Turning Point

by Lara Zielinsky

  “Do you need to get home to Ryan?” Brenna asked.

  “I should,” Cassidy admitted, but she reached out for Brenna’s hand in the darkness. “But I’m kind of in a daze right now.”

  “Me too,” Brenna admitted. “I can’t believe I’m doing this.”

  “Why did you change your mind? What exactly happened this weekend?” Cassidy asked earnestly, reaching out as the auburn-haired woman’s chin dipped. “Brenna?”

  “After we got back from camping, I told myself it was…the moment, the change of pace, simply getting to see you in another role. I don’t know. Kevin called, and I resolved to work on things with him.”

  “So you have been having problems?”

  “Yes…no…or at least I didn’t acknowledge them. We’ve been finding more and more reasons to have separate lives. I haven’t been to Mount Clemens in a while and

  he hasn’t been out here in almost a year.”

  “What brought him to L.A. over Thanksgiving?”

  “He thinks we’re drifting apart.” Brenna sighed. “I lied. I said we were fine.”

  Cassidy forced herself to be Brenna’s friend first, though the ache in her arms was fierce to hold the woman, protect her from anything that upset her so. “Why lie?”

  “It’s supposed to be what I aspire to — a husband, two kids…”

  “That’s June Cleaver, not Brenna Lanigan.”

  “It’s what I was raised to believe.”

  “What about your work?” Cassidy prompted.

  Brenna shook her head. “I’d have to stop acting.” She moved away from Cassidy and stepped carefully into the breeze that pushed her hair from her face as she hugged her arms around her chest. “1 can’t do that. Acting is all I’ve wanted to do since I was a teenager. And I’m good at it.”

  “You are. So is that why you want the divorce, so you don’t have to give up actŹing? You thought you loved him once. Wasn’t that why you married?”

  Brenna frowned. “Kevin…made me feel…desirable when I didn’t feel it from anyone else.”

  Damn, maybe Will actually had it right. Somehow he had managed a clear view the rest of them never got — of Brenna, the series, even her. She watched Brenna forŹmulate her answer. The look of serious concentration created as she furrowed her brow and covered her mouth was hopelessly endearing.

  “He’s the perfect husband.”

  “Obviously not.”

  Finally her arms dropped, and Cassidy could see Brenna’s narrow shoulders square resolutely. “I’d been alone for almost six years. Kevin cares for the boys. My mother likes him.” She corrected herself. “No. Mother loves him. He and I apparently grew up across town from one another. She knew his mother through some civic organization back in the Sixties. When I was home on hiatus, she encouraged me to meet him.”

  Brenna fell silent.

  “In the beginning he was right there, every time I turned around. Now…” She sighed, pausing as she assessed her feelings honestly. “I feel more like it’s not him I fell in love with, but…the idea of his stability, the support.” She groaned and covered her face with her palms. “Does that make any sense?”

  “It does.” Cassidy stepped away from the Mountaineer and put her hands on Brenna’s shoulders, drawing the woman’s hands from her face. “Still, it amazes me that Will was right.”

  “Chapman? What does he have to do with anything?”

  Cassidy’s lips curled in a grin as she leaned her forehead against Brenna’s temŹple. “He’s been trying to put us together for months.”

  Brenna opened her mouth to fume, but Cassidy’s smile took away her sense of having been caught in a sting. “So it was all an act.”

  “No. He still hates what’s happening in the show,” Cassidy revealed. “He just didn’t see why it had to ruin us, too.”

  “Incredible. So, he thinks Nickel will be an improvement?”

  “I didn’t ask him that. But, from what I discovered about Cameron, he certainly has to be.” Cassidy frowned as she recalled the tableau she had walked in on in CamŹeron’s office the previous week.

  Brenna observed the frown and prodded, “What happened?”

  “I’d been at Paul’s office, getting the changes approved to Crash” Cassidy started. “I went to Cameron — to let him know how we’d changed his script and to give him a piece of my mind.” Brenna smiled at that. “1 found him on his couch getŹting a blowjob from some teeny-bopper.”

