“Yes, it was.” Eva met her eyes. “Ember, it was. What you did here was a lot of work, and I appreciate it.”
“You can appreciate it this way.” Ember tried to reconnect their lips, but Eva laughed to prevent it and pushed her back by the shoulders.
“I will,” Eva told her, “later.” She picked her coat up off the floor and tossed it over the half wall next to the stairs.
Ember followed Eva over to the table she’d made for them. She lifted the lids she’d placed on the plates to keep the food warm.
“I have dessert too. I had the pastry chef make us something because I can cook, but I’m not great with desserts. It’s this fig thing. Do you like figs? I probably should have asked.”
“I like figs, yeah,” Eva replied, and Ember sat in front of her.
“Good.” She looked down at her own plate for a moment. “I swear, every time I think I’m over my nervousness with you, it comes back.” Ember laughed at herself.
“You’re nervous with me?”
“Sometimes,” Ember said.
“You didn’t appear to be a second ago.”
“We were making out. That’s all in the moment and hot. This part is still something I’m getting used to.” She motioned to the table.
“The date part?”
“The part where it feels like more than just a date with you,” she admitted. “That’s the part I’m not used to, I think. I’ve dated a lot. Dinners and movies and all the other standard date activities, but it’s never been like this before for me.”
“Don’t be nervous,” Eva said, but Ember felt her hand shaking as she placed the napkin in her lap. “That’s how this whole thing started.”
“What?” Ember glanced at her.
“This whole thing started with a napkin.” Eva laughed. “That’s kind of funny when you think about it.”
Ember laughed and felt her nervousness dissipate. Eva always seemed to know just what to do to make her feel better.
“I guess it is,” Ember admitted.
She watched as Eva took the first bite, took a sip of beer, and then she watched as she smiled in delight.
“This is great, Em.”
“I’m glad you like it.” Ember started on her own plate. “So, how was your day?”
“You won’t believe this,” Eva began. “Doug called.”
“Your old boss?”
“Kayla’s sick. Something’s got her out of commission for about a month. He needs me to fill in for her.”
“What?”
“I start teaching again on Monday.”
“You said yes?” Ember was a little surprised at that.
“It’s not Doug’s fault the college didn’t have enough money to pay me. He’s been great with recommendations as I’ve been interviewing. Plus, Kayla’s students need a teacher, and the others are slammed this time of year.”
“You’re a good person. Better than me, because I don’t think I’d do it. Maybe I’m just spiteful.”
“You do not strike me as a spiteful person, babe,” Eva said and then took another bite.
Ember hung on that word again and smiled as her head faced down.
“Not normally, I guess,” she said after a moment of letting that word settle in her mind and body and most importantly, her heart. “So, you’re teaching again? That’s great.”
“It’ll be weird,” Eva said. “I’ll be back there, but not really back there. I don’t know how it’s going to feel. I just hope I’ll get through it and will be able to say goodbye again.”
“I’ll help you through it when the time comes. I’m not exactly sure what my help would be, but I can-”
“Just being there is enough.” Eva reached her hand across the table and took Ember’s. “Your help at my office was enough. It made it better having you there.”
Ember felt better when she was with Eva too. She felt like she could finally be herself for the first time in her life.
“Happy to help, Scout.”
“Hey, you owe me a story.”
“I do?”
“Yes, you’ve been putting off telling me about the fight with your parents. I told you I wouldn’t forget.”
“I was hoping you would.”
“Em, what happened?” Eva asked.
Ember considered for a moment and then took another bite of her food. She was already nearly done, and as she glanced at Eva’s plate, she could see Eva was as well.
“I asked for time off on Monday and he gave me a hard time about it. I sort of went off on him.”
“For that?”
“For everything,” Ember responded and stood up. She picked up Eva’s plate along with her own and moved them to the counter. She grabbed the dessert plates and carried them back with her. “I was told Prosecco was a good match with this. I brought some up. You interested?” Ember asked as she placed the plate down in front of Eva and then put the other one in front of her own seat.
“I’m not even done with my beer yet. You trying to get me drunk?”
