What I Wrote and Why: orgasms

[StillStunned]

Isn't strange how orgasms get short-changed in erotica? I mean, they're the point we all work towards when we're having sex, and hopefully we even get there. People read erotica, by and large, for the sexual arousal, presumably ending in a climax.

So why are they glossed over in so many stories? "With a roar I came deep inside her." "His tongue drove me to ecstasy until I felt my orgasm crashing through me." "He felt his orgasm build up until he exploded."

And then they rolled over and fell asleep.

Surely an orgasm, the climax of the sexual act and in many cases the story, or at least the scene, surely it deserves more than a handwave? For this WIWAW, I'm looking not at a single story, but at a common theme in nearly all my stories: describing the orgasm.

The following excerpts all describe orgasms from the narrator's point of view, and only the orgasm and its immediate build-up: not the whole sex scene, or the gasps and cuddles afterwards. Yes, I know that those are what make or break a sex scene, but this post is purely to highlight the description of the orgasm itself.

Here's the first one from my earliest story here. A masturbation scene from Dark Encounters:

Her breath was coming fast, guttural moans escaped from deep in her throat, and then she felt a small knot of fire bloom inside her loins. She continued to rub, letting the flame blossom, feeling it spread through her limbs, until suddenly it exploded and her body was wracked with spasms of pleasure.

I'm quite proud of this. An orgasm isn't an instantaneous thing, after all. You feel it begin, and you nurture it carefully until the time is right. (Or am I alone in this? I don't get to discuss these things often.)

Here's an orgasm from the final instalment of the series, Orgy of Death:

Then his fingertip pressed against her hole, and at precisely the same moment he sucked her button hard into her mouth. The dam burst inside her, and her climax exploded in white fire that wracked her body and sent shocks through her arms and legs.

Sligh's mouth slowed, but his finger stayed pressed against her hole. The sensations went on and on, decreasing in intensity until she pulled his head away with trembling hands and let herself slide down the wall until her bare arse touched the tiles.

The scene continues, but I feel I let myself down a bit here. Somehow it doesn't seem right if it takes less time to read about an orgasm than the orgasm would actually last in real time.

This one's from The Countesses of Tannensdal, and again it doesn't do justice to the idea of a climax:

I let go and lay back, and the sensations of my climax shook my body all the way down to my toes. I felt spurt after spurt leave me as the maid sucked every drop out.

The next sex scene makes up for it, though:

In and out I went, feeling her firm buttocks against my stomach, hearing her gasps turn to moans once more -- feeling the flood swell up inside me, first pressing and then beating against the dam of my self-control as I sought to draw out and heighten the sensations.

Then I reached the point of no return and let go. The explosion ripped through my shaft and sent shockwaves through my rump, my arms, my legs, my neck and my head. Twice more I shuddered, then I collapsed on top of her, feeling her warmth beneath me and listening as her breathing returned slowly to normal.

Here's one from By Voice and By Candle:

A tightening in her stomach told her that her orgasm was on its way, and she rubbed faster and faster. The pressure built up, slowly at first and then like a great flood.

She held it back, letting it build and build and build, feeling the fire spread through her body and make her moan. Then, just as it was about to break free, she pressed her finger into her arse and pushed herself over the edge.

Purple lights flashed behind her eyes and she felt her knees tremble. Shudders racked her body, forcing gasps from her as one explosion after another ran through her.

Better. But the next two are a bit abrupt:

She grunted, then gave a voiceless cry as her orgasm ripped through her. Her eyes squeezed shut, she felt her legs spasm as the relief swept out of her.

And:

A flick sent a shudder through her, a quick pinch made her cry out, then she rubbed and suddenly her body erupted in climax.

It exploded through her, and came back in waves from the unseen presence around her, making her cry out again and again, until she couldn't take anymore and she collapsed onto the bed, the toy still buried inside her.

This is from Flesh for Another Fantasy. Two lovers coming together, the perfect orgasm!

She was getting close, I could tell. Her breathing caught in her throat, and a red flush spread downward from her neck. "Coming," she whispered, "coming..."

