Laurie Salzer - A Kiss Before Dawn

by Laurie Salzer

  “I want you naked, Chris. I need you naked now.” Mary Jo slid off the cot and squatted at Chris’s feet. She untied her boots and yanked them off. She ran her hands up Chris’s legs, paused at her crotch, and pressed her thumbs against the sensitive area beneath the jeans. She reached for the buttons and deftly unfastened them.

  Chris’s gaze remained fixed on hers as she lifted her hips to help Mary Jo pull off her jeans and boxers.

  Mary Jo’s hands skimmed over the long length of her body as Chris threw her head back and closed her eyes.

  “Look at me, Chris. I want to see your eyes.”

  Chris’s struggle to obey was apparent as she responded to the sensual touches.

  Mary Jo kissed her way up the length of Chris’s legs, finding the musky scent intoxicating. She paused at the triangle of hair, kissed it briefly, and made Chris moan. She continued to kiss her way up, and the faint smell of patchouli bewitched her senses.

  When Mary Jo reached Chris’s breasts, she ran her tongue teasingly around each nipple before taking one inside, suckling gently. She kept her eyes on Chris and slid her hand from Chris’s breast, down her firm stomach, and rested it just above the place she knew Chris needed her to touch.

  “Cav. Jesus.” Chris opened her legs wider. “I want you inside me, please.”

  Mary Jo slid her hand lower and reached Chris’s need. “Oh, my God, you are so wet.” She moved gentle fingers through Chris’s folds, through her wetness, and suddenly thrust two fingers inside her.

  “Yes,” Chris hissed. Her hips rose to meet Mary Jo’s hand.

  As Mary Jo moved her fingers, she felt the first trembling of Chris’s orgasm. She continued to thrust deep, her thumb rubbing circles around Chris’s clit.

  “Oh, Cav. God…” Chris’s hips bucked, and she came. She blindly reached down and held Mary Jo’s hand inside her as she pushed against it. Renewed spasms shook her entire body. Her breasts rose and fell as she panted.

  After a few minutes, Chris took a deep breath. “I don’t think I’ll ever walk again.”

  Mary Jo shifted position to rest her head in the crook of Chris’s neck. She felt Chris shiver and propped herself on her elbow. “Are you cold?”

  “How come I’m the only one naked?”

  “You’re used to the cold, I’m not.”

  “Hmmm. Going to have to work on that.”

  Chris sat up, out of Mary Jo’s arms, and gathered her clothes. She tossed Mary Jo’s sweater and turtleneck to her.

  After Mary Jo put herself together and Chris did the same, Chris reached for her and said, “I had sort of envisioned our first time being slower.”

  Mary Jo moved into Chris’s embrace. “Yeah, I did, too. How did you know I was there?”

  “I didn’t right away. When I walked into the barn, I thought I caught a whiff of your shampoo. I didn’t think anything about it until I couldn’t smell it anymore.”

  Mary Jo breathed a contented sigh and said, “Oh, my God, when I saw you walking toward me with that look in your eye, I almost came right then and there.”

  Chris kissed her lightly. “I’m glad you waited for me.”

  Mary Jo giggled. “Me, too.”

  Later, after chores were finished and the dogs were fed and sleeping in their beds, Chris leaned against the counter watching Mary Jo make dinner. “I’m going to get a complex. Every time you come over, you end up cooking,” she said.

  “I told you, I don’t mind it. I especially like it here because your kitchen is so much bigger than mine.” Glancing up from chopping vegetables for a salad, Mary Jo smiled. “Plus the company is better here, too.”

  Chris left the counter, stood behind Mary Jo, and wrapped strong arms around her waist. She lowered her head, nipped Mary Jo’s ear, and ran her lips down her neck. “The scenery is definitely better,” she said as her hands crept upward.

  “Hey, watch yourself. I have a knife.” Mary Jo’s legs went weak as Chris continued her nuzzling. “Do you want dinner or not?” But she already knew the answer.

  Chris’s hands slid to her breasts.

  Mary Jo gave in and put the knife down. Turning in Chris’s arms, she whispered, “You’re dangerous, Martel,” as she unbuttoned Chris’s flannel shirt.

  “Not here.” Chris grasped Mary Jo’s hand and led her to the living room. She took a down comforter off the back of the love seat, spread it on the floor in front of the fireplace, and turned to Mary Jo.

