“Do you want to wait in the entryway while I find a place to park?” Claire asked.
“Not really, actually,” Emily said. “Can we walk in together?”
“Of course,” Claire said. “Whatever you need.”
They walked into the apartment and Claire put the bags from the hospital down on the coffee table in the living room. There was discharge paperwork, bandages, and tubes and bottles with prescriptions.
“Are you sure you don’t want to stay at the covenstead with us? I don’t want you to be alone,” Claire said.
“I appreciate it, but I really just want to be home,” Emily replied. She wished Claire could just stay here with her, but she felt that asking her that would be too forward.
Claire walked towards her and took her left hand. Her right hand was still bandaged. “Would you want me to stay here with you?” she asked.
Emily felt her stomach flutter. “Um, I don’t know. Would you want to?”
“If you need help while your hand heals, of course.”
Emily thought Claire seemed nervous and she hadn’t seen this side of her before. “Maybe,” Emily said. “That would be really nice.”
“About your hand,” Claire said. “I have to tell you that as it heals, you might experience some extra abilities with it.”
“Abilities like what?” Emily asked.
Claire gently took Emily’s hand in hers and lovingly touched the bandage with her fingers. “Well, when witches are injured by the elements or in some emotional situation, sometimes they are imbued with the power from that element.”
“Are you saying I am going to be able to make fire with my hand?” Emily asked, looking at her bandaged appendage.
“I have heard of similar things happening before. A witch in Germany was almost drowned by angry villagers, but she survived. After she was resuscitated, people say she could breathe underwater.”
“Wow…” Emily said.
“There’s another story of a witch being hung, but her coven saved her. After some time she could control the trees.”
“Control the trees how?” Emily asked.
“She could move the branches without touching them, and she could supposedly make a seedling a mature full grown tree in a matter of minutes.”
Claire was mindlessly caressing Emily’s arm as she spoke, and the feeling was almost hypnotizing Emily. She was interested in what Claire was saying, but she could only stare at Claire’s lips and imagine what she wanted to do to her in that moment. She wanted to escape. She wanted to finally do what she hand’t had the nerve to do before. To let all of her pain and fear and questions go, and just find herself finally in love with the woman that stood in front of her. She let go of Claire’s hand and grabbed Claire by the back of her neck. She pulled her close and kissed her. Claire’s arms were immediately around Emily’s waist and she backed her up against her bedroom door. They awkwardly kissed, each being careful not to bump Emily’s right hand. Claire kissed Emily’s cheek and moved down to her neck.
“I have wanted to kiss you like this,” Emily said, gasping, “for so long. Before I even met you.”
She stopped kissing her neck. “What?” Claire asked.
“No don’t stop,” Emily said. She started kissing Claire again.
Claire kissed Emily back for a moment before stopping her again. “What do you mean before you met me?” she asked.
“I had a dream about us together,” Emily said. “Before I met you and the coven.”
“Seriously?” Claire asked, smiling. “What were we doing?”
Emily smiled. “Keep kissing me and I’ll show you.” She opened the bedroom door as they kissed, and she pulled Claire into her bedroom and onto her bed. “Ow!” she let out a cry as she accidentally put pressure on her hand.
“Oh God I’m sorry, are you okay?” Claire asked.
“It wasn’t quite this awkward in my dream,” Emily said.
Claire smiled and started kissing Emily again. Claire carefully removed Emily’s shirt before removing her own. Her hands caressed every inch of Emily’s skin, and it felt even better than it had in the dreams. Emily tried to undo Claire’s pants but had no luck with one hand, so Claire stood up and pulled her pants down. Emily watched her and could hardly contain herself. Her hips thrust up off the bed in a rhythm, and she gave her feet to Claire to remove her pants as well. Claire kissed her legs, and traced her tongue up her thigh and into her pelvis. Emily moaned with pleasure and pulled Claire back up to her face. She wanted to kiss her. She wanted to be as close to her as possible, and she wanted every part of their bodies entailed together. She thrust her hips up into Claire, rubbing her hips against her skin. Neither one of them was able to keep their hands in one place as they explored each other’s bodies. Much faster than Emily had anticipated, she felt herself on the verge of climax and she moaned underneath Claire. She felt Claire’s body tense with her own, and they moaned through kisses. Unable to take their lips away from each other, they held their bodies tight together and lost themselves in pure ecstasy.
CHAPTER FIFTY
EMILY WOKE UP the next morning and her hand ached. She reached over to cuddle Claire, and she was gone. Emily sat up and for a moment she wondered if it had all been a dream. The bathroom door opened and Claire walked back into the bedroom.
“Oh my gosh,” Emily said. “I’m glad you’re still here.”
“Of course I’m still here.” Claire crawled into bed and back under the covers with Emily. She wrapped her arms around her and kissed her cheek. “How are you doing?” she asked.
“My hand hurts,” she said.
“It’s almost time to take your pill. We should go to the house today and get some stuff for it. Now that you’re out of the hospital we can use some tried and true traditional remedies on that hand. It’ll be much better for you than the tube of crap they sent you home with.”
“Okay,” Emily said. “You’re a pretty good caretaker.”
Claire smiled. “I don’t think most caretakers do what we did last night.”
“Well I thought it was pretty amazing.”
“It was,” Claire said. “I had been wanting to do that for a long time too. Longer than I had admitted to myself, I think.”
Emily felt butterflies flutter up her stomach.
They laid in silence for a moment. Emily was almost back asleep when Claire spoke again. “How are you doing about… your mom?” she asked.
Tears formed in Emily’s eyes before Claire could even finish the sentence. “I don’t want to talk about it right now,” she said. “I just want to enjoy this. I want to enjoy us.”
“Okay,” Claire said. “Let’s enjoy us.”
Emily burrowed her face into Claire’s neck, and Claire squeezed Emily tightly into her arms, until they both fell asleep.
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