Unexpected Sparks

by Gina Dartt

  Nikki laughed, and with a bit of maneuvering they managed to untangle from each other, rise from the sofa, and move out of the living room. Nikki picked up Kate’s sweater from the floor, switched off the stereo, and blew out the candles on the table. Kate waited impatiently for her to take care of these details, wanting to drag Nikki to the bed instantly and peripherally aware that the ferocity of her desires would have shocked her had she taken the time to analyze them fully.

  Finally, Nikki switched on a lamp on the nightstand in the bedroom, revealing Powder curled up in the center of the comforter, eyes slitted at them in outrage. He seemed even more affronted as Nikki promptly and unceremoniously scooped him up, tossed him out in the foyer, and shut the door behind him.

  “He’ll probably never forgive us for that,” Kate said as Nikki turned to her and slipped her arms about her waist. She trembled as she rested her hands lightly on Nikki’s shoulders, feeling the warmth of her body through her sweater.

  “He’ll get over it,” Nikki said, smiling faintly. Then she sobered, eyes intent on Kate’s eyes as she reached down and deliberately unbuttoned her jeans.

  Kate exhaled slowly and surrendered to her lead as Nikki removed her pants and undergarments, laying them neatly next to the sweater on the cedar chest at the end of the bed. She didn’t extend the care and consideration she gave Kate’s clothing to her own, but stripped her garments from her body without hesitation and flung them into the far corners of the room.

  Kate discovered that she had been correct in her previous assessment of Nikki’s figure, gulping as it was revealed to her. Pert breasts stood out proudly from her chest, and Kate feasted her eyes over a flat stomach, down to lanky hips framing a thatch of pale hair. Nikki’s skin was smooth, creamy, and incredibly hot as it pressed against hers. They sank onto the bed in wordless demand for each other, Nikki’s hands and mouth exploring eagerly yet tenderly.

  “Nikki.” Kate may have been older and certainly more experienced in social and business matters, but when it came to making love for the first time with a woman, she was completely lost.

  Nikki lifted her head briefly, looking down at her. “What?” she murmured, brushing her lips teasingly over Kate’s mouth.

  “I…I’ve never done this before…I mean, not with a woman.” Kate was terribly afraid she’d be a disappointment to her.

  “It’s okay.” Nikki nibbled a line along her jaw. “Anything you do will be wonderful.”

  Kate made a sound. It wasn’t quite a laugh, but it was undeniably nervous. She wondered what had happened to all that confidence she had felt out in the living room. “Are you sure? I don’t know if—”

  “Shh.” Nikki kissed Kate’s ear, drawing the tip of her tongue along its edge, and took Kate’s hand in her own, guiding her to the heat between her legs. “Just touch me like I touch you, and don’t worry about where we’re going. The real fun is in how we get there, and believe me, there’s no hurry.”

  Kate caught her breath as she felt the silky wetness on her fingertips. “Oh…Nikki...”

  “That’s what you do to me, Kate,” Nikki whispered, her breath hot and quick. “I want you so much. You’re beautiful and wonderful, and just being here with you is all I need.” She groaned quietly as Kate hesitantly moved over the firm nodule she had found. “That’s it. That’s so nice. Take your time.”

  Kate whimpered when she felt Nikki’s fingers find her, stroking her with loving tenderness, and she tried to mimic the pace and pressure her lover provided. Before long, she wasn’t worried about anything, caught up completely in how it felt to be touched by Nikki and how incredible it felt just touching her. “Oh, this feels so good.” She didn’t realize she had said it out loud until she heard Nikki’s breathless chuckle.

  “It’s beyond good.” Nikki circled Kate’s opening, teasing her lightly. “I want to go inside you. Please—”

  “Oh, God, yes.” Kate spread her legs wider, quivering as she felt the slender fingers slip in slowly, not invading, but drawn into her heat as if they belonged. Nikki didn’t thrust, she merely explored and flexed over the interior as if seeking something. It was like nothing Kate had ever felt before as she felt their pressure against a sensitive spot. The motion of Nikki’s thumb rubbing over her ridge at the same time was shattering in its intensity. She clutched at her desperately. “Nikki, I can’t—”

  Climax swept over her almost before she fully understood what was happening and gripped her so tightly that she was left helpless. Distantly she was aware of her lover shuddering against her at the same time. Somehow, Kate had continued her caresses, maintained the motion of her fingers even as she was tossed mercilessly by her orgasm and knew a sudden, humbling awe at Nikki’s climax in simultaneous rhythm with her own.

