5 Carl and Helen Pt. 01 Manta Ray

An attractive blonde girl called Hayley, with a surprisingly deep voice, took Carl to the temporary desk he had been allocated just inside the door of the Manta Ray Bay Federal Office. He was now one of the thirty-four staff members working there. Office hours were due to begin in five minutes. While he was still standing beside his desk and feeling a bit disoriented, a thickset guy was looking out the window and watching a red car turn into the staff car park. It prompted him to make a loud announcement across the room, "The Alpha female is about to arrive!"

Carl asked Hayley, "Who is he talking about?"

"That's Helen. She's always running late. Because she owns a red Alfa Romeo, he gave her that nickname. She drives it like a racing car -- always with the pedal to the metal."

Next minute the door burst open and a pleasant-looking and beautifully groomed brunette came rushing into the room, head down and a carry-bag in hand. Everyone seemed to be taking a particular interest in her arrival. She stopped in her tracks when she saw Carl's size 12 black shoes in her path. Her brown eyes tracked all the way up Carl's tall frame before locking on to his face. Her mouth opened, but her voice deserted her.

The thickset guy asked her loudly, "Did you notice? They aren't cowboy boots."

Laughter erupted around the room. Carl guessed it must have been some kind of in-joke, but he had no idea what the reason was for all the mirth. Helen, who had kept looking at Carl's face, now broke eye contact and scurried over to her desk beside Rosalyn's and dropped her bag on it. The chortling and general joshing of her continued for some time.

That afternoon Carl watched Helen and her friend Rosalyn walking towards Helen's red Alfa. The dignified and confident way Helen carried herself reminded him of Julie. The women stood beside the car talking briefly. At the end of the conversation, Rosalyn laughed at whatever it was that Helen had said before they entered their cars and drove away.

What Carl didn't know yet was that Rosalyn was the woman who was leaving. She had resigned from the department and the following week would be flying out to live on a kibbutz in Israel for an indefinite period, possibly permanently. Carl was her replacement. That was why he had been given a temporary desk. Since he would be assuming most of her responsibilities, it made sense that, once she had gone, he would be allocated the one Rosalyn had been using. Two weeks later, on the afternoon Rosalyn departed, Carl shifted across to her desk, right beside Helen's.

The open area office was divided into sections which allowed for specialist staff to work together in small groups. The sections were separated by chest-high dividing panels which meant people could see others and the entire work area when standing but not when they were seated.

After the place seemed empty, Carl began finding homes for all of his work materials and equipment. Then he heard a door open and two voices, one male and one female, coming into the building and entering a cubicle down the hallway. With the office area virtually empty at that hour, their voices carried clearly. The conversation began to sound interesting, so he tuned in to the exchange.

He recognized Hayley's voice. "Okay Ben, don't be embarrassed that you haven't done this before. Everyone has a first time. But I'll show you exactly what you need to do, then I'm sure you'll be right for all the next times. There's no one else likely to disturb us in here, so we shouldn't be interrupted."

Ben made a mumbling reply. Hayley went on, "First you need to pull this out. It's a bit stiff, so you'd better do it. That's right. You are a big strong lad, aren't you? Now you need to hold on to it and shove it in here."

"Where?"

"In here. Bend down and have a look. It's a bit dark down there, but you should be able to see where it has to go."

"I'm looking but I can't really see."

"Well, just feel around with your fingers and you should be able to feel where it goes in. Just be careful though; it can get pretty messy inside."

"Ah! I think I've located it. Oh yuk. I've got some of the stuff on my fingers."

"Don't worry, sweetheart. Here's a tissue for you to wipe them on."

"Thanks. All good now."

"Okay. Just try fitting it into the hole. When you think you've found the right place, give it a bit of a wiggle to be sure, then push it all the way in."

"Oh, I can't get it all the way in. It's stuck halfway."

"Here, let me help you. How's that?"

"Like this? Ah, that's better. Now I think it's in as far as it will go." Ben sounded pleased with himself.

"Let me check. Yes, that's perfect. Good boy. Now we're right to go."