That one word was enough to light the spark inside me too. I let it build carefully, allowing it to swell without losing control. I felt it tingling in my belly, in my toes, in the base of my skull.

Mel fell forward on top of me, still riding up and down. Her hands clutched at my head, and her face was pressed into my neck. Her breathing was loud and irregular, almost desperate. My lips found her ear and I kissed it, then moved down to suck at her neck.

This tipped her over the edge. With a grunt she froze, then thrust herself down onto my cock. "Yes," she whispered in my ear, "yes, yes..." Her body shook and convulsed.

Just feeling her climax on top of me set me off too. I gave a strangled moan and pushed up against her, white fire burning through my veins as I felt myself release again and again.

This one from Too Late Not to Fuck is also quite graphic:

The spark that her fingers had lit blossomed into a flame. I fought to hold it back for as long as I could, relishing the sensations that her mouth and hand gave me. Harder and harder it pressed against the dam, then I felt her finger tickle at my taint again and I exploded.

White fire shot along my shaft and into her mouth. Jolts of electricity ripped through my body, making me shudder and gasp. She sucked again, drawing more of the fire from me, and again and again until I collapsed onto the bed, sweating and breathing hard.

But I think this one is my favourite, from The Code:

By now her climax was making its inevitable way from tiny spark to explosion. She let his cock slip from her mouth, felt her jaw ache dully, knew it would be worse tomorrow. She didn't care.

She focused on feeling the flame within her grow, blossom. She and Zoltan were artists working in unison: he stoked the fires with his lips and fingertip, she contained and moulded them, keeping the pressure on and letting it build up higher and higher.

Then Zoltan sucked hard on her clit. At the same time he pressed a second finger against her arse and pushed.

Unable to hold back anymore, Allie felt herself explode inside. Her body shuddered as fire ran through her, from her pussy to behind her eyes and to the tips of her toes. Zoltan didn't let up. He sucked her clit and caressed it with his tongue.

His warm fingers were still in her arse, and she pressed back against them, wanting to feel them deeper inside her, needing them to fuck her again and again.

At last she couldn't take it anymore. "Stop," she whispered. "Enough." Her body was shivering uncontrollably. Her breath rasped in her throat.

I find myself using the same phrases again and again: white fire, explode, a bursting dam, flames, shudders and spasms. I suppose that's one of the problems with our genre, though: there are only so many ways to describe any aspect of sex. Still, sometimes I read stories here and think, "Why not put a little more effort into it?"

So let's talk! How do you go about it? How do you describe an orgasm in a way that makes the reader feel like they're actually experiencing it? What are you go-to words and phrases, and do you ever look back and think you could have done better?

 

[Bazzle]

I tend to fade to black well before it!

 

[AG31]

Isn't strange how orgasms get short-changed in erotica? I mean, they're the point we all work towards when we're having sex, and hopefully we even get there. People read erotica, by and large, for the sexual arousal, presumably ending in a climax.

So why are they glossed over in so many stories? "With a roar I came deep inside her." "His tongue drove me to ecstasy until I felt my orgasm crashing through me." "He felt his orgasm build up until he exploded."

And then they rolled over and fell asleep.

Surely an orgasm, the climax of the sexual act and in many cases the story, or at least the scene, surely it deserves more than a handwave? For this WIWAW, I'm looking not at a single story, but at a common theme in nearly all my stories: describing the orgasm.

The following excerpts all describe orgasms from the narrator's point of view, and only the orgasm and its immediate build-up: not the whole sex scene, or the gasps and cuddles afterwards. Yes, I know that those are what make or break a sex scene, but this post is purely to highlight the description of the orgasm itself.

Here's the first one from my earliest story here. A masturbation scene from Dark Encounters:

I'm quite proud of this. An orgasm isn't an instantaneous thing, after all. You feel it begin, and you nurture it carefully until the time is right. (Or am I alone in this? I don't get to discuss these things often.)

Here's an orgasm from the final instalment of the series, Orgy of Death:

The scene continues, but I feel I let myself down a bit here. Somehow it doesn't seem right if it takes less time to read about an orgasm than the orgasm would actually last in real time.

