Focus of Desire

by Kim Baldwin

  Isabel’s mouth against her neck, first warm breaths, now wet kisses, renewed the throbbing in her groin before it had barely subsided, assisted by the circles that Isabel’s fingertips were tracing on her stomach and abdomen.

  “Well, maybe I’m not quite wasted yet.” She caught Isabel’s hand with her own and rolled them over until she was lying on top, one leg between Isabel’s thighs, resting her weight on her elbows. And then she was kissing her with every bit of the wellspring of feeling that Isabel had stirred in her.

  Isabel kissed her soundly back, writhing beneath her, her nails raking Kash’s back to leave little half-moon crescents in her ass as she urged Kash’s thigh more firmly against her sex. She moaned into their enjoined mouths, and the unexpected ferocity of her passion loosened an answering response in Kash.

  Kash shifted until she was lying between Isabel’s legs. “I have to be inside you.” Her words came out more demand than request, but Isabel’s face was nothing but certain and eager enthusiasm.

  “Yes, you do.” Isabel tilted her hips and opened her legs farther to allow Kash better access. “I’m so ready for you.”

  Kash shifted to one side, to run her hand down the length of Isabel’s body, from cheek to neck to breast—where she paused, to relish the weight of it in her palm and to tease the nipple with a fingernail—then firmly down ribs, stomach, abdomen, to the soft hair below. As she rediscovered the abundant wetness she knew was there, she found Isabel’s other breast. It was like coming home.

  Isabel cried out, a breathy “Oh!” of pleasure, and arched her body off the bed as Kash brushed over her clit. “Oh, Kash. I need you so bad. Please!”

  “I’m right here.” She grazed Isabel’s nipple with her teeth more firmly as she let her fingers play across Isabel’s sex, then eased into her.

  Isabel was open, and ready, and accepted her with an upward thrust of her hips. “Mmm, yes, so nice.”

  Kash worked her up with slow and steady penetrations, varying the depth, enjoying the way Isabel’s body responded—welcoming her with a rocking of her hips, urging her on with a satisfied moan of delight.

  She had touched so many women that she knew what to do, and where, and when, with almost clinical accuracy—able to read even the most subtle signs and then adjust her technique to ensure maximum gratification. Kash kept Isabel on the brink until she begged for mercy, then sent her crashing over and nearly came again herself at the joy of feeling those hard, quick spasms around her hand.

  Isabel relaxed, spent and panting for breath, but clutching Kash to herself as the aftertremors of her climax subsided. “I…I so wish I could tell you how you make me feel. Like no one. Like never.”

  “I’m glad.” Kash gently kissed the thin sheen of perspiration on Isabel’s neck, then licked her way slowly to Isabel’s ear. She couldn’t remember when she’d ever felt this totally and absolutely content. “That works for me, too,” she whispered. “Like no one. Like never.”

  “You…you mean that?” The uncertainty in Isabel’s voice, so unexpected at this moment, shook Kash from her sated semistupor.

  She pushed herself up on her elbows to look down at Isabel. “Of course!” She let her tone add, How can you ask that? and Don’t be ridiculous!

  Isabel appeared both relieved and chagrined. “I know that you’ve had a lot of…experiences with women…to put it mildly.” She smiled and rolled her eyes, and Kash chuckled.

  Isabel continued, more seriously. “And I know that usually…well, that it’s not usually like this. I’m glad it’s…that it’s good different, and not weird different. If that makes sense.”

  “Not just good different. Great different,” Kash agreed, kissing Isabel lightly on the lips, amazed and grateful for her sensitivity. “Of course, you may not think so when you wake up with me crowding you because I’m not used to sleeping with someone—”

  “Never,” Isabel promised, hugging her tightly. “I want you to know, Kash, that…that you can be yourself with me, too. I mean…not that you aren’t. But if you…” Her cheeks colored, and Kash thought her sudden shyness absolutely adorable. “What I mean to say, is…that I don’t want you to feel as though you have to…to rein in your passionate nature with me.”

  “So you think I’m reining in, do you?” Kash teased before she claimed Isabel’s mouth in another scorching kiss. She shifted her weight until they were once again groin to groin, positioned so even the slightest rocking of their bodies would create a pleasant friction for them both.

  But just as she started that fire again, she felt Isabel stiffen slightly beneath her and pull her mouth away, obviously intent on making her point. Kash raised up on her elbows again and looked at Isabel curiously.

  “When you kiss me like that, you make it hard to think, let alone complete a sentence.” And it was true that Isabel’s expression right then could best be described as besotted.

  “And that’s bad?” Kash asked, kissing her again. She very much liked putting that look on Isabel’s face.

  “Mmm, great,” Isabel sighed, long moments later when they needed to breathe. “What was I saying?”

  “Something about passion,” Kash answered, nuzzling her neck with little bites.

