She didn’t mind, though, because the dildo was stroking her G-spot as it slid, so slowly, in and out of her. Stroking it damn good, just like Anandra was fucking her damn good, and she grinned into the pillow as each movement and thrust of the dildo slowly massaged her cunt. Anandra grabbed her wrists, pinning them down to the bed, and began to fuck her harder, faster, saying, “You’re mine, you’re all mine, Iris. I get to do whatever I want with you, don’t I?”
“Yes, yes, ma’am, you do!” Iris squealed as Anandra began to slam the dildo into her, almost too rough in her fucking, just on the edge of being too rough…the very heavenly edge, the edge otherwise known as “perfection.” It felt so perfect that Iris thought she was close to coming, even though Anandra was nowhere near her clit, not even close, although there was a slight pull at it each time Anandra spread her wide with a long, solid thrust of the dildo. She felt full, and close…full of silicone dick and close to coming, and then Anandra let out a yell, shaking above her and digging her nails into Iris’s sides as she came.
“Fuck…fuck…fuck! Oh!” The last sound was long and drawn-out, and, Iris thought, incredibly hot.
And now it was her turn. Anandra reached down and began to play with her clit, a bit of a tease at first, edging around it and then sliding her fingers down to stroke other parts of her cunt, spreading its wetness around and causing Iris to make very grumpy noises every time her fingers traveled away from her clit.
“If you insist, I guess I could,” Anandra said, and brought her fingers back to Iris’s clit, using some of her apparently still-remaining energy, even there after that amazing-sounding orgasm, to fuck and rub Iris into one of her own. She tightened beneath Anandra, came as she bit down on the pillow beneath her head, and then she collapsed, lying very still and smiling softly with her eyes shut.
She felt Anandra rise from the bed. “Time for sleep, sweetness. We have a big day tomorrow, our biggest so far. A long trek to the castle and then we’re getting you home. I hope you’re looking forward to it.”
Iris slowly opened her eyes. “Um, yeah, I…sure. I’ll get off the bed now so we can get under the covers.”
“That sounds good. Which side do you want?”
Iris was touched that she had asked, but she insisted that Anandra choose instead. They ended up with Anandra on the side nearest the door, a decision that Iris figured she hadn’t made lightly. Anandra’s watchfulness as they crawled into bed and got ready to sleep told Iris she was worried about Tressa, or at least didn’t know how safe they would be while they slept. Iris still felt safe, though, lying here in the room of the house she didn’t remember but still knew as home, its pervasive feeling of home-ness impossible to ignore.
The tension from worrying about Tressa gave her some trouble with falling asleep this night, and it seemed that Anandra had some difficulty as well. She was tossing and turning for almost as long as Iris lay there, awake and staring at the ceiling, wondering what everyone was up to back on Earth, and wondering if she’d be thinking the same thing about here, about Oria when she went home.
Home. What was home, really? Was it where the ones you loved lived? And if it was, where did that mean home was for Iris?
Chapter Fourteen
Iris guessed she’d been asleep for a fair number of hours when something woke her. Dawn was just breaking, the palest light coming in through their bedroom window, and she watched the sun rise for a few moments before she went downstairs to get a drink of water.
But halfway down the stairs, she saw an image appear at the bottom. It was a familiar image by now, and one that was very dear to her—Sallie stood down at the stairs’ end with a smile on her face.
“Good to see you, pumpkin. I’m glad you’re safe.”
Iris hurried down the rest of the stairs, stopping right in front of her grandmother. “I know your real name now, you know.”
Her grandmother winked at her. “Well, aren’t you the smart one. Got anything else new to tell me?”
“I’m…I’m not sure I want to go home. Back to Earth, I mean. You’re here, and Kahar is here, and…”
“And someone else who is dear to you is here, too…isn’t she?”
“Fuck.” Her grandmother had always been quick to figure things out, solving crosswords in record time and catching Iris the one time she stole something before they’d even left the store. “If you know, do you think she knows?”
