Echo Point

by Virginia Hale

  A company of white-feathered cockatoos swarmed in to join the pandemonium of galahs in the gumtrees over the driveway, their squawks loud and harsh.

  “It’s funny,” Bron started. “We never really got along when Libby was around.”

  Ally shrugged. “Because you were jealous of me.”

  Bron stood, moving to splay her arms against the railing of the veranda. “Yeah,” Bron confessed, hopping up to sit on the railing. “I think I was jealous. I know I was.”

  Bron looked down at Ally, her gaze calculating. When Ally met her stare, it was reluctant and brief.

  Bron’s jaw tightened. “Do you not want to be with me all of a sudden?” Bron said heavily. “Is that why you’re so standoffish?”

  “I told you that I don’t want an affair.”

  I’m not talking about an affair and you know it. “So you don’t want to be with me? That’s that?”

  Ally’s stare, brooding and intense, revealed her desire for much more than sex. Slowly, she stood, picking up her glass and taking a long gulp of water. She moved much closer and placed the glass on the wooden railing next to Bron’s thigh.

  Ally planted her hands on either side of Bron’s legs. “Be with you?” Ally clarified, her warm breath fanning Bron’s chin. “As in fuck you?”

  Bron’s gaze flickered across the lines of Ally’s face before she focused on her anguished stare. Her pleading eyes asked if it would mean more.

  Bron nodded solemnly.

  Ally raised her hands, cupping Bron’s face. She pulled their mouths together, and the tense ache in Bron’s chest immediately calmed as she parted Bron’s ravenous lips. Humming, Bron slid one hand behind Ally’s neck and arched her back.

  When Ally pulled away, her lips found the underside of Bron’s jaw, determined to leave a mark.

  Bron’s legs tightened around Ally’s waist, the sound of her own heartbeat thrumming in her ears. “Touch me.”

  Ally groaned. “Let me take you upstairs,” she rasped, planting kisses in the hollow of Bron’s throat.

  Dizzied by Ally’s tight grip on her waist, Bron eagerly nodded her consent. Ally lifted her down from the railing, grasped her hand, and led her upstairs. As they reached the top, Bron pulled on their clasped hands, pressing her body against Ally’s. As their lips met again, Ally gripped the bottom of Bron’s singlet, pulling it over her head and discarding it against the hallway wall. Ally’s warm hands splayed across Bron’s waist, goose bumps rising upon Bron’s pale skin.

  Bron guided them into her room, locking the bedroom door behind her as Ally reached around her and unclasped her bra. As the thin black straps slid to Bron’s elbows, Ally’s palms travelled over the expanse of Bron’s back, her abdomen, finally cupping her breasts. Ally groaned, gently kneading the tight flesh. When she scraped her thumbnails over Bron’s nipples, Bron shuddered in her arms.

  The backs of Bron’s knees hit the mattress, and the familiar creak of her bedsprings reached her ears as Ally pushed a firm hand against a shoulder, urging her to lay down. Immediately, Ally straddled Bron, her lips confident, her tongue vigorous and hot as she found Bron’s nipples.

  Ally’s mouth was relentless. When she bared her teeth against Bron’s ribcage, Bron’s hips pressed up of their own accord. Ally’s fingers fumbled with the button and zip of Bron’s denim shorts. Her hands shook as she pulled Bron’s shorts over her hips, her underpants gone with them.

  Ally dragged a finger from the wet, pink flesh between her legs to soft, pale breasts with their peaked tips. Her stark nakedness was suddenly more than apparent. And Ally was still completely dressed. Bron reached up in an attempt to rid Ally of her singlet, but Ally swatted her hands away.

  A thrilling surge of arousal curled in Bron’s belly as Ally’s hot kisses crossed her waist, lower and lower until flames licked her inner thighs in the aftermath of Ally’s sizzling tongue. Ally’s hair tickled the insides of Bron’s legs, and she opened them further, desperate with anticipation.

  The second Ally’s lips met Bron’s core, her hips spasmed, arching into Ally’s kiss. Ally groaned, deep and guttural, as her tongue worked. Bron’s hips lifted from the bed, electrified by Ally’s intimate caress. Ally wrapped her arms around Bron’s thighs and pressed a hand to her belly, holding her against the mattress.

