair perfectly groomed. A kindness, and a silent intelligence hung in his green eyes. They tilted up slightly, almost giving him an asian look. His grin was mischevious, seductive.

Instantly, she wanted him. She wanted his mouth on her mouth, on her neck, on her breats, on her sex. This was a strange feeling to Alesandra. It was what the Father would have said was a sin- it was lust, she knew that bit. Her mouth hung slightly open, and she couldn't feel the gentle tug of her sister's hand on her own. All she felt was his eyes caressing her, making her tingle in places she thought it not possible. She memorized the chiseled look of his jaw, his wide thin mouth, his sparkling eyes. She made sure not to forget the light spatter of freckles beside his left eye. As he started to turn, she felt real fear. Fear that she would never see this creature again. Fear that she would search for him, having no idea where to find him. A cry escaped her lips, and her hand rose in front of her in a grasping motion.

"Alesandra, dear, what are you doing? You've been standing there for five minutes! I haven't been able to budge you, you're stock still. The crowd is nearly gone, we shant be left here alone!" Mellissa had a look of pleading in her eyes. There was no reason for it, everything was fine, thought Alesandra.

"Ah, yes, I'm sorry sister. I don't know what came over me. It was just a moment of calmness in my mind..." she said.

Of course, her mind was anything but calm. Her arms and stomach and thighs were covered in goosebumps from his visual touch, she could feel his lingering gaze. It was like nothing she'd felt before. She wished anything that she would meet this stranger again, but to feel his fingers on her this time. His lips, his skin, feel that scent envelop her. Yes, the smell, what was that? It was so enticing, she couldn't possibly deny it. It was like vanilla, and milk, and peaches; fresh roasting meat, peppery, like a burning wood fire; like a red rose, fresh soil, cut green grass; it was everything Alesandra found tempting rolled into one immense aroma.

Mellissa tugged on her hand again and they walked into the pavillion in front of the theater and saw their white horse and carriage. Ambling over to the coachmen, they lifted their skirts and stepped into the open chamber. One man shut the door and jumped on top, the other on the back as a guard for the ladies. Alesandra settled into her plush seat across from her sister and put her hands in her lap.

"Mellissa...have you ever known a man?" she asked timidly. This was not the type of thing they usually talked about. Men were a constant topic, but their own experiences with this other side of the world was commonly a private matter for her sister.

"What makes you ask me this question, dear sister?" Mellissa asked suspiciously. "Have you met a man worthy of you? You know he must be accepted by father, don't you?" She eyed Alesandra, and seeing no smile or laugh, she realized this was a serious question. She lowered her eyes to consider how to state her answer.

"Please, Mellissa, do not tell father of our conversations. I will not tell him what you say! I wish advice, for I believe, with my marriage coming soon, that I should be known of these things." A small bit of this was bent truth, but she needed to know all there was to know.

"Alesandra, or soon Countess Alesandra formally, I have indeed known a man. I was younger than you are now, maybe a few years. It is safe to assume I was around seventeen. That is ten years ago now, yes, it must have been seventeen as I am now twenty-seven. Well, dear sister, I believed at the time that I was in love with this man, I do not even remember his name now, how unfortunate this be. Any how, as I was telling, I believed I was in love with this man. He was a few years older than I at the time, maybe twenty or so, around your own age. I had known him since we were children, but I had never been a fan of his masculine ways, for I was a very dainty little girl. One day, I decided I would know what the feel of a man was like before I married. I thought chastity was simply an illusion, not worthy of its praise. So, I walked late one evening to this young man's house, crawled into his bed chamber through his window, and slept in his bed that night. When I awoke in the morning, the sun was on our bodies on the bed. I was still in my gown, and he was just simply sitting there, awestruck by the fact that a young girl was sleeping in his bed. I was around fifteen or so then, so he was around...eighteen I suppose. I sat up and stretched, deliberately rising my arms very high so that my breasts would be pushed up and very visible at the top of my dress. I smiled at him, oh, how I remember this first day so well. I smiled at him, and he smiled back. He said to me, 'What are you doing here, Mellissa? What are you doing in my bed?' And I said to him, I said, 'Why, I have come to see you. Is that so hard to believe?' Looking back now, I can see that I must have seemed crazy to him, me, this young girl, very nearly still a child, and him, almost a man. 'What hath changed your mind, fair Mellissa? Why after all these years of detest for me, have you decided to come and lay in my bed while I sleep?' To this question, I had no answer that I could tell him truthfully. I could not tell him that it was simply so I may lose my virginity, for then I would be thought of as nothing more than a common whore to him. So I did not answer his questions any further. I told him I had enjoyed my rest on his bed, and that I must be heading home now, for my father would soon be looking for me. I left him with an air of mystery, and he and I both knew I would be back soon.

