by Fiona Zedde
But like some prick once pointed out, all good things had to come to an end.
Rémi was the first one to call it a night. The restaurant, which had been growing steadily emptier in the last hour, was giving them the side-eye anyway.
“I gotta get going,” Rémi tossed some cash into the middle of the table. “Claudia is meeting me soon.”
Across the table from her, Dez didn’t even flinch at the mention of her mother. Things had changed a lot in the last couple of years.
“Yeah, the place looks about ready to kick us out anyway,” Sage agreed.
They settled up the bill and headed on their way.
Outside the restaurant, Nuria and Dez drifted off to their separate cars. Sage kept Rémi company at the edge of the emptying parking lot while Rémi waited for Claudia to show up in the cab. What a college professor and middle-aged fox like Claudia was doing playing with Rémi out so late on a school night, Sage had no idea. But whatever it was must be one of the things keeping their relationship fresh and passionate.
“Things going good with you and Phil?” Rémi pulled on her riding gloves and glanced at Rémi from under her lush eyebrows. “You seemed distracted when we were talking earlier.”
Sage shrugged. “Yeah. Me and the old lady are still doing our thing, you know.”
A smile lifted the corner of Rémi’s mouth. “I know.”
Sage thought she saw a hint of judgment there. Or maybe she imagined it. She knew that except for an incident or two back when they first got together, Rémi and Claudia’s bed only had room for the two of them. Although her friend never went into detail, Sage knew from just the way Rémi swaggered around that the sex between her and Claudia still burned up the sheets. Rémi was just too much of a horn-dog to be in something where she couldn’t get her rocks off on the regular and spectacularly on top of that.
“There’s nothing wrong with how me and Phil do our thing,” Sage said defensively. But right after she said it, she could’ve bitten her tongue.
“Hey, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with whatever you guys are doing.” Rémi curled her fingers in the tight leather gloves to make sure they fit right, then swept a gaze around the parking lot, obviously checking for her woman. “Do it ‘til you’re satisfied, that’s what the song says and that’s how you should live. When and if that open thing stops working for you guys, that’s when you stop. If it keeps being sweet, keep it going.” Rémi shrugged like it was nothing to her either way.
Rémi wasn’t saying anything Sage didn’t know, but unease had been burrowing under her skin for the past few weeks making her defensive. No point in taking it out on her friends though.
“Sorry,” Sage said.
“No big.”
Just then, a taxi cruised into the parking lot and pulled up near Rémi’s motorcycle. The door opened, and Claudia stepped out.
Just… Damn.
Sage blanked her face to make it look like she didn’t just swallow her own tongue.
Rémi’s woman looked like a billion dollars. Cash.
At fifty-two, Claudia was slim yet curvy, her ass high and yoga-tight under dark jeans. A white, sheer blouse glowed under the high-collared, black leather jacket and low-heeled motorcycle boots hugged her small and delicate-looking feet.
On most days, she was easily the most beautiful woman in Miami who wasn’t Phil. Her short, snow white curls showed off the smooth darkness of her face and made her look a little bit like a pixie, especially with that pointed chin and slightly tilted eyes that crinkled with rays of sunshine at the corners. And she had the kindest mouth Sage had ever seen.
The door of the cab thudded shut, and Claudia stepped away from it and toward Rémi with a soft look. Her kind mouth became all lush sensuality and Sage felt a little dirty looking at her. Like she was watching her parents about to fuck.
“Here she is.” Rémi raised her fist for a bump from Sage. “See you later in the week.”
“Cool,” Sage said as Rémi loped off to get her woman.
Smiling wide, Rémi stepped up to Claudia like she was the only being who existed in the entire world.
The two of them were far enough away from where Sage stood that she didn’t hear what they said to each other. But the way Rémi planted both hands on Claudia’s narrow waist and drew her in for a kiss was unmistakable.