Carl's curiosity had got the better of him. He simply had to check out what the pair were up to. He walked along the various work stations until he found the right cubicle. In it, he saw Hayley with a young guy, who had just joined the public service, standing beside the photocopier. As he walked in, Hayley said, "Oh, hello, Carl. I didn't realise anyone was working back. I was just showing young Ben here how to change the toner cartridge in the photocopier."

After Ben had gone, Carl apologised for intruding then explained why he'd come to investigate by quoting most of the prolonged sequence of double entendres he'd overheard. Hayley's jaw dropped. She turned crimson, then burst out laughing. "Oh my god, Carl! You must have wondered whether you'd come to some kind of den of debauchery. For goodness' sake, don't tell anyone else about it. I'd never live it down." Carl promised that her secret would be safe with him, but from time to time he'd ask her quietly whether she had checked the toner cartridge recently.

Workplace Romance

During the next few weeks, he and Helen were constantly interacting at work with regular opportunities to chat. They soon felt completely at ease with each other. In fact, they were becoming closer all the time. For Carl, it hadn't been an instantaneous attraction as it had been with Danielle or Julie. The outcomes of those relationships seemed to confirm the wisdom of the maxim, "people should fall in love with their eyes closed." While Helen was not drop-dead gorgeous like Danielle or Julie, she was great company, and an excellent conversationalist with a quick sense of humour.

Furthermore, she had a curvaceous body and a pleasant and intelligent face with high cheek bones. He thought hers was too determined a face to be called classically beautiful. Carl thought 'striking,' 'strong' and 'genuine' would be more accurate descriptions. She was always well-groomed and conservatively rather than flamboyantly or provocatively dressed. His initial impression was that her dark eyes, curvaceous body and shapely legs were her best physical features. He'd long had an affinity with dark hair and he was intrigued by her small but sensuous mouth. She avoided wearing revealing clothing to work but she appeared to have pert and ample breasts as well as nicely flared hips to go with those graceful legs. It didn't take long to find that they shared very similar values. She was an engaging and thoughtful conversationalist, so they spent more time solving the problems of the world than they should have during work hours. He was quickly realising that her nimble mind was probably her most intriguing feature. She was the polar opposite of the stereotypical "dumb blonde." During one of their many conversations, he discovered that she was a year younger but had been at university at the same time. They'd also been in different faculties, so he didn't remember seeing her at all, but she clearly remembered seeing him playing basketball at a couple of the games she'd attended.

Once Carl felt comfortable with her, he asked her the two questions from the events on his first day that had mystified him: what lay behind all the mirth that surrounded her arrival at the office on his first day? And what had she and Rosalyn talked about in the carpark that they seemed to find so amusing?

In answer to his first question, she told him about all the speculation that had begun when the office heard he was about to arrive from the western town of Kogan. News of a young and single male coming from the pastoral areas of central west had been greeted with curiosity and guesswork from all the staff, but particularly from the single females. Hayley, had insisted that if he passed muster, she wanted the right of first refusal. But now that he was here, she was at a strategic disadvantage when it came to currying Carl's favour because her desk was on the far side of the office. She was never part of the regular conversations that Carl was having with Helen. He had exchanged pleasantries with her, but found that she was too self-absorbed for his liking. If Hayley had any designs him, she gave no indication of it. Maybe she could see how well Carl and Helen were clicking and had decided to withdraw graciously.

Hayley's surname was Bell, prompting Helen to refer to her as "Ding Dong." She said Hayley had imagined him as the bronzed and wealthy son of a western property owner. He would be wearing the graziers' uniform -- wide Akubra hat, Kidman heavy cotton shirt and trousers, a genuine leather belt and a pair of R. M. Williams boots. Sheepishly, Helen said that her cynical prediction for Carl's appearance had been a verbal caricature of a country yokel. She had announced it to the whole office, confidently proclaiming that he would be middle-aged, short, fat, red-haired but balding and wearing thick horn-rimmed glasses and elastic-sided boots with elevator heels. The fact that every one of her predictions was wrong, plus the way her jaw dropped when she first saw him, had caused all the mirth. She was sorry that he was the only one who wasn't in on the joke. Now she hastened to assure him that she was quietly rejoicing that she had been wrong on every count, but acutely embarrassed that she may have offended him. Carl had been chuckling at her prediction and now put a hand on her arm and said she needn't worry. Far from feeling offended, he'd enjoyed the story and was grateful that she had explained what lay behind the staff's reaction.

