Best Lesbian Romance 2010

by Radclyffe

  “Terrified,” Sax said hoarsely.

  “When it was bad,” Jude whispered, “worse than bad, and I felt things inside of me breaking…”

  Sax cradled Jude’s face against her throat, stroking her hair. “It’s okay, baby. It’s okay.”

  “I knew,” Jude said, her mouth against Sax’s skin, “you’d heal me.” She tilted her face up, trembling in Sax’s arms. “Please, baby. I don’t need sleep. I don’t need food. I don’t even need you to take the nightmares away. It was hot, always so hot, and I’m still cold. I need you to make me feel again.”

  “I need you in order to live,” Sax murmured, gently pushing Jude onto her back. She settled her hips between Jude’s legs and held her body above her, braced on her forearms. “Are you sure you’re not hurting too much?”

  “I need you.” Jude wrapped her legs around the back of Sax’s thighs, lifting into her, pressing as tightly as she could. “Inside me. It’s all I’ve been able to think about since I left there.”

  Sax wanted to be inside her—inside her body, inside her heart, inside her soul. She wanted to bleed into her, until their very cells were indistinguishable. She wanted her so badly she was afraid. Tenderly, carefully, she spread her fingers through Jude’s tangle of still strangely short hair and kissed her eyelids, her temples, the corners of her mouth. Jude smelled fresh and clean from the shower, her skin faintly roughened from the wind and sun. Sax traced the edge of Jude’s jaw with the tip of her tongue, then trailed kisses down her neck. The stress of holding back the flash fire burning through her, coupled with her anxiety over going too fast, sent her already on-the-edge nervous system into overdrive. She struggled for breath as her body quivered uncontrollably.

  “Oh, baby,” Jude murmured, caressing Sax’s back and ass with long, urgent strokes. “Oh, baby, don’t hold back. You need me. And god, I love that you do.” She knew just how to break Sax’s control, and as she gripped Sax tighter with her legs, she bit down hard on the thick muscle that slanted from Sax’s neck to her shoulder.

  “God!” Sax reared her head back and tried to pull away. “You don’t know what I’ll do. I’ll hurt you!”

  “No, you won’t,” Jude said fiercely, tears streaking her cheeks. “You can’t. Please, please, help me!”

  Jude’s tears did what nothing else could. They penetrated the shroud of desperation and fear that had clouded Sax’s mind and heart for weeks. She saw her lover clearly, saw her need, saw her vulnerability. And reflected in her lover’s eyes, she saw herself—slowly dying for want of this woman. Rocking back on her knees, Sax placed her palm between Jude’s breasts and spread her fingers, bracing herself as she brought her other arm between Jude’s legs and entered her. She knew this woman, this body, this flesh that welcomed her, and she buried herself there. Jude bucked off the bed, her voice a strangled scream, and Sax held her down as she thrust into her.

  “You feel me?” Sax rasped, the muscles in her chest and arms straining as she held herself in check even as she pushed deeper. She rolled her thumb over Jude’s clitoris until it hardened. “Can you?”

  “Yes,” Jude cried, her heels digging into Sax’s legs as she forced herself harder against Sax’s hand. “Deeper, please, deeper. Oh, god.”

  Sweat dripped from Sax’s face onto Jude’s, mixing with her lover’s tears, as she filled her again and again. Jude strained and writhed beneath her, struggling to climax. Her head whipped from side to side, her breath torn from her in strangled moans.

  Jude’s eyes opened wide, her face a mask of agonized need. “I can’t. Oh, god, I can’t feel…I can’t…”

  Instantly, Sax stilled, panting to pull air into lungs that burned. Her arms trembled, her stomach was rigid with her own need for release, but she forced her voice to be quiet and calm. “It’s okay. Just breathe for a second. Breathe, baby.”

  Jude gasped for breath and Sax stretched out beside her, cradling her face against her chest. She stroked her sweat-soaked hair. “It’s okay, baby.”

  “I need… Oh, god, I feel numb. I can’t and I need…”

  Jude’s heart pounded against Sax’s breast, erratic and urgent. Sax cupped Jude’s face and brushed her thumb over Jude’s mouth. “Look at me. Look at me, baby.”

  When Jude focused on her, Sax whispered, “Stay with me. Stay right here with me.” Then she reached down and began to stroke her. When Jude whimpered and thrust against her hand, Sax kissed her and whispered again, “Look at me. Just look at me and know I love you more than life.”

  “I need you to make me come,” Jude moaned, clinging to Sax’s shoulders, her back arching with the growing pressure. “Need you. Need you so much.”

  “I’m here.” Sax felt the rapid pulsations in the swollen flesh beneath her fingers that signaled Jude’s gathering climax. She bore down on Jude’s clitoris, giving her the short, firm strokes she knew she needed to push her over the edge.

  Jude closed her eyes, crying out her pleasure, and then Sax filled her again. Straddling Jude’s thigh, she pushed into her, stroke after deep stroke. Sax came swiftly with her clitoris crushed to Jude’s hard body, and Jude came a second time and then a third. Sax didn’t stop until her strength gave out and she collapsed into Jude’s arms.

  “You okay?” Sax gasped, unable to raise her head from Jude’s shoulder. She felt Jude weakly caress her neck.

  “I will be,” Jude murmured. “I’m here with you. I’m home.”

  ABOUT THE AUTHORS

  KRIS ADAMS works in the book publishing industry. She got her start in the eighties penning erotic fantasies starring her friends and their favorite pop stars. Her work has appeared in Best Women’s Erotica 2009.

  JACQUELINE APPLEBEE (www.writing-in-shadows.co.uk) is a black British bisexual woman who breaks down barriers with smut. Jacqueline’s stories have appeared in Iridescence: Sensuous Shades of Lesbian Erotica, Best Lesbian Erotica 2008, Ultimate Lesbian Erotica 2008 and 2009 and Best Women’s Erotica 2008 and 2009.