There was passion there, yes. Mouths opened to devour, bodies plastered together. But the spread of Rémi’s hand in the middle of Claudia’s back was a sweet tenderness. Like she was holding her lover close and allowing her to feel every ounce of her passion. But she also held onto Claudia like she was precious. Not delicate, but valued in a way beyond words. Beyond price. Beyond anything.
When was the last time she and Phil had been together like that?
Sage couldn’t remember.
She swallowed and took out her phone as an excuse not to look at her friend and her lover. While she fiddled with the call function on the phone, the bike rumbled to life. She found Phil’s name under “favorites” and, by the time she looked up, Rémi’s bike along its precious cargo was already cruising out of the parking lot.
From the back of the bike, Claudia clung to Rémi’s waist, looking both regal and sexy. The two of them were gorgeous together. Perfectly paired in a way most people could only dream.
Sage hovered her finger over Phil’s name on the phone but did not connect. Instead, she stared down the brightly lit road long after the two lovers disappeared.
CHAPTER TWO
One night, nearly a year ago, Sage almost asked Phil to marry her. She didn’t know where the impulse came from, only that it rolled over her like the intoxication from a fruity drink, unexpected but not entirely unwelcome.
They’d stayed in, just the two of them. Netflix on the TV. Phil’s favorite popcorn in a bowl between them. Their bare feet stretched out on the ottoman.
Chewing Gum played on the screen and Phil was cracking up every five seconds at the main character’s antics.
“Oh my God, she’s hilarious!” Phil poked Sage with her salty, popcorn fingers and collapsed against Sage’s side with an attack of the giggles.
Just then, the light from the television turned her into a stunning, gray-tinged portrait. Sage lost her breath. That moment, her woman’s laughter, the incredible contentment glowing inside her. She wanted to keep it all forever.
Will you marry me?
The question burst onto Sage’s tongue and hovered there all night.
One question. Four words.
But she’d had zero courage, so the question had remained unformed in her mouth. Weighted down by fear. Ultimately unsaid.
CHAPTER THREE
Her woman was hiding something.
Sage didn’t know what it was, but her clit was involved now, couldn’t fully care.
“That’s it, baby…” She groaned long and deep, arching up into the mouth riding her clit.
They’d been together long enough that Phillida knew exactly what felt good. Just how Sage liked it. How hard, how fast, how— “Fuck, baby!” Pleasure rushed through her in one hot slide, gathering in her hips, in her pussy that was soaking wet and dripping all over Phil’s mouth. She was a breath away from coming… Just one more— Phil pulled away.
“You bitch…” Sage groaned out her frustration as her woman’s laughing mouth withdrew, shiny wet, from her pussy.
“Yeah, but you love me.” Phil shook her hair back from her face, the soft strands falling around her shoulders and face, highlighting the early morning sex look Sage loved so much. But there was something she would love even more right now.
“Are you going to eat me out or what?”
Hands grasped her thighs and slid between them to stroke her clit, her slit, and lower to dart briefly to her asshole. “At this rate, you’re lucky to get a damn good morning kiss.” Phil teased her with a stinging bite on the thigh, and Sage hissed from the pain. And pleasure.
“I thought that’s what you gave me al
ready.” Sage knew she wore a cocky smile. But it was Phil’s fault. She was the reason Sage woke up happy and sexually voracious every morning for the last twelve or so years. Her mornings were so good because Phil was there. Fucking her. Eating her. Loving her.
Phil laughed, the odd dimple just below and to the right of her mouth making an indentation in the pretty tea biscuit skin. “You’re spoiled,” Phil murmured with her teasing smile. “I should make you wait.”
But she didn’t. Sage groaned from the stroke of knowing fingers on her clit. The touch fired pleasure all through her pussy and hardened her clit even more against the titanium bar bell through her clitoral hood. She gasped, and the sound ricocheted through their bedroom and out the door they never bothered to close.
“Fuck me, baby.” Sage groaned the plea, writhing under the skillful fingers, aching to be filled.
“For you, anything.” And Phil bent her head.
