by Harper Bliss
Liz burst out into a chuckle. “Oh really?” She brought her hands to her sides. “That’s what you would say?”
“I just said it, didn’t I?” Jessica shuffled closer.
Liz regarded her from under her eyelashes. “Very well.” She sank her front teeth into her bottom lip. “Come here.” She reached out her hand.
Jessica looked at it before she took hold of it. She tried to keep a calm expression on her face, but on the inside, nerves were tearing through her.
Liz gently tugged Jessica toward her. They stood inches apart. Jessica could smell Liz’s perfume and the scent had the same effect on her as a kiss from Liz’s lips would. Just to stand so close to her was enough to make Jessica’s knees tremble.
Liz brought her hands to Jessica’s waist and spun her around. She pushed Jessica’s backside against the window sill and pressed her lower body against Jessica’s.
“Did you mean what you just said?”
Jessica couldn’t speak so she just nodded.
“I need you to say it. Do you stand by it?”
“I—I do,” Jessica stammered.
“Do you give me permission to put what you just said to the test?” Liz’s voice was solemn and serious.
Jessica nodded again. If this meant Liz was going to put her hands all over her, she wanted nothing more.
“Say it,” Liz whispered.
Jessica swallowed and looked into Liz’s eyes. “I give you permission.”
“Good.” Liz leaned in as though she was going to kiss Jessica, but then deviated from her path, and planted a kiss on Jessica’s neck. She was going straight for Jessica’s soft spot. She traced a wet path along Jessica’s neck and Jessica was glad she had the window sill for support. When Liz kissed her like that, she needed all the support she could get.
Liz stopped kissing her neck abruptly. Jessica opened her eyes and gazed at her. Liz stood there with a triumphant grin on her face. She brought her hands to the hemline of her t-shirt and pulled it over her head.
“I saw you staring at my shoulder earlier,” she said.
Jessica’s gaze was pulled away from Liz’s face to her bra-clad breasts and that impressively square shoulder line. Her clit started pulsing between her legs. If this was Liz’s idea of foreplay today, she was up for it.
“Now.” Liz pressed herself against Jessica again. “As we’re standing in front of the window, I’m not going to take off my bra.” Her smile transformed into a grin.
This made Jessica acutely aware that they were standing in front of said window. She had stared at this window for a good long while that afternoon and not once spotted Liz in her apartment. Maybe because she thought she wasn’t home, but still. She had her back to the street below. She could work with this. And with the sensation of Liz’s breasts pressing into her. Liz’s knee spreading her legs apart. Liz’s breath traveling over her skin.
Liz brought a finger to Jessica’s face and traced her jawline with it. She dragged it all the way underneath her chin and let it travel upward to her cheekbone, then down past her cheek to end up dancing along her lips.
Liz’s finger stopped in the middle of Jessica’s bottom lip. Liz held Jessica’s gaze then slowly pushed her finger inside Jessica’s mouth.
Jessica sucked Liz’s finger inside. She twirled her tongue around it as though it was the last thing her tongue would ever touch.
While her finger remained in Jessica’s mouth, Liz leaned to her side and whispered in her ear, “Remember, this is a test.” She paused. “I need to know that you want me to touch you. That you really, really want it.” While she bit gently into Jessica’s earlobe, she flipped open the button of her jeans with her free hand. “I’m going to need you to come for me,” she whispered. “Do you think you can do that?”
Jessica’s mouth was too filled with Liz’s finger to speak so she just nodded. The way her clit was buzzing in her panties, she figured she wouldn’t have any problem with that at all.
Liz stopped speaking. She unzipped Jessica’s jeans. She stood straighter so she came face to face with Jessica again. She withdrew her finger from between Jessica’s lips and slipped her hand inside Jessica’s panties.
A split second later, Liz’s wet finger was circling Jessica’s clit.
She gasped for air at the first contact. Liz’s touch was light but deft. She kept her gaze on Jessica and Jessica lost herself in Liz’s bedroom eyes. There was no doubt in her mind that she would pass this test with flying colors. She wanted Liz and she would show her just how much.