  When Mary Jo started to remove her sweater, Chris whispered, “No, let me.”

  Mary Jo lost herself as Chris slowly and agonizingly removed her clothes. Her skin on fire, she stood naked, rooted to the spot by Chris’s lust-darkened gaze.

  Chris bent her head and kissed a line from Mary Jo’s temple, across her jaw, down her neck, and to the soft skin between her breasts.

  A shiver ran through Mary Jo. She realized the panting she heard was her own. A dull ache throbbed between her legs. Chris bent lower to take a nipple in her mouth and softly caressed the other breast with her hand. She couldn’t contain her moaning as Chris suckled, then raked teeth across her hard nipple. Transfixed, she watched Chris kiss down to her belly button, kneel in front of her, and reach up to stroke her aching breasts.

  “Chris, touch me. Please.” Mary Jo’s legs felt like jelly. Wetness welled up and trickled down the inside of her thigh.

  Chris made her wait a few more seconds. She reached around Mary Jo, slowly pulled her hips forward, and supported her against broad shoulders. She leaned in and nuzzled the soft curls at the juncture of her thighs.

  Mary Jo ran her fingers over the top of Chris’s head, then to the back of her neck, and pulled that hungry mouth toward her center. “Martel, if you don’t touch me now, I may very well hurt you,” she said with a groan.

  Chris sighed against Mary Jo’s thigh, her tongue teasingly traveling upwards before she slid a hand between their bodies and slipped her fingers deep inside Mary Jo.

  Mary Jo moaned and rocked her hips. Her body trembled, and all her senses focused on the need for release. Her vision blurred. She grew dizzy as her breath came in huge gasps. Chris’s fingers moved inside her, driving her to the edge.

  Chris slowly sucked Mary Jo’s clit into her mouth, her tongue stroking and flicking.

  “Yes! Oh God, babe.” Mary Jo closed her eyes and flung her head back. All control over her body lost, she screamed as her orgasm bore down on her. She couldn’t hold it a second longer. Sensations flowed, one into another: hot, throbbing, exploding. Her hips jerked. As the waves of her climax subsided, her legs threatened to collapse.

  Chris carefully pulled her fingers out. She stood up in Mary Jo’s arms and held her tightly. “You are so beautiful, Cav, so beautiful,” she whispered against her lips.

  Mary Jo opened her eyes as her racing heart slowly returned to normal. “Oh, my God, what you do to me.” She curled her hand around Chris’s head and pulled her lips harder against hers, deepening their kiss.

  Shifting to grasp Chris’s shoulders, Mary Jo pushed the unbuttoned shirt down her arms, where it slipped to the floor. While still kissing Chris, she fumbled with her jeans, just managing to open the buttons and push them down her hips.

  In no hurry, she took a step back and feasted on the sight of Chris naked. Shadows and firelight danced and shimmered over her smooth skin.

  Mary Jo’s gaze travelled the length of her beautiful body. She smiled inwardly at Chris’s sharp intake of breath, then she seductively licked her lips.

  Mary Jo eased behind Chris and kissed her neck. Her hands glided softly over Chris’s shoulders, down her back, over her hips, and around her ass, and slid a teasing touch into the wetness between her legs.

  She continued to circle Chris, keeping her caresses feather light on her hot skin, until she returned to stand in front of her. She smiled devilishly as she circled Chris a second time and rubbed her breasts against Chris’s body.

  Eventually, her touches became more urgent. She noted the wil
d pulsing in Chris’s neck. She leaned in, kissed Chris’s throat, and then nipped her as she ran her hands over Chris’s shoulders and down her arms.

  Clasping their hands together, Mary Jo guided Chris down to the comforter on the floor and suddenly realized a bump in the comforter was bouncing around.

  Chris sat up and allowed Sadie to escape from underneath the comforter. The little dog glanced at them with a comical look of disdain and moved to her own bed, obviously put out. Mary Jo dismissed Sadie. She kept her attention centered on Chris, the woman she was making love to.

  The only sound in the room came from the wood popping and crackling in the fireplace. Mary Jo felt lightheaded. Her breasts rose and fell in time with Chris’s quick, panting breaths. She straddled Chris’s waist and her wetness coated Chris’s stomach.

