by Harper Bliss
”Brace yourself, babe,” Juliette said.
And Nadia did. Her muscles contracted as Juliette’s tongue travelled over her body, her lips nipping their way down her skin, only briefly stopping at Nadia’s nipples, because so much urgency filled the air by then—mainly in the shape of Nadia’s hands pushing Juliette’s head down.
When Juliette dragged the tip of her tongue along Nadia’s pulsing pussy lips, Nadia’s muscles tensed further. So much tension had built up in her flesh the last few weeks—and she’d hardly been in the mood to tend to herself. Still sticking to her almost-no-booze rule—except when visiting Claire, then it was impossible—her head was clear, her body reacting more keenly to Juliette’s touch.
Juliette pushed her tongue inside of Nadia, before licking upwards again, stopping at her clit. She sucked Nadia’s swollen bud between her lips, time and time again, before unleashing her tongue.
All around Nadia, the walls seemed to cave in. A black hole swallowed her for a few seconds, before releasing her into a bubble of sheer joy. The tingle spread through her flesh, tears stinging behind her eyes, as her muscles relaxed and she fell back onto the bed.
Juliette was smart. She didn’t give Nadia time to recover. Pushing herself up, her fingers already roaming around Nadia’s soaked pussy lips, she said, “Look at me, babe.”
Nadia opened her eyes and looked into Juliette’s angelic face, her chin glistening with juices. It was the only time of the day when Juliette’s face could be described as angelic—when she did this. When she let go of everything and gave herself to Nadia.
Juliette locked her gaze on Nadia as she let three fingers slip inside, spreading her wide from the get-go.
Nadia huffed out a blast of air—pure relief bursting from her lungs—but held Juliette’s gaze. She didn’t have to say it this time. Juliette was already fucking her. Three fingers delved inside of her, going wide, thrusting deep. It seemed that, with every stroke, another layer of hurt dissolved, and Nadia was glad she’d taken that first, deceptively simple step to reconciliation. Hadn’t Juliette said it once when they were shagging like bunnies to forget there issues? This is who we are. Juliette had held the right end of the stick many more times than Nadia had given her credit for.
“Yes, oh yes,” she said, still staring into Juliette’s face, which didn’t look so angelic anymore. Her eyes were narrowed to slits, and those lips, oh goodness—Juliette thrust deeper, deeper than Nadia thought she could go, and the sensation crashed through Nadia’s entire body as if she’d taken some sort of instant pleasure drug. Hit after hit pounded through her veins, quickly saturating her blood.
Out of breath, the back of her head met the pillow, as Juliette let her fingers slip out. She kissed her way back up Nadia’s torso, until she reached Nadia’s face, a triumphant grin playing on her lips.
“And to think I was worried about this,” Nadia said. She pulled Juliette closer and wrapped her arms around her. “That we almost walked away from this.” Nadia’s cheeks were wet with tears, her heart full of love. She planted a kiss on Juliette’s tousled hair, before finding her ear. “I need you to lie on your back for me, babe.”
Juliette broke away from their embrace and looked down at Nadia, biting her lip. She complied instantly.
“Spread your legs and touch yourself. I want to see,” Nadia instructed. She pushed herself up and positioned herself at the other end of the bed to get a better view. “Make yourself come for me.”
Juliette’s legs fell apart, both of her hands reaching between her upper thighs. Her eyes were wild, her lips crooked, and, as she started tracing her fingers across her pussy lips, she was still, after all this time, the most beautiful woman Nadia had ever seen.
CLAIRE
Claire made a detour before steering her car towards the motorway. She couldn’t leave on holiday before she’d seen her, before she’d asked. She found a parking space near the hospital’s entrance and hoped she wouldn’t run into Margot in the corridors. Or Nadia, for that matter. She didn’t feel like explaining herself, she just wanted to confront Inez. She stalked through the hallway to the on-call room where she’d met Margot a few times, praying that she wouldn’t find the two of them together, sitting across from each other, not touching but as good as all over each other, the way she and Margot had been.
“Claire?”
Fuck. It was Nadia’s voice. Claire supposed it would have been too easy to just walk in and find Inez. She didn’t even know if she was working today. She turned around. “Yes.”