Ember smiled and sat back down.
“No. If you want it later, let me know.”
“Back to the story, please,” Eva said.
“I have to give him time to cool down, and we’ll go back to how it was before I blew up at him.”
“Do you want that?” Eva took a bite of the dessert. “This is amazing.”
“I’ll tell Tabitha you liked it,” Ember took a bite of her own dessert. “And I don’t know if that’s what I want. I guess I would like it if something I said actually sunk in, but that’s never happened before, so I don’t know why it would now.”
“I’m sorry, Em. I wish he understood how amazing you are,” Eva said.
There were several moments of silence while they finished their desserts and enjoyed the slow jazz music playing behind them.
“Hey, I know this isn’t exactly a real apartment, but it has the basic amenities,” Ember began. “I’m staying here tonight already. Is there a chance I could convince you to stay with me? We can just sleep. I liked falling asleep next to you and waking up that way. We’ve only been able to do that once so…” She allowed her words to fade as she pushed her plate toward the center of the table.
“I didn’t bring anything-”
“I have stuff here. Clothes and stuff.”
She felt that nervousness again. It was like this pit in her stomach. She had never been so worried about messing something up in her life. She’d never worried about asking a woman to stay with her, and she’d definitely never offered to just sleep next to one, but she wanted Eva to know that she mattered to her more than anyone she’d ever been with. She wanted Eva to trust that those days were behind her. She’d take things as slow as they needed. She watched Eva stand and walk over to her before sitting on her lap and wrapping her arms around Ember’s neck.
“I would love to stay,” Eva replied. “But you’re doing that nervous thing again, aren’t you?” She kissed her forehead and then her nose before Ember felt Eva’s hand playing with her hair and caressing her neck. “Are you holding back because of me?”
“What do you mean?” Ember held onto Eva’s waist with one arm and rested the other across her thighs and nestled in her lap.
“Tell me what you’re thinking right now, babe,” Eva said. Ember heard the word again and smiled. “See? That. What caused that smile?” she asked with a kiss to Ember’s temple.
“You call me babe sometimes.”
“Is that okay?”
“Yeah, it’s the way you do it that gets to me. No one’s ever called me babe, like you do.”
“Yeah?” Eva leaned her head down and placed her chin on Ember’s shoulder, placing her lips next to Ember’s ear. “What else were you thinking? You can tell me.”
“That I want you to trust that I’m in this for the right reasons.”
“Do you think I doubt that?” Her lips moved to Ember’s neck. “I don’t. If you just wanted sex or something easy, you wouldn’t have p
ut up with a weekend on an Iowa farm with my crazy family.” She paused. “What else?”
Ember felt the press of warm lips against her even warmer flesh and found her hands pressing more firmly into Eva’s back and thighs.
“That I want you, but I don’t want to go too fast if you’re not ready.”
“You think I’m not ready? I’m sitting in your lap, babe.” She drew her tongue to Ember’s earlobe and toyed with it. “I’m kissing your neck. I feel that hand on my thigh moving up and I haven’t exactly stopped you, have I?” Eva teased her tongue gently down the pulsing flesh of Ember’s neck.
“No,” Ember gulped as she slid her hand closer to Eva’s warmth.
“Take me to bed, Ember Elliot,” Eva whispered in her ear and then moved to stand.
Ember sat staring up at her with an open mouth. Eva was standing before her in a simple black sweater and light gray slacks with black flats, and she was breathtakingly beautiful. Her hair was pulled back away from her neck. Ember wanted her lips on it, but she also just wanted to stare. She wanted to remember this moment forever. She’d never stopped to think about something like this before.
“You are crazy beautiful.” Ember finally stood, but as she did, she reached out in front of her and lifted the sweater up and off Eva. She tossed it over her chair and immediately hated the equally black, ribbed tank top that Eva had on that prevented Ember from seeing what was underneath. She ran her hands, palms pressed to skin, up from Eva’s hips to her abdomen and then up, over her breasts to her shoulders and back down her back. She felt Eva’s breath on her as she lifted the shirt up and over.
