"WHAT?" I asked him, eyes wide.
"Remember our little incident on the couch yesterday?" As if I'd forgotten it!
"Yeah."
"Well, then, it's my turn to get you back. Kiss or I'll tickle you to death!"
"Is sex all that you guys think about?"
They looked at each other, genuinely serious.
"Mm...yep." They answered in unison, and then looked at each again in amazement.
"One," I said impatiently.
"Two."
"One."
"One...and a half?"
"How the hell do you give someone one and a half kisses?"
"Well, tut tut and all, you're using dirty language today aren't you, miss?"
"ONE."
"Fine. It better be good, though."
John leaned forward. I struggled to get away, but George and Paul held me tightly by my elbows. I leaned over and, quick as lightning, gave him a peck on the lips. To be brutally honest, I was worried that, if I hesitated in 'kissing length', I would go much farther myself than I had originally intended it to. John looked at me reprimandingly.
"Cheater!"
"What?"
"That wasn't a kiss, it was a hen peck!"
"Well, I'm not going to do the other kind." John smiled.
"Which is what?"
"Let's not get into that," I said, blushing.
"All right, all right, let her go," said John to his henchmen. Paul and George released me and I took this bull by the horns. Picking up three pillows, I hurled them in every direction until the protesting Beatles backed out of my bedroom. I locked the door and fell exhausted on the bed. What a night.
Early the next morning I awoke full of plans for the day: to go shopping with Patti and Cyn, to practice guitar and piano...to interview Paul.
Pulling on a skirt, pantyhose and a blue blouse, I ran out of the room, and made a point of knocking on the guys' bedroom door.
"FRIEND OR FOE???" John yelled. I opened the door and walked inside. John glanced over at me from a desk on the other side of the room and whistled. I rolled my eyes.
"Paul?"
"Hmm?"
"When we were in the studio, you said that maybe you could be my interview subject for school..."
"Yeah...."
"Well, can I take you up on it?"
"Of course! You want to do it now?"
"Well...sure." I took out a red pencil and black pen from my shirt pocket. Paul smiled and we went out of his room into my bedroom for some more quiet.
"Oh, boy..." I said, "how do we go about doing this?"
"Well, I believe, luv, that you ask me some questions, I answer them, and then you write them down." I laughed shakily and nodded.
"Penny, are you afraid of me? Remembering 'A Hard Day's Night', 'Help!', 'She Loves You'?" I nodded again. It was true. Seeing him standing there in a black suit, ready to be interviewed was reminding me of who, in fact, he was, and where I was with him.
"Well, then, are you going to pass out or kiss me?" I felt like passing out but instead leaned forward and kissed him. He pulled me close to his body so that I could feel his pounding heart against me chest, and he took the paper out of my hands and placed it on the desk behind him. As soon as he came up for air, I backed up for safety.
"Paul, we're doing it again."
"I kissed you."
"I know you did...but it's going to keep going, and I'm just afraid that I won't be able to stop."
"What are you afraid of, Penny?" he interrupted me, not harshly, simply inquisitively. "What is it that's so bad, that you have to keep running from? I'm not going to rape you if that's what you think." I collapsed into a nearby chair.
"Paul, I'd never think that."
"Well, then, what is it?"
"Good grief, Paul, you've got a girlfriend. That's what it is. That's all, I guess. Jane. What about her? Don't you feel bad kissing someone else in a car when she's waiting for you at home? Don't you love her?"
"I don't know."
"Well, do you want to make up your mind?"
"Not while you're here I don't." I smiled: his flattery had definitely struck a chord in my heart.
"Paul..." I stood up, and pressed myself against him. Any fears I had left were snapped in two.
"Yes?" He asked me in a husky voice.
"Paul, I lo-"
"Don't say it!" Paul was tearing up, and so was I. He hugged me and moved me over to the bed. I fell back onto the pillow, and lay looking up at him. Paul slowly bent over me, and as he gave me a long kiss, he put his hand on the bed and lay down on top of me. I couldn't take it any longer: the anticipation and emotional struggle. I reached up to unbutton his shirt. Paul helped me out, and took it off himself as soon as two buttons were undone, ripping the others. He lay back down on me, and unbuttoned my shirt slowly, carefully. I watched his face. He watched mine. *As my blouse came off, he looked down at me and smiled. He kissed me softly, and his kisses traveled down from my mouth past my neck...and lower still. I gasped as he kissed me where I had never been kissed before. He carefully unhooked my bra, but as it fell down my back I held my arms in front of my chest to cover up what the bra had previously. Paul looked at me tenderly, and kissed me again, tenderly, his tongue slowly pushing through my lips. I opened them to drink in the sensation of his salty-sweet mouth.
*"No?" he asked me softly when I left my arms in front of myself. Thoughts raced through my head. If- how- would this happen-
"Yes." I said, and lowered my arms...then Paul leaned forward and held me where I had never been held before. Embarrassed with the good feeling that it gave me, I moved back a bit and tried to compose myself. It didn't exactly work. And Paul noticed.
"Are you all right?" he asked me gently.
"Yes. Yes, I am..."
"It's all right, Penny. I won't hurt you, we can stop when you say to. Relax, let go." And so I did.