“I couldn’t say. I haven’t seen enough of your friend to know if she might have noticed. But I am sure of one thing, and that’s that you deserve her feeling the same way about you that you feel about her. You always were such a sweet child, kiddo. But I need to tell you something before you go get that glass of water.”
“How did you…never mind. What is it?”
“I have been reading the future, like always, and I have seen Queen Tressa, waiting for you in her labyrinth. I have a feeling that you might end up there, and I also think that the message Anandra is delivering will seal your fate, that it will either stop Tressa or help her to win.”
“But…win? What’s she trying to do? And what does the message say?”
“I wish I knew, kiddo. I wish I knew. But I want you to know that I—”
Suddenly, her grandmother’s face was gone, and instead, Iris saw a hazy image before her and watched as it became more and more defined. It was the woman from the previous day, Tressa, and she was talking to an old man. “The labyrinth is ready, then? It can hold them until I do what I’ve planned?” She was pacing back and forth, but each stride was confident, as was her face, almost as if she was certain her plans, whatever they were, would succeed.
“Wait,” she said, pausing in midstep. “I sense someone. Who’s there? Who’s there?”
There was a quiet popping noise, and then the image was gone. Iris was shaking by the time it had disappeared, a chill coming over her that she wanted to get rid of as soon as possible. She rushed up the stairs and got back into bed, placing her head on Anandra’s bare chest and using her body to warm herself. It seemed to work, her shivers fading quite quickly, but she was unable to sleep any longer, instead wondering what lay ahead of them for the rest of the day. She thought with a quiet smirk that, for a great fighter and protector, Anandra slept like a log and snored like a chainsaw at times, too. A ladylike chainsaw. She was snoring right then, even, a small smile on her face, and then she mumbled the word “Iris” softly, her smile growing wider.
“I love you, Anandra,” Iris said under her breath, and Anandra sighed as she started to roll over in Iris’s direction.
“Did you say something?” Anandra murmured against her cheek.
“Nothing, no. I was just thinking that we should probably get up now, because as you said, we have a long day ahead of us.”
“Yes, Iris, we do.” Anandra stretched her arms and legs, made a small grunting sound as she extended them, and then grabbed Iris up in her arms. “I have a good idea for how we can start the day, though…”
She began to kiss Iris and then seized her wrist, pulling the hand down to her own cunt. Iris took the hint, beginning to rub at Anandra’s clit. She wanted to make this time count, because who knew how many more times she’d be able to lie in Anandra’s arms, be able to kiss her or to get her off. Probably not many, maybe not even one more time. So this morning would really have to be good.
She got Anandra off once with her fingers, then crawled down her body and began to eat her out. And as she used her mouth, even less time passed before Anandra came for the second time. Then she picked up the dildo from the side of the bed, where it had been left after their last time together, and got Anandra off a third time by fucking her with it, nice and slow, while she worked her clit with her free hand. The fourth time she kissed Anandra and used her hand again, and then Anandra pinned her to the bed and ordered her to come as she worked at her cunt with both her hands. And Iris did, oh, she did! She was lucky this time, because she got to come not four, but five times. How could she p
ossibly have imagined how very orgasmic she could be, before Anandra had entered into her life?
And how could she imagine life without her? But she had to go home. It was where she belonged, and this was not her home, no matter what she told herself. It could never be that.
She and Anandra got dressed, and Anandra took her hand right before they left the room to go downstairs. She looked almost as if she might have wanted to say something to Iris, but she just swallowed loudly and then, in a gruff tone, said, “Let’s go. Maybe we can beg for some breakfast first. I bet your grandfather makes a good one.”
He was awake and downstairs when they got there, sitting in the chair they’d plopped his passed-out body into the night before, and reading a thick, leather-bound book. “Ah, ladies, my granddaughter and her girlfriend, good morning to you. I have some sweet-and-spicy flatcakes in the kitchen, just waiting to be eaten, if you’ll only do me the honor.”
