Rules of the Road

by K. Aten

  Jamie’s eyes widened with panic. “Do I have to answer right now? I’m really kind of tired.” She did a big fake yawn and Kelsey started laughing.

  “Chicken shit! But fine, you can ask again some other time. I just need to run upstairs and grab my backpack before you go to bed.”

  “Um,” Jamie stood from the couch and began gathering glasses that had been left around the living room. “I have a king size bed. We can just share if you want. It will be a lot more comfortable than the couch, trust me!” She hesitantly met Kelsey’s eyes and despite her level of inebriation, Jamie’s gaze was serious and sincere.

  Kelsey smiled at her. “That sounds fine, thanks for sharing.” Jamie stumbled slightly after the lights were shut off and Kelsey wasn’t much better. “Damn, I really need to brush my teeth.” She followed Jamie up the stairs, thoroughly enjoying the view.

  “Me too. Stop staring at my ass, Kels.”

  Kelsey snickered. “I’m not staring at your ass. I’m staring at the back of your head.”

  “Really? Why?” Jamie reached the landing and dropped her voice down into a whisper to avoid disturbing Burke.

  Kelsey had also made it to the top of the stairs and stood well within the blonde’s personal space. She reached out to caress the super short hair at the back of Jamie’s head. “Because I love the way it feels, that’s why.” Jamie shivered at the feel of Kelsey’s fingers but was powerless to step away. Finally Kelsey walked around her and into the master bedroom. “I call dibs on first shot at the bathroom.” She came back out and walked into the bathroom, shutting the pocket door less than two feet from Jamie’s motionless body.

  Jamie snorted as Kelsey disappeared from sight. “Of course she does.” She walked into her bedroom to find something lightweight to sleep in and contemplated spending the night on her own couch. “She’s going to kill me. Just, poof, and I’ll burn up into ashes!”

  “Who are you talking to?” Kelsey’s quiet voice startled her from the doorway.

  Jamie jumped and whirled around. “Uh, no one. I’m just gonna uh—” She pointed toward the bathroom and took off with her makeshift pajamas. Five minutes later she returned to see Kelsey sitting on the edge of the bed wearing a soft pair of boxers and thin camisole. “Nice PJs.” She glanced down at her own boxer and tank top combo.

  Kelsey shrugged. “They’re not what I normally wear, but nude is kind of hard to pull off in a sleepover.” She grinned at the way Jamie’s face turned pink.

  The blonde scratched at her neck and mumbled. “Uh, same here.” She was going to die. She was almost certainly completely positive of the fact that sleeping next to Kelsey would surely kill her. So she set her cell phone on the wireless charger and got into the bed anyway. “I usually sleep on the side closest to the door. I hope you don’t mind.” Laughter followed her as she slid under the covers.

  “It’s fine, James. I’m comfortable either way.” Kelsey found a plug on the other side of the bed and plugged in her own phone before sliding under the covers. She turned onto her side and gazed curiously at Jamie’s nightstand. “What did you just set your phone on?”

  “That’s a wireless charger. I have Qi charging capability in my phone so that it can charge wirelessly with the correct base.”

  “Holy cow, that’s wizard shit right there!”

  Jamie shook her head and giggled, nervous to have Kelsey so close. “Not at all. It uses uh, resonant inductive coupling between the charging station and the phone.” Kelsey gave her a blank look so she tried to put it into words she might understand. “Have you seen a generator? Better yet, your dad’s a mechanic so you probably know what the alternator is, right?” Kelsey nodded. “Do you know how it works?”

  “Hmm, pretty much, I think. The belt turns the metal thing inside a coil of wires. And that creates electricity by forcing uh, electrons or something around the wires and steel thing?”

  Jamie nodded. “Yeah, pretty much. Now think of a more electronic version instead of mechanical. So just like the alternator, the two coils don’t actually have to physically touch to generate electricity. Does that make sense or have I completely lost you with my terrible explanation?”