  “Oh my God.” Brenna covered her mouth in surprise.

  “I think I was in love with some facade…or dream, too,” Cassidy considered. “I’d known he was…somewhat on the edge. I used to find it…exciting. And God, he did help me get away from Mitch…”

  Brenna put a steadying hand on Cassidy’s arm as the woman drifted back to an obviously painful time. “What exactly caused your divorce?” she asked.

  As if quoting from a brief, Cassidy looked off blankly and recited, “Extreme psychological distress from physical and emotional domination.”

  The tone and words — so neutral, so clinical — scared Brenna. Muscles tensed, she remembered Cassidy’s conversation with Mitch on the phone. And she agreed to meet him in a park? Dear God. “You were abused?” Brenna grasped Cassidy around the waist. “And this all happened while you were struggling to adjust to Time Trails7.”

  Cassidy nodded. “It…intensified after Chris became a recurring character. My counselor said Mitch was threatened by my success. My previous roles had been guest appearances. He thought if I really hooked up with a series as a regular that I would get away from him. Lucky for me, that’s exactly what happened.

  “I hadn’t even seen it as abuse. He’s a lot like my father — likes things ‘just so’, very definite about what he wants from life, and a wife and family. Mitch kept saying Ryan needed more of me, which is completely true.” She took a deep breath. “When I was supposed to return home on the weekends, Cameron started finding reasons to keep me in L.A. — extra filming, a publicity event, anything. I slept on his couch for about three weeks. Then, well, he asked me once and I…”

  “That’s how your affair began, when you were at your most vulnerable.” Brenna shook her head. “You don’t have to explain.” The story was disconcertingly familiar. The details were different, but both of them had felt trapped by their situations and someone had miraculously appeared to resolve everything. “So, we’re both here now, I guess…losing our minds again.”

  Cassidy felt immense relief flood her body as she lifted Brenna’s cheek in her palm. She shook her head. “Maybe it’s finding our hearts for real this time. I know that I haven’t been able to talk as honestly about all of these things with anyone else.”

  “The fact that we’re both women doesn’t bother you?”

  Cassidy shook her head. “It surprised me, Bren, but…I’m…not unfamiliar with it.” She hesitated at Brenna’s surprise, then quickly went on. “When we were apart, I missed you in the space of just a few hours. Seeing you at the parade, knowing you were close but untouchable…I was hoping you’d find me today on our way out.” She smiled and took a step closer, reaching out to catch Brenna’s hand. “You did.” When Brenna’s gaze met hers, she said gently, “This might be unfamiliar territory for you, but you’re here too.”

  Brenna’s throat moved in an uneasy swallow. “I…I’ve never had feelings like this.” Cassidy felt Brenna’s fingers shifting in her hand, turning around and interŹtwining with her own fingers. “I’ve never been distracted day and night by thoughts of someone other than the one I was with.”

  Nodding — the words conveyed her own feelings, too — Cassidy tugged until Brenna was snug against her chest, the softness of her body warm against her own. Their hearts pounded together. She lowered her head slightly and poured her feelŹings out over Brenna’s skin, her lips and cheeks, meeting her eyes, inhaling the

  sweat-sweetened scent of her hair. She returned to the soft satin of bow-like lips, delving into the sweet recesses of Bre
nna’s mouth.

  Tentative fists at first, Brenna’s hands soon opened, caressing Cassidy’s body, conceding to the unexpected passion between them. As Cassidy held her face with a tender finger, nuzzling and kissing the rapidly fluttering pulse point under Brenna’s chin, Brenna gasped with spiraling need matching Cassidy’s own. “Oh God, Cass, I want you.” Brenna’s fingertips worked beneath Cassidy’s top, reaching the bare skin of her stomach, and she unleashed a soft predatory growl in Cassidy’s ear. “Now.”

  Cassidy’s stomach muscles clenched in sexual anticipation. The effect threw off her balance, and she shifted to find a way to make contact with Brenna’s bare skin. The passion continued lapping at their awareness. They exchanged nipping kisses, chased one another’s tongues, and swallowed one another’s groans.

