by Giselle Fox
“I would too,” Camille said. “Speaking of parents, Dad sure missed you.”
“He did?”
“Oh my gosh, yes. He so appreciates what you did. He talks about you like you’re his daughter. Which makes you my sister, and that is completely weird, I have to say.” She smiled at me again. “I missed you so much.”
“It made me so sad thinking about you being all alone at night.”
“I spent a few nights out at the Sugar Shack,” she whispered.
“With the spider?”
“He slept on your side of the bed,” Camille said. “Kidding.”
“Your dad must have been happy.”
“Well… we were both miserable without you. We basically just sat and were miserable together,” Camille said and laughed. “It was nice spending time with him, though. He’s so much happier now.”
“Retirement has been good for him.”
Camille groaned. “Except he hasn’t actually retired. He’s been getting quite involved in the last couple of weeks; advising.”
“I see,” I said, trying to assess her opinion on the matter. “And how has that been going for you?”
“He’s been great. And anyway, I’d be a fool to refuse his insight at a time like this. He knows so much. He’s a good teacher and he seems to be having fun.”
“Well, now that Bryce is healthy again, maybe his stress level will just continue to shrink.”
“That would be nice for him.”
“And you? How is your stress level?” I whispered.
“Much better, now that you’re home.”
“Thank you for taking the day off work.”
“It was for selfish reasons,” she said. Her eyes sparkled.
“Did you have something in mind?”
She flashed her beautiful smile.
***
Greg dropped us off in front of her private elevator downstairs.
“Usual time tomorrow, Miss Bettencourt?” he asked.
“Yes, please, Greg. See you then.”
“Enjoy your evening,” he said.
We walked to the elevator and pressed the button. Camille glanced up at me and smiled as the doors slid open. We stepped inside and leaned against the back wall. The carriage lifted us slowly into the sky.
Camille glanced at me again. “How do you like your new suit?”
“I love it, and the others. Penny did another amazing job.”
Camille ran her hand down the buttons of my shirt. “You smell fresh.”
“I showered before I changed.”
“Mmm,” Camille said. Her eyes lowered, landing somewhere on the crotch of my new pants. I grinned back at her. “Dirty girl, what are you thinking?”
“Can’t you tell?” She slid her hand between my legs and cupped me gently. She ran the pad of her thumb over the o-ring in my harness underwear. “I knew it,” she said, her eyes flashing up at me.
I grinned back at her. “How did you know?”
She shrugged. “New suit, an important meeting, we haven’t been together in a long time… It wouldn’t have been like you to come unprepared.”
I chuckled to myself. She dropped her bag on the floor and knelt down in front of me. She flicked the button of my pants open and pulled my zipper down. “It’s been two long weeks since I had a taste of you,” she rasped, wrenching the back of my pants down over my ass. She dug her nails into my flesh and moaned. She looked up at me and I had a perfect view down the front of her dress. “Your breasts look fantastic from up here,” I said appreciatively.
She hiked her dress up a little more so that she could move around better. “They’ve been missing you.”
“What else missed me?” I said, lifting her chin with my hand.
“Every single part of me,” she whispered. Her eyes were beautiful and blue, more beautiful than the water out front of Prison Island. The more I looked into them the more I felt like swimming.
She slid her tongue gently between my legs as if pulling dew from a petal. But then suddenly, the elevator doors opened.
Camille’s head shot back and she laughed. “Shit, we’re already here.”
I helped her stand up, holding my trousers with one hand so they wouldn’t trip me. She walked out ahead of me, fumbling with her bags, but I grabbed her before she reached the door. I held her from behind and slid one hand up the side of her thigh. The tight bottom of her dress lifted with it. I pressed myself against her, she leaned back into me. “We’re not going to make it inside, are we?” she rasped.
“Against the wall,” I whispered into her ear.
We staggered to the wall. Camille pressed her forehead into it as I worked her dress above her hips.
“What if Greg comes up?” she asked.
I had thought about that, too. “He probably won’t.”
“He probably won’t,” she repeated, pushing back into me.
I circled my hand around and slid it up between her legs. She was already warm and silky smooth. “You’re wet, dirty girl.”
“I know,” she said. She reached back and slid her hand down the inside of my undies and then giggled. “Mmm hmm.”
I pulled the zipper on the back of her dress down until the sides gaped open. I unclipped her silk bra with one hand and slid my hand inside and around to the front. I palmed her warm breast, pinching her nipple before sinking my teeth into her neck. She moaned again, pressing back into me; her pussy clenched around my fingers and I felt a warm rush from deep inside her.
“Claire?” she murmured.
“Yes, baby,” I replied between biting and sucking her neck some more. The mist of our breath warmed the air around us. Her hand was deep inside my pants.
“There’s something in my purse that might be useful right now.”
I’m sure my grin stretched from one ear to the other. “How convenient.” I gave her a sharp smack on the ass before disengaging.
“Inside zipper pocket,” she instructed.
I felt its girth inside her purse the minute I’d picked it up. That was no hairbrush. I unzipped the inner pocket and peered inside the little silk bag. “Ho ho! Look at what we have here! This is new,” I said gleefully.