“What are you doing here?” Nadia had that look of compassion on her face again, as if she understood everything Claire was going through. And perhaps she did, but she didn’t feel her pain. Didn’t feel that bitter sting of rejection that only seemed to intensify as the days progressed.
“I’m looking for Inez. I need to speak with her. Is she here?”
“Yes, but—”
“Please, Nadz, five minutes, then I’ll be out of your way.” She dropped her hands to her sides. “Please.” Claire didn’t have to try to make it sound heartfelt. The state her heart was in was plastered all over her face—she saw it every time she looked in the mirror.
“Okay.” Nadia nodded. “You know where my office is, right?”
“Yes.” Claire guessed Nadia felt guilty. After all, she’d set her and Margot up, after which she had hired Inez—the consequences of that staring her straight in the face.
“Wait there. I’ll ask her to meet you there as soon as possible.”
“Thanks.” Claire turned on her heels and quickly made her way to Nadia’s office before she could change her mind—and before she ran into Margot in the hallways. Claire wouldn’t be able to handle that particular confrontation, she knew that much.
If she ever had an emergency, she’d be sure to never come to this bloody hospital, where doctors got hired because of their family connections instead of their skills. Not that she suspected that Inez lacked skills, obviously being a model human being and all that.
She didn’t have to wait long before the door to Nadia’s office opened, and, without knocking, Inez walked in.
Claire was well aware of the dark circles under her eyes, the pallid complexion of her skin because of too much vodka and not enough sleep. She suspected it stood in stark contrast to Inez’ radiant appearance, ginger hair tucked into a neat ponytail, her skin as clear as day. Claire didn’t know what to say now that she stood face-to-face with Inez, the person who had taken it all from her.
“I’m so sorry, Claire,” Inez said. “Why don’t we sit for a minute.” She gestured at the two chairs across from Nadia’s desk.
Claire’s legs shook as she padded to the chair. She’d hoped for a brave stance, a stern voice and hands that didn’t tremble the way hers were doing. Already emotionally exhausted, just by looking at Inez, she fell into the chair.
“Are you and Margot—” Saying her name was enough to elicit a tear to spring from Claire’s eyes.
“Look, Claire…” Inez sat down in the chair next to Claire’s and turned it towards her. She put a hand on Claire’s arm.
“Don’t touch me.” Claire held up her palms. “Just…” She shook her head. “Don’t.”
“I didn’t mean for Margot to break up with you.” She actually sounded as if she meant what she was saying.
“Then why the hell did you come back for her? Do you think I can’t put two and two together?” All the anger that had been building inside of her came out. “Are you bloody happy now?”
“I understand you’re angry.” Inez kept her voice calm. After the things she must have seen, a scorned lover was probably nothing for her. A bit of a nuisance, maybe, but nothing she couldn’t cope with. “If I was in your shoes, I’d be angry too. But you must believe me. Neither I, nor Margot, set out to hurt you.”
“Oh really.” Because, fuck, it hurt. “Next you’ll be telling me you’re not sleeping together, either. And that you didn’t come back for her, to this very
hospital.”
“We’re not together. You know Margot. She’s devastated by this.”
Claire narrowed her eyes. “She is?”
Inez puffed out some air. “What do you think?”
“I don’t know what to fucking think. All I know is that we were happy, then as soon as you came along, she dumped me.”
“I’m sorry.” Inez didn’t say anything else. Was the great, heroic doctor at a loss for words as well? Did she not get exactly what she had bargained for? It didn’t change anything for Claire.
“Yeah, well, so am I.” Claire rose from her chair. The most she could take from this meeting was that Inez and Margot hadn’t fallen into each other’s arms…. yet. It was only a matter of time. “Thanks for nothing, doc.” Claire walked to the door and shut it behind her with a loud bang. She stormed out of the hospital as quickly as she could, found her car and sat behind the steering wheel for about thirty seconds before the tears came. She banged her fist on the dashboard, but all it did was leave her with a sore knuckle. Maybe a few days with her family would do her good. As if.