This one's from The Countesses of Tannensdal, and again it doesn't do justice to the idea of a climax:

The next sex scene makes up for it, though:


Here's one from By Voice and By Candle:

Better. But the next two are a bit abrupt:

And:


This is from Flesh for Another Fantasy. Two lovers coming together, the perfect orgasm!


This one from Too Late Not to Fuck is also quite graphic:


But I think this one is my favourite, from The Code:


I find myself using the same phrases again and again: white fire, explode, a bursting dam, flames, shudders and spasms. I suppose that's one of the problems with our genre, though: there are only so many ways to describe any aspect of sex. Still, sometimes I read stories here and think, "Why not put a little more effort into it?"

So let's talk! How do you go about it? How do you describe an orgasm in a way that makes the reader feel like they're actually experiencing it? What are you go-to words and phrases, and do you ever look back and think you could have done better?

Super evocations! This is what I mean by "simple erotica" being a candidate for good writing. My latest comparison is that simple erotica is like a book of jokes. It's about the arousal of the human body, like jokes are about evoking laughter. You may supply plot and character, I haven't read the stories, and that's OK. But for me it's not necessary. Good job!!!

 

[samhasstories]

Oh I don't skimp on the orgasms. I lay them on pretty thick - they are many, and they are messy. I think I use some similar devices as you do, though perhaps not quite as poetic. Everybody's moaning, exploding, shaking. Losing control of their bodies. I generally also have an unrealistic amount of bodily fluids coming from everyone involved. And then lather, rinse (or stay messy), repeat.

 

[mildlyaroused]

I'm also not that fond of super short ones (and sometimes lots in one scene), though I can understand the style.

Yours, StillStunned, seem well done to me. They use simple but evocative imagery, and I like the way you ground the sensations in the physicality of the moment. I don't think repetitive imagery is necessarily a problem, since they are all unique in their narrative, emotional and physical context.

I haven't actually written very many, owing to not having written much erotica. My most recent one is this:

Isobel gives a hysterical spasm. Her cheeks and chest flush with blood, and for a moment as the pleasure radiates through her body she thinks she might faint. The world spins. She can hardly discern his tongue and fingers working over the rush in her every limb. When she cums, she drops her weight onto Tony's body and squirms against his flesh, enrapt by the orgasm he provoked in her, breaking out in goosebumps down every inch of her flesh. There is sweat and hot sex between them. His body is her anchor. She buries herself into him; and he is her favourite person in the world and they just need to stay here like this forever, his scent all she can smell, his touch all she knows, and they just need to stay here like this for fucking ever until time runs out. She rides her climax out with unruly breaths until her sense of balance is restored and the ecstasy has subsided into a throbbing, almost painful plateau.

"Isobel?"

"Tony." She rolls sideways onto the bed and sits up to stare at his gleaming face. Her body is shining with sweat, her hairs still standing. "Tony..."

It's probably melodramatic, but it was written during the heat of arousal. And I think it does okay describing the disarming, unsteadying intensity that can occur.

To me, orgasms are the climax of sex but aren't necessarily the climax of the scene. Sometimes I honestly think they're a bit of a let down, since they often mean the end of sexy times and a change in mood... I find the build-up and escalation of sex more interesting than its crescendo.

 

[TadOverdon]

If you do it real well, the reader gets off way before they get to the orgasm paragraph.

(Honest truth, I have no idea of this. Just sounded good.)

 

[StillStunned]

To me, orgasms are the climax of sex but aren't necessarily the climax of the scene. Sometimes I honestly think they're a bit of a let down, since they often mean the end of sexy times and a change in mood... I find the build-up and escalation of sex more interesting than its crescendo.

I agree, but I still feel they get short-changed. Maybe because they're so difficult to describe? So personal? They're an intrinsic part of sex, after all, but we tend to go into all manner of detail about how we get there, and how we feel afterwards, but not the climax itself.

