Hungry for It

by Fiona Zedde

  “I don’t—”

  But her world fell apart. Ripped open by the orgasm that buckled her elbows, she was falling, falling.

  Light came to her slowly, bleeding gradually between eyelashes until she was flooded in it. She moved her head, heard the rustle of cloth. Felt softness under cheek—a pillow. A pillow on Claudia’s bed. Claudia.

  “Hey, sleepy.”

  She sat propped up against the wall, knees pressed to her chest with burgundy covers framing her nakedness. Her feet lay near Rémi’s hand. Light from the large arching window beside the bed surrounded her face with softness. Rémi’s eyes fluttered closed as fingers drifted over her forehead, down her nose and lips. A dream. It had to be a dream. She kissed the fluttering fingers and felt the smile in Claudia’s silence.

  Her body felt light and angelic, as if she’d made a visit to heaven and returned a changed woman.

  “Hey,” Rémi murmured.

  “I thought you’d sleep through the night.”

  “Can’t. Have to go to work.”

  “Of course.” The disappointment leaked into Claudia’s voice.

  She felt regret too. Wanted to spend the entire night in this wonderful bed, living a dream she’d had for longer than she could remember. The bones of Claudia’s feet were delicate under her fingers, ankles that seemed too small to support anything, much less this amazing woman.

  “Can you come to Maine with me to visit my family?”

  The unexpected words tumbled from Rémi’s mouth in a flood. Instantly, she wanted to call them back. She didn’t want to be that clingy one.

  “When?”

  “I didn’t—” The gentle look on Claudia’s face stopped her. “In a few weeks. Maybe your spring break?”

  “I think I can manage that. Desiree and Derrick can do without me for a few days.”

  Rémi’s hand tightened on the ankle pulsing with warmth. “Thank you.”

  Claudia dropped the covers, slid down into the bed beside her. “I wouldn’t have said anything else.” Her mouth brushed Rémi’s. Her tongue licked. Rémi’s body woke fully, skin warming again. She reached for her lover, pulling the naked chest against hers and kissed her, hungrily claiming what she wanted.

  Rémi found herself at Gillespie’s hours later, staring out at the empty main room. The club ready for another night. Tables cleaned and gleaming under the low lights, the long-haired technician testing the mic, Norlene counting the till behind the second-floor bar. But Rémi’s mind was full of Claudia. The silk-salt taste of her. How she chanted Rémi’s name, held it at the back of her throat until the word exploded past her lips and Rémi couldn’t think anymore. Could only feel the wonder of Claudia’s skin under her hands. Feel her heart thudding in her chest against the other woman’s. Feel finally, at home.

  Her hand plucked the cell phone out of her jacket pocket and, seemingly with a mind of its own, dialed the familiar number. Claudia answered on the first ring.

  “I wish you could have spent the night.”

  Rémi turned from the view of the club. “I wanted to.”

  They breathed gently together. Silently. The skin under Rémi’s shirt felt hot and she shrugged out of her jacket, threw it somewhere, rubbed her stomach through the white cotton.

  “Thank you for . . . everything,” Rémi said.

  “I should be the one thanking you. This evening was incredible. I never realized it could be like that.”

  “Me either.” Rémi swallowed.

  A knock at the door cut off her next words. She growled. Who the hell was this now? “Excuse me a sec,” she said to Claudia. “Who is it?”

  Monique stood at the threshold with a tall glass of iced coffee and a sandwich on a small tray. “May I come in?”

  “Darling,” Claudia’s voice purred from the phone. “I’ll let you get back to work. Come over when you’re done. No matter what time it is.”

  Rémi’s chest warmed at the invitation. “All right, I will.”

  She closed the phone then looked back at Monique, waiting quietly in the doorway to be invited in.

  Chapter 22

  She left Monique wanting. Rémi knew that. The need in the waitress’s eyes had been as plain as the nipples pressing hard against her starched white blouse. But Rémi was through using her as a substitute. Hands moving restlessly at her side, she rang Claudia’s doorbell.

  “Hey.”

  It was just past four o’clock, an unforgivable time of the morning, even if Claudia had said to come by. But she had to come. And Claudia had been waiting.

