Love Burns Bright

by Radclyffe

  Audrey trembled with desire. “Make love to me, Jess. Please.”

  Jessie walked Audrey to the bed and pushed her gently onto the mattress. She never lost eye contact as she shed her clothes. Audrey’s gaze raked over the sleek, muscled body that hadn’t changed in their years together.

  Jessie hovered over her. “You’re as beautiful as the night we met.”

  She bent down and ran her tongue along Audrey’s lips until Audrey opened her mouth and welcomed Jessie’s searching tongue. Audrey moaned as Jessie softly caressed her breast and let her fingers drift down her body until she dipped into her wetness. Audrey arched into her touch, but Jessie stayed away from where Audrey craved her most.

  Jessie continued the swirling movement of her fingers, kissing her way down Audrey’s neck to her breasts, pausing to lavish each nipple with her tongue before moving lower…and lower.

  Audrey willingly spread her legs. “Don’t make me wait—” She hissed when Jessie’s tongue dipped into her folds. Her hips jerked when Jessie reached her clit. In the next instant, she slid two fingers deep inside and began pumping in time with the rhythm of her feasting mouth.

  Audrey felt her orgasm building, waiting to explode from her depths like a diver bursting through the water’s surface in a frantic search of that first, precious breath of air.

  Jessie tore her mouth away but kept up with the steady driving of her fingers. “Now, Audrey.”

  Hearing that plea from her lover sent Audrey flying over the edge. “Yesss!”

  Jessie pushed into her until Audrey weakly stopped her hand. Jessie gently pulled out and leaned down to kiss away Audrey’s tears. Her deep brown eyes shimmered with moisture. She started to speak, but Audrey placed a finger against her lips.

  “I know, baby, I know,” Audrey whispered.

  New York State, August 17, 2009

  They passed the Welcome to New York sign, but Audrey remained mute about where she was taking them for their fortieth anniversary. Jessie had a good guess, though. She reached across the gearshift and caressed Audrey’s thigh. “This will be perfect.”

  Audrey briefly met Jessie’s gaze and took her hand. “I didn’t think I could keep the secret any longer once we got on I-87.”

  Jessie looked down at their joined hands and rubbed her thumb over Audrey’s age spots.

  “Not as young as we used to be, are we, hon?” Audrey grinned.

  “I wouldn’t want to be any other age than what I am today, and I wouldn’t want anyone else but you these past forty years.”

  Audrey blinked a few times. “You always know just what to say.”

  “It’s true.”

  They didn’t speak anymore as their Sante Fe ate up the miles. Just before dusk, they reached their destination—the town of Bethel.

  “You remember how to get to the field?” Jessie asked.

  “Not exactly. But I checked it out online, and there’s a marker to let us know we’re in the right spot.”

  Jessie chuckled.

  “What?” Audrey said as she made another turn.

  “I think it’s funny we’re sixty now, and we have to look up directions. Remember when we would just get in our VW bug and drive, letting the road take us where it’d lead us?”

  Audrey laughed. “Hey, we had to grow up a little.”

  She made a few more turns until they parked near a cement slab. They got out of the SUV and walked up to the marker to read the inscription. A breeze blew in from the west and ruffled Jessie’s hair.

  “I feel like we’re on hallowed ground.” Jessie spoke in a lowered voice as if she was afraid she’d disturb the ghosts of the rock stars who’d died since that remarkable time in music history.

  “We are,” Audrey said matter-of-factly. She turned to Jessie and smiled. A smile that still took Jessie’s breath away. “It’s where we met. The music was a bonus.”

  Jessie cupped her face. She placed a kiss on her lips that started out chaste, but quickly ignited something more. She pulled out of the kiss and rested her forehead against Audrey’s. “You still do things to me, Audrey Cartwright.”

  “And that’s a good thing, Jessie Roman.” Audrey reached for Jessie’s hand. “Come on. Let’s walk down the fence line. I think I see where we first met.”

  Jessie laughed. “You can’t possibly know that.”

  “So? It’ll be close enough.”

  It had grown a little darker. Jessie stumbled once on the uneven ground, but Audrey caught her before she fell. They walked several more feet when Audrey suddenly stopped.