  Fisting another tremoring hand in Ally’s hair, Bron opened her eyes to watch Ally, her lips swollen and persistent. Bron whimpered at the sight. Ally’s hooded gaze met Bron’s, and in a quick transition, two fingers replaced Ally’s mouth. She crawled up next to Bron, pushed aside her blond hair and kissed her.

  Bron tightly grasped Ally’s tattooed arm, her need for release, for more, increasing each time Ally curled her fingers inside. She unskilfully slithered a hand inside Ally’s shorts.

  Ally quaked when Bron’s fingertips found wet curls. But Bron couldn’t concentrate enough to please Ally properly, not when Ally’s thumb was suddenly reaching higher, drawing circles against her hard, swollen flesh. Overwhelmed, Bron broke the kiss. She gasped, her eyelids shuttering.

  Ally held herself up on one hand, hovering over Bron, watching intently. She curled her fingers again and again, making Bron’s abdomen contract. Her thighs tightened around Ally’s hand and her lips parted.

  “Look at me,” Ally demanded, and she immediately obeyed.

  Ally’s palm flattened against her core, firm and warm. Bron cried out, her body throbbing in release as she pulsed around Ally’s fingers, her heartbeat slamming against her ribs. She fell against the mattress, boneless. When Ally gently withdrew her hand, she winced at the sudden emptiness. Slowly, her laboured breathing calmed.

  Propped up on an elbow, Ally looked down at her, with an admiring and patient gaze. Bron smoothed her thumb across the barely-there crow’s foot at the edge of Ally’s eye. “You’re gorgeous.” Her hand travelled over Ally’s jaw to the neckline of her singlet. “Take this off,” she murmured.

  Ally sat up and removed the navy shirt, tossing it on the bed where it landed on a pillow. The sun had almost completely set, and without any artificial light in the room, Bron strained to fully appreciate the fine details of Ally’s skin and gorgeous body. Her hands sought Ally’s sides, trailed them across her chest, and found that, as she had imagined, Ally’s breasts were taut and firm. Even in the dim light, she could see the tattoo of Annie’s name had completely healed.

  Bron’s gaze dropped much lower. The burn scar. It was a medal of honour that Ally would wear for the rest of her life. How many lovers had seen it or touched it? She wanted to know the details, but Ally had already unclasped her bra, and her dark nipples were begging for attention.

  Bron pressed Ally down. Her lips found her right breast. Ally groaned, her fingers tracing their way into Bron’s hair. Bron kissed her way across Ally’s chest. When she lowered herself completely, the sensation of their bellies and breasts pressing together was devastatingly good and right.

  As Bron’s lips found Ally’s, her knee pressed into Ally’s core, against the seam of Ally’s shorts. Ally sighed, her hands finding purchase on Bron’s shoulder blades.

  “You’re all I think about,” Ally said in a breath.

  Bron examined her stare. She wet her lips, flushing as she tasted herself on them.

  “I’m not imagining it, am I?” Ally said.

  Bron was quiet so Ally squeezed her waist.

  “No,” Bron breathed. “I don’t think so.”

  Ally’s fingertips dug into the ridges of Bron’s back, and she pushed down against her knee. She pressed a cheek against the mattress, casting her gaze to the headboard. “Oh my god, Bron. This feels so fucking good, so fucking hot…” she whispered, her voice low and cracking.

  Bron had to have her.

  Ally groaned when Bron pulled back, her own wetness gliding across the bare skin just above Ally’s knee and leaving a trail. She ignored it, along with the hot pressure burning once more between her legs and the sweat breaking out across her skin. Wide-eyed, she h
astened to get Ally’s shorts and underwear down her long, smooth legs.

  The wet curls at the juncture of Ally’s thighs were as dark as Bron had expected. Naked against Bron’s cream-colored sheets, Ally was stunning. Her body was lean, her skin smooth and flawless. The tattoos, the scar… It was all so perfectly Ally. She’d never been with a woman like her. Nobody so young, nobody with so many jagged edges, nobody who made her come the way Ally had.