Replying to his second question, she said that afternoon, in the car park, when he saw her stop to talk to Rosalyn, his instincts had been right. They were indeed talking about him. Well Helen was. She could remember the exact words she'd used to her friend about Hayley's proprietorial claim on him. She'd said, "Ding Dong can bugger off. He's mine!" Carl had to laugh. Not because he thought her claim on him was ridiculous, but because he was quite flattered by her words and how much she must have trusted him to be so frank.

Double Date

Next day, the thickset and outspoken guy, introduced himself as Rob and asked Carl if he'd be interested in sharing the small unit he was renting. Carl was still staying in a large traditional hotel near the railway station, until he found something more permanent. He told Rob that he'd be pleased to check it out and, if it suited, he'd be very grateful to take up the offer. That afternoon, he went to the address that Rob gave him. The place was old, but well maintained. It had two bedrooms each with a double bed, a bathroom, a small kitchen and dining room with an enclosed veranda. The rent was very reasonable, so Carl seized the opportunity to occupy the vacant room.

Soon after he moved in, Rob revealed that he had a steady girlfriend, Gail, who also worked in the office with them. Rob introduced her to Carl later that day. She had a slight build, blonde hair and a big toothy smile. In fact, they were planning to marry but he was Catholic and she was Protestant. Her puritanical mum was implacable about a mixed marriage. She wasn't having a bar of it. Carl saw this as just another example of the way some religious people seem to think they have a god-given right to interfere in the lives of other members of their family, achieving no more than making everyone's lives miserable.

When Rob suggested that Helen and Carl should join him and Gail for an evening on the seafront, they were both secretly relieved that it removed all the possible awkwardness from having to arrange their first date themselves. Since Carl had the largest car, he volunteered to pick up the others. What the others did not know was that Carl had recently, with future camping trips in mind, Carl had had the front bench seat modified to convert into a camping bed, not that he thought that it would be getting any use that night.

The surfing craze was at its height. It soon became the norm for young "surfies" to buy a station wagon that they converted into a mobile bedroom, popularly known as a "shaggin' wagon." The station wagons were useful for sleeping, watching movies at any surviving Drive-in cinemas and for casual sex. Some had suggestive stickers on the rear window with wording such as "Don't come a-knockin' if it's a-rockin'" or "Don't laugh. Your daughter may be inside." Surfing culture was at its height, so the fitted-out station wagons and panel vans were an integral part of it - along with the surfboard racks on the roof, the board shorts and the bleached blonde hair. As Carl did not own a station wagon, he'd thought the convertible seat could provide a workable alternative.

With Rob sitting in the front passenger seat, Carl drove the few blocks to where Gail lived and waited for Rob to bring her out to the car. Helen was sharing a house with some friends in the next town, about twenty minutes away. On arrival, she came out onto the porch to greet him as he approached the front door. She was wearing a loose floral top and a pair of black slacks. Carl thought of giving her a kiss, but decided that might be a bit too presumptuous. As they walked to the car, Carl saw that Gail and Rob had moved to the back seat, so Helen could sit in the front with him. Everyone was wearing casual summer clothes. Carl mused over whether the decision by the girls to wear button-up blouses was a portent of their willingness to allow easier access to their breasts. However, the fact that neither of them was displaying much cleavage seemed to cast some doubt on that optimistic speculation.

On the way, they stopped to buy some take-away seafood and some soft drinks. Normally, they all liked to drink some alcohol; but, given the recent police blitz on drink-driving, it would have been unfair on Carl for him to be the only one remaining teetotal. After piling back in the car carrying their purchased meal, they headed off to the beach. Rob directed Carl to a sandy track that ran through an avenue of trees along the shoreline and led to a small headland where there was a stand of casuarina trees overlooking the sea. At the end of the track there was an open parking space with an unobstructed view over the bay. Carl found a suitable place to stop under the trailing fronds hanging from the branches of a large casuarina. It provided a pleasing frame for their view out across the water.

