Just To See - Part 1

Jill looked at me thoughtfully for a moment and put down her wine.

“Can I feel your tits?” she asked.

A more suave woman wouldn’t have spluttered her drink. I am not that woman.

I grabbed a napkin and dabbed prosecco off my shirt, then looked at Jill. Which I usually didn’t do, not for long, not while she was looking back at me. I’d been in love with her for too long and hid it by sticking to shy, furtive glances.

She was smiling at me -- playful, but not playing. She had a hint of mischief in her eyes, but she really was asking.

It was a silly response, but I said it anyway: “What, seriously?” I realized that I was instinctively rubbing my shoulder, which meant my arm was crossing my chest -- an obvious protective gesture that Jill had to be noticing. I willed my arm down and fiddled with the rim of my glass instead, letting out a tiny, nervous huff of laughter. I forced myself to meet Jill’s gaze again. Her eyes were sparkling. She kept her tone light -- totally unnecessary, since she had me from the start, but she actually seemed to be playing her cards carefully.

“Yeah,” she said, cocking her head and dipping it a little, “just to see what it’s like.”

“You’ve felt plenty of them before,” I countered, trying not to be too easy, trying not to be too eager. Trying not to get hurt. It was hopeless -- the thought of Jill’s hands on me already had my heart pounding. The issue wasn’t whether I’d let her feel me up, it was whether I could let her do it without giving too much away.

“Not like yours,” she said. It was true: Jill always dated slender girls, like her. She liked them athletic, dyed blonde, and, to her credit, with the real, small breasts that come with nonexistent hips. Mine were D-cups, generous and with generous hips to match, no matter how much I worked out. I’d learned to love both, mostly, except when I was around Jill -- I’d always wanted her so badly, and it was always so clear that I wasn’t her physical type. She also seemed to like women who undermined her confidence and treated her badly in subtle little ways -- another thing I would never live up to.

Jill had broken up with her last quietly awful girlfriend four months ago and had referred once or twice to making progress in therapy, but I still wasn’t holding my breath waiting for her to fall in love with me.

Well, I wasn’t holding my breath in the metaphoric sense. At the moment, I was holding it in the literal sense. I was suddenly hyperaware that drawing in air and letting it out would make my chest move up and down -- and Jill wasn’t making any secret of her interest in it.

I thought about the touchably soft, low-cut sweater I’d worn that night and couldn’t decide if I was glad or not.

“Come on,” Jill grinned, carefully light, persuasive but not too pushy. “I just want to know what I’ve been missing.”

I could feel the heat rising in my cheeks and knew I’d be crimson in a minute. I wanted to say yes more than anything, but right behind the searing thought of her hands on me was the thought of how disastrous it would be if I let it happen.

“I can’t,” I finally said after way too long a pause.

“What,” Jill teased. “You think you need to get to know me better?”

“No…” I tried to think of better ways to put it and couldn’t. I looked her in the eyes again, which was a mistake. Finally I said to my prosecco, “I’ll get all turned on.”

Was it my imagination, or had Jill’s cheeks suddenly flushed too? Probably embarrassed for me, or embarrassed to have started this at all.

“Really?” she asked, not taking her eyes off me as she took a larger sip of wine than usual. “They’re that sensitive?”

No getting around it. My cheeks had to be scarlet now. “Yes. They… I… They’re very sensitive, yes. You’d be there all clinical and I…” The thought was too humiliating: Me writhing around trying to fight off the pleasure while Jill sat there completely unmoved. “I can’t. Sorry.”

“It’s OK,” Jill said so casually that I should have known it wasn’t really over. “No big deal.”

But Jill is a lawyer, and a good one. When she wants something, it’s never really over.

We went back to our original plan of knocking down snacks, wine, and a few episodes of Orange Is the New Black, and before long we were cuddled up on my couch almost like usual. Maybe a little more careful about where our bodies touched, but almost like usual.

Jill and I laughed over the new, too-chatty inmate and then suddenly she turned to me.

“They’re not going to put someone that beautiful on the show without having her sleep with someone,” she said. “Who do you think gets her?”

I was divided between Piper and Boo, even though we agreed that Poussey really deserved an on-air girlfriend. Jill guessed Nicky. I cheerfully argued potential plot twists with her until she said, “You want to bet?”

She’s a lawyer, as I mentioned, and she was all too aware of my stubborn streak. She knew I’d bet just to be contrary. And then she had me. If I won, Jill agreed to let me pick our next five movies together, date and time to be determined.

