Bliss

by Fiona Zedde

  "But I've already seen that."

  "Really? How about this?" She pressed her hips against Sinclair's and the slighter woman pushed back, sighing in the rising heat from Hunter's body. Then she felt the extra thickness, a hard length where the woman's softness should have been. Sinclair hissed. "Well? Do you want it?"

  Oh. "Yes."

  Hunter kissed her again then pulled her away from the stairs, toward the small back room with its barred windows and glimpse of paradise. Sinclair's body was wet with anticipation.

  "They won't come up here, don't worry."

  Sinclair wasn't worried. It didn't matter if the whole group of tourists came back, as long as Hunter fulfilled the promise in her trousers.

  "Hold on to the bars," the dark woman instructed. "Please." Her breath tickled the back of Sinclair's neck.

  Sinclair shuddered at the sound of Hunter's zipper. She bit her lip. Fireflies danced through her stomach, slipping down between her thighs as Hunter's long fingers moved her dress out of the way.

  "I only want you to feel good," her lover whispered behind her. "Do you understand?"

  "Yes. God, yes."

  Cool mountain air washed over Sinclair's naked ass and between her parted thighs. Hunter touched her wetness, the drip of want that already coated her thighs. She sighed her delight into Sinclair's neck and palmed a soft breast through the dress. Then slid the dildo deeply, firmly into her. Sinclair gasped and arched her back to take more of the fullness.

  "Thank you," she breathed.

  Their breaths shivered together and a deep shudder traveled through their bodies as Hunter began to move. Sinclair was a mass of tingling, hyperstimulated nerves, slick and hot as Hunter slipped into her shallows and depths, creating exquisite friction. She moved against Sinclair's tightening ass, and breathed against her neck while Sinclair stood, legs braced apart, fingers clenched around the bars of the window. Her sweat-slick palms amplified the metallic smell of the bars, searing it forever in her sense memory. Sweat and sex and iron and Hunter.

  Sinclair's body was prickling, aching, and wet. Hunter whispered her name and she breathed quickly, begging her not to stop. She didn't. Her hips moved faster, rushing to meet hers with a slap of flesh that made her gasp and push back into her.

  Though buried in sensation, Sinclair thought she heard footsteps. Her body tensed and, despite her earlier bravado, fear of being caught ricocheted through her body. She tried to push Hunter away, but the other woman held her, trapped between the wall and her body. Her hips moved jackhammer fast against Sinclair. She felt Hunter groan against her back, then the dark woman overflowed like a river bursting free of its dam and washed her clean.

  Hunter's fingers loosened from Sinclair's thighs and she slowly withdrew. Limp and still trembling, Sinclair could only brush her dress down and blink, panting, at the landscape beyond the bars. When she could walk again, she turned around. Hunter had already gotten herself together and was staring at the walls as if absorbed in the dead madwoman's fevered writing.

  "Are you ready?" she asked.

  "Whenever you are." Hunter dipped her head to kiss Sinclair's throat then stepped back to allow her lover to walk ahead of her. "I'm starving. Let's go find something to satisfy my other hunger, hm?"

  They went to lunch, back to Celestial. This time Hyacinth wasn't there, but Hunter's cousin was. He looked up from the cash register, slim and dark with glowing gold eyes and Hunter's saturnine mouth.

  "Hey, Cliff."

  "Hunter! Hey, baby." They shared a long hug. "You look good. And it looks like you're running with a better class of company too." He winked at Sinclair.

  The restaurant was crowded, both inside and out, but Cliff found them a table on the patio.

  "You going to the family barbeque next week?" he asked.

  "I think so. I haven't seen a lot of those guys in weeks."

  "Good. So if I don't get the chance to come back out I'll see you there then."

  "Later, cuz."

  He turned to kiss Sinclair's hand. "I hope to see you again, fair Sinclair." Cliff disappeared back into the busy restaurant.

  "The people in your family are unusually attractive," Sinclair said.

  "What does that mean?" Hunter looked up from her menu. "You think we sold our collective soul to the devil for these looks?"

  Sinclair laughed. "The thought hadn't occurred to me, but now that you mention it, I do smell the stink of brimstone on you.

  "Is that what you call it?" Hunter leaned closer. "I could have sworn it was Sinclair's cum."