“I haven’t shopped for any toys in a while. I thought it would suit you.”
The apparatus was made of powder pink silicon and was a little thicker than usual. “Ambitious,” I said, smiling back at her.
She was watching me with her back pressed against the wall, her dress hung loosely at her shoulders, her nipples angled outward, seeking the light. Her hair had been gently messed and her cheeks were pink. “Let me help you,” she said and took the toy from my hand.
What a wonderful world I live in, I thought blissfully to myself as I watched her wriggle it through the o-ring in my skintight boxers. She smiled down at it, then her eyes rolled up my body. She reached and undid two more of my shirt buttons so that my bra and the top of my abs were exposed.
“You’re so fucking sexy in a suit,” she whispered.
I did feel pretty good, especially from the way she was looking at me. But Camille, at that moment, took sexy to a whole other level. She gripped the lapel of my jacket and tugged me toward her. “Kiss me,” she whispered.
Our mouths came together. I stepped her back against the wall again. Her hands swarmed up my back and one coiled through the back of my hair. She wrapped her leg around my thigh and I cupped the sole of her stiletto in my hand. Her mouth was hot and wet, her eyes were fierce. She pressed her forehead against mine and we both looked down at the toy. I rolled my hips, gently sliding it back and forth through her lips. Her eyes grew heavy. Her breath shuddered in her chest.
“Does that feel good, my love?”
She whimpered softly, nodding her head against me.
Her fingers gripped my jacket tighter as I leaned back and teased her more. I nudged at her, slid against her, circled her center, and prodded just inside. The thickness of the powder pink toy pulled her gently open; her juices silken
ed its tip and made it glisten in the hallway light.
She rolled her hips and pushed into it, taking it deeper with each pass. And when she was ready, she bore down, loosening her standing leg and resting her weight on my hips.
I held her tight, using the friction of the wall behind us for support. Her eyes were open, her back moved up and down the wallpaper. Her chest flushed with heat that I watched rise slowly up her neck.
“I don’t like being away from you,” she said, looking into my eyes.
“No,” I rasped.
She uncoiled her hand from my hair and slid it down my cheek. “You’re so perfect,” she whispered. Her eyes closed briefly, her breath hitched. When her eyes opened they looked back from a dreamlike state. Her cadence quickened, both her breath and the drive of her hips. I matched her, thrust for thrust, push for push. Her mouth dropped open and her head tipped back.
“Fuck!” she cried, so loudly that it rang off the metal elevator doors. She coiled both her legs around my hips, giving me all her weight. My strength was there, and I thanked every minute of my training for it. With both hands cupped under her, I moved her up and down, driving her onward, closer and closer. My forehead dripped, my muscles quivered, my arms ached from exertion, but there was no way that I would stop, no chance that I would give up on her. And then, gloriously, she climaxed. Her hands pushed against my chest, her eyes squeezed shut in blissful anguish. She held her breath and then let out a long, releasing cry. And when her eyes opened she was laughing, and so was I.
We were two lovers in a hallway, disheveled and in disarray. Two women so mad for each other that we couldn’t make it through the front door without having to stop and make love first. Our kisses overflowed with the raw joy of our reunion, our touch was so impassioned that it seemed as if we couldn’t touch enough. And when, at last, we made it into the condo, we laid down on the floor and did it all over again.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
With things settling at Vermillion and Bryce off of Instagram, things started to feel more normal. Soon, the final week of summer arrived. Classes would start again for the rest of my schoolmates in Portland, but I knew it was about to take on a whole new shape for me. I had planned to meet with dean Shepard to pick up my materials while I was back home. There was a lot to do, but Camille and I were excited to do it together.
Then, the final days of August arrived and Camille came home with some sad news. “Jasmine won’t be staying,” she said simply. “She said she tried, but the timing wasn’t right.”
I felt sad for everyone; for myself because I’d really grown to like Jasmine, for Camille because Jasmine had been a key force in turning things around for her, and for Sabrina, even though I knew she’d been doing her best to keep her distance from her. It sounded as though Jasmine was disappointed as well. I sat on one of the bar chairs and looked glumly down at the counter. “That’s so sad.”
“I know. I feel it too,” Camille said and sighed. She slid her hand across my back. “I wonder if she’s told Sabrina.
I looked up at her. “I hope so.” As much as Sabrina had been trying to make their affair a thing of the past, it felt heartbreaking to imagine Jasmine leaving without telling her, but when I saw Sabrina the next morning, I could tell she knew.
“I’m so sorry,” was all I could say.
Sabrina kept a brave face even though she was hurting. “Thanks. It’s okay. I expected it. It’s better this way; it’s a dead-end and I need to move on. I’m looking forward to spending some time at home.”
Both Sabrina and Leda were flying back to Portland with us, but Sabrina planned to continue on to Kentucky to visit her parents for the week. “When we get back to Singapore, we’re both going to start training hard,” she said.
I looked at her. “Are you thinking about fighting again?”
She shook her head. “I don’t have any plans yet, I just know I need to get back to being who I am.”
