The Woman at the Edge of Town

by Georgett Kaplan

  “She is,” Sarah said quickly. “And she’d love to meet you, all ‘official’ and everything…”

  “I take it you’ve been seeing each other for a while?”

  “A little while, yeah.” Talking about Nina, her nerves came rushing back. Even with the secret out, she felt as if she was in a minefield. One false move and she’d give Eileen the wrong idea, set her on her warpath again.

  “You’re not her gardener anymore?”

  “I mean, she doesn’t pay me…” Sarah laughed oddly. “Obviously. A lot of times we do it together, actually. I show her how to trim things and—”

  “And the money for rent?”

  “I’m taking it out of what I make at the supermarket.”

  “Oh,” Eileen said. “I thought maybe you were saving that.”

  “What do I have to save for?” Sarah asked.

  “Going back to college. Have you thought about that?”

  If she was in a minefield, that one was poking up out of the dirt. “I don’t just want to be some kept woman. I want Nina to be proud of me… I can see myself going back to school, doing the long-distance thing with her, but I would want it to be for something important, something I’m passionate about. Right now, what I’m passionate about is her.”

  “You could be hermits together,” Eileen said half-jokingly. The other half was very much not a joke.

  “She’s not a hermit. She’s been—getting out there. Like at the movie theater.”

  “I suppose that must’ve been nice. You two watching a movie together.”

  “Mom, c’mon.”

  “No! No.” Eileen held up a hand. “I think I’m being very reasonable, but please don’t treat me like I’m overreacting about you getting a tattoo or something.”

  “I don’t think you’re overreacting,” Sarah said, trying to be placating.

  “It’s a lot to take in all at once.”

  “I know,” Sarah said.

  “Did she tell you that I blame her for your father’s death?”

  “No,” Sarah said.

  “I don’t,” Eileen said. “But he was so proud of her. He sacrificed for her… He sacrificed you for her. He was certain, certain that she was going to change the world. That woman has a big house. She has a lot of time to read books in that library of hers. And clearly she has a lot of money. But I don’t think she’s ever done anything to make this world a better place. She’s never gone anywhere, and she’s never been anything but comfortable. I can see why you like her so much.”

  Chapter 12

  Sarah felt like a second moon, heading up the path to Nina’s manor, her white dress reflecting the setting sun’s light. The wind pulled at its hem, swirling crisp dead leaves at her white pumps, skeletal fingers of the fallen husks touching her calves as she held the skirt of the gown aloft with one hand. In her other hand, she held a bouquet. Smelled it as she approached the front door. She didn’t think about how deeply Eileen had scored her with what she’d said the last time they’d spoken. She was determined to be happy and carefree and not in pain. She deserved that, didn’t she? Not being in pain, not being in mourning, being happy. If Eileen couldn’t manage that, Sarah could.

  She didn’t even have to knock. Nina opened the door, light from inside streaming out, silhouetting her in black. She wore a Jean-Paul Gaultier dress—black leather, sleek and pristine, buckles in back. The whole effect was fetishistic and ladylike all at once.

  “Whoa,” Sarah said. “Little on the nose, isn’t it?”

  Nina frowned and indicated the short sleeves. “I didn’t wear opera gloves, did I?”

  “You just know how much I like your biceps. These are for you.” Sarah held out the red roses, suddenly feeling a little awkward. She’d never presented anyone with flowers before. It felt wrong to be shoving them out at full extension. Maybe if she tipped them a little, more offered them up than—

  Too late, Nina had taken them. “They’re lovely.”

  “I thought about getting white, but—” Sarah gestured to herself. “Seemed like a little much.”

  “Quite right. And they do match.” Nina plucked one rose from the group. She flicked the bulb at Sarah, petals and thorns rustling almost imperceptibly over Sarah’s cheek. “After all, not all of you is white.”

  “I’ll put them in water,” Sarah said, taking the bouquet back save for the flower Nina had plucked. It gave her a charge to be so slightly submissive—she wondered if that was what Eileen was always talking about with her easy-to-please stuff.

  In the kitchen, Sarah took an empty vase, started filling it with water. Behind her, she heard Nina closing the front door and locking it. The click of her high heels on the tile floor. And then there was Nina in the kitchen doorway, looking like a supermodel using Bathory as her own personal runway.

