Escape to Pleasure

by Sandy Lowe

  Sand shifted under their shoes as Kim scrabbled to get closer to her. Their hips brushed and Rosa gasped, losing the last of her breath. Kim’s heartbeat pounded hard enough for Rosa to feel it below the softness of her breasts.

  Rosa’s nipples were adamantine by the time they moved on, and her groin was heavy with a lush ache. The walls began to press inward until their curvaceous folds enclosed them, the sensuous embrace of their beauty almost too much to endure. She had never been claustrophobic and now she was too enchanted, by Kim and the landscape both, for any fear as they reached the narrowest part of the trail yet. They had to turn to their sides and squirm through. It was torture. Smooth, warm stone rubbed against her—chest, waist, thighs, like a gentle but strong-handed lover’s exploring caress. Her nipples felt the pressure through her bra and prickled so wonderfully badly that an image flashed before her eyes, vivid, of stripping out of her shirt and underwear right there, turning to Kim and—no, that would be wild, wouldn’t it? Way too wild. This was supposed to be a quiet, restful vacation. Even so, she positioned herself as she squeezed along to let the friction continue just a little more.

  Her sigh went unheard under the whistle of the wind. Kim didn’t say anything, maybe because she was absorbed in dragging along the backpack she’d had to take off to fit through. Rosa had left hers behind at the mouth of the narrows, figuring it was safe enough out here with no one and nothing around. Kim had agreed it was a good idea to travel lighter for this stretch.

  “I’ve got enough water for both of us until we come back out,” she’d said, adding with a flicker of sweet light in her eyes, “and the ChapStick.”

  “And the map!” Rosa added.

  To which Kim only replied, “Among other things.”

  Now the mystery of what she’d meant gave Rosa something else to consider in an attempt to distract herself—though the memory of the flicker illuminating Kim’s expression wasn’t helping her think chaste thoughts. The light-headedness she tried to slake with water only grew worse as their fingers brushed when handing over the bottle. She was so charged with lust that she felt limp, her limbs like rubber bands—and that was when they reached the scramble.

  “A bit of a climb,” Kim said, sounding undaunted. The rise in the floor of the canyon—an outcrop of sandstone, or maybe a place where the two walls met a little higher than they did elsewhere—wasn’t over their heads, but tall enough that it was hard to see the other side. Ripples and creases offered hand and foot holds, which helped a little. Kim reached the top and straddled it, turning back to help Rosa up.

  “I hope,” Rosa panted, “that whatever’s waiting over there is worth it.”

  “Oh, I think so.” Once Rosa sat beside her, Kim slipped the backpack off her shoulder.

  The canyon beyond the scramble didn’t look much different than the canyon before it, but there was a changed quality—the effect of having a wall behind them, a challenge scaled, not forbidding but providing a screen of privacy. They already knew they were alone, but now the solitude felt strangely sheltering, welcoming.

  Like stepping into a honeymoon suite, Rosa thought, then wondered if her lingering arousal was responsible. The climb hadn’t made only her heart pound.

  Here some of the stone walls appeared almost purple in the shadows. Others billowed like sails woven from sunlight. Then, turning toward a whispering sound, Rosa laughed in delighted surprise.

  “A waterfall?”

  She stepped closer to the shining stream, looking up at where it cascaded over the canyon’s rim. No, not water. Sand. Lightly windblown, spiraling down in wisps of gold and white, surprisingly pale against the vibrant rock, fluid in motion.

  The optical illusion was impressive, even as she got an eyeful of it.

  Rosa pulled back, wincing and blinking, and felt more sand spill down the collar of her shirt. It trickled over her shoulders. Some fell into her bra.

  “Wow,” she said, trying to brush out the bits she could reach under the hem of her shirt.

  “You okay?” Then Kim’s hands were there too, working alongside hers, the slide of her palms over Rosa’s sides and stomach a pure physical joy.

  “Yeah. Yeah, I’m great. Thanks.” She turned to Kim, who didn’t take her hands out. Rosa put her own fingers over them, holding them in place.

  Kim wiggled her reach a little farther, slipping under the rim of her bra.