  “Here. This is it.”

  “How do you know?” Jessie asked.

  “Can’t you just feel the energy?”

  “Um…no. Not really.”

  Audrey reached into her fanny pack and pulled out a lighter… and what suspiciously looked like a joint.

  “Where the hell did you get that?” Jessie said in shock.

  “Never mind.” She flicked the lighter and inhaled as she lit the joint. She held her breath and then exhaled. “Good shit, man.”

  “Do I know you?”

  Audrey burst out laughing. “I wish you could see the look on your face. Here. Do not disappoint me, Jessie, and tell me you’ve gone all conservative.”

  Jessie glanced around them.

  “There’s no one here, silly. And who cares if there were.”

  “Well, I’d think you would, O Madam Prosecutor.”

  Audrey waved her hand. “It’s just you and me and our memories.”

  Jessie took a hit. “Wow. That really is good shit.”

  They passed the joint back and forth until it was down to nothing. Audrey pressed it against the heel of her boot to extinguish it completely. She cocked her head. “Do you hear that?”

  Jessie strained to hear any sound but the chirping of the crickets. “No.”

  Audrey took her hand, spun Jessie around in front of her and wrapped her arms around Jessie’s waist in an embrace that felt like an old friend. “I think I hear Janis.”

  A warm and mellow feeling washing over her, Jessie leaned her head back on Audrey’s shoulder. “You do?”

  “Mmm-hmm. And I think she’s singing our song.” Audrey nuzzled her ear. “Can you hear it?”

  Jessie closed her eyes as Audrey hummed “Try (Just a Little Bit Harder)” while unsnapping Jessie’s jeans. Jessie stiffened in her arms.

  “This is where I say, no one can see.” Audrey pulled the zipper down in tantalizing slowness and pushed Jessie’s panties aside.

  “Oh, my, you’re just as wet, too, aren’t you?” Audrey nibbled Jessie’s neck as she started stroking Jessie’s clit. “Listen to her voice, Jess. Let it fill your senses.”

  Jessie moaned with each stroke of Audrey’s fingers.

  “You are so, so hard. You’re ready, aren’t you?”

  Jessie nodded.

  Audrey pinched Jessie’s nipple and strummed Jessie’s clit until she came in a rush.

  “Oh, god,” Jessie cried, gripping Audrey’s arms to keep from collapsing onto the ground.

  “I’ve got you, baby, and I’m never letting you go.”

  Jessie’s breathing finally returned to normal. Audrey pulled her hand from Jessie’s panties, and Jessie turned in her arms to kiss the only woman she’d ever loved.

  “Happy anniversary, Audrey,” she murmured against her lips.

  Audrey smiled. “Here’s to another forty years of magic.”

  HOMECOMING

  Kathleen Tudor

  Chelsea’s phone alarm rang out in the dark of early morning, and she rolled over to shut it off. She started this day like she always did, with a shock of dread that hit her like cold water breaking over her head. She lay in the silent dark, staring at the ceiling for a few minutes, wondering if today the tears would fail to find her. But they welled up right on cue, spilling over as she wept silently, squeezing out the terror and the nightmares and the hopeless thoughts and making room for what needed to be done.

  She�
��d started setting her alarm ten minutes early after the first month, when she realized that the tears were going to be a daily inconvenience—an incontrovertible fact of life. Now, as the last of the tears left her, she blew her nose and turned on the light, getting ready for her day. She washed her face, got dressed and only then allowed herself the daily jolt of hope as she loaded her email. Sometimes it would be days or even terrible weeks between the times that Jessica could write to her, but she looked for her messages every morning, regardless.

  Today, hope was realized. The message sat at the top of her inbox, automatically starred and marked as important by the filters she’d added to her account, and she took a deep breath to keep from screaming in joy. She loved to savor the moments before she opened the emails, letting the joy of hearing from Jessica wash over her. Jessica was alive. She was well. She was reaching out across the ocean from a place of danger to the heart of her home—reaching for Chelsea.

  Chelsea closed her eyes and sought that connection, almost tangible to her during these long months. Then she took another deep breath, no longer able to contain the smile that split her face and threatened to make her cheeks ache, and clicked on the email.