“We’ll be glad to! Right, Anandra?”
“I must admit, I am more than a little hungry. I didn’t sleep well last night.”
“Your snoring said differently,” Iris said under her breath.
Anandra didn’t seem to hear her, already halfway through the kitchen’s open door, but a quiet laugh came from the chair where Kahar sat.
“Your grandmother snored, too,” he told her once Anandra was in the kitchen. “Made a dreadful racket, practically rattled the walls. She was full-of-body, but that’s how I’ve always liked my women. You want your arms to be filled up when you hug your love, or at least I did. You and Anandra have almost nothing to hold on to. That’s why I’ve been trying so hard to feed you two as much food as possible while you’ve been here.”
“I think it’s working, too! I probably gained at least a pound from that delicious dinner you cooked last night!”
“You’ll need all the fuel you can get for the rest of your travels today, I believe. So you’ll also have eggs, fruit salad, and some non-alcoholic cider, nice and piping hot, exactly the way I like it.”
“And cheefen?” Iris was quick to ask.
“Ah, I don’t touch the stuff…caffeine is bad for your health. Besides, I’ve never needed it, even with your grandmother’s snoring. She always lulled me to sleep pretty fast, once I got used to it.”
“The same is true of Anandra’s snoring, actually.” Iris briefly considered asking him if he could scare up even some stale, decades-old cheefen buried somewhere in his pantry, but then she realized that she was wide-awake, even despite her less-than-enough night’s sleep. Was she excited to be so close to returning home? Or was this nerves, instead?
She decided it was probably nerves as she went into the kitchen, following a cinnamon-and-sugar scent all the way over to what looked like spiced pancakes. Some butter was melting over them, and some berry syrup sat in a large bowl with a ladle in front of the tall, yummy-smelling stack. She also saw a large bowl of mixed fruit salad, some fried eggs of unknown origin, and two steaming mugs of cider, which smelled like it would taste a hell of a lot better than the first cider she’d had in this world.
In a strange way, it felt like she’d been here longer than the small handful of days she’d spent traveling this world’s lands. And it felt like she’d known Anandra far longer than she had actually known her, too. Iris didn’t think much of the idea of past lives, always having considered them a bunch of hogwash, but as she plated her food and began to eat, she wondered if they were something that actually existed in this world. She thought of asking Anandra, who was currently stuffing her face in a slightly adorable way, but then she realized she didn’t want to know, because either way, the answer seemed likely to cause her disappointment.
They finished their food and walked back upstairs, packing their things for the last time before their imminent arrival at the castle, where hopefully Iris could find a way to return to Earth. Kahar had sounded doubtful the night before that such a way existed, almost like Anandra had been pulling her leg this whole time, leading her to the castle for some other reason. But it was obviously not the case, and besides, it was too late to wonder about her motives. They seemed clear enough. No way was Anandra that good an actress, no way at all. She seemed almost too honest by now, at least compared to how she’d started out—so much more open that it was a beautiful thing to Iris, as she thought about how much more comfortable Anandra had seemed to grow over their travels. She hoped that comfort in her own skin would remain with Anandra after she’d left this place, leaving her behind, behind and…alone.
Iris looked at Anandra’s face for a few moments, taking in her beauty once more, which still hadn’t lessened to Iris’s eyes in the least. No, she’d only become more enjoyable to look at as the days had passed. Iris had a feeling that this would never change, no matter how many times she looked at her.
But whether the intense attraction Iris felt would remain…that would always be unknown to her, just as imagining what their future might have been would have to remain in her imagination.
After everything was packed, they went back downstairs and Iris said good-bye to Kahar. If only it didn’t have to be forever, she thought as she smiled at his kind face. But it seemed that even if she’d wanted to stay, the last queen, Tressa, didn’t want this world to be safe to her, and although she realized then that she wanted to stay, desperately, she wanted to live, too, and it seemed like there was only one way to guarantee that she survived. She had to go back to Earth, and once there, she would have to try accept that her old life—her real life—was good enough.
