“Just so you know, I’m bigger than last time.”

I was standing in line at the local upscale grocery store when I got her message.  I tucked the expensive bottle of Scotch I was carrying under my arm, and awkwardly typed out a reply.

“What do you mean bigger?” 

Her texts came back in succession.

“You’ll see.”

“I miss you.”

“It’s been too long.”

“Don’t keep me waiting okay?”

I was fourth in line, and the line wasn’t moving.  I panicked, caught between my fear of showing up empty-handed, and my sudden overwhelming desire to be in her presence.  

Feeling guilty, I set the bottle down, and hurried out of the store.

Sage is one of my all-time favorite humans.  But scheduling with her can be difficult. She has two other partners, both of whom I would dare to call friends.  My love life is complicated, too.  Sharon and Tabitha had both asked me to say hi to Sage for them that night.  If it felt good. 

Consequently, it had been three weeks since our last date.  I wanted to work up the courage to ask if we could see each other more, and I was terrified she’d say no.  I loved Sage, and she said she loved me too.  But realistically, she was probably out of my league.  One of these days, she would realize that.  

Anyway.  I was pretty sure I knew what she meant by, ‘bigger.’  On our last date, Sage mentioned she’d been hitting the gym pretty hard lately.  It was cute of her to warn me.  But come on.  I’m not the kind of guy to be intimidated by a strong woman.  

But I was half a block from her house now, and I couldn’t get her words out of my head. They made something hot pulse in the middle of my chest.  I didn’t have time to examine the feeling.  Only, I really wished I’d bought her that Scotch.  It would’ve been nice to have something to offer.

The door to her apartment was open a crack. I knocked gently, that heat in my chest growing stronger. 

I could have told you that she was waiting for me in the bedroom even before she spoke.  As though I had an additional sense, with no purpose but to orient myself to her. 

“Lock the door behind you, sweetie. There's nothing to fear.”

It’s funny.  Being told not to fear, is the surest way to become afraid. 

Sage was standing by the window. Grasping the frame, the setting sun orange on her face. She looked at me sidelong, not turning her head. A mischievous little smirk painted across her lips. 

“Holy shit, Sage!”

“Hmph. It’s good to see you, too.”

She turned languidly, took a long moment to stare at nothing in particular, before she fixed her eyes upon me, rooting me in place. 

“It’s not too much. Is it?”

Too much.  It was as if she’d read my mind.  It was as if every part of the Sage I knew had been enhanced, until she was filled beyond capacity.  Sage had always been on the tall side for a woman — five-foot-seven — and she was pleasingly broad-shouldered. But beyond that, the word that best suited her was, ‘willowy.’  She was thin, with long arms and long legs.  You could even call her delicate.

Well, no more. Sage had to be nearly as tall as me, and I’m six feet. I thought for a moment she might be wearing heels, but beneath the hem of her skirt her feet were bare. And a change in footwear wouldn’t have explained the rest of her developments.  Literally every part of her was… well.  More.  The green cotton dress she wore was bare at the shoulders, and I could see the firm definition of her forearms and biceps.  Sage had barely been working out for a month. It should’ve required years of hard work to build a body like that.  Never mind her chest, or her ass.  If I thought she was out of my league before?  God.  She was so beautiful that I practically felt like another species in her presence.

“Your face is priceless.”

I blinked. “Is it really still you?”

Sage clucked her tongue.  “What an interesting question.”

She crossed the room toward me.  Hips swaying dramatically, her eyes never leaving mine. 

“So much of the sensory experience is dependent on the physical vessel.  My eyes, my nose, the tips of my fingers.  I feel, therefore I am.  But with such a dramatic change, to everything I used to feel?  Well.  I think I’m still me.  But of course I would say that.  Though counterpoint, can you honestly tell me that you are still you?  With all the experiences you’ve had since you last held me in your arms?”

She was close now.  Smirking at me.  Enjoying every second of this.