  CHEYENNE BLUE’s (www.cheyenneblue.com) erotica has appeared in Mammoth Best New Erotica, Best Women’s Erotica, Best Lesbian Love Stories, Best Lesbian Erotica, Foreign Affairs: Erotic Travel Tales, Rode Hard, Put Away Wet: Lesbian Cowboy Erotica and After Midnight.

  DALIA CRAIG (www.daliacraig.co.uk) lives in an isolated area of northern Scotland and grew up surrounded by books. She has recently developed an interest in lesbian erotic romance and has published a number of short stories.

  ANDREA DALE’s (www.cyvarwydd.com) stories have appeared in Playing With Fire, Do Not Disturb: Hotel Sex Stories, Afternoon Delight: Erotica for Couples and The Mammoth Book of the Kama Sutra, among others. With coauthors, she has penned the novels A Little Night Music and Cat Scratch Fever.

  SHANNON DARGUE is a carpenter living in Calgary, Alberta, with her partner of seven years and their twelve-year-old daughter. Her work can be found in Best Lesbian Romance 2009.

  SACCHI GREEN’s stories have appeared in many collections, including Best Lesbian Erotica, Best Women’s Erotica, Best Lesbian Romance and Penthouse. With Rakelle Valencia, she has coedited three lesbian erotica anthologies: Rode Hard, Put Away Wet; Hard Road, Easy Riding; and Lipstick on Her Collar. She is also the editor of the recent anthology Girl Crazy.

  SOMMER MARSDEN’s (SmutGirl.blogspot.com) work has appeared in I Is for Indecent, J Is for Jealousy, L Is for Leather, Spank Me, Tie Me Up, Whip Me, Ultimate Lesbian Erotica 2008, Love at First Sting, Open for Business, Tasting Her, Hurts So Good, Seduce Me, Best Women’s Erotica 2009, Seduction, Lust at First Bite and Yes, Sir.

  ANNA MEADOWS’s work has appeared in Circuit West and the online magazine Angelingo. She volunteers for ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives, where she writes for their LGBT history timeline.

  EVAN MORA is a recovering corporate banker living in Toronto whose works can be found in Best Lesbian Erotica 2009, Best Lesbian Romance 2009 and Where the Girls Are.

  ERIN O’RIORDAN (www.aeess.com) enjoys reading and writing in the many genres of rom
antic and erotic literature. She has short stories appearing in Oysters & Chocolate and Tassels & Tales. Her erotic romance novel, Beltane, was published in 2008.

  HANNAH QUINN lives in Bristol, the United Kingdom, with her partner and their growing family of rescue cats. She is new to writing but loves to write short fiction about women, love, loss and pleasure. She is part of a growing community of local writers and artists whose power and passion inspire her.

  PAMELA SMILEY gathered the life stories of Korean women while studying feminist theory and the body during a Fulbright to Ewha Woman’s University in Seoul, Korea. Creative writing seemed the only way to capture the richness and suggestiveness of these women’s experiences.

  NELL STARK AND TRINITY TAM (www.everafter.com) blame Radclyffe for infecting them with vampirism. Their collaboration everafter, the first paranormal romance novel in a five-book series, was published in 2009.

  RENÉE STRIDER is a Canadian living in Canada. Some of her stories can be found in Erotic Interludes 2–5, Fantasy, Read These Lips, Best Lesbian Love Stories: Summer Flings, Toe to Toe and Girl Crazy.

  ABOUT THE EDITOR

  RADCLYFFE (www.radfic.com) is a retired surgeon and full-time award-winning author-publisher with more than thirty novels and anthologies in print. Seven of her works have been Lambda Literary Award finalists including the Lambda Literary Award winners Erotic Interludes 2: Stolen Moments, edited with Stacia Seaman, In Deep Waters 2: Cruising the Strip, and the romance Distant Shores, Silent Thunder. In addition to editing the current volume and Best Lesbian Romance 2009 (Cleis Press), she has edited Erotic Interludes 2–5 and Romantic Interludes 1 and 2 with Stacia Seaman (Bold Strokes Books), and two solo erotica collections (Change of Pace and Radical Encounters), has selections in multiple anthologies including Best Lesbian Erotica 2006, ’07, ’08, and ’09; First Timers, After Midnight, Caught Looking: Erotic Tales of Voyeurs and Exhibitionists, Ultimate Undies: Erotic Stories About Lingerie and Underwear, Naughty Spanking Stories 2, Hide and Seek, A Is for Amour, H Is for Hardcore, L Is for Leather, Rubber Sex, Tasting Him, and Lesbian Cowboys: Erotic Adventures. She is the recipient of the 2003 and 2004 Alice B. Readers’ award for her body of work and is also the president of Bold Strokes Books, one of the world’s largest independent LGBTQ publishing companies.

  Copyright © 2010 by Radclyffe.

  All rights reserved. Except for brief passages quoted in newspaper, magazine, radio, television, or online reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Published in the United States.

  Published in the United States.

  Cleis Press Inc., P.O. Box 14697, San Francisco, California 94114.

  eISBN : 978-1-573-44534-4

  “Queens Up” © Andrea Dale appeared in Lesbian Cowboys: Erotic Adventures (Cleis Press, 2009); “The Outside Edge” © Sacchi Green appeared in Girl Crazy (Cleis Press, 2009); “Soaked” © Erin O’Riordan appeared in Sinister Wisdom (2009); “All In” © Radclyffe appeared in In Deep Waters 2: Cruising the Strip (Bold Strokes Books, 2008); “Girls and Their Cars” © Renée Strider appeared in Girl Crazy (Cleis Press, 2009).