Yet another relationship with a girl recently disintegrated before my eyes, over reasons that seemed stupid and adolescent — even though our teen years were behind us.

“You sure it was all her fault?” my old pal Jimmy asked a little too glibly.

We were out, and he’d bought me a beer to commiserate. Before I rebuked him for his question, I actually considered his words.

Finally, I shrugged.

“I guess I got caught up in the problems. But I swear I didn’t start any of them. I wasn’t playing games with her. I liked Nora.”

Jimmy wasn’t entirely unsympathetic. I’d seen him through a few breakups himself.

“Nora was great,” he said. But … ”

“But what?” I wanted to know. I was seeing a repeating pattern in my love life, and I was sick of being caught up in it.

“But she was too young, Oliver.”

“Nora’s my age.”

“You’re beyond the games and stupidities, though. Just like you say.” He took a swig of his own beer. “You need to trade up.”

It wasn’t great advice. That just meant try again, with some random girl. I thought about Nora: toned and tawny, a whirlwind in bed. I had loved plowing her pussy, going down on her and coming in her ass. Sexually, she’d been a prize. She had a talented mouth that could deep-throat me, and she loved to drink my come.

But for every awesome fuck we had, there was a session of misunderstanding and screechy complaints for offenses I didn’t even perceive, much less understand.

Jimmy nudged me and said, “Take her for instance.” He nodded across the bar. “Trade up to a model like that.”

I looked, and I finally understood what he meant. A woman had entered the joint. A real woman, not a shadow of a girl, like the types I’d recently been involved with. This woman had lived her years. I clocked her at 40-plus. But she was that special kind of 40-plus that some women carry off with supreme confidence, style and grace.

Her athletic figure was evident in the black dress she wore. Maybe her fitness was the product of yoga, cycling or even gym workouts now and then. Still, there was nothing desperate about her physique. She appeared to be a woman who liked her comforts. I could tell. No doubt she also enjoyed her pleasures.

Jimmy chuckled at what I guessed was my dazzled expression as I beheld that sensual, poised woman.

“I’ve heard she’s got a kid in college, but you’d never guess it from looking at her,” Jimmy added.

The woman went to a table and ordered a drink from a waitress.

“A lady like that,” Jimmy went on, “won’t go in for theatrics or hysterics. She’s already seen it all, and she isn’t interested in bullshit. You can see life hasn’t beaten her down. Look at her build, her dress, her makeup. She’s still got it.”

She seemed to radiate luscious energy, even from across the room. I wasn’t the only one stealing glances her way. She had lit the place up.

Over the course of the next hour, I surreptitiously watched men approach her table, where she sat solo, sipping her cocktail and refusing all drinks anybody tried to buy her. She handled her suitors firmly, but not cruelly. She seemed to make up her mind about them in the first few seconds. I imagined the men were trying timeworn pickup lines.

Jimmy finally bailed, after I assured him I was emotionally repaired enough, and I thanked him for the cheer-up session. I stayed on at the bar. The stranger had unwittingly cast a spell over me. I’d never before considered being with a woman almost twice my age.

At one point she looked my way. I figured it was just a glance, but it raised gooseflesh on me anyway and made my cock stir. A few minutes later she looked over at me again, her gaze lingering a little.

I stood up and crossed the room, cautiously approaching her. I was nervous in a way I never was with girls my age. Certainly Nora had never made me uneasy like I felt at that moment: excited, vulnerable, eager.

As I neared her table, I got a better look at her face. It was well kept. There was character in it, to be sure, but no wrinkles, no sags. And damn she was attractive! Graceful cheekbones, alluring lips. Her eyes were bewitching. As they looked up at me, my gut fluttered.

The whole thing could fall apart in the next few seconds, I realized. I had one shot only.

I said, “Plainly you know yourself. And I am so tired of women who do not know themselves, and who take their frustrations out on others.”

I thought it was a safe bet that no one else had approached her with such a line. I had said it sincerely. It must have resonated with her because a soft lovely smile moved her lips. Then she extended her hand and said, “I’m Tina.”

“Oliver,” I said, taking the hand which gripped mine firmly.

“Oliver,” she repeated, seeming to savor the word. How promising.

“What I know is I want you to take me home.” Straight to it, then!

Gleefully, I offered my arm and we walked out of there together. I thought I spied a few envious looks from some of the guys she’d shut down.

