Turning to face me, she said, “We could just sit here but the bucket seats are going to get old in a hurry. It isn’t warm enough yet for the beach, but I think I have the next best thing.” She grinned as she opened the car door and told me, “Come on.”
I was beginning to realize that this wasn’t your typical “let’s get a cup of coffee and talk about it” kind of thing. She led the way down the docks to the third boat slip. I had never really gotten my sea legs, despite my auspicious name, and I hesitated as she climbed up the side of the yacht.
“I thought you liked the water,” Riley cocked her head to one side as she stood on deck waiting for me to get on board.
“I like the water fine. Boats are another story,” I admitted.
“I won’t let you drown,” she chuckled as she leaned down and held her hand out. I motioned her back and managed to climb up without ending up sprawled on the planks.
“Is this beast yours?” I asked as I took in my surroundings. The lights along the marina cast enough of a glow to see a blanket spread on the deck. There was a picnic basket, two Adirondack chairs and a bottle filled with sand. I could have sworn the tiny candle sticking out of it was the one from the birthday cake.
“She’s mine. Not completely paid for, but mine and the bank’s anyway.” Her eyes followed mine and then she touched my sleeve. “Kai, maybe this looks a little presumptuous, but I honestly just wanted to talk. The whole thing you said last night . . . well, you seemed like you were sincere and I wanted to do this even if you laughed at me,” she ended wistfully.
“No, this is great,” I hurried to say. “I never expected, I mean, I’m the one who felt foolish for calling that way,” I admitted.
“Why don’t we call it a draw and just enjoy the night? There’s no moon and I can’t cook but I can order out with the best of them.”
We sat on the blanket, forgoing the chairs and dug into the food she had picked up. From below deck she produced a bottle of cabernet and we each had a glass. As we ate, we talked about everything and nothing. The meal finished, I watched her gazing past the other boats out across the Pacific. I caught my breath at how lovely her profile was in the still of the night. Before I realized it, I had spoken.
“Good thing there isn’t a moon because I don’t think I could stand it if you were any more beautiful.” Mentally slapping myself for sounding like a teenager trying out pickup lines, I waited for her reaction. She put her glass down and I sat with my eyes open as she leaned forward and her lips brushed mine. She pulled back and I felt her warm breath against my face as she spoke.
“From anybody else that would sound like a come on, but from you it just sounds sweet. You’re just too damn cute, you know that?” Riley pulled back enough to search my eyes, her gaze dropping to my lips. My surprise wore off in that instant and I closed the short distance between us, my lips covering hers with a hunger that overwhelmed me. Riley threaded the fingers of both hands in my hair and pulled me closer. I braced one arm on the deck and wrapping the other around her waist, lowered her back onto the blanket.
The kiss deepened and I traced her lower lip with my tongue, silently asking for more. I felt her mouth open and the velvet softness welcomed me inside, making me shiver. Tasting the wine and something indescribably sweet that had to simply be Riley, I heard a moan and vaguely wondered if it was me. My hand slid up to cup her face as my lips moved lower, caressing her jaw line and then taking a delicate ear lobe between my teeth and gently tugging. Her whole body surged up against me and she gasped as my hand wandered inside the open collar of her shirt and my lips found her neck.
“Wait, Kai, wait.” Her voice was strained and she gave a quick pull on my hair, raising my head back up. Immediately I stilled, confused.
“I’m so sorry,” I began as I started to sit up. But Riley shifted and hooked one leg around mine, effectively stopping my retreat. Recognizing the uncertainty in my eyes, she reached up and kissed me tenderly.
“I said wait because even though I don’t think anyone else is at the dock tonight I’d rather not chance having an unexpected audience. Besides,” she broke into a sexy smile, “I’m overheated now but when this fifty-degree air hits my skin I’m not sure even you can keep me warm.”
I couldn’t help the grin that spread across my face. Riley released me and we got to our feet. She bent and picked up the glass bottle filled with sand supporting that miniature candle and wrapping her arm around my waist, led me below.
