I've read many stories here about people's "first time". They all seem to have been blissful, with simultaneous orgasms and nothing but pleasure. My first time wasn't quite so successful. It was the nineteen seventies. We were supposedly living in a permissive era, but it was passing me by. I was eighteen and still a virgin.

I was something of a late starter. I had met my first proper girlfriend shortly after my 17th birthday. She was a little younger than me. Having a younger girlfriend was fairly normal then. It may still be now. I don't know.

Despite her tender years, Kate clearly had a lot more experience than I did. I was shocked (in a good way) when we met at her older sister's party. She pulled me onto a sofa and started kissing me before rubbing my rapidly hardening penis through my trousers. I'd never experienced anything like that before, and I was hooked.

The next time I saw her, she took me up to her bedroom to "listen to records". We lay on her bed and kissed and cuddled, but I was too nervous to make any sort of move. Eventually, she must have grown tired of my hesitation because she pushed me away and then pulled up her sweater, shirt and bra in one movement to expose her quite large breasts. Instinct took over at that point, and I fell on them, kissing and sucking her hard nipples while she rubbed my cock through my jeans.

I remember her asking me, "Do you masturbate?"

Now, I was seventeen. Of course I did; at least once or twice a day. But, in those days, at that age, it wasn't something I'd ever spoken about. How should I answer?

In the end, I mumbled, "Sometimes."

I asked if she did, and she also said, "Sometimes," but added, "I don't use a hairbrush or anything. Just my fingers." Clearly, we were going to get along.

The next day, we went for a walk in some local woods. As soon as we found a quiet spot, we fell into kissing and cuddling on a park bench. We were rubbing each other through our clothes. I had plucked up the courage to rub her between her thighs over her jeans. I don't know what this did for her, but the combination of me touching a girl in that area, even outside clothes, and her rubbing my cock through my jeans made me ejaculate copiously into my underpants. I was still too shy to tell her. I don't think the dampness showed through, and I went home with very sticky underwear but feeling very satisfied.

We "went out" for a few months. I remember the first time I put my hand down her trousers and into her knickers. I was away on a camping holiday with friends, and porn mags had been passed around. I'd seen lots of pictures of naked women, lots of breasts and lots of pubic hair (it was the seventies). But I'd never seen or felt a girl's pubic hair.

I was pretty worked up when she visited (she was holidaying with her parents in the same area). We walked to an isolated spot in the countryside, and I went for it. While we were stood up kissing, I slipped my hand down the front of her jeans and into her knickers.

My first surprise was that the inside of her knickers was damp on the back of my hand. I found later, as our experimentation progressed, that she was very easily aroused and always very moist. Then, as my fingers brushed through her pubic hair, I managed to get the tip of one finger onto her opening and felt its wetness. While I was discovering what a vulva felt like, she was vigorously rubbing the tent pole that had developed in my trousers.

We had to stop, as other people were coming towards us. But, once we were home again, we carried on from there with her keen to slip her hand into my pants and feel my hard cock without a cloth barrier being in the way. It didn't take long for me to come into her hand.

I used to meet her after school, and we'd go back to her house before anybody else was home. We'd sit on the sofa with our school trousers and underpants round our thighs while she tossed me off and I fingered her. It was all a revelation to me. She had lots of ridges and bumps inside that I'm sure were more pronounced than any woman I've been with since.

I remember one day that we were sitting like this on the sofa when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a shadow move outside the French windows. We hurriedly zipped up, and, a few moments later, her elder sister came through the front door. Nothing was said, but I'm pretty sure she must have been watching.

Kate was very clear, even after we had been fully naked with each other, that we were not going to have full sex, certainly not for another year. I'd learned, in those same porn mags on holiday, about oral sex and was very happy to go down on Kate. I got to be quite good at it (I still am). She showed me where her clitoris was, and we had a lovely time. She wasn't keen to suck me, so we didn't do that. But I was having quite enough fun anyway.

I should have been more patient and stayed with her, but I was desperate to lose my virginity. My friends weren't virgins (or so they claimed), and I felt ashamed. Stupid, wasn't I?