  She gulped for air, feeling Nikki ease away, and she immediately gentled her touch even as Nikki lightened her own. The aftershocks were as powerful as the initial strike, and she wondered dazedly if this was what was considered a multiple orgasm. Certainly it seemed to go on for much longer than anything she had experienced before, even by her own hand.

  “Kate.” Nikki’s kiss was demanding, and Kate returned it as hard as she could, reaching up to wrap her arms around her neck and hold on tight.

  “That was…my god, Nikki.”

  Nikki uttered a low laugh. “It was fantastic. You’re fantastic. Now lie back.”

  Kate didn’t have time to ask why, and very shortly, she didn’t need to as Nikki traced a searing path down her body with her mouth. She should have felt awkward, she thought dazedly at one point in the hours that followed. She should have been hesitant, afraid of the unknown, reluctant to explore where Nikki led her, but no. Instead she experienced only pleasure and wonderful discovery of a brand-new kind: tempestuous and tender, glorious and gentle. Touches that scorched and soothed, that drove her out of her mind even as they finally brought her to a place so peaceful she never wanted to leave.

  Lying in Nikki’s arms afterward, bound together in sweat and satisfaction, Kate wept silently, not only for the new existence of love Nikki invited her into, but for her old self who had spent so many years without it. Beneath her cheek, she could hear the rapid beat of her lover’s heart, only now beginning to slow, the soft whisper of her respiration as it slipped warm over her forehead where strands of her hair stuck to her brow. Beyond the warm comfort of bedding and the small expanse of mattress, she could hear the wind rattling the pane and the quiet ticking of snowflakes against the glass, just as it had three nights ago when this all began.

  “Kate?”

  “Yes, my love?” Kate whispered, still lost in her glow, wetting her lips with the tip of her tongue, Nikki’s piquant flavor lingering there like a fine wine.

  “That was...just so incredible.”

  Kate lifted her head, studying her face in the low illumination. “It was,” she said wonderingly. “It was the most amazing experience I’ve ever had. Is it like that all the time between women?”

  Nikki made an amused sound low in her throat. “Not usually. I mean, some of my experiences haven’t been as…great…as others, but they’ve always been pleasant. But I’ve never experienced anything that intense before.” She stroked her fingers through Kate’s hair. “I guess love does make a difference...not just on my part, but when the person I’m with loves me back.”

  “I do,” Kate said, lowering her head back to Nikki’s chest. “Oh, God, I do love you. That’s what this is, isn’t it? Love.”

  “Yes,” Nikki whispered. “It is.”

  Outside the door, an affronted meow indicated that as pleased as they were with the results of the past few hours, at least one resident of the dwelling was royally offended.

  “Oh, dear,” Kate said. “I suppose I’ll have to make peace with him, won’t I?”

  Nikki hugged her. “Only if you want to. I’m not one of those demanding love-me-love-my-cat pet owners.”

  “I’ll make the attempt anyway,” Kate promised, snuggling closer. A
pleasant languidness drew her down and she yawned. She hadn’t thought that she would be so comfortable with Nikki that she would consider spending the entire night, particularly since sleeping with another person had always been difficult for her. Even during her marriage, she and David had ended up buying twin beds simply because of her insomnia, but with Nikki, she felt so secure and content, she could barely keep her eyes open. “May I stay with you tonight?”

  “Of course.” Nikki pulled her closer. “I certainly don’t want you to leave.” She nuzzled Kate’s ear as a particularly sharp gust rattled the window. “Besides, I’d never send you out into weather like that. What kind of hostess would I be?”

  Kate laughed. It felt marvelous to lie here in the darkness with Nikki, as if the rest of the world had disappeared and they were the last two people on Earth, huddled together from the storm. It was an intimacy she was unfamiliar with. “I don’t know how acceptable I’ll be to sleep with. I may snore.”