...But if Nicky got the girl, well, so did Jill. She got to feel me up any way she wanted, that very night. Jill sensed me hesitating -- they weren’t quite even terms, after all -- and sweetened my odds: I’d win the bet if Piper, Boo, or Poussey bedded the new inmate.

I couldn’t decide if I was happy or disappointed at my new statistical advantage. And I hoped like hell that Jill couldn’t feel my heart pounding as she settled back against me.

Nicky, of course, bagged her quarry in what seemed like record time. Jill looked over to laugh at me, deep and throaty, as I sat there with my mouth still open. She refilled both our glasses, clinked them together, and cuddled back up with me, happy in her victory.

I can’t remember anything in the episode after that. I just sat there trying to figure out how to get through having my favorite person do one of my favorite things to me without visibly enjoying it.

The episode ended and Jill clicked off the TV. Then she sat fully up and, not looking at me, yawned broadly and did the old movie theater move of stretching her arm around my shoulders, letting her hand drop a little too low. I laughed and pulled myself together.

“OK,” I said, “How do you want me?” Jill’s easy grin got just a little wider and then she looked me up and down to assess.

“That’s a good question,” she mused. “Maybe up on your knees?”

We kneeled on my couch, facing each other, fighting nervous giggles. Jill reached for me and it was too much like a movie monster grab. We both cracked up.

“Not quite,” Jill said, “Besides, I might want leverage.”

I stopped laughing.

New story coming soon.

Hello. I've missed you.

New story should be finished in a couple of days. First installment coming soon.

Still Waters - Part 2

At first, Laura's kiss was shy and gentle, just like her. She barely brushed her lips against mine, just enough to feel skin on skin, wondering if I would pull away from her. She let one breath's worth of a laugh out as she felt me strain up to meet her, then let herself move in and kiss me for real. I could taste a hint of prosecco on her lips and wondered if she could hear my heart slamming into my chest.

Laura moved a hand along my jawline and turned my head where she wanted it. Her other hand wandered back into my hair. Oh, she could kiss. She made me feel like a luxury she'd been saving up for, capturing every bit of my lips with hers. Bliss flowed through me like warm honey and made me feel languid and excited all at once. Laura was finally kissing me, and all I had to do -- all I could do -- was relax and give myself to her.

She finally pulled back for a moment, looking into my eyes to check in. I nodded my OK and tried not to swoon too much. Laura moved her fingers up to stroke my cheek and trace her thumb along my lips.

"So soft," she murmured, "I knew it. I've wanted to kiss you for so long."

She held my face and moved in to kiss me again, smiling as she saw how eager I was to meet her. I suppose I should have played harder to get, but I couldn't -- almost as soon as our lips met, I opened my mouth to accept her tongue, feeling dizzy with happiness as she explored my mouth and then drew me in to taste hers. Laura's hand moved down to let her fingertips laze along my neck, and then I felt her move down a little further to toy with the first button of my shirt. I couldn't help it -- I arched my back toward her touch, making Laura laugh deep in her throat. She ran her fingers back up along the line where my shirt met skin just to tease me, then slowly slid down to that top button again.

I wanted her to undo it so badly. With no voice and my wrists bound, all I could do was strain towards her again, feeling how tight my breasts were pressed against the thin material. I felt Laura smile as she kissed me, and then felt her nimble fingers undo the button and expose just a little more skin. She slipped her hand inside my shirt to touch the silky material of my bra -- thank every goddess I could think of that I'd worn some of my favorite underwear -- and then seemed to hesitate, torn between opening up another button and sliding over onto my breast. Laura's hand was just beginning to slide over my breast when we heard laughter in the hallway.

Fortunately, Sandie and her friends were anything but stealthy. By the time Sandie threw the door open -- without knocking -- Laura was innocently holding my head up to give me a sip of margarita. But we hardly pulled it off perfectly. There was no way Sandie missed the dishevelment of my shirt, and I knew my face had to be flushed. Laura looked perfectly cool, but she was breathing just a little too hard. I was glad to see I'd had an effect on her too.

I almost felt bad for Sandie. She kept a big smile on her face as she said "What are you two doing in here?" just a little too loudly, but I could see the insecurity in her eyes.

"Just having a little quiet time," Laura responded. Then she gave me another sip of margarita and smoothed a strand of my hair. Sandie definitely noticed that the smoothing meant that something had gotten my hair tangled. The toothy white smile wavered for just a moment.