  Without letting go, Rosa leaned forward to kiss her. The tastes of strawberry balm and mineral dust mingled and it was the most delicious thing to ever happen to her. She released Kim’s hands, finally, to let them roam while she clasped her arms around her girlfriend’s waist to pull her closer.

  Coming apart with wanting her, she felt muscles flex under her touch, found the pressure of their hips swaying with a natural rhythm against each other.

  “This is a gorgeous place to have sex,” she said, “but I guess we could have just pushed the twin beds together.”

  “And miss out on fresh air and a view?”

  “You’re right. This is better. I’m going out of my mind from waiting so long.”

  “Let’s not wait.”

  Kim started to walk her back, but they had to duck out of the way of another sudden sand fall. Rosa stopped them long enough to strip off her shirt entirely. It shook in her hand—not intentionally, although that had the benefit of freeing a lot of the captured sand. As she let Kim steer them toward somewhere to settle in, she kept an eye out for a less sandy outcrop to put down her clothes.

  “About the only thing that could improve this place is an actual waterfall,” she said. “It’d be less unique, but a little more convenient. A nice scenic, clear stream to rinse off in. Or maybe a touch of rain to cool us down.”

  “Not that we really want to cool down.”

  She kissed Kim again. “Well, no.”

  Kim’s expression grew more serious even as her hands slipped lower, cupping Rosa’s behind. “This canyon was sculpted by water.”

  “Yeah, I guess that explains the shapes…So curvaceous.”

  That got only a short laugh. “It’s beautiful, but it means that whenever it rains—anywhere nearby, really—there’s a risk of flood. That’s why I was checking my live weather app as long as I could on the way here. Don’t worry, it’s a completely clear forecast.”

  “Bone dry and miserable,” Rosa said, currently feeling anything but.

  “And safe.”

  “You take your responsibility for both our lives so seriously,” Rosa teasingly scolded her, hiding how much she appreciated it. But she thanked her with another kiss.

  “I just want you to have the perfect day.” Her fingers slipped under one cuff of Rosa’s shorts. Silently they both tracked the journey of the long middle digit, reaching up…and up…

  “Perfect,” Rosa breathed.

  As Kim skimmed her core, tracing her folds and brushing over her clit, Rosa imagined rain—magnificent showers that brought the entire desert into bloom. Flash floods sweeping down a canyon, leaving a wonder of the world in their wake.

  The rush of her wetness poured over Kim’s fingertips, and she gasped against Rosa’s mouth. Starting to gasp herself, Rosa spread her thighs as much as she could, inviting her girlfriend deeper. To get lost in her, with her.

  “I need to sit down,” Kim murmured. “To kneel, actually…”

  Scrambling back, they finally found an outcrop that would hold them. The low shelf of stone lifted them off the ground, angled shallowly enough that they could rest on it in comfort. The canyon walls swept overhead, hugging them in its shelter.

  Rosa fell back, not minding if it was a little harder than she was used to—she lay on her shirt, but it offered more of a shield against grit than any cushion. No, she didn’t care at all. Kim helped pull down her shorts and Rosa kicked them off. Then her bra. Then her panties. Her socks and hiking shoes she left on.

  It was strange; amazing but strange. Enough almost to be surreal, enough that she felt lost. She wa
sn’t a dramatic person by nature. She didn’t like running risks. Too much excitement, she’d learned the hard way, could be poisonous to her nature. For some people risk was an aphrodisiac, but Kim had been right not to worry her about flash flood warnings. Years ago, Rosa had gotten in a car accident with a past girlfriend, not a really bad one, and had walked away with nothing worse than a few scrapes and safety glass in her hair, but that had been the end of them. Danger hadn’t brought them closer together. Instead it seemed to fray whatever had held them.

  In a way, she could be grateful, because the breakup had eventually led her to Kim. And to this.

  This…this wasn’t dangerous, or at least all its risks had been carefully managed. They were alone, without even the risk of embarrassment should someone come across them. There was nothing to fear. So long as she didn’t slip and hit her head on the way out…

  She forced the thought out of her mind, thrust her hips to meet Kim’s fingers stroking between them, opened, and gave herself over to the sensation.

