Coalescence - SF3 (42 page)
Only too happy to oblige, Jamie slid another finger into the snug opening, leaning over to kiss her partner as the prone woman tilted her head back and gasped slightly, trying to accommodate the fullness. "Mmmm, perfect," she sighed, exposing her neck to Jamie’s mouth as her hips began to move once again.
Jamie’s fingers glided along the slippery walls, her lips repeatedly seeking to connect with Ryan’s, relishing the closeness and the intimacy of the act. She loved the feeling of her lover struggling to catch her breath as her arousal spiraled inexorably upwards; the tiny gasps and sighs that formed on her ruby lips; the way the remarkably slick walls gripped her fingers as they slid in and out.
The small woman knew that her partner was close, but she was not sure that she was coordinated enough to be able to touch her with one hand while the other was inside. Ryan took care of her little dilemma by slipping her own trusty left hand into her wetness, purring like a panther as she stroked the sensitive skin.
After scant moments, Jamie felt the first strong pulse, smiling to herself as her lover’s muscles milked her fingers up and down their length. Ryan’s face was contorted in a pained-looking grimace as a strangled cry tore from her lungs. Her howl turned into a dry cough, her body shaking as it rode out the powerful orgasm.
Jamie wasn’t sure of the correct protocol, so she left her fingers right where they were, enjoying the periodic spasms that continued to course through Ryan’s body.
The dark woman had an arm tossed across her eyes, and after a moment or two she murmured a quiet, "Wow."
"I thought you weren’t multi-orgasmic," Jamie teased, whispering into Ryan’s flushed ear and taking a gentle bite.
"Mmm-hmm," she mumbled, "and I thought you hadn’t made love to women before, so we’re even."
Jamie laughed gently at her partner’s reply. "I never thought you’d buy my story. I knew it was just a matter of time before you found me out."
"Mmm," Ryan moaned as she raised her knees and gently removed Jamie’s hand, her eyes closed as a small whimper escaped from her lips. "No hard feelings, Babe. I’m looking forward to learning a few tricks from you."
"Oohh, I think you’re going to be a very, very apt pupil," she decided, placing a kiss on Ryan’s cheek. "But for now, you look like you could use a little nap."
"Take it or leave it," Ryan decided, her breathing settling into a peaceful cadence as sleep claimed her. As she watched her lover dream, Jamie decided that she would get more pleasure from watching her partner sleep than catching a nap herself. Her resolve stayed strong for scant few minutes before the lure of Ryan’s slow breathing pulled her to join her lover in sleep. A half an hour later she blinked her eyes open and smiled at her partner, still slumbering contentedly in her embrace. She couldn’t resist the urge to reach up and touch the sweet face, but that small movement caused those baby blues to open and blink for a moment before they focused. A huge smile broke out over that beautiful face, gleaming teeth flashing in the bright afternoon sun that streamed into the window. "Hi, gorgeous," she rumbled in a sleep roughened voice.
"Hi, yourself, Sleeping Beauty. Did you have a nice little nap?"
"Yes, I did, thank you for asking." She stretched languidly for a few minutes, yawning and growling deep in her throat as she did so. "Do you want to go home, or hang out here for a while?"
Jamie looked around the room and then glanced at her partner with a curious look. "Uhh…have you looked around here, Sport?"
"No, not really," Ryan admitted. "My mind was otherwise occupied." She lifted her head and glanced around the nearly bare room, detecting a threadbare chair, a small, circular table bolted to the floor, one 1970’s vintage television, and a small three-drawer chest, leaning a few degrees to port. "It’s nice. Should we stay overnight?" Only her dancing blue eyes gave away her joke, but Jamie knew her well enough to recognize the sign.
"Sure," Jamie agreed. "But we have to switch sides so this damn spring
sticks in
your
back
!"
"Okay, okay, I’m up," Ryan proclaimed, rolling to the edge of the bed and getting to her feet. "Whoa…dizzy," she added, sitting down for a minute.
"Are you all right?" Jamie asked, crawling over to take a closer look.
"Fluid loss," Ryan grinned. "I’m fine." She stood easily and extended a hand, helping her partner up.
The sun was just about to set and since they had removed the hard top, Ryan knew it would be a cold ride home. Picking up Jamie’s shirt, she noticed that only one button remained. "Whoops," she grinned guiltily, extending the shirt for Jamie’s perusal.
"Now what, Wild Woman?" Jamie asked, not very happy about going home topless in the very cool evening breeze.
"You hop in the shower and clean up," Ryan instructed. "I’ll figure something out."