While they were eating their meal, the full moon rose over the horizon. At that low angle, it looked like a huge, blotched disc of pale orange. They broke open their food packages and drinks, then sat back to watch the rising moon as they ate their meals. By the time they'd finished eating, it had climbed higher into the sky and was slowly turning to silver and creating a glittering pathway across the water. Gail said, "Hey, this view looks really romantic, doesn't it? Just look at that beautiful big moon lighting up the bay." A light breeze had sprung up, wafting through the sighing casuarina branches and scenting the air with the brisk tang of the sea.

The moon cast just enough pale light into the car for them to be able to see each other dimly and most of the car's interior. Rob and Gail, in the back seat, were already kissing and petting. Helen slid across the front bench seat to sit next to Carl. When he put his arm around her shoulders, she snuggled up against him and he could feel the pressure from her large right breast nestled against the side of his chest. He bent his head to kiss her, brushing his lips lightly over hers. They were parted and lightly moistened. They began to kiss, gently at first, but when the tip of his tongue traced the margins of her rosebud mouth, she trembled slightly and instinctively parted her lips some more. Emboldened, Carl slid his tongue gently between them. Momentarily, Helen stopped breathing and looked at him. To his great surprise, she'd parted her lips just enough to suck lightly on his tongue, encouraging him to explore her mouth, first with a murmur of approval, then more hungrily. After a short hesitation, he decided to go for it.

With a touch as light as air, his tongue brushed her warm lips, allowing it to linger there briefly. Now, with her encouragement, he stiffened and pointed it, venturing to insert it firmly between her tender lips. Helen responded instantaneously. First, she sucked on it, hungrily swirling her tongue around his. That symbolic penetration of her willing mouth ignited his wildest instincts. With both their tongues now soft and mobile, they tangoed together, whirling and twirling in a dance of seduction. Suddenly this seemingly quiet and demure woman had become voraciously receptive. It was apparent to Carl that Helen was considerably more experienced at this than he was. She would later confirm that one of her previous boyfriends had taught her the fine art of deep kissing. Either he must have been a great teacher or Helen was a willing and gifted pupil - or both.

Carl thought that her enthusiasm for his probing tongue was a cause for optimism that she may be receptive to him inserting something else hot and stiff and warm between her nether lips. Carl could feel his cock was achingly tumescent inside his shorts. Soon they were locked in a steamy embrace, giving each other long passionate kisses. Helen, of course was acutely aware of what taking place inside Carl's shorts, firstly because she could see how his cock was trying to burst out of them and secondly, because she'd had four boyfriends who'd displayed exactly the same symptoms when they were in a raunchy wrestling session with her. Months later, when they were recalling that first long kiss that they'd shared, she told him that she could feel a warm sensation spreading between her legs which steadily grew into a tremulous tingling.

Meanwhile Carl's attention was focussed on Helen's floral blouse. It was translucent enough for him to see the outline and colour of the bra she was wearing underneath - a white lacy number with generous cups. She had no need for a padded model. Sadly, the blouse gave him no chance to see their contents. His disappointment was short-lived because her open-mouthed kiss and the way she was pressing her large breast against the side of his chest had definitely shifted his focus. Helen opened the front of his shirt and began to rub the palm of her hand over his bare chest. Carl's dick, already hard, was throbbing wildly. He knew the precum would be streaming from it. So, emboldened, he decided to press his luck and placed his free hand on her left breast, rediscovering just how soft and tender a woman's breasts are and appreciating just how abundant Helen's were. But it was a step too far and too fast for her. She removed his hand as he was kissing her and made throaty sounds of protest -- but she never stopped kissing him.

