Jump Then Fall

by Sarah Sanders

  It was Ika’s single purpose in life to love Ree and make her feel loved absolutely. And slowly, Ika was making inroads. Ree was now learning to have moods. She no longer felt compelled to always be calm, collected and in control any more. She was learning to express emotions like irritation and anger knowing that Ika would still love her the same. Ika was her rock with whom she could be shy, vulnerable, worried, silly, disgruntled, out-of-sorts, self-doubting, insecure, unsure, weak…and know she’d be taken care of.

  With Ika, Ree was finally experiencing what it was to feel a right with someone. She was learning what it was to be loved. She was learning love.

  “Hmmm?”

  “You know…I mean, I can get it done for you,” Ika said shyly.

  “Really?” Ree sputtered.

  “Really,” Ika grinned, colouring just a little. “Sweetie, you know there is nothing I wouldn’t do for you,” she said gently.

  Ree’s eyes misted. “Nah! It will be too painful.”

  “You’d like it, right?”

  “I’d love it…but that four to six weeks business? – no can do.”

  Ika blushed at Ree’s firmly stated sentiment. Ree rarely voiced her unequivocal carnal demands and it was crazy arousing when she did.

  “I know what we can do,” Ika grinned impishly, putting away the empty plate and placing her arms around Ree’s shoulders, “You can leave for one of your trips day after tomorrow and I’ll get pierced…then when you come back after ten days, I can fight with you for a couple of weeks after which you can travel for another week and then I can fight with you for another week or so,” she giggled.

  Ree loved Ika’s ability to address serious issues between them with delicacy and then not allow them to overwhelm their relationship. Making them light enough to laugh at while working towards sorting them out. She grinned back, nuzzling Ika’s neck, “Sounds like a plan.”

  “Ree, I was thinking about what you said last night.”

  “And?”

  “Can we do it on a trial basis…where you don’t formally change my designation yet? I am very nervous about not being suitable or up to it.”

  “Sure,” Ree looked exhilarated. “I am so thrilled that you’ve agreed, baby,” she hugged Ika close.

  “So why day after tomorrow and not tomorrow, beautiful?” Ree asked teasingly after a bit.

  “I have plans for tomorrow,” Ika said giving Ree a smouldering look.

  “Am I a part of your plans?”

  “Honey, you are my plan.”

  “Care to share?”

  …and Ika shared in glorious, explicit detail.

  ***************************************************************

  …Day 365…

  “Do you need to go this week? Can’t you postpone it by two weeks?” Ika complained as she packed Ree’s bag.

  “Sweetness, you know I can’t…I’m meeting the governments of New Zealand and Iceland and can’t just change the meetings,” Ree knew that Ika was just pouting, not seriously upset.

  “I know…but I’m leaving one day before you get back. We won’t meet for a month and a half, Ree…the thought is killing me,” tears rolled quietly down Ika’s cheeks.

  Ika was going on a month-long backpacking trip around Italy with her two older sisters Rukmini (Mini) and Radha (Radz). The three of them had been planning this trip for almost a year-and-a-half but managing to get a whole month with their individual work schedules had been quite a feat of jugglery. Mini was an assistant director with a major film production company and Radz was a prominent journalist. Ika couldn’t plead out of the trip at this late stage. Also, it was an important trip for her – she intended coming out to them and telling them about her relationship with Ree on this trip. It wasn’t like Ree ever pushed her to tell her family, but Ika was ready to shout out her love from the rooftops. Given the closed-mindedness of Indian culture, Ika hadn’t yet been able to confess all to her family and didn’t want to contain it any longer.

  “Hey…come here.” Ika went over to Ree, wrapped her arms around her waist and burrowed into her. “Do you want to come along?” Ree asked gently.

  “You know I can’t…there’s a ton of things I got to do here,” Ika sniffed. “How did you manage before you made me your Exec Assistant?”

  “I didn’t,” Ree said matter-of-factly. “It’s been just seven months, but since you’ve joined me, we are already growing 20% faster than we were. It is unbelievable how fast you’ve caught on and how much you’re doing,” Ree looked at Ika with pride.

  “You keep telling me that…but right now, I wish I could just leave everything and be with you.”

  “You’ll be in Rome the day I get back, right?” Ika nodded. “How about I come there and meet you for maybe a very early breakfast or something…you know, before you guys start your day?”

  “You’d do that?” Ika’s voice was muffled as she spoke into Ree’s chest.

  “My love, it’s as hard for me to not see you for so long as it is for you.”

  ***

  “So how did it go?” Ree asked as they walked around Florence hand-in-hand. Ree had flown in to Rome for the promised meeting. And ever since then she had stayed put in Italy following Ika around and sneaking in early morning walks with her every day. Ika was already out to all her friends but she wanted to do it face-to-face with her family. She’d told her sisters about being in a relationship with a woman in Rome. That had gone surprisingly well. Mini had come out as being bisexual and Radz was at a point where she was wondering whether she was pansexual. The previous night, Ika was going to tell them about who exactly she was involved with.