 

[PrincessArianrhod]

Chris thought she heard a distant scream, realised in her delirium it was her own , crying out into her lover's mouth as she inhaled, then heard a perfect echo as the cry was returned into her own mouth as their breaths were exchanged again. She felt as though she were ceasing to be a singular entity, instead a symbiosis was forming, that in their passion and lust, a Christina-Catherine hybrid was born, each knowing the other's mind, a joining of flesh and spirit that spoke only through shared pleasure.

The wave was building again, she could feel it, the inescapable rhythm of their kisses, above and below, driving inexorably towards another explosive collision. She pulled Catherine's face more firmly to her, seeking almost to push them into each other. She felt the response, felt too her lover's pull on her hips, as the clitoral waltz reached its crescendo.

It smashed into them suddenly, hitting both like a physical blow and they thrashed and ground into each other in utter abandonment of reason, screaming each into the other in turn as they sought to drive their limited flesh together. As one they were ethereal, perfect and as the runaway orgasm continued to unfold, they held fast to each other, utterly lost in this perfection of ecstasy.

Time passed and wave after wave of joyful orgasm pushed them both to the limits of their endurance. Gasping in and out of each other with shuddering breaths, still they held fast, barely able to hold themselves together as the secretions of their passion had lubricated their sexes so completely, wide open labia melded in the perfect parody of a kiss. Although neither wanted these sensations to end, eventually the waves subsided and they collapsed to the side, still entwined in their embrace but exhausted to their core.

Reluctantly and slowly they allowed their mouths to separate and looked deliriously into each other's eyes. With no prior knowledge of whom and what they were, the power of their physical attraction had transcended reason.

- Standing Room Only (2023 Redux)

 

[StillStunned]

- Standing Room Only (2023 Redux)

That's what I'm talking about!

 

[ronde]

I think there are at least two reasons why the orgasm seems to get the short end of the stick in a lot of stories.

One is that for some authors, the orgasm is secondary to what lead up to the orgasm. It's that the end isn't the goal. It's what happens to get the female character in the mood, sort of like the end of a Daytona 500 race is pretty anticlimactic compared to the maneuvers of the drivers and the resultant crashes.

The other reason is that an orgasm is different every time, even for the same person with the same partner and describing it is difficult. It's especially so for a man writing about a woman's orgasm because a lot of women don't have particularly physical reactions.

I usually describe it as a slow building of internal tension that ends with those tensions being released. I'll vary the reactions of the male character "losing control" and feeling the surge rush up his cock. My female characters either have quiet orgasms punctuated by gasps and the holding of breath or a long pause in breathing followed by a gasp and an arch up off the bed or into her partner. That's my limited experience showing, I suppose.

 

[intim8]

How do you describe an orgasm in a way that makes the reader feel like they're actually experiencing it?

One of my highest rated stories spent 6 paragraphs (though to be fair, there were two orgasms involved)

It was too late for him. He was at the brink and the current would carry him over no matter how he resisted. The world came into sharp focus, he saw everything in stark detail, as if the whole room was awash in light. Time paused for a heartbeat, two. He felt like he could survey the scene at leisure. He saw her face scrunched up, her back arched under him. He saw himself invade her. He saw her surrounding him, consuming him.

And then the moment became something else. He moved frantically, then changed to hard forceful thrusts timed to the convulsions coursing through his entire body. He saw nothing, a random kaleidoscope of flares through tightly closed eyes. He felt his whole life run through him and into her. He caught his breath and looked down, just as another spasm wracked him. He saw her moan, without hearing it. He saw her panting without hearing it. His ears rang, his body vibrated.

He ejaculated stream after stream into her, and she consumed him. It went on for a lifetime. His mind flashed to memories, random, out of time, to them on their bicycles in the woods, to her skinned knee, to her crying about her failed date, to her running away to his house where his parents gave her dinner and walked her back home. He filled her with all he had, his memories, his universe, everything converging on a single point from which his love for her streamed.

She bucked under him as he started his slow return to the world. She yelled. "keep going." and he did, going back to his frantic pace. Muscles he'd never used this way before strained and ached, but he kept them working as if their lives depended on it. He fucked her with abandon, his own semen lubricating the heat of his motion.

