by Amy DeMeritt
“Is there anything I can do to help?” Her lips slightly curl skyward and she shakes her head. “I’m almost done. I just want to make a tossed salad. I have a bottle of wine chilling in fridge if you want to open it and pour a glass for us.”
Bailey wipes her hands on a clean dish towel and hands me a cork remover before going back to slicing cherry tomatoes. When I open her fridge and pull out the bottle, I smile as I read the label. The bottle is from a local vineyard. Actually, the only vineyard in the valley. The other local vineyards are on the other side of the mountains, where the sun is more plentiful.
Sundown Grapes Valley Vineyard boasts of wines made from varieties of grapes that thrive in low light and cooler temperatures. My mom bought me a bottle of their wine for my twenty-first birthday and it’s been my favorite winery ever since. Each bottle is so precisely blended to create the most perfectly balanced wine. It has just the right amount of sweet to tart, acidity, and fruit aroma.
The bottle Bailey has chilled is a six-year reserve bottle of a blush that boasts to have notes of cherry, coffee, apple, honey, and plum. I’ve actually never had this one.
“Does it look ok?” I turn around and see Bailey watching me with a small smile. I nod my head. “Looks great. This is my favorite vineyard, but I haven’t had this particular blend yet.” Bailey grins in a proud way. “I saw the bottles on the wine rack in your kitchen last week so I figured you must really like their wine.”
My heart bursts with emotion again. I love how attentive Bailey is, especially when I don’t even realize she is practicing that beautiful quality that too few people have.
“Thank you for taking notice.”
After Bailey finishes the salad, I help her carry it and the rest of the meal she has prepared to her dining area between the kitchen and main hall. The space actually looks like it had been a part of the kitchen and she sectioned off a bit to give the space a more intimate feel. She has an impermanent wall made of stained wood slats with wide enough gaps so I don’t feel like I’m in a shipping box, but small enough that I don’t feel like I’m in a cage. It’s actually a better way to create the illusion of an extra room than those Chinese curtain room dividers most people invest in for this purpose.
Bailey has prepared a gorgeous looking whole roasted chicken, baked sweet potatoes with vanilla brown sugar butter, the tossed salad, and sourdough dinner rolls. I watch as Bailey expertly carves the bird and marvel at how moist it is. I can see the clear juices glistening on the white meat of the breast as she slices it away from the bird. Really…why did I just check out Bailey’s chest?
While we eat the delicious dinner, I ask Bailey about her article she’s working on for the next magazine publication.
“I think I’m overthinking it, actually. With the first article, I already had my subject, conflict, goals, and opinions worked out before I started because that was determined by the photographer. With this article, I have to determine those aspects and then answer them in the article. I’m having a hard time narrowing it down because it is such a convoluted subject.”
“Have you brainstormed any of that in writing yet or is it all still internalized in your mind?”
“It’s still in my head. Every time I open my laptop to work on it, I end up surfing the web looking at the science behind the argument I want to make.”
“Well, after dinner we can do some good old fashioned pen to paper if you want. You can throw out all your random thoughts, I’ll write them down, and we’ll build your story tree.” Bailey smiles really big and tilts her head slightly to regard me in a curious way. “What is a story tree?”
“See, I knew my creative writing teacher in high school was kooky. You went to college for writing so if you don’t know, then she must have made it up.” Bailey laughs and shakes her head. “I’ve heard of idea maps or grids, but never heard of a ‘story tree’.”
“Well, the way she explained it is, your tree has three parts. The roots, the trunk, and the branches. The roots are the wants and desires of the story – you can have one or many, but without at least one your story can’t even exist. Your trunk is the conflict that impedes the roots. The branches are your characters, plots, dialogues, outcomes, etcetera that brings the roots and trunk together into balance.”
“Actually, that’s a very good idea. It sounds similar to the idea maps and grids, but I never really cared for using those. This idea sounds a little bit less rigid than the maps and grids so it might actually be the perfect vehicle to make sense of all the twists and turns this story is making in my head.”