  “What shall we do?” Nina asked silkily, striding into the kitchen with slow, bold steps. “We could cuddle up on the couch and watch some TV. Or listen to an album. We could skip straight to dinner if you like.” Her words were reassuring, but her voice said she knew Sarah had no intention of doing any of that.

  “I’m not that hungry,” Sarah said, teasing Nina right back. She set the vase on the kitchen island, shuffling its flowers around into a more OCD-compliant arrangement. There was a big heart-shaped box beside it on the counter. Sarah laid a finger down on it. “This mine?”

  “Mmm,” Nina said in confirmation.

  Next to the heart was another package the shape of a shoebox but half the size. Sarah thought she knew what was in it. She teasingly rested her fingers on it. “This too?”

  “Yes.”

  Sarah opened the first box. Chocolates. She picked one from the box and popped it into her mouth. It was sweet as sin; she kissed Nina, sharing the taste with her. Nina’s arms wrapped possessively around Sarah’s back, holding her still as Nina surged against her, backing her into the counter and practically breaking her spine against it. Just like that, Sarah was bent under Nina, her body thrilling with the feeling of being taken so…elegantly.

  “I still intend to cook for you,” Nina said certainly. “But…perhaps breakfast?”

  “Or a midnight snack.” And Sarah automatically started to worry about her mother.

  “What’s wrong?” Nina asked.

  “Nothing. Well, something… I don’t want to ruin tonight.”

  Nina sidled off Sarah, leaning against the counter next to her. “There is no tonight if you’re not happy. Come now, you’re altogether too annoyingly well-adjusted. I can spoil you any night; I can only console you now.”

  “I told my mom about us last night.”

  “Oh,” Nina said.

  Sarah shoved off from the counter and stood there, flexing her tense muscles again. Every time she thought about her mother, it felt as if she developed another kink. “Yeah. Oh.”

  “How’d she take it?”

  “She said it didn’t change anything.” Sarah smiled weakly. “Do they ever really mean that?”

  “Life is change,” Nina answered.

  “Sounds like a no.”

  “Really? I thought it sounded a lot wiser and more sensitive than ‘no.’” Nina reached out to take Sarah’s hand, petting it with one solitary finger. “Change doesn’t have to be bad. She loved the woman she thought you were. This is the real you. She’ll love that person more because she’s real, not less.”

  “And how long will that take?”

  Nina gave Sarah’s hand a squeeze. “Just know that I’ll be waiting right here with you.”

  “That sounded a lot wiser and more sensitive than ‘I don’t know.’ She wants to meet you, by the way.” Sarah made finger quotes. “‘Really’ meet you.”

  “I’ll consult my attorney. In the meantime, I have another present for you,” Nina huffed out. Sarah got the impression she’d meant to flirt her way around the revelation, but Sarah had just sapped too much of her willpower. “Look by the heart.”

  Sarah practically branded Nina w
ith another kiss before tearing herself away to pick up the other box.

  “What is it?” Sarah asked teasingly.

  “There seems an obvious way to find out.”

  Sarah opened it. Inside was something black and smooth that reminded her for a moment of a remote control.

  “That isn’t chocolate.”

  “It is black, though.”

  “I was, uh…kinda hoping you were gonna be my sex toy,” Sarah joked.

  “Always,” Nina replied. She picked the dildo up and showed Sarah the base. “You’ll notice the slots where it attaches—very firmly, I might add. I couldn’t fit the harness inside, but I have it…”

  “This is…” Sarah stared at the dildo, suddenly picturing all of it inside her. “Yours?”

  “Yes, dear. Unless it doesn’t meet with your approval. I realize it’s a bit on the longish side, but trust me, you’ll have no problem taking it. Not with me.”

  Sarah was speechless. Smiling with pride, Nina laid the dildo against Sarah’s belly—letting her feel its heft, its cool satiny surface, through the thin fabric of her dress.

  “And guess what I have on?” Nina teased. She pulled up the skirt of her dress just far enough to reveal a leather strap curving around her thigh.

  Sarah bit her lip. “I want to go to bed,” she said almost petulantly.