I drove her to her condo as excitement simmered in me. Our encounter wasn’t just an ordinary hookup, I sensed. Inside her place, she led me right to a tastefully decorated bedroom, and before I drew a breath I was in her arms and her mouth was pressed to mine.

I kissed her back, caressing her curves. She wasn’t at all scrawny. I felt the tone of her body as it pushed against me. Her tongue met mine, and we tangled. As our kiss deepened, my cock swelled.

Tina jammed her crotch against mine. Pleasure skipped through me as she ground on my bulge. Her hands were on me, exploring. I reached down to cup her ass through her black dress. Her cheeks were as firm as melons.

We broke off just long enough to strip. As she flung off her underthings, I was struck by her incredible body. She was still radiating confidence. Her breasts were high and tight, and as I lay my hands on them, I felt her nipples stiffening.

We tumbled onto the bed, which was wide and luxurious. We were in her playground, comfortable and opulent. Her naked body was on mine, and I caressed her. She groped me as we continued to make out with fierce intensity.

I was on my back, amidst the soft bedding. Tina was on top, and she shifted so her pussy was pressed against my hard shaft. Without taking me inside her, she rubbed herself up and down my staff. Pleasure washed over me in waves, and I felt her smoothness, her wetness.

She indulged herself for a moment, purring with rising excitement. Then she shifted forward, still straddling me. She worked her way up my body until her knees were at either side of my head.

I looked up at her, past her enticing tits, and saw an expression of need on her face. Her scrupulously shaved pussy awaited the attention of my mouth. She expected me to fulfill her desire.

I cupped the lovely swells of her ass and lowered her onto my face. My tongue met her damp groove. I got my first cool taste of her, before delving inside for deeper flavors and warmth. Her juices coated my tongue, and I inhaled her beguiling scent.

She ground herself on my mouth, with no hesitation, no doubt about her right to use me in that manner. I had come home with her. She wanted to ride my face. I could either oblige her or leave.

I definitely didn’t want to go. I ate her pussy with gusto as she bucked against my mouth. Her clit swelled, and I coaxed and stroked it. She humped harder, and I encouraged her to, still squeezing her delectable ass.

Tina suddenly reached down and seized a huge handful of my hair. She wasn’t especially gentle, but I didn’t mind. When she let loose an orgasmic cry, she flooded my mouth. I drank everything, relishing her taste.

With a satisfied sigh, she unsaddled herself from my face. I made to sit up, but she pushed me back with a palm to my chest. She moved determinedly until she was lying comfortably between my thighs. My cock stood up erect right before her face.

She took me in her hand, her fingers dancing along my shaft. She examined me with an almost clinical interest as lust lit up her face. She leaned forward to plant a delicate kiss on my cockhead. A little string of pre-come came away, and she licked this from her lips with the look of someone sampling a first excellent taste of wine.

Her mouth closed over my knob, and she sucked her way down my cock. I watched with excitement as I disappeared into her. Her tongue moved nimbly. Her cheeks sucked in, and I felt the sweet suction she applied.

Even Nora’s notable cock-sucking skills weren’t that good. (Nora? Who was Nora?)

Tina wasted no time. She took up a steady tempo, and her head bobbed up and down. It was obvious she enjoyed the act. The pleasure was stark on her face, a hedonistic expression of growing rapture.

It felt like I was sinking further into the mattress, into the luxury of the moment. The hot mouth on my cock, the company of a beautiful woman. No trapdoors anywhere. No fights waiting to come out of nowhere.

About halfway to my climax, Tina broke off and climbed onto me again. I’d been on my back awhile, letting her use me as she liked. I continued to do so, confident her desires would serve me, too.

She took hold of my spit-wet cock and lowered herself onto it. Once again I was disappearing into her. But that time it was to feel the sweet grasp of her pussy.

She planted her knees on either side of me and put a bracing hand on my chest. When she began to ride me, it was at a spirited speed. She’d come once already on my face. But this time she was riding for a bigger climax. I was with her all the way. I thrust up as she came down, her body deliciously in motion.

For a second, I was very aware of the years separating us. But the intensely physical moment soon shattered all that. She went into writhing convulsions atop me, and my cock erupted, spewing my jizz up into her. And in that glorious instant, all time vanished.