The hot mouth covered her clit, sucked on the hard metal through her tender flesh, and licked a moan all the way from Sage’s core. Her back arched into the sweet sting of lust, the sheets brushing under her heated skin, warming with early morning sweat. Another stroke of tongue and then—
“Ah!” Fingers slid deep inside Sage, “Fuck…just like that.”
Slick pleasure. Phil’s pierced tongue on her clit, her fingers sliding deeply inside Sage, stroking the weeping walls of her pussy while the knowing tongue turned her inside out.
She gripped the sheets and twisted her hips against her woman’s face, gasped Phil’s name with each stroke of those knowing fingers, each sucking bliss of her tongue.
So good, so fucking—
Then pleasure stole the rest of her thoughts. The fingers curled inside her to find that place that made her scream.
“God—goddamn!” And just like that, she was done.
Her vision went icy white as pleasure shot through her entire body, obliterating everything else. The morning sun, the sound of the radio blaring through the house, the smell of morning coffee from the timed machine that told her it was way past time for her to get out of bed. The cum erased everything but Phil. Everything except the woman she adored.
“Phillida…” Sage panted, as she floated back down to earth, her skin slick with sweat, her heart racing past the finish line. She licked her dry lips.
Her woman laughed. “I love it when you call my name.” She lifted her head from between Sage’s legs, her mouth and chin wet, strands of her hair sticking to her damp cheeks.
“Oh yeah…?” Sage reached down, swimming up from the lethargy of her morning cum to cup the back of Phil’s neck and tug her up to connect their mouths in a sloppy kiss.
The salt of her pleasure was perfect on Phil’s lips. She tasted the flavor, chased it, leisurely stroking her woman’s tongue with her own, sucking on the titanium piercing through the slick and agile muscle, feeding some of the pleasure she felt back to Phillida.
She pulled Phil up her body, their breasts and stomachs pressed together, kissing, turning them in the bed until Phil was under her, her thigh between Phil’s and they were grinding together, moving sinuously in the bed, the sparks of fresh arousal and desire licking through Sage’s body.
She was more than ready to go again.
It was damn near supernatural how horny this woman could make her, even after twelve years of sharing the same bed—or whatever semi-private place they could wrangle to fuck each other’s brains out. She never got tired of touching Phil, of loving her.
“I love you so much,” she groaned into Phil’s mouth.
Phil’s pussy was soaked. It easily took Sage’s two fingers, then three. Phil groaned, gasped into Sage’s mouth, her hips moving faster to chase the satisfaction Sage offered.
Phil groaned her name, circling her hips in the bed. The whimpering sounds of desire at the back of her throat pulled Sage in deeper, made her want to hear more, feel more. She stroked the wet flesh, fucking into her with her fingers, swallowing the soft noises of helpless desire with her devouring mouth. A faster stroke, a flick of her thumb against Phil’s clit, a curl of her fingers.
Phil tore her mouth away from Sage’s with a long and desperate sounding gasp for breath. At the same time, her pussy clenched around Sage’s fingers, gushing and squeezing her completion into the sheets.
Her pleasure came quietly, in soft and kittenish sounds that Sage had never heard from another woman. Phil wasn’t a screamer. Had never been. And when they’d first gotten together, that had worried Sage, made her wonder if she was doing everything right. But over the years, she learned to read the more subtle signs of her delectation—and the not so subtle ones—to know what was working, what was turning her on, what made her lose her mind.
Grinning with triumph, she fucked into Phil’s pussy, slowing the strokes as the tight contractions grew fewer and lighter, less desperate. Her wrist hurt but she kept fucking until she knew Phil had had enough.
Almost.
Phil’s slick juices dribbled down Sage’s fingers and her wrist.
“Baby…” Phil whimpered. Her lower lip trembled and tears of pleasure leaked from the corners of her eyes.
But not yet.
Sleek and electric, she twisted under Sage, her body hot and slick with sweat, hips fucking up, pussy wetly sucking on Sage’s three fingers. Tiny lightning strikes of pleasure darted between Sage’s legs, but she controlled them with the tight press of her thighs. This wasn’t about her right now. She fucked into her woman, gentle and sweet.