"You should come back out, Laura," she commanded, "you've been in here forever."

Laura looked at Sandie with perfect calm for one blink. "I'm fine right here. The rules are that Jen has to stay here for an hour, and that three people can visit. There aren't any time constraints on me."

For once, Sandie didn't have a response, even when her acolytes looked to her for a zinger. Laura got up and put her hand on Sandie's shoulder, gently propelling her out of the room.

"Why don't you go back to the party?" Laura suggested, "You'll have more fun. This is the quiet room."

And then she closed the door behind them and turned the lock.

"Besides," Laura said as she turned back to me and a grin spread across her face, "They were too many visitors. We're playing by the rules in here, right?"

I nodded, then couldn't help a little nervous swallow. Laura let out a giggle as she came over and sat back down beside me.

"Sandie means well," she murmured as she smoothed one hand through my hair and send the other one wandering back down to my shirt, "but she's awfully aggressive." Sandie distracted me with tiny kisses along my lips and jaw as she slipped open the next few buttons of my shirt. "I like a more subtle approach, don't you?"

I nodded again as Laura swept me into a deep kiss. I heard my own heart pound as she slid a hand around the back of my head to pull me a little closer. Her other hand played lightly up my stomach and I felt Laura grin against my mouth as my breathing got harder. She traced her fingers upwards to the button she'd hastily redone just before Sandie and her friends burst in and unbuttoned it without ceremony -- just getting us back to where we'd been.

The other buttons, she took her time with. Laura pulled back and looked into my eyes as she undid the next one, then spread my shirt apart as far as she could. She kissed her way down the center of my body as she did away with the last two, then sat back to look at me. I strained toward a little, silently pleading for another kiss, but Laura gave me one of her crooked smiles and touched my cheek.

"No," she said, "I want to be able to look at you when I do this."

She drew her finger down my neck and smiled again at my shiver of anticipation. Then she lazily traced her way down and explored the outer edges of my bra. My nipples tightened as I took a moment to thank whatever impulse had led me to choose my silkiest bra. I arched toward Laura's hand as she moved inward, tantalizingly close to my nipple. She teased me a little more just for the pleasure of seeing me squirm toward her hand, then finally took mercy on me and captured my nipple between her finger and thumb.

It felt so incredible I gave up my view of Laura's beautiful blue eyes as I closed mine and rolled my head back in pleasure. I arched again as I felt electricity sizzle through my nerves. I wanted to open my eyes again to make sure that Laura was really there, that it was all really happening, but the way she was toying with my nipple overrode everything. She teased and swirled her fingers over the fabric of my bra, tweaking and pinching me into distraction.

I finally managed to barely open my eyes and look at Laura through a haze of lust.

"You like that," she grinned. I nodded, all thoughts of preserving my dignity long gone.

"So you'll like this, then."

Laura slipped her hand inside my bra and tweaked me again, and the sudden change in intensity made me slip and let out a tiny whimper of pleasure. Laura pulled her hand away and tried to suppress a smile long enough to put on a mock stern face. She tapped a mock-scolding finger on my lips.

"I told you that if you didn't stay quiet, you'd have to pay a penalty."

Laura took a fraction of a second to check in and make sure I really wanted whatever penalty she might want to dole out, and then in one quick motion she pulled my bra up over my breasts, leaving me exposed to her. I turned away and blushed, but Laura stroked her hand all over my chest and stomach.

"You have nothing to blush about, Jen," she soothed. "You're gorgeous."

And then she leaned down and took my nipple in her mouth. I managed to keep my voice quiet, but couldn't stop the gasp of pleasure. Laura's mouth was incredible, so warm and wet and sweet. I panted and strained at the ties around my wrists as she swirled her tongue around me and sucked until she had me panting and my clit throbbed for release. Laura finally came up again for a kiss and I took her greedily, trying to give her back a fraction of the pleasure she'd been giving me.

I was dimly aware of the party still going on on the other side of the wall, but mostly I felt delirious with pleasure as I took Laura's tongue into my mouth and writhed as she let her hand roam all over my breasts. Laura finally pulled back even as I strained upwards to keep her mouth on mine. She stroked my hair as I looked a question at her.

"It's OK -- nothing's wrong," she murmured, "It's just that this angle is getting a little problematic."