  She ignored Rémi’s verbal greeting and kissed her instead, pulling her in and closing the door. Her robe, something silky and white, brushed against Rémi’s arms and legs as Claudia pressed close. Underneath it, she was naked.

  “I hope you’re not tired.”

  Rémi laughed. “I was just going to say the same thing to you.”

  “Ah. When great minds think alike.”

  They didn’t make it upstairs. Hunger met hunger on the living room floor, coffee table shoved out of the way, the rug burning their knees, Claudia gasping as Rémi nibbled at her naked back while fumbling for the belt buckle. Through her thin undershirt, her nipples rasped on Claudia’s bare skin. The edges of her shirt, unbuttoned and open, brushed Claudia’s sides, hiding her from any prying eyes beyond the clear glass windows leading to the garden or the pool.

  “I’ve been thinking about you all night,” Claudia whispered, reaching back for Rémi’s face. Rémi leaned into the heated palm, kissed it, bit the skin. The noise Claudia made! Electric heat tripped through her legs, burning at the point where her new dick pressed against her clit.

  “What exactly were you thinking?”

  “About this.”

  Rémi freed her dick. Claudia’s breasts trembled in her hands, the nipples already hard and ready for her mouth. But that was later. Right now, she shoved into Claudia, sighed at the full contact of the dick with her clit, the sudden pressure. Her lover gasped.

  “Oh!”

  She kept herself still, letting Claudia get used to the pressure of the dick inside her, its newness, its weight. She moved her hips.

  “I’m not going to break, so don’t hold back, I can feel you.”

  Rémi was going slow, so slow. The feel of Claudia under her skin was sending ferocious shocks to her clit. She wanted to move. She wanted to fuck. But . . . Claudia moved against her, tilted her gorgeous ass up, slid her pussy against Rémi.

  “Fuck . . . !”

  “Don’t hold back, sweet. I won’t break.” Claudia grunted, pushing back. “I won’t.”

  And that was all Rémi needed. She pushed voluptuously inside. Deep. Sweet. Hips stirring the hot molasses of Claudia’s pussy. Dick hot. Breath churning. Claudia gasping and ready beneath her. Nipples hard, rasping against naked skin, jerking in time to the seesawing motion of the dick, the liquid suck and release, the grunting grip of her hands on Claudia’s hips.

  “Yes. Fuck yes.”

  Claudia grunted in return, her ass up and pussy wide open to receive, to take, to swallow the thick length of Rémi’s diving dick. Sweat washed down her back, cleaving the shirt to her skin.

  “Yes.”

  Rémi fumbled down for Claudia’s clit, met her lover’s fingers instead, her touching herself around the insistent pressure of the dildo.

  “Is this enough for you?” Rémi panted.

  “Nothing is enough. Touch me. I wish you could touch me everywhere at once, touch my breasts, suck my clit, lick my breasts. I want you everywhere at once. Making love to me.”

  “Yes.” Rémi pulled out, spun Claudia to face her. Pulled off her shirt and dropped it on the floor behind her. “I can do that for you. Maybe not today. Maybe not right now. But I can. I will. And you’ll love it. You’ll love it.”

  Claudia faced her. Rémi fucked her. Legs over her shoulder, Claudia’s arms back, clutching the back of the sofa as Rémi fucked the wet hole of her, her skin a dripping, electric thin
g that wept for her touch. Claudia reached for her breasts, squeezed Rémi’s nipples, and she threw her head back, her hips forward. The hands slid over her sweat-slick chest. Over her nipples and belly. Gripped her hips, pulling her fast. Faster.

  “Fuck.”

  “Yes.”

  “I love it.”

  “More.”

  “Yes.”

  “Fuck me.”

  “Yes!”

  The sofa jerked under them. Jerked across the hardwood. Slammed into the floor with each thrust of Rémi’s hips.

  Claudia’s eyes were languid but fierce, her fingers gripping Rémi’s arms. “More,” she gasped. “More!”

  Whatever she wanted, that was what Rémi would give. Her hips lunged. Sweat slid. Effort churned in her throat. She clutched Claudia’s hips harder. Fucked her fast. Faster. Sensation, like a wave of fire, crashed into Rémi, fizzing up through her cunt and belly.