  "Stop it." She blushed and slapped at her lover's knee.

  The waitress arrived at their table. "Can I get you ladies anything to drink today?"

  "Some manners for her." Sinclair pointed to her unrepentant lunch companion who gave her a lazy smile for her trouble.

  "I'm a waitress, miss, not a miracle worker." The woman grinned at Hunter. She obviously knew her well.

  "What's going on, Dee?"

  "Hey, bad woman." She smiled at Hunter, flirtatious and familiar. "You see Cliff yet?"

  "I was just telling him how nice and crowded the place looks."

  "Yeah, and most of them are good tippers too."

  "I'll remember that."

  Dee slipped back inside the restaurant after taking their order for drinks.

  "She wants you," Sinclair giggled.

  "Already had me. I'm sure she's over it by now."

  Sinclair hid her surprise at that bit of information. "I bet she's not."

  "Unfortunately not everyone is as enthusiastic and delighted about my attentions as you." Hunter grinned. "Then again, maybe it's not so unfortunate. I could only handle this kind of chemistry only once per lifetime."

  When the waitress reappeared Sinclair looked at her more carefully, noting her high, generous ass as she leaned over the table with their drinks, the full bosom, and the coltish wild ness of her movements. Dee was young. Younger than Lydia, but she was definitely all woman.

  "Are you trying to make Dee nervous or something?" Hunter asked.

  "No. Why?"

  "You look like you're evaluating her as a prospect for an afternoon of hot sex."

  "Oh, please. I was just trying to see what your type of woman is."

  Hunter snorted with laughter. "That should be fairly obvious to you by now."

  "Yes, it is. You're an ass woman."

  "That's true. Any other key observations?"

  "Nothing remarkable, but I'll let you know."

  "Do that." Hunter sipped her water. "What about you, Miss Cool and Collected. What kind of woman do you like? What's your type?"

  "I'm not sure if I have a type. You're only the second woman I've been with."

  Hunter leaned back in surprise. "What about the first one, then? The bitch from the city?"

  "Regina is . . . " Sinclair's voice trailed off as she tried to recall images of Regina that she could tie descriptions to. "She's thin. With a take-charge kind of attitude."

  Hunter rolled her eyes. "Does she wear pants or dresses?"

  "Both," Sinclair grinned. "But mostly skirts."

  "And she came after you?"

  "Yes."

  Hunter leaned across the table and lowered her voice. "That cool exterior of yours is very seductive. It's a wonder that some intrepid dyke hadn't tried to climb onto your face before then."

  Sinclair snorted.

  "That sound, however, was not seductive."

  Sinclair blew a raspberry at her lover then, noticing Dee's return, leaned back in her chair so that the waitress had enough space to maneuver their food onto the table. Sinclair blew Hunter a kiss over the waitress's ass.

  That evening Sinclair beat everyone home and surprised them all with dinner. Steamed fish, stewed chicken, buttersimmered corn, and an iced pitcher of Grace's Calypso Punch fresh from the can.

  "Did you make all this?" Nikki asked after her first mouthful.

  "Of course not. It's restaurant takeout."

 
; Victor laughed. "Even I knew better than to ask that question, Nik." He reached for his glass of punch. "Good job, daughter. No matter how the food got here, thank you. I don't think anybody in this house wanted to cook tonight."

  "I did," Xavier said from his chair, raising his hand high as if he was still in class.

  "I stand corrected," Victor said.

  "What's the occasion?" Nikki's smile was pure mischief.

  Sinclair ignored it. "None at all. I just thought how nice it would be for someone besides the two ... uh, three of you cooked for once. And since I wasn't about to set anything on fire, then a restaurant meal seemed the perfect thing."

  "You're a brilliant and perceptive woman," Victor said, raising his glass.

  "So I've been told."

  After dinner, Victor and Xavier stayed in the kitchen to wash the dishes, then do homework while Nikki and Sinclair went for a walk around the neighborhood.

  "You look happy," Nikki said as soon as they left the house.

  "I am. It's a little scary."

  "Since when is happiness a scary thing?"

  "Since I know it's going to end when I leave here. And, even more important, because I've found it with my sister's ex-girlfriend."