  “I think they are more freaked out about you than they were about me being with a woman,” Ika said thoughtfully.

  “What about me? The age?”

  “That did come up…but no, I think they are more in a funk about the fact you are amongst the ten richest people in the world.” Ika hadn’t told her sisters just how rich she was now with all the properties that Ree had given her, the amount of jewellery that she owned and the millions that Ree put into her bank account each month. Ree had insisted and done all this against Ika’s vehement protests. Ree said that she didn’t want the “Money thing” to ever come between them.

  “That is a problem?” Ree was astounded.

  “Sweetie, if I knew who you were when I first met you, I probably wouldn’t have dared come to you. Your money is intimidating…don’t you remember me going to pieces when I got to know exactly who you were?” Ika smiled. “I’m glad I fell in love with you before I knew who you were.”

  “Thank God for that. You think they’ll get okay?”

  “Of course,” Ika said confidently…though she knew she’d have to chip away at their reservations incessantly in the coming days.

  ***

  In Venice.

  “Sweetie, I’d like you to meet my sisters,” Ika’s voice sounded like rich chocolate to Ree’s ears over the phone, “Can you meet us for lunch or dinner?”

  “They’ve come around?”

  “Mostly…but I want them to meet you.”

  “I’ll be there…just message me when and where. Any pointers on how I should be or what I should do?”

  Ree’s eagerness to get her family to accept her and their relationship grabbed Ika’s heart. Here was a hugely successful person who was actually sounding nervous about meeting her sisters. “Honey, you know that it doesn’t make a difference to me what anyone including any member of my family says, right?” Ika asked softly.

  “I didn’t know that,” Ree heaved.

  Ika knew that Ree’s lack of self-worth still ran deep. As did her fear that Ika would up and leave her. She also knew that Ree was actively fighting against both these deep entrenched issues within her for Ika. Though Ree never brought these up after Krabi, Ika knew that they hadn’t exactly disappeared. Ree had been through too much emotionally to be fear-free. And Ika ensured that she verbally reassured her as often as she could. �
�I love you, Ree, nothing is going to change that and I am not going anywhere…you’re stuck with me,” her voice dripped love.

  “I love you too, beautiful…I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  ***

  “What! She’s flying in to Venice to meet us?” Mini sounded shocked. The sisters were having breakfast and Ika had just told them that Ree would be joining them for dinner.

  “Actually, she’s already here,” Ika kind of mumbled.

  “What’s she doing here? It cannot be work,” Radz exclaimed.

  “She’s here for me…I’d go crazy if I didn’t see her for so long. Plus she was away for two weeks before we came here…I’d have gone completely mad,” Ika confessed in a small voice.

  “Awww, my baby sister has it real bad,” Radz tousled Ika’s hair as Ika looked down shyly.

  “How does she feel?” Mini was the oldest and fiercely protective of her two younger sisters.

  “She’s worse. It was all I could do to make her stay put for those two weeks. She’d gone to New Zealand and Iceland to meet the governments and she actually wanted to fly back at the end of each day,” Ika said bashfully, blushing. “Even now, she is insisting to being here…I’ve been telling her to go back every day.” As soon as she said it, Ika’s eyes widened and she clapped her hand over her mouth.

  “Wait…what? How long has she been here?” Radz was aghast.

  “Since Rome.”

  “You mean to tell me she’s been stalking us through the whole trip?!” Radz’s eyes were as wide as Ika’s.

  “She was only supposed to come for a day to Rome…but she says that she just wants to be in the same city as me even if we don’t meet,” Ika said bashfully. “She’s said that right from the time we first met.”

  “So all those solitary early morning walks that you’ve been going for before we wake up…you’ve been meeting her?” Mini asked.

  Ika bit her lip and nodded. “But we’ve been meeting at our hotel and really been walking,” Ika hastened to assure her sisters. It was a different matter that most of the time when they were walking, Ree’s hand was between Ika’s thighs, cupping her, while Ika hugged Ree’s arm pressing her breasts into Ree. She didn’t think it necessary to share those times when they ducked into buildings or side streets and Ika rubbed herself to a climax on Ree’s thigh as Ree sucked, licked and kissed Ika’s neck while squeezing her breasts and pinching, pulling and twisting her nipples. Or the times when Ree squeezed and kneaded her cunt to an orgasm while sucking and biting her breasts. It was only this morning that she’d allowed Ree to rub her to an orgasm. No…that was too much information. But yes, Ika had not let Ree get into her panty and touch her pussy. She was saving that for when they were in bed. There was a surprise for Ree. Thankfully, Ree bought her argument that if Ika actually allowed her inside her panty, the time they had in the mornings would just not be enough for Ika. Ika was grateful for being so oversexed with Ree in bed, else she wouldn’t have got away with this one. Being hypersexual had more benefits than just the obvious one.

