Silver Lining

by Diana Simmonds

  Amanda grabbed it, pulled off the waterlogged raincoat and her Christmas party blouse. I am beyond being modest, she thought as her teeth clattered uncontrollably.

  “This is ridiculous. I’m from Connecticut,” she managed to get out. “The river…”

  “I know, it freezes solid in winter,” Clancy recited. She took off her own raincoat and a silk shirt that was clinging so tight to her body it was like a second, wet skin.

  Another lightning bolt lit up the boatshed and was followed within seconds by a rolling crash of thunder.

  “This is a really big storm,” Clancy said and her voice was nervous. “I don’t like it when they’re this bad.” She ferreted in the trunk again and came out with a pair of thick track pants with a hole in one knee and paint streaks down both legs. She handed them to Amanda. Then she took out two rough towels. “Come here,” she said matter-of-factly, “I’ll give you a rubdown and you can do the same for me. Then we can put on dry clothes and I’m going to make hot chocolate. Luckily we’ve got milk left over from this morning’s coffee.”

  “Woo!” Amanda laughed. “Now you’re talking.”

  She tiptoed across the space, avoiding the puddles and stood obediently in front of Clancy who looked at her quizzically and said, “Take your wet pants off please, can’t dry you with them on.”

  “Ah. Sure.” Amanda became instantly conscious that although she was now pretty well accustomed to stripping off in front of Clancy, it had always been in the context of the beach, a fiercely competitive swim and then back to the oddly asexual beach again. This was different. Her naked breasts obviously didn’t bother Clancy, and while she objectively appreciated Clancy’s erect nipples and the perfect breasts on which they sat when they were out in the sun, something about the cozy confines of the boatshed and the violent tempest outside made her breathing speed up and her heart begin to thump.

  “Come on,” Clancy said impatiently, shaking the towel at her. “You’re not the only one who’s freezing.” Her tone was so disinterested it was like being doused in even more cold water and Amanda immediately stripped off her long linen shorts as quickly as the sopping fabric would allow. Then she tried desperately hard not to put her hands in front of her crotch and stood while Clancy wrapped her in a towel and rubbed her down in a way that seemed to be how she might tend to a wet pony or dog. It was very pleasant and Amanda’s heart went back to its normal placid lub-dup, overlaid with a tinge of disappointment.

  You’re wrong, Mom, Amanda thought as she raised her arms at Clancy’s command and allowed her to dry her chest and sides. Clancy isn’t into me at all. Whatever it was, it’s over. She sighed and turned, on orders, so her back and butt could get the vigorous towel treatment.

  “Your bruises are gone,” Clancy remarked out of the blue, and Amanda’s hand flew instantly to her neck and then to her breast.

  “Yes, thank heaven,” she muttered and was glad she was facing away from Clancy.

  “Okay, you’re done, now it’s my turn.”

  Amanda took a deep breath and turned around to find that Clancy had also turned and was presenting her dripping back and butt to Amanda. For a second Amanda took in the freckle-dusted planes and undulating spine and the muscles of Clancy’s shoulders. She could hardly bear to look at the curve of buttocks and the twin dimples in the small of Clancy’s back and when she did her intake of breath was audible.

  “Damn it, Amanda, I’m bloody freezing,” Clancy complained. “Dry my back or else!”

  Amanda shook herself and began to scrub with the rough towel and at the same time tried to think of the beautiful body as favorite pet; and to her surprise, it did make it easier.

  Dry if slightly musty smelling clothes were comforting; thick fishermen’s socks were even more so and when Clancy heated milk in a pan on the gas ring and poured it over chocolate powder in two tin mugs, Amanda decided it was the best smell ever and she could want for nothing more. Except that the wind whistled in under the doors and around their ankles and the storm showed no signs of abating. They clutched the warm mugs and blew on the hot chocolate as they sat on the two remaining chairs beside the table.

  “Bit of a weird Christmas afternoon,” Clancy remarked as she licked chocolate from her top lip. “And I think we’re stuck here for a while.”

  “Have you got a TV?”