“That’s an invitation, by the way.  To hold me.”

I grinned sheepishly.  Wrapped my arms around her, and kissed her firmly on the mouth. 

She kissed me back, in that familiar way of hers.  Going slow, matching her breath to mine.  Then abruptly opening her eyes, as she slipped the narrow tip of her tongue into my mouth.  It always felt pleasantly illicit when she did this.  Like we were sharing a secret, or getting away with something we shouldn’t.

“Yeah,” I said, resting my forehead against hers. “You can table the ontology.  You’re still Sage.  And you’re still a fucking nerd.”

She laughed. “Glad I pass inspection.  But hey, you still haven’t seen the best part.”

Sage leaned back, bracing herself against the wall, and hiked her skirt up. 

“I mean seriously, look at these thighs. I could practically crush a bowling ball with them!”

Sage knows all my weaknesses, where her body is concerned.  Chalk it up to the hours of pillowtalk, or that we’ve had the chance to exhaustively study each other’s porn collection.  Let’s just say mine has a lot of women doing squats.  Often in attire not appropriate for most public gyms.

The point being, one look at those legs of hers, and it was all over for me. 

“What’s the matter?” she purred. “Thinking about how these are going to feel wrapped around your shoulders?  Or pressed against your ears?”

I swallowed.  “Sage.  Wait.  First tell me how….”

“Do you think I’ll taste different?  My hormones are in overdrive, and my internal chemistry is all out of whack.  My sex drive hasn’t been this strong since I was thirteen.”

“Sage….”

“I’m saying I want you.  I already got myself off four times today.  All while thinking about you going down on me.  It wasn’t enough.  I’ll give you an explanation later.  Promise.  But for now….”  She trailed off, a troubled look coming across her face.  “You never answered me.  I’m not too much for you now.  Am I?”

That heat in my chest again.  I felt a moment of unnamable fear, before instinct compelled me to act.

Sage let me push her down on the bed.  She came to rest on the edge, lifting her dress, spreading her legs.  I sank to my knees, at once a worshiper at her altar.  She wasn’t wearing anything beneath her skirt, and I could immediately sense the humidity of her, could tell that she was soaking wet without even a touch.  I started kissing my way up her newly muscular thigh, following the hard line of her quadricep toward the place where I knew she wanted me.  She pet my hair, then fluffed a pillow behind her head, getting comfortable.  Only then did she begin to moan.

It was oddly disorienting.  Having her so large, so much more substantial, yet so deeply familiar.  I knew her body so well, and had probably gone down on her dozens if not a hundred times.  I ran my fingertip experimentally along her labia, knowing at once how she would respond.  Her husky groan, the trickle of her nectar that soaked my first two fingers.  

I hesitated only slightly before tasting her, remembering her words on the subject, that she might taste different.  But I needn’t have worried, because she was exactly the same, at least to my way of reckoning.  Though I couldn’t remember enjoying her quite so much before.

Sage mostly allowed me to control the encounter, simply laying back and accepting my devotion.  She lowered her dress over my head, enveloping me in sweet-smelling twilight.  I explored her, letting my sense of touch guide me.  Urging her to bloom for me, following the rhythms of her body.  The texture of her was a little different, and it took me a moment to realize that Sage had quite a bit more pubic hair than usual.  She’d explained to me once that she preferred to freshly shave before sex, as the sensation of lube on smooth skin was more pleasing.  It seemed she’d changed her mind.  I’m not sure why, but the thought of her growing wild felt deeply erotic in that moment.  Isn’t it strange, the things that turn us on?

I was too excited to take my time with her, and she wasn’t in the mood to hold back either.  In less than a minute her moans took on that tell-tale urgency I knew so well, and the flavor of her shifted.  Became heady and sweet.  As she passed the point of no return, she squeezed those muscular thighs around my head.  Hard enough against my ears to silence the world outside, for her moans to reach me by induction through her skin.  