  “So, you guys have sex?” Rad’s eyes danced with prurient interest.

  “Raaadz!” Ika practically screeched blushing fiercely, considering what she was just thinking about. “Mini, tell her she can’t ask me such things,” Ika appealed to the authority figure.

  Mini gave her a sombre look. “How is it?” she asked breaking into a wide wicked grin.

  “Oh God! Sooo good,” even Ika’s arms had coloured as she practically purred her answer. Mini choked on her coffee while Radz practically spewed out her bite…they’d never expected Ika to actually answer and had settled into teasing her.

  “Shit Ika! Who told you to answer that?!” Radz scolded.

  “If she is here in Italy around you, what’s happening to work?” Mini wondered.

  “She’s been flying people in for meetings and doing web meetings and concalls.”

  “Wow! It’s sure good to be that wealthy!” Radz said, awed. Ika grinned back at her, “Yes, it is.”

  “So, do you guys ever fight?” from Mini.

  “Yes,” Ika smiled at the memories of their initial fights with her letting loose on Ree and Ree looking like a whipped dog.

  “Does she have a temper?” Mini knew her little sister pulled no punches when she was angry and wondered how that worked.

  “On the whole, no…and with me never,” Ika smiled. That her sisters were asking her so many questions meant that all was well and that they had made peace with her relationship.

  “Seriously? And you? Have you shown her your terror avtaar?” Mini asked with concern.

  “Oh! So many times…mostly it is me fighting…you guys don’t believe that this is an equal relationship, do you?” Ika asked curiously.

  “Ika, firstly she is so much older to you. Secondly, there is so much of a financial gap. We just don’t want you to be in one of those strange dominated relationships,” Mini placated.

  “Honestly, between us, I feel I am more dominating,” Ika smiled. “Anyways, you’ll meet her this evening, you can make up your minds then.”

  ***

  “My God! Baby sister…she is so whipped,” Radz announced with disbelief after Ree had left.

  Mini and Radz were both somewhat besotted with Ree by the end of the meal. Ree had been unassuming, witty, self-deprecating in her humour, knowledgeable, insightful, intelligent and so totally, totally in love with Ika that even Ika’s sisters were swooning. Ika, predictably, was starry-eyed.

  “The way she looks at you…she not only loves you…she totally worships you,” Radz gushed.

  “I know,” Ika blushed faintly.

  “I can’t decide which of you loves the other more. Since when have you been together?” Radz just couldn’t stop.

  “I met her last year on my birthday…so close to a year now.” And even now the ferocious want for each other has not abated. Maybe grown.

  “You realise she is a good deal older than you,” Mini stated rather delicately.

  “I love her,” Ika stated in a tone that was all calm confidence allowing no response, giving Mini a steely-eyed look.

  “Soooo…Paris for your birthday, eh?” Radz broke into to the quiet after Ika’s declaration. As per their plan, Ika was to return to New York a day before her birthday. However, after talking to Ika in the morning, Ree had floated the idea of celebrating her birthday in Paris and had invited Mini and Radz offering to fly the three sisters to Paris. Though at Ika’s behest, they’d agreed on flying commercial instead of using their private jet. “They won’t be able to handle it yet, Ree,” Ika had said.

  ***

  Ika ran to Ree outside the Duomo in Milan and jumped on her with uncontainable, exuberant happiness as her sisters watched from a distance. She hugged Ree tight and laughed with joy.

  “It went well, I take it,” Ree asked, all smiles.

  Ika had come out to her parents and told them about Ree the previous night over a Skype call. She got off Ree and wrapped her arms around her waist, grinning and giggling like a maniac.

  It had gone well. Her sisters had waxed eloquent about Ree and her parents were happy for her.

  ***

  Ree was at the airport to receive them when they landed in Paris at eight in the morning. She’d booked all of them suites in the iconic hotel, La Meurice. She’d planned their sightseeing engaging Paris’ most famous tour guide, Sara to take them around. Sara was married to Ree’s cousin, Mira, so Mira would also accompany them.

  “You still overwhelmed them,” Ika grinned at Ree as they walked towards their Jardin des Tuileries view suite.

  “They’ll get over it,” Ree looked at Ika, her eyes conveying exactly were her mind was. And it wasn’t on Ika’s sisters. Ika gasped at the look, eyes darkening in response and wetness gathering between her legs.

  As soon as the bellboy was out of the door and the door was shut, Ree and Ika came clashing together in a frenzy in the drawing room of the suite.

  “Fuck!” Ree
uncharacteristically swore when her phone chimed. “Mira and Sara must be here. I got to go get them. How long will you take to get ready?”

  “Gimme half an hour.”

  “Your sisters?”

  “I’ll tell them also to be ready in half an hour.”

  “Okay…will you order breakfast before you go for your bath…I’ll get them back here.”