  Kelsey nodded, rubbing her cheek against the pillow. While she wasn’t sober by any means, she was also quite aware of what had happened between them during Truth or Dare. Something had shifted between her and Jamie and she wasn’t sure if it was good or bad. She just knew that there was a deep part of her that seemed to crave the blonde. She knew she should shut it down but it was the drunk Kelsey that wanted to play. “So James, have you decided which you want to see yet?”

  The other woman’s eyes widened with surprise. She was in no way, shape, or form, strong enough to deny her attraction to the woman in her bed. The fact that Kelsey was in her bed at all set off all sorts of alarm bells, as well as a good amount of tingling. “I uh, um.”

  “Is that a no?”

  Jamie turned onto her side to look at her fully. “No, definitely not a no. Let me think for a second.”

  Kelsey’s eyes narrowed mischievously. “Do you really need to think about it?”

  The blonde’s voice was a whisper as she slowly shook her head back and forth. “No.”

  Rather than show the other woman what she wanted to see, Kelsey did something even more daring. “Give me your hand.”

  “Why?” Jamie was immediately wary.

  “Do you trust me, James?” Jamie stretched out her hand and placed it within Kelsey’s grasp. She nearly came undone as Kelsey pulled it over to rest on her own breast. Jamie’s breathing picked up when Kelsey took her fingers and circled them around the nipple below the camisole, perfectly tracing the ring that pierced the rapidly hardening flesh. Jamie couldn’t help pinching a little and whimpered when Kelsey gasped at her actions. Kelsey hissed at the feeling. “Oh fuck, Jamie.”

  Jamie wanted to slip off Kelsey’s camisole and take the little ring between her teeth. She wanted to tug it even more just to keep hearing mewling whimpers but she knew she was already crossing a line that should never be crossed. Her close friendships were built on rules and she had to follow those rules or risk losing it all. But before she could let common sense pull her hand away, Kelsey’s hand stopped guiding Jamie’s fingers in circles. Instead, it moved up to scratch lightly across the back of the blonde’s head. Jamie moaned at the sensation. “Kels.” That was all the incentive Kelsey needed to pull them together. Lips met in a desperate crush as Jamie worked that lone nipple to aching hardness. Things escalated quickly when a single thigh made its way between Kelsey’s and she ground down against it. Jamie could feel the other woman’s wetness even through Kelsey’s boxers and she knew it matched her own. Jamie broke free from the kiss and moved her lips down to the side of Kelsey’s neck and started kissing and nibbling the sensitive skin there. At the same time she had unconsciously moved her body further over, easing Kelsey onto her back.

  Kelsey continued to arch her body up against Jamie’s. She had never been so turned on, nor turned on as fast as she was in that moment. Even though Jamie was just barely touching her she could already feel her orgasm building. It was rare for her to feel so much the first time with someone. It had pretty much never happened before. She had to let her know, she couldn’t let Jamie stop. “Oh, please, you feel so good. Don’t stop, please.”

  The blonde didn’t stop. Instead she moved her hand from where it was tugging on the delightful nipple ring, down the length of Kelsey’s body and cupped that place that was wettest against her leg. Her hand remained outside the shorts but that didn’t seem to make a difference to Kelsey. Her undulating hips increased their pace as Jamie helped her along with a very talented hand. Jamie’s own clit twitched at how hard Kelsey had gotten beneath her fingertips. Kelsey’s eyes were closed but Jamie drank in every single expression and feature on her face. She wanted to memorize the moment that she had been dreaming about for months. “Kelsey, I’ve wanted you for so long.” As much as she needed to reach insid
e those shorts and feel Kelsey’s slick heat flesh to flesh, something held her back. Maybe it was her friend’s inebriation, or maybe it was her own, but she kept her hand outside. In less than a minute Kelsey’s moans got noticeably louder and Jamie leaned down to steal them with a kiss. She clenched hard when her friend and now lover stiffened beneath her and cried out into her mouth. Kelsey rode the orgasm for a surprising amount of time and Jamie was entranced by her. She didn’t stop moving her hand until Kelsey mewled and weakly tried to push it away. Then Jamie rolled to the side and pulled Kelsey into her arms as she continued to shake and twitch. “Shh, I’ve got you Kels. I’ve got you.”

