by K J
The hairs on the back of her neck stood upright and alert. The air had shifted, then Cam murmured at her throat, her curls brushing against her jaw, her breasts sliding against Sophia’s chest, her fingers continuing to dance across her skin. “You have the most gorgeous body. So strong.”
“Ah…God. Oh.”
Slow circles spiralled around Sophia’s nipples, and she moaned. The muscles in her arse clenched as her clit jumped.
“But you know the best part about your body, Soph?” Hands slid across her stomach and lingered low on her abdomen. What? What best part?
A hand pressed to Sophia’s chest, the fingers splayed. Then the other hand joined in, fanning up and out and around, over the tops of her breasts, down, under, then up between them, stopping where they’d started.
“It’s this part. This part that protects your heart.” Sophia’ lips were suddenly kissed, and she pushed forward to capture more, but the soft mouth was gone. “Because your heart, Soph, is beautiful. It is resilient. It is strong.” The words were whispered from different directions, then a hot mouth engulfed her nipple and sucked hard, flicking the bud with a tongue. Sophia’s breath stopped in her throat, then she groaned.
“Yes. God.”
All the sensations were more than they should be, including the quiet burn in her taut muscles, and the bite of the wood into the sides of her feet. It was extraordinary.
And she was soaked.
The mouth enveloped the other nipple, the tongue rolling across the top. Soft kisses were dropped onto Sophia’s breast, then the voice spoke again. “You have an incredible capacity to love, sweetheart.” Kisses continued to pepper her skin. Her burning skin. Jesus. Oh God. A mouth whispered near her own.
“All good?”
Sophia nodded, a single forward movement. “Y—yes.”
The smile was evident in the quiet hum. “Good. Did you know, Soph, that loving means the possibility of loss?”
Sophia ached deliciously. Everywhere. Including her absolute centre which was heavy with liquid and weighted with need. She swallowed and ran her tongue across her lips.
“Yes,” she breathed.
Lips caressed her neck, and she shivered.
“Perhaps we shouldn’t love in case we suffer loss.” The words were measured.
Sophia breathed deeply, the action pushing out her chest, and nimble fingers caught her nipple—fuck!—twisting it, pulling it, and her words stuttered out around her gasps. “N—no. We…we need l—love.”
A tongue slicked around her ear.
“Ah. Jesus!” A burst of heat shot through her core.
“So to love means we will eventually have loss.” The voice was thoughtful, as the tongue drifted along Sophia’s jaw and swirled into her mouth. The fingers twisted and played. The body undulated against her own. Sophia’s muscles in her shoulders and upper arms were tense and trembling. So good. Oh God. She sucked on the tongue as it darted into her mouth.
Then it vanished.
“I think we tolerate loss because we want to be loved.” Fingers began a downwards journey on her skin.
“We want to be looked at.” They trailed through her trimmed hair.
“We want to be admired.” A single finger slid into her folds, and Sophia’s body jerked, forcing her to seize the wood—a lifeline.
“We want to be smiled at.” A second finger joined the first and swirled through the wet, so that Sophia could hear the slick sounds. God. Oh God.
“We want to feel safe.” The fingers circled at her entrance, and she threw her head back, her legs trembling, mouth open as an incoherent groan fell out. Light touches from the ends of the scarf dusted across her back.
“We want to trust that they’re not going to leave.” The fingers dipped inside, and Sophia nearly combusted. Yes. God. Fuck.
“That’s what we crave. We crave love.” The touch was measured and intimate and the voice wove sensually through each physical sensation. It was beyond any experience Sophia had ever had. The fingers disappeared and Sophia whined, but just as quickly, her bottom lip was brushed with her scent.
Side to side.
The finger dipped into her mouth and Sophia sucked and licked greedily. There was a soft expletive, hissed in pleasure, then the voice spoke again. “That’s why we love, Soph, because even if we suffer loss and people leave, how fabulous is it to have loved in the first place.” An arm curled around Sophia’s waist and drew her pelvis forward. Smooth skin skated against her own. “Building a protective wall keeps you away from loss but it also keeps you away from love,” the voice murmured into her neck. Warning jolts of desire were firing at Sophia’s clit as their skin pushed and pulled together. Jesus. Fuck. Her hands were locked into their grip on the doorjamb. The words, heavy with meaning, combined with the touches, were lightning bolts under her skin and she was overwhelmed. Suddenly her skin was abandoned. What?