Jessica wrapped her fingers around the ledge of the window sill. Liz’s other hand cupped her jaw and Jessica pushed her head against it. It was the only physical contact between them. Liz’s hand against her cheek, and her wet finger circling Jessica’s clit. But beneath the surface, so much more was going on. Jessica was surrendering to Liz. She was saying, by means of her body’s reaction, that she accepted Liz and the choices she had made in her life. The choices she’d be making in the future and the life she had chosen to live.
Liz’s circling motions grew faster, as did the rhythm of Jessica’s breath. She felt in perfect sync with Liz, this woman who had been so unspeakably kind to her. Who had brought her back to life. How could she even have considered not wanting to see her anymore? Especially when this burgeoning ecstasy flowing through her was a big part of what being with Liz meant.
Jessica might have hired Laurel in the past. She had always justified it to herself as an act of self-care. Something to take away the loneliness, if just for an hour or two. The joy of an orgasm shared with another woman. It seemed to be something Jessica craved. But it receded into nothingness compared to what she was experiencing now. This exquisite woman’s hands on her. This was an act way beyond self-care. This was Jessica opening herself up to the possibility of love—and accepting, along with slowly coming to terms with the changes to her body, that she was worthy of it.
“Oh, Liz,” she moaned. It was as though saying Liz’s name sent extra bursts of delicious lightning from Liz’s finger to her clit. “Liz,” Jessica repeated.
She closed her eyes as warmth exploded inside of her. She let her cheek drop all the way against Liz’s waiting hand. Jessica’s legs shook and she gasped for more air. “Oh, Liz,” she said on a sigh, and sank deeper against the window sill.
She opened her eyes and stared into Liz’s eyes. That small, triumphant grin was back on her lips. Liz’s hand didn’t retreat. She kept it inside Jessica’s panties. Liz tilted her head as though studying Jessica’s face, gauging her expression for something. Had Jessica not passed the test? Either way, she’d like to sit down, or at least collapse into Liz’s arms, kiss her all over—and repay the favor.
Liz’s tongue flicked over her lips. Jessica felt Liz’s hand stir in her panties. She wasn’t retreating though. Oh no. She was parting Jessica’s nether lips and then, oh so easily, she slipped inside Jessica.
“Oh,” Jessica exclaimed.
“Come for me again,” Liz said.
“Wh—I—” Jessica wasn’t capable of actually saying words, although she did want to protest. Was this still part of the test? She wasn’t sure she could do this. She’d just come at Liz’s fingertip already. What more could possibly be expected of her?
Liz thrust inside of her gently—easily. Jessica must be soaking wet.
“You can do it,” Liz said, not a shimmer of doubt in her voice. “I’ll make sure of that.” This time, when she leaned in, she did kiss Jessica on the lips. As her finger stroked high inside of Jessica, her tongue slipped inside Jessica’s mouth, and Jessica started to believe what Liz had just said.
She threw her arms around Liz’s neck. Jessica knew she had passed the test already. In fact, there’d never been any test. There had been her and Liz looking at each other, knowing that something inside of them made them belong together.
Jessica had no idea what magic Liz’s finger was working inside of her. She thought she’d spent all her arousal on the
first orgasm, but maybe it had just made her more excited. Liz’s finger was insistent and it felt like so much more of Liz was inside of her. Jessica felt Liz’s arm working as she fucked her, she felt Liz’s naked shoulder rub against her as her finger thrust inside her. Her tongue was soft against hers. Its touch delicate, unlike the touch inside her pussy. Liz had ramped up the rhythm another notch and, for the second time that afternoon, Jessica let go.
She was able to surrender again because it was Liz doing these things to her. Liz, who had been at the center of her world since she’d met her. As she came, Jessica knew she had reached yet another level of feeling alive, of being her true self. She would always be the Jessica Porter who had suffered from depression and cancer and acute uptightness, but she would also be Nicole Elizabeth Griffith’s girl, and that changed everything.
