Lifeline

by Susan X Meagher

  Ally hadn’t specified what type of competition this was, but for some reason, Sara had assumed that it would be a gay and lesbian meet. Looking at the women posing, and the men hooting and hollering, she quickly changed her assessment.

  It actually took her mind a few minutes to fully take in the group, and before she had done so they exited the stage again, to be replaced by the individual women posing. The first woman was unbelievably muscular, in a way that was actually distasteful to Sara. Her muscles were very large, and very bulky and heavy looking. She was quite dark skinned, but the hue was the result of an astonishingly dark suntan that also looked less than attractive. The woman wore a bikini that barely covered her obviously surgically enhanced breasts, the massive mounds not moving an inch when she posed.

  She had long, bleached blonde hair, styled in a way that Sara had seen in movies from the 1950’s, but never on a modern day Bay Area woman. Layers upon layers of stiff, teased blonde cotton candy tresses floated about her head, made all the more incongruous by the massive bulk of her muscles. She looked like someone had taken a Barbie doll’s head and breasts and had merged them with a G.I. Joe – and then had stuffed Joe into a tiny bikini.

  She went through her entire routine, and by the end of it, Sara’s face was curled into a look of complete distaste. Everything about the woman looked artificial and brittle and hard, and her heart began to beat heavily in her chest – wondering if Ally’s look would be as much of a turn off.

  The next 5 competitors didn’t appeal to her either, and she was near panic when they announced that Ally was next. Peeking through the fingers of the hand that covered her eyes, Sara paused a second, then her mouth curled into a grin which continued to grow.

  The differences between Ally’s body and that of the other women were rather stark, Sara determined. While Ally looked very powerful and well defined, she didn’t have the heavy, masculine look of the competitors that received the most applause. Her skin was nearly as dark as the other women’s had been though, and it glowed from the application of some sort of oil.

  Even though Sara didn’t care for the artificial color of her skin, the skin that was revealed was wholly pleasing to the smaller woman. Ally didn’t wear a teeny bikini like most of the women did. Rather, hers was a bright red, combination bikini top/thong bottom suit that showed off her unbelievably rounded ass to perfection.

  Her mouth went dry as Ally began to work through her routine, her eyes barely leaving the glowing cheeks of that delectable ass.

  Finally, her 3 minutes were up, and the next competitor took the stage, allowing Sara to catch her breath. When all had finished, the judges made the first cut, narrowing the competitors to 5. Ally made the cut, and each of the women posed again, this time for only two minutes. When the winners were announced, Ally wasn’t among them, the grand prize going to the woman with the most outrageous muscles and largest breasts.

  Sara waited in her chair, assuming that Ally would find her eventually. It took about 15 minutes for the very drained-looking woman to catch up to her, and when she did, she sank heavily into the chair next to Sara. "I feel like I just ran a marathon," she sighed. "On my hands."

  Giving her a gentle hug, Sara said, "Congratulations on making the cut. That was good, wasn’t it?"

  "Yeah," Ally said. "Some of the judges like a more moderate look, but others like the women to be as big as the men. There’s no way to do that without juice … uhm … steroids, but what the hell." She shrugged her shoulders and said, "I’m done."

  "How are you feeling about your decision?"

  "Good. Well, as good as I feel about anything," she said. "I’m on the verge of hallucinating." She lifted her sports bottle to her lips and took a long gulp. "To really look cut you have to be dehydrated. This is the first thing I’ve had to drink since yesterday morning."

  "My God!" Sara cried. "That’s terrible! You must feel awful."

  "That’s about it," Ally said. "I have to be really careful not to overdo it, though. I have to let my body hydrate slowly."

  "Let’s go to my house," Sara said. "You can take a shower and have something to drink."

  With big doe eyes, Ally leaned against her, asking, "Do you have any cookies?"

  "I bought cookies and ice cream … just in case."

  "The woman of my dreams," Ally sighed, getting to her wobbly feet and holding onto Sara’s offered hand.

  Luckily, Sara lived just three blocks away, so they walked the short distance. As soon as they got into the apartment, Ally went to shower while Sara sat in the living room and watched the start of the second half of the Warriors basketball game. The bathroom door opened, and Ally emerged in a cloud of vapor. "Well, I’m clean," she announced, "but now I’m even weaker."