When Ryan returned, the door to the bath was open. Jamie was trying to order her hair when Ryan squeezed into the small room, dropped her jeans and sat down to relieve herself. Almost in the same moment, Jamie scurried out of the bathroom, closing the door firmly behind her. Ryan just shook her head as she finished up and came back out into the bedroom.
"Um, Jamie?" she began, but was cut off by her partner.
"I know, it’s childish, but I don’t like to watch."
"That’s okay, Honey. There’s no rule that says you have to watch. I’m just wondering why it seems to bother you so much." After a pause she added, "Is this another Elizabeth thing?"
Jamie pursed her lips and nodded. "She was really proper and prim about things, and by the time I was three I had to go by myself. She always told me that what you did in the bathroom was private, and should never be shared with anyone else. The bathrooms at my grammar school were quite the adventure," she added with a grimace. "It took me forever to time it just right so no one would be in there with me."
"Are you comfortable with that, or would you like to change how you feel about it?"
"I guess I never considered that I could change how I felt about it. How would I do that?"
"You could probably just desensitize yourself little by little. Your therapist could help you figure out how. But you should decide if it’s something you want to change."
"Does it bother you that I want my privacy?"
"No, it doesn’t bother me at all. It’s a little awkward at times, like the night you and Mia got drunk, but other than that, it’s not an issue for me."
"What happened when we got drunk?" she asked tentatively, having never gotten any details from Ryan about that night.
"Don’t you have any memory of that night?" Ryan asked with some concern.
"Yeah, I do. But it’s pretty hazy."
‘Sure you want to know?" Ryan had a small smile on her face, but something about her tone made Jamie wonder if Ryan was hiding something.
"Yes. If I’m dumb enough to get that drunk, I should be forced to hear about what I did."
"It’s not bad, Jamie. It just…well, you decide what it is."
"Tell me!" she demanded, wanting to cut to the chase.
"Well…before I put you to bed I asked you if you had to pee. Of course you did after all you drank, but you refused to let me stay in the bathroom. You kept saying, ‘It’s private!’ Then I asked if you could go by yourself and you said ‘No’. So I was in kind of a hard place," she laughed.
"What did you do?"
"I convinced you to let me sit you down, and then I waited outside until you were finished. You were supposed to call me when you were done, but after about five minutes I went in and you were sound asleep, leaning against the wall, snoring your head off."
"Oh, God," Jamie said, covering her face with her hands. "I honestly think I’ve embarrassed myself in front of you more this year than I have with everyone else in my whole life!"
"But you were so cute," Ryan said as she took her in her arms. "You were so jealous when I kissed Mia that you really threw a fit!"
Jamie stood up and put her hands on her hips. "What do you mean you kissed Mia?" she demanded. "I thought Mia kissed you!"
"Well…either way," Ryan said casually.
Jamie jumped on her from behind and pushed her onto the bed. Ryan was sprawled across the lumpy mattress with her partner lying on top of her, covering her entire body. "You’re not getting up until you tell me the whole story, Ryan. Now spill it."
Ryan could have turned over and tossed Jamie off, but she liked the feeling of having her lover on top of her. "Let me think," she mused. "Whose idea was it?"
Jamie started to tickle her sides, getting in under her ribs, a lethal spot. Ryan twitched and squealed under the assault, finally crying, "I give, I give."
"Now I want answers," Jamie threatened, "or there’s more where that came from," she said as she twitched her fingers in front of her still squirming partner’s eyes.
"Okay, when we got back to your house I called Cassie to help get Mia to bed. But Mia wouldn’t go unless I kissed her. Cassie was fuming, and I knew if I didn’t get rid of Mia right then she’d leave her and I’d have to carry you both up the stairs. So I gave her a tiny, itsy, bitsy, chaste kiss. More chaste than I give my grandmother."
"So why would that bother me?" Jamie demanded, knowing that there had to be more to the story.
"Well…that’s how I kissed her…but that’s not how she kissed me," Ryan said as she let out a deep chuckle.
"How did she kiss you?" Jamie demanded as she dug in for another round of tickling.
"I’m gonna have to turn over to show you," Ryan giggled. Jamie let her turn over but she stayed right on top of her. "I think I need to sit up to get the geometry right." She sat up with Jamie straddling her lap. "Okay, I’m Mia and you’re me. Now, remember that I’ve got a big mouth, and I’m about to blab to Cassie about how you told her what a good kisser I was. Also remember that I’m blind drunk."
"Get on with it," Jamie mumbled.