  “Yes!” Claudia’s lashes trembled. Eyes rolled back. And she screamed Rémi’s name, her body trembling, trembling.

  “I think,” she panted against Rémi’s mouth moments later, “I want food now.” She twitched against Rémi. Lips parted and wet. Sweat caught in the edges of her pale hair and along the slim line of her throat.

  Still on her knees, Rémi shuddered. Her body hadn’t yet made the transition from carnal to victual and found Claudia’s words a puzzle impossible to sort out. Her lover solved the problem for her by pushing away, unwinding her body from Rémi’s, and heading for the kitchen.

  “Do you know what you want to eat?”

  Rémi didn’t answer. She probably didn’t need to. With a full-bodied quiver, she sat back on her haunches, arms draped across her thighs, head thrown back and eyes closed. The remnants of her orgasm shuddered quietly through her, leaving lightning twitches between her thighs, on her skin. By the time she recovered, Claudia was walking from the kitchen with a tray of fruit and cheese in her hands. She blinked as if seeing her lover for the first time in days. Whatever Claudia saw in Rémi’s face made her laugh.

  “Let’s eat in front of the fireplace.”

  Rémi assumed that meant that Claudia wanted her to start the fire. She did, thankfully a matter of the flip of a switch, and the gas heat brought flames to life around the logs sitting behind the grate.

  “Thanks. You’re a darling.” She pressed her mouth briefly to Rémi’s.

  The full tray, several pillows from the sofa, and a heartfelt sigh later, they lay together on the thick white rug in front of the fireplace. Claudia on her belly, gloriously naked, her legs moving slowly back and forth in the air as she delicately tore a fat red grape from the bunch and bit into it. The flames from the fireplace warmed Rémi’s naked back.

  In the otherwise dark room, light from the fire danced over the lean brown flesh of Claudia’s body, over the snowy hair curled like tiny cotton balls against her head, over the face settled into lines of contentment, and the slightly tilted eyes that drank Rémi in like hot cider. When Rémi first saw the house years ago with its fireplace, she wondered what occasion anyone in Miami would have to use one. For the first time she could see why: To lay on a rug, naked, after thick and delicious sex with the most amazing woman she’d ever known. Her pants and still-harnessed dildo lay discarded near the sofa.

  “You really did grow up nicely, you know that?” Claudia’s eyes flicked over Rémi’s body. She reached for a pale slice of cheese.

  Rémi chuckled, sipping her grapefruit juice. “So I’ve heard.”

  “The last thing I want to do is bore you sexually, you know,” Claudia suddenly said.

  “What?” Rémi looked at her in amazement. “That’s the last thing you need to worry about.” She traced the curve of Claudia’s arm under the flickering light with her palm. “I get excited just by looking at you. Couldn’t you tell from earlier? If not, I can show you again.” She arched an eyebrow and reached for Claudia with deeper intent.

  “Stop it.” Claudia playfully slapped her hand away. “I know that you’re still excited by me. It’s early yet. But I know the things you’re used to doing with other women.”

  “What have you heard?”

  Her lover’s look was faintly challenging. “Stories about nipple clamps and S&M. I’ve heard that you like to be in control.”

  Rémi felt the heat rise in her cheeks. And with her light skin, she knew the blush was plainly visible. And that only made her blush harder. “I like to be in control, but it’s not a must for me. Besides, whatever you heard is—it’s in the past.” She couldn’t stop herself from stammering.

  “Oh no, sweetheart. I’m not saying that I want you to stop enjoying the kind of sex you do. I’m just saying that I’ve heard about it. Am actually a little curious.”

  Rémi’s eyes widened. “Really?” The blood began to beat between her legs again.

  “I don’t want you to change your sex life just because I’m in it. I want to enjoy the kind of sex you enjoy. The only change to your lifestyle would be that I expect you to be faithful to me.”

  And Rémi’s eyes widened even further because they’d never had this discussion before and she hadn’t thought about it either. Any of it. She’d assumed fidelity, yes. But also that she’d curb her sexual appetite. Become a gentler and kinder lover. This was turning out to be even better than she’d imagined.