The flood lights of the marina cast enough of a glow through the portholes to see the steps descending to the cabin. Once we got inside, Riley sat the bottle down and picked a flashlight up off a small table, rummaging in a drawer until she found matches. There was an antique-looking lantern suspended from the low ceiling. She struck one of the wooden matches, the scratching noise loud in the room, and carefully raised the globe and lit the wick. Setting the globe back in place, she switched off the flashlight. The lantern cast a soft light over the small cabin, the flickering flame dancing off the dark wood walls. It wasn’t a big space and every wall was flanked by some piece of furniture, including what appeared to be a twin sized bed on the side opposite from the stairs.
I sat down on the edge of the table, watching her. My throat went dry but I managed to speak. “Come here,” I said softly. Riley crossed the short distance to reach me and then laying her palms flat on my thighs, she stepped into the vee of my legs. Our mouths met again, this time unhurried at first, simply discovering each other. I smoothed my hands across her back, rubbing circles lower and lower until I slid them into the back pockets of her jeans, pulling her against me. I could feel her nipples stiff against my own breasts and she was doing some incredibly crazy thing to my lower lip with her tongue. When she started rocking against me, my throbbing clit fired off a warning and I had to come up for air.
Riley leaned her forehead against my shoulder and said in wonder, “You’re shaking?”
“Over-stimulated nervous system,” I tried to laugh.
Without raising her head she started working the buttons of my shirt loose. “Just don’t have a heart attack on me, OK? I’d never be able to carry you back up on deck to save my reputation,” she teased.
“Worried about your reputation and not my cardiac health, eh?” I said in mock indignation. By the time she had freed the last button and was tugging my shirt from my pants, my desire outweighed my nervousness. In one quick move I scooped her up and sat her on the narrow bed.
Not relinquishing her hold on my shirtfront, she pulled me closer and then ran her hands down my arms, pushing the garment off my shoulders. I wasn’t wearing a bra, but Riley didn’t touch me. The heat in her gaze was enough to cause a flush to start at my neck and travel down to the hard tips of my breasts. Reaching for my belt, she unfastened the buckle and my hands covered hers as she started to unzip my chinos. I was feeling awfully exposed and more nervous than the first time I ever made love. Riley was still fully clothed and I needed to do something about that to even things up a bit.
Kicking off my shoes, I reached down and grasped her ankles, swinging her legs onto the bed and removed her boots. I stretched out beside her and wrapped my arms around her, maneuvering her on top of me while being careful not to knock us both off the narrow space. I nudged her up to straddle me and she did. Her linen shirt soon joined mine on the floor. I reached up and ran my finger along the upper edges of her bra. Her hands were gripping my forearms as I unhooked the front closure and the cups fell away. They were immediately replaced by my palms and Riley gripped me harder. Her body arched when I took a nipple between my fingers and rolled it.
Suddenly impatient, I reached for the waistband of her jeans. We both fumbled with the buttons and she finally had to stand up to get them off. I had never seen anything as stunning as Riley standing there with the shadows cast by the dim light outlining every curve. Her creamy breasts swayed as she moved and my gaze drifted lower to the triangle of dark red curls below her navel, evidenc
e of her arousal making them even darker.
“I honestly could die happy right now,” I whispered to her, totally serious.
“Don’t even think you’re getting off that easy,” she warned as she crawled back up my body and began a series of mind numbing kisses. Her tongue trailed a wet path down my neck, stopping to nip at a pulse point and causing me to rise up against her. My hands were busy running from her shoulders to her hips, kneading the firm globes as I felt her mouth move close to my breast. She propped herself on one arm and with a wicked gleam in her eyes, took a nipple between her teeth and bit down lightly. The jolt ran straight to my groin. She released the tip and slowly licked it, soothing the slight ache before taking it into her mouth and sucking. She took each one in turn and then licked a path down my stomach, dipping into my belly button.
