Yours, Juli

by Thalia Lark

  I stared at him wordlessly, my eyes huge.

  ‘And I was more than willing for my babies to grow up in the country,’ Melanie said. ‘Do you know kids raised in the city are, like, four times more likely to engage in illicit activity during adolescence than kids raised in the country?’

  I couldn’t listen to what she was saying. I was staring open-mouthed at my father, who was watching me with the hugest smile on his face. Then suddenly my eyes filled with tears, and I bit down on my bottom lip to stop it trembling, and Dad’s eyes reddened in response as he grinned and gave me a thumbs-up. Loud chatter filled the room once again, but all I could do was continue looking at my dad in blissful silence as he reached over and held my hand tightly in his.

  He raised his wine glass. ‘To babies and home.’

  ‘To babies and home!’

  I grinned amidst tears.

  ‘So what do you reckon?’ I ran my fingers over Alex’s palm as I held her hand above us later that night. My room felt beautifully still and quiet after the raucousness of the party in the lounge room. The music and laughter had been so loud nobody had noticed us sneak off with a plateful of chocolate-covered strawberries and two glasses of champagne. ‘Do you reckon our palm-lines had any idea this was going to happen?’

  Alex grinned and caught my hand in hers, holding my fingers gently. ‘I don’t think anybody had any idea this was going to happen.’

  I smiled and wormed my arm under her neck and pulled her against me, heaving a huge sigh as I glanced down at the shape of our legs bent under the covers. ‘I’ll be able to visit Mum regularly too.’

  ‘She’ll like that.’ She sat up suddenly and reached over to my bedside table, plucking a strawberry off the plate, biting the end off and then holding the rest out to me. ‘And sounds like you’ve already got a job lined up on the farm, too. Maybe you should think about enrolling at TAFE or something, studying agriculture.’

  I bit down to the stalk and chewed slowly, smiling and reaching a hand up to my mouth. ‘Who needs to study? I was born knowing how to run a farm.’

  ‘You’d make a pretty sexy cowgirl, that’s for sure.’

  I grinned and raised one eyebrow. ‘So you like the jeans and plaid look?’

  ‘Sure do.’ She crawled out from under the covers and knelt in front of me suddenly. I rose to join her as she reached up both hands and traced them along the collar of my shirt. ‘Will you teach me to ride a horse?’ After I nodded distractedly, she slowly leaned in towards me, tilted her head to the side, and started kissing down my jaw towards my neck. ‘Is your door locked?’

  I felt goose bumps raise down my spine as her steamy breath flowed over my throat, and nodded in response, my breath quickening and a blossoming warmth growing in my abdomen at the feel of her hands running along my collarbone.

  Then she hesitated for a fraction of a second. ‘I feel kind of guilty, tearing you away from your family when you have so much to celebrate.’

  I reached up and caught her hands in mine, entwining my fingers with hers. Then I waited until she looked up and met my eyes before shaking my head. ‘Don’t,’ I said softly. ‘Right now, you’re the only person I want to think about.’

  She smiled. ‘Well then, I’m all yours.’

  ‘And I’m all yours.’

  ‘Finally.’ She leaned in and brushed her lips delicately under my jawline. I felt her fingers caress the skin of my neck as she slowly started unbuttoning my shirt, and then I sucked in a sharp breath as she lowered her head and her warm lips suddenly started exploring the lining of my bra.

  I reached my hands around and fumbled with the hem of her T-shirt, my fingers shaky and my heart hammering with nerves. Alex laughed suddenly, rising to return to my face with a coy smile and kissing my mouth gently. Then she drew back slowly and pulled her top off over her head. My eyes dropped to her breasts as she unbuttoned her bra, and she moved up against me and twisted her hands through my hair, kissing down my neck and making me shudder. ‘I love you, you know,’ she mumbled suddenly against my skin, pausing to glance up at me through her thick lashes.

  I smiled, gradually relaxing as I reached up to lace my fingers through her hair after brushing it away from her face. I gazed down at her and took a deep, slow breath, her fingers running down my spine and making me shiver. ‘Right back at you,’ I said, and then I leaned down and pressed my lips to hers, loving the feel of our bodies together, and thinking that now would last forever.

  The End