A suggestion of a breath pushed against her clit. Oh. Oh yes. Please.
“You wanted to give me something.” The voice—no, Cam’s voice—spoke softly, each word a puff of air fluttering against her tight bundle of nerves. Sophia grit her teeth, her feet locked, her hands frozen, her moans bitten off before they could fully form.
“Y—yes.” Her voice was strained.
“Let’s find it.” Then Sophia’s clit was enveloped by warmth, and she grunted, canted her hips, then hissed out her words.
“Fuck. Yes. Christ. Oh God. God. Ah.”
Cam sucked, her tongue probing into the groove below Sophia’s clit, then flicking up and over it while her lips applied pressure, pulling at the stiff bud.
“Yes. Ah. Ah.” Sophia was on fire, despite the mist of perspiration that slicked her body, and she was ready.
Please.
Cam’s mouth pulled away, and Sophia nearly came when the absence of pressure became pressure itself. Chest heaving, she twisted her head about in near mindless desire.
“Please. Please.”
Cam’s mouth covered her own with gentle lips and a tentative tongue, while her fingers painted themselves in Sophia’s wet sex, then dipped inside. Yes. Yes. Then, in a voice tight with emotion, Cam said,
“What do you want, Soph?”
Sophia groaned through clenched teeth. Cam wrapped her arm around her waist, and continued to stroke and thrust and whisper and encourage.
“I want…you,” Sophia panted.
Cam’s rapid breathing almost masked the chuckle. “Oh, you have me, sweetheart. What will you give me in return?”
Sophia’s moans were becoming shorter, and breathier, and higher in pitch. She had to force her brain to answer because she was teetering on the edge of mindless pleasure.
“Me,” she gasped. “You have…me.”
Cam pressed her forehead to Sophia’s neck, and thrust and pulled and licked and swirled, and whispered,
“Then come for me, Soph. Come to me.”
And Sophia did.
She succumbed to Cam’s voice, floating for a moment on the modulation, then the orgasm shot through her, slicing along her nerves, flooding her body with a fever of tremors and shudders. She shouted Cam’s name into the room, drawing out the word, running it into a series of moans and grunts, panting and shaking, as Cam held her.
“—let go, sweetheart.”
She rode the waves of pleasure that peaked and troughed throughout her body from their home at her sex.
“—let go, Soph. I’ve got you.”
Sophia’s mind found its way back.
“Just let go.”
And Sophia did.
The wood freed her hands. The floorboards released her feet. And she fell, with her heart leading the way, into Cam’s arms, and they sank to their knees onto the rug, anchoring it to the floorboards. Cam pressed her hand to Sophia’s centre, surfing the waves of aftershocks with her, and they held each other, bodies fused, swaying ever so slightly as breathing rediscovered its more usual rhythm.
Sophia listened for their heartbeat
s. She could hear Cam’s, and it brought a smile to her lips. The curls, so disobedient, tickled her face as she held Cam’s head, cheeks pressed together. Then Cam’s fingers plucked at the knot in the scarf.
“No,” Sophia whispered. “Not yet.”
For minutes and minutes, Sophia savoured the feel of Cam’s skin, then all of a sudden she needed to see this amazing woman who had appeared from nowhere and set about methodically taking apart the very walls that Sophia believed essential. She pulled back and lifted the scarf over her head, tossing it towards the door. The muted light forced her eyes to blink. Cam, her eyebrows raised as if waiting for the answer to a question that hadn’t been asked, sent Sophia a soft smile.
“Hi,” she whispered.
The corners of Sophia’s mouth lifted, as her gaze drifted over Cam’s face. “Hi yourself,” she said huskily. She curled her hand around Cam’s neck, brushing her thumb across Cam’s ear, then brought their mouths together. Their kiss was slow, so slow, sensual and significant.
Sophia withdrew and framed Cam’s face. “I want you.”
Cam held her gaze. “I’m yours,” she breathed.
