Bobby dipped a finger into Alice’s pussy and used the copious lubrication to encircle her swollen clit. Alice held her breath in response to the pressure on her need, and she audibly exhaled when the finger vacated the spot where she wanted it most. Alice grabbed Bobby's head and cried out, "Oh, God! Please let me come."
Bobby ignored her pleas as she kissed her way down to the inside of Alice's thighs. She moved her head between them, ran her tongue inside slippery lips, and lapped up the abundant liquid heat that threatened to boil, but not evaporate. A renewed urgency cancelled out further deliberation. Nothing, not even divine intervention, could stop Alice now.
"I'm going to come, B-oooooo-by. Right…now."
"Not yet." Bobby whispered. She straightened up and kissed her hard. Alice moaned, but once sufficiently preoccupied, she savored the succulent taste of her own familiar sweetness on her lover’s tongue. Bobby stopped only long enough to search Alice's eyes or to take what Alice had to give—that which was inside of her all along. Her awakening swallowed up Bobby’s fingers and held them hostage between pulsating walls. What a glorious feeling to own this woman and claim her hand as if it was her personal prized possession for even the briefest moment. Alice had to come or she was sure she’d die.
While holiday lights merged with the music from the jukebox, filling her with an insistent intensifying rhythm, Alice writhed on the table and begged Bobby for more. She pleaded. She’d promise her the world. Anything. Her hips bucked in time to the tenacious tune as Bobby thrust in three fingers, harder and faster, matching every movement.
With one last, desperate thrust, Alice reached the sweet release that just moments ago had her begging. Waves of pleasure washed over her. Her mouth dropped open, and her body involuntarily trembled with each ripple of pleasure. Bobby moved up and closed her mouth over Alice's. She inserted her tongue, thrusting it in and out in time with the continuing strokes of her fingers until the last wave subsided. Only then did Bobby remove her fingers from within Alice’s clutches in order to press against her clit several times, draining the last few spasms.
After the last shudder abated, Bobby drew Alice in for a slow kiss before enveloping her in a protective hug. Pulling away ever so slightly, she then gazed into Alice's eyes, reflecting the desire they had both shared just moments before. Alice was sated in more ways than one. The satisfaction that spilled from her smile was genuine. She wasn’t using this woman at all. There was an out-of-world connection going on here. And she had to discover just how far and wide this connection would reach. She didn’t dare venture a hope that it would last, but somehow, renewed optimism opened up her heart to the possibility.
Finally, they released their embrace, and Bobby helped Alice sit up. She slipped her fingers behind Bobby's belt and pulled her closer. "Now?" she asked. Alice’s mind already pictured just what she wanted to do to please Bobby.
Bobby placed a hand over her belt buckle, stopping Alice. "Wait, baby.”
Alice noisily clucked her tongue but the smile never left her face.
“I have an apartment upstairs. How about we continue this little nightcap at my place with all the comforts of home?” Bobby brushed Alice’s lips. "Santa has gifts aplenty for good, luscious girls. Would you like to see them?”
"Oooh, you mean like...?”
Bobby nodded with a suggestive twinkle blazing in her eyes.
“I’m such a kid when it comes to Christmas. That sounds like fun.”
“Great, I have loads of toys to share.” Bobby’s voice lowered to a seductive, sex-roughened whisper. "Let's go play."
Seeing It Through
Shelby is giving April away to another woman. An honorable Marine, Shelby believes she has no choice but to see it through and do the righty thing even if it means compromising her own happiness.
“What’s taking you so long to pack a few lousy items?” I called from the bottom of the staircase, not bothering to disguise my irritation. When April didn’t answer, I barked like a drill sergeant, “I’m going out for a smoke.” I didn’t wait for her reply as I let the door slam on my way out.
The sun turned my eyes to slits, and the heavy air made breathing a chore. I lit up a smoke right there on the stoop and blew rings that hung unceremoniously in the humidity. No use standing around idle, I walked down the lawn to the curb and wiped bird shit off my bike with a rag I’d kept for such emergencies. The second drag of my cigarette tasted worse than the first, and I shredded the life out of the butt end before heading back to wait on the porch. There was no point taking off without April no matter how tempted I was or how frustrating she could be.
