by Galli, Lynn
“You’re welcome, Falyn. I was pretty worried, I admit.”
I leaned back from her caress to search her still worried eyes. “Yolanda says I shouldn’t be the cops’ first stop after a burglary anymore, but I’ll believe that when I see it.”
“I’m going to give Cherise a piece of my mind when I see her again,” she practically growled.
“She was ready to give you a piece of hers last time I saw her.”
Molly looked surprised. “About what?”
“She didn’t seem to like that we’re together.” I shrugged, still a little baffled that Cherise was the only one upset by our relationship.
Molly’s face transformed into a beautiful smile. “Screw her. She’s just jealous she can’t land Brandy.”
Brandy? As obnoxious as Brandy’s attempts to seduce me were, I wouldn’t wish Cherise on her. Not if Cherise was as close-minded and eager to jump to judgment as she’d been with me.
“I think she wants to protect you from me.” Which was odd because they weren’t good friends, but everything about Cherise seemed a bit off.
“Now that’s laughable. We barely talk, and other than trying to pick up some of the tourists I dated, she never had much to say to me.”
My eyes popped for a moment. Like a trained response instilled by my ex-girlfriend, jealousy flared for a second. My first assessment of Molly as a striking butch was spot on. She had a body that all lesbians would find attractive and her confidence was such a turn on. I knew she’d been with a number of women. What surprised me was the knee-jerk flare of jealousy died when I noticed the light and intensity in her eyes. Molly was completely into me. I’d never been with anyone who was this into me. I didn’t think it was possible. Jealousy would never be an issue with us.
“What?” Molly asked, concerned at the changing expressions on my face. “Oh, sorry, that was a little insensitive.” Her hand skated up to lay over my heart in a gesture that gave away a lot of her feelings.
“Nah,” I assured her, placing my hand over hers to keep it in place. I wanted her to know I accepted her feelings and returned the same.
“Yeah. I don’t want to think about your exes.”
I smiled wide. A girlfriend who was as into me as I was into her. What a novelty. One I wouldn’t give up anytime soon, if ever. Warmth spread through me. That was it, wasn’t it? This woman, whom I never would have guessed I’d be interested in, was someone I now realized I could spend my life with. A life that wasn’t even my own just a few months ago.
Molly’s Epilogue
Six Weeks Later
A sound woke me. I routinely slept like the dead. It didn’t matter if I was in a bed, a tent, or my car. Almost nothing woke me up.
I blinked into the darkness. It took a second to get my bearings and check the time. Early morning, very early, way too early for me to be awake. I listened for the sound again but didn’t hear it. What I did notice was Falyn’s warmth behind me, her hand loosely placed on my bare stomach. I felt her body heat seep into my heart, smiling at how good it felt to have a woman spoon me. I was always the spooner. I had to admit I liked being spooned. And the cats were pretty good cuddlers, too.
I shifted onto my back to get a better look at her. Her hand slid to my hip, the fingers I worshiped gripping and ungripping like she was kneading my flesh. I checked her face and noted she was frowning in her sleep. A distressed moan slipped from her lips, then another. Her leg bumped mine, fingers gripping again. This must have been what woke me.
“Falyn,” I whispered and gently shook her shoulder.
She moaned louder and started hyperventilating. She seemed to be having a hell of a bad dream.
“Falyn, honey, wake up.”
She woke with a start, eyes wary, hand latching onto my wrist. It took a second before she exhaled in a full body tremble and slid into my arms. “Mmm, you feel all warm and snuggly.”
“You were having a bad dream.”
Her head nodded against my shoulder. She ran her hand down my arm, fingering every ridge and plane. God, even this innocent touch aroused me. No one else had been able to do this to me. I always concentrated more on doing the touching, but with Falyn I got to experience the pleasure of both receiving and giving for the first time.
“You want to talk about it?” I asked, trying to fight how her touch was lulling me into bliss.