Sophia had great plans to go slow, to take her time with Cam, to bring her to orgasm via a long journey. But all of that went out the window when they lay on the bed, and she was finally able to take in Cam’s body.
“You are so gorgeous,” she murmured, their gaze holding as she rested her hips between Cam’s thighs. She reached up to play with Cam’s hair, sweeping a stubborn curl from her face, knowing it wouldn’t make any difference but needing to do it anyway. Cam drifted her fingers across Sophia’s shoulders, across her back, and into her hair.
“Kiss me,” Cam breathed, as delight journeyed across her face and settled on her lips. Her eyes sparkled. Their kiss was long and languorous but Sophia wanted more. She slowly rocked her hips, and enjoyed the quick hitch in Cam’s breathing. Cam’s eyes were half-closed with lust when Sophia lifted her head to see her face.
“I want to make you come,” Sophia said, her hips still moving.
Cam gave a soft grunt. “Won’t take long. I nearly did when you sucked on my finger,” she whispered.
“Mm. Filing that information away,” Sophia said, continuing to push into Cam’s centre. “I wonder what else you like?”
Cam gave a breathy laugh. “We’ve got lots of time to find out.” Her eyes glazed as Sophia gave a more powerful thrust. “Jesus, Soph.”
Sophia was hungry. “What do you need? My fingers, my mouth?” She quickened the rocking action, and Cam’s neck arched, her eyes rolling back in her head.
“Oh. God. Yes. Yes to everything.”
Sophia grinned widely. “Okay.” She pressed her mouth to Cam’s throat, then began a very precise journey past Cam’s breasts, taking time to lavish attention on her nipples.
“Oh Jesus,” Cam uttered through a broken moan.
Then Sophia shuffled down the bed to place kisses on Cam’s belly, then her thighs, before pausing to blow gently—
“God! Yes.”
Cam’s arched back meant that Sophia could clearly see how incredibly aroused she was, her clit engorged, her folds slick with wet. She reached for Cam’s hand, entwining their fingers, then looked up at Cam’s flushed face.
“I’ve got you,” she whispered. Cam swallowed and gave a tremulous smile.
“I know.”
Sophia bent her head and ran her tongue up and back, then circled her clit.
“Oh God, oh God, oh God.” Cam’s hand tightened around Sophia’s fingers.
Then Sophia drew Cam’s clit into her mouth and drank, the sucking motion pulling all manner of noises from Cam’s throat.
“God, God, oh God, ah, ah, ah.”
Just as Cam was preparing to climb backwards up the bed, her heels digging into the bedspread, her body stiffened, and Sophia wrapped her arm around Cam’s thigh. There was a pause as the air in the room stilled, then Cam gasped. A gasp which bore Sophia’s name, and as she pushed and pulled with her mouth and then simply pushed so she could hold Cam inside that glorious place full of shudders and aftershocks, Sophia knew she’d never heard anything so sexy in her life.
Sophia rested her cheek against Cam’s thigh, watching her devour the air just above her mouth. Their eyes connected when Cam lifted her head.
“Wow,” Cam gasped. “That’s all I’ve got. That word.”
Sophia raised an eyebrow. “I like that word.” She narrowed her eyes and grinned mischievously. “Can I make you say it again?”
Chapter Twenty-Two
The wood fencing with the sleek flat metal top was modern, clinical even, and Sophia ran her fingers across it, feeling a sense of homesickness for the galvanised tube on top of the wire mesh that ran around the outside of the suburban fields. She shook her head at her ludicrous thought, then accompanied it with a swift internal eye-roll. The MCG was revered. To play on the grass that groundskeepers mowed into perfect chequers, to run across the clean painted lines of the centre square, to kick a brand new football at stark white goal posts that shimmered in the light, was the dream of all AFL football players. Even still, knowing that she’d be playing a match here in a short amount of time was an enormous leap outside any reality Sophia had ever experienced.
