Hello everyone,

I've always been shy and insecure. Working on myself, I built a strong ego but I am still unexperienced with women. That's why I'm writing here: I'm looking for a constructive and cold feedback.

I broke up with my LTR a few months ago. I got a few dates in between but nothing really interesting, so this is in fact the first one worth thinking about.

She's like 35-40 years old, cute-looking and very smart.
I'm 26 and that's my first time dating a significantly older woman. I found her very interesting and I think she feels the same too - we're both interested in business and entrepreneurship while most people at my age talk about gossip and TV shows.

The first time we went out for dinner, both had fun and I noticed she was touching my arms and back, which I guess was a sign of interest. When she left, she even kissed me on my neck, which was a clear hint I should have kissed her - but I only realized later.

Now, second date. We set up to meet at my home, she brings the food. We eat and she's very enjoyable as usual. We move inside, she sits on the couch very close to me and starts touching my leg. This time I am aware I should kiss her, but I am stuck, like I am waiting for the right time - which does not exist, of course.

Now it gets even worse: she asks me to see the projector - which she knows is in my bedroom, so we move there. We sit on the bed, after a while she starts thinking about going away, otherwise we may do something crazy (I didn't even kiss her yet).
She says she will stay only for 10 minutes more, so I find the courage to kiss her and we start making out on the bed. I undress her, kiss her anywhere and so on.
After a while, she starts saying that we should stop because she wants to think about our friendship as sex may ruin everything. She sound like can handle that but is afraid I will not.

I am pretty sure that, would I have go on, she would have been with me and we could have had sex that night. But I didn't.

After a while, I stopped. I was curious about what she meant as it was a quite strange question to bring up at that time - I think it was pretty clear where we were going when she decided to come to my home.

Before leaving, she asks me to write her, via message, that I am sure that having sex will not ruin our relationship (she doesn't want a LTR of course, neither do I), so she can feel sure about that. That didn't make sense to me - and of course I didn't write her anything about that and I am not going to do that.

Anyway, when she left, we already agreed to meet 3 days later, and that she would show me "How she's not boring in bed" (in response of a thing I told her while making out).
The day after, she writes me about how her lips were aching and so on, and how she enjoyed the evening.

I really can't understand what's going on. And maybe I'm not supposed to understand that rationally, but as I told, I'd like to ask here as it's my first experience with a significantly older (and more experienced) woman, and the first time she clearly states it's going to be a "only-sex" relationship - and then doesn't want to have sex?.

Any suggestion? Interpretations? How to move forward?
I know I did a lot of mistake, so I don't expect you to sweeten the pill. Just tell me.