Rest and Relaxation (Lesbian Romance)

by Rhavensfyre

  “Let me get your bags, Ms. De Leon,” her driver said as he opened the door for her.

  “Thank you,” she murmured, watching her step as she started up the stairs of the large wrap around front porch. An uneven board unbalanced her and she grabbed for the rail before embarrassing herself. As the driver started pulling out her bags, Allyse looked around her and made a quick assessment of her situation. She was so not dressed appropriately for her little vacation adventure. She stood out like a sore thumb in her power suit and high heels, but it was all she owned and she was comfortable in them. She shrugged. It would have to do. After all, she wasn’t planning on traipsing around the fields and meadows. She was content to watch nature from afar, or at least from her window. As she stepped onto the porch she turned to get a good look at the view around her and found Erick's niece waiting for her. She was leaning on the railing in a boneless slouch that reminded Allyse of old westerns and dust covered cowboys. She had seen models try for that same slouch with varied results, but none had managed to look so naturally comfortable doing it as Dani did in that moment.

  “Hi, I’m Dani.” The taller woman peeled herself away from her perch and walked up to Allyse. She was dressed in faded old blue jeans and a sleeveless shirt that emphasized her leanness. The steady clap of her dusty brown cowboy boots beat out a clipped rhythm as she strode across the wooden porch, her tan cowboy hat pulled low over her brow so her face was in shadow.

  “Allyse De Leon,” she said, slipping her manicured fingers into Dani's offered hand.

  “Yes, I am aware of who you are. Erick called me yesterday and asked if you could stay here for a while.” Her voice was smooth and clear and not anything like Allyse expected. Dani was perfectly polite but not quite as welcoming as she had hoped. Perhaps she wasn’t the only one that had been coerced into this arrangement.

  “You can just leave her bags here. I’ll get them into the house,” Dani said, focusing her attention on the driver when he appeared on the porch with Allyse’s bags in tow.

  “Thank you,” Allyse said, putting as much warmth into her words as she could muster. Erick had made sure to hire someone from their usual limousine service. They never complained, and the drivers were always circumspect, two qualities she was grateful for in a world where the media was always looking for something to sink their teeth into. Once he left, that world would go with him, leaving her alone for the first time in a very long while.

  The driver smiled and handed Allyse a business card. He knew a dismissal when he heard one. “Call if you need anything at all.” He tipped his hat and left quickly, leaving her alone with Dani.

  Dani opened the front door, motioning for Allyse to enter the house first before grabbing her bags.

  Allyse took a few steps into the foyer before turning around with an apology on her tongue. She shouldn’t expect Dani to lug around her bags like a hired porter. “Let me help with my…” Her words died in her throat when she found herself unexpectedly fascinated by the smooth curve of Dani’s neck as she hung her cowboy hat on a convenient hook in the entranceway. The memory of Dani’s blonde hair shining in the thin winter sunlight came flooding back to her. She had cut it since the funeral. It was much shorter than Allyse remembered, and a bit darker.

  The wispy curls lying along Dani’s collar line suddenly became the most interesting thing in the universe to her as she contemplated how it would feel to run her fingers through those soft tresses.

  What the hell? Allyse’s brain felt like it was on fire. A year, it had been a year since she had admitted to herself that her failed marriage had more to do with her lack of interest in any man rather than her lack of interest in the man she had married. It was also a year of not acting on her attractions, her intense need for privacy overruling her desires as she shied away from offering herself up as another feast for the buzzard-like paparazzi. She could imagine the field day they would have announcing that Allyse De Leon was a lesbian to the entire world. She wasn’t ready for that. Even if most of the world didn’t give a damn about who was gay or not, the tabloids still did. It wouldn’t be fair to her girls and she certainly didn’t need any more problems from her jerk of an ex-husband.

  Allyse struggled to compose herself before Dani turned towards her, but she wasn't fast enough to avoid those inquisitive brown eyes.

  “Uh, are you okay?” Dani asked

  “I’m fine. I’m…I must be tired from the long drive,” Allyse stuttered through her excuses as she tried to recover from the unexpected surge of desire that had claimed her, mind and body.

  “Okay. Make yourself at home. I’m just going to take these upstairs to the guest room.”

  “Thank you,” Allyse responded politely. She stepped farther into the living room hoping to find something to distract her. That distraction came running in on four paws. She heard the familiar clicking noise of nails on wood getting louder and she turned towards what she thought was the kitchen just in time to see a rather fluffy looking dog come running into the living room and sliding to a stop in front of her. A dog looked up at her with the silliest expression, her tongue lolling out of her mouth as she greeted her with a toothy doggy smile. An excessively feathered tail wagged wildly, practically creating its own breeze as she squirmed for attention. When she didn’t pet the happy dog immediately, an insistent nose pushed against her hand. Liquid gold-brown eyes stared up at her with a baby seal expression that she couldn’t resist. She sat down on the couch and petted the insistent pooch, noting how soft the fur felt beneath her fingers. “You’re gorgeous, pup. What's your name, huh?” She crooned, encouraging a new round of wriggling.