“I’m excited to see the process of a real writer.”
“I only have one published article – I’m not a real writer yet.”
“Recognition does not make you a real writer. The heart you put into it does. The recognition is the blissfully just rewards for your labors.”
“Ok, well, you know how you tend to be a little verbally bursting?” I laugh and nod my head. “Yeah. Why?”
“Well, when I sit down to write, it’s a bit hectic. My mind likes to go in so many different directions that sometimes I have to humor a completely different subject or type of writing for a few minutes before I can get back on task with what I sat down to do.” I smile really big. “That’s sexy.” Bailey laughs really hard and shakes her head. “How is that sexy? Doesn’t it sound crazy?”
“No way. You have a very sexy mind. I can’t wait to see it start stripping for me.” Bailey laughs hard again and her cheeks blush a little bit. “I love you, Piper.”
“I love you, too.”
Bailey is still grinning in a giddy sort of way as she stands up to start clearing the table. I just love Baileys’ many smiles. Every smile reveals the layers of her emotions and gives me an “amuse bouche” of her thoughts. It’s a delicious experience.
I help Bailey clean up and then she tops off our glasses with the last bit of the delicious wine she had selected for tonight. I’m surprised when she retrieves a second bottle from the fridge, and uncorks it, before grabbing my hand and leading me into the living room – somehow, managing her glass and wine bottle in her other hand. Memory log: she used to be a waitress – I’m still impressed.
After Bailey sets the wine down on her coffee table, she retrieves her laptop bag and a pad of paper and pen. She hands me the pad and pen and then turns her laptop on. She looks at me with a shy smile, and asks, “Are you sure you want to be a part of this crazy brainstorm?” I laugh and nod my head. “I’m sure. How about I keep track of the article thoughts over here, and you type your random musings on your computer?”
“My thoughts exactly. Ok, ready?” She suddenly looks excited and I can’t help but cheese really big. “Ready. Start stripping for me, baby.” Bailey laughs hard and her high cheekbones pop in a giant skyward smile.
The next two hours are the most entertaining two hours I have sat through, probably ever! Bailey has the mind of a genius, a novelist, a dreamer, a theorist, an artist, and so many other layers that I just can’t label right now.
She takes so many detours along the way, but after the two hours, she settles back into the soft worn leather sofa and sighs. She has just read the “story tree” I pieced together from her mental musings and she loves it.
I have just finished reading her “brain distractions” and I love them. I have never been more turned on by a person’s mind than I am right now.
“Bailey, you are one very talented strip tease.” Bailey laughs hard and tackles me, climbing on top of me. “There’s a way for me to check the truth in that.”
Before I can question what she means, she slips a hand inside my pants, and the moment her fingers slip between my lips, we both moan.
“Piper, you are soaked. It’s time to go to my bedroom now.”
Chapter Thirteen
As I enter Bailey’s bedroom for the first time, I feel like I’m entering sacred space. I’m entering someplace private that only a couple other women have had the opportunity to venture
into. Bailey’s bedroom is much like the rest of her apartment – natural wood with blacked metal accents. She has a four post bed with a sheer white canopy and curtains drawn at the four corners. My mind races with images of making love to her in this romantic-thought inspiring bed.
Bailey pulls me over to the edge of the bed, and placing her back to the bed, she turns to me with an aroused smile on her face. She runs her hands up my back and palms both hands through my hair, gently tugging on my short locks. I moan and close my eyes a moment. I love when she does that.
Before I open my eyes, I feel her lips press against mine, and her tongue promptly enters my mouth. Bailey’s mouth is still sweet with wine. I suddenly become thirsty and my mouth moves more earnestly with hers. Bailey moans and presses into me, slightly slumping as if her knees have gone limp.
I reach for the hem of her shirt and quickly pull it up over her head, releasing her mouth for only a moment. Bailey unbuttons my pants, while I unclasp her bra. Piece by piece, we shed each other’s clothes till we are standing completely in the nude, firmly pressed together, in front of her bed.