  Clancy grinned. “Fresh out of entertainment, I’m afraid, although I’m thinking we’d be more comfortable on the mezzanine—out of the draft. And actually, I think there might be an old Scrabble set or cards…”

  Amanda glanced up to the open platform in the roof above them and saw only the mattress. She swallowed on a mouthful of the hot drink and her eyes watered at the heat. She swallowed again and knew this time it was a nervous reaction. A gust of wind rattled the double doors and howled around her ankles; it was a horrible kind of cold and she shivered.

  “I think upstairs out of this awful wind sounds peachy,” she said and stood up.

  Clancy looked at her speculatively and then grinned. “Okay, lead on Macduff. Or maybe that should be McIntyre.”

  “Ha ha,” Amanda said. “You can go first, just in case there are spiders.”

  Clancy turned to her, one foot on the first tread of the steep steps. “Actually, just so you don’t worry about it, I actually have the whole shed treated for spiders and creepy horrors every year. I don’t like them either.” And she mounted the stairs, one hand clutching her mug, the other on the rail and Amanda followed.

  In contrast to the wet and windy lower level, the mezzanine was warm. The single light hanging below cast a glow upward that glittered and gleamed on the silver insulation sheeting that turned the roof into a kind of Aladdin’s cave.

  “This is lovely,” Amanda said, peering around into the shadows and eaves where she could see books and another metal cabin trunk. “It’s like a kid’s hidey-hole.”

  “That’s exactly what it was,” Clancy said as she set down her mug and picked up the quilt to give it a shake. “I used to come up here to sleep in summer, my uncle did it for me and it’s where I got away from Malcolm and his mates. Believe it or not, when he got together with his friends he was a total pain in the arse.”

  “Huh, don’t talk to me about brothers.” Amanda wondered where to sit, until Clancy flopped down on the quilt-covered mattress and patted it.

  “Come and get comfortable.” From below the doors rattled as another ferocious gust of wind shook them and the sound of the rain on the roof just above their heads was a rolling roar. Carefully holding her mug and watching its contents remain level, Amanda lowered herself onto the mattress and scrambled forward on her elbows so she could sip at the hot chocolate.

  “That’s better,” she said and heard that her voice was tight with nervous tension again. This is ridiculous, she told herself. We’ve been naked and now we’re dressed for the Arctic, what’s wrong with me?

  She glanced at Clancy over the top of her mug and saw, through the steam of both mugs that she was being watched with amusement and speculation.

  “Would you like to play Scrabble, if I can find it?” Clancy’s question sounded detached, but the look in her eyes was not.

  “Why are you laughing at me?” Amanda asked bluntly and gulped on the hot chocolate.

  Clancy looked shocked. “I’m not!” she said. “Really. I’m just…” She shrugged and frowned. “You’re so…” She sat up suddenly and crossed her legs, rested her elbows on her knees and bent forward to look hard at Amanda and then said, equally forthrightly, “What do you want? I mean, what do you want from me?”

  Amanda turned on her side and hitched herself up on one elbow. Her shadow cast a strange pattern across the quilt and onto Clancy. She looked at it as she tried to formulate an answer. Finally she shook her head and said, “I don’t know. I guess I want…you to like me.”

  Clancy set down her empty mug beside the bed and looked at Amanda, her head on one side and with a crooked grin to match. “I do,” she said qu
ietly. “That’s why we fight all the time.”

  Amanda giggled. “That’s what Mom says. She reckons we’re alike—but you’re more grown-up.” Without thinking further than her fingertips she reached out her hand and laid it on Clancy’s knee. “And you’re beautiful, of course.”

  Clancy’s warm hand held Amanda’s where it lay and she smiled. The soft light somehow heightened the lines at the corners of her eyes and mouth. Amanda’s heart turned over as she studied the signs that this woman was older and even more bewitching than she remembered from seconds before.

  “You really are,” she whispered and there was wonder in her voice.

  Clancy’s nose wrinkled but her smile remained. “Well, thank you,” she said as she ran her thumb gently over the back of Amanda’s hand. “So, what else do you want? Why are you here?”

  Amanda frowned and stalled. “In Australia? In the boatshed?”

  “Here now, with me.”

