by Fiona Zedde
Phil opened the envelope and gasped. An echo of the sound that left Sage’s throat.
A platinum chain with an infinity symbol glittered in Phil’s palm. The belly chain Sage had given her years ago that she rarely took off.
“Oh my God, thank you!” Phil clenched her hand around it and gave Baxter a grateful smile. She moved forward like she was about to hug him, but stopped herself at the last minute. A faint smile hitched up Baxter’s mouth at her obvious hesitation. “I really appreciate that,” Phil said. “I’ve been looking for it everywhere.”
“I can imagine how frantic you were.” He tipped his head Sage’s way. “You’re a very lucky woman, by the way.”
Phil bit her lip, an unfamiliar look of indecision on her face. “You’re a good man, Zach. Thank you!” Then she darted forward and gave Baxter a quick hug before stepping back. She stumbled into Sage who caught her easily, holding on for dear life.
“Don’t get worked up, Sage,” Baxter said. “For some reason, the only person she wants is you. If she’d given me half a chance, I’d be flying her to LA with me tonight or hell, maybe hanging around Miami for a while. But I guess it’s true what they say, the good ones are always taken.” He brushed gentle fingers across Phil’s cheek. “Maybe I’ll see you around,” he said, then turned and walked back into the rain.
The door closed firmly behind him, leaving them in the loud silence.
Finally, Sage couldn’t take it anymore. “What…what was that about?”
Phil licked her lips and brought her clenched fist, the one with the belly chain, to her chest. Her soft sigh whispered between them. In the darkness of the foyer with only the candles from the living room to give the faintest of light, she looked like a ghost, an ephemeral creature who was in Sage’s home by illusion alone.
The thought suddenly struck Sage that if she blinked too long, Phil would disappear.
“You were there,” Phil murmured in response to her question, then she headed back into the living room. “He returned something that belonged to me.”
“How did he have it?”
“How do you think?”
“You had sex with him.” It wasn’t a question.
“Yes.”
“And…?”
“Maybe I should ask you that question.” Candlelight flickered over Phil’s face as she made her way to the chair she’d been sitting in before Zachary Baxter came to the door. “Now you know I slept with a man. What does that mean for you, for us?”
It was all rocketing through Sage’s brain at a thousand miles an hour. Baxter and his pretty face. His offer to take Phil to LA or to stay here. This was a man who made a living as an actor, who cared about Sage’s woman enough to bring her back something that…
“You told him I gave that to you?” Sage nodded her head toward the belly chain.
“Yes,” Phil said. “I told him about us before we did anything. I let him know I wasn’t available for more than a fling…I just wanted to see what it was like.” She’d never been with a man before.
“And?”
“It was good. He’s a very intuitive lover and cares about his partner. He learns fast. Like you.” Phil flashed a brief smile tinged with nervousness. “But he’s not you. You’re who I want as my partner.”
Images flashed behind Sage’s eyelids. Her woman with this man. But she pushed them away. No matter how good it had been between Phil and Baxter, that was just sex. In the end, it was nothing.
A weight that had been sitting on Sage’s chest since she saw the actor at her door slowly eased away. “So, you’re not leaving me for him?”
“You never listen when I talk, do you? I told you, I’m not leaving. You kicked me out and I’m still here, doesn’t that say something?”
Yeah. It said that Sage had been a complete asshole. She’d almost thrown her happiness out the car window and backed up over it.
“Shit…” She collapsed into the couch at Phil’s side.
The leather whispered faintly as Phil turned to look at her. “Yeah.”
Sighing, she twined her fingers with Phil’s and slid close enough to feel each exhale from her love’s parted lips. The tenderness for her woman took over and left her stripped bare.
She’d never believed in things like guilt or penance. Weren’t these concepts all just tied up in religion anyway? But now, she felt that terrifying sense of shame for what she’d done to Phil. To her love. Baby batter-filled dick or no, Zachary Baxter was no more a threat to her happy home than their casual female lovers had been. Sage was an idiot. The heretic in the sacred temple of their love.
