“She’s a French girl who I shot a million times. She didn’t care about being in porn magazines, which was great because I could sell the photos anywhere.”

With a quick tug, your pants and briefs were down around your thighs, and I snuck another piece of ice into my mouth. I easily pinned you in place with a knee between your thighs and spread you open to let the ice drip onto your exposed lips. As the icy water hit your hot pink flesh, you cried out, but you were too tired to throw me off. I let the ice slide between my lips and then pressed it against you, slowly, pushing it inside. As soon as it was in, I moved to lick your clit and eased a finger inside to play with the quickly melting ice. Cold water ran down my wrist as I picked up another piece. I arched my finger and rubbed your soft, spongy folds, listening to you breathe faster and faster. I shoved another sliver of ice into you as your moans became louder, your hips forgetting exhaustion as they began to rock and buck with my strokes. Watching your face twist with sweet torment, I let a second finger join the first in a frenzy of desire...

Among both sexes, the excitement phase results in an increase in heart rate (tachycardia), an increase in breathing rate, and a rise in blood pressure. An erection of the nipples, especially upon direct stimulation, will occur in nearly all females and approximately 60% of males. Vasocongestion of the skin, commonly referred to as the sex flush, will occur in approximately 50-75% of females and 25% of males. The sex flush tends to occur more often under warmer conditions and may not appear at all under cooler temperatures. It has also been commonly observed that the marked degree of the sex flush can predict the intensity of orgasm to follow.

During the female sex flush, pinkish spots develop under the breasts, then spread to the breasts, torso, face, hands, soles of the feet, and possibly over the entire body. Vasocongestion is also responsible for the darkening of the clitoris and the walls of the vagina during sexual arousal. During the male sex flush, the coloration of the skin develops less consistently than in the female, but typically starts with the epigastrium (upper abdomen), spreads across the chest, then continues to the neck, face, forehead, back, and sometimes, shoulders and forearms.

The sex flush typically disappears soon after orgasm occurs, but this may take up to two hours or so, and sometimes, intense sweating will occur simultaneously. The flush usually diminishes in reverse of which it appeared.

An increase in muscle tone (myotonia) of certain muscle groups, occurring voluntarily and involuntarily, begins during this phase among both sexes. Also, the external anal sphincter may contract randomly upon contact (or later during orgasm without contact)...

Nisan didn’t mean to fall in love with Nemutan. Their first encounter — at a comic-book convention that Nisan’s gaming friends dragged him to in Tokyo — was serendipitous. Nisan was wandering aimlessly around the crowded exhibition hall when he suddenly found himself staring into Nemutan’s bright blue eyes. In the beginning, they were just friends. Then, when Nisan got his driver’s license a few months later, he invited Nemutan for a ride around town in his beat-up Toyota. They went to a beach, not far from the home he shares with his parents in a suburb of Tokyo. It was the first of many road trips they would take together. As they got to know each other, they traveled hundreds of miles west — to Kyoto, Osaka and Nara, sleeping in his car or crashing on friends’ couches to save money. They took touristy pictures under cherry trees, frolicked like children on merry-go-rounds and slurped noodles on street corners. Now, after three years together, they are virtually inseparable. “I’ve experienced so many amazing things because of her,” Nisan told me, rubbing Nemutan’s leg warmly. “She has really changed my life.”

Nemutan doesn’t really have a leg. She’s a stuffed pillowcase — a 2-D depiction of a character, Nemu, from an X-rated version of a PC video game called Da Capo, printed on synthetic fabric...