As she and Anandra began walking away from the once-more invisible inn, she thought that at least her return wouldn’t hold a single second of pining after Jane; at least she’d gotten one really good thing she could take back with her. Or three, actually: her self-respect, her self-esteem, and the belief that she could possibly find happiness with the right woman, once she returned to her own world.
However, it seemed that she was staring at the lovely, practically perfect backside of that “right woman” right now. Anandra chose the moment after those thoughts went through Iris’s mind to slow down, turning back to smile at her. The smile told her what she’d wanted to know, or at least she thought it did—it was a smile that said “I love you, Iris.” And it looked like it might have said something else: “Please, don’t leave. I couldn’t bear it.”
But Iris was clearly reading too much into what was merely a smile, and so she took a few quick steps to catch up to Anandra and pointed at what looked like a large, female-shaped statue next to the castle. “What’s that?”
“That’s Queen Tressa’s likeness, and it’s rumored that an impossible and dangerous labyrinth is inside it, the one you heard about earlier on our journey.”
“Impossible and dangerous, huh? I bet you could get through it with enough magical power.” Iris almost told her what her grandmother had said about the labyrinth, and then she remembered what she’d told her about Anandra’s message for the current Queen of the land. “Hey, what does your message to the Queen say, anyway?”
“As I may have already told you, I am forbidden to read it or even open it. It is for the Queen’s eyes only and has a magical, personalized seal on it anyway, so I couldn’t even open it if I wanted to. Not that I do.”
“You aren’t even a little bit curious? I am. I’m extremely curious, to be honest. And for all we know, it could be important for us to find out what it says, what with Tressa’s return to this world.”
“Possibly, but as I told you, I can’t open it, nor am I supposed to.”
“Then that will just have to be fine, I guess,” Iris grumbled. She was feeling supremely grouchy for some reason, and her grouchiness didn’t fade one bit during the entire time they walked toward the castle.
The already big-looking castle grew in size as they traveled in its direction, at least according to Iris’s eyes, growing larger and larger with each passing hour. The statue grew in size as well, and Iris could now see that it was at leas
t a third taller than the castle itself.
“That Tressa must have had some ego, building her statue even higher than the castle.”
“Oh, did she. But she’s gone now…or at least she was, I should say. Curses to whatever has allowed her to return!” Anandra spat on the ground, and this time, Iris couldn’t blame her, now that she knew the whole story. Yes, she couldn’t even blame her for doing the same thing to Anandra’s friends’ floor, although it still couldn’t be considered good manners.
All these things she’d learned about Anandra, all of them were running through Iris’s head nonstop, and she realized something as they finally reached the castle’s drawbridge, wide enough for a four-lane highway and beyond solid looking. It should have been obvious, she thought as she stepped onto the wide, wooden bridge. It should have been obvious—she was angry that she had to go home, and she was angry at Anandra for being okay with that. And more than anything, she was angry…no, pissed, royally pissed…that this Tressa bitch had to spoil any chance of her staying here.
She’d just have to make the best of these last however-many hours she had with Anandra, and if she was really lucky, she would get to spend some of them in her lover’s…no, in her love’s arms. It might make the pain worse, but she’d be able to remember Anandra’s touch better that way. She’d be able to remember the exact feel of her curves against her body and to remember her scent, a scent full of the heady smell of the woods. Yes, she wanted to remember everything she could about the amazing woman who was using the silver knocker on the palace’s large right-hand door, who was now turning to her with a slight, shy smile and saying, “It should only be a moment’s wait.”
“That’s fine, I don’t mind waiting.” Iris would have accepted the longest wait possible, anything to drag out the time she had remaining in this world.
Out of This World Page 17