"You're the blue fairy, aren't you?" I whispered.

"I am, if you want me to be," she replied huskily.

"I cannot tell a lie," I said slowly. "It is not my nose that's growing."

General Elizabeth Tirelli, the most beautiful woman I had ever known or loved or worshiped, pulled back the light summer blankets, revealing my nakedness and the full measure of my attraction to her.

"Mm," she said admiringly. "That is definitely a ten."

"Well, no. Actually," I admitted, "it's only a seven. But it moves like a ten."

She laughed as she climbed into bed next to me. "Why don't you let me be the judge of that?"

"Oh? I'm being rated?" I turned on my side, up on one elbow, so I could watch her.

She stretched out luxuriously, smoothing her nightgown around her in slow graceful movements. "Graded," she corrected. "This is your final."

"I see," I said. "It better not be final. This is only the beginning." I crawled down to her feet and lifted up her nightgown and appraised the view. From any angle, she was irresistible. "What have we here?" The gown was roomy enough for two. I began crawling playfully up into it. One thing led to another and-

"Mmm, do that some more. I guarantee you'll get a passing mark."

"Uh-uh. I have no intention of passing anything. And I'm not going to leave any marks. At least not where they'll show-"

"Mmmm, " she repeated. "I expect your complete attention to every detail… all the way up."

"I'm already up. Hello there." I popped my head out through the wide neck of the nightgown and kissed her on the nose and on the lips and on the chin. "It is roomy in here, isn't it?"

"I specifically chose it because it had room for a friend-"

"I'm friendly," I volunteered.

She moved around a bit to adjust the aim of my volunteer. "That's a lot more than friendliness," she acknowledged. "That's enthusiasm."

"I have a lot to be enthusiastic about-"

"Mm, you have a lot to be enthusiastic with-"

We fitted ourselves together and got comfortable in each other's arms, and she smoothed the nightgown around us both, and then neither of us said anything coherent for a while. The bed rocked enthusiastically, and there was a lot of rapturous giggling and just pure silly wonder going on inside that nightie.

Later… while we drifted through the land of afterward, the nightgown still around us both like a sensuous amniotic veil, I began stroking her hair, brushing it away from her eyes and neck, so I could trace the line of her neck, the delicacy of her throat, all the way down to the curve-of her breasts. We lay in each other's arms in a loose embrace, both of us amazingly relaxed at the same time. We took turns sighing in gratitude and bliss. Her cheeks were wet with joy.

She touched my nose with her forefinger. "Did you remember to say hi to God?" she asked softly and impishly.

"Yeah-on the way back."

"Me too. I thanked her. For letting me have this time with you. For giving me this gift. I never thought I'd ever be this happy again."

"I never thought I'd be this happy-ever." I closed my eyes and buried my face in her neck, her hair, reveling in the delicious smell of her.

Abruptly, she grabbed me and rolled me over on my back. She started crawling down out of the nightgown.

"What're you doing?"

"I gotta pee. Save my place?" Before I could answer, she said, "Never mind, I'll mark my place. Where do you want this hickey? Never mind, I'll put it hermpf."

"That's not a hickey…"

She paused just long enough to say, "I don't care," then resumed her attentions. I squirmed in ecstasy. Abruptly, she stopped. "There-now you have something to remember me by." She crawled out the bottom of the nightgown with an evil grin on her face.

"Huh? What'd you say? I think I must have passed out from lack of blood to my brain."

She laughed as she padded into the bathroom. In the soft moonlight, she looked like a wraith. She had the longest legs. She was tall and athletic; taller than me and almost as hard-bodied. She was sexy that way.

I liked the feeling of being in bed with someone who wasn't afraid or ashamed to fuck back. I liked her aggressiveness and her enthusiasm and the private double entendres she shared only with me. Being in bed with Lizard was the one place where I could let go and let someone else be in control and not be in danger by doing so. The realization of how much I loved her swept over me in a series of waves. Lizard Tirelli was the only human being on earth I truly trusted. Maybe that was why we had so much fun together.

Sometimes it wasn't sex, it was a wrestling match instead. She liked being strong, and I liked her that way-enveloping and powerful, submerging me in her physical superiority. And sometimes it was the other way around-sometimes I was the superman surfer riding a great pink wave of female ocean, bucking and sliding on the roller coaster of incredible sex, forceful and strong and driving forward through liquid ecstasy like a roaring dragon, until the world burst around us both. And sometimes, it was just… gentle. Silent and wordless… just a quiet space between our eyes, with nothing spoken because there was nothing that needed to be voiced. When I looked into her eyes, the world disappeared. The man/woman thing disappeared. Sex disappeared. And all the stupid roles that we had to play. All that existed anywhere, everywhere, was both halves of ourself.

When Lizard came back to bed, she didn't bother climbing back into the nightgown with me. Instead, she just slipped under the covers, slid over next to me, wrapped her long lean limbs around my body, and began purring.

"Do you want your nightie back?"

"No. I'm comfortable this way. Are you?"

I felt too good to move. I didn't want to disengage. "I'm fine," I said.

She stroked me gently for a while; her hand strayed up and down along my hip, my back, my side. "You feel good."

"So do you."

"Your skin feels like silk," she giggled.

"I thought I was supposed to say that," I protested.

"Whoever is being the boy gets to say it."

"Oh, is that it?" I answered. That made me think of something. "Hey, I have a question for you-" My tone was serious enough to stop the southward drift of her fingers. I intertwined my fingers with hers and brought her hand up to my face and kissed her fingertips.

"What?" she asked.

"What's the difference between kinky and sensuous?"

"That's easy," she replied. "A feather is sensuous. The whole chicken is kinky."

"Yes, but how do you know when you've crossed the line?"

She considered the question for a moment. She glanced away from me as if looking to a cue card. Apparently, it was blank.

She came back to me and said, "I don't know. I don't think you even know there's a dividing line until after you've crossed it." And then she added, "I don't care. I like being kinky with you."

"Are we being kinky?" I asked.

"I think so, yes," she said. "I think we've emptied the whole henhouse. Is that all right with you?"

The answer was obvious between us. But I voiced it anyway. "I can't imagine ever saying no to you. Whatever you want, sweetheart, before you ask, the answer is yes. I like being kinky with you too."

"Mmmm," she said, a wordless purr of approval. She melted back into my arms. "Good. Let's be kinky some more."

Eventually, we wore each other out and fell asleep-and then the morning sun was blue and crisp, turning the room unbearably bright.

Lizard came out of the bathroom, naked and toweling her hair. "Good morning, sleepyhead."

I yawned and looked around for my watch. "What time is it?"

"Don't worry-Shaun canceled all our meetings until afternoon."

"Why didn't you wake me?" I asked. I sat up in bed, automatically putting a hand over my chest as if to keep her from seeing me still in my/her nightie. Then I realized what I'd done and dropped my hand embarrassedly.