  "Come here," Sara said, and when Ally walked over to her, she patted her legs. "Stretch out and take a little nap."

  "Really? You don’t mind?"

  "No, of course not. I’d like you to stay for a while, and you’re obviously too tired to interact right now. Rest for a while, and maybe you’ll feel better."

  "Okay," Ally said, smiling wanly. Sara took the loose pillows from the back of the sofa and piled them up at the far end, so Ally had some support for her long legs which extended past the arm of the six foot long couch. It took a little maneuvering, but she got comfortable, lying on her side, with her head pillowed on Sara’s legs. "Are you comfy?" she asked, her voice already slow and sleepy.

  "Perfect. Mind if I rub your head?"

  "Oh, yeah," Ally said lazily. "That would be torture …"

  Sara’s fingers started to trail through the short, sandy hair, and by the time she had made two passes, Ally was sound asleep.

  Across town, in Noe Valley, Ryan was lounging on her bed, studying for a quiz, when Maggie came down, surprising her a bit. "Hi," the attorney said. "Did Brendan mention that he asked me to get involved in the negotiations with the Bay Area BMW dealers for you?"

  Ryan blinked, having forgotten all about her hasty, impetuous decision. "N … no, he didn’t, Maggie. I’m not sure I was in my right mind when I told him to pursue it, though. After all that’s happened, it’s obviously ridiculous to encourage any form of publicity."

  "I agree, Ryan," she said, her voice becoming more businesslike. "Seeing how you’ve handled this entire matter gave me a clear indication that you couldn’t handle any more exposure."

  "Thanks, Maggie," she said, relieved not to have to worry about another thing. "We’ll just buy a car with the insurance proceeds. No problem."

  "Let me tell you what I’ve negotiated, Ryan. You might still be interested."

  "Uhm … okay … shoot."

  "As you can imagine, the dealers wish is to have you and Jamie standing in front of BMW regional headquarters, with dozens of photographers, and all of the media outlets in attendance. They want a big press conference, with you making a speech about how great BMW is."

  "Oh, that’ll happen," Ryan said dryly.

  "Right," Maggie said. "I know that what you want is to have them drop off a car at a secret location, and never tell anyone they gave it to you."

  "You read my mind," Ryan said. "Did they go for it?"

  "Not hardly," Maggie said. "But my proposal is closer to your wish than theirs."

  "Let’s hear it."

  "Brendan told me that you were considering consenting to the ceremony they wanted to have for you two at City Hall."

  "Well … we discussed it," Ryan said, "but …

  "Well, I have some contacts over there, and we’ve got a proposal from the city to start a new program urging people to get involved when they see someone in trouble. They want to call it, ‘Be a hero – San Francisco’. It would be an ongoing program, and BMW would be one of the corporate sponsors. Once a year, they’d pick the citizens who went out of their way to help other people in need, and they’d have a ceremony honoring the nominees. Some committee would chose the most deserving person, and they’d get a new BMW. There would be some cash aw
ards to people, too, and some other corporate sponsors will probably want to jump on the bandwagon. The thing I liked about this was that BMW would definitely be in the background. It wouldn’t be like you were doing an ad for them."

  "Wow," Ryan said slowly. "That’s a pretty cool idea. So this would be ongoing, huh?"

  "Yeah," Maggie said. "There would be a publicity campaign urging people to get involved when they saw someone who needed help, and then there would be the awards at City Hall once a year."

  "Hmm … what do you think, Maggie? Will this be dignified and understated? I can’t be involved in another media circus."

  "Here’s the best news," she said. "Because of all the hype, they’re more than willing to do the presentation without you guys even being there. Mayor Brown is very sympathetic about how you’ve been harassed, and he thinks it would make a powerful statement that you two couldn’t even be present to get your awards."

  "I knew that I liked that guy," Ryan said. "Now if I could just get him to get out of bed with all of the pro-growth people, I’d be happy!"

  "Different issue," Maggie said. "So what do you think?"

  "I’ll have to talk to Jamie, of course, but I think it’s a great deal, Maggie. I really appreciate that you’ve worked on this for us."

  "It was fun, Ryan. I just want a ride in your new car."