The awful tang in my mouth soured my stomach. I was an active duty Marine; I’d seen combat for chrissake. But I was powerless over how badly I wanted April. Knowing damn well I couldn’t have her drove me crazy. I’d take a bullet over this pain in my chest.
Sleep deprivation, combined with too many chemicals—caffeine, nicotine, ibuprophen—who knows, but April’s habit of sneaking up on me while I was thinking about her almost landed her with a black eye. I spun on my heels, accidentally clipping her face with my elbow, and I grabbed onto the metal handrail before tripping over the few steps. Great. Add making a total ass of myself to this fan-fucking-tastic day. “Goddammit, April! Are you okay?” I growled.
“Why are you so jumpy?”
She wore a skimpy pale pink dress made of something clingy. It showed off every curve. Wasn’t the answer to her question obvious? “You really should invest in a bra, you know.” I had every right to be ticked at her. Even her breasts poked fun at my plight.
“Shelby, you’re flushed.”
Didn’t she have a clue what she did to me and my shaky resolve for hands off? If she’d stop parading around in high heels and dresses that were barely there, then I wouldn’t be burning up alive. I didn’t even feel this hot in the desert.
Like a doting mother, she put her lips to my forehead and felt for fever. “Do you feel alright?”
“Perfect,” I snapped, but she knew me too well. I hated being the cause of the frown she got when she worried about me.
“Olivia is waiting,” she said. “You ready?”
“Sure.” I ran my sweaty palms through my gelled hair, making an already sticky situation into an unbearable mess. I’d survived Iraq thus far, but there was no way I would live to see the light of the next day after what I was about to witness tonight.
“Shell, what is it?” She branded my flesh with her touch. Layers of clothing didn’t shield me from the heat.
“Let’s just go.”
We headed to my bike. Did she have to run up ahead, so that I had a great view of her wiggling ass? She must have been wearing a thong or nothing at all. I handed her the spare helmet, and she promptly put it on. Good, this way I couldn’t smell her shampoo or touch her curls. Then she placed my helmet on my head, just like always, before hopping on my bike and settling in for the ride with her chest against my back. Does leather melt?
My pants felt two sizes too tight. Worse, the sun casted an unwelcome glare, and the pit of my stomach clenched in response to the acid eating a hole through the lining. Keeping my emotions at bay had caused a nice-sized ulcer that medical treatment hadn’t helped.
“Shelby, honey. You don’t look so good. You want me to drive?”
I revved the motorcycle’s engine and took off like we were under fire. My bike left a cloud of pebbled dirt in its wake, but the only things that registered with my tortured mind were her arms around my waist and her thighs hugging mine. She trusted me to keep her safe. It had been that way since we were kids. We had a familiar dance, only this time she was promenading with someone else and she was not returning home to me for the do-si-do. This time she was going to be Olivia’s lawful wife. This time I was giving her away for good. I couldn’t swallow the hard lump lodged in my throat, but that didn’t keep me from trying.
Would she forgive me if I forgot the way to the airport or conveniently lost our tickets
? What would she do if I kissed her? I mean, really kissed her. My heart was being ripped out of my chest one ventricle and artery at a time, and now, she wouldn’t be there to put it back in. I couldn’t imagine feeling any worse if I was going to my own funeral. And I’d damn well better not cry at this thing.
She was the prettiest girl in the graduating class of ’01, and I was the homeliest. I’m not kidding. I was ugly with a capital Ugh. Teenagers couldn’t help teasing me, and adults were always trying to fatten me up and straighten me up. When all else failed, they gave up. My sister tried to tweeze my eyebrows once, but after she’d plucked maybe three hairs, she ended up with a shiner. I swear it was an accident.