So close.
“Yes, baby, yes.” Sage groaned her encouragement.
Then Phil shivered one last time and Sage, quivering inside from sympathetic pleasure, fell between the sprawl of Phil’s legs as she collapsed into the sheets panting from her release.
Perfect.
Phil’s hair fanned out over the pillow. Her eyes fluttered closed and her breath came quickly. The sweat from their sex glowed all over her beautiful face, throat, and heaving breasts.
“I think you fucked me back to sleep,” she said without opening her eyes.
“I doubt that.” Sage laughed softly. Her love was about as sleepy as she was. Which was not at all.
Making a lie of Phil’s claim of being asleep, her thighs tightened around Sage and she bucked, shuddering ecstatically.
Yeah, her woman was far from asleep, and besides it was only one orgasm.
She made a low sound of contentment and slowly pulled her fingers out, sighing when the pussy clenched around her fingers and Phil made a soft whimpering sound.
“One of your friends from the lab called,” Sage said, suddenly remembering the earlier message. She lightly stroked Phil’s clit in apology. “He said something about needing you there right this morning.”
“Not fair,” Phil said. “It’s Saturday.” But she opened her eyes. Her gaze felt like sunshine on Sage’s face, warm and precious.
“Today just isn’t your day. It’s your turn to make breakfast.” Sage tapped Phil’s thigh with a grin and got up from the bed. “I’d like a veggie smoothie and egg white omelet,” she called from the open door of the bathroom.
“I should tell you to go fuck yourself,” Phil muttered.
Sage slid open the door to the shower. “But you already took care of that so…”
Behind her, Phil gurgled with laughter. “You’re such a pain in the ass.”
“But I’m your pain in the ass.”
“So true.”
Sage felt her grin grow wide enough to give her Joker face. She pulled the glass door closed and turned on the water. Today was going to be a damn good day.
An hour later, Sage walked out of the bathroom to the chime of a message notification on her cell.
No texts. But she’d a missed call.
She tapped the play button and put the message on speaker, leaving the phone on the bed while she lotioned her skin.
“Sage. It’s Mummy and Daddy.”
Bending to smooth the citrus-scented loti
on over her muscled calves and thighs, she frowned at the breezy tone in her mother’s voice.
A naturally tense woman, her mother was at her happiest when she was about to get into some shit.
“Why don’t you pick up the phone?” Her mother paused like she was talking to an old-fashioned answering machine and could somehow get the person listening to answer the call. Then, after she didn’t get the interruption she was clearly expecting, she went on. “We’re coming up to Miami soon for Errol’s graduation. I hope you didn’t forget. One week we’re staying.”
Another pause that only gave Sage silence enough to hear her own suddenly out of control heartbeat thundering in her ears. “Okay, call us back so I can give you the details. Your daddy is very excited to see Miami again. Bye now.”
“Was that your mother?” Phil came from the other attached bathroom dressed in her geeky-sexy clothes.
Dark slacks that hugged her perfect ass, a black shirt that clung to the curve of her breasts. She’d showered and wet her blow-out until it sprung back into elastic curls and coils around her face.
A heavy thud of her heart, a tightening low in her belly—both normal reactions to seeing the woman she loved and adored—stopped Sage in her tracks for a moment. She stared her fill until her woman lifted a teasing eyebrow to get her to answer the question. After twelve years, she still had it bad.
“Your mother is coming?” Phil asked. “Here? With your father?”
“They are, yes.” Then Sage’s brain caught up. Her parents. Visiting. “Oh, shit.”
“That’s one way to put it.” Phil’s smile looked tired around the edges. They both knew what this visit meant.
In the years since her parents “retired”—or whatever you called it when two people who’d never had to work a day in their lives moved back to an island they left when they were young— Vivian and Trevor Bennett had only set foot in Miami a handful of times. Maybe three or four.
And each time, Sage pretended Phil was just her friend.
