You don’t usually know for certain the last time you’re going to sleep with someone. Relationships don’t often disintegrate according to any schedule. You might have a major disagreement, something that feels big enough to end things. But then there’s the possibility of make-up sex. Even one-night stands might turn into two-nighters.

But I knew when I stepped into the rose-scented haven of Hina’s bedroom with her that it would be the last time I would be with her, see her naked, make sweet love to her gorgeous body. She was leaving, returning to Japan, and she wasn’t coming back.

Hina was availing herself of a great business opportunity, but her family also really wanted to see her again. I couldn’t — and didn’t — begrudge her decision. We’d had some wonderful times, a full summer of romance and sex. But autumn had come and winter wasn’t too far off, and there wasn’t anything I could do to keep her by my side.

At least we were having one final night of passion.

My senses were all tuned up to their highest gain. It was like my body recognized what my brain and heart already knew: I would soon be without the delicate and fulfilling joys of Hina.

So I was desperately aware of the lingering floral scent of her room, derived from the candles she sometimes burned. The whisper of our feet on the carpeting was a roar in my ears. My eyes picked out individual dust motes spinning frailly in the air.

As my fingers opened her blouse, I keenly felt the texture of its pearl buttons. When we kissed, the taste of her mouth was a savory jolt on my tongue.

But I didn’t let the melancholic backdrop interfere with the forepieces of our set. This was our last performance. But there is beauty in a finale — knowing you’re there to see it, recording it in your own soul and preserving it that way.

We kissed long and deep, and we busily undid snaps and belts as we made out. By that point, we had all the shorthand down. There were no miscues or unnecessary hesitations. She certainly wasn’t inhibited with me, and I was as comfortable with her in a sexual setting as I’d ever been with anyone.

Maybe ours wasn’t a romance to set the heavens afire, but we’d had a damn fine connection. And it was time to see things off in style.

Her bare skin was like satin. I took her up in my arms and carried her onto the bed. She looked up at me with dark bewitching eyes. We lay down, kissing again. We were voracious, our tongues hungrily seeking each other.

I pulled her against me and felt the erect tips of her nipples, which were hardened with arousal. Her hands eagerly roamed over my body. She reached around to squeeze my ass, and I cupped one of her tits. She squirmed happily against me.

Hina reached between our bodies to fondle my balls, knowing just the right amount of pressure to use. I rubbed my stiffened cock against her flat belly, and pleasure hummed through me. My body might have known this was my send-off with Hina, but its needs were just as intense as they always were. I relished fucking this woman, and that night would be no exception.

We got seriously into it. I sucked her breasts, nibbling her hard nipples until she squealed. Then I moved down her body, parting her legs and applying my mouth to her streaming pussy. I tongued her slit and was rewarded with the gratification of her orgasmic triumph and the lush flavor of her juices, which flooded my mouth.

She, in turn, spent several minutes lavishly sucking my cock from knob to base. She deep-throated me with every expert plunge of her mouth and brought me halfway to the brink.

At that point, we fucked like mad. She got on me, then I was atop her. Then we were rolling all about. Somehow we found ourselves on the carpet. Later, she was facing the wall, with her ass thrust out, and I was pounding her. She came and came again as we became a blur of sexualized mayhem. My cock was as hard as mahogany, while I slammed away at her pussy.

But finally I went over the top, and my dick released great spurts of cream. She came seconds after me, truly a final spin on the carnal merry-go-round. And we went out like that in a glory of jizzy, juicy bliss.

When she was gone, I decided what I would do. I wouldn’t rush out to find my next bedmate. I could get by on the lingering afterglow of Hina’s charms for a little while. Besides, I didn’t trust what choices I might make while on the rebound.

Despite everything I’d told myself, I knew I really would miss her. Fiercely. I understood, with all the maturity of my years, that parting as we had was the right thing to do. Long-distance romances aren’t for me. I didn’t want to be her online boyfriend, and I certainly didn’t have the money to go shuttling back and forth between the U.S. and Japan.

But she was a stark absence in my life in those first few days after her departure. So I decided instead of changing girlfriends, I would change my scenery. Hina and I had been at our peak during the hot summer months. So I would go somewhere cold, just for a while, a mini-vacation to sort myself out.

I was able to afford a plane ticket to a northern state. No place fancy, just a random city where I could really feel the weather. There wasn’t snow yet, but the air was bracing. I could feel it in my lungs.

Just about anywhere new can be exotic under the right circumstances. The city had its quaint places, parks worth wandering through, a museum to visit and funky little cafés locals probably didn’t think twice about.