The MCG could hold one-hundred thousand people, and during matches between teams with a century-old rivalry and at the men’s grand final, capacity was reached, turning the stadium into a seething cauldron of chants, songs, cheering, and the general hubbub of spectators thoroughly invested in two hours of sport. For a country of only twenty-five million people, Australians, packed full of spirit and fervour, attended sporting events in extraordinarily large numbers. Sophia closed her eyes and listened to the ripples of noise beginning to grow in the stands. Some of those spirited Australians were attending today. She’d gasped when she’d seen the queues to enter the ground, and, like a time lapse video of a tide, people were streaming in, filling the seats. The total would never reach the capacity of the ground; Sophia was a realist after all. But the early forecast predicted the crowd numbers to be thirty-five-thousand, which was breathtaking. And inexplicable.
“Get out of your head,” she murmured, recalling Cam’s words from only a few days ago. Then thoughts of Cam had Sophia biting her lip, as warmth radiated from her heart, which, lately, was a regular occurrence at any point of the day when it came to her girlfriend. They’d spent Thursday and Friday together, exploring each other’s bodies in various locations of the flat, including finishing off their aborted session against the wall in the lounge. Sophia had been thrilled to discover that they were equals when it came to sex, although she’d delighted in taking Cam yesterday morning. She’d slid her arm under Cam’s neck, when she’d woken to find their bodies spooned together. Then her other hand had drifted over Cam’s waist, waking her with soft circles across her skin. Without a word, Sophia spread her fingers, managing to play with both nipples at once, then reached down to Cam’s sex, flicking and rubbing her clit, teasing and teasing until Cam had come in a rapid, shuddering orgasm. Sophia grinned at the grass at the boundary line, matching the grin she’d pressed into Cam’s neck after her climax.
They’d really only left the flat to buy basic groceries, although Sophia had checked in with Ben regarding the shop. He’d waved her away with a knowing smirk. In an attempt to stitch together a few threads of Craig’s frayed training routine, she’d completed extended laps, interspersed with hot sprints, of the local park. Cam had been invited to join in the runs, and the confused look she’d tossed at Sophia from her prone position on the bed had been priceless.
“Will bears be chasing you?”
“No?”
“Then there is absolutely no need to be running,” she’d stated, then slid out of bed, beautifully naked, and wandered to the shower. “I’ll stick to yoga, champ. It keeps me flexible.” Her look had been lascivious.
“Hey there. You ready?” Ben draped his arm over her shoulders, and she
smiled, winding her arm around his wide waist.
“Yeah. Just having a moment.”
He inhaled deeply. “Fair enough.” The crowd noise had expanded, pushing its way up and out, to roll over the fence and onto the field. Ben tipped his head towards the stands. “This is kind of amazing. Dad would have been proud.”
“He would have been stunned, Ben.” Sophia leaned her head into his shoulder. “I mean, the regulars are here, like Morrie and Giancarlo, all the other teams, Lin and Cam, but where has everyone else come from?”
Ben withdrew his arm and fished around in the pocket of his thick jacket, pulling out his phone. “This helped.” He poked at a social media app, and turned the screen. Sophia peered, and a small gasp of disbelief darted from her mouth. “#RememberLouise. What?”
Ben slid his phone away. “Apparently some bright spark came up with it, and it’s been going crazy on Melbourne Insta, and Twitter, but also in all the major cities. And the Beacon released an online teaser of Cam’s story this morning, so that’s added to the buzz.” He smirked. “I figured you two didn’t know anything about it seeing as you’ve been busy.” He emphasised the last word, and Sophia narrowed her eyes, making him laugh. “Plus the AFL has gone all out with publicity, which I know is from a sense of obligation and guilt, but it really doesn’t matter now. The momentum is here.”
Sophia clutched the railing, bending her elbows and straightening them so that her body softly rocked backwards and forwards. “Dad would have loved this moment, but hated the way it came about.”
“Oh yeah. He would have been all up in Barry Gillespie’s face, absolutely ripping him a new one.”
Sophia gave a humourless chuckle. “There are enough people doing that. Apparently Sports Australia is dragging the AFL over hot coals for not providing a safe environment, breaches of human rights, and sexual harassment. They’ve got their work cut out for them.” She grunted. “So yeah, Dad would not be impressed.”
Ben pushed off the fence, and placed his hands on Sophia’s shoulders, turning her to face him. “Dad always told you to have fun and go play, didn’t he?”