  “God, yeah,” Chris moaned when Mary Jo bent over to take a nipple into her mouth, pinching the nipple on her other breast.

  Mary Jo released Chris’s breast and eased herself backward. She urged Chris’s legs apart with her knee.

  She kissed Chris’s stomach and moved down to lie between her legs. Nuzzling the tanned skin, she relished the taste and smell of female musk and patchouli as she moved lower still. Chris’s hips jerked. Mary Jo held tight to Chris’s legs and settled her lips and tongue over Chris’s swollen clit.

  “Oh, God,” Chris said, panting. Her hands reached out frantically to clutch handfuls of comforter. “Oh, yeah, you feel so good.” She pushed against Mary Jo’s mouth.

  As soon as Chris began her orgasm, Mary Jo plunged her fingers through the wetness. She filled her up, moving in and out and loving the primal sounds that escaped from Chris as she came. The orgasm raged on, and suddenly Chris collapsed, weak and trembling. Tears ran from beneath her closed eyelids.

  Mary Jo carefully crept up to lie on top of Chris, her fingers still inside. She lovingly kissed away the tears and kissed Chris on the lips. “Are you okay, babe?”

  Chris nodded, her eyes still closed as she returned the kiss.

  Mary Jo gently moved her fingers. Chris reached down to press the stroking fingers deeper inside. Moaning in pleasure at her lover’s delight, Mary Jo began moving her fingers in and out, thrusting harder and harder.

  Chris met each thrust with her hips and cried out as another orgasm rocked her body. She finally collapsed, exhausted and breathing deeply.

  “Are you sure you’re okay?” Mary Jo asked.

  “Oh yeah.” Chris opened her eyes and looked directly at Mary Jo. “For now.”

  Mary Jo drew imaginary circles on Chris’s stomach. “Are you saying there’s more where that came from?”

  Chris lifted her head and smiled. “Oh yeah.”

  “Then I guess we’d better get to it.” Mary Jo’s raging desire had tempered, but she wanted a lot more of Chris.

  Chapter 20

  Mary Jo barely heard her alarm at six o’clock the next morning. She dawdled in bed, smiling as she recalled her evening with Chris.

  After a quick dinner, she and Chris had been unable to keep their hands off each other. They had lain on the comforter in front of the fire until well after midnight, talking a little and making love a lot. Chris tried to convince her to stay the night, and as much as she had wanted to, she knew they wouldn’t have gotten any sleep. It was Doc’s day off, and she figured her work schedule would be busy.

  With great reluctance, she pried herself from Chris’s arms and drove home to a cold bed. Five hours of sleep was much less than her body needed, but she was sated, and that would have to be enough to keep her going through the day.

  She flung back the bedcovers and shuffled to the shower.

  Shortly thereafter, when she pulled into the clinic driveway, she was still tired and sore but very happy. She forced herself to push thoughts of Chris and their lovemaking to the back of her mind and focus on her work. Daydreaming on the way to work had already made her almost miss a couple of turns.

  “Come on, MJ, get your head together,” she muttered.

  After turning off the ignition, she sat in the truck a moment and rubbed her tired eyes. During her shower that morning, she’d regretfully washed off Chris’s scent and wished she could let the smell of sex linger. But she had to go to work, and she decided clients didn’t need to know what she had spent the night enjoying.

  The clinic was quiet when she walked through the door. Thankfully, the coffeepot was full. She hung up her coat, poured herself a hot cup, and went back to the surgical area. Donna was pulling sterilized instrument trays from the autoclave.

  “Good morning.” Mary Jo sat down on the surgery table and yawned.

  “Oh, hi, MJ. I’m sorry I didn’t hear you come in.” Donna closed the wrapped tray with tape.

  “That’s all right, I just was wondering where you were. It’s so quiet in here.”

  “I know. The phone hasn’t started to ring yet.” Donna turned around as Mary Jo was staring into space. “Did you get called out last night?”

  “Huh? Oh, uh… no, I… uh, just didn’t get to bed till late.” Mary Jo glanced up and smiled guiltily. “Wrong thing to do on a school night, I guess.” She failed in her attempt to stifle another yawn.

  “How’s Chris?”