Her progress was impeded by my pants, and bunching up a handful of the material she jerked and demanded, “Off.” I lifted my hips and then wondered how in the hell she got my pants and my briefs off in one swoop. But I didn’t ponder that particular feat for long when she splayed her hands out on my inner thighs and coaxed me to open them farther.
She placed several lingering kisses on my legs, working her way closer to my center. I felt her fingers brushing the fine hair aside and gently parting my folds. I was wetter than I could ever remember being and she touched me slowly, massaging the swollen tissues. Only once did I open my eyes and look down at Riley. The visual was too much and I had to close them, but the image was forever burned into my brain.
As her stroking became more insistent, I had to have something to hold onto. Blindly reaching behind me, I grabbed the headboard. When she entered me with two fingers my back arched and the muscles in my arms strained with the effort of trying not to buck us off the bed. I had always been a quiet lover, but a deep groan tore from my throat. When I felt her tongue wash over my clit and then her mouth cover me as she sucked it in, I exploded. Riley curled her fingers deeper, finding the exact spot that finally wrenched a hoarse cry from me as I crashed over the edge.
My breathing slowly returned to normal along with my heart rate. Riley lay curled up against me, a quilt thrown over us to keep the chill air at bay. I had spent hours exploring her body, wanting to know her better than I knew myself and not relenting until she pleaded exhaustion.
Suddenly she sat up, throwing the cover off and causing goose bumps to pepper my skin. “What’s wrong?” I demanded, concerned.
“Nothing,” she answered. I watched, confused, as she struck another match and lit that tiny candle sticking out of the bottle of sand. The lantern had long since run out of oil and it was difficult to see clearly.
“Riley, what are you doing?” I was starting to get a bit worried. As quickly as she lit the candle, she closed her eyes and blew it out. Shivering, she jumped back in bed and pulled the quilt over us again.
“You want to tell me what that was about or do you just want me to use my imagination?” I asked into the darkness.
A slightly giddy chuckle sounded from the owner of the icy cold feet that just snuck over to my side of the bed. “Do you remember on my birthday when you asked me if I made a wish and I wouldn’t tell you?”
“Yeah, I remember,” I answered, still confused.
“Well, I have always made a wish on my birthday and if it comes true, I figure those candles or candle, as in this case, must be good ones. For wishes that is.”
At this point I was glad for the dark so Riley couldn’t see the skeptical look on my face. “And if the wish doesn’t come true?”
“Defective candles,” she answered.
“Ok, so I’m guessing that is what’s left of your birthday candle that you just blew out again.”
“Very good, Kai. Two points for you.” She poked me in the side, making me squirm.
“At your restaurant, I saw you sitting there by yourself and then you looked so cute when Gina got you flustered, I wished for some way to meet you. I was this close to putting my own hair in my food just to have a reason to talk to you,” she laughed.
I put my arms around her, holding her tight, and pressed my lips to the top of her head. “First,” I stated, “I am not cute. Second, I do not get flustered.” More laughter from Riley. “Lastly, are you going to tell me what you just wished for?”
She reached around behind me and pinched my cheek. “Are you insane?” she asked, disbelieving. “I’m not telling. That candle works!”
Hail Warning
Jean Roberta
KC dumped me in the rain, as though she wanted to wash me out of her life. Or maybe she did it then because she didn’t want to see me cry, as if I would. Maybe she had some blood memory of her ancestors leaving their nearest and dearest in the Scottish mist as they boarded a ship bound for Canada. I had seen it coming, of course. KC had been on the rebound when she besieged me in the bar six months before after too many beers. In some sense, our whole relationship had been a long hangover on her side, while I had just been hanging on. Our soggy, muddy ending by the Victoria Street bridge was very predictable. Knowing this didn’t make it easier to take.
“You know we don’t have much in common, Jo,” she told me diplomatically: no accusations or self-blame. “It wouldn’t have worked.” I choked back all the desperate words that sprang into my mind: Relationships aren’t just a matter of fate! You have to make them work! How can you say we have nothing in common? Have you forgotten my clit already? And my hungry cunt and my sensitive breasts and my eager fingers? They haven’t forgotten you! But I didn’t say any of this to her in the rain, in the mud, under a vast grey prairie sky. “If you don’t want to see me any more,” I muttered, “then it can’t work. If you want your freedom, I won’t argue. It can’t work if it’s not mutual.”