  It was short, only a couple of sentences, but it was the best thing she had seen in the eleven months and four days since Jessica had been deployed.

  Ten more days, my love. Hang on. Be strong. I’m coming home.

  The next ten days passed in a blur. Chelsea still had her job to do, and she refused to be distracted from teaching her seventh-grade English course, even when she was so full of emotions that she thought she would burst.

  At home, she spent days scrubbing the house from top to bottom, and although she had kept it neat before, now it shone from every corner. She tried to find a chore or a paper to grade or a meal to make and freeze to fill every spare second, or she was sure she would go crazy with the waiting, the wondering and the worrying.

  And then, like magic, ten days had finally flown by and she was at the airport, dancing from one foot to the other and checking the arrivals board every few seconds as if it could hurry Jessica along. She would have given anything to wait at the gate, but airport security was unmoved by her pleas, so she waited anxiously at the baggage carousel.

  She was looking at the arrivals screen again—her heart pounding so hard she could hardly hear anything else around her—when the first rush of people from Jessica’s flight poured through the gate. She stepped forward, moved up onto her toes, strained her eyes searching back and forth...Jessica.

  She was in the middle of the pack, but she quickly moved to one side as if she knew that Chelsea would need a clear path. Because she certainly did. Chelsea took off at a dead run, all of the careful discipline of the last year forgotten in her unbridled joy. She nearly knocked Jessica off her feet when they collided, and she leapt into her wife’s arms.

  Jessica laughed and squeezed Chelsea until she could hardly breathe, and Chelsea stifled tears, clutching at Jessica’s olive drabs as if she couldn’t believe she had really come home at last. When they both stopped babbling and touching one another long enough to look around them, they realized they had an audience. Some people passed, sniffing in disdain, but others smiled and even winked at the women, or nodded encouragingly. One old man stopped and put his hand out, and Jessica shook it, nodding gravely before he moved past.

  “Come on,” Jessica whispered. “I just want you, and home.”

  Chelsea waited while Jessica retrieved her duffel, then led the way to the car. Neither of them could speak on the ride home. Jessica sat in the passenger seat staring at Chelsea, and it was difficult for Chelsea to keep her eyes on the road. She longed to say something, but how could she convey the love, the longing and the fear of the last months? How could she tell Jessica that she was terrified and so proud her heart could just about burst every day? She wasn’t sure if these were things that could ever be spoken, so she choked on them instead, lost for words.

  When they pulled into the driveway, Chelsea turned the car off and sat, both hands on the wheel, the words bursting from her throat as if she had no control over them. “I missed you,” she said, and then the dam burst in earnest and she did what she’d sworn not to do and sobbed as if her heart was being torn out of her.

  Jessica leaned over and pulled Chelsea toward her, cradling her head against her breasts and brushing her hair back as she murmured soothing noises. Chelsea clutched at the uniform as sobs racked her. “I’ve ruined it. I’m sorry,” she managed to say in between sobs, but Jessica only continued to shush her gently, brushing her hair away from her face and rocking her in the confines of the car.

  When Chelsea had calmed, Jessica got out and went around the car, opening the driver’s door to help Chelsea out. “I know you must have been so scared for me,” she said, pulling Chelsea into her arms. Chelsea felt like a child, weak and helpless, and she wrapped her arms around her wife as if she would never let go of her again. “I know. I know how scared you must have been. You haven’t ruined anything, Chel. This is exactly what I wanted, all year. I just wanted to hold you and make you feel better, and now I can.”

  “I tried to be brave…” If Chelsea had thought she’d lost control before, she was in for a surprise. She broke down, nearly collapsing and blinded by the tears that suddenly flowed from her like a river.

  “You are brave,” Jessica whispered, over and over. “So brave.” Chelsea felt herself being lifted up, like she was floating in a river of tears, and all she had to anchor her to the world was her grip on Jessica’s olive drabs and the smell of her lover’s hair.

  She wasn’t sure how long it was before the shuddering sobs stopped and she was able to peel her eyes open. They were in the living room, Jessica on the couch and Chelsea draped over her lap. “I missed you,” she said again, and this time the words came more easily.