She shrugged and went back to sliding her fingers from the outside of my arm to the inside. Like touching my arm was as sensual to her as it was to me.
“You don’t want to talk about it?” I guessed.
She pressed her lips to my shoulder. “It’s from prison.”
My hands involuntarily clutched her waist. She didn’t really talk about prison, which was probably my fault. I wasn’t proud of my initial reaction to hearing she’d been a convict. It must have made her reticent to tell me more. “Tell me, please, if you want.”
She leaned up, shifting to put her head on the pillow beside me. I turned to my side and looked into her hazel eyes. I liked trying to count the brown flecks that made what would have been green eyes more olive. The fleck count changed every time I tried to tally them up.
“However much you want to say,” I encouraged.
“My first two years were hard.” Her head shook. “Awful at times, but I got into a routine and learned what was most important in there.”
“Which was?” I prompted after a long pause.
“Favors and race. You needed something to trade for favors and owe a few to keep the balance. And you stuck to your own race. It was despicable to anyone who thinks they’re open-minded. I lucked out and got a decent first cellmate who was black. That gave me a pass there. My custodial work partner was Mexican, which helped me there. I was pretty much covered on the race thing.”
Her fingers came up to stroke my cheek and push into my hair. She ran her fingernails along my scalp. I shivered at the lovely sensation. She used her blunt fingernails to great effect on me and she knew it. None of my lovers had done this for me. None had bothered to find what would make me shiver. Sure, they tried to give me an orgasm, but they didn’t seem to care what else might make me crazy.
“Keep going.”
She smiled and gave another rake of her fingernails through my hair. “I was surviving. It wasn’t good by any means, prison shouldn’t be, but I was surviving. I started smoking because they were a good trade. Same with coffee, but you had to do both or it would be seen as your hustle.”
“Hustle?”
“Thing you do to rack up favors.” She stroked her fingers down my neck as mine made their way under her tank top. Her warm skin twitched in my hands. “Two years in, somebody new takes issue with me. She pretty much hated everyone, but she really didn’t like me. Didn’t like that I had a pass with three races and didn’t seem to need the cigarettes and coffee I always had for anyone who needed a fix. For eight months, she made some part of my day awful.”
I pressed closer to her. Nothing about what she said made me comfortable. I couldn’t imagine trying to make it through each day in there. It seemed like an unbalanced punishment for some crimes.
“People who always needed to bum a cigarette or a bump of coffee stopped coming around. Some of the regulars who’d trade their tasteless, veggie-medley side dish for my squirrel-pigeon burger stopped wanting to trade. She got physical whenever possible. Used her gang to intimidate. The first two years sucked but dealing with her beef got pretty unbearable. Our medium security wing didn’t have too many truly dangerous people. She was one of them.”
My fingers automatically traced the small scar I’d found on her side the second time we slept together. I’d assumed it was an appendectomy scar. My brow drew up in question.
“No, that was an accident on a construction site. Stabbing would have transferred her to maximum security, but she wasn’t above bruising.” A tremor went through her. “Anyway, that’s what creeps into my subconscious sometimes.”
“I’m sorry,
honey.”
“Thanks for listening.”
“What brought on the nightmare?”
She tipped her head in thought. “Not sure. I didn’t get the chance to clear my mind before crashing last night. I was so tired.”
We both were. It was the first time we slept together without first making love. As wonderful as our sex life was, it was so amazing just to fall asleep together without guilt that my girlfriend wasn’t satisfied. I knew I loved her, probably had when Vivian first mentioned it, but last night I confirmed she was the one for me. Everything else about her said she was. She’d been my best friend since May, my lover for months, and my love for almost as long. I felt confident of her feelings for me even if neither of us had dropped the love bomb yet. That was another great thing about her. We thought the same way about sharing feelings. It didn’t always have to be so blatant or talked to death.
“Then we make sure to give you time to clear your mind every night from now on,” I stated, not realizing until too late that I just implied we’d be spending every night together. Up till now, we’d been spending three, sometimes four nights a week at her or my place. I was ready to change that to every night.