From the heavy breathing coming from the back seat, it was pretty clear that Rob and Gail were similarly occupied. There was a snap of elastic and Carl glanced over the back of his seat. In the dim moonlight, he saw that Rob had undone all the buttons on Gail's white blouse and pushed her bra above her tits as they were kissing, exposing her small pointed breasts. The soundtrack from the back became more uninhibited as the night wore on, but he stopped peeking in case it became obvious to the others, including Helen. Instead, he began to advance things in the front seat. When he returned to kissing Helen again, she resumed rubbing his chest with the palm of her hand. It felt simultaneously soothing and sexy. He wondered whether it was a signal to him that she would like her breasts rubbed as well. Overriding his usual reticence to give offence to a woman, he slipped his hand under the bottom of her loose top and felt the smoothness of the skin between the waistband of her slacks and the base of her bra. Gradually, he ventured to move his hand northwards and came in contact with the generously filled cotton cup on her bra. He spread his hand and felt the hormones surge as he tentatively squeezed her soft flesh. This time, she did not resist. Her breast felt just as tender as he'd now come to expect it to feel. He was entranced by the sensual pleasure that its supple softness gave him. He could feel that her breasts were larger than those of all his former girlfriends, with the possible exception of Julie. Equally, there was no doubt that he had considerably more breast tissue in his hand than Rob would have been holding in his. Gail most likely wore an A cup, but he thought that Helen would need at least a C cup.

Emboldened now, Carl reached behind Helen's back to unfasten her bra. If he'd had more practice, he may have been touching the skin of her tits much sooner than he was destined to. His inept fumbling must have triggered second thoughts for her. She twisted away making made more throaty sounds of protest -- but she never stopped kissing him.

As they continued kissing, Carl shifted so that he was lying diagonally across the front seat and Helen was half lying on top of him. Then she did something quite unexpected. She shifted her hips closer and swung her leg over his, straddling his thigh, so that her pussy was pressing firmly down on it. Carl had already noticed that her elastic tights hugged her body so tightly that he fully expected to see her crotch displaying a classic camel toe. He surmised that either her knickers were pulled taut over her slit or she had a thick enough mat of pubic hair to camouflage it. Now she was suggestively rubbing her pussy up and down his thigh. He couldn't believe she would do something so blatantly suggestive. She seemed to be sending him mixed signals. He could feel the warmth of her cunt through her slacks. Despite her provocative pussy frottage but in view of her reluctance to allow him to remove her bra, he decided not to try to slip his hand down into her knickers either. Nor did she touch his pubic area, although, after what Julie had told him, he was sure she had felt his erection pressed against her stomach as she rubbed herself on him. At a later time, she would tell him that she could feel not only the swelling and how stiff it was but also the heat emanating from it.

Meanwhile, the heavy breathing in the back seat had increased in volume and intensity and he was sure he heard the sound of Rob's uncut cock being sucked by Gail. It wasn't long until there was a tell-tale moan. Carl glanced over the back of the seats in time to see that the end of Rob's thick pale cock was deep inside Gail's mouth. Her blouse was unbuttoned and her bra was pushed up leaving her pointy tits completely exposed. In the moonlight, the tinted areolas looked as if she had dipped them into lilac paint. Carl wondered whether the sounds were arousing Helen as much as they were stimulating him. Perhaps they did, because she was grinding her pussy on his thigh even more vigorously. Carl was close to a state of sexually induced delirium.

A few times he felt so aroused that he was sure he was going to cum into his jocks. Helen continued to gyrate her cunt against his leg until her breathing became so laboured he was sure she must have climaxed. Helen later confirmed as much but also revealed she was a multiple orgasm girl. That explained why she had remained aroused during what happened next. By then it had become quite clear that Rob and Gail had gone much further than he and Helen had. There had been suppressed moaning on a number of occasions. Then they distinctly heard Gail trying unsuccessfully to stifle the sound of her orgasm. Sometime later there was the unmistakable sound of a foreskin flapping. Carl guessed that Gail was performing a hand job on Rob. He thought she must have finished him off with her mouth because all went quiet for a while before they heard Rob's breathing become heavier, culminating in a deep and barely suppressed groan. Finally, there was the sound of more tissues being removed from a box. After that, all went quiet - apart from the odd contented sigh.

This was never going to be the night that Carl would get his end away with Helen but he'd remained highly excited throughout their session of passionate kissing and touching. He didn't have to be a genius to guess what had happened in the back seat which alone would have been enough to maintain his persistent tumescence. The sounds of Rob and Gayle's love-making had been an erotic backing track to the way Helen had kissed him and rubbed herself on him to keep him in a feverish state of amorous intoxication. After he was back in his new home and in bed, he was still so horny from what had transpired that he had to jerk off before he could get to sleep. As soon as he imagined Helen doing to him what Gail had done to Rob, his cock erupted after just a few light strokes.