  “I missed you, too.” And then Jessica kissed her, and Chelsea’s world tilted yet again. A whole year with no kisses, unless you counted that frantic greeting at the airport—a whole year without Jessica’s soft mouth on hers, without the way she nibbled at Chelsea’s upper lip, without the sigh she made when Chelsea licked sweetly at her lips.

  Chelsea had thought she’d be in a hurry when Jessica finally came home, but she realized now that she had all the time in the world to give her hero a proper welcome. And Jessica seemed in no hurry, either, letting the kiss linger and their tongues dance as she ran her hands over what she could reach of Chelsea’s body. They stayed in a humming, pleased clutch for what could have been hours, letting their kisses convey all the loss and longing and love they’d both wanted to share for months.

  “Let’s go to bed,” Chelsea whispered, and Jessica braced herself, then pushed up, standing with Chelsea still in her arms. They both giggled, and Jessica carried her to the bedroom.

  When she set her down on the bed, Chelsea reached up and caught at her dog tags, bringing Jessica down on top of her amidst more giggles. Their hands started to roam, exploring bodies that had gone too long without each other. Chelsea thought she had gained some weight and still wasn’t sure she liked the little extra bulges that came with the extra curves. Jessica, on the other hand, had lost any fat she might once have carried, becoming leaner and harder with occasional havens of surprising softness.

  “You look amazing,” Chelsea said, easing her hand inside Jessica’s fatigue shirt. Jessica shrugged it off, tossing it and her bra aside so that her upper body was bare to Chelsea’s exploring fingers. “You have a new scar.” She tickled a spot along Jessica’s ribs.

  “They were shooting at a jeep I was working on. I didn’t even know I’d gotten hurt until we got back to the base. It was just a tiny piece of shrapnel,” she said, and Chelsea looked at the half-inch scar and tried to pretend she believed her.

  Chelsea pulled her blouse off, and Jessica popped the clasp on her bra before she could reach for it. Next came Jessica’s heavy boots and Chelsea’s soft pair of flats, and then they we
re wrapped around one another, pulling each other close and continuing their earlier kiss with enough passion and heat to set the bed on fire. Their legs tangled as if they couldn’t possibly get close enough, and Jessica reached down, pushing Chelsea’s skirt out of the way and reaching into her panties to find her hot, wet center.

  Chelsea arched as the first electric touch shot through her, then moaned as her lover’s gentle fingers explored and aroused her, pushing her quickly toward the brink. She panted, gasped and let out a long, low keen as pleasure coursed through her, ripping away the last vestiges of pain and loneliness with them.

  When her breathing returned to normal, she reached into the nightstand and pulled out a toy that hadn’t seen the light of day in a year. “Want to ride?” she asked, a shy smile on her face as she held up the double dildo. Jessica smiled, kicking out of her fatigues and reaching to help Chelsea out of her skirt. Naked like this, Chelsea thought that Jessica looked so vulnerable and sweetly feminine, no trace remaining of the solid soldier except the strict updo and the tiredness around eyes that had seen too much.

  Chelsea waited for Jessica to lie back, then teased at the edges of her lips with the dildo, coating it in Jessica’s juices. She lifted it to her own mouth, watching Jessica’s eyes dilate as she licked the cream away from the head of the toy. “I’ve missed that taste.”

  “Plenty more time for that. Right now I want you,” Jessica said, and Chelsea answered by returning the dildo to her lover’s cunt and pushing it slowly past her inner lips, fucking her deeper and deeper with every thrust. Jessica let her head fall back, and a small moan escaped her as the dildo settled deeply into her body. The other cock head protruded from her, and Chelsea straddled her wife, guided the dildo to her center and began to slowly lower herself onto it.

  Jessica moaned again as the added pressure pushed the dildo deeper into her body. She pushed back, and it was Chelsea’s turn to moan as she sank toward her lover’s body. As soon as the dildo was all the way inside her, Chelsea lay down atop her wife and kissed her deeply. “Welcome home,” she whispered. Then she rocked her hips forward, making both of them gasp, and soon they were both rocking and bucking against one another, crying out in a sensual chorus as they drove themselves and each other to greater heights of pleasure.