Ryan did a very accurate recreation of Mia’s kiss, running her tongue over every surface of Jamie’s astonished mouth. When she pulled away her partner sat in shocked silence for a moment, finally uttering, "That was so hot! I can’t believe you let her do that! I can’t believe she wanted to do that!" After a second she asked in a much quieter voice, "Did
you
want her to do that?"
"No!" Ryan cried, scrunching her face up in a show of distaste. "She was terribly drunk, Cassie was watching, you were crying! Jesus! If I wanted to make out with Mia I’d opt for a little bit more privacy."
"Did you enjoy it? I mean did it…is she…umm…"
"No, I didn’t enjoy it, Jamie. Just because I’ve kissed lots of women doesn’t mean I kiss just anyone. I have no sexual feelings for Mia. I was actually kind of offended, and if Cassie hadn’t been there, her determined little tongue would not have gotten past my teeth!"
"So when you kissed Mia, did I get upset?"
"You cried like a baby," Ryan informed her with a big smile.
"Well, I’d cry again if I ever saw you kissing another woman. Those pretty little lips are all mine now, Tiger."
"That’s just how I like it, Hon," Ryan insisted. She rolled off the bed and handed Jamie a stonewashed maroon sweatshirt that proclaimed in golden letters, "Big Sur Motor Inn."
"Nice," Jamie smirked. "Another memento of our honeymoon?"
"I told you I’d buy you a shirt every time we went on a trip," Ryan joked. "You may add this to your growing collection."
Sliding into the car, Ryan placed her dark glasses on her face, once again lifting a dark eyebrow and giving Jamie a sexy leer. As her lover’s eyes blinked in surprise, Ryan removed the glasses and allowed a goofy grin to replace the leer, her normal personality once again back in place.
"You are such a brat!" Despite her scolding tone, Jamie was charmed by her partner’s ability to switch between her various personas so easily. A gentle squeeze of her leg showed Ryan as much, and the knowing grin that met her gesture gave silent affirmation of Ryan’s understanding.
Deciding that Conor would get even more pleasure from the muscle cars than she had, Ryan decided to defer the other test drives until he arrived. "He’s really gonna flip when he sees your home, Jamie," she mused as they neared Pebble Beach.
"How much does he know about my financial situation?" Jamie asked. They had never discussed what the O’Flaherty’s knew of her family or their wealth, and she was curious as to how much Ryan had revealed.
"He only knows what you’ve told him." Ryan placed a hand on her thigh and gave it a squeeze. "I talk about you at home, but I would never talk about something as personal as your money. Of course, when we went to the Giants game I think he got a pretty good clue that you had some bucks, but I’m sure he has no clue how much."
Jamie looked over at her with a shy little grin. "What do you say about me when you talk about me at home?"
Ryan gave her a sidelong glance as she drove along. "I don’t know, just things like how sweet you are, or how good you make me feel. I’ve talked about how great you are with Caitlin, and I’ve told them about how you talk to strangers and make friends out of them in two minutes flat," she said with a chuckle. "I’ve told them how smart you are, and how I love the way your mind works. And I’ve talked a lot about your determination, and how you stuck with your training and workouts for the ride."
Jamie was charmed by Ryan’s recounting of her talks with her family. "You are such a dear woman," she marveled. "I am so lucky to have you." Her head shook slowly as she counted her blessings once again.
"You’re not half as lucky as I am, Babe," she said sincerely, returning the little pat.
When they returned home it was fully dark, and as they walked across the crushed stone drive Ryan said, "I’m in dire need of a shower, Babe. You can spare me for a while, can’t you?"
"I suppose so," the blonde mused. "But I think it would be more fun to get clean together, don’t you?"
Ryan stopped and gazed up into the night sky, deep in thought. "Hmm…I guess that would be okay," she said after a minute. A quick pinch to her side caused her to reconsider the enthusiasm of her response. "I mean, absolutely! You’re right as usual, Dear," she corrected herself.
"Don’t push me, O’Flaherty," the small blonde glowered. "You know I have a short fuse!"
Ryan produced her most innocent look as she said, "I’ve never considered the length of your fuse, but if it looks like the rest of you, I would guess that it was short." Her laughter rang out as she raced her partner to the kitchen door.
"Of all the women in the world, I had to pick the one with the smartest mouth and quickest feet!"
Entering the kitchen seconds after her partner, Jamie opined, "My guess is that you need a snack before you can manage a shower."
"Mmm…snack," Ryan murmured, heading for the refrigerator immediately.