Now, she needed to do penance.
“Saying I’m sorry isn’t enough,” Sage rasped through the tears clogging her throat. “I know that now.”
Phil squeezed her fingers. “Do you?”
“Yes. I do. Tell me, how can I fix this?”
“Fix? I…I don’t think anything was really broken,” Phil said softly. “But this can’t happen again.”
“It won’t.” Sage knew she was talking about the drama with the cops, the craziness with Crystal, and their stupid and unnecessary breakup. “I promise,” she said.
Over the last few weeks, she’d crawled so far up into her own ass that she didn’t realize the fucked up shit she had been doing. Yes, Phil was bi. Yes, this was a big ass change. It wasn’t going to be easy. But she couldn’t leave her woman to struggle alone just because she was…struggling.
No judge or minister had given them a blessing, but their thing was for better or for worse. For as long as they both lived.
She promised Phil this years ago and, if necessary, she’d renew that promise.
She loved her woman. If nothing else, the thing with her parents showed that she was a coward. Nothing she didn’t know before but, shit it was a hard lesson to learn in real life.
Because of this cowardice, she’d thrown away years of being close with her parents. She almost threw away the twelve years she’d with Phil and their chance of many more.
They lay on the couch together, their hands clasped together, and the night’s shadows draped securely around them like a lovers’ blanket. The silence between them was a tender absolution and she drifted peacefully toward sleep.
“I love you,” Sage whispered just before she tumbled over its edge.
“I know.” The soft words brushed her lips like a kiss.
In the darkness, she smiled.
EPILOGUE
The ocean stretched out on both sides of the highway and shimmered a brilliant turquoise blue under the late afternoon sun. Sage drove her SUV down Highway 1 toward the Key West, the steering wheel held lightly between her fingers.
She felt so happy it was a little disgusting.
In the passenger seat, Phil, wearing a bright blue bathing suit top and a sunshine yellow skirt, looked completely relaxed. She lay back in the seat with her bare feet up on the dashboard, her toes bright with blue polish. Watching the pretty, if monotonous, scenery pass by, Phil lolled her head against the backrest and hummed along to the Halsey song throbbing from the speakers.
In mid-hum, Phil lazily turned her head from the window. “Like what you see?”
“Always.”
Her woman tipped her head in a sexy “come fuck me” look and Sage perked up in her pants. What was Phil up to now?
She kept her hands on the steering wheel, half of her attention on the road, the other firmly on Phillida.
They’d come a long way since that crazy night at the movie premiere all those months ago, but there was still work left to do. Their problems hadn’t been magically solved. Sage was still worried about the whole bisexuality thing. Still jealous. But she knew she wanted to keep Phil by her side for as long as possible. Maybe forever.
With her gorgeous mouth titled in a teasing smile, Phil slowly pulled something out of her skirt pocket. It was small, purple, and shaped vaguely like a wave. If waves buzzed and looked like something beamed from outer space.
&nbs
p; Distracted, Sage frowned. She knew where she’d seen that thing before. And how much it cost.
“I can’t believe you bought that thing,” Sage muttered.
She turned her attention fully back to the road for a moment, just to make sure she wasn’t about to run into somebody’s bumper. But the road ahead of the truck was clear for at least a half mile.
“Why can’t you believe it?” Phil asked.
“That thing was at least a hundred plus dollars.” Maybe more. Sage had been looking over Phil’s shoulder while her woman clicked through the sex shop’s weekly newsletter like a kid in a digital candy store.
“Correct.” Phil nodded like Sage was the dunce here. “Which means it’s a damn good vibrator.” She squeezed the toy in question like it was already her favorite. It was only as big as the palm of her hand.
Sage eyed the toy doubtfully. It didn’t look powerful enough for the kind of vibration her woman usually liked. “That’s a big assumption to make.”
“I didn’t doubt you when you dropped almost two grand on that creepy ass, realistic skin monster dick made in some German pervert’s basement.”