After Liz had withdrawn her hand, she smirked at Jessica and said, “I just wanted to reward your persistence with some of my own.”
Jessica chuckled. “Let me catch my breath and I’ll show you how much more I have in me.” She drew Liz closer again and kissed her on the lips.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“I’m not really meeting a client today,” Liz said.
Jessica lay with her head on Liz’s naked chest. “I figured as much.”
“I’m meeting someone tomorrow, though,” Liz said.
“Okay.” Jessica pushed herself up. “But what are you doing on Saturday?”
“Hopefully not going to another disastrous dinner party with you.” Liz smiled at her.
“I have an even better proposal.” Jessica leaned on her elbow. “Will you come to the annual Edward Porter Charity Gala with me?”
Liz’s eyes grew wide. “You want to introduce me to your family?”
“Nah, I’ll save that ordeal for later. We can just show up and not talk to them.”
Liz shook her head. “You’re so strange sometimes.”
“I guess that beats being harsh.”
“I was being harsh on you, I admit that,” Liz said. “But for your information, I already wanted to plunge my hand down your panties while you were still in the elevator.”
“Must be because you were watching me through the window all afternoon. All that desperation on display. Must have been very arousing.”
“Once you were up here, you’d already passed the test.”
“So, what do you say?”
“To what? Meeting your family?” Liz asked.
“It’s just my father, stepmother, and a few distant cousins. It’s only called the Edward Porter Gala because of my dad’s grandiosity. It’s more a business networking thing than anything else.”
“I thought it was for charity?”
“It is. Attending the dinner alone costs a fortune, and there’s also an auction. It’s especially for people who want to remain in my father’s good graces.”
“You make it sound like so much fun.”
“I have to go. My father—well, my stepmother really, has been organizing this event for nine years straight and I’ve never once taken a date.”
“How come?” Liz extended her hand and stroked Jessica’s arm. “A woman like you?”
“For the longest time, my schedule was way too packed for something as frivolous as a date. When I did find myself with some unexpected time on my hands, I was too depressed to attract another woman.”
“Is that why you hired Laurel? Because you didn’t have time to find a date?”
Jessica sighed. “Among other reasons, I guess.”
“What were the other reasons?” Liz kept stroking Jessica’s arm.
Jessica arched up her eyebrows. She rolled onto her side to be more comfortable. “After I met Katherine and she told me what she did, I got really curious. And, well, I was a woman in my prime, yet nobody was touching me. Plus there was the sheer excitement of it all.”
“So you made the call to the agency?”
Jessica nodded. “Yes, the first time I called, they asked me a bunch of questions.”
“You weren’t ordering pizza, after all,” Liz said.
Jessica nodded. “The first time I set a date with Laurel, I cancelled an hour before she was supposed to arrive. I was too nervous. I couldn’t go through with it.”
“That happens all the time. The thought of hiring an escort can be very exciting, but actually meeting someone is another ballgame.”
“In the end, I was too curious to let the thought go completely,” Jessica continued. “I did go through with the second appointment.” A smile appeared on Jessica’s face at the memory. “Laurel was so nice. So natural. A lot like you. It takes something special to put people at ease like that.”
Liz didn’t say anything for a while. Then she looked at Jessica, her hand still on her arm. “The only reason I will ever give up this job is for me. Can you understand why I can’t do it for someone else? Where that would leave me in the power dynamic of a relationship?”
“I’m trying to.” Jessica put her hand over Liz’s. “I can hardly sweep into your life—as a client, no less—and expect you to change everything about it for me.”
“This job is my independence. In a few years, it will sponsor my dream. I’m so close, I can already imagine it. The Liz Griffith Gallery.”
“My father is a big art collector as well,” Jessica said. “My stepmother pretends to be, but she never had… I don’t really know what it is you need in order to know what’s going to be big or not.”