  Nina nodded. She took another chocolate from the box and carried it with her to the bedroom. After she pushed Sarah down on the bed, she maneuvered the chocolate to Sarah’s mouth. Sarah obligingly ate it and stuck out her tongue to suck Nina’s fingers clean after she’d been fed. Then those saliva-slick fingers pushed her face to the side, pressing her cheek firmly into the mattress before releasing. The message was clear: don’t move.

  Sarah could barely whimper, barely breathe, as she watched Nina undress out of the corner of her eye. First, Nina put her foot up on the bed. Her boots were strikingly tall; they took time to unzip. First one, then the other, then Nina stepping out of them, revealing stockings that made it look like soft shadows were covering her legs and nothing else.

  “You look so wonderful,” Nina said, eyeing Sarah’s dress, its folds and its expanses. As if she weren’t the one who looked like…everything.

  Nina put one foot up on the bed again, closer to Sarah this time. If she wanted, Sarah could grab hold, pull Nina to her, thrust against those amazing thighs. But she was paralyzed, unable to do more than watch as Nina rolled those sheer stockings down her legs. One by one. Then her dress—each buckle getting its own consummate attention from Nina, fondly touched and undone, until Nina could shrug the dress off and all that was left was her slip, practically sheer.

  “Would you like to help me?” Nina asked teasingly.

  Sarah shook her head. She wanted to rip Nina’s clothes off. She wanted to keep watching. It was confusing, but in a good way.

  Nina kept smiling at Sarah as she pulled the slip over her head, somehow not moving a hair out of place. Her breasts in their lace bra were perfect as always. Everything about Nina was. Intimidatingly perfect, untouchably perfect. Even now, Sarah felt as if she was contemplating vandalism imagining sex with her. And Eileen thought Nina was going to corrupt her…how? She had innocence to be marred, maybe, in theory, but Nina was perfection, and how could Sarah possibly add to that?

  How could she try?

  Sarah’s mouth hung open slightly as she watched Nina attach the strap-on—quickly, professionally, with a craftsman’s love for her tools.

  “Would you like to ready it?” Nina asked, producing a bottle of K-Y from the nightstand. For some reason, the fact that Nina had lube in her nightstand made Sarah giggly.

  She nodded; she had to be part of this. She couldn’t just be a tiny participant in her own…usage. She held out her hand, and Nina squirted a thick blob of lube into it, then canted her hips to present the cock. Sarah took hold of it before she could even think, rubbing her hands over every nook and cranny, practically grinding the lube into the thing. It was hard to ignore the heft of the dildo, its weight—a real, tangible thing that would be inside her, that would enter her…that Nina would use to fuck her. But that was good; it was good to get used to it. She was prepared for it now. She was.

  “You’re doing very well, my love,” Nina said, setting her hand on Sarah’s shoulder.

  “Uh?” Sarah replied eloquently.

  The hand rubbed and soothed like Nina was petting a kitten. “One can barely tell how nervous you are. It’s all right to be nervous, Sarah. I was too.”

  “You’re not nervous now.”

  “I am.” Nina’s hand moved to Sarah’s wrists, stopping them so Sarah was just…gently holding the dildo. “I’m nervous I’ll hurt you. That I won’t make you feel good. Or that I’ll ruin this for you somehow.”

  Sarah looked up at her with a tiny but bold smile. “You always make me feel good.”

  Nina smiled right back at her. “Lie down.”

  Sarah lay back. Now Nina wasn’t just taller; she was towering above Sarah. Her cock was towering above Sarah. “Do you want to take your clothes off?” Nina asked as she removed her bra at just the right time to take Sarah’s mind off what was going to happen. “Or shall I?”

  “I’ll do it.”

  Sarah reached behind herself, patting ineffectually at the back of her neck where the zipper hid. The dress seemed even harder to get off than it had been to get on, which was just bonkers.

  Nina looked down at her dildo and idly rubbed a glob of K-Y into the black material with a single outstretched finger. Sarah almost tore her dress as she wrestled the zipper down her back, pulled her arms free, slid the gown over her legs. She lay there, kicking it off her feet, feeling like her panties were on display. Like they had their own website. Like they were on the big TV at a football stadium.