Mom bribed, threatened, and begged me to stop chopping off my hair with her fabric shears and ordered me to put on a little rouge—her word, not mine. I was offered everything from a nose job, because I broke the schnozzola twice tackling the football team in the schoolyard just to prove they weren’t so tough, to a trip to Disney. Seriously, Disney! I refused to have my teeth fixed and thought the overbite gave me character. My teeth were crooked, but so what? They worked. If I had to, I could rip through uncooked flesh with my uneven choppers.
Mom said I had such pretty blue eyes, and if only I’d use a bit of mascara to show off my light lashes. Yeah, right Mom. Like I’d be caught dead in make-up. She also threatened that I’d be grounded if I didn’t stay out from under cars, but her words were meaningless, and I knew it. While other girls snuck cigarettes or gave head behind the bleachers, I was sneaking an oil change or doing brake jobs at Fred’s Body Shop. Mom gave up for good when I told her I was joining the Corps.
Up until I left for Parris Island, April and I hung out in my basement getting high and listening to CDs, mostly heavy metal for me or pop rock and shit like that for her. She was the only person on the planet who didn’t try to change me. She was also my number one fantasy, but I never told her that. Heck, I don’t think I admitted it to myself. Until now…now that it was too late.
I had often relived her sixteenth birthday party, and here on her wedding day, I couldn’t help but go there again. Without mercy, my mind played tricks on me and brought me back to that night. She was sweet sixteen and never been kissed. I knew this for a fact. All the kids in our pack played truth or dare. Someone had dared me to kiss April. And she looked, well, aside from being a total babe, she was suddenly bold, and I felt like a heart attack waiting to happen.
The guys punched their fists in the air, and more than a few girls joined in on the chant. “Do it! Do it!” The whistles and catcalls echoed in time with my heart. I walked over to her, took her hands in mine and gazed directly into her sparkling eyes. She glanced at my lips and licked hers in what seemed like a silent movie in slow motion.
A boy had kissed me, once, but April’s kiss was different. Monumentally different. We leaned toward each other as the shouts grew louder. I placed my lips on hers, not fully registering the noise surrounding us, forgetting what and where I was and why I was doing this in front of our friends. I expected a platonic peck, but she had a better idea. Our first kiss was laced with a lingering caramel nougat flavor and had a sweetness all its own. I can still taste it.
Every cell in my body was on alert from that electrified embrace. She grabbed my head and pulled me close, so that I could feel her breasts, hipbones, and torso. I got carried away, and so did she. The cheering sounded distant and muffled. I felt every lick and suck as if it was happening to my crotch. I couldn’t help the way my entire body responded. I didn’t stop her. I had to have it like morphine after a self-inflicted wound. There was no turning back. And then I let go. I came hard. In my pants. Involuntarily, I shuddered, and although the visual tremor was subtle, I died right then and there. I was more mortified than I had ever been in my mere sixteen years of life. How was I going to face anyone ever again?
April pulled away first, looked at me for a second, and then turned to our gang. She curtseyed. It was all a show to her. She gloated like we’d just pulled off the greatest prank. I fled without looking back. We never talked about what happened that night.
It still feels like yesterday since I had kissed her—not eight years ago. But I keep a ready supply of nougats to this day. How did I ever let April get away? I had to be on drugs or something.
I’ll never forget the first time I stepped out of a limo, as serious as a brain tumor, in full Marine Corps dress uniform. They had let me fly out of Okinawa for my sister’s wedding, and I’d convinced my family to invite April. I had missed her like I’d never thought possible. Daily letters were never enough.
She met me at the wedding ceremony. I couldn’t stand still until she’d arrived. Did her heart do a leap at first look? Mine did. She flung herself into my arms, and I squeezed her tight, right there in the Synagogue. There wasn’t time to talk, so we took our places for the wedding march. As I smoothed out my uniform, she gave me an appreciative glance. I wondered if what I saw was lust in her eyes, but dismissed it as I’d always done. She sat all decked out and right up front, which distracted me almost as much as her perfume. April had me dizzy with desire, but I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way, and I’d purposely saved her the seat in the first row.
