As she parked her car near Z's in the lot for his townhouse complex, Josie was much more nervous that she expected to be. Luckily when she called Corrine on her cell phone she got her voice mail and could simply leave a vague message that she was skipping out of the reunion and would see her for brunch with the others tomorrow. She didn't have a clue she would tell her friend about this, if anything.

She started it, however, wanting to experience something that always seemed to have frustratingly eluded her before. That hadn't changed and Z still was her best option in solving the mystery. She should do her best though to act as cool about it as possible. In spite of her lack of experience, she didn't want him to think in anyway that she was a frightened school girl. He had enough concerns as it was, and she didn't want his uber-sense of morality kicking in and deciding to stop everything.

He had already gotten out of his car, so should she. She took a couple of deep breaths before reaching back and grabbing her backpack. She had thought this morning that she might crash at Vaughn's if she was at the reunion too late, so had tossed in a change of clothes and some toiletries just in case. Now she was glad of her foresight.

She got out of her car, and faced Z. He gave her any oddly sympathetic smile. "Having second thoughts?"

"Two hundred and twenty-second thoughts," she admitted.

"Was 'Stay' the odd or even option?" he asked. When she stared at him blankly, he shook his heard. "Never mind. Josie, it's ok if you change your mind."

"Nah, I'm good." She looked around her. She never knew where he lived before, but this was a nice, well-maintained complex of about a dozen townhouses. She smiled when she saw a large telescope on the second story balcony of one of them. "Let me guess. That one's yours." She said pointing to it.

"You know me too well," he replied as he started walking to the entrance. Josie fell into step with him and he continued, "You know, you can always leave any time you want."

"Stop worrying, Z! I'm fine," she said starting to feel somewhat exasperated.

He stopped and faced her, lightly touched her face with his hand, "I just wanted to make sure you felt safe. We came to this ... agreement quite suddenly."

"I want to go through with this," Josie replied, reaching up to touch his hand with hers.

Z turned his hand to clasp hers. "All right then."

Hand in hand, they walked the remaining way to the entrance of his townhouse. Z unlocked the door and they went in. Josie kind of liked the reassuring warmth of his hand and didn't let go as she looked around her curiously as Z switched on the main light. This level of the house seemed to be a kitchen and living room area. He didn't have much by way of decorations; just furniture in neutral colors, some plants, books filling a couple of bookcases and the usual odd objects you would expect in any Z space, like the astrolabe on the coffee table . Comfortable rather than showy—sort of like Z come to think of it. She did find the warmth of her hand in his rather reassuring. "Nice," she said. She spied the staircase and walked toward it, until she felt resistance from Z's hand because he had stayed in place. She looked at him in surprise. "Isn't your bedroom upstairs?"

"Yes, but I didn't think you'd want to start there."

Josie tried not to roll her eyes. "Seems like the most logical place to me." She tugged on his hand.

"I've forgotten how single-minded you can be when you've decided on a course of action." He sighed and allowed her to lead him upstairs.

At the landing on the second floor, Z hit another light switch, which turned on the lamps on the nightstands, and they went in. More neutral colors and Josie had to smile at the number of pillows; instead of the usual two, there seemed to be at least a half a dozen at the head of the bed. Letting go Josie dropped her backpack at the entrance and then sat down on the edge of the neatly made bed. Z slowly sat down next to her. "You know Z, this reluctance of yours is doing wonders for my ego."

Z brought her hand up to his mouth and brushed his lips across it. "I'm sorry. I still feel like I'm taking advantage of you."

Josie smiled and reached up with the other hand to gently remove his glasses and reached over to place them on top of some books stacked on top of his nightstand. Turning back to him she wrapped her arms around his neck. "Actually, I'm probably the one who is taking advantage, but I don't have a problem with that. I do have a problem though with you not kissing me yet."

"We can't have that." Z smiled though his eyes, without the glasses to shield his expression, looked a bit troubled. He leaned forward and kissed her with same gentleness he had shown before. She tightened her hands against his neck, and moved closer to him, pressing her lips harder against his, parting them slightly. Z continued his soft exploration her mouth, not demanding more. No fireworks yet, really more of a nice glow, she thought. He cradled her face with his hands but she did not feel at all confined. However, sitting on the edge of the bed like this going to get uncomfortable. Not breaking the kiss, she shifted her weight so that she fell back against some of the pillows. Z seemed to know what she was intending because he easily followed her down so that they were both lying on their sides, still kissing. His hands moved from her face to wrap around her, pulling her closer.

Josie enjoyed the new closeness and warmth of his body against hers. She began to use her tongue to press against his lips. He obligingly opened his mouth to admit her tongue and his own tongue slid out to trace her lips and then explore inside. The glow in Josie's core began spreading. As she pressed her body closer to his, she feel a growing hardness against her hip and was pleased that she was having an effect on him.

Z pulled away briefly, taking deep breaths He looked down at her and she noticed that his blue eyes were even darker than usual. "All right, so far?"

"Great," she wriggled slightly again the pillows to get more comfortable. "I'd never had pegged you as someone with a thing for pillows."

Z smiled, "I enjoy reading in bed," he replied. He continued to study her, using a finger to trace along an eyebrow, down the side her face before resting against her collarbone, next to the shoulder strap of her black camisole. "Have you ever figured how many freckles you have?"

"Too many," she replied looking away. She had hoped that some of them would fade as she got older, but that wasn't the case.

"Don't worry, they are quite appealing. They make me think of cinnamon sprinkled on a latte." He leaned down and licked along her collarbone as if he were tasting her.