  “Callie,” Dani’s voice answered for the dog. She had come back downstairs just in time to find her dog shamelessly begging for attention.

  “Callie?” Allyse repeated. “She’s a collie dog, yes?”

  “Yes, I know. Callie the Collie. I’ve already heard it before,” Dani continued wryly. “I hope you don’t mind dogs. As you can see she is very friendly.”

  “No, I don’t mind at all. We lost our dog Mandy last year and I haven’t gotten around to getting another one.” Allyse ran her fingers through Callie’s fur. Why hadn’t she replaced Mandy? The girls would love another dog, but it had seemed like so much trouble.

  “Alright, but if she bothers you let me know,” Dani said.

  Chapter Two

  “Thank you, Dani,” Allyse said, then shut the door and leaned back, her palms flat against the wood behind her. The solid surface beneath her fingertips lent her some stability in a world that was somehow revising her well scripted life. She closed her eyes and let her head fall back in repose, willing her racing heart to slow its runaway gallop. Her thoughts trampled along a wild path, a rapid fire assault that attacked then retreated, asking unanswerable questions then damning her for asking them.

  What was wrong with her? Dani was Erick's niece for God’s sake. She was so much younger than her. Hell, age wasn’t even the issue here. She was just wrong for her, period. Off limits. Not to mention straight, right? Or was she? Allyse couldn’t remember Erick mentioning anything about Dani dating. Not a single mention about any boyfriends—or girlfriends, for that matter. She would have to call him and ask, she thought, then chopped the air in front of her, severing that thought before it had time to grow roots. It was a ridiculous invasion of Dani’s privacy to even consider asking, not to mention the can of worms she would open in doing so. Erick was too damn curious about everything. He wouldn’t be satisfied with just a simple yes or no. He would want to know details.

  A familiar dull pain blossomed along the left side of her chest and she rubbed at it until it subsided. Even if she didn’t want to unpack this instant, she would need to dig out her pills before she lay down. She wanted to laugh at the irony of it all. Erick had sent her here to relax, but what she was feeling was so much the opposite of relaxed it was ridiculous.

  She closed her eyes and focused on her hearing. The slightest creak of old floorboards
gave away Dani’s path. Allyse waited until she heard Dani’s boots clomp down the stairs, then she pushed away from the door and took a quick tour of her room. She was drawn to an exquisite Queen Anne bed tucked between two tall windows on the far wall. The thick satin coverlet begged to be turned down and give up its hidden bounty, the sensation of slipping between cool, fresh sheets. The power of suggestion was so strong that she yawned hard enough for tears to come to her eyes. She was exhausted and wanted nothing more than to kick off her heels and curl up on the bed for a few hours, but she couldn’t shake her restlessness.

  Allyse ran her fingers along the smooth finish of the Victorian armoire. It was something she would buy for her own home. A quick scan revealed more of the same. The entire room was a delightful surprise. She hadn’t expected such luxury hidden within the walls of the old farmhouse.

  She wasn’t sure whose hand it was that had been involved in the interior renovations of the house, but they had gone to great lengths. Judging from the shape and size of the room, someone had started knocking down walls at one point. What had started off life as a small turn of the century bedroom was now a spacious room with an adjoining sitting area.

  Another door led into an exquisitely outfitted master bathroom complete with a high-backed tub was eye-candy for the tired executive. A frosted glass enclosure separated the bath area from the marble lined shower. The entire suite followed the same theme. If she let her vision blur just a little Allyse could imagine that she was a guest in one of those overly decadent hotels from the early 1900s. Allyse eyed the clawfoot tub greedily and imagined what it would feel like to descend into steaming hot water all the way up to her neck. All she needed was a glass of champagne and it would be pure bliss. Another day, she thought, winking at the shining porcelain tub as if planning a date.

  She found a glass and headed back to her room. With water in hand, she went hunting for her medications. Like always, she glared at the pale orange bottles with their labels and multi-colored warnings before selecting one and popping it open. The water from the spigot was sweet, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the bitter taste sliding across her tongue. Three years of taking the damn things, and she still had trouble swallowing the pills, both physically and metaphorically. Three years since the stress of her divorce and custody battle had landed her in the hospital with a heart attack at the tender age of 37.

  “Yay for me,” Allyse whispered as she palmed her second pill. The dull ache in her chest subsided along with her restlessness. Her pulse slowed down to something close to normal but now she could barely find the energy to change her clothes. The bed called to her, and when she sunk into the pillow top feather mattress, she had no choice but to close her eyes and fall into oblivion.

  ***

  Allyse startled awake. Her head felt fuzzy, full of heavy cobwebs that refused to clear despite taking a mental swipe at them. She couldn’t tell what time it was and had no idea how long she had slept. She fumbled for her phone on the unfamiliar nightstand and nearly dropped it. After scrubbing the sleep from her eyes, she checked the time, then slapped the phone down on the bed. Hours. It was hours since she had lain down.

  “I don’t nap. I’ve never napped. This is ridiculous,” Allyse muttered. She was angry at the universe now. She didn’t care if the overwhelming tiredness was a symptom or a side-effect of the medications, but she did know one thing. It interfered with her lifestyle and she hated it. “Well, that’s why I’m here, right? To get some rest and relaxation?”