Over two years, I visited him at night often. Never more than once a week, lest I be found out by our servants, or even worse, our parents. I knew my father would never believe me that nothing had happened, and he would surely have him hung. Nearly every day we would go down to the field, behind the lake and the dairy farm, you know the place." Alesandra nodded her head for Mellissa to go on with her story. "Well, we went there so often, that when we did not, and I sat alone in my room, I would feel strange, as if something were wrong. Well, we became the best of friends. I even gave up my idea of knowing him intimately. I felt that he was like my other half, the male part of me, that is. Never had I loved someone as I loved him. How dissapointed I am that his name escapes me... As I was saying, well, one day in the field, we decided to take a walk in the woods not too far off. After a small while, my feet began to ache and I sat myself upon a fallen log. He sat beside me, and I swear, I could feel something in the air as he sat beside me. My hands began to tremble in my lap. After all the times I had slept in his bed, and swum with him in nothing but my hose and brazier, and lain with him in the field, my head on his chest, as we looked at the clouds, never had I felt this way. I looked down at myself and noticed that my breasts had grown quite large since the first time I had willingly shown them to him in his bed. My hands were wringing themselves on my thighs, I couldn't stop them. Honestly, I don't see why I remember all these details, but not the man's name!

As I looked down still, I peeked a look in his lap, and saw that his sex was ready, very ready indeed. It was raising his trousers quite a bit. This struck me as odd. It had never happened before in these last two years. Not that I could remember, at least. I was nervous. I can say, I was nervous. I felt the energy flow between us. I hadn't thought about this moment in so long, and yet, here it was about to happen, I knew it was. I reached my hand over onto his lap and touched it. Now, understand, this is something I have told no soul, and... please stop me if I go into more detail than I obviously intend to. I touched it, and he put his hand on top of mine and pushed my hand into him. I could feel the warmth, feel it pulsing. I looked up slowly into his face. He was no longer my gentle, caring friend, but a fine looking man, almost savage was the look in his eyes, and for a second I was frightened. Maybe I was not ready for this.

His other hand reached up and cupped my chin, and he kissed me. Now, remember, I had never done anything of this sort. I fumbled, I did not know what to do. When his tongue came into my mouth, I jumped a little, and giggled, but soon realized I quite liked it and went back. The first hand came off mine and wrapped around my back. He lifted me easily off the rough uneven log and placed me gently on the soft leafy ground. He lay beside me, and he started to undo the ribbons tying the front of my dress together. It was really happening, I was going to do the thing I had always been tought was a sin to do until I be married. But I didn't care anymore. Father and the priest and whatever husband I chose would never need to know. The fabric fell off me, over my shoulders, and he pulled the skirts open to access my sex. I was by now breathing heavily. I reached my arms forward and pulled him to my side by the collar. I undid his buttons and pulled the flimsy fabric down so I could see the full expanse of his muscled chest and flat stomach. Softly, I ran my finger tips over it. It was as hard as could be, and he shivered from my touch. I laughed, and he did a bit too, but I believe he wanted it more than I. I grabbed for the top of his pants and fumbled with the drawstring and buttons there, and soon managed to undo it, rather clumsily I may add." Mellissa giggled at this, and looked at her little sister expectantly. When she did not protest, she took it that she was fine with the story and continued.

"As the canvas fell, I saw his sex. It was large, and the hair around it was black and curly. I touched it again, and as my fingertips reached the head, he groaned. It was like no other sound I had heard before. It was almost like an animal. He crawled over top of me and began kissing me again. I could feel the light touch of him resting on my breasts, my stomach, my thighs. He moved his head down, and-"

"Wait, wait, wait... Is this...is this really how you came to know a man in the sexual form? On mouldy earth in a forest?" asked Alesandra. There was no tone of mockery or dislike in her voice, only pure interest.