Bailey pulls back from the kiss, breathless and panting. “Piper, I need your mouth on my body, now.” I smile and bend down slightly to grip her behind her thighs. Bailey places her hands on my shoulders and gently hops as I pull her legs up and toss her onto her bed. As she lands, she releases a small moan and giggle at the same time.
I remain standing in front of her, but bend down and start kissing a trail up the inside of her leg, all the way up the inside of her thigh to her center. I firmly run the flat of my tongue up her full length and Bailey releases a loud moan and her thighs fall wide open.
I pinch and tug on her clit with my lips and teeth, eliciting deeper, louder moans. Bailey is so wet that I feel like I am literally drinking her sex as my tongue laps at her folds.
I consider myself a “purist lesbian”. I love everything about tasting and feeling every part of a woman. I love having her arousal on me and tasting it. I enjoy using toys as well, but there is just something so deliciously raw and exquisite about two naked bodies and mouths moving in their natural state with unrestrained animal desire pulsing through them.
Before she can get too close to climaxing, I lift my face from her honey bowl, and move up her body, climbing on the bed between her legs. While my mouth moves over her stomach, breasts, and arms, I allow my thigh to press firmly against her wetness and move it in deep circles against her. Bailey moans and bucks her hips against my thigh.
When I reach her mouth, Bailey is breathing very heavily, but does not hesitate to pull me into an intense kiss, wrapping her arms around me. I continue to work my leg between hers, and while we kiss, I palm and massage her breasts.
Bailey pulls back, suddenly, gasping for air. Her eyes close tightly and her body starts to tense. She is going to climax soon. I quickly move back down between her legs and suck her swollen clit into my mouth. I gently and slowly nurse it, coaxing her orgasm to the surface.
I slowly insert two fingers to their full length inside her and Bailey nearly screams as her loud moan sounds her enjoyment and pleasure. Very slowly, barely moving at all, I pull my fingers out of her and push them back inside. Her sensitive flesh is soft and tight against my fingers. Oh god, I love this feeling.
As her orgasm starts to burst, her hand clamps down tightly on the back of my head, holding me in place. She moans loud and her fingers get a tight grip on my hair and slightly tug me in closer to her. I moan against her clit and the vibration of the hum must feel good because she releases a loud screaming moan again.
“Ooh! Oh god!”
Bailey shudders and inhales deeply as she tugs on me to pull me up out of her. I resist and try to remain between her legs. Bailey giggles and her thighs twitch and slightly close against my head as I try to continue gliding my tongue over her.
“Piper, I can’t go again so quickly. It’s numb and you’re making my nerves jump. Oh my god, that was so good.”
I climb up her body and gently kiss her lips before moving to the side of her.
“Turn over for me?” Bailey looks at me with a lazy grin and giggles a little. “Babe, can’t I have my turn to taste you now?” I smile and shake my head. “You told me I could have full reign of your body. Well, I haven’t enjoyed your back yet. So, turn over for me, please?”
Bailey takes a deep breath and slowly turns over. I prop myself on an elbow, moving closer to her. I drape a leg over hers and gently run my fingertips down her beautiful back. My eyes close and my face spreads into a wide smile. So soft! Velvet! The back – the softest part of a woman, but Bailey’s back is impossibly softer than any I have felt before.
My lips burn with desire to caress her perfect skin. I straddle her beautiful ass and bend down to kiss her shoulders.
While I kiss her shoulders, I press my thumbs into her lower back and massage out to her hips. Bailey moans and her ass slightly rises against my center as I continue to kiss and massage her full back and shoulders.
After several minutes, I can tell by her breathing that she has calmed down enough that she should be ready for me to touch her again. I move one leg between hers and firmly press it against her.
Bailey moans and her legs spread and hips rise more to open herself up to me. I keep my thigh firmly pressed against her center and with both hands, I massage her cheeks.
“Oh god, Piper, I’m getting close again.”