  “Oh, my sweet darling. I didn’t get with you to change who you are. If anything, I’d want you to help me get out of my own ruts.” Claudia laughed. “You should see your face. You look positively devilish.”

  “Not devilish. Just excited.” Her voice vibrated in her chest. She set aside the grapefruit juice to sip from Claudia’s lips instead. “I won’t hurt you,” she said, senses already overcome by the secondhand taste of grapes and pepper jack cheese. “Promise.”

  “I know, darling.” She licked the corners of Rémi’s mouth, smiled as if whatever she tasted there sat well on her tongue. “I won’t let you.”

  Chapter 23

  “You look much happier these days,” Yvette said as she pulled the door open for Rémi, who struggled in, loaded down with two paper bags full of groceries, her keys still dangling in the lock.

  Rémi felt herself blush then looked self-consciously over her shoulder at Claudia, who smiled at her, jauntily swinging a cloth shopping bag with their bottle of wine for the evening. “Can you at least let me come in the door first before you tell the entire building my business?” she muttered to her sister.

  Claudia’s hand gently descended on Rémi’s back, warm and steady. She chuckled. “I’d only be flattered if you were, darling.” She winked at Yvette, who had a blush similar to Rémi’s on her cheeks.

  “I’m sorry.” The girl coughed on a giggle, tugged at the hem of her snug yellow shirt. “I didn’t know you were there.”

  “I am, Yvette, and it’s all right. Comment allez-vous?”

  Yvette stepped back from the door to allow Rémi to walk into the condo then on to the kitchen. “I’m well, thank you. Et vous?”

  “I’m actually much happier these days, too.”

  Rémi smiled as the echoes of both women’s giggles followed her into the kitchen. She carefully put the grocery bags on the center island, making sure that the eggs were still unbroken and the various bottles of sauces that her lover had picked up remained whole.

  “All perishables are intact,” she called out to Claudia in the living room. “Do you want me to do anything with them?”

  “Just stand around looking cute. I told you I’ll cook dinner, and I mean it.” Claudia came in to put the bottle of white wine in the fridge.

  “I can help,” Yvette said, walking up behind Claudia. “Papa used to say I was the best sous chef he’d ever worked with.”

  Rémi glanced up at the mention of their father. “I hope you don’t cook like he used to. All that rich French food gives me indigestion.”

  “That’s not fair! I’ve not made anything like that the entire time I’ve been here.”
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  “Everything but the dreaded French cuisine, right?” Claudia’s smile teased Yvette.

  The young girl began to unpack the grocery bags. “Exactly.”

  Rémi left the kitchen to look through the mail Yvette had left for her on the side table. Credit card offer. Bills. A sale circular. Rémi fingered a black envelope with her name written across it in silver calligraphy. Without opening the envelope, she knew what was inside. After a brief glance in Claudia’s direction, she tossed the invitation to Odette’s latest party into the copper bin under the table with the other papers to be shredded. Sage and Phil would probably go. Nuria too. Rémi mentally shrugged before wandering back into the kitchen.

  “I’ll be right back,” Claudia said, passing by her with a quick smile.

  “Oh my god!” Yvette said as soon as Claudia left the kitchen. “I’m so sorry. I had no idea that she was standing there.”

  “It’s okay.” Rémi said. “By now she knows that I’ve lost my mind over her.” She gently tugged her sister’s hair. “At least you didn’t say anything dirty. That I wouldn’t be quite so forgiving about.”

  “What dirty things could I possibly have to say?” She turned twinkling eyes over her shoulder as she moved to the sink, gushing water from the tap over a fistful of carrots.

  “Ha! I’m sure you would have come up with something.”

  Rémi picked up Claudia’s purse from the center island and wiped the granite surface clean while holding the fancy piece of black leather in her free hand. All the femmes she’d ever known always took their purses with them to the bathroom when they went, and she assumed that’s where Claudia disappeared to.

  “Gimme a second,” she said to Yvette. “I’m going to give this little thing to Claudia in case she needs it.”

  “Okay.” Yvette didn’t bother looking up from the sink.

  Upstairs in the bedroom, Claudia’s thin cotton sweater—what some apparently called a “shrug”—was a splash of pale green across the black sheets on her bed.