  Kelsey’s eyes were shut as she continued to take in the overwhelming orgasm that had raced through her with the force of a hurricane. It had never been like that. Until that moment, orgasm had never been so strong. She tried to tell Jamie, to explain how she felt, but she was so tired. “That was am...amazing. I’ve wanted you for a long time too. Never cum so hard before.”

  Jamie looked at the beautiful woman who was falling asleep on her shoulder. She adored Kelsey and that scared her. “Shh, it’s okay sweetheart. I wanted you to feel good, you deserve to feel good.”

  “I’m so tired, James. I don’t want to leave you hanging.”

  “It’s okay, just get some sleep.” Despite the uncomfortable throbbing between her own legs, Jamie knew she’d survive. She didn’t want to miss a chance of having Kelsey on her arm. Her wishes were dashed when Kelsey mumbled sleepily.

  “I can’t sleep like this. I need to turn over.” Kelsey didn’t cuddle. More than one girlfriend had complained about it but she just couldn’t get to sleep unless she was situated a certain way.

  Jamie gave her a quick one-armed hug then withdrew the arm. “It’s okay, just get comfortable and I’ll be here when you wake.” Jamie noted the smile on Kelsey’s face as she drifted off to sleep. Regardless of her earlier thoughts and words to her friend, the call to touch herself was insistent. She throbbed with unspent passion and she knew she’d never get to sleep herself unless it was taken care of. Wanting something quick and easy, she quietly reached into the drawer by the bed and withdrew a whisper-silent egg. It was set to a lower vibrating frequency and sure to do the trick. A little more than a minute later she was smothering her own cries with her pillow and trying not to shake the bed with the force of her body falling over the precipice of desire. When she was spent, she returned the toy and turned off the light, then turned onto her side to watch Kelsey as she slept. As Jamie’s eyes slid shut she realized that she had completely fallen for her friend.

  KELSEY WAS SLOW to wake the next morning. She spent the first five minutes or so just getting her bearings. Sensations started to trickle in. She was warm and comfortable. Then observations slowly followed. Her head was pounding like a drum and she wasn’t in her own bed. She also wasn’t alone. She cracked an eye open and shut it immediately with regret. But she didn’t need sight in order to know who she was wrapped around. She didn’t move away though. Instead she listened to Jamie as the blonde continued to breathe the slow rhythm of slumber. While Kelsey was indeed drunk the night before, she remembered everything. But lying there pressed tight against the woman who had dominated her dreams for nearly three months, she had a hard time regretting any of her actions the night before. The truth of what they did would probably be harder to face in the light of day though.

  She thought about what it meant to cross that line, not just to her but to Jamie as well. Her friend had been trying so hard to change her ways and she wondered if the night before was something as basic as falling off the wagon for her. Or was it something more? Kelsey tried to look at it as logically as was possible with a raging hangover. How much more could it even mean to a woman who seemed incapable of forming a serious emotional attachment to any of her romantic partners? Looking deep inside herself, Kelsey liked Jamie too much for such accidents to happen. She liked her too much to stay unattached in the kind of arrangement the blonde usually favored. And Kelsey knew they couldn’t cross the line again. Her best bet was to just gloss it over and move on. To chalk it up to one of those one-time drunken things that friends sometimes do. With that decision made, she let her mind empty out again and drifted back to sleep.

  By the time Jamie woke the sun was well up. Her blinds were closed but there was a hazardous amount of light shining around the edges. She cracked open an eye and immediately shut it again. The coming day was not going to be pretty. She needed water, then ibuprofen, then something good and greasy for breakfast. The blonde thought that maybe a chili cheese omelet would fit the bill. But in that very moment, despite her pain and slightly sick stomach, Jamie did not want to move. She had shifted in the night and woke pressed tightly against Kelsey’s back, playing big spoon to her friend’s little. Many things had been said about the blonde in the past. She was a friendly and affectionate lover. She was passionate and playful to the women she slept with, and she was always focused on their pleasure. But once the night was over, she retreated into her friendly but reserved shell. That was her comfort zone; that was the place that discouraged her friends and buddies from wanting more. It kept them from wanting some sort of attachment or relationship. But she didn’t want that with Kelsey. She wanted to turn her over and wake her with kisses. Just thinking about Kelsey’s dimpled grin had Jamie unconsciously squeezing the woman in her arms. Kelsey let out an adorable sort of whimper-squeak so Jamie did it again.