  Amanda looked at their two hands and then deliberately and slowly drained her mug right to the last thick, dark dregs. She placed it on the floor beside the mattress and brushed her lips with her free hand, and then she turned back and looked at Clancy who was still watching her intently. She took a deep breath but the leap in her heartbeat would not be stilled. She wiped her mouth again and then listened as words came out of it.

  “I’m here because I want to be with you. I don’t want to be anywhere else. I don’t want to be with anyone else. And I don’t want to admit it because I know you think I’m an idiot and a spoiled brat and politically naïve and heaven knows what else, but I’m not anymore. Well, not so much and I’m learning, and the real truth is…” She breathed deep and knew her voice would be tremulous with hope and fear when she finally said, “Actually, I just want you.”

  The words hung in the air between them as the storm dashed itself against the roof and the beams creaked and groaned. Then Clancy tugged gently on Amanda’s hand and said softly, “Come here.” And after a split second she added a smile and—“Please.”

  Amanda slid across the bed, her heart almost drowning out the sounds of the storm as it pumped roaring, thudding blood through her veins. She knelt in front of Clancy, her knees wide apart, and they looked at each other in a new light of need and desire.

  “You’re very polite,” Amanda whispered.

  Clancy grinned. “As are you. But if one of us doesn’t do something not so polite and quite quickly I am going to explode.”

  Amanda snorted and giggled. She reached for Clancy’s face and with exploratory wonderment, touched her fingers to her lips. Clancy took two fingers into her mouth and Amanda gasped at the warmth of her tongue. Amanda bent low and replaced her fingers with her own lips and ran her tongue over Clancy’s mouth as it opened to hers. Their tongues met and danced and they fell back on the bed in a tangle of hands and legs. Amanda climbed up Clancy’s body and with a sighing whimper of delight, she sank into the shapes and curves she knew so well and had so longed for.

  Clancy’s answering moan was smothered as she gripped Amanda by the hips and they kissed again, reveling in the heat and eagerness of their bodies.

  “Should we take this slow?” Clancy whispered against Amanda’s ear as she nuzzled and kissed her way down to the hollow at the base of her throat.

  Amanda managed to laugh as she gasped at the sensation of Clancy’s tongue on the tender skin of her ear. “Sorry, but that’s not one of your better ideas.”

  Clancy began to tug at the hoodie and Amanda backed off her to pull off the thick garment herself, then she kicked off the track pants as Clancy’s hand cupped her breast and her tongue massaged the areola. Then her teeth fastened on the tender nipple and the rush from the tight bud to Amanda’s clitoris was direct and powerful.

  “I can’t wait,” Amanda whispered in a voice she barely recognized as she dragged on the waistband of Clancy’s track pants. Clancy lifted her hips and Amanda yanked them off. Clancy sat up, her abs crunching in taut ripples of muscle; she pulled off her sweatshirt. Then they gazed at each other, eyes glowing, chests heaving and gleaming in the soft light. In the moment that hung between them their bodies were new territory and they looked and looked, eyes caressing each familiar part as if for the first time.

  “You are beautiful.” Clancy’s simple words were vehement as she reached for Amanda and then they were flesh on flesh, skin on skin and breathing that was fast and harsh and passionate, oblivious to the rain and the wind and the world beyond the boatshed. Clancy’s lips left Amanda’s mouth and again tracked a soft trail along her jaw and down her throat as strong subtle fingers sought and cupped the firm mounds of her breasts. Amanda gasped and pushed against her palms, willing Clancy to touch her nipples and relieve the throbbing that was growing with each heartbeat and sharp inhalation. She felt her legs tremble and weaken with desire and some other yearning, burning sensation that she was unable and unwilling to identify. She laid her own hand over Clancy’s and pressed it hard into her breast. “Please,” she whispered, “please…”

  The muted sound of Clancy’s sigh of pleasure and longing flowed through Amanda from tingling ears to the swollen throbbing between her legs; and as Clancy pressed her thigh into her groin Amanda urgently opened up to the pressure and heard a whimper rise from deep inside her own throat. Frantically she sought Clancy’s lips again, desperately responsive to the tongue that instantly found her own in a clashing confluence of tenderness and raging need. Amanda slipped her hand between their bodies and into the wet warmth between Clancy’s legs and she groaned at the pressure Amanda applied with her searching fingers.