She remembered the sight of Eva’s breasts in that bra in her mother’s kitchen, but this was definitely different. She swallowed hard as she glanced down and saw a light gray bra that nearly matched Eva’s pants. Ember looked into Eva’s eyes to see them somehow lighter too, as if the color of the bra made them change to a brighter shade of charcoal.
Eva’s hands grabbed onto Ember’s shirt. She pulled it up and over Ember’s head, revealing her skin and a white bra. Her hands reached around Ember’s back, and before Ember knew it, her breasts were bare. Eva was focused on them before she lifted her eyes and Ember saw a new kind of darkness there. She wondered if her own eyes matched their intensity. Ember was speechless and apparently paralyzed, because Eva had to remove her own bra and then Ember was the one focused on the small yet firm breasts in front of her.
Ember’s hands remembered how to work finally. She reached forward to touch that skin she’d been craving. She ran fingers up against the soft flesh between Eva’s breasts and felt the skin tremble beneath them. She reached down to Eva’s pants, undid the button and slid down the zipper. Eva watched the zipper fall and met Ember’s eyes again. There was something in Eva’s eyes that Ember couldn’t identify, but she knew something as she tried to understand them. She knew. She knew she wanted this to be her last first time.
She allowed Eva’s pants to fall. Eva stepped out of them along with her flats. She was left only in her panties. Ember removed her own jeans, walked Eva backward to the bed and watched Eva fall onto it on her own. Ember knelt in front of the bed and pulled Eva’s legs open. She ran her hands up and down her smooth calves and thighs. She registered the goosebumps on Eva’s thighs with every touch and placed her lips there to feel them.
She heard Eva’s gasp the first moment the lips touched skin, and she felt her own breath quicken in response. It had been a long time for Ember and her body craved more, wanted more, needed more, and needed it now. But despite those physical urges, she wanted to take her time with Eva. She wanted her to know how important this was to her; how special she was to her. She kissed up Eva’s legs, but her lips avoided the area where they met.
Instead, she blew warm breath over a particularly sensitive spot, moved her lips to the other thigh and peppered it with long, wet kisses before she reached for the waistband of Eva’s underwear. She held her hands there for a moment to let Eva know she could stop this now if she wanted to, but when Eva did nothing, save slightly writhe beneath her touch, Ember pulled them down and tossed them away. She stood and watched Eva lean up on her elbows. Ember slid her own underwear off and watched Eva slide back on the bed, so that Ember could climb on top of her. Eva’s hands went to Ember’s back and her lips were on Ember’s as their bodies pressed together. At first, just enough so that their nipples lightly grazed and then hardened, and then a little more. Ember enjoyed the feeling of Eva’s nipples against her own. She wanted to move slightly up and down so that it would happen repeatedly, but as she did that, her body nestled down in between Eva’s thighs and she felt that urge to touch and taste her body. She was about to overheat and implode from the feeling of Eva’s naked body beneath her.
“That feels really good,” Eva let out and looked down at the sight of their breasts sliding against one another. “Yeah, that,” she repeated as Ember continued.
Ember’s mouth moved to her neck and they were pressed together entirely.
“I can feel you,” Ember managed to utter.
She could feel Eva’s wet center against her own as she continued to move against her, almost bursting just from that realization. She’d done that to her. She’d made Eva feel that way. Ember lifted her head and her eyes were fixed on Eva’s. This was it, she thought to herself. This was what it meant to be whole. This, right here.
She kissed her again. Eva’s tongue was demanding as her hands slid down to Ember’s ass, cupping it and driving it down harder into her pulsing sex. Ember’s breathing was coming fast and hard as she slid herself down enough to capture a rigid nipple in her mouth. She sucked softly at first as she lifted herself enough to spread her thighs and place one on either side of Eva’s.
“Yes,” Eva gasped.
Ember pressed down again and began to suck harder. She massaged the other breast with her hand and took the pebbled nipple between her thumb and forefinger. She pressed her own center against Eva’s thigh and felt some relief against the pounding of her sex.