MARGOT
“Claire came to see me.” Margot had just arrived at the hospital for the graveyard shift, had literally just slipped into her white coat, when Inez sprung the news on her in the changing room. Her stomach did another one of those flips it had been doing quite frequently the past week.
“What did she say?” Margot crashed with her back against the lockers, the image of Claire crumbling in front of her still fresh in her mind.
“What do you think, Go-Go?” Inez stared her down. “She came to wish us the best of luck.” Frustration seemed to seep from every pore of Inez’ skin.
“What did you say to her?”
Inez took a few steps closer. “That I was sorry you broke her heart.” She paused. “And that, in the end, it had probably all been for nothing anyway.”
“Lay off.” If it had been possible, Margot would have pushed herself further into the lockers. Since that heartbreaking scene at Claire’s apartment, Margot had barely been able to be in the same room as Inez. She’d thought she was doing the right thing, but all she had ended up feeling was pure guilt.
“It’s true though, isn’t it?” Inez backed off a little, sitting down on the bench in front of the lockers. “You kiss me. You break up with your girlfriend for me. Then you avoid me like the plague. What am I supposed to think?”
“Don’t start.” Margot didn’t want to have this discussion here. “You’re the one who ruined us in the first place.” And she was the one who had ruined Claire.
“Yes, I made a mistake. A big one.” Inez rose, shuffling closer to Margot again. “And you know how dreadfully sorry I am about that. About hurting you like that.” Her green eyes found Margot’s. “And I’ll give you all the time you need. I hope you know that.” She swallowed hard. “But it kills me that you won’t talk to me, that you’re shutting me out.” A finger brushed against Margot’s hand. “That you’re swapping shifts to avoid me.”
“I know.” Margot sighed. “I just hadn’t expected that hurting someone the way I hurt Claire would have such an effect on me.” Margot retracted her hand to no longer feel Inez’ touch. “You did that to me and still had the nerve to come back.”
“Because I love you, more than anything and anyone in this world.”
“That’s bullshit, Inez. If you did, you wouldn’t have left. You would have stayed for me.”
“If you wanted me to stay so badly, you should have asked. You made it seem as if I was doing the world a big favour by joining MSF, as if it was a sacrifice you would easily make.”
Margot shook her head. “Don’t turn this around on me.” She padded to the right a bit, out of Inez’ personal space. “Either way, that’s water under the bridge now.”
“Come on, Go-Go. We have to talk about this stuff.” Inez sat down again. “I’m off tomorrow. Come to mine after your shift. Just for a talk.”
“I can’t. Not yet.” She looked at Inez, at how beautiful she was, even just after a shift—and after facing the wrath of Claire. “Maybe this weekend. Okay?”
“I’m going to hold you to that.” Inez’ voice had grown soft, barely a whisper.
“I’d best get going.” Margot threw Inez one last, quick glance before exiting the changing room.
STEPH
“Children are exhausting,” Steph said, watching Dominique as she sat down next to her on a bench in the garden.
“And thanks to you, they’re exhausted.” Dominique shot her a smile. “I think, by the time you have to leave, they’ll love you just as much as I do.”
Children are also easy, Steph thought. Meeting Lisa and Didier had been uncomplicated. They weren’t interested in where she came from or what she was doing at their grandfather’s house. They only cared about how much she played with them, how high she could throw them in the swimming pool, and how long she could hold her breath under water.
“Big words, Maman.” Steph smiled back at Dominique. She seemed to tan so easily. The only thing Steph had to show for a day in the sun was a couple of painful, red patches on her back and shoulders.
“Don’t call me that.” Dominique banged her heel into Steph’s shin. “Exactly how tired are you?”
“What? You want to bang the nanny now?” Spending the entire day with Lisa and Didier hadn’t left a lot of time for the two of them. Dominique was a different person with her children, when all the sexual innuendo between her and Steph fell away.
“Why don’t I pour us a large glass of wine and we drink it in the jacuzzi?”
“You mean out here?” The children’s bedrooms opened straight onto the pool.
“We could just talk, you know.” Dominique let her foot fall against Steph’s leg again, but softer this time. “We have the luxury of time this week. Besides, I’d like to ask you a few things.”