  “You’re very brave.” Nina reached for her.

  Sarah rolled out of bed, frantically clasping her hands together in front of her groin. “Uh, uh, Nina, can you sit?”

  “Certainly.” Nina seated herself on the bed. She was now at eye level with Sarah’s panties,

  “And, uh, lie down. On your back.”

  Nina gave her a dazzling smile as she complied. “As you wish.”

  “I’m just gonna…” Sarah tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. “I’m just gonna sit on you, okay? I mean ride you. I mean, lower myself onto you—your thing. Dildo.”

  Nina nodded. Now that she was on her back, the dildo stood up like a totem pole. “I think I get the gist of your plan.”

  “Okay. All right.” Sarah peeled her panties down her legs and came up with her hands knotted in front of her crotch. “Do we have time for a drink first?”

  “Sarah,” Nina said fondly. “It’s all right. Come here. Just give me your hand.”

  And when Nina held out her hand, with those long slender fingers that had brought Sarah so much pleasure, Sarah couldn’t help but obey. She took Nina’s hand. Felt those long fingers take hers in a sure, strong grasp and slowly pull her in. She got onto the bed on her knees, shuffling forward to straddle Nina, all the way until the dildo was flush against her crotch.

  “Are you ready?” Nina asked, and Sarah couldn’t answer. With her free hand, Nina petted Sarah’s hip lovingly. “Look at your little pink pussy, Sarah. It’s so wet, it’s shimmering. You’re ready for this, Sarah. I promise that you are. Come on now. You know what to do.”

  Sarah lifted herself up. She held herself over Nina, her perfection, her dildo, and was very glad that she was still wearing her bra. At least she was a little covered. At least Nina couldn’t see all her sweat and goose pimples and underarm hair. God, would she ever feel as secure as Nina, or did Nina feel as if she did, even when she looked like that?

  Sarah’s thighs were beginning to burn. She’d held herself above Nina so long, with Nina just waiting patiently, petting her skin and looking so supportive, so proud that she’d gotten this far. Sarah couldn’t disappoint her. Couldn’t disappoint hersel
f. She made herself go lower…lower…her eyes closing, then opening, then looking away, then looking into Nina’s eyes with all their warmth and intimacy. She felt the tip of Nina’s dildo push against her groin. Gasped as it caught and slid inside, not much wider than a few fingers, but somehow painful, cold…

  “Stop,” Nina ordered, using her commanding voice for the first time that night. Sarah obeyed instantly, freezing in place, and Nina…giggled. “I was about to tell you not to tense up. You have to relax, Sarah. You just have to relax.”

  She kept stroking Sarah’s hip, now running her hand from Sarah’s splayed leg up to her ribs. Her other hand went to Sarah’s face, holding her cheek in her palm as if she was touching a diamond. She brushed her thumb over Sarah’s lips. She wound her fingers in Sarah’s hair.

  Sarah looked down at Nina’s face. Her smile was a different kind of perfect—full of love and acceptance and respect and kindness. Why couldn’t anyone else make Sarah feel the way Nina did? Warm. Loved. Home. Sarah reached down and dared to touch Nina’s cheek the same way Nina had hers.

  “I love you so much, Nina.”

  Nina kissed her wrist, right on its throbbing pulse. “Do you want to stop?”

  “No. I never want to stop.”

  “Then wait,” Nina said, pulling Sarah down gently, away from the dildo, leaving it poised in the air as Sarah came down on Nina’s body instead. Arms wrapped around Sarah, hands on her back, lips on her lips. Nina was everywhere.

  Sarah gasped as she felt Nina’s finger where the dildo had been, so soft and warm, small—just the right fit. As Nina added a second finger, sought out her G-spot, she realized Nina no longer intended to use the implement still strapped around her waist.

  “I can take it,” Sarah said.

  “I know you can,” Nina replied. “But that can wait. Right now I just want you to feel good. I want you to clench on me when I make you come—not some thing.”

  Sarah managed a shaky smile; there were three fingers now, slipping into her as easily and as gently as she’d touch herself. “Then I guess I’ll just come for you.”

  “I guess you will,” Nina purred.