  “James.” A very sleepy voice came from the blankets in front of her.

  Jamie smiled. “Yes?”

  Kelsey turned her head to look back at the woman snuggled up behind her and she couldn’t deny that she enjoyed the feeling. But she also had to pee. “If you squeeze me one more time I’m going to wet your bed!”

  The blonde looked chagrined. “Oh, sorry. How’s your head?”

  Kelsey groaned quietly. “I’m hung.”

  A sigh tickled the hairs on the back of Kelsey’s neck, making her shiver. “Yeah, me too.” They lay there in silence for a few minutes before Jamie softly spoke again. “We should probably get up.”

  “Nooo!” Kelsey’s voice was a quiet whine.

  “But I thought you had to pee?”

  She whined again. “I dooo!”

  Jamie’s laughter was quiet to spare both their heads but the affection behind it was very real. “All right, I’ll let you up. What do you want for breakfast? Anything?” She pulled away and propped herself up on an elbow to await an answer.

  Before getting out of bed, Kelsey pushed the covers off her and rolled onto her back to stretch. The motion caused her camisole to ride up and show a delicious amount of creamy tan skin.

  Jamie’s eyes were immediately drawn to the navel ring with its twinkling blue stone. She also noticed a few stretch marks low on Kelsey’s belly but nothing at all that detracted from the beauty of the woman in her bed. Kelsey was a woman and some women had stretch marks and curves. Not everyone was skinny. When Jamie jerked her gaze away from the bare skin, she met a pair of amused green eyes. “See something of interest?”

  “I, uh, you have another one.” She pointed down at the belly ring.

  Kelsey smirked. “You’re very observant for someone with a hangover.”

  The blonde swallowed hard as her thoughts tumbled over each other. Things were going to change the minute they walked out of her room. Her face was too serious when she spoke. “Should we talk?”

  The smile disappeared from Kelsey’s lips. “We probably should.” Jamie didn’t speak so Kelsey took the lead. “Listen, I know you’ve been trying to change your, uh, ways. And I’ll understand if last night was just one of those things that simply got out of control between us. I guess what I’m trying to say is that you’re one of my best friends and that is what’s most important to me.” What Kelsey didn’t say was that she wanted a commitment that she was afraid Jamie couldn’t, or wouldn’t, give.

  What Jamie heard was that Kelsey only wanted to be frie
nds. “Oh. Um, yeah. Yeah, your friendship means the world to me too. I’d be lost without you, Kels.” Kelsey gave her a smile for her words, though it was uncharacteristically sad. Then Jamie poked her arm. “Now go pee.”

  Kelsey held out her arms. “Can I have a hug first?”

  Jamie glanced down the body that was still showing too much skin and shook her head. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

  “What if I just wrap you in my arms and corporeally cuddle you?”

  The blonde looked both shocked and intrigued. “Oh God, is that a thing? Tell me that’s not a thing!”

  Kelsey grinned back wickedly. “It can be!”

  “I will tickle you until you pee if you try it!”

  The woman with the piercings just shrugged and laughed at her. “Go ahead, it’s not my bed.”

  Jamie groaned and rolled away, then clutched her head as she sat upright. “Oh hell. I need coffee, and pills, and food.”

  “While you’re up, I’ll take all of those things, minus the coffee.”

  The blonde made a face. “Only creatures of darkness refuse to drink coffee!”

  Kelsey finally sat up and pulled her camisole down. “On the contrary, only creatures of darkness drink the vile stuff. How else do they stay up all night to create chaos in the world?”

  “You are certifiable!” Jamie threw a pillow at her then walked over to grab a hoodie out of her armoire. It was extra-large, fleecy, and comfortable in the AC chilled condo. She grabbed another that she’d gotten in Chicago. “You want one too?”

  Kelsey nodded as she pulled on her other footie sock. “Yes, please! Why is it so cold in here?”