My husband, aka my best friend and co-conspirator in all things that could be considered naughty, grinned at me over the book we were perusing in the adult store in Milwaukee.
“They locked the doors to the public just now, so that’s got to be him,” he said.
“Of course it’s him. Didn’t you hear his voice?” I giggled. I can’t help it. I’m a giggler.
There was no more delaying it after that. We moved into the adjacent room where rows of chairs were set up and a tall stranger with Cooper Beckett’s voice was testing the audio. I hesitated as I tried to simultaneously decide where to sit and also to reconcile my imaginary Cooper with the genuine article. It actually wasn’t that far off, which made me smile, but he did look younger than my mind’s image. He seemed slightly vulnerable as he checked all the wires leading to and from the speakers, tested the microphone for recording Swingset #148, and glanced around for a spot to sit. He obviously wanted everything to be just right for his class. Once done with the prep, though, he looked up and, oh, my. There was such intelligence and humor in those eyes. ‘OK,’ I thought, ‘this is why I came.’
The class had been my husband’s idea. Our forays into pegging had been lackluster at best and logistically challenging at worst. He enjoyed receiving prostate play much more than I enjoyed giving it, but he also knew I could be tempted to attend due to my thirst for knowledge and my fondness for listening to all things Swingset.
“Where do you want to sit?” he asked. I started to head down Row 2, but then he nodded and said, “Only teachers’ pets sit in the front row. You’re probably too shy to be that close.” Challenge accepted. I immediately changed course and chose the seat in the front row directly in front of Cooper. My husband chuckled and sat next to me.
After a few minutes my phone, which was respectfully set to vibrate, buzzed to tell me about some completely mundane email I was receiving. The buzz was loud even from inside my jeans pocket, so I sighed in frustration and reached to turn the phone completely off. I didn’t want to be reminded of the real, plain world. I very much preferred the world of Cooper’s “Take it Like a Man” class, even though it hadn’t even started yet. Besides, if anyone was going to distract Cooper with annoying buzzing noises, it wasn’t going to be me.
“What are you doing?” my husband asked. “Wasn’t the ringtone already off?”
“Yes, but the vibrate’s too loud.” I muttered quietly and, I thought, unobtrusively.
“Did you just say that your vibrator’s too loud?” A booming, classically amused Cooper Beckett asked.
I felt my face get hot and, I’m sure, bright red. I wasn’t embarrassed; I was thrilled. But I was also tongue-tied and completely blank for a second before managing to stammer, “Much too loud for right now.”
He smiled at me before turning his attention back to his notes.
During the excellent class that followed, Cooper also commented that my husband and I were enthusiastic about raising our hands to indicate we had experimented with anal play. It was exhilarating and a little scary to admit it in front of a room of strangers, but we were all there for the same class, after all. Cooper made admitting such things seem easy. He was baring much more about his experiences than he was asking us to do. His candor and charm paved the way for us to be open and honest in response. The class itself made prostate play much more interesting and attractive than I ever thought it could. I’d reluctantly ventured into anal play only for my husband’s sake. I didn’t really see the point or appeal of it when there are so many nicer, cleaner erogenous zones to explore. I thought I knew pretty much all about it, but it wasn’t until I could see Cooper’s enthusiasm and watch Ophilia model harnesses that the unique pleasure to be had for both parties became real for me. Like melding Cooper’s voice to an actual set of features, matching up the basic how-to with actual descriptions of the rewards to be gained was a revelation. I had a sudden urge to take my husband into a back room for some practice.
During Q and A, however, I lost my bravado. Several other people asked questions, and Cooper and his fellow educator Lyndzi Miller (@Lyndzi) could not have been more polite and informative. My husband nudged me to raise my hand, but I shook my head at him. I didn’t see him raising his hand, either, after all. I could feel, at that point, that my courage was not going to come back. I wasn’t going to flirt or banter, and nothing crazy or suddenly pornographic was going to jump into the evening’s activities. Life seldom resembles the fiction of film or our imagination, and I was not nearly smooth enough to actually peg my husband, Cooper, or anyone else in the back room of an adult store.
The class finally ended and we were encouraged to shop in the store a bit longer and to drive home safely. Cooper and Ophilia wandered the store and ended up buying something at the same time as my husband and I approached the register. The store clerk pointed at the book we were buying and said, “That’s a good one.” It was a book about anal sex positions, and everyone around us smiled, fully aware of what we would probably be trying out later that night.
In the end, I never asked my question in class, but the book was indeed a good choice. My question was about positions and how a six-foot tall man is penetrated by a five-foot-two-inch woman when, if he bends over, his butt is approximately level with her chest. But Cooper gifted me with something that night. His class gave me the confidence and desire to keep trying. The book had several good suggestions, and some of the positions have become common for our pegging sessions. And even though I still have not experienced much direct physical pleasure from pegging, watching my husband’s face as I move inside him is incredibly hot.
My experience seeing Cooper in person was thrilling, informative, and ultimately it gave me what I needed even if my own insecurity caused me to get it in a round-about way. Hopefully, if I’m ever in a room with him again it will be during one of my braver moments and I can ask whatever question comes to mind. I have a feeling, remembering his intelligent eyes and friendly smile, that he’d love to give me the answer.
