Virginia was a curious girl. She wanted to know about everything. She was 19 years old and had only recently left the Catholic boarding school where she had spent the last 10 years of her life. Her parents had died when she was little, but had left plenty of money to provide for her education. What they hadn't provided for her, though, was any close family. So she grew up lacking any real adult friends – except perhaps Max and Dolores, a rather bohemian couple with whom she spent many of her holidays.
She was staying with them now, enjoying the summer between school and university. But unlike most girls her age, she wasn't spending her time idly. Oh no. Having been shut away from the world for 10 years, she was determined to catch up on lost time. She wanted to know everything that she had missed: pop music, films, art, the sights and sounds of the big city, sex. Everything, particularly sex.
To this end, she took to spying on her hosts. Max and Dolores were an attractive couple in their late 30s, he tall and dark with long wavy hair and a fashionable 5 o'clock shadow, she vivacious and blonde with the sort of figure that looked good in a bikini. She painted large abstracts and was always dressed in paint-splattered jeans and T-shirt; he was a photographer and preferred knee-length shorts and brightly patterned shirts. Virginia thought them the most attractive people in the world. She liked nothing more than sitting at the kitchen table over dinner and a carafe of wine while they laughed and talked about every subject under the sun. She felt as if she hadn't been properly alive until this summer. At night she lay in bed listening to them in their room, sometimes still talking, sometimes silent, sometimes making noises that she couldn't decipher but which sounded intriguing.
One night her curiosity got the better of her. She tiptoed along the landing to their half-open door. There were sounds emanating from within, low inarticulate moans, heavy sighs, the creaking of the bed. To Virginia it seemed as if they might have been wrestling or playing some game together. But it didn't sound as if they were competing in any way. Occasionally she would hear a definite word of encouragement.
"Oh yes, just there..."
Whatever Max was doing to her, Dolores was evidently enjoying it.
"Oh yes, harder... harder..."
What could it possibly be that gave her more pleasure the more brutal Max was towards her?
"Aah... Aah..."
Whatever it was, it seemed to be driving her to a veritable frenzy.
"Nngh... oh God..."
Even Max was being moved to cries – of pain or pleasure, Virginia found it impossible to tell. The bed creaked alarmingly, rhythmically, as if they were jumping up and down on it. Whatever they were doing, plainly it was reaching some kind of climax. Appalled, yet for some reason excited, Virginia wondered whether she should rush in and rescue whichever one of them needed it. But the suspicion that she was witnessing something that she shouldn't held her back. As the noises within subsided to the occasional low murmur, she turned to creep back to her own room. And walked straight into a low chest on the landing.
"Ow!"
"What was that?" she heard Dolores say.
"I think we've had an audience," came Max's reply.
"Oh dear."
Virginia expected Dolores to sound angry, but to the girl's surprise there was a distinct tone of amusement in her voice.
"Hello Virginia." Max leant against the frame of the bedroom door, his arms crossed, a smile on his face. "Have you been spying on us?"
"I thought you were fighting or something." Virginia was too busy trying to rub away the pain in her shin where she had cracked it against the chest to think of a better excuse. Max was immediately all concern.
"Have you hurt yourself? Here, let me see."
The next moment she was sitting on the edge of their bed with Dolores dabbing at her shin with a damp cloth. She felt hugely embarrassed, particularly wearing her drab school pyjamas. She tried hard not to look at Dolores, who was clad only in one of her husband's brightly coloured shirts, or Max, wearing only a pair of brief cotton shorts. Not that they seemed to care whether she looked at them or not, nor that she had been caught listening at their door.
"There," smiled Dolores, "you're not going to bleed to death. It doesn't even need a plaster. You'll just have a bit of a bruise tomorrow."
"Thank you," said Virginia, immediately standing with the intention of getting back to her own room as quickly as possible. But whether she stood up too quickly or was in a state of shock at the night's turn of events, she suddenly felt faint.
"Whoops..." said Max, putting a strong arm around her to stop her falling. And that was the last word she heard.
The next thing she knew she was lying in the middle of their huge bed. Max and Dolores sat either side of her, looking concerned. Dolores stroked her forehead.
"Have you fainted before?"
"Once, years ago," she admitted. "I thought I'd got over it."
"That will teach you to go creeping around the house," grinned Max.
Virginia blushed with shame. "I'm so sorry about that."
"What were you doing?" asked Dolores. "Did you want something?"
"I heard noises. I was being nosy. I'm so sorry. I didn't see anything, honestly."
Dolores laughed. "I don't think we'd have minded if you had. We are married, after all. We are allowed to make love."
"Oh, so that's what you were doing," said the girl, having not the faintest idea what Dolores was talking about. "I thought it must be something like that."
"Really?" grinned Max. "We had no idea you were such a woman of the world. Have you made love often?"
Virginia thought of the strangely exciting kisses she had once been given by an older girl at school. "Once or twice."
"So you know what it feels like to give and receive the most intense pleasure? To have what the French call "le petit mort"?"
"Stop teasing the poor girl," laughed Dolores.
Reassured by the older woman's sympathy, Virginia decided to be brave. "To be honest, I haven't. Made love, I mean. I'm not even sure what it is. Is it the same as when you make babies?"
"Sort of. Except that we have no intention of getting Dolores pregnant."
"Oh, well, I know all about that," declared the girl. "We learned all about that in biology."
"That's one thing we won't have to teach you, then," smiled Dolores. "We wouldn't want you suddenly announcing you were expecting."
But Virginia's thoughts were elsewhere. Her insatiable curiosity was aroused. "But I didn't know it involved so much noise. It sounded like Max was doing something horrible to you."
"Oh no," Dolores reassured her, "quite the opposite."
Virginia wasn't sure she believed the older woman. "You mean you like it? From what it said in the textbook it sounds awful."
"I assure you it isn't. In fact, I'd say it's the best feeling in the world." She looked lovingly across Virginia at Max.
"I'd like to take a look at this book," he said. "It sounds as if it's given you entirely the wrong impression."
"Oh no, it's a very good book. I'm sure I've got all the details absolutely right."
The girl spoke so self-assuredly, Max decided to tease her a little more.
"So how exactly did it describe the process of making babies? Just generally. This isn't an exam."
Virginia was pleased to be asked. Biology was one of her best subjects. "Well, the man puts his penis in the woman's vagina and ejaculates. Then the sperm swims up until it meets an egg, then one of the sperm..."