“Yes, my lovely protector.” She leaned forward and kissed me gently. Her hand slid down my side and along my thigh. She dragged her fingers up and down. “Your skin is so smooth.”
“Laser hair removal.”
She propped her head up on a hand, looking at me with surprise in her eyes. “No?”
“What? I’m in shorts six to seven months out of the year. It’s a lot of work to shave every day.” I shrugged and smiled. “And razor burn blows. So the butch with sensitive skin went in for a totally vain deal. I know, lame and so not me, but I don’t regret it for a second.”
“Me, neither,” she breathed. “It’s so addictive. I never want to stop touching you.”
I chuckled. “That works for me.”
She skated her hand up my inner thigh. My hips tilted into her caress. She was so good to my body. The way she could make me climax so easily and without me being sore the next day. It was a benefit I didn’t know I was missing, especially not having to wait a day or two before we could make love again.
“You feel so good,” she whispered and kissed me. Her hand moved up to cup my breast. A finger flicked the nipple into a hard bud. She broke the kiss when she felt how fast I responded to her touch. “Want more?” she murmured as her lips drifted over my collarbone.
“God, Falyn, I always want more with you, but I’m good like this.” My hands lightly kneaded her luscious breasts. I could picture the pale pink nipples under my fingers without needing to see them. I knew I’d never grow tired of looking at or touching her body.
“Sleepy?”
I shook my head. “Up now.”
“I could make us breakfast. Then we can decide what to do with these extra hours my obnoxious nightmares provided us this morning.”
I leaned in and pressed my lips to hers. She always complimented my kissing, but she was no slouch in that department. “I adore a woman who cooks me breakfast.”
“You adore me whether I’m cooking or not.”
“That I do.”
She shoved up to her knees. “Same here, you know.”
“Thought so,” I said smugly and we both grinned. She adored me and she wanted to be with me whether we were making love or hanging out. My ideal woman turned out to be the complete opposite of what I’d been searching for.
She brought my hand up for a kiss on the knuckles and bounded out of bed. Her blue paisley panties looked amazing on her sweet ass. She always slipped something on before we fell asleep. It tantalized me every time I saw the panties or sleep shorts. I wondered what her winter PJs would look like. I couldn’t wait to find out.
Her cats and I took an extra minute to drag ourselves out of bed. They went straight for the stairs of her loft, but I had to spend some time digging through the drawer she’d given me for something to wear. Something she would find as sexy as I found her undies. Right on top was a pair of light blue boxers. No, her eyes never flared when I wore boxers. I could easily give them up since they weren’t the best option with shorts and didn’t fit under my silk thermals in the winter. She’d given up smoking for me. Boxers weren’t that hard a habit to break.
Hmm, let’s see. She liked the black hipsters or, yeah, these green boyshort panties. She’d taken her time stripping these from me the last time I wore them. These’ll do. I slipped them on, found a clingy t-shirt to wear, and headed down to the bathroom.
Falyn was scrambling eggs just how I liked them with a bit of milk and butter when I walked into the kitchen. She had coffee going for me and was cutting up mushrooms to sauté. Strips of bacon were already sizzling in a pan. I could ask her to marry me just for that. She’d taken the time to learn what I liked for breakfast on all kinds of days. For today’s camping trip, bacon was a must. She was easier, cereal, oatmeal, eggs, fruit, whatever I had was fine with her. In fact, I was pretty sure that when my parents visited in a few weeks and Mama made my Polish favorite, golabki, Falyn would eat it. We wouldn’t expect her to eat anything with meat, no matter how scrumptious the cabbage wrapped goodies were, but Falyn probably would so as not to offend my mom, which made her the perfect kind of woman.
I came up and slipped my arms around her. She leaned back and sighed while whisking the eggs in a bowl. Her face turned to nuzzle my neck. She was awfully good at multitasking.