And with that, Laura climbed onto the bed and straddled me. I must have looked as overjoyed as I felt, because Laura laughed as she settled in. And then she pulled her sweater over her head. Her lovely small breasts were perfect and she let me admire her for a minute as she played her hands around her bra, then she finally took it off and dropped it to the floor.

Laura leaned forward and scooched up my body, leaning in and away to tease me with those sweet, perfect little breasts. Her nipples were hard and a deep rose -- incredibly tempting, and I ducked upward to try to capture one as Laura giggled. Finally Laura lowered herself down enough that I could take one into my mouth. Absolutely lovely. I sucked gently and fluttered my tongue all around it. Laura rolled her hips and let out a low moan. Oh, she was lovely. She moved over to let me worship her other breast, rocking her hips again as I swirled my tongue over her, trying to get those hips to jolt.

I would have been happy to lavish attention on her like that forever, but Laura pulled away again. She moved back down my body just a bit, then lowered herself on top of me, easing one of her thighs between mine. I exhaled with giddy pleasure as our breasts touched and Laura kissed me again, rocking into me as she did so.

Our tongues twined together as Laura showed an uncanny expertise at making the seam of my jeans brush up against my clit. My hands clenched and strained helplessly, begging to be released from the ties as I bucked my hips to meet Laura's thrusts and pushed my right knee up to rub against her.

"Yesss," Laura hissed, and rocked against me harder. Our mouths snatched for each other and her nipples dragged against mine. I felt like my whole body was lighting up and my clit was on fire as Laura rubbed against me perfectly... So perfectly...

I felt the heat from my clit coil up and outwards, flowing up my spine and across my breasts as Laura rocked against me just a little faster... just a little harder...

Suddenly I was squirming to pull away from her, begging Laura to stop in a frantic whisper.

"Laura, wait, please wait, please -- I can't --"

Laura stopped and looked at me, then planted kisses across my forehead.

"What's wrong?" She gave a slow, tentative grind with her thigh, making me nearly helpless with pleasure.

"I'm sorry," I whispered, "We have to stop -- I'll come."

Laura gave me a slow, lazy grin.

"That's kind of the idea," she said, and then she bent to suck on my neck as she ground into me a little more firmly. 

"They'll hear..."

"Then you'll have to be very controlled, won't you?"

Laura gave me a friendly, wicked smile, and then she was resting her weight on me again, nibbling and sucking my neck as she ground her thigh into me and my hips bucked against her of their own accord. My breath came in short gasps and I bit my lip, desperate to keep quiet as little whimpers and moans started to escape. I turned my head to the side, then tried to bury my face in Laura's shoulder as my body built toward an orgasm that I knew I couldn't stop anymore.

I looked into Laura's eyes. dizzy with arousal, and saw Laura's excitement at how turned on I was and how close she was to her own release.

Finally when she knew I couldn't take anymore, Laura took pity on me and grabbed a spare pillow and put it by my head. I turned my head into the pillow to muffle my cries and twined my legs around hers as my orgasm hit, arching me against her as my whole body bucked. Laura held me as I shouted into the pillow and thrust against her, then dropped her face into my shoulder to stop the noise of her own sighs as she rode me and came hard against my thigh.

After her last thrust, Laura turned my face back to her so she could kiss me while I trembled through the aftershocks, grinning and cooing at every shiver.

When I finally stilled, Laura kissed me long and sweetly, pulling me in for a hug. She finally untied me and let me hold her against me for a moment before she pulled back to massage my wrists.

I looked at the clock: Only a few minutes left.

"I guess we have to go back to the party," I said as I reached down to retrieve my bra.

"I don't think so, Jen."

I looked at Laura and saw her eyes sparkle with humor as she tried her best to put on a stern face.

"But my time's almost up."

"I told you that if you made noise, there would be a penalty. You've made several -- and you're talking right now." Laura couldn't suppress her crooked smile. "You've got a lot of penalties coming to you. Don't you think we should go to my place and sort those out?"

I couldn't think of a thing to say against that plan. 

Just a reassurance that the end of the story really is underway.

Warning: There might be some sex in it.

Hi, there.

This is me, on my blog, finally working on the finish to "Still Waters."

Thanks for your patience, and extra thanks to those who have dropped by with kind words.

Hi, all!

Thanks so much for all the kind words.

My sincere apologies for the delay in getting the second half of "Still Waters" up. I've had to focus on actual (much less fun) moneymaking projects for a bit.

But yes, there's more to come.

Thanks for your enthusiasm and your patience. You are all wonderful.