“But you did though.” Sage clearly remembered Phil saying “no way!” and laughing when she took out the toy. But the laughter had turned into loud moans and screams of pleasure once Sage had the tentacles buzzing, one buried in Phil’s ass, the other in her dripping pussy.
“True,” Phil said, “but let’s not live in the past.” She rolled the little purple vibe between her fingers. “This is pretty, isn’t it?”
“Pretty isn’t what counts, babe,” Sage murmured with a superior grin, practically daring Phil to use the toy. But why else did she take it unless she intended to use it.
“Trust me, it’s more than a pretty face.” Phil dimpled. “Kinda like me.” She flipped a hidden switch on the toy and the thing buzzed to life.
Sage kept both hands on the wheel, her eyes straight ahead. Well, maybe a little bit to the right to make sure she wasn’t ignoring her woman. Trying not to be too obviously eager, she squirmed only a little in her seat. “So…um…you already tried it out?”
“Of course.” The toy jumped across Phil’s palm, its elongated nose nuzzling the base of her fingers. It looked like a small hunting animal with one thing on its mind.
Sage licked her lips, eager now to get the show on the road, so to speak. “You going to show me what your little expensive new purchase is all about?”
“Do you really want to see?” Phil playfully stroked the head of the vibrator with her thumb.
Shit. Sage shifted again in the leather seat and already felt about two seconds from begging Phil to just play with herself already.
“Only if you want me to, baby,” she said. But the breathless hitch in her voice ruined any attempt at nonchalance.
But, Phil, the little tease already had her hand at the hem of her skirt. Slowly, she pulled up the gauzy yellow material.
Her toy buzzed.
Sage swallowed thickly.
Phil slowly tugged on the skirt. The hem slithered up her long legs and thick thighs, baring her beautiful skin to the sunlight. Sage’s mouth watered. Her pussy too.
Finally, finally, the skirt moved that last couple of inches. Phil’s neatly trimmed V of pubic hair came into view. Then her pretty pussy.
Sage released a sigh and squeezed the steering wheel hard enough for it to hurt. “You couldn’t wait until we got to the cottage to do this to me?”
“Everybody else is already there, remember?”
How could she forget? About a week after she and Phil got back together, Dez started singing “Reunited and it feels so good” whenever she saw them. Then finally, when Sage was ready to stuff anything down her throat to shut her up, Dez said she got them a house, all three couples, on the canal on Key West. A long weekend to reconnect and rejuvenate. A couple’s get-away.
“What about Nuria?” Sage had asked, being a smart ass.
Dez shrugged. “She’s in San Diego or Hollywood someplace with her newly employed ass. Who the hell knows?”
And so, the trip was a go. At nearly one in the afternoon and a half hour until their destination, Dez, Rémi and their women were already waiting for them in a big three-bedroom cottage in Key West.
But back to what was really important…
Watching Phil, Sage bit her lip and squirmed some more. Yeah, they were only half an hour away from where they were heading, but she couldn’t wait a second longer.
“Show me what your little toy can do, baby.”
Phil’s wet smile was the very definition of sin. “My pleasure.”
Keeping her bare feet on the dashboard, she slowly parted her legs, then slid her fingers between her thighs. She combed through her silky bush to open up the lips that were already glistening and wet.
Sage’s tongue ran wet with the need to taste the slick of her woman’s desire. Fuck…
“You should just use your fingers,” she said, eyes trained on Phil’s dripping pink opening while she curled her hips and ass in the seat, hunting for stimulation against her clit. “You’re already half way there.”
“Fingers aren’t what I want right now, baby.” Phil’s voice was getting lost in her lust. It rumbled low, getting deeper the more turned on she got. Stretching sleek as a panther, she tipped her hips up, leaning back in the seat to bare herself even further to Sage.
With another flick of her tongue over her already damp lips, Phil slid the buzzing toy between her legs. The eager little vibe nudged her clit right away, and she cried out.
“Oh!” She jerked in the seat and Sage swore she felt the same jolt of pleasure in her own lap.
