Feeling Robin’s body under her, the friction of their breasts rubbing, the tautness of their nipples and their mutual heat, Lily knew exactly what she wanted to do. As the storm raged around them, she touched Robin’s face, tracing her features in the flickering light. Robin raised her head and met her lips. The sweet kisses turned passionate and the storm inside matched the one outside as desire replaced Lily’s fear and uncertainty. When Robin’s hand moved to her breast, she broke the connection. “Be still, I’m going to make love to you.”
Robin tried to sit up and roll on top of her. “I’d rather—”
Lily pushed her back. There was another boom and the whites of Robin’s eyes flashed in the darkness. Her breathing was rapid and she seemed to be having trouble getting enough air. Lily waited for the next flash and stared into her eyes. “I didn’t like hearing that you mostly serviced the women you had sex with. I know you’re used to being in control, sweetie, but we won’t work if you’re the only one giving. If it gets too intense, raise your hand and I’ll stop.”
Robin’s hand shot up.
She laughed. “No stopping before we start. Trust me, my sweet Robin, please trust me.”
* * *
She stared at Lily. She did trust her. But it was true she was usually the one in charge, the one giving. She’d rarely let anyone make love to her except a few times in grad school and even then she’d faked orgasms. She’d never been able to tolerate being touched so intimately, and she didn’t know if she could now, even by Lily.
How could Lily know? None of the women had ever questioned Robin when she said she didn’t need anything, that making love to her was enough. But Lily saw her. Really saw her. Saw through her. She’d been focused on her need to touch Lily, to make love to her, and she hadn’t considered Lily’s needs. She should have known Lily wouldn’t go for one-sided lovemaking. But she knew now that if she denied her, any chance of a relationship would evaporate. She could do this. Couldn’t she?
Lily straddled her. “It’ll be more fun if y’all try not to think of it as torture.” She went back to kissing.
This she could handle. Robin relaxed as their tongues met again, fanning the fire that was never far off when Lily was near. She gasped when Lily’s hand brushed her breast, caught between the desire for more and the need to throw Lily aside and run to the beach.
Lily pulled away. She ran her hand gently over Robin’s face, then placed it on a hardened nipple that obviously had no qualms about being touched. “Easy, sweet Robin, I’m going to get us both naked, then I’m going to kiss you and touch you. Stay with me. Okay?”
Robin nodded. She was determined to try. Lily pulled Robin’s T-shirt over her head, then tugged Robin’s pajama bottoms down. Her fingers grazed Robin’s pubic hair and the insides of her thighs. Robin shivered and kicked the pajamas off her ankles.
Lily knelt on the bed and pulled her own tank top off. Holding her breath, Robin extended her hands and cupped her breasts. Lily pushed her hands away. “Down, girl.” She rose and slipped her pajama bottoms off. Robin’s eyes widened as a lightning flash washed over Lily. She reached for the lamp. Her eyes raked the voluptuous body from the full breasts to the slightly rounded belly and the curly blond hair, the lovely hips and the long slender legs. How could Lily think she would be repulsed?
Lily’s grin was mischievous. “Maybe if you think about making love to me, you’ll get into it.”
She could do that. She’d been doing nothing but thinking about making love to her since the first time she saw her in the bar. As Lily straddled her, Robin’s hands meandered over the curves of her body, touching the glorious softness of her breasts, her belly, her hips, her thighs. She sighed.
Lily smiled and stretched out on top of Robin, her skin hot even in the refreshing ocean breeze and the cool rain blowing in. Once again, she returned to kissing but now her hands were busy touching, exploring, running featherlike over Robin’s body, replacing thoughts and anxiety with a pleasurable lightness. She seemed to intuit the exact moment for her lips and tongue to burn their own path from head to toes, then toes to head. Stopping to kiss behind Robin’s knees and her inner thighs, Lily then buried her face in the crinkly black hair. When Robin tensed, she continued on to her breasts. Robin moaned when Lily took a breast in her mouth and instinctively pushed her breasts forward at the same time as her hand gripped Lily’s shoulder to push her away. Lily took advantage of the distraction to slip between Robin’s legs and slide two fingers inside. Robin gasped, her hips pushed up and the hand pushing Lily away relaxed as her body responded to Lily’s rapidly increasing stroking and thrusting. Lily panted. “That’s my sweet Robin.”