- Thalia

Still Waters - Part 1

"Dare," I wrote on the pad.

Sandie was annoyed when I picked it instead of “Truth” again. It wasn’t what she’d planned. Not that going along with what she’d planned was in my best interests – Sandie didn’t like me much.

Sandie liked Laura, and so did I, and Sandie knew that. And, really, it can’t have been that hard to figure out – I can’t imagine anyone not liking Laura. She was sweet-natured and funny and so very smart. And just enough off of L.A.’s baseline of attractiveness to make you realize how crazy L.A.’s baseline really was. She was slender, but athletically so, from biking and basketball, hiking and swimming and who knows what else? And she had a sadly rare treat for Los Angeles: lovely, small, real breasts, with no enhancements whatsoever. She’d mentioned being self-conscious about them once or twice, but I – to the extent that I ever let myself steal the occasional glance – thought they were perfect. So many L.A. women have incongruous cantaloupes teetering perilously on starvation-thin bodies. But Laura’s were just how and where they were meant to be, like she was sculpted by wind and waves. Her breasts flowed perfectly from the lines of her shoulders, a sweet, harmonious counterpoint to the curve of her back.

I loved her face, too. In a city full of women who seemed to be walking around airbrushed and washed out into eerie Barbie-doll sameness, Laura had the intriguing planes and angles of a German-Jewish heritage and very slightly crooked front teeth. Which meant that instead of her smile being a practiced, insincere billboard (much like Sandie’s bright white showstopper), Laura’s smile was a genuinely welcoming grin once you coaxed it out, and getting her to throw her head back in unselfconscious laughter was a study in pleasure and warmth.

In a sea of blown-out platinum blondes, Laura was somewhere indeterminate between dirty-blonde and light brunette. I could never pin it down, no matter how much I stared from across the room at the highlights that corkscrewed intriguingly through her curls. Oh, that hair. She tried to tame it into smoothness by pulling it back severely, but I liked it best when she let her ringlets bounce free. Thinking about getting to tangle my fingers in those lovely waves only thing that ever distracted me from Laura’s wryly witty conversation.

And we did talk, Laura and I, at least once or twice at every party. We’d tuck ourselves away into what Laura would always name the Introvert’s Corner, no matter where we were, and take a break from the crowds and noise with a little close conversation. I loved those moments. Sandie couldn’t stand it that we did that – and as a dedicated extrovert, she couldn’t understand why we did it. She spent most of any party trying to tempt Laura in her own way – laughing too quickly and too hard at jokes, even mine, dominating the conversation, invading Laura’s space, and grabbing her by the arm to take her to meet this social prize or that one. Sandie did her best to show Laura that she could keep her in the thick of the very highest cut of the social whirl – and it drove her crazy when, after all that effort, Laura would quietly bow out and cross the room for a quiet conversation with me, our foreheads nearly touching and our lips all but brushing each others’ ears so we could hear each other above the din.

I played it that way because I really was an introvert, of course, maybe even a little shyer than Laura at first. But I also let her come to me and kept our interactions to small, tantalizing doses because I was unsure: I knew she liked me, but not if she was attracted – always a problem when introverts collide. Laura was nice to everyone. And everyone wanted to be near her. Sure, I sometimes thought I saw her pale blue eyes sparkle when I entered a room, but I couldn’t be certain.

So in the meantime, I went to every party where I knew she’d be and cherished those little slices of forehead-to-forehead conversation.

This one was Riley and Maia’s party – it was meant to be a quiet evening of cocktails, but under Sandie’s influence, it had devolved into “Truth or Dare” with grown, drunken women in their early 30s. I think Sandie’s idea had been that she’d get me to admit humiliating truths in front of Laura and chip away at my dignity. But my first truth had made the room laugh in a good way, and the second, a ridiculous admission of fretting way too much over whether failing to rinse out my recycling was worse or whether potentially wasting the water was worse, made Laura say “I do the same thing.” I melted a little, and I knew that Sandie had caught a quiet glance between us. If I let her ask me a truth again, it would be vicious.

I’d already been reduced to the notepad and a ballpoint pen by Sandie’s first dare: “Stay silent for the next two hours.” I guess she figured I at least couldn’t make Laura laugh any more. True to my word, I’d only made one sound during the last 45 minutes – a little yelp in the hallway from the kitchen on my way back to the living room as I felt an arm slide around my waist and a body press up against me from behind.