I let myself get caught up in the experience, like I was visiting somewhere romantic, even mythical, like a Paris of the mind. I roamed around in a pleasant daze, soaking up the landscape. Memories of Hina eased in my heart, becoming less fraught. She was turning into just that — a memory. It began to feel like I was really leaving her in the past, which was how it should be.

Midday on my third day I stopped at a café where I’d been getting my lunch. I sat at the counter and ordered. A moment later someone took the adjacent stool, even though there were plenty of other seats. I turned to meet the eyes of a woman, who gazed back at me with a curious smile on her attractive face.

“Hello again,” she said.

“Uh, hello.” I couldn’t recall meeting her before, though I’d chatted in a friendly offhand manner with lots of people since my arrival.

She chuckled, and it was a pleasant sound.

“No, you don’t know me,” she said. “I own this place. I’ve seen you come in three days in a row. You always have this dreamy look on your face, like you just won the lottery.”

It was my turn to laugh. I told her I was vacationing in her city — though I didn’t specify why — and she seemed to find that charming and told me her name was Daphne.

We shook hands as I introduced myself. Her grip was firm, her skin soft. I studied her features a bit more closely. She was quite pretty. She looked fit, with the easy health of someone who has kept in shape her whole adult life.

I told her where I’d been around the city. She nodded and added, “I’m a native. Do you want to see the spots only the locals know about?”

“Are you offering to show me around, Daphne?”

“I am, Wyatt.”

Apparently, she could take off from work in the middle of the day. She took me out of the restaurant, piled me into her car and took me on the grand tour. She acknowledged her small city didn’t have any famous sights, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t lots of fun to be had.

She was right. She took me to an underground art gallery, a poetry reading at a coffeehouse, and the coolest comic book store I’d ever seen. She knew people wherever we went and cheerfully introduced me as her new friend. I liked the sound of that.

Soon she had her arm linked through mine as she guided me along, and the occasion started feeling very much like a date. There was a warmth emanating from her. I liked her laugh, and there was an undeniable chemistry cooking between us.

But I had come up north to chill my spirit, right? This was supposed to be an excursion devoted to cleansing my romantic palate. Hina was long gone overseas, and I was to take a deep expunging breath before resuming my normal life.

I hadn’t counted on Daphne, however. Evening was coming on. We’d spent the day together, and it had been wonderful. I thanked her for going to so much trouble over me. She squeezed my forearm, leaned in and planted a quick kiss on my cheek. I blushed — actually blushed — which warmed my face, despite the general crispness in the air.

“Aw shucks, Wyatt,” she said, laughing. “It’s been no trouble. Want to come back to my place for a cup of tea?”

I swear I felt the ground shift under my feet. I heard the offer behind her offer. Certainly I was quite drawn to Daphne. But some last second doubt made me hesitate, and she said, “Well, maybe not then.”

I broke out of my momentary paralysis to hastily say, “No! I mean, yes. Tea. I’d love to have tea.”

She grinned and off we went.

When we walked in her front door, I felt a wave of warmth. A nice even heat permeated her apartment. I shivered, but it felt good. Amid the day’s decidedly fun activities, I hadn’t realized how the cold had been slowly seeping into my bones.

It was a cozy home. The tea made it feel even more so, as did Daphne, who sat next to me on the sofa with her legs tucked underneath her. She smiled, and a deeper heat bloomed within me.

She blew steam off her cup, and I stared at the circle her lips made.

“So, who was she?” Daphne asked.

I froze again and processed what she’d said. With a shrug, I told her about Hina, which also told her what I was doing in her small burg.

She brought her fingertips to my temple and slowly combed them back through my hair. The contact brought out another shiver in me, this one accompanied by a stirring of my cock.

“Poor fella,” she said. “Let me kiss it better.”

With that, our mouths came together. Her lips spread, and her tongue darted between mine. I drew her into my arms. I told myself not to rush things, then found her practically climbing on top of me. I quickly adjusted to her exuberance. Her body squirmed atop mine. She jammed her crotch shamelessly against the growing bulge in my pants. Her breasts heaved against me, and we were still kissing madly.

She broke our lip-lock and was practically panting as she said, “Bed.”

We headed to her bedroom. The fading light streaming through the windows was soft, the air rich with her scent. We pawed at one another, standing at the foot of her bed, then paused long enough to strip.

Her bare body was magnificent. But I barely had time to ogle her full tits, her smooth thighs and the tempting mound of her pussy before we tumbled onto her mattress.

I pulled her against me and felt her stiffened nipples grazing my flesh. My hand closed on one of her breasts, squeezing her soft tit. She gasped and cut right to the chase, reaching between us to grip my cock, and I groaned with pleasure. I liked her boldness, her decisiveness. She knew what she wanted, and it was me. I wondered if she’d had this scene in mind from the moment she’d sat beside me at her eatery.