Robin locked on to her eyes. “Lily.” She pushed against Lily’s hand, her breathing quickening, the pressure mounting. Then she exploded. And burst into tears. Lily held her tightly as she came down, kissing her eyes and forehead, stroking her hair, caressing her neck and rubbing her back while she sobbed.
Neither spoke for a long while, then Robin raised herself on one elbow to stare down at Lily. “Sorry. I’ve never been emotional during sex before.”
She reached up and brushed Robin’s hair back. “No apology necessary, sweetie. Maybe it’s because we’re not having sex, we’re making love. Being emotional is good where love-making is concerned. I’m glad we were able to touch an untouched place.”
“You made me feel…” Her voice broke. “I’ve never had an orgasm with anyone before.”
“My sweet Robin.” Lily brushed the tears from Robin’s cheeks with her fingers. “I’ve loved you since the first night we saw each other. And I love you even more now for making yourself vulnerable, for trusting me and opening your body and your heart.” They dozed.
* * *
When Lily opened her eyes again Robin was watching her with a sweet smile, holding Lily’s hand to her heart. Seeing she was awake, she brought Lily’s hand to her lips, kissed her palm and took a finger into her mouth. The storm outside had subsided and the sky was aglow with shards of pink and orange, the breeze was gentle and fresh and the sound of the waves muted. But the storm inside Lily was mounting quickly. Who knew a finger could be so sensitive.
Lily moved to meet Robin’s lips. As their kisses deepened, her desire flamed. She needed those lips everywhere. Now. Breathless, she pulled away and whispered into the air between them. “My breasts.”
Robin pulled her head back to stare into Lily’s eyes. She grinned. “Yes, ma’am.”
As instructed, Robin started with her breasts, then slowly made her way down, seeming to savor all the places Lily thought she would hate, until Lily squirmed and moaned with pleasure at the kisses—the licks and touches as delicate as the flutter of the wings of a butterfly.
Long before Robin buried her head between Lily’s thighs, she was wet and welcoming. Using her teeth and tongue and fingers, Robin teased Lily’s already flaming passion higher and higher until she screamed Robin’s name, tensed and arched. Robin held her tight, kissing her, murmuring her love.
When her heart and pulse slowed to normal, Lily smiled sweetly. “Y’all are a great lover, Robin, but then it was me I doubted, not you.” In bed Robin was just the right balance of tender and generous and masterful, totally attentive to Lily’s body and focused on pleasuring her. She ran a hand over Robin’s body, thanking the universe for the awful things that had paved the way for her to meet Robin—the unfortunate relationship with Micki that brought her to New York City and the unfortunate dinner date with Glory that brought her to Shazarak where she and Robin had, it seemed, fallen in love. Feeling Robin’s nipples harden in reaction to her touch, Lily took it as an invitation to make love to her again.
* * *
They spent that day and night in bed, dozing, eating and making love. The next morning they went for a walk on the beach, then had breakfast on the deck.
“So, my sweets, how old were you when you had sex for the first time?”
“Sixteen. My senior year at Harvard. Until
then, Katie kept me on a really tight leash. Other than time in class, we were together studying in the library or in our suite and when we did go out to lectures and concerts, movies and dinner, it was just us and our suitemates.”
“She took her responsibility seriously.”
“She did. In fact, when I turned sixteen my suitemates had a birthday party for me and I learned she had threatened Emma and Nicole, our two lesbian roommates, with beheading if they so much as kissed me. And she got them all to pledge to keep an eye on me. But after the party she said I was mature enough to start dating and she loosened up. Though roommates were still off-limits, they coached me on how to date and what to do sexually.” She grinned. “I managed to find plenty of willing participants. What about you?”
“I kissed and fooled around a little in high school, but freshman year at college I met someone and we were a couple for a little while.”
“Do you believe in happily ever after?”