Jamie helped her to prepare a large platter of cheese, crackers, fruit and vegetables. Grabbing a chilled bottle of Pinot Grigio she took Ryan’s hand and led her down the steppingstones to the pool house.
"I don’t believe I have my bathing suit," Ryan commented innocently, batting her eyes at her partner.
"It’s a birthday suit kinda pool," the smirking blonde assured her.
Ryan set the platter down on a small table that she placed between two chaise lounges. She looked up to see Jamie going to a series of controls near the main door and looked up in surprise as the huge, glass roof panels slid open, revealing the crystal clear black sky. "Wow," Ryan marveled, smiling broadly as the scent of the ocean filled the space. "The enclosed pool was the only thing less than perfect about this whole place," she commented. "And now you’ve even remedied that!"
"Told ya I was perfect," she smirked.
"No need to tell me that," Ryan insisted. "You’re preaching to the converted, Babe."
"So…do you want to swim first, or eat first?" the bemused blonde asked.
"Hmm…if you were really perfect, you’d know the answer to that question," Ryan grinned. Her grin widened when Jamie stripped off her clothes, took a seat on the chaise, and began making a plate of tidbits for her partner. "Just as I suspected," she beamed, happily accepting the plate.
They plowed through the plate in record time, with Ryan pulling more than her share of the load, as was her custom. A glass of wine accompanied the repast for each woman, and by the time the platter was clean, both were pleasantly relaxed and mostly sated. Neither felt like swimming after the wine and food, so they got into the hot tub to relax a bit further.
The water was hot—102 degrees—so they could only remain in the bubbling tub for a few minutes at a time. After about 15 minutes of jumping in and out, Jamie got out and turned off the heat, allowing cool water to flow into the tub through the still-running jets. The temperature dropped quickly, getting down to 98 degrees in just a few minutes. The relaxing water, the wine and the long day started to catch up with them and after another 15 minutes of relaxing, they got out and went to lie on the double chaise that was set near the as-yet-untested fireplace.
Since the pool house shared a common wall with one of the guest apartments, the Evanses had the foresight to include a double fireplace in their building plans, and now both spaces had access to a cozy fire on a cold night. It wasn’t particularly cold this night, but with the roof open, a little extra heat seemed like a perfect idea.
Jamie pulled the chaise even closer to the fire, while Ryan lit the artificial gas logs. "I’ve never seen a fake fireplace that didn’t look silly," the larger woman commented as she watched the gas flame dance. "But this one is pretty darned good."
"Yeah, they didn’t want the hassle of worrying about guests lighting too big a fire and burning the place down," Jamie informed her.
"You dad is always thinking about lawsuits, isn’t he?" Ryan teased.
"I’ve never thought about it that way, but I guess you’re right," Jamie agreed. "He’s…well, I guess I’d say that he’s careful, and very protective of the things that mean a lot to him. He really loves this place, particularly the pool house. I’m sure he went out of his way to make sure it was well taken care of."
"Can’t blame him," Ryan said. "I like to take care of my things too. Speaking of which," she asked, fingering her new diamond, "are these insured?"
"Of course," Jamie informed her. "I have a rider on my homeowners policy that covers all of my jewelry. These are on it as well."
"Whew," Ryan said, wiping the imaginary sweat from her brow. "I’ll be careful with it, but I know I couldn’t replace it if it was lost or stolen."
"Honey," Jamie said with a look of serious concern. "These are yours now. You wouldn’t have to replace them if you lost them. You could sell them if you wanted to, Babe. They are a gift."
"Uh-huh," Ryan nodded. "That sounds like me. ‘Oh, I think I’ll go hock these family heirlooms that Jamie gave me and buy some crack.’ "
"You could do that if you wanted to, Honey," the smaller woman said sincerely. Noting Ryan’s surprised look, she quickly amended. "Not the crack, of course. That’s off limits. But if you wanted to sell them, you could. They’re yours."
Ryan snaked an arm around her shoulders and gave her partner a firm squeeze. "They’re ours, Babe. And I’ll treat them with the same level of concern that you would. They mean a lot to you, so they mean a lot to me."
"Like my ring," Jamie murmured, lifting the band to her lips for a quick kiss.
Ryan threaded her fingers through her partner’s hair for a few minutes, smiling to herself when the pale head nudged against her, begging for more. "You know," she said softly, "I thought tonight would be a good time to talk about our week a little bit. Even though we have part of tomorrow together, Conor will be here and I don’t think we’ll be alone much. So in a way, this is the end of our honeymoon."