It only took a moment. He had not flagged, and a final spasm gripped him yet again. She screamed. The ache in his muscles started to overcome him, but he stayed with her. She writhed, she grabbed his hips, pulling her deeply into her with her hands and her legs.

She finally tensed and arched her back like an acrobat, the top of her head pressed into her pillow. Her hands froze into claws and he felt her toes curl on his ass. Her body wracked with convulsions. He stayed with her till she finally collapsed and pushed his belly with her hand.

 

[StillStunned]

One of my highest rated stories spent 6 paragraphs (though to be fair, there were two orgasms involved)

A description worthy of an orgasm! Or two.

 

[AG31]

One of my highest rated stories spent 6 paragraphs (though to be fair, there were two orgasms involved)

Terrific! Can you tell us which story this came from?

 

[intim8]

Terrific! Can you tell us which story this came from?

Thanks!. It's from "Last Summer" a First Time story about two high school kids who grew up as next door neighbors, but are soon going away to separate colleges.

Too late for a spoiler alert?

 

[Voboy]

If you do it real well, the reader gets off way before they get to the orgasm paragraph.

This.

I tend to use a lot of "warmth spreading to finger- and toe-tips" sort of imagery. Maybe because that's sorta how it feels to me. But I like to be a little choppy and/or "rushed" when I write orgasms, because I usually write in FP and in my mind, the narrator is likely to be too overwhelmed when it "happens" to be all that coherent.

 

[VerbalAbuse]

What is to say about orgasms anyhow? They last only a few seconds (usually) and they're all alike (more or less).

Some of the best erotic stories I've read did not bother mentioning orgasms at all.

It's easier and makes more sense to write a good story about orgasm denial than about orgasms.

 

[countdowntolov3]

I find myself using the same phrases again and again: white fire, explode, a bursting dam, flames, shudders and spasms. I suppose that's one of the problems with our genre, though: there are only so many ways to describe any aspect of sex.

I think about this a lot. The conclusion I've come to is: it's inevitable. There are only so many metaphors out there. I've started to think about the metaphor style orgasm as just writing noise. It's a pacing thing, not a content thing.

But I think you're right that we usually don't want to just blow by the orgasm (or whatever the intended climax of the sex scene is). I definitely get let down regularly when I'm reading smut and getting excited and the tension is rising and I'm reading faster and faster and then-- wait, was that it? Those two little sentences that are already scrolling up the screen?

So as a writer, if a character is about to cum, I've probably been steadily increasing the tempo and the reader is reading at a bit of a frenzy. Now the orgasm is the moment of release, catharsis, for the character, but also probably for the reader too. I want that moment to last. I want the reader to sit in it. And one way of doing that is to describe the orgasm with long flowing slow poetry. But I don't think the reader is really engaging with that poetry. It's more a chance to slow them down and let them reflect on the hotness that lead up to the nothingness fluff I'm giving them now. At least, that's how I think about it.

One technique I'm finding myself doing to slow the reader down is announcing the orgasm, and then embellishing. Here's a really efficient one for an example:

Better When It Hurts

I came like I was falling. A stomach twisting lurch into my orgasm that flirted with madness, but gave way to a wind-in-my-hair rush of joint-tightening ecstasy before landing in the warm embrace of Miss Turner's naked body, against which my suddenly unsupportable head lolled.

Compare it with the same beats delivered in a more chronological order:

My stomach twisted into a lurch that flirted with madness, but gave way to a wind-in-my-hair rush of joint-tightening ecstasy before landing in the warm embrace of Miss Turner's naked body, against which my suddenly unsupportable head lolled. I came, like I was falling.

To me, the second one flies by waaaay faster. I think it's because the first one breaks the flow of time for the reader. It's technically delivered out of order and so the reader has to stop and reset the pace that they're reading to "fix" the chronology . And since the buildup to an orgasm is often fast paced prose, I find this really helpful.

But I think this one is my favourite, from The Code:

By now her climax was making its inevitable way from tiny spark to explosion. She let his cock slip from her mouth, felt her jaw ache dully, knew it would be worse tomorrow. She didn't care.