  There was no one there to answer her question except for the house itself. The creak and groan of old wooden bones made the farmhouse seem almost human in its own way. There was a message there, she was sure of it—a reminder of time and age and potential grace that she needed to learn. Allyse made a wry face. This was a foreign land to her. She felt lost away from all the deadlines and midnight rushes. She loved New York. With all its mass of humanity competing for a place in the middle of all that concrete and steel, rushing to the sound of blaring horns, there was no way not to feel alive while in the middle of it. Here, there was no way to ignore the sound of an old house settling on its foundation. There wasn’t a million other sounds vying for her attention to the point where it became nothing more than gray noise. It was more intimate being immersed in this quiet place in the middle of nowhere and she wondered how Dani could stand it.

  She could hear Dani moving around in the kitchen beneath her, the muffled sound of pans clashing together occasionally drifting up through the floorboards beneath her. Her stomach growled at the thought of real food. It reminded her that she had missed lunch. Allyse pulled herself out of the warm bed and found the only shoes she owned that didn’t have a heel—a pair of walking shoes she used when she would take the girls to the park. They were woefully unworn, the soft rubber soles still unstained by discarded gum or grass. Yet another reminder that it had been too long since they had gone out together, and now her girls were gone for the summer. She looked down at the neat ties on the canvas shoes and rolled her ankles to take the kinks out of her calves. “Yup, too long.” It felt weird not wearing heels.

  When Allyse stepped into the hall, she noticed that the door across from hers was open. She peered in as she walked by. Dani’s room? Curiosity made her stop and take a closer look. She hovered at the door, her feet refusing to continue their trek downstairs yet, but unwilling to walk past the threshold. The room held a lived in feeling that was obvious even without the casually discarded items of clothes lying on the floor. Allyse raised an eyebrow at the disorder. Evidently the younger woman wasn’t big on straightening up in the morning. The heavy coverlets remained wrinkled and unmade on her bed, but it was the furnishings that kept surprising her. The obvious quality and eye for design must be Erick’s influence, since he was such a pain when it came to trying to redecorate her home and office. She could tell that Dani’s room had been carved out of the other side of the old house much the same way as hers. The temptation to wander in and find where the doors on either side of the main bedroom led unglued her feet. She took a single step inside the room before she realized that she was about to violate Dani’s privacy. She stepped back and leaned against the doorframe, tucking her hands under her arms as if to discourage them from doing what they wanted to do. Touch.

  The main focus of the room was a huge four poster affair that almost managed to make the large room look small. Almost. If it wasn’t for the high ceiling above the bed it would have felt crowded. A large skylight above her head let in a swath of blue sky that opened up the room even farther. Still, she found her eyes caressing the unkempt bed, imagining how lost Dani would look laying within its depths, with nothing but the stars to look at above her. That’s a lot of bed for just one woman, Allyse thought, then cringed as her face flooded with heat. What the hell was she doing standing here and contemplating how Dani looked sleeping in her own bed?

  Evidently being out of the city had somehow removed the filter she had kept clamped down on her libido because it had certainly decided it was safe to come out and play.

  And why Dani? Allyse thought about that for a few moments, trying to untangle her odd reaction to the other woman. Dani was different, but why?

  Because she is here, and she knows who you are and doesn’t care, came the answer.

  Allyse considered and then discarded that explanation. There was a freedom here that came with the anonymity of being away from the city. Dani was an attractive woman. Her physical response was perfectly natural considering the circumstances. Allyse smiled, satisfied with her assessment. It was always best to go with the most obvious explanation, wasn’t it?

  ***

  Dani looked over her shoulder as Allyse entered the kitchen. “Have you had a chance to eat? I have some nice steaks in the fridge that I can fix.”

  “That sounds wonderful. No I didn’t eat anything before I left the city and I missed lunch.” Allyse spied a bottle of wine on the counter and checked the vintage, then hummed in appreciati
on at finding one of her favorite wines open and seemingly waiting for her. “Do you mind?” Allyse asked, tilting the wine bottle at Dani.

  “No, not at all. Erick bought a case last month when he came to visit and I thought it would go well with the steak. The glasses are right over there.” Dani gestured with her paring knife towards the far side of the kitchen. Callie followed close behind her guest, looking up at her in that adoring way that usually resulted in getting treats.

  Dani suppressed an amused grin. The tapping of the dog’s toenails reminded her of the ridiculous heels Allyse had shown up in. The canvas walking shoes she was wearing now weren’t any better for farm use, but at least she wouldn’t break an ankle walking around in them.

  The tapping stopped then started again. It sounded like a doggy version of Morse code. Thanks to the wooden floors, she always knew exactly where Callie was, even with her back turned. There was a bonus side to this. Since Callie seemed content to remain glued at Allyse’s side she would know where they both were at all times.

  “I see that my dog has adopted you,” Dani said. She wiped her hands off with a towel before accepting the wine glass Allyse was holding out to her. An assortment of cut vegetables lay on the counter behind her, all bright greens, yellows and reds. “Thank you.”