That was faster than I expected. I pull Bailey’s hips up some, reach around her placing a hand just below her stomach, and then slowly push three fingers inside her from behind.
“Mmm… Ooh.”
I feel her soft flesh clench on my fingers and slightly pulsate as she pulls me inside her. Slowly, I push and pull in and out of her. Bailey’s hips begin to rock back against my hand. So beautiful – watching her body slightly arch like a feline and rock forwards and backwards, seeking out the ultimate release to the pleasure she needs to feel explode inside herself.
Bailey rises up on her knees more, getting in a better position to continue her rhythm with me. Her perfect, round ass is now less than a foot or so below my face. I bend down and lick up the center of her right cheek. Bailey gasps and pumps back against me hard. I repeat the teasing lick on her left cheek and Bailey releases a little whimper sound. I smile and lick again on the left cheek, closer to the center-divide.
I lick the tip of my tongue up the length of her checks, alternating on both till I reach the center. Keeping my fingers inside her, I bend down and flick the tip of my tongue at her opening.
“Mmmm!” Bailey moans out and her hips thrust back into me. I smile and slowly remove my fingers from inside her and gently trace them around her clit. Bailey’s hips almost fall and she gasps loud at the contact.
While I continue to rub my fingers over her clit, I tease at her entrance with my tongue. Baileys hips are moving in a bit of a grinding circle and forward and backward motion to meet both my hand and my mouth, but suddenly, her back severely arches, her head falls backwards, and a loud moan erupts from her beautiful lips.
Bailey’s hips fall, pinning my hands underneath her. I gently kiss both of her cheeks and slide my hands out from under her. Bailey is breathing heavy and has her eyes closed. She looks so beautiful, laying on her stomach with her hair tousled and halfway obscuring her face.
I climb up to lay next to her and gently stroke her spine and shoulder blades with my fingertips, while she recovers. Bailey slowly turns her head to look at me and smiles in a sleepy way.
“Piper, can you still see me?” I laugh and kiss her shoulder. “I think I had an out of body experience at the end. I must be one hell of a stripper to be rewarded with that kind of treatment.” I laugh hard and pull her over on top me.
Bailey runs her hand up the inside of my thigh and gasps, smiling really big. I’m so aroused and so close to climaxing that my slick has traveled halfway down the inside of my thighs.
“Oh, Piper, you must b
e in agonizing need.”
Before I can respond, Bailey immediately slides her fingers between my lips and I gasp loud. Within just a few minutes, I explode like a landmine.
Chapter Fourteen
Naomi had asked me to take today off, but I felt it unnecessary. Meeting Angela last week did not cause any ripples in the pool of my heart – only Bailey can do that now. After telling each other ‘I love you’, Bailey and I have grown so close this week that it feels like my book is meshing with hers and we are now co-authors of one autobiography.
Most of Bailey’s job does not require her to actually be in the office to work so she has a lot of freedom to decide where she is going to work for the day. Yesterday, she ended up spending a few hours here working at her usual table. It was nice to be able to look up and see her dutifully typing away, or see her peering over with a cute happy grin on her face while she watched me work.
I’m not sure if Bailey is secretly feeling the same jitters that Naomi has, or if she is just hanging out here today because she can. Bailey has been here for four hours and doesn’t show any sign of leaving. I don’t mind either way because I love having her in the shop. We don’t get to talk much, but it’s nice to see her so much. When Naomi and I have a slow moment, we talk a little or she has me read something she’s working on.
We’re in one of those particular moments, with Bailey standing at the counter having Naomi and I read what she has completed so far on the article she’s writing for next month’s magazine. Just as Naomi and I both look up from the laptop to provide Bailey feedback, our voices catch in our throats as we notice Angela standing a couple feet behind Bailey.
Angela smiles and says, “Good morning.”
Bailey turns to see the new comer and I notice her shoulders slightly push backwards and her jaw just slightly clench for a moment. Jitters – that’s why Bailey’s still hanging out. She must be nervous about me communicating at all with the unmasked blogger.