  "Agh!" Nikki made a dismissive motion. "No one cheated on anybody so it should all be fine. As for the long-distance thing, I know people who've made it work."

  "But I'm not that naive. I know that there are plenty of women on the island. A lot of them much more appealing than I am, and very willing to satisfy Hunter's desires. I would never want her to deny herself because of me. That was something that Lydia did and despite our similar looks we're definitely not the same woman."

  "No one ever said you were the same person. Calm down." They walked in silence. "What if Hunter wanted to make a long-distance thing work?"

  "She wouldn't. Trust me." Sinclair stopped. "Listen, can we talk about something else for a while? This whole subject of my sex life is a little boring right now."

  "Fine, fine." Silence. "So when are you going to tell Lydia about you and Hunter?"

  Chapter 17

  inclair looked up from her book as she heard rhythmic )footsteps against the Breckenridges' expensive Spanish tile floor.

  She smiled as Hunter stepped through the door. "Hey, gorgeous."

  Her lover was breathtaking in her university clothesbelted black slacks and a white button-down shirt neatly tucked and pressed. A thick onyx circlet trapped her hair at her nape, preventing it from falling into her face. Sinclair put her book facedown on the window seat next to her when Hunter drew closer. She practically glowed.

  "Want to go for a ride with me?" Hunter's mouth brushed hers before lightly nuzzling her throat.

  "Should I dress up, too?" Sinclair grinned, intrigued by her exuberance.

  "Nope. You are perfect. Just bring your camera."

  She looked down at her pale green sundress and shrugged. "OK. Let me just let Nikki know that I'm leaving."

  "I already told her when she let me in." Hunter nibbled on her collarbone. "She knows you'll be safe with me."

  They left the Breckenridges' and walked back to Hunter's house with the dark woman frolicking like a puppy in front of, then beside her. She tugged at Sinclair's loose dress, flattening it against her belly and breasts.

  "I love your tits," Hunter said, pulling closer. "They're so . . ." Her eyes touched them while Sinclair blushed and stood tongue-tied, not knowing what to say. She had never seen her like this.

  At Sinclair's look of confusion Hunter backed away, smiling. "I love your coolness," she said. "I love it when you melt and show me your soft spots. I love how you make me want to be less cynical, more like the kid I was when I left this place."

  This time when she came closer, Sinclair grabbed her hand. "You make me happy." She spoke the words against Hunter's mouth, feeling secure in saying them for the first time.

  Hunter laughed and ran ahead of Sinclair. At her gate, she lifted the latch and motioned ahead of her. "I'm taking you out on a little road trip," she said. "Isn't that what you call it in America?"

  Sinclair ignored her and walked ahead to open the garage door. After Hunter pulled the jeep out, she brought the door back down and climbed into the passenger seat.

  They drove away from the house, up a steep hill with a path that seemed barely big enough to fit the jeep.

  "What's gotten into you today?" Sinclair brushed Hunter's leg through the fine crease of her pants. "Not that I mind or anything. "

  "You better not." Her eyes were full of infectious mischief, winking in the afternoon sun as she carefully navigated the Jeep up the mountainside. "I think I got the happy bug from all the kids I ran into on campus today," she said. "And I was thinking of you." The smile on her face let Sinclair know exactly what kind of thoughts those were. Her hand brushed Sinclair's knee, then moved back to the gearshift.

  They drove through dirt and forest, through narrow passes that allowed the branches of trees to dip inside the open windows of the jeep and tickle their hair.

  "When I was planning to come back to the island I read a lot about it," Hunter said. "Its history, its present, its land scape. Everything. My first few weeks back I was in the mountains almost every day when I wasn't working, determined to find out as much as I could that wasn't in most guidebooks." The jeep roared as it struggled over a large root in their path. "It was on one of those wanderings that I found this place." She gestured to the forest around them.

  The sun was a different quality up here, brighter with the contrast of shadowy trees enfolding it. Everything it covered-leaves, vines, tree trunks, moss-seemed to welcome it, stretching luxuriantly under its golden touch. The air felt cooler here, rarified.

  They stopped at the foot of one of the largest trees Sinclair had ever seen. It was easily as big as Hunter's house with gigantic branches that stretched out and up, shining bright in the sun. Green and brown vines hung down from these branches, some brushing the forest floor. Sinclair blinked as a flurry of varicolored butterflies tumbled through the air close enough for her to see the fine powder on their wings.