“Sure.” Steph hoped the jacuzzi was strong enough to force some new life into her tired muscles. “A conversation with a politician. I look forward to it.”
Dominique leaned forward and kissed her on the nose. “Hop on in. I’ll be right there.”
Still in her bathing suit, Steph walked over to the jacuzzi and let herself slip in, finding a spot where a jet could massage her back. Dominique returned with a bottle of rosé and a plastic ice bag to keep it cool.
“What?” Steph asked, after Dominique had poured them both a generous glass and sat opposite her, their legs intertwined under water. She looked at Steph with a soft glint in her eyes.
“I’m already dreading the moment you’ll have to leave.” Was she getting sentimental? Steph was discovering unknown sides of Dominique a mile a minute. But she felt it too, and she’d only just arrived. The awkwardness of the first night had dissolved quickly and, after today, Steph wanted to stay for at least another month—although the children would have broken her physically by then.
“Let’s make the most of the time we have.” Steph was surprised by how philosophical her words sounded.
“Can I ask you an intimate question?” Dominique took her wine glass from the side of the pool and drank while waiting for Steph’s reply.
“Be my guest.” Steph grabbed her glass as well. The wine was cool against her tongue, its taste tender and fruity.
“I watched you with Didier and Lisa today, all day, really, and I realised I don’t know very much about you. I mean, your body has become quite familiar, but Stéphanie Mathis, the person, is still a bit of a mystery.” Dominique caught Steph’s leg between hers under water.
“What would you like to know?” They spoke differently to each other here. Not feeling the effects of the pressure of time so much. Not blindly wanting to grab each other every second before one of them would have to rush off. Steph, also, didn’t feel the need to reply to every question Dominique asked with a sparring quip—the way she often did when they were in Paris.
Dominique bit her lip before asking the question that, obviously, had been on her min
d a while. “How many women have you been with?”
Steph looked away, into the darkness to her right, for an instant. She wasn’t ashamed of her lifestyle, she simply didn’t have a clue. “I don’t know, fifty maybe, or a hundred. It’s hard to keep track of these things sometimes.” She scanned Dominique’s face, only half-lit up by a garden lamp, looking for signs of disapproval.
“Mmm.” Dominique retreated behind her pokerface. “How about since we met?”
Steph puffed some air through her nostrils. “Two. You and this girl I went home with on my birthday, because you weren’t there.” Steph regretted Cassandra—and conveniently forgot about her visit to Le Noir—because of how empty it had made her feel. “And we were on a break.”
Dominique sucked both of her lips into her mouth and nodded. “Okay. I appreciate your honesty. Always have.”
“Does it, huh, bother you?” A small surge of panic rushed through Steph.
“A little, I won’t lie, but I have no claims to make.” Dominique dropped Steph’s leg from the under-water grip she’d been holding it in.
“If it’s any consolation, it didn’t mean anything.” She took a quick sip. “I’m not one to declare my love easily, but, well, you know.”
“Remember that day I came to your office, the day we decided to go on that break?” Dominique deposited her glass on the side of the jacuzzi, focusing her full attention on Steph. “The question I asked you that triggered the whole thing?”
Steph nodded. Of course she did.
“Do you mind if I ask you again?” Dominique pushed herself to the edge of the mosaic bench, closer to Steph. “You can say no if you want. It won’t change anything. Not this time.”
Steph took a deep breath and nodded again. “There was this girl, obviously…” She got rid of her glass as well and her limbs met Dominique’s in the water. “My second year of college. Her name was Laurence. We became friends, then more. I’d had girl crushes before, but with her, it was different. I could see it, you know. Could see the two of us doing all sorts of grown-up things together. I loved her. And she loved me too.” It was a long time ago, but the memory still stung—it always would. “We were inseparable for a year, until one day, we met this guy who was a year above us. Ivan. I liked him and the three of us had a lot of fun together, until she left me for him.” Steph felt Dominique slip closer under water, her palms on her thighs. “It hurt so much that I told myself that if this was how it was going to be every time I loved someone, I’d do things differently from then on. And I did.”