“I do. I believe my mamas have found it. I hope we will. Do you have doubts?”
Robin looked out at the ocean. “I’d like to believe in it. I don’t know about my life before Harvard, but my life since then has been magical. And now there’s you.” She reached over and traced Lily’s jawline. “I think a part of me was afraid of committing because giving yourself to someone means they can hurt you by leaving.” She tried a smile that didn’t quite convince. “And deep inside I feel like there’s a little dark cloud floating around out there just waiting to cast a shadow on me.”
Lily caught Robin’s hand on her jaw and held it to her cheek. “I think everyone is afraid, at least a little bit, that something bad will happen and ruin their happy ever after. We don’t know what the future holds so let’s enjoy our happy ever after while we have it.” She leaned in and kissed Robin.
Robin pulled her close, then tickled her. “Well, I sure am enjoying my happy ever after right now. I’m sorry to say we have clients coming in from Wisconsin to look at the software tomorrow afternoon, and I have to be there to make the presentation.”
“That’s fine. The deadline on my mystery is coming up fast.”
“I think Michael is still in Europe doing a big deal for his company, but will you have time to have dinner with Katie and Jan?”
“Only if you promise to come home with me after.”
“Well…if I have to.”
“So do y’all want to go to bed and explore our happy ever after while we still have time?”
“Umm.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Celebration
As they walked into the dining room of Shazarak, Robin reassured Lily for the tenth time at least that Katie and Jan would love her, yet she still felt apprehensive. After all, Katie was the most important person in Robin’s life. What if Katie hated her or she hated Katie? What then? Somehow the thought of Jan wasn’t as scary as the woman who’d nurtured Robin from a skinny, needy, nerdy fourteen-year-old to the wonderful woman she was in love with.
Robin steered her to a table where two women stood with huge smiles. “Relax, they don’t bite, besides you’re cutting off the blood supply to my hand.”
“Oh, sorry.”
Then they were there. The shorter one, with wavy, streaked light-brown hair cascading down her back and sparkling blue eyes, a generous mouth and a huge grin, pulled Lily into a crushing hug. “I’m Katie. I’ve heard so much about you and I am so happy to finally meet you.”
“I’m happy to meet you too,” Lily whispered. “But I fear y’all hate me for making Robin pursue me.”
Katie laughed and whispered back. “Not at all. If you hadn’t made the little beastie confront her feelings, she would have bedded you and moved on without letting herself know she was in love.”
“Hey, what’s all that whispering? Are you ganging up on me already?”
The full-figured, dark-haired, dark-eyed woman sporting tattoos on her arms and a ring through one eyebrow moved in and touched Katie’s shoulder. “Yeah, break it up so I can say hello too.”
Katie stepped back.
“You must be Jan.” Lily hugged her. “I hope y’all didn’t mind that I sent your flowers back?”
“Nah. Robin’s a little tone deaf, but your message came through loud and clear. Welcome to our little family.” She kissed Lily’s cheek.
Robin threw an arm over Lily’s shoulder. “Don’t believe a word they say about me.”
Lily smiled and hugged her. “What makes y’all think we’re talking about you?” This was how family should be— loving, happy, teasing. Robin’s women would fit right in with her own family.
“Do I hear the South in your voice, Lily?” Katie asked.
Robin fidgeted, clearly worried they wouldn’t like each other. Katie touched Robin’s face and locked eyes with her. The affection in that touch and in her eyes moved Lily and seemed to calm Robin.
“Yes, you do. I lived in Alabama until we moved to California when I was sixteen. She flushed. “My accent is most pronounced when I’m emotional—nervous or happy or angry, it doesn’t matter. I know how important you and Jan are to Robin, so I’ve been nervous about meeting you, afraid maybe we won’t like each other.”
Katie took her hands and looked her in the eye. “I can’t imagine that Robin would be in love with someone I wouldn’t like. Now, whether you like me is another story.” She kissed Lily’s cheek. “I hope we’ll be great friends.”
Lily felt Robin tense and, following her gaze, saw Annie and Emma walking toward the table, holding hands.
“I know it was presumptuous to assume I know what you want and I should have asked first, but I invited Annie and Emma to join our celebration.”