It was good to hear her say it but I really hoped it didn’t mean she was leaving.
“Don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere,” she said as if she knew what I was thinking. “This is the best job ever and I plan to keep it.”
John was also trying to stay brave about not having us there for a week. I felt better knowing he would have his writing project and a stack of bestsellers to keep him company. “It’ll go by fast,” he said. “Your parents need to see you.”
We were sitting in our usual spot down by the water. The notebook I’d given him was sitting beside him. The cover was worn and the corners were curling.
“So… school is starting soon,” he said.
“It is. Time to get back at it.” It had only been four months since the summer break had started, but so many things had happened that it was hard to believe it was even the same year. I wasn’t exactly excited about beginning my second year, but I was ready to cross getting my MBA off my to-do list. What I was going to do with it was a whole other question.
The goals that I’d set when I started out seemed small and insignificant based on the turns that the summer had taken. I had yet to sit down and figure out what I really wanted to do with my life now that I knew I was staying in Singapore. Since I lived among giants, it was a big question that required bigger action. I knew that the next eight months would be busy with schoolwork and helping John write his book, but what I would do after was a mystery even to me.
I was looking forward to our Oregon trip as much for the grounding benefits of being back on home soil as for the chance to reconnect with my family and friends. Camille was excited too. It would be her first and only holiday of the summer. We both longed to be back at the beach house, to remember what it was like to be free and easy, to lose ourselves in the place that had been calling to us from across the ocean.
The day came for us all to embark on the long flight back to Oregon on the family jet. It was obvious that Leda and Sabrina were excited about going too; Sabrina, most of all. The dark cloud that had been following her around had lifted; she was bubbly again. It made me hopeful that the pain of losing Jasmine had passed.
“What are your plans for the evening?” Leda asked. Camille and I sat facing each other in two padded-leather recliners. Leda and Sabrina sat on the cushy white leather couch that ran along the side wall of the aircraft.
Camille looked at me. “Packing, organizing. It’s our last night at the Portland house.”
“Yep, it is,” I said.
“Need help? I’ve got a few hours before my flight,” Sabrina offered.
Camille reached for my hand. “No, we’ll be fine. We’ll order-in some dinner and…”
“Maybe eat out on the back deck?” I suggested. “We haven’t done that yet.”
“Sounds very domestic,” Sabrina said.
“When does your flight get into Louisville?”
“Ten-thirty-ish,” Sabrina replied. “My parents are picking me up.”
“You’re staying with them?”
“For a couple of nights, then, I don’t know, maybe somewhere else.”
“And what about you, Leda?” I asked.
“Yes, tell us what you plan to do tonight, Leda,” Camille said, grinning.
“None of your concern,” Leda replied with a grin.
Sabrina looked back and forth between them. “I’m going to guess this has something to do with the mystery woman.”
“I know who she is,” Camille said, obviously dying to tell us.
“You know my secret,” Sabrina said, turning to Leda. “Tell us about her.”
“I suppose it doesn’t really matter if I do,” Leda said after some thought. “Claire knows who she is.”
I sat upright. “I do?”
Leda smiled shyly. “Does the name Marina Hollander ring a bell?”
Actually, it did. “Marina Hollander… as in, dean Hollander’s wife?”
Leda nodded.
I sat back in my chair. “How did you hook up with her?”
“Yeah, Leda, ho
w did you?” Camille laughed.
“It was some sort of party for the college. Camille was there. I waited outside because I don’t like those sorts of things. I was having a cigarette by the car-”
Camille shook her head.
“Well, I quit smoking eventually, didn’t I?” Leda said.
“Go on,” Sabrina prompted.
“I saw a very nice looking woman step out of the building and walk around. I waved to her, just being friendly, not thinking about anything at that point.”
“Not yet,” Sabrina laughed.
“Then she came up to me and asked if I had a cigarette to share.”
“Classic,” I said.
“I said yes and gave her one. I helped her light it. I could tell she didn’t smoke very often. It made me a little curious why she was so interested in standing with me if she was only going to pretend to smoke. And then she told me that she’d heard I’d been in the forces.”
“Who told her that?” Camille asked.
Leda looked at her and frowned. “I assumed you did.”
Camille shook her head. “Nope, we talked about international tax law when I met with her.”
“Oh well, I will ask her tonight then,” Leda said, smiling.
“Then what happened?” I asked.
“Well, we stood there for awhile and when that stopped being interesting, we walked around the school. But you know, the school isn’t so big that you can walk for very long. So I asked if she would like to sit inside the car and listen to some music.”
“So it begins,” said Sabrina.
Camille covered her ears. “I don’t know if I want to hear this.”
“It’s okay, nothing happened in the car.” Leda smiled again.
“So who made the first move?”
“I don’t know if there was a first move. Marina began to talk about her husband, the dean of your school.”
“The guy who’s been having a long-standing affair with Adelle Fischer, one of my profs,” I said to Sabrina.
“The plot thickens,” Sabrina said.
“She didn’t say a name, only that she knew about his affair and that he wasn’t bothering to hide it anymore.”