  Ally breathed heavily, watching Bron as she kissed Ally’s abs, the scar, and lower, past those short, black curls. She hooked her legs over Bron’s shoulders. Arousal twisted in Bron’s belly at the sight and scent of Ally. She bent her head and timidly touched Ally with her tongue. A sigh escaped her lips. In response, Ally’s thighs tensed against her ears. My god, Bron thought. She’s trembling. Bron chanced an upward glance and found Ally’s hands fisted in the sheets, her gaze on the trajectory of Bron’s lips. She looked positively desperate.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Bron stretched across the mattress, her toes curling in the bedsheet as she watched Ally. She was standing over Bron’s desk in just her underpants, inspecting Bron’s most recent illustrations.

  “They’re not finished,” she said softly.

  Ally didn’t turn around, allowing Bron to admire her perfectly sculpted back a moment longer. “You’re so talented.”

  “Lots of practice.”

  Ally hummed her disagreement. She looked out the window above the drawing table and fixed her gaze on the clearing valley in the distance. “Looks like we packed up for nothing.”

  “Can you open the window?” Bron asked, suddenly feeling overwhelmed by the stifling heat of the bedroom. The fan continued to spin in the corner. She had a vague memory of Ally reaching over her to turn it on after they’d last made love, sometime after four a.m.

  Ally lifted the window and wedged it open with the thin stick of wood. The morning breeze flooded into Bron’s bedroom, the mild scent of scorched Blue Gum riding its wave. The cockatoos were back, loud and talkative.

  Ally crossed the room and sat on the edge of the bed. She laced their fingers together. Bron’s gaze travelled down Ally’s front. She admired Ally’s naked breasts, the dark nipples she had adored with her mouth hours before. Ally looked up from their tangled fingers and smiled hopefully at Bron.

  “Daniel will be home soon,” Bron said softly.

  Ally’s stare wandered across Bron’s naked body. She pressed a hand against Bron’s side, her thumb tracing the point of Bron’s protruding hipbone. She leaned down and pressed a gentle kiss to Bron’s collarbone before she pulled back. “I’m going to take a shower.”

  Bron laid there for a while, the fresh morning air cooling her warm skin. The smoke was still pungent, but it had certainly drifted north overnight, granting Katoomba a reprieve. She listened to the running water of the shower, her mind racing as she thought about Ally, and Annie, her ageing stepmother and Daniel. She would forever remember the grave expression he had worn when he picked Bron up from Sydney airport after the accident, how he had visibly swallowed when he spotted Bron coming through customs. He’d taken her directly to the funeral home to see Libby, where Bron had sat with her sister, holding her stiff, cold hand for close to an hour before she kissed Libby’s forehead and said good-bye.

  Bron sighed, listening as the old pipes ceased their hum the moment Ally’s shower turned off. The bathroom door creaked open, and a moment later Ally was standing in Bron’s doorway in a towel, her hair wet and pressed against the sides of her face.

  Ally grinned, running her gaze over Bron’s nakedness. “You’re just an exhibitionist, aren’t you?”

  Bron laughed.

  “If you want a shower, I’ll get breakfast ready,” Ally offered.

  When Bron went downstairs after her shower, breakfast was only half made. Tammy was outside the laundry door, hoeing into her bowl of kibble on the veranda. Ally was peering at the toaster in a daze. She looked up when Bron stepped into her line of sight.

  “Is everything okay?” Bron ran a hand over Ally’s forearm.

  Four slices of almost-burned toast jumped up from the toaster. Ally nodded, pinching the charred bread from the grills and dropping them on a plate. “Yeah, of course. Just in a trance.”

  Bron could hear the anxiety in her voice. And her tea was still black. After she added milk, it only took one tiny sip of the steaming tea to know that it was unsugared too. When Ally glanced up from buttering their toast and noticed Bron cringing at the bitter taste, she murmured an apology. Bron reached across the counter for the sugar pot. “Too distracted by thoughts of me showering to make breakfast properly?”

  Ally gestured for Bron to take a slice from the plate of toast between them. “Among other things.”

  The unspoken acknowledgment between them manifested into a long silence.

  Bron sipped at her tea and leaned back against the counter. “Can we keep this between us for a little bit longer?”

  Ally paused midbite, her toast crunching. “You don’t have to panic,” Ally said after she had swallowed. “I’m not going to make you U-Haul.”

  “I thought that was just an American joke.”

  Ally swiped at the buttery crumbs at the side of her mouth. “Lesbian jokes are universal.”

  A grin broke across Bron’s lips as she stared into her milky tea.