She focused on feeling the flame within her grow, blossom. She and Zoltan were artists working in unison: he stoked the fires with his lips and fingertip, she contained and moulded them, keeping the pressure on and letting it build up higher and higher.

Then Zoltan sucked hard on her clit. At the same time he pressed a second finger against her arse and pushed.

Unable to hold back anymore, Allie felt herself explode inside. Her body shuddered as fire ran through her, from her pussy to behind her eyes and to the tips of her toes. Zoltan didn't let up. He sucked her clit and caressed it with his tongue.

His warm fingers were still in her arse, and she pressed back against them, wanting to feel them deeper inside her, needing them to fuck her again and again.

At last she couldn't take it anymore. "Stop," she whispered. "Enough." Her body was shivering uncontrollably. Her breath rasped in her throat.

That's my favorite of you examples too. I think it shows a couple of the techniques working together. I also notice you are repeating the same thing in short order:

"Then Zoltan sucked hard on her clit." -> "He sucked her clit and caressed it with his tongue."
"At the same time he pressed a second finger against her arse" -> "His warm fingers were still in her arse"

I like that. It slows things down in the same way a flowery metaphor would. But it stays raw and in-your-face sex. Not empty fluff. It also feels true to my personal experience, where my brain can totally get stuck in a thought loop when I'm cumming.
I think I'll try replacing my next flowery metaphor orgasm with a looping narration like this. Seems like it might achieve the same goal without the, "sigh, another hot golden light metaphor"-ness.

 

[alohadave]

I kind of view it as something that really can't be described. Most adults that are reading stories know what an orgasm feels like, but at the same time, they are kind of personal to each person.

If I try to describe what it feels like, that's really just saying how I experience it. That's part of why I focus more on the intensity of the feeling, rather than try to describe the feeling.

 

[intim8]

we usually don't want to just blow by the orgasm (or whatever the intended climax of the sex scene is).... the tension is rising and I'm reading faster and faster and then-- wait, was that it?

My problem is, I sometimes use the Big O as a plot point of sorts, not just a scene climax. A slow, romantic story (the one I exerpted above) has a long drawn out O scene. A meaningless quicky has a quicky O description if the POV character isn't all that into the other person.

But a yet to be published scene has the MC very publicly fucking a girl who wants to get pregnant. She pisses him off in the middle of it and he gives it to her in the face instead, humiliating her publicly. There is no description of how it felt for him except that he was pissed and that he painted her. So the climax of the scene was not his climax per se, but what he did with it. There's actually a whole plot conflict that arises from that.

I have another scene (published here) where a pizza guy offers "special sauce" fresh to special customers, right on their pizza while they watch. There's no description of his orgasm at all, just of the well practiced finesse of drawing white hearts for them.

 

[intim8]

It's technically delivered out of order and so the reader has to stop and reset the pace that they're reading to "fix" the chronology .

That's a really good technique. I'm going to have to remember that.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

What is to say about orgasms anyhow? They last only a few seconds (usually) and they're all alike (more or less).

Just a wild guess here: are you a man?

Even for men, while the physical experience might be quite similar most times, the emotions and level of anticipation may be very different, resulting in different perceptions of the event overall.

The climactic feeling and the actual ejaculation don't have to be at the same time. With women, the physical reactions and the mental reaction are often even less connected and it can be hard to say if there was an orgasm or not in many cases.

 

[intim8]

while the physical experience might be quite similar most times,

Even for a man, there are varying degrees of "good". Not, apparently, as wide a range as women, but still ranging from "meh" to "wow".

It must be a lot more interesting for women though, all that variety. Everything from wildly thrashing and earth-shattering to what happened the first time my first serious girlfriend (we were 18 and 17) had one. She was sitting on my lap in the front seat of the car, we were both fully clothed, no hands going anywhere in particular. She wasn't really grinding on me, just kind of pressing against me while we made out. Then, without any visible buildup, she stopped, went perfectly calm, still and quiet, with a thousand-yard stare. It lasted all of ten seconds, and that was it.