  “Oh yeah.” Isabel wrapped her arms tighter around Kash. “I guess what I meant to say, was…I like it when you…you know, take control. When you made me come in that alley, in Rome…God, it was so exciting.” She was shy again, her voice a whisper. “Not that I’m saying I want to run out and have sex in public every other week…but I do want to encourage your more…spontaneous and forceful impulses.”

  “Exciting, huh?” Kash asked, thrusting her hips forward and glorying in Isabel’s answering gasp of pleasure. “I was afraid you’d regret it, later. The way it happened.”

  “Oh, no.” Isabel shook her head purposefully, then repeated their earlier reference with a smile. “Different for me, yes, I’ll admit. But great different.” She bucked her hips, giving Kash a jolt of pleasure-pain on her sensitive clit.

  Kash had imagined doing a lot of things with Isabel, and to Isabel, and the affirmation that there would be no barriers to their pleasure immediately made her think about which to choose first. “I’m glad to hear that, Isabel. Very glad. You know I’d never hurt you.”

  “Of course,” Isabel answered at once, gazing deep into her eyes. “I trust you, Kash, with all my heart. I have from the start, though I’m not sure why. More instinct, I guess, than anything else.” She caressed Kash’s back with the lightest of touches. “Loving you took only slightly longer.”

  She said it so casually that Kash answered the same way, though the intensity of the look between them belied the insignificance of the exchange. She wasn’t used to talking about love. “For me, too. I think I fell in love with you long before I dared to admit it to myself.”

  “I was so afraid I’d never see you again.” Isabel remembered how bleak her future had seemed without Kash in it. “I knew I’d made an impression on you when I saw the article—which was incredibly sweet and wonderful, by the way—but it said you were on the other side of the world.”

  “I was,” Kash confirmed. “But you’re certainly worth interrupting my trip for.”

  Isabel tried not to show the sudden ache inside of her that the words evoked. “That sounds like you’ll be leaving again.”

  “Well, of course,” Kash said offhandedly. “You are the one who convinced me to pursue this photo project of mine, so that shouldn’t surprise you.”

  “Oh, I’m not surprised.” Isabel tried to smile, but she had to force her show of cheer. “It’s wonderful that you’re doing this, Kash. I know it’s been a dream of yours for a long time.” Though it was the truth, Isabel didn’t at all relish the idea of being separated from Kash again, for who knew how long. But apparently what she wanted and what Kash wanted, weren’t compatible.

  “I’m not in any hurry, though,” Kash added casually, running a finger along Isabel’s chin. “I can wait until you can
get away, too.”

  Say what? Isabel pushed Kash off her and raised up on her side and narrowed her eyes to look over at her as Kash began to laugh. “What did you say? As soon as I can get away?”

  “Well, of course. I’m not planning to go anywhere without you,” Kash said. She wrapped her arm around Isabel’s waist and pulled her back against her body, but this time with Isabel lying half atop her. “Think the cakes and swimmers and Gillian can get along without you for a few months while we travel and figure things out? I told you I wanted to talk about us. I mean, you said there were a lot of places you always dreamed of seeing. We can start right at number one, wherever you like. As long as I have my cameras and you, I’m golden.”

  Isabel was beaming. “Oh, Kash. It sounds wonderful. But…but I can’t. I can’t let you—”

  “Hush.” Kash pulled Isabel tight and silenced her objections with a long kiss. By the time she ended it Isabel had a dreamy expression, swollen lips, and badly mussed hair. “Don’t let something irrelevant like money keep us from being together. I’m loaded. Let’s enjoy it, huh?”

  Isabel bit the inside of her lip and nodded, her eyes shining.

  “So…does that mean you’re okay with coming with me?” Kash’s heart soared.

  “Coming with you? Oh, yes. I like the sound of that,” Isabel said very provocatively as she raised up on all fours and slowly turned her body one hundred eighty degrees above Kash, until they were positioned so they could taste each other. “I want to come with you, Kash. Wherever. Whenever. However possible. Starting right now.”

  About the Author

  Kim Baldwin has been a writer for three decades, following up a twenty-year hitch in network news with a much more satisfying turn penning lesbian fiction. She has published five novels with Bold Strokes Books: the intrigue/romances Flight Risk and Hunter's Pursuit (a finalist for a Golden Crown Literary Society Award in 2005) and the romances Force of Nature, Whitewater Rendezvous (a finalist for a GCLS Award in 2007), and Focus of Desire. She has also contributed short stories to four BSB anthologies: The Lambda Literary Award— winning Erotic Interludes 2: Stolen Moments, Erotic Interludes 3: Lessons in Love, IPPY and GCLS Award—winning Erotic Interludes 4: Extreme Passions, and Erotic Interludes 5: Road Games. She lives in the north woods of Michigan.

  Visit her Web site at www.kimbaldwin.com.