I could feel the power in her as she held me this way.  Rendering me helpless and immobile.  I’ll admit I was scared.  A little.  What if I surprised her with my lips or tongue, and learned too late she didn’t know her own strength?  But Sage was as gentle as ever, and I relaxed into the delightful sensation as her legs held me secure.  

My jaw was just beginning to ache when she finally arched her back and whimpered.  I kept flicking my tongue over her clitoris, marveling that even this part of her felt bigger.  Until she released me, and lay still on the bed.

“Yeah,” she panted.  “It’s been way too long.  The fantasy just doesn’t do you justice.”

I crawled out from beneath her dress, smirking.  “So do you want to take back that thing you said?  About being too much for me?”

She touched her chin to the pillow.  Long black locks of hair slipped from her forehead as the light of the setting sun played across her cheek.  

And again, she looked troubled.  

“Is everything okay?” I asked.  

“Just watch,” she whispered.  “And remember.  It’s still me.”

I obeyed, not sure what I was supposed to be watching for.  

What first caught my eye was a sense of movement down near the floor.  Her bare feet dangled an inch or two above the carpet as she lay on the edge of the bed.  As I watched, she seemed to stretch.  Until the tips of her toes touched down.  Then the ball, and finally the heel of her foot.

She watched me watching her.  A nervous smile on her face.  Waiting for me to realize what was happening.  But I just stared at her stupidly.  Sage gave a playfully exasperated sigh, the sound of someone reluctantly giving the answer to a riddle too difficult to solve.  She climbed to her feet, and wrapped her arms around me.  Staring down at me, her eyes an inch above mine.

“You’re… taller!”

She kissed me.  “Not just taller.  I’m a lot of things.  Stronger, and curiver, and I dare say more attractive, but that’s subjective, not a good metric.  But, yes.  I’m taller.”

“But what – how did…?”

“You,” she interrupted.  “You did this.”

A part of me wanted to run.  But she had her arms around me, and her smile was so reassuring.  

“It’s been happening every time I get off,” she explained.  “For about two weeks now.  I think it’s just a few millimeters when I self-pleasure.  If it wasn’t, the way I’ve been behaving the last few weeks?  I’d be towering over the tree tops by now.  Even after a night when I ran the batteries down on every toy I have, and went through two whole bottles of lube, I didn’t pick up more than half an inch.”

I sputtered incoherently.  She waited for me to find words.  When I couldn’t, she went on.

“I saw Rob last week, and Terry just a few nights ago.  Partnered sex is definitely more potent.  And don’t me wrong, I love both of them dearly.  But Rob is a little too timid, and Terry… oh never mind.  What I mean to say is, I’ve been looking forward to sharing this with you ever since I started growing.  Because I knew it would be like this with you.  That you’d be the one to really make me grow.  In sixty seconds, you just gave me more than all my other experiences, combined.”

Sage had slipped her well-muscled arm around my shoulder at this point.  Subtly turning me, so the two of us were looking at her floor-to-ceiling mirror together.  She made eye contact with me in the reflection as she spoke, as her fingertip lightly stroked my ear.  She looked so sure of herself, so confident.  So deeply in love with me.

“I don’t know if I ever told you this.  But you’re the best I’ve ever had.  Sex-wise, I mean.  I’ve had a lot of time to think about why.  It has nothing to do with your body, or the crude mechanics of love-making.  It’s because when you touch me, I can feel how much you care.  How much you want to give to me.  When we’re together, I’m the most important person in the world to you.  Am I right?”

I nodded.

“Do you like me like this?”

She asked it casually, but I could see how much my answer meant to her.  How badly she wanted me to say yes, how much it would hurt her if I didn’t.

“It’s scary,” I managed, speaking through a mouth too dry.  “But.  I do.”

Sage beamed.  She stepped behind me.  Pressed her breasts to my back, hugged me tight against her.  I could just barely see her eyes, peeking mischievously over the top of my head.  Her breath was hot in my hair.

“I want more,” she whispered.