Jamie snuggled up against her chest. "Ooh, I hate to hear you even say that. Let’s drop out of school and just live here."
Ryan knew her reply was fanciful, and she steered the conversation back to the subject. "Reality has to hit sometime, Honey," Ryan reminded her. "Tomorrow night, we’re back in the city."
"In our new home," Jamie whispered.
"One of them," Ryan gently corrected.
"Huh-uh," Jamie disagreed. "Tomorrow we’ll be in our new home. On Monday we’ll go to our new house. Big difference, Babe, big difference."
Ryan paused a moment, letting Jamie’s comment sink in. "Do you really feel like that…like my family’s home is yours too?"
"Yeah…in a way I do," she admitted. "I feel so much a part of your family that it just seems natural to feel like the house is mine too. When we go for Sunday dinner, I feel like I’m coming home."
Ryan turned and wrapped her in an embrace so tight that the small woman had to pull back just to get a breath. "That means so much to me, Jamie," she said fervently. "I never even dreamt that I could find a lover who would feel that close to my family…I thought it was hopeless."
Jamie pulled back severely to get a good look at her partner’s face. "Hopeless? What do you mean, Babe?"
Ryan took a breath and pursed her lips for a moment, then cocked her head and took a long sip of her wine, collecting her thoughts. "This is part of what I wanted to talk about tonight," she finally said. "I want to talk about our honeymoon, and how things have gone for each of us, but I also want to talk about what you mean to me, and how you’ve changed my life."
Jamie gave her a charmed smile and said, "I can’t imagine anything I’d rather hear. Fire away, Love."
"All right," Ryan grinned. "I’ll start, but you need to join in, okay?"
"Like you could stop me from going on and on about you," Jamie teased, patting her lover’s bare thigh.
Ryan tilted her head back, staring at the clear, black sky, noticing the first star of the evening. "I’m not sure where to start, so I guess I have to put this in context. As you know, I’ve known a lot of women." Jamie nodded her head, a small smile affixed to her face. "My motto was always that it was a mistake to date a friend. Now I realize that I would have been denied this gift if I had stuck with that stupid idea. The whole reason that we were able to get together is because of our friendship. It’s silly, Jamie. There have been two women in my life that I loved. Two—out of all of the women I have known. And both of them were close friends long before I knew I was in love with them. Why was that so hard for me to figure out?"
"I don’t know, Honey," Jamie replied. "But I’m glad you’re a slow learner—otherwise, I’d just be a classmate that you encouraged to do the AIDS Ride. If you had been open to love, you would have been snatched away years ago."
"I’m not so sure," Ryan said thoughtfully. "I don’t think I was ready before."
"You must have been ready, since you were willing to try to be serious with Tracy," Jamie reminded her.
"Ahh, Tracy," Ryan said, considering the name. "She was actually very helpful to me."
"How so?"
Since they'd broken up, Ryan had rarely mentioned Tracy, and Jamie wondered if it was just to spare her feelings. Ryan quickly set her mind at ease when she revealed, "Without her, I don’t think I would have seen the dichotomy between how I felt with you and with her. I still remember how I felt on New Year’s Eve." Ryan smiled in remembrance. "I was on the verge of going to bed with her for the first time, but after you came over to say ‘hi,’ I spent more time thinking about you than her!"
"I didn’t know that!" Jamie gasped.
"Yep. After you left it was like, ‘Back to work, Ryan.’ It’s hard to explain, but it felt so easy and comfortable with you, and with her I felt like I had to play a role."
"A role?"
"Yeah. Actually, I almost always had to play a role with the women I knew. Most people know one facet of my personality. A few knew me a little better, but no other woman…except Sara, of course, knows all of me." After a brief pause Ryan amended, "No, that’s not quite true. Sara never knew the sexual predator."
"I sure got a healthy dose of that one this afternoon," Jamie laughed. "I want her to come out and play more often!"
"My pleasure," the sexy voice rumbled.
"I don’t think I knew that you felt that way, Babe. I assumed that at least your special friends, like Ally or Alisa would know you well."
"Nope. Ally knows me pretty well, but she’s never seen my ‘baby side’, as you call it. I didn’t ever act childlike around her. With her, we were just sex-loving jocks—lots of wrestling and trying to show who was stronger and things like that."
"Mmm, that would be fun to see," Jamie mused. "I’d love to see two big, buff girls wrestling." Upon Ryan’s twitching eyebrow Jamie added to her wish, "In my dreams, Buffy. I’ll see it in my dreams."