  “I might, too,” Nikki said. “Or I might take the covers away from you.”

  “I’ll just have to pull them back.”

  “Or crawl under them with me.”

  “That too.”

  Nikki laughed, and they settled in, as if they had done it a thousand times. Just before Kate fell asleep, she thought she heard Nikki mutter something about ‘the same,’ and she opened her eyes. She was apparently unconscious, and Kate wondered if she had imagined the sound. Too tired to pursue it at the moment, she exhaled and drifted off, curled around her lover as if afraid to lose contact in the night.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Nikki stretched out in blissful repose as she watched an unselfconsciously nude Kate study the CDs scattered over the dresser, enjoying the play of morning sunlight over her back and buttocks.

  Kate started to reach for a disc and glanced back over her shoulder at Nikki. “May I?”

  “Of course. Why would you even ask?”

  “I didn’t want to be presumptuous.”

  Staring at her, Nikki realized that Kate honestly meant it, obviously unaware of what she was saying. “I think after last night, you have every right to be presumptuous.”

  Kate shook her head and started to laugh. “I wasn’t thinking. I’m completely comfortable with you,” she said, regarding Nikki with soft eyes. “In your arms, it’s as if I’m home, but the rest of your apartment...the rest of your life...is unfamiliar to me. I don’t want to make any mistakes. Does that make sense?”

  “I guess. But we’re probably both going to make mistakes, Kate. It’s how we deal with them that will determine if the relationship will work.”

  Kate nodded and selected a CD to place in the portable stereo, one of the few classic discs Nikki owned, soft rock from the seventies. As it started to play, she returned to the bed and slipped between the sheets, snuggling up to her new lover.

  “Cold?” Nikki enfolded her in her arms.

  “A little.” Kate rested her head on Nikki’s shoulder and closed her eyes. “Warm me up?”

  “I thought you’d never ask,” Nikki said, kissing her gently. Settling happily against the pillows, she rested her cheek on the auburn hair, feeling such overwhelming joy spread through her that it brought tears to her eyes. Every second, she had to remind herself this was real, that Kate was actually in her arms, in her bed, and whatever she had done to deserve this paradise, she would keep doing it.

  “I’m glad it’s Sunday,” Kate murmured. “I’d have hated to leave you this morning in order to open the store.”

  “I wouldn’t have liked it much either. But I wouldn’t want to deprive the book buyers in town just because I’m in love with the bookstore owner.”

  Kate nuzzled her neck. “Do you mean that? I know you said it last night, but last night was—”

  “I know it’s easier to say it in the heat of the moment. In the cold light of morning, it can be a different thing. But in the cold light of morning, I still love you, Kate Shannon. I feel like I’ve been in love with you forever.”

  Kate rested her chin on Nikki’s shoulder. “I know. I’ve been making you a part of my life since you first walked into my store a year ago, whether I knew it or not.” Kate turned her head to drop a soft kiss on Nikki’s collarbone. “It drove me crazy when you started coming in only once a week. I was afraid I had offended you or something. I would tell you how a specific book was coming in on Friday, or how another was coming in on Monday, in hopes you would take the hint, but you wouldn’t show up until Wednesday. It became so bad that I would wake up incredibly happy on those mornings, and I wouldn’t understand why until I realized that was the day you’d be stopping by. Then, on Thursday morning, I’d be incredibly cranky because I knew I’d have to suffer through another week before I’d be able to see you again.”

  Nikki didn’t respond right away, astounded.

  Kate obviously took her silence for something other than it was, because she blushed. “I guess I shouldn’t have told you that.”

  “No,” Nikki managed. “I...damn it, Kate, I forced myself to come in only once a week because I was afraid that any more than that would let you know how much I was attracted to you. I didn’t want to scare you, or make you uncomfortable. Honestly, you don’t know how much I cherished my weekly visit and our talks. Sometimes they were the only reason to get out of bed.”

  “God, we’re a fine pair, aren’t we?” Kate rested her hand on Nikki’s chest, her fingers spread over her breastbone. “You’ve lived around Truro all your life, haven’t you?”