I met another girl; this time, she was my own age. We were attracted to each other, and I thought I was more likely to have sex with her than Kate, so I moved on. How wrong I was. I did once get my hand inside her bra, and after that, the relationship ended.

Eventually, I found someone new. I was now eighteen, and she was a year younger than me. I'll call her Linda for the purposes of this story.

Linda was what I suppose people would call sturdy. Not fat, in any way, but quite a solid build with reddish brown hair. I was her first boyfriend. With my newfound confidence from my first relationship, I was eager to move things on quickly. I remember kissing her in a friend's garden one evening and sliding my hand inside her jeans and into her knickers. I could feel her pubic hair, but couldn't get my hand down far enough to feel anything more. She was a little surprised, I think, but didn't stop me. I asked her to "reciprocate". I even used that word (what an idiot I was then), but we were called in by my friend's father. I don't know if he'd seen what we were doing.

Anyway, things moved on, and after a few weeks, we were happy to be naked in each other's company and to masturbate each other. She had smallish breasts and a delightful patch of red pubic hair. I happily went down on her. She would occasionally take me in her mouth, but claimed it wasn't comfortable as I was too big. I doubt that was true, but it was very flattering as well as frustrating.

I should mention here another quick sexual adventure that happened around the same time. I was with another lad and a woman (I think she would have been about twenty). We were spending an evening painting a flat. At some point, we took a break and started playing cards, and somebody suggested strip poker. None of us really knew the rules, but we improvised something. I was the first to get down to my underpants. The woman, let's call her Mary, was in a bra and pants. I was visibly excited. When I lost the next round, I don't think the other two thought I'd actually go through with removing my pants. But I did. In those days, I was quite skinny, and so my very erect prick looked enormous. Nobody did anything. The others refused to take off their clothes, and so the game ended, and we got dressed again.

However, Mary must have seen something she liked, and she asked the other guy to go into another room. We ended up on the bed with our hands down each other's jeans, furiously masturbating each other. I was already excited from the game and on the verge of coming. But I wanted to make her come, so I pulled her hand away from me to stop me from bringing the session to a premature end. This broke the spell, and she refused to let me carry on. And so a promising evening ended in more frustration.

Anyway, back with Linda, I was beginning to persuade her that having my penis inside her wouldn't be that much different to having my fingers or tongue there. But she was unsure. She wasn't on the pill, and all teenagers lived in fear of pregnancy in those days. But I was determined to lose my virginity before I was 19.

We were at a party the week before my 19th birthday. I knew my parents were away, and so this would be a good opportunity for Linda to stay over. She'd done this before, but we'd not gone further than the usual manual and oral satisfaction. But that night I was determined. And, miraculously, she said yes. Then I realised that I'd left it too late to buy condoms from the machine in the pub and had to ask a friend to "lend" me one (although I don't think he wanted it back). I almost dragged her out of that party and back home before she changed her mind.

We went straight to bed when we got home. I licked her gorgeous cunt until I thought she was aroused. I struggled to get the condom on, but eventually managed and climbed between her legs as she lay on her back. I moved my throbbing penis towards her cunt and then. Nothing. She'd tensed up so much there was no way I could get in. We tried again several times, but it just wouldn't happen. Eventually, we gave up and went to sleep.

The next morning I wanted to try again, but we had used my only condom. Somehow I got it back on again (I don't recommend this as a method of contraception). This time, Linda was more relaxed, and I was able to slide my whole length in. There was no drama over a hymen. I assume she'd lost it somehow, or it wasn't the huge barrier I'd read about. It felt bloody wonderful to have my prick inside a woman. Too wonderful. After only a few strokes, I filled the condom and carefully pulled out. I doubt Linda found it a wonderful experience. But we had both lost our virginity, and nothing would be the same again.

As a footnote, we got much better at sex together and would fuck each other whenever we had a chance for the next few years. I still see her occasionally (50 years later) and wonder if she ever thinks about that first time.