Josie opened her eyes at the caress. No one had ever done that before and it was startlingly erotic.

Z immediately backed off. "I'm sorry, that was too soon for you."

She didn't want him to think this bothered her. After all, the purpose was to learn about intimacy, and definitely was intimate. "It's ok. You just startled me. I'm fine."

Z continued to look concerned. It was time to show him that she wasn't a frightened schoolgirl. He must be tired of making out like a couple of teenagers since he already had an erection. "You know, so it won't be a problem later, I think it's time to get undressed."

Z was still. "Are you really ready for that step?"

"Sure I am." She strived for a casual tone, like it was no big deal. "After all you said I could call the shots, and that what I want to happen right now.

He was silent for a second. Josie hoped he wasn't going to turn her down. "Ok, if you say so." His face was surprisingly neutral. He moved over to the other side of the bed got up and began to undress. She was glad he didn't use his veto. These days, nudity shouldn't be a big deal, you could see a whole lot in magazines anyway. She sat up on her side of the bed and kicked her shoes off before getting up herself to undress, keeping her back to him and the rustling sounds. She slowly removed her camisole, jeans and underwear, turning around only when she heard Z getting into bed. She was relieved to see that he had pulled back the bedspread and has the sheet pulled up to his chest. She slid under the covers from her side, feeling stiff and awkward, the warm glow she felt earlier only a memory. She lay on her side facing him. Maybe kissing him again will bring back the feeling. She leaned over and her lips to his. Z returned the kiss and Josie tried hard to flinch when she fell his arm over her waist.

Z gently broke the kiss, "Josie, you're as stiff as board. We need to stop for a bit." He didn't sound surprised, only concerned. He moved away so that they were still facing each other but not touching.

"I'm ok, really."

"If you were any further from the truth, there would be sponges growing on the walls."

Josie gave an involuntary snort of laughter at his reference to one of their earlier strange situations and relaxed a bit.

"That's a bit better," Z said. He tilted her head up so she would look up at him. "Josie, what just happened?"

Unfortunately, his ability to compel her to be honest with him wasn't diminished when he was naked. He sounded just like when he was discussing a school lab experiment went wrong. He did have a sneaky habit of letting you screw up and make you analyze the process, instead of stopping things right away. He also usually had a solution, so there may be a way out of this yet. She muttered. "I didn't want you to be bored with kid's stuff. You were already getting, uh, you know..."

"Getting an erection isn't like getting a headache, you don't need to get rid of it right away".

Josie's awkwardness gave way irritation. "I've going to keep a list of the things you should have told us in class," she growled.

"I'm sure Principal Durst will appreciate the feedback," he replied dryly. "Perhaps, when I promised you that I wouldn't push you, I should have made you promise you wouldn't push yourself either." Z gently touched her hair. "Not only teenagers like kissing. I was getting aroused because I was enjoying kissing you but even if you were my age and only had positive experience, I'd still be going slowly. Sex is always best if you start with the sensual and build up to the sexual."

Crap, he just confirmed that he was the right person to show her how to enjoy and she screwed it up. "How can we get things right again?" she asked.

As expected, he had a solution. "There are several things we can do." He moved back nearer to her and lay back against some of the pillows. He guided Josie so her head was against his shoulder. Then he pulled the sheet around them both and put his arm around her. "Don't think about what might or might not happen. I just want you to get used to the feel of my body against yours. Are you comfortable right now?"

"Yes." It was true, it was cozy curled up like this with him under the sheet. His body felt warm and smooth to her. "I'm not really the cuddly type though," she warned him.

"Just give it try. If it doesn't work, we'll try something else. Why don't you relax and tell me more about your fellowship?"

"Now?"

"Humor me. Do you know who you'll be working with?"

Josie mentally shrugged. If he thought talking about her grant at Cornell would help, she'll give it a shot. "I'll be working primarily with Nikolai Vardos."

"Excellent! I read some of his papers and he's doing some cutting edge work on aluminum alloys."

"Yes, so I'm hoping we can come up with some safer containment areas for when Vaughn restarts Pearadyne Industries."

"And with Lucas working on some of the particle generators, that may happen sooner than we thought." Z mused. Josie could feel his hand tracing circles along her shoulder.

They continued to talk about Josie's project for a bit. Josie found that she was enjoying the quiet discussion, the lightness of his undemanding touch and listening to the steady beat of his heart. She realized that as they talked, she had moved so that she was completely on top of him. Very thermatropic of her. She wriggled slightly enjoying the warm texture of his skin. "It would have been nice to talk like this during those long winters at school. It's like having my own space heater," She commented. She rubbed her check against his check before sliding up a bit to face him.

"You feel good too," Z replied.

Josie shivered as his hand gently stroked down her spine, but it was a good sort of shiver. The warm glow which had disappeared for a bit came back and she realized that she really wanted to go back to the kissing part. He said he enjoyed that too so she was going to take him at his word. She leaned down first brushed her lips against his and then deepened the caress as he responded. They continued to explore each other's mouth and then Z kissed his way down her neck. This time, instead of being surprised, Josie tilted her head to allow him more access.

"Z, I think we are officially back on track."

Josie could feel his lips curve into a smile, as he replied, "I think so too, Cinnamon Girl."

Author's Note: I don't mean to leave this as a cliff hanger, but since the next section is going to definitely much more R-ratedly specific, I figured that I'd better put that in a separate section for anyone who would like to skip over that.

Thanks to the kind souls who have read and said they enjoyed this story. It's much appreciated and keep 'em coming!