“Knowledge. Patience. Willingness to do research. A degree in Art History helps as well.”
“Christine has none of those things.”
“Your father does?”
Jessica thought for a while. “Apart from the degree… yes, I think he does.”
“Then I can’t wait to meet him,” Liz said. “But…I’m going to say something that’s extremely contentious in my line of work. Something I’ve lost and gained dates over in equal measure.” She smirked at Jessica. “I don’t wear dresses.” She waggled her eyebrows. “I look pretty dashing in a tux, though.”
“Oh, I’m sure you do.” Jessica leaned in to kiss her. She didn’t want to think about Liz seeing a client tomorrow, or anyone who might recognize her at the gala. Instead she lost herself in the tender touch of Liz’s lips, how her tongue slipped into her mouth, so assuredly, and focused only on this moment. She didn’t yet know how else to deal with anything that might come her way, but she had dealt with plenty of things in the past. And look where she was now. Naked, in the arms of a gorgeous, intelligent, art-loving woman who, no doubt, would be the tux-wearing belle of the ball.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
In the back of the car, on the way to the gala, Jessica couldn’t keep her eyes off Liz.
Liz hadn’t lied. She indeed looked stunning in a tux, oozing equal portions of feminine and masculine energy at the same time. Jessica had only to glance at her and a slew of butterflies rose up in her stomach. But those butterflies were not only amorous hormones acting up. If they were only that, she would have been able to keep her knee from bouncing up and down the way it was.
Liz put her hand on Jessica’s jittery leg.
“I’ve been to quite a few of these,” Liz said. “So no need to worry about my dreadful posh events etiquette.”
Jessica chuckled. “It’s not you I’m worried about. It’s my father. He’s been so different lately.” In her head, Jessica again went over the phone call she’d made to her father a few days earlier. He’d been strangely speechless when she’d told him she would, after all, be bringing someone to the gala. As though he was fighting back a tear. “I’m wondering if I should speak to his doctor.”
“Why?” Liz asked. “Because his daughter’s illness has miraculously put him in touch with his emotions?” She shook her head. “It’s a gift. Not something to worry about.”
“It’s disconcerting when you’ve known him your whole life.”
“Maybe you should speak to his wife. See how she f
eels about it.” Liz nudged her knee against Jessica’s.
“Goodness no. Let’s leave Christine out of it.”
“I’m even more curious to meet them now.”
Jessica sighed. “Maybe this was the wrong occasion. I should have introduced you to them privately.”
“But you didn’t want to go to the gala alone,” Liz said matter-of-factly.
“Correct.”
“And your father sounded over the moon that you’re bringing me,” Liz continued.
Jessica nodded.
“Well, perhaps not me specifically.” Liz threw in a chuckle. “You’re quite sure Christine has never hired a lesbian escort for some harmless fun on a weekday afternoon?”
Jessica slapped Liz on the thigh playfully. “Stop it.” She had to suppress a giggle, though.
“I do predict I won’t be the only working girl or boy at this event. People with enough money to spare, to casually spend five grand on a charity dinner, enjoy having some eye candy on their arm.”
“Not even I can deny that.” Jessica flashed her a smile.
The car stopped.
“We’ve arrived,” the driver said. He got out and opened the door.
Jessica’s father did a double-take as she and Liz approached. Perhaps he hadn’t expected his daughter to turn up alongside a woman in a tuxedo. He quickly regrouped and threw his arms wide. He hugged them both. Then looked Jessica up and down.
“You look smashing, dear,” he said. “As always.”
Then he grinned at Liz. “You make a stunning pair.”
“Thanks, Daddy,” Jessica said. She glanced at Christine, who stood next to her father, doing her very best to not look too uncomfortable. At least she was trying.
“You must come to dinner next week. No excuses,” her father said and winked at them, once again reminding Jessica that he was not the same man she’d known before her surgery.
When she’d suffered from depression, he had shown his fatherly love in the way she was accustomed to: throwing money around and making sure all the bad press went away quickly.