KC’s eyes, which could pass for blue on good days, now looked as grey as the sky, and she couldn’t look at me. “We had a good time while it lasted, didn’t we?” she pleaded, fighting off her sense of guilt. “I’ll see you around, Jo.” In a small lesbian community, that was guaranteed, for better or worse. “We could have lunch sometime.”
I couldn’t resist a parting shot. “You’re interested in someone else, aren’t you?”
Her face gave her away. “Coral and I sort of want to get together.” This meant she was already courting Coral with flowers, perfume, coy love notes and invitations to dinner, movies, concerts, and the gay bar. Trying to be fair, I admitted to myself that KC had a talent for courtship, although she always floundered in the follow-up.
I was about to walk away, my face turned toward the rain so that it stung just enough, when KC threw her arms around me and pulled me to her with a strength born of guilt. That strength tempted me more than I wanted her to know. I like to think I’m not a weak woman, but rejection takes its toll. Against my common sense, I sighed and relaxed into her deceptively firm hug. She searched for my wet lips with hers, and gave me a kiss filled with the relief of knowing that her freedom had already been granted. I kissed back like an obsessed follower of lost causes. To complete the shame, tears filled my eyes and trembled in my lower lids, about to spill over.
She pulled away from me in the nick of time. “What are you doing this afternoon?” she asked as if my life still interested her. My mind shrieked a menu of answers: Slash my wrists and write your name on my walls in blood! Ask around to find out where I can get a machine gun! And never mind why. Dig out all the old leather clothes I own and get ready to go to the bar so I can start a fight with a total stranger. Pick worms off the pavement and eat them with a flourish in front of a downtown department store. Instead I answered, “I have errands to do,” keeping it vague, aiming for a contemptuous monotone.
KC was giving me that patronizing look I sometimes get from other women in their thirties who think I’m cute because I look younger than they do: small and girlish. “I didn’t want to hurt you,” she crooned into my hair, tenderly lifting wet black strands off my face. “You probably shouldn’t be alone today, hon
ey,” she had the gall to advise me. “Why don’t you go see Ted? You haven’t seen her for a while and she’d probably like to go for coffee. You two always have things to talk about.”
I shivered slightly as an image of our friend Theodora sprang into my mind. I told myself this was caused by being drenched in cool rain after being dumped. KC’s comment sounded like further evidence of how wrong she was about so many things, especially everything to do with me.
KC and all the shallow women we both knew seemed to think that Ted and I were friends. They saw only the obvious: I was rarely at a loss for words and Ted seemed like the kind of dyke who would never lose her cool, even in a natural disaster or the front lines of war. When we met, our conversations were usually witty and daring enough to entertain our audience, and we both liked to perform for a familiar crowd. I wondered if any of our friends had the faintest clue that I really didn’t know Ted very well and wasn’t sure if she would ever let me get past her public mask. Or vice versa.
“KC, don’t tell me what to do,” I told her. “I have a lot to do today. I’ll see Ted when I see her.”
I realized that I didn’t have KC’s attention when I noticed her looking over my shoulder in the direction Ted would come from if she were driving toward us from her apartment. The significance of this jumped into my stomach like a baby frog from the river. “Did you ask her to meet us?” I demanded.
KC reached for me, and I moved quickly out of her space. “At Java’s across the street,” she confessed. She looked at her watch. “I wanted to talk to you out here first, where we could be alone. We should go. I said we’d be there ten minutes ago.”
“You can meet her,” I instructed, deadpan with rage. “I have things to do. I’ll see you later.” I hoped my emphasis on the last word was unmistakable. I turned my back on the woman I hoped to forget as soon as possible and began walking into the rain toward my future as a lone wolf in the uncaring human pack.
The Mammoth Book of Lesbian Erotica Page 33