Phil gripped the edge of her seat with one hand and opened her legs wider. “It’s so good. And this is the lowest setting.”
Damn.
Sage moved her ass in the seat, rubbing back and forth against the leather. A moan rose up from deep inside her chest. God… She had been about to give this up? Shit.
“You like what you see, baby?” Phil gasped out the question.
All Sage could do was nod. Then toss a quick glance toward the road to make sure they weren’t about to get into a wreck.
Then she went back to paying attention to what was really important.
Phil’s clit, swollen and wet, jumped under the toy. It looked like a hell of a vibration. The little purple vibe dipped down between the butterfly wings of her damp pussy lips then floated back up, shiny wet, to dance on top of Phil’s clit again.
Her woman was moaning steadily now, the sound of her pleasure creating a buzzing in Sage’s own pussy. She swallowed past her dry throat, tried desperately to say some of what she felt.
“I love what I see, sweetheart.” Sage threw another distracted glance through the windshield. “And I love the fuck out of you.”
“Yeah…?” Soft panting breaths. Phil’s delicious hips sliding back and forth in the seat to meet the toy she held between her fingers in a death grip. Already, Sage could see she was close to coming. “How much do you love me, baby?” Phil panted.
That was easy. “All the way. No limits. Forever.”
“No matter what?”
“No matter what.” Sage had been an idiot before, but that was over. They still had a lot to talk about. She was nowhere ready to share her woman with a man, but she wasn’t ready to write off her love because of a hypothetical encounter with a dick. If Phil came to her with her desire to sleep with a man, they’d talk about it. They’d do the whole lesbian thing (for Sage’s sake anyway) and process the shit out of it, but she’d never leave her woman. Not now. Not ever.
“Sage!”
Phil began to shiver, hips bucking wildly, her teeth clamping hard down on her lower lip. Her eyes fluttered shut and she reached blindly across the seat and clutched at Sage’s breast, pinched a nipple through the thin material of her tank top.
It was a rough squeeze, just enough to ramp up the lust tearing through Sage at the sight of her lover
jilling off in the leather seat, her juices dripping down into the leather, the smell of her pussy, salty and mouthwatering, yanking her closer to something good.
Another moan wavered its way from Sage’s lips. Fuck, her love looked good. The rub of Sage’s jeans against her clit was another kind of good. Hell, it was fucking great.
“I love you so much, baby!” she gasped.
“I want to ask Errol to be our sperm donor!” Phil cried out, her hips bucking more.
“What…?” The seam of Sage’s jeans rubbed her harder, pressing firm and the wet and the electric all together in her pants. Breathing hard enough to dry out her lips, she dug her short nails into the steering wheel. That slight additional sensation fired her clit and completely disengaged her mind. “Whatever you want, baby…”
“Yeah?” Phil panted, her legs trembling and stiff and her nipples like rock candy under the flimsy bikini top.
“Yeah!”
“Sage…my baby…my heart. I love you so much.” She gasped out one last time, then wailed, her pussy gushing and splattering the seat and the floor of the truck with the thin liquid stream of her cum.
The sounds, the sight of her wide open and throbbing pink, dragged Sage over the edge too. At the last, she couldn’t stop it. Couldn’t help it. She squeezed her eyes tightly shut and dug her fingernails into the leather steering wheel.
The symphony of their panting, the music of shared pleasure, filled the car for long, throbbing moments and Sage, with her eyes still closed, trembled from it.
“Baby, baby!” Phil’s voice threaded with panic pulled Sage back to where she actually was.
In the car. Speeding along the highway to Key West.
Shit!
Speed was the keyword. Sage abruptly eased up on the gas. “Sorry, baby…” She licked her lips and said a quick and thankful prayer that nobody had been close to them on the road.
Still lust-drunk, she wriggled in the seat, the cooling cum in her pants fast on its way to being uncomfortable. But that was secondary to what flashed through her mind.
Sperm donor?
“Did you just completely play me?” She slid a look toward her woman.