Lily caressed Robin’s face. “That was a loving thing to do, sweetie.”
“I wanted my other suitemate, Nicole, and her lover, Nora, to meet you, but they’re both doctors so they’ll come later. Is that okay?”
Lily leaned in to kiss Robin without thinking about it. When they came up for air, the other four were watching them with huge smiles on their faces. Lily blushed. “Sorry, y’all, it’s impossible to resist her.”
Annie wrapped her arms around the two of them. “Congratulations. I’m thrilled for you both.” Emma wormed her way into the huddle. “Congratulations. Lily, you’re the best thing that’s happened to Robin since she met Katie and me at Harvard. Take care of her.”
“I intend to, Emma. Thanks.”
Robin flushed. “Let’s sit before Emma goes off on one of her rants. Besides, I was too busy to eat lunch and I’m starving.”
“Oh, oh, this must really be love if you forgot to eat.” Emma eyed them. “Hey, it looks like you two finally got around to doing the deed.”
“Emma.” Robin raised her voice and her hand, but Emma dashed to the other side of the table before Robin could whack her.
Lily looked from Emma to Annie. “Yeah, we did all right. And I notice you and Annie looking flushed and leaning into each other.”
“Got us.” Emma kissed Annie.
Katie turned to Jan. “Think we can survive all the pheromones floating around us?”
Robin grinned. “As long as you don’t flash a tat, you’ll be safe from Jan.”
Jan bumped hips with Robin. “Smart ass.”
Once they were settled, the waitress arrived with champagne and glasses, which she filled and placed in front of each of them. Katie stood and clinked her knife against her water glass. The room went silent. She raised her glass. “Everyone, please stand and join me in toasting our friends Robin and Lily on their engagement.”
Lily looked around. Every table was standing, everyone holding a flute of champagne.
With tears in her eyes, Katie lifted her glass and spoke to them. “Wishing you, Robin and Lily, happiness, health and love forever.” She drank and everyone in the room did the same, then cheered. Katie waved the waitress over. “In honor of Robin and Lily, I’m picking up the check for everyone seated now, please let them know.”
<
br /> It was a fun night. The trepidation she’d felt about meeting Katie and Jan melted away. And when Nicole and Nora arrived a little later she felt an instant connection to them. Basking in the warmth of the group, she marveled at the obvious love and bond between Robin, Katie, Emma and Nicole, who, with Jan, were Robin’s family. The eight of them joked and chatted and, unlike she had with Micki’s friends, she felt accepted, appreciated, and included. She and Robin held hands under the table. And throughout the meal there was a steady stream of people stopping by to congratulate them and thank Katie for the treat.
They danced and sang and celebrated until the place closed, then everyone went home. As promised, Robin accompanied Lily. Happily, the next day was Saturday.
They both groaned when Lily’s cell played a happy tune at eleven the next morning. “It’s Del.” She kissed Robin. “Go back to sleep. I’ll take it in the living room.”
Robin rolled onto her. “No, don’t leave me.”
“Okay, just let me have a little space.” She pushed Robin off her. “Hey, Mama, I was going to call you this morning. I’m thinking of coming to visit. There’s someone, Robin is her name, I want y’all to meet.” Robin’s lips were on her neck and a hand was trailing down her body, making it difficult to breathe. She batted Robin’s hands away.
“Why, Lily honey, y’all sound absolutely breathless. You must really be smitten by this Robin.”
“Smitten? Yes, I am, Mama.” She captured Robin’s hand. “When you meet her you’ll understand. She’s sexy and brilliant and fun and—”
“Well, that should be sooner than you think. President Obama asked Cordy to lead some hifallutin’ commission and she said she would. Then out of nowhere Columbia University offered her the most prestigious chair in her mathematics universe and she accepted that. We’re comin’ to New York City Thursday so Cordy can finalize everything and we can check out the apartment they’re giving us. They’re putting us up in a hotel so we won’t be staying with you, but plan on you and your gal spendin’ lots of time with us, starting with dinner Thursday. Just a second, Cordy wants to say hello.”
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