“I was so tired last night I forgot to tell you my work news.” She set the whisk in the sink and turned to face me. Her eyes slipped down my front and graced me with the coveted flare. A quick grin stretched her lips wide. She slid her hands onto my hips and plucked a finger under my waistband, running it slowly along my abdomen.
I could have stood here all day sharing this simple touch with her. Ridiculous, really, but damn it made me happy. I glanced up, remembering that she’d started to tell me something. “What news?”
“Hmm?” she asked in a dazed voice, her eyes still transfixed by the glide of her finger. She always looked so beautiful when she was distracted. “Oh, yeah. Nat told me that big reno we start Monday will go seven days a week.”
I frowned. That would suck. We already didn’t get to see each other as much as other couples because I didn’t get weekends off. “That sounds like too much work.”
She smiled and shook her head. “No. It means we’re all rotating days off. I get to pick my days.”
I think I yelped, excitedly reaching to lift her off her feet. She started laughing as I guessed what she would choose, “Tuesdays and Wednesdays?”
“I thought it might be nice to have the same days off for six months.”
“It’ll be awesome.” I set her down and basked in the wonderful news.
She pressed a hand to my cheek. “Glad you approve.”
I more than approved. We’d get to wake up late and spend an entire day or two together if we wanted. I never thought I’d consider that an extravagance, but with her it would be.
She turned to pour the eggs into a pan and place the bacon onto paper towels. It was something I could envision watching every morning for years to come.
“Want toast,” I asked to be helpful. “Smoothie?”
“Please, to both.”
I put the fruit, yogurt, milk, and protein mix into the blender. Before meeting Falyn, I’d never made a smoothie before. Never even used a blender, but now I was becoming an expert at making them because it was one of her preferred breakfast staples.
“What’s this?” I noticed a small brown bag on the island counter.
She glanced over her shoulder. “Got that for you.”
I popped the bread into the toaster, brushed off my hands, and went over to the bag. My heart tripped as I pulled it open. I reached in and took out a new set of headphones for my iPod.
“How did you…why would you…?” I was at a loss for what to say. Not one of the women I’d dated would get
me something like this. I had a few rich tourist trysts try to buy me expensive earrings or necklaces. I never accepted them. The girlfriends I had would buy clothes they’d rather see me wear or gift certificates because they couldn’t be bothered to figure out what they should get me for Christmas or my birthday. No one would have thought to get me something both useful and thoughtful just because.
“You said the pair you had kept cutting in and out, and you have that camping trip tonight. I know how much the iPod saves your nights on those trips.”
“Falyn,” I breathed out in wonder. “Thank you.”
She looked surprised by how grateful I sounded. “It’s nothing big, Molly.”
No. It wasn’t as big as her changing her work schedule to match mine, but it was a big deal to me. Every big gift had a purpose like softening me up for something I wouldn’t like or apologizing for something I wasn’t happy about. Little gifts or gestures said she was thinking of me when she was doing something else, when she didn’t need to be thinking of me. “It’s not my birthday.”
“I know.” Her mouth quirked up. “Do I need a reason to pick up something for you?”
“No one’s ever done that for me.”
“Well, get used to it.” She smiled and gripped my hand. “I don’t ever want to take you for granted. You have to promise to tell me if you feel that way.”
I went to her for a hug. Her face tucked in against mine. “I will as long as you tell me the same.”
“And no keeping score, either.”
I smiled because she guessed one of my habits with friends. If Vivian or Dwight paid for dinner twice in a row, it made me antsy. Yeah, they made a lot more than I did, but I wanted things to be even between us. “Yes, ma’am.”
She laughed. “I am okay with being the boss, though.”
I joined her merriment. “In your dreams. That we will be keeping score on.”
“Share it?”
I nodded. “Yeah, we can work with that.”
Her teeth pulled her bottom lip in for a tantalizing three seconds. “I wouldn’t think of sharing control with just anyone, you know?”