  “I’m not going to say anything,” Ally said. “You don’t have to worry.” Bron brought the cup to her lips, but before she could take a sip, Ally whispered, “I think maybe I’m more into you than you’re into me.”

  She immediately shook her head. “Al—”

  “I don’t mind,” Ally asserted with an expression of feigned acceptance.

  She reached across the table and grasped Ally’s wrist. “That’s not true.”

  Ally’s eyebrows furrowed. “Really?”

  Light-headed, Bron nodded. “You know, I keep thinking that I want to tell Libby about this. About us.” Bron licked her lips. “I mean, she probably wouldn’t have really been into the whole idea,” she added in an attempt to lighten the mood.

  Ally wrapped her hands around her mug of tea. “Does it matter what Libby would have thought?” she asked seriously.

  Bron contemplated the question. She supposed it didn’t matter.

  “Can we not talk about Libby?” Ally asked quietly. “Just for today?”

  “Okay.”

  For what seemed like the first time in a lifetime, in broad daylight, Echo Point lookout was completely devoid of tourists. The local radio bulletin had said the cancelled coaches from Sydney to the Greater Blue Mountains would return early the next day for the busloads of visitors to admire Australia’s very own emerald Grand Canyon. For now, it was just Ally, Tammy, Bron and a few locals.

  The sky was overcast, gloomy with rainclouds—not smoke—for the first time in too long. Although the fires had not reached the north escarpment of the richly-green Jamison Valley where The Three Sisters stood, smoke still drifted down from further north, spoiling the eucalypt haze. The promise of rain was a godsend.

  At the end of the leash, Tammy laid across Bron’s sneakers, her fur coat tickling her ankles. Thankfully, with the promise of rain, the weather—and the asphalt—had cooled enough for the poor dog to be walked.

  She rested her forearms upon the ledge and looked out across the valley. “It’s beautiful here.”

  Ally nodded, crouching down to give Tammy a drink of water from the plastic bottle. “You don’t realize how much you’ve missed it until you see it.”

  She considered Ally’s words. Tell her. She inhaled deeply. “After I come home from my next trip, I don’t know if I’m going back to Boston for good—with Annie.”

  Ally slowly stood. She twisted the cap back on the water bottle, avoiding her eyes. “You can’t take her away from her family,” she stressed firmly.

  The assertion made Bron stiffen. “I’ve…I’ve been offered a teaching job at the Massachusetts Institut
e of Technology.” She paused. “I don’t think I can turn it down.”

  A line appeared between Ally’s brows. “You don’t think you can turn it down? What does that mean?”

  Bron’s heart hammered against her ribcage. “I don’t know if I want to turn it down.”

  Ally pinched the bridge of her nose and her eyes slipped closed. “Hang on a second. When were you offered the job?”

  Ship, meet iceberg. “Months ago.”

  “Months ago? Why the fuck am I only hearing about this now?” Ally snapped.

  “Nobody knows,” Bron said defensively. “I have to give MIT an answer by January,” she added.

  Ally looked up and met her gaze with a fiery stare. “If you’re truly thinking about it,” she continued, “you don’t have my blessing. You can’t do that, Bron. Libby wouldn’t want that.”

  “What about what I want?”

  Ally blinked twice, her eyes wild with disdain for the words fighting their way past Bron’s lips. “It’s just a job, Bron. You already have your books, your publisher. You make a mint. Why can’t that be enough?”

  Bron looked away from Ally’s vexed gaze. “I’ve wanted MIT for longer than I can remember. And I have friends in Boston, a home. I made a life there.”

  “Really? For someone with so many friends over there, they’ve come up in conversation a whole three times in the past few months.”

  “My home is not here,” Bron retorted.

  Ally gripped her forearm, and Bron seized at the touch. There was suddenly so much pain in Ally’s angry gaze. “Sometimes you just have to go with what life throws at you,” she said bluntly. “You don’t get to decide what you want anymore. If you want Annie in your life, you don’t have a choice. You stay here. Make the sacrifice or give up custody and go back to Boston. Those are your options.”

  Bron faced her. “Contrary to the way you like to make a martyr of yourself, some of us possess the ability to make compromises.”

  “Say what you want, but I’m not going to bite,” Ally declared, her voice gravelly. “What’s the point? You already know what you want to do.”