  As promised, Kim was kneeling, legs in the sand over the edge of the rock outcrop. She bent, kissing Rosa’s shoulders, between her breasts, down in a long, incremental line over her chest and stomach and, at last, between her legs. She licked as if she could drink her up, as if Rosa was the answer to a drought. Maybe she was right; Rosa had become so wet she felt herself dripping onto the rock under her. It made her feel powerful, like an elemental goddess.

  She had been so aroused on the journey here that she came quickly, the first time. Kim climbed up to lie beside her. Disgracefully, she was still dressed. And she pulled the backpack up with her. Rosa dismissed that mystery as she set about disrobing her girlfriend, pausing to trace the outline of Kim’s delightfully ticklish navel, and to roll one exposed nipple between her fingers. She lingered to suck on Kim’s bared breast, feeling it grow wet from her mouth, tasting a hint of salt from her sweat.

  As she opened Kim’s khakis and pulled down her undershorts, she had to stop and stare. A mini butterfly vibe greeted her.

  “Oh my god,” she said. “All this time, you planned—”

  Kim blushed, but her smile was proud. Breath uneven, she said, “The remote’s…in the bag. So…is lube.”

  Between the two of them, they made the backpack yield both. Kim worked a few dots of lube over the vibe and Rosa’s already slick pussy. Rosa pulled her on top. Kim knelt with her khakis around her knees, cushioning them from the sandstone. They interlocked legs, and then Kim flipped the switch to the lowest setting.

  The jelly toy’s vibrations rippled through her mound and deeper, pulses of almost liquid pleasure. The heat of Kim’s hips between her thighs, the jump of muscles working in them as she thrust, set Rosa on fire. But this conflagration was no catastrophe. Nothing to fear now from burning in it, from drowning, from getting lost.

  She lost herself, moaning and then screaming out her lover’s name.

  Kim moved the setting up a notch in intensity, though it hardly seemed necessary. Rosa was lost in the movement of their bodies, chasing release like a mirage—a glimmer on the horizon before her.

  Then she reached it, stumbled into it, a plummet into clouds, soaring above the mountains. Her toes curled, leaving the ground. She no longer felt the stone against her back, only Kim’s skin against hers and the strength of her coming in her arms.

  ***

  At first, Rosa had thought the condo’s bathroom opened onto a tiny porch. Weird, sure, but the showerhead looked more like a garden fixture than anything, and she still couldn’t quite get behind the idea of going naked under the sky.

  Well, she hadn’t until yesterday.

  There were walls around the shower, and more around the garden, so it wasn’t completely exposed even if it was an open-ceilinged closet. Water drained from the cement floor into the surrounding plants, which were already watered every morning by an automatic sprinkler system. The scent of growing things carried through the slatted walls—fresh, faintly floral. Pleasant enough, but tame compared to the pungency of sage and the arid perfume of sandstone.

  Tame. The word came to mind and puzzled Rosa. After all, she’d never had a problem with tameness before.

  Even taking the outdoor shower was, by her standards, a bit wild.

  So was morning sex. Not that she’d never done it before, but it took nerve that she had to work up for it, fuggy breath and tangled hair and all. Before getting up this morning, though, she’d murmured an invitation in Kim’s ear—that part was easy now that she just had to lean over on the side-by-side twin mattresses.

  But Kim had barely stirred, murmuring something sweet yet sleepy, so Rosa had left her to catch up on her well-deserved rest. Not without a pang. Still, this shower held sensual pleasure of its own—and cleanliness was almost more welcome than sex at this point.

  Kim had also carried spare clothes in her backpack: two T-shirts lightly dampened and sealed in Ziploc baggies. So they’d gone back to the condo refreshed enough, but once they got here they’d only had the energy for a perfunctory wash before pushing the beds together and falling into them. To sleep. She’d woken up feeling gritty as well as restless.

  Gritty morning sex. Yeah, way too weird for her. Just as well Kim had passed it up.

  The holes on the disc-shaped showerhead were spaced apart for a wide fall of water. It encompassed her body like a rainstorm. Rosa bent her head back, pushing her fingers through her hair, working out tangles lingering from wind, sleep, and sex. She rubbed her neck and shoulders, her back a little sore after being pressed against rock. Still, she reflected, watching streams trickle over her feet that had turned pinkish with rinsed-away dust, it wasn’t a wholly unpleasant feeling. And the experience had been entirely worth it.