  Mary Jo tried her best to act nonchalant. Was she really that transparent? “Chris? Oh, good, I guess. Her bruises are all gone, and she’s feeling much better.” Unbidden, her memory conjured up the feeling of Chris’s skin against hers. The delicious recollection left her oblivious until, at the very edge of her consciousness, she heard Donna chuckling. That broke the spell and left her very embarrassed about where her thoughts had been.

  “You’ve fallen hard for her, haven’t you?” Donna asked.

  “Am I that easy to read?”

  “No, not usually. But lately, you’ve been walking around with that dreamy look in your eyes. It wasn’t hard to figure out.”

  “I’m sorry.” Mary Jo felt a little guilty about her mind being elsewhere instead of focused on the job.

  Donna pulled her into a hug, then held onto her shoulders and gave her a little shake. “Honey, don’t ever say you’re sorry for falling in love. I’m happy for you both.”

  “Thanks, that means a lot. I’ll try to keep my head on straight while I’m at work.”

  Donna raised a questioning eyebrow.

  “Yeah, I mean, you know. Out of my ass, anyway.” Mary Jo yawned again.

  The phone rang, breaking the quiet. Donna hurried into the office area to answer it. Mary Jo followed, leaned against the doorway, and listened to the one-sided conversation.

  Donna turned to Mary Jo as she hung up the phone. “You need to get to the Bennetts’. A yearling tried to jump the fence and impaled herself on a stake. They’ve administered a tranquilizer to try and keep her quiet until you get there.”

  Galvanized, Mary Jo put down her coffee cup, donned her coat, and ran out the door to her truck. She’d been to the Bennetts’ farm the previous week for a different emergency. If another emergency had to happen at all, she was glad this one occurred during the day.

  Joyce Bennett raised Arabian horses and, at last count, had seventy-five on the farm. About a third of them were under the age of three. Arabs were among the most curious by nature, and that trait often tended to get them into trouble.

  While on the road, Mary Jo considered Joyce, the twenty-five-year-old daughter of Bryce and Carol Bennett. Although Bryce and Carol owned the farm, they weren’t much involved with the horses. They lived in a sprawling log home with a disgusting amount of space, but Joyce stayed in the tiny cottage behind the barn.

  Mary Jo had long suspected Joyce was a lesbian. Every time she’d gone to the Bennetts’ farm, she found a different woman in Joyce’s company, hanging on every word Joyce said, if not literally clinging to her.

  Forty minutes later, Mary Jo skidded the truck to a stop in front of the Bennetts’ barn. She rushed to the back, opened a door on the vet box, and collected supplies in her bag. She had
just turned toward the barn when Bryce came roaring over on his souped-up golf cart.

  “Hi, Doc. Get in,” he said. “I’m supposed to hurry you over. Joyce said it’s not good.”

  Mary Jo jumped into the cart. This could be really ugly, really quickly. Impalements by any horse were often unpredictable and could be potentially fatal. Details of horse anatomy raced through her mind. She had no idea of the severity of the injury, and neither Donna nor Bryce had elaborated on it. Bryce was especially fond of the foals born on his farm. She hoped for his sake she could ensure a bright outcome.

  Bryce stomped on the accelerator, pushing Mary Jo back against her seat as the golf cart took off.

  The doors to the three-hundred-foot-long Morton building were wide open. Without hesitation, Bryce sent the cart racing down the aisle to the back. The horses were oblivious to the golf cart as it sped by, many not even bothering to look up from their hay.

  Joyce met them at the far end, her short blonde hair disheveled and her eyes filled with worry. “She’s just outside the door here. I gave her some Ace to try and calm her down some.” Another woman stood next to her.

  Out of the golf cart, Mary Jo rounded the corner and saw a small black Arab standing over a metal stake. The horse was supported by a tall skinny man, presumably the stable hand. The Arab’s big doe eyes were rolling in fright, her coat marked with white, frothy sweat and specks of blood, but the tranquilizer kept her from fighting the impalement.

  “How much did you give her?” Mary Jo asked.

  “About a half c.c.,” Joyce said. “I didn’t want to give her so much that she fell down.”

  “Good thought.” Mary Jo put her bag down and gathered and tied her hair into a ponytail. She walked with practiced ease to the little horse, talking quietly, trying to soothe her. It was a lesson she’d learned during her studies and a habit exercised constantly by Chris. No matter what the situation, stay calm, talk quietly, and the horse will eventually respond.