At the reception, April caught the bouquet. I wished so hard that it was an omen for us that I gave myself a headache. It might have been all the champagne. Lucky for us, my sister married an ultra-Orthodox Jewish man in a traditional religious ceremony, which meant that the men and women sat, ate, and celebrated separately. We were able to be together the whole time. We partied hearty. Too hearty.
In retrospect, I was a fool for introducing her to my distant cousin, Olivia, who was completely reliable and quite the handsome butch. That was it. I was placed at the end of her dance card, but I managed to cut in for the last dance. April cried when I had to go back to base.
The next day I left for Japan, and she wrote me letters filled with loneliness. I hated to see her as unhappy as I felt missing her. I didn’t think she’d take me up on my suggestion to hang out with my cousin, but when she started seeing Olivia on a regular basis at least her letters sounded more like the cheerful and bubbly April I knew and loved. It was a relief not to worry about her being sad all the time. And Olivia was a good egg.
Now, on the way to April’s wedding, it amazed me how I managed to get us to the airport, and then on the shuttle to Boston. Massachusetts was one of the few states where same-sex marriage was legal. April’s mom and sister had flown out the day before with our luggage to assure that all the last minute details were handled in advance. Everything was going as planned.
Not one for being careless with my prized possession, I didn’t have energy left to worry about parking my bike and just left it at the airport parking garage without a second glance. I did my best to remain aloof on the short flight and the limo ride to the hotel where the commitment ceremony and reception would be held. I was the best man, after all, and chief in charge of making sure everything ran smoothly for her big day. The bride appeared nervous enough for both of us. I purposely neglected to tell her about the shots of vodka I’d downed at the airport, or again at the hotel bar when nobody was looking.
I wobbled when April came out of the bridal suite in a vintage powder blue gown. I could see a hint of cleavage through the lace yoke. She did a quick spin, and I got dizzy. The effect of the dress on her was breathtaking. Only, I had to remember how to breathe. The unlined gown was made of a fine double knit material, which hugged her body in all the right places. I gulped a strong urge to flee, but I helped her close the back, trying not to linger, or worse, hoping not to break the flimsy zipper. She turned towards me, and I gasped. The alcohol could only lower my inhibitions so much and the temptation to kiss her grew urgent. I have no idea how I resisted abducting her right there and then. Thoughts of running away together got the better of me, but I clenched my teeth and acted every bit the part of a Marine. I would no sooner dishonor my code of conduct than I would my coun
try. Or would I?
“Do I look okay?” As if she needed to ask. Her eyes tentatively searched mine as she sucked in one side of her bottom lip. After years of practice, I went into protective mode whenever she looked even remotely vulnerable. I fought hard against the God-awful truth. Denying my true feelings for her was akin to what I imagined it was like being captured and tortured by enemy forces. I loved April more than I’d loved anyone in my life. God, strike me now if I didn’t know from our first kiss that April was the only girl for me. We were meant to be together. I was such a fool for letting her go. How the hell was I going to give her away? How? Death by firing squad sounded really good right then.
“Shelby? Are you listening to me at all?”
“Yeah.”
“Then, how do I look?”
“Perfect.”
“Mom had her heart set on this dress. And she’s been so good about the wedding and everything, I couldn’t let her down.”
I had to agree with her mom. The dress was made for April, and she looked edible in it. “My parents would send me a one-way ticket to Siberia if I were doing this. And don’t forget what the military would do if I married a woman.”
“Promise me that you won’t let anyone stop you from realizing your dreams.” She brushed my cheek with the backs of her fingers and it felt like getting a tattoo. I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from stuffing my fist in my mouth before turning away.
“Wait.” She adjusted my lapels so that they lined up with my shoulders and even fixed my belt. “There. You’re so handsome in your uniform. And gallant. And the best friend a girl could ever have.”
“Stop.”
She kissed my cheek, and a sob stuck in my throat. I coughed to clear it, but the attempt was feeble at best.
Attractions of the Heart Page 21