  "You’ve got it," she said. "Now I just have to find Jamie, and see if she thinks it’s as good an idea as I do."

  As expected, Jamie agreed with the plan, and Ryan immediately got on her motorcycle and rode over to the BMW dealer on Van Ness to get a brochure on the car. She spend the rest of the afternoon trying to decide on color and options, after Maggie told her that BMW was amenable to ordering her any car, with all of the options she might wish.

  The loud ticking of a clock woke her, and Ally looked around confusedly, finally meeting Sara’s eyes. "A clock?" she asked, fuzzily.

  "Sixty Minutes just came on," Sara said, running her fingers across the furrow in her friend’s brow.

  "Wow, how long was I out?"

  "A couple of hours. You must have been exhausted."

  "Mmm … I was," she said. She struggled a little to sit up, then took a few long pulls off her sports bottle. "Mmm … better."

  "How about some dinner? You must be starved."

  "I am, but I have to be careful there, too. I have to ease back into eating normally or my system gets all screwed up."

  "What could you handle?"

  "Oh, a salad would be good."

  "I can make a salad," Sara said. She got up and went into the kitchen. "You can have dressing now, right?"

  "Indeed I can," Ally said. She sat on a kitchen stool and watched her friend work, commenting, "You look like you know your way around a kitchen."

  "Only for simple things, like salads and sandwiches. Nothing too fancy."

  Ally was obviously not very verbal, and she sat with her chin on her hand, watching Sara with a vaguely dopey looking smile. She continued to drink from her bottle, and when she drained it, she refilled it with plain water. Passing by Sara on her way back to her chair, she put an arm around her waist and gave her a squeeze, placing a soft kiss on the side of her neck. "Dinner’s ready," Sara said, pulling Ally’s arm tightly against her body. "Hungry?"

  "I’ve been hungry for eight weeks," she said, releasing her hold.

  They sat in the living room, munching on their salads, Ally nearly swooning over the simple Italian dressing. She continued to hydrate herself, and when she finished dinner she patted her stomach and said, "By tomorrow I’ll have lost ten percent of my definition."

  Sara’s eyes widened and she gasped, "That much! That fast?"

  "Uh-huh." Ally got up to put her bowl in the kitchen, then refilled her water bottle. "How about a cookie?" she asked.

  Walking into the kitchen, Sara took a bag of chocolate chunk, macadamia nut cookies out of the cabinet. "These were the most decadent ones I could find," she said, tauntingly holding the bag over Ally’s head. In keeping with her usual laidback style, Ally just cocked her head and rotated her eyes, giving Sara a sexy half smile, her eyes crinkling a little as she did so. "Want one?" Sara asked, lowering the bag to eye level.

  "Uh-huh," Ally drawled, her accent thickening slightly. "One of these will knock another ten percent off me."

  Hiding the bag behind her back, Sara said, "Then I don’t think I want you to have one. I know we’re taking it slow, and I agree that we should. But if this was your last competition I’ll never get to … fully … experience that cut body. Maybe you should stay in training for a while," she said.

  Ally moved a little closer, and her voice dropped to a low, sexy drawl. "You know, that’s about the third time you’ve alluded to my current body. Does it really … interest you?" By the time she finished her question she was inches from Sara, and the smaller woman could smell the clean scent of her own shower gel on the muscular body.

  "Yeah," Sara said softly, lifting her hand to slide it across Ally’s chest and down her arm. "It fascinates me. I’ve never been out with a really strong woman, and I don’t have a clue what a sculpted body feels like."

  "It sounds like your interest is almost academic," Ally purred, coming even closer and pinning Sara against the kitchen counter. She placed one hand on either side of the slim hips and hovered over her, giving her a slow, sexy smile.

  "Yeah … just academic," she said, swallowing audibly. "Kind of an anthropological study."

  "I’m all for the pursuit of knowledge," Ally murmured, bending just enough to be able to place tiny kisses along Sara’s jaw. "Give me your hands."

  Blinking up at her, Sara extended her hands and Ally took them and ran her thumbs across the palms. Then she took one slightly trembling hand and slipped it under her roomy sweatshirt. Sara’s eyes closed, and her mouth twitched into a grin as Ally guided her fingers along the ripped muscles of her abdomen. "Ooo … sweet," the brunette sighed.