I turned to find Laura, and she laughed at the question in my eyes.

“You’re a good sport,” she said. And then she leaned in and murmured “Careful about those little noises, though, Jen. You don’t want to have to pay a penalty.”

And then she tapped me on the nose with a fingertip and moved on past me into the living room.

And that’s where we were as Sandie looked me up and down and tried to figure out a dare that would reduce me in Laura’s eyes somehow.

“Let me tie you up,” Sandie finally said as her acolytes sat on either side smirked. “To the bed in Riley and Maia’s guest room. One hour, and any of us gets to come in and do whatever we want to you.”

As Riley, Maia, and half the other women in the room howled in protest, I stood up, grabbed my satchel, and gave Sandie a little salute. Play along, yes; be completely dehumanized, no. Riley stood up to stop me from leaving as Maia moved in to negotiate. Sandie knew she’d taken things too far, and gradually backed down.

The ladies quickly renegotiated the dare: An hour tied to the bed in the spare room, and during that time, three people could come in: Three people of my choosing. Sandie was back in a good position now, if a little chastened, and now I was in a position of taking the humiliating dare that was designed to remove me even further from the party or leaving and losing all my good-sport cred.

I dropped my satchel and quickly pointed at Maia and Riley as my first two picks. They were practically married, and I knew they might mess with me in a friendly way, but they wouldn’t do anything I was uncomfortable with. Sandie watched me, smirking, as I looked around the room for my last pick. I didn’t know if I could stand for her to see me like that, but I suddenly realized that knew who else at the party I trusted and who I wanted with me. Sandie’s face was inscrutable as I pointed at Laura – we both knew the huge risk I was taking. But maybe it was time for a real dare.

Sandie and her acolytes tied my wrists to the wrought-iron headboard with a couple of neckties that Riley still had from her table-waiting days while Riley and Maia stood by to make sure nothing got tied too tightly. Even with Riley and Maia there, I felt much more vulnerable than I expected. Sandie gave me one last smirk as she shut the door and left.

At least it was easier to stay quiet. And I still had to – the spare room had and adjoining wall with the living room where the party was, and it was surprisingly thin. I could keep up with the conversation with only a few gaps in understanding. Mostly I listened to Sandie crack jokes at a frantic pace, hoping the room would forget about me.

Maia came in first, within the first five minutes. She was a gentle soul and she brought me two cups, one full of water, and one with a margarita in it, and then held each for me in turn. and helped me tilt my head up so I could sip. Then she echoed Laura and said “You’re a sport,” before she gave me a last sip and left.

Riley came in within the next few minutes to threaten me with tickling and magic marker moustaches, then grinned as I rolled my eyes at her. “I’m sorry about this,” she finally said. I shrugged to let Riley know I didn’t think it was her fault.

“Maybe Sandie doesn’t have to come to our next party.” Riley said. And then she fluffed the pillow behind my head and left.

I had one visitor left and more than 50 minutes to go. For the next few minutes, I only half-listened to the party through the wall. Instead, I listened to my heart beat as I wondered what would happen next.

I didn’t have to wait long. Laura poked her head in and smiled her beautiful crooked grin at me. I couldn’t help but smile back, and she came all the way in and closed the door behind her. Laura took a seat by the bed, waited for me to speak, then realized that I still couldn’t. “Well, this is awkward,” she laughed. I smiled and rolled my eyes.

“Sorry about this,” she said after a minute. “I wouldn’t have blamed you if you had left… But I’m glad you didn’t.” We looked at each other until mutual shyness forced us to look away. And then I felt her stroking her fingers through my hair and looked back into her eyes. I’d never really liked my hair – the deep brown color was okay, but it always hung straight down no matter what I did to it. It was nothing like Laura’s intriguing curls. But somehow, with the soothing feeling of Laura’s fingers trailing through it, I didn’t mind it so much.

“Your hair is so silky,” she said. “I’ve always wanted to touch it. And now you have to let me…”

I let out a quick exhalation that was all I could do in place of laughing and Laura let out a quick laugh with me, but she kept smoothing her fingers through my hair. I gave into the temptation to close my eyes in pleasure and let her stroke me like a cat for just a moment, then quickly open them again. Had she seen it?

Laura’s fingers stopped and she studied my face for a moment.

“Oh, what the hell,” she said. And then Laura gently took my face in her hands and kissed me.

I didn’t manage to kiss her back for a millisecond. But then I made up for it.