"Yes, little sister, I knew a man the first time on the ground. But I see not why that matters, for it made not difference to the experience. Perhaps it even enhanced it, the adventure. But, as I was saying, his mouth was now on my breasts. He kissed them gently, but then began to suckle on my nipples like he were an infant child. It was an exquisite feeling, and I am sure he knew this. He heard a sigh escape my own lips, and he licked my nipples, and then pulled and pinched them gently with his teeth. And do not think that it hurt, becuase it certainly did not. I felt that I would be perfeclty satisfied with just that, but luck have it, I got more. He put his hands on the insides of my thighs, and roughly yanked them apart. I cried out, not from pain but from the shock. He dragged his tongue from my breast over my belly and down to just above my silken hair. He stroked the insides of my legs with his gentle fingers, and the tickling sensation made me arch my back just slightly. And then his tongue was on my sex. His tongue was stroking me, licking me, and I felt his finger touch it. It went from the top down and into my nether mouth. Another moan escaped my lips, and I was shocked by the intensity of it. His finger and his tongue were there at the same time, the finger gently going in and out, and then rubbing my sex. The tongue flicked at my clitoris, and when he pulled his hand away, I nearly grabbed it to pull it back. But he was quick in his actions, and moved his tongue into the whole. The thick warmth of his tongue was better than the stiff coldness of the bony finger had been. He moved in and out, his fingers stroking my soft thighs, and when he lifted his head to look at my face, he really was the wild animal this time. I grabbed him by the hair and pulled him up to me and began to kiss him again, roughly this time, one hand on his sex, the other around his neck. It was enormous in my hand, throbbing, and I decided now was the time. I guided him down, towards my sex. and rubbed the head on my clitoris. He felt my tremble, and knew I was ready. He moved himself backwards, and then thrust into me so hard I thought I would be pushed into the ground.

I screamed as he thrust into me again and again.My whole body shook so violently, I was frightened. Surely this must not be what knowing a man was like! I had been told it was not pleasurable for a woman, but here I could say it most definitely was. Again and again we made our love, resting for sometimes even a half hour between each time.

As the sun was setting and the forest was becoming dark, I said we must be on our way. He nodded sadly, and helped me dress. As we walked back to town, hand in hand, he was back to the gentle and caring young man I knew, not the beast I had seen back in the woods. He was the man I had grown to love. Could the two possibly be the same? I did not believe so, for the man I loved could never be so violent.

The next few weeks, I refused to see him. He came to our door several times, you were only a small child and could not possibly remember him, anyway, he asked to have outings with me many times, even offered for them to be escorted, but I would not step outside my door. I could see that he was hurt. He really did not know what he had done wrong. And truthfully, I had loved every minute of our romp in the woods. It had been the most amazing thing that had ever happened to me. But I could not believe that the man I had loved for two years would become such a creature over simple lust. That was what I could not handle, and I believed not seeing him would make it like it had never happened. Many months passed, and slowly he stopped visiting me. Father questioned this, but I answered simply that we had had a falling out and he could not get over it. After all, I was his daughter and he knew to believe me in all matters, and this strange situation was no exception.

After a year, it seemed he had forgotten me. He never came to our home anymore, and I saw him only a few times in the village. He made no attempt to speak with me, so neither did I. I believe by then I had forgiven him, but my dignity was in the way of telling him so.

When I was about your age, I went to his wedding, to a pretty little french girl, and it seemed that this was the moment of communication between us. We mutually understood that each other were forgiven for our wrongs, and we danced the night away in joyous celebration. For seven years now, I have known no man, and I do not believe I ever shall again." A tear slowly rolled down Mellissa's face, and landed on the white lace above her breasts. She wiped her face with the back of her hand and tried to smile at her little sister.

"So, Mellissa, this is what you have to tell me about men? That they are savage beasts, who will do what they must for the pure animal instinct of lust? That they forget who they are for a woman's sinful body? This sounds horrid to me, that he could be so wretched, that someone would would treat you so foully," Alesandra stated matter of factly.

"No, no my dear sister, I am thankful for the experience. As I said, I loved every minute of it. It is something I shall never forget. It taught me much of the world that I should know, and I still love this man, whom I believe if he were ehre would still be my kindest, truest friend. I feel no remorse or regret or anguish for what I did ten years ago, only happiness that I did indeed know a man, and it happened to be one that I loved. I want you to believe in love, my dear sister. I want you to enjoy the pleasaures of a man every chance you get, for there is nothing quite like it. Do not let my story discourage you. Really, let it encourange you! Encourage you to work even harder to meet this milestone in life!"

Alesandra stared at her sister as if she had gone mad. Never once could she remember Mellissa speaking so strongly on a subject. She loved her sister with all the affection she had, and if this was what she had to say, than she would believe it and listen to her.