  “I want you,” Amanda whispered against Clancy’s neck. “And I want you to want me. Now. Please.”

  “You’ve got me.” Clancy’s smile was like sunshine on Amanda’s skin. “You had me at our first argument.”

  Amanda kissed the smile and sucked in the soft tongue that met hers tenderly and with plainly unstoppable will. She sighed and circled her fingers around Clancy’s clitoris in a rhythm that matched their tongues in heat and intensifying touch. Clancy fought for breath and whimpered as her legs parted wide to invite Amanda to enter her and her hips moved in the same tempo. At the same time she mirrored the rhythm with her hands on Amanda’s breasts, teasing and squeezing the burning nipples until liquid fire coursed through Amanda’s veins and began to pour from her into Clancy.

  “I’m coming…” Amanda heard the sweet words from afar as she plunged powerfully into the silken spasms that were soughing deep and deeper through the long body, into her sweet supplicant mouth and Amanda drank deep of the sensations. And as she lost herself in the undulating frame beneath her she heard and felt Clancy’s desperate wonderment and they began to moan and cry out the orgasm that flooded their hearts and minds and blood.

  Clancy lay on her side, her head propped on her bent arm, gazing at Amanda. What she was looking for Amanda couldn’t tell, but she barely recognized the molten dark that had transformed the familiar gray eyes. The scrutiny gave off such heat and promise that she shivered.

  “Have I been asleep?” she asked, knowing from the dryness of her mouth that she had. Clancy smiled and nodded. “Five minutes, ten max.”

  Amanda groaned. “Oh no, how uncool.”

  Clancy kissed the tip of her nose. “Au contraire, very cute. Very sweet. Very…” she thought for a moment then nodded as if to herself, “very reassuring.”

  Amanda reached up and stroked Clancy’s cheek. “Really? Tell me this is okay.”

  Clancy turned into the caress and kissed Amanda’s palm. “Well this old mattress is pretty…um…unforgiving don’t you think?” She grinned sidelong at Amanda through dark, long lashes.

  Amanda almost choked on a laugh and gasping breath as Clancy’s tongue tickled her palm. “Who said anything about forgiveness?” She took her hand away from the tickling mouth and leaned in to kiss the bruised, pink lips that drew her like a magnet.

  “I shouldn’t tease you,” Clancy said against
her mouth; her voice fondly shaky. “But what do you mean—‘Is this okay’?” She sucked on Amanda’s fingers where they were sticky with her own orgasm. “What do you think? I haven’t done this for…” Her eyebrows quirked as she thought back. “Well, frankly, I haven’t felt like this in years.” She peered at Amanda through squinting eyelashes, her expression verging on shy. “Probably never…”

  Amanda gasped and closed her eyes, feeling the embers that still smoldered deep inside begin to flare again as she savored Clancy’s admission and the sensation of her fingers moving with the hot tongue that caressed them.

  “Oh,” she murmured as Clancy’s thigh pushed gently between her legs once more. “I don’t think I could do this again for a while.”

  “Oh yes you could,” said Clancy. “Because you won’t have to do anything.” Her knee pushed at Amanda’s leg until both were spread apart, then she withdrew Amanda’s fingers from her mouth and kissed each fingertip, then she slid down the body that trembled beneath her as her tongue snaked a wet track across Amanda’s belly. It was a path that was at once hot and chill as Clancy’s breath blew on it.

  “Clancy…” Her voice came from somewhere far away; she lay back and closed her eyes as Clancy kissed and licked her way down the streak of fine blond hair below her navel. “Oh, Claire Nancy Darling,” she murmured and smiled at the emphasis she had placed on Clancy’s last name. But her amusement was short-lived as Clancy’s teeth sank into her mons and nipped hard.

  “Ow! Shit, that hurt!” She thrust her fingers through Clancy’s cascading curls as they tickled her belly and thighs and lifted her head so she could see the wicked grin that started from her eyes.

  “Unless you want an instant clitoridectomy you won’t call me that again,” Clancy growled and slid down and took Amanda’s bottom in her hands to knead the quivering flesh as she licked and nipped the agitated and tender flesh of her inner thighs.