Male writers do like to write the earth-shattering ones, and to write them as analagous to theirs, a long buildup and one single big explosion. But the little ones can be just as interesting, and often more intimate.

The climactic feeling and the actual ejaculation don't have to be at the same time.

Very true. It's somewhat common for the latter to start well ahead of the former, and not just precum, full out firing. I call it evolution's way of subverting the idea that pulling out is a loophole. And on the opposite end of it, there is such a thing as a dry orgasm for a man.

Your point about the event itself and the different perceptions of it is definitely on point, and it is usually the perceptions that make a good story.

 

[Djmac1031]

So let's talk! How do you go about it? How do you describe an orgasm in a way that makes the reader feel like they're actually experiencing it? What are you go-to words and phrases, and do you ever look back and think you could have done better?

Interesting topic, because yeah, I've probably glossed over the Big O or at least not spent a ton of words on it.

Although I wouldn't go so far as to say my orgasm descriptions are weak or non erotic.

The majority of my stories tend to be male POV. So if I'm describing the woman's orgasm, it's usually his perspective, what he sees, hears and feels her doing.

I have tried to mix it up a bit to get both perspectives.

For fun (and open to critique) I'll share a snippet of one scene I did write from the female perspective.

From The White Room Revisited. The set up: Adora has been willingly possed by an alien entity who also chooses a female identity and names herself Vanda.

She is there to learn of the human experience. In getting used to her new, shared body, she learns to masturbate, with Adora's guidance:

The sound of her moans echoed through the room as if from a distance. Again she felt the waves of pure, sensual energy pulse through her, building in intensity as her pace quickened.

For the first time in her long existence, Vanda's mind went completely blank, filled now only with vague imagery and an overwhelming compulsion for more, more, more of this wonderful, intoxicating, almost overwhelming FEELING.

Colors swam before her eyes as the hot waves of pure pleasure burst forth from her like a star gone supernova. Her body bucked uncontrollably, the bed rocking as her moans became cries, punctuated by one last high pitched squeal before collapsing to the bed in a limp heap.

Eyes closed, Vanda basked in the calm aftermath. The room was silent save for her breathing, slowly returning to normal, along with her racing heartbeat.

A light sheen of sweat coated her skin, sending a shiver through her as it registered the cool air circulating through the room blowing lightly over it.

Vanda felt moisture leaking from her eyes and, her mind now coming back to her, recognized she was experiencing yet another emotion. Happiness.

"Thank you, Adora," she said, finding her voice. "Thank you for sharing that with me. As first experiences living in a physical body go, I do not think I could have possibly conceived of a better one."

"I'm glad you enjoyed it," said Adora. "I did, too."

 

[Djmac1031]

Another one from The White Room Revisited.

If it reads as slightly clinical, that was intentional. Vanda, an alien intelligence, is experiencing her first orgasm brought on by oral stimulation from a male partner.

I actually looked up the physical reactions women experience during orgasm and found a medical description that suited the character and how she would think, even as she's also experiencing the emotional aspects of it:

Vanda was overwhelmed. First, there were the physical reactions to contend with; the increased heart rate and blood pressure, the engorgement of her sex organs, the tightening and contractions of her pelvic floor muscles.

Over top of that were her emotional responses, swirling like a typhoon of colors in her mind's eye; excitement, anxiety, desire, anticipation, fear, and abundant joy.

As her orgasm approached, feelings, pure and raw, flowed like electric currents, surging from the tiny bundle of clustered nerve endings to spread like a glowing web, up through her abdomen and chest, down to her tightly curled toes.

Try as she might, Vanda could not contain her involuntary vocal responses, belting out a long string of unintelligible gibberish as her rational mind completely shut down in a state of utter euphoria.

 

[AG31]

I think about this a lot. The conclusion I've come to is: it's inevitable. There are only so many metaphors out there. I've started to

"but gave way to a wind-in-my-hair rush of joint-tightening ecstasy before landing in the warm embrace of Miss Turner's naked body, against which my suddenly unsupportable head lolled."

Very nice.