While Ember had no problem taking care of herself when it came to orgasms, she rarely did it. Some nights, she’d touch herself softly and slowly and leave it at that. Other times, she’d feel the familiar signs of being turned on, but she’d leave it for another day. Rarely did she carry herself all the way there. As she felt her wet, pulsing clit push into Eva’s firm and well-exercised thigh, she thought it might have been over a month since her last orgasm. She could feel it rising in her like the build of a tsunami after an earthquake. It started with the rumbling in her legs as she tried to hold herself up above Eva and continued to luxuriate in her breasts, neck, and lips. It continued with slow, steady waves like a calm ocean, and then there was a moment where the water would pull back before the waves formed to crash. Ember felt that moment. She pulled back because she didn’t want to come like this the first time. She wanted Eva’s hand or her mouth or both to push her over the edge.
But just as she paused her hips, Eva gripped Ember’s back tightly with her hands and rolled them over. She crashed her lips into Ember’s and used her thigh against Ember’s center to get her to the edge before she slid her hand between their bodies and cupped her, still pressing her thigh now wet with Ember’s arousal into the back of Eva’s hand. The hand wasn’t moving. Its stillness in combination with the movement of hips and thigh was enough to get Ember that first heavy wave. Her mouth opened wide in surprise, closed and opened again as Eva’s fingers danced around her clit without actually touching it, all while their hips moved in rhythm with each other.
Ember’s hands were in Eva’s hair as Eva’s lips pressed to her neck. Her fingers started moving closer to her clit and then one was on top of it. It was sliding up and down with firm pressure and a second finger joined in. The sliding grew faster and Ember’s breathing grew with it.
“You’re so beautiful, Ember. So unbelievably beautiful,” Eva cooed in her ear. “I thought it the first moment I saw you.” She pressed two
fingers inside Ember.
“Oh,” Ember let out in a high pitch and held onto Eva’s neck.
She pressed Eva’s lips down into her skin while Eva’s fingers pushed into her and her thumb grazed her clit at the same time. She came undone. The tsunami crashed into the shore, and her orgasm overtook her. Her hips lifted high off the bed, causing Eva to have to hold onto her to keep her in place. The fingers inside her did not slow as she crested. Eva managed to lift herself up. She pressed her forehead to Ember’s as Ember came again, this time even harder than the first one. Eva’s fingers had curled inside her body while her thumb pressed down directly on her clit forcing her off the bed again and then she fell.
Her back hit the bed and Eva fell on top of her. Her hand remained in place for several moments with soft, soothing strokes applied every so often that garnered small whimpers from Ember. Eva waited for another moment before removing her hand and lifting herself up to stare down at the completely dismantled Ember.
“Beautiful,” she repeated and moved her lips down to place a gentle kiss against Ember’s still half-open mouth.
“I wanted to do that to you first,” Ember finally laughed out.
“Sorry?” Eva smiled into another kiss.
“Don’t ever be sorry for that.”
Ember felt like jelly. Her body was more relaxed than it had ever been in her life and she wanted to stay that way and enjoy the feeling of her muscles being relieved of all their tension. But what she wanted even more, was to address the feeling of wetness that was still pressed against one of her thighs. She listened to Eva laugh wildly as she flipped them over without reservation and settled back over her. She smiled down at her and ran her fingers over her soft lips before replacing those fingers with her lips. Eva moaned into the kiss and Ember slid her hand between them, feeling the arousal between Eva’s thighs and the heat she’d longed to touch. Eva gasped at that touch. Ember ran slick fingers through her folds, enjoying how touching Eva this way felt against her own skin and yet again, between her legs. She’d have to deal with her own arousal later because right now she wanted to hear Eva’s sounds and feel her muscles tighten around her fingers. She moved two fingers inside of her and felt Eva’s hips rise as if on command. She slid her lips down Eva’s neck and pressed hot kisses to her collarbone and then to her breasts before attaching them to Eva’s abdomen and then those lines on her hips she’d longed to touch with her tongue. She did all of this while pushing her fingers inside Eva’s body. Eva’s hand went into her hair. Ember’s tongue hardened against Eva’s skin and dragged down until she was between her folds, capturing her clit in her mouth and sucking it.
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