  Kim hadn’t packed extra undies, and the state of Rosa’s when she peeled them off last night was both shocking and shockingly arousing. Even now the memory made muscles in her thighs tighten.

  Eyes closed, she opened her mouth to the water. Her ears filled with the happy hum of spray, so she had no notice before she felt warm skin, sleek, brush against her back.

  “Hey,” Kim said. “You asked me to join you, right?”

  “Yeah.” She turned around. “I wasn’t sure you heard me, though. I didn’t want to disturb—”

  A kiss reassured her that it was anything but a disturbance. “I just wasn’t sure if it was a dream,” Kim murmured between light brushes of her lips and tongue.

  “If I can believe yesterday wasn’t a dream…” She slipped her leg between Kim’s, feeling the heat of her pussy against her thigh. “You can believe absolutely that I want you here, now.”

  With a low, raspy breath, Kim grasped Rosa’s hips.

  “And to think,” Rosa added as she slowly rocked, feeling the heat build between them, “maybe it was a dream. We don’t even have pictures to prove it.”

  “Pictures can be overrated,” Kim panted. “And dangerous.”

  “How?”

  “They could make a place famous, like Antelope Canyon. Next thing you know…tourists.”

  Rosa laughed, but had to admit, “We’re tourists, too.”

  “Who specialize in very private tours.”

  “Private tours are the best,” Rosa agreed.

  Kim slipped a hand between Rosa’s legs, into her, and she trembled so hard that for a moment she thought she would fall. Somehow the chance didn’t scare her.

  Here beneath the falling droplets she let herself dissolve.

  They stood with their bodies pressed together, letting water cascade over them, rushing over every crevice, between breasts and stomachs and thighs. Rosa fit her hands into the space under Kim’s round breasts, reached up to flick her nipples, then twisted over them. Even if the angle wasn’t the most convenient, there was no way she was going to let a gap appear between them.

  “I’m always going to remember yesterday,” she said, her head falling against Kim’s shoulder. Kim’s left hand pressed the small of her back while the
fingers of her right continued pumping in and out of her, stroking that sweet spot inside while water ran over her sex and between her labia, a cool rush of sensation that left her on fire.

  She was right about a waterfall making things even better.

  “Me too,” Kim said. “And this morning.”

  Rosa moaned as her pleasure began to build. Kim rolled her pelvis, caressing her clit against Rosa’s thigh. The movements became harder, her pulse pounding under the skin.

  “I can’t wait,” Rosa said, “to see where you show me next.”

  “How about the twin bed?”

  “That’ll do.”

  She had to admit, the condo was starting to grow on her. Even if she now had a thing for outdoor sex. Wherever Kim was, really. Wherever they went…

  Rosa slid to meet Kim’s thrusts, all wetness and sparks. She chased the mirage again and felt the dizzying sweep as she overtook it. In the water they burst, wildly, into sweet burning, a fire not even a flash flood could put out.

  The Lay of the Land

  Raven Sky

  Raven Sky has published in the following anthologies: Best Lesbian Erotica 2019 (forthcoming, Cleis), Out Proud: Stories of Pride, Courage and Social Justice (Breakwater), Persistence: All Ways Butch and Femme (Arsenal), Here Come the Brides: The Brave New World of Lesbian Marriage (Seal), Judging a Book by Its Cover (Ashgate).

  I am ear deep in pussy. I mean, ear deep in pussy. Like—I can feel her wetness trickling behind my ears and into my hair, and now it’s going to go curly and I wasted twenty minutes straightening my hair for this date, but now when we’re done I’m going to look ridiculous—ear deep in pussy. And I’m in that space of going down on a woman when it’s almost trancelike. Just me and the pussy. Just me and this rhythm. Just me and this texture. Me and this moving moisture as I create abstract art with my tongue and everything is stripped down to essence. Pure form. Not that this woman whose pussy I am currently ear deep in doesn’t matter. She does. This offering most intimate is precious, I know. I know that knowing her this way, her taste, breath, movements, is a kind of sacred. But in this moment, I am blissfully lost to anything but this quintessence of what it means to be a woman and a dyke.