  "Beautiful, aren't they?" Hunter tucked the jeep's keys in her pants pocket then turned to the other woman. "I wonder if you realize how much you've fucked me up?" Hunter didn't wait for her to respond. "With you I feel like a damn virgin again, all sweaty palms and wet pussy. You make me think of fucking and making love all the time." She touched Sinclair's face. "Or about just being with you. I want you to think about that when it's time for you to go back." Her lips covered Sinclair's.

  Sinclair pushed into the kiss, amazed by her words and by the heat flaring quickly between them.

  "Come on," Hunter rasped, pulling away. "Before I change my mind."

  "What if I changed your mind?" Sinclair pushed her fingers into Hunter's shirt, parting buttons to find warm skin.

  The dark woman gasped then chuckled against Sinclair's mouth. "Whatever you want, baby."

  Their tongues slid hot and electric against each other, tasting moistness and heat and want. Sinclair climbed over the gearshift to straddle Hunter's lap and pull her shirt from the slacks.

  "Whatever you planned, we can do later." She feasted on the softness of Hunter's mouth, the hard slide of teeth, and on the breath that Hunter gasped for her. The dark woman's hands danced up the backs of Sinclair's thighs under the dress and abruptly pulled down her panties. They ripped. She palmed Sinclair's ass, squeezing the soft flesh and pulling her close. Sinclair pushed Hunter's shirt and bra aside, blindly seeking her breasts, those mounds of soft flesh that seemed so different from the rest of her. She nipped them with her teeth, raking the hardened nipples as Hunter groaned, squeezing Sinclair against her. Hunter's fingers distracted her, thrust into her, abruptly, deeply.

  "Baby ...

  "Drop-drop the seat back," Hunter gasped into Sinclair's hair. When she pulled the lever they almost flew in the backseat. Hunter's fingers slid from Sinclair's heat.

  "No! No .
.."

  "Shh. I'm coming for you, baby. Just ... yeah, open your legs like that." She filled her again, slipping more of her fingers inside as Sinclair nibbled and suckled her and undid her pants. Hunter didn't have any panties on. Sinclair almost sobbed with relief at finding her slick and ready. Hunter's legs widened even as her fingers fucked Sinclair, moving inside her with an insistent rhythm that made Sinclair long to feel the heat of Hunter on her own fingers.

  "Not inside," Hunter whispered as Sinclair's hands slid against her soft flesh and teasing the delicate petals apart. Sinclair brushed her clit, then moved away. The indirect stimulation pulled a moan from Hunter and thrust her hips hard against Sinclair. Her brain was going up in smoke with each stroke of Hunter's fingers. She bent double in Hunter's lap, feasting on her breasts as her lover brought her closer to the edge. The wicked fingers went even deeper and Sinclair fell, crying out. Her body spasmed, shuddered, then tried to move away when Hunter stroked its hypersensitive clit.

  "Stop!" Sinclair pushed her hands away and Hunter gasped into her hair, whispering her apology in a litany of moans as her hand clutched the back of Sinclair's neck tighter and tighter. Sinclair touched her clit again, lightly stroking her, then harder as she took a dark nipple deep into her mouth. Hunter jerked hard against her.

  "Oh, fuck!" Her fingers dug into Sinclair's neck. "Fuck!" Her body trembled and wept, shuddered and quaked. Sinclair held on.

  "I swear," Hunter said when she could speak coherently again. "I didn't bring you up here just for this."

  "You had better not. You know you can have me anywhere." Sinclair kissed her softly and licked at the slightly swollen mouth.

  "If only that were true."

  "Trust me. It is."

  She looked at Sinclair with a slow grin. "I'll remember that."

  Sinclair slowly pulled away until she was sitting back in the passenger seat. "So what was the real reason you brought me into the woods?"

  "Ah, so now you want to see."

  "Of course, since my immediate needs have been satisfied." She pulled off her ripped panties and tossed them in the backseat. "For now."

  Hunter put her clothes back to rights and jumped out of the jeep before grabbing a blanket and throwing it over her shoulder. "Come on then."