She jerked my shaft while I plucked at her nipples. She had a blazing look in her eyes, and the aroma of her excitement was in the air. I drizzled pre-come onto her fingers. She brought her hand to her mouth, licked her knuckles clean, then wriggled her way down the bed.

She settled between my legs, scooping up my balls in one hand. Her head hovered over my pelvis, her open mouth above my waiting cockhead. Anticipation tingled wildly over every inch of me. She grinned at me, then dropped her warm mouth over my knob.

I sucked in air through my teeth as she sucked my cock into her eager mouth. Her lips were sealed tight. She swallowed my whole length in one fearless dive, and pleasure overwhelmed me.

She bobbed on my bone as heat continued to spread through me. My internal temperature was rising. Sweat beaded my forehead, and a great relaxing warmth was heating my flesh. I was rapidly heading toward the point of no return. I reached down to tug gently on her shoulder.

Her head came up just briefly enough for her to say, “Come in my mouth!” Then she resumed sucking me. Her forthright command as much as her cocksucking skills sent me over the top. Seconds later, my balls tightened in her cradling hand and my jizz starting shooting across her tongue. Her mouth stayed in place, and I heard her swallowing every spurt.

She sat up, looking languid and sexy. In no time at all, she was climbing up my body, setting her knees on either side of my head and straddling my face. Her gleaming pussy loomed over me. I knew what was expected and was eager to do it.

Daphne lowered herself onto my mouth. I got an immediate taste of her as her juices were already flowing. Her flesh was soft and warm, and when I speared my tongue up into her, she moaned softly.

She grabbed the headboard and rode my mouth. I tongued her swollen clit, and she humped my face harder. She ground herself against my lips, taking her pleasure from me and uttering a musical string of curses.

She came with hard jerks of her hips, thoroughly smearing her juices over the lower half of my face. I loved the hot flavor of her. Only when she’d given her last twitch did I realize my cock was fully hard again. New excitement hummed in my long-since thawed limbs, and my heart beat an impatient rhythm in my chest.

Cold hadn’t been the answer. Heat was. The heat from this woman, the lovely warmth of sexual contact.

Her flesh was slick with exertion as I put her onto her back. Her eyes glowed with a languorous light as I moved on top of her. But fresh heat was stirring in her, too. I plunged into her dripping snatch, gasping at the sweet clutch of her spasming muscles. I stroked into her, and she rolled her hips to receive each of my thrusts.

Her tits bounced as I plowed her. Her lips were still flavored with my come. I kissed her anyway, knowing as our tongues met that she was getting a taste of her own pussy juice.

I drove deep, hitting her core. Her hands went to my shoulders, and her scrabbling fingers dug into my flesh. My whole body felt in motion, every loosened muscle at work.

She started to quake beneath me, and a cry built in her throat. I didn’t let up because it was obvious she wouldn’t want me to. I fucked her harder, our bodies coming together with loud smacks. She came so wildly she almost threw me off. I kept pounding her and was gratified at her visible satisfaction.

She eased me back and said, “Do me doggy-style, and shoot your load inside me.”

Daphne moved onto her hands and knees. Then she gripped the headboard again, this time thrusting out her sculpted ass.

I hurried in behind her and slotted my slick cock back into her. I liked the new angle, delighting in the feel of her ass in my two steadying hands. I stroked into her deeply once more, feeling her heat again and knowing I’d soon be unloading my spunk into her. But just as I was gearing up for a go-for-broke tempo, she cried out, “Put it in my ass. Come there.”

I was shocked, but she spoke like a woman who knew what she wanted.

I pulled out, shifting my position slightly, and with my hand trembling, I brought my glossy cockhead to her rear opening. I eased in slowly, but my impatient lover rocked back hard on her knees. She impaled herself on my cock, taking me all the way, so my balls were flush against the globes of her ass.

I was so deep in her that I felt the heavy pulse of her flesh all around my rod. A lovely ecstasy was broiling my soul. I set out to fuck her ass. She was thoroughly cooperative, thrusting back against me, totally in sync with my movements. I gripped her hips. I drove my cock forcefully, knowing I didn’t need to be delicate, knowing she didn’t want that at all.

I hammered her butt. She thrashed about, knocking the headboard against the wall. She flung her head from side to side. She was coming again, and I followed. A final urgent crisis gripped me, and I let go with hot spurt after hot spurt. It was fantastic, cleansing and affirming. I’d come to that place to renew myself, and I had found Daphne. She had given me what I really needed. Our heat mingled, and our mutual joy was enough to melt the city around us.