  “Yeah…except for a few years in the city a while back.”

  “So why didn’t I meet you until this past year?”

  “Different circles, I guess. We always did our shopping at the mall when I was growing up. It wasn’t until I moved back to town, and one of my friends told me that Novel Companions had started carrying a large gay and lesbian section, that I thought I should check it out.” She looked down at Kate. “I guess if you hadn’t started selling lesbian mysteries, we wouldn’t be here now.”

  Kate laughed. “I’m glad I decided to expand my clientele.” She snuggled closer. “Do you believe in love at first sight?”

  Nikki drew her fingertips lightly down Kate’s forearm. “I believe in instant chemistry,” she said. “It’s rare, and I’ve never felt it as much as I felt it for you, but that isn’t love. Love, if it happens, doesn’t develop until later, I think. For me, it was when I realized I was willing to never see you again if that’s what it took to make you happy.” She swallowed, feeling the lump in her throat. “No matter how hard it would have been for me.”

  Kate hugged her, kissing her neck. “I really didn’t understand what I was feeling for you at first,” she said. “It didn’t make sense, and I tried to turn it into something else. I started reading every book I could find on the subject. Everything I had in the store, everything in the library. I even special-ordered a few, trying to apply what I read to myself, trying to see why I was suddenly so attracted to a woman. Finally, I realized it probably wasn’t the first time. It was just the first time I was prepared to acknowledge my feelings consciously.” She took a shaky breath. “You came into my life at exactly the right time, darling. I’ve become so tired of pretending not to be who I am.”

  Feeling her heart catch, Nikki hugged her lover. “I’m glad.” She ran her fingertips idly up Kate’s spine, memorizing each bump. “Is that why you started carrying gay and lesbian books in your store? Did you start to suspect a little earlier, maybe?”

  Kate tilted her head. “I don’t know. Maybe. I was so confused, and I didn’t think I could tell anyone what I was going through.”

  Nikki kissed the top of Kate’s head affectionately, feeling very close to her. “I’m sorry it was so difficult.”

  “I should never have married. So many years of chasing something that I could never achieve. I was never physically attracted to men, but I never had the courage to recognize what that meant.”

  Running her knuckl
es lightly along Kate’s jaw, Nikki tilted her head. “Did you love your husband?” she asked, though unsure she had the right to do so.

  “Oh, yes. David is a dear man, but I was never in love with him, and only now am I realizing what that means and what I cost both of us. He didn’t deserve to marry someone who couldn’t love him the way he needs to be loved...the way Ellen loves him.”

  “Ellen?”

  “His wife. He married her a year after we divorced. They have two little boys.”

  “Was it difficult? Being married, I mean?”

  “Not really. It was, as far as those things go, a fairly decent marriage because David and I have been friends since junior high. It was more a constant sense of...missing something. Not necessarily grand passion, because I know that comes and goes, but the feeling of being...I don’t know, of belonging somehow.” She kissed Nikki on the side of her mouth. “It’s what I feel now, lying here with you. I belong here.”

  “Why did you marry him? If you weren’t in love with him, I mean, and not attracted to men in general.” Nikki wasn’t sure why this question was so important to her, but it was, and she was glad that Kate seemed willing to talk about it.

  Kate shook her head. “Looking back, it seems ludicrous, but at the time it made perfect sense. Everything just fell into place—high school, university, marriage. It was like being on a train that never stops, Nikki. Furthermore, I wasn’t supposed to want it to stop. I was doing everything expected of me, receiving everything I was supposed to want from life.”

  Kate seemed distant and serious. “I know it sounds strange, but I wasn’t just living the life society expected me to live. I was also living a life that most women actually aspire to, believing I could gain true happiness exactly that way. I had a fulfilling social life, was active in countless projects and charities, and had a loving, hardworking, and generous husband in a beautiful home in the suburbs.” She quivered a little, as if what she was saying surprised her in some way. “All that was missing was children, and they were expected to show up eventually, at what would be the proper time. I would have been considered insane to suddenly stop and say, ‘This isn’t me, this isn’t what I should be doing.’”