  The larger woman slid the other hand under her shirt as well, then pushed them up until they trailed across her sports bra and came to rest atop her shoulders. When Sara’s hands were in place, Ally struck a pose, flexing her deltoids and her pectoral muscles rhythmically. "Good God," Sara murmured, her eyes still tightly closed.

  "Like that?" Ally’s honeyed voice purred.

  "Love it … it’s definitely love," Sara said.

  "Slide your hands down my arms a little," the body builder instructed.

  Doing so, Sara growled with delight when the biceps flexed and released repeatedly. "So nice," she moaned softly.

  "Now feel my back," Ally said, tilting her head just enough to place a gentle, tender kiss on Sara’s slightly parted lips.

  Sara’s soft, warm hands slid across the larger woman’s ribs, then slipped up her powerful back. Ally moved and stretched and flexed her muscles, while Sara allowed her fingers to trace every dip, every curve, every contour of the perfectly sculpted expanse. Her breathing was becoming audible, but rather than easing off, Ally bent her head and started to kiss her, increasing the passion as Sara’s fingers began to dig into the powerful muscles. The large hands went to Sara’s hips and pressed her hard against the counter, as Ally’s mouth claimed her completely.

  Unable to stop herself, and unwilling to even try, Sara’s hands trailed down the strong back and slipped under the waistband of Ally’s sweat pants. Her hands grasped the twin mounds of her ass through a thin covering of silk as she gasped in delight. "My, God, you’re perfect."

  Suddenly, Ally’s hands were around Sara’s waist, and she effortlessly lifted her to the counter. Long legs hooked around Ally’s midsection, drawing her in close as their lips met once again in a searingly hot kiss. Sara’s hands were everywhere – caressing every firm, starkly defined muscle, while Ally braced her forearms against the upper cabinet and leaned in to lavish her captive with warm, wet kisses.

  Unable to keep her hands from exploring, Sara continued to lean into Ally as her hands dipped lower
and lower. The larger woman moved back just a few inches, but in her weakened state she lost her firm hold on Sara and the brunette started to slide off the counter. Ally wrapped her arms around her, but gravity won, and they slowly collapsed onto the floor.

  Sara was panting softly, her eyes hooded and slightly unfocused. She maneuvered Ally onto her back and grasped her sweatpants, pulling them down to her knees. Dark blue print silk boxers modestly covered the prone woman, and Sara left them in place, entirely focused on exploring the muscular legs and ass that she hadn’t yet been able to experience.

  The short break and altitude change gave Ally time to collect her thoughts, and she reached out and put her hands on Sara’s shoulders. "What happened to going slow?"

  "Slow?" she asked hazily. "Oh!" She looked down, seemingly just then realizing what was happening. "I … just … had to …" Her warm brown eyes rotated back to Ally, and she shrugged her shoulders. "I don’t know what happened."

  "We got carried away," Ally said, caressing Sara’s flushed cheek. "I guess our libidos are tired of waiting."

  Sara dropped her head onto Ally’s chest, hearing her heart pounding away furiously. "Mine’s been waiting a long time. I haven’t been with anyone for months – I guess it caught up with me."

  "I want to be with you," Ally said softly, "but I don’t want it to be rushed like this. Can you be patient, Sara? It really means a lot to me."

  She looked into Ally’s eyes, their color a soft gray in the dim light. Nodding her head, she said, "Yes, Ally. You take as much time as you need. I’ll do my best to behave." Leaning forward, she kissed her gently. "But it won’t be easy," she said, laughing softly. "I’m so attracted to you that I’m about to combust!"

  Reaching down, Ally tugged on her friend, then settled her against her side. "Is it my body?"

  "Yes, but only partly so. I’ve never dated anyone who looks like you, and I’m finding that I’m incredibly turned on by your muscles. But it’s not just that," she said. "There’s a dichotomy between your easygoing personality and your powerful body that’s a real turn on. And underneath that slow, easy, laid-back style there’s a very determined, very forceful woman," she added, her lips curling into a sexy smile. "I looooove that part." She placed a gentle kiss on her lips and said, "That’s been a surprise, too."