  Stumbling against Brenna’s car, they were abruptly reminded that they were standing in plain sight in the Pinnacle parking lot. “Oh God,” Cassidy stuttered, tryŹing to regain control. “We have to stop.”

  “What?”

  Brenna’s passionate outrage would have made Cassidy laugh if she, too, had not also been suffering the destabilizing effects of interruption. Blowing out a deep, regretful breath, Cassidy calmed herself and stroked Brenna’s arms to soothe her as well. “It’s just the place. I do want to make love with you, but here and now is probaŹbly not the brightest idea.”

  Brenna nuzzled into her. Cassidy felt her heart expand at the clear signals that she was receiving from the other woman. Stroking Brenna’s hair and back, she revŹeled in the sudden feeling of protection. She had always been the submissive one in her relationships, used only for someone else’s benefit. The men she had dated called it gallantry, but she had suffered it as domination. No way would she not go slowly with this more precious person. “Bren,” she leaned back. “It’s late.”

  “I don’t want to go.”

  “I know.”

  “Cass, I want to see where this goes.” Brenna’s gaze followed the stroking of her hands on Cassidy’s arms, upward and inward along her shoulders, then down her torso. “I don’t know how, but I…I’ll learn.”

  “It will be perfect because it will be with you…but not tonight. We have work again in just a few hours.”

  Brenna’s hands stilled on Cassidy’s chest. Slowly she nodded in agreement with some inner thought. When she met Cassidy’s gaze, she asked, “Would you like to come over to the house this weekend? On Saturday?”

  Brenna’s passion was amazing; Cassidy felt it washing over her in waves — from her darkening blue eyes and from the sensuality of her body’s caress. “That’s a tempting offer.” Brenna’s hands moved under Cassidy’s top again, the touch making her groan in renewing passion. “Too tempting.” She hesitated, gently tugging Brenna’s hands free. “I don’t want regrets. If we rush this, that could happen.”

  “The whole day together.” Brenna pressed her case. “What about another climb?”

  “Camping again?”

  “No. There’s walls at the gym.”

  “So we would just get together, work out?”

  “You could bring Ryan over. I could make dinner.”

  Cassidy loved how easily Brenna included Ryan in making plans. “What would he do?”

  “I have a spare room at the house where the boys have all their play space, video games, television. 1…don’t have coloring books, or …well, there’s my sons’ old primary reader books.”

  Her grin widening as Brenna considered turning her teen sons’ space into a children’s playroom for an afternoon of family-like togetherness, Cassidy realized that the depths between them were growing. Since she didn’t want to rush their physical joining, a day surrounded by their children sounded like a proper start. “All right.” Brenna smiled, and Cassidy kissed the curvaceous lips. “Our first date.” She stepped back and opened Brenna’s car door, holding Brenna’s hand as she got into the Mountaineer.

  Their hands met at the belt catch. Cassidy’s and Brenna’s happiness bubbled up into a shared laugh and another kiss.

  “Drive safely,” Cassidy wished as she pulled back.

  “You, too.”

  With reluctance, Cassidy stepped back and closed the car door. The SUV engine roared to life. Holding herself perfectly still to preserve the moment, Cassidy reveled in the heated ball of joy ricocheting around inside her as she followed the vehicle’s progress until Brenna was out of sight.

  The house was dark when Brenna entered. Turning off the front porch light, she flipped on the foyer light and dropped her coat and purse on the small table by the door. The wall clock over the kitchen entry showed it was after two. She listened for activity in the house and heard nothing.

  Keeping as quiet as possible, Brenna stepped out of her shoes and picked them up. Combing her fingers through her hair, she retreated to the master bedroom. There she turned on the light and shut the door to the hallway. She reached for the button on her pants and tugged them off her hips, leaning back to rest on the side of the bed as she pulled them over her feet.

  Brenna rubbed her feet for a minute, mind wandering over the time she had done the same for Cassidy. She had been on her feet all day and then stayed in cosŹtume for the charity party afterward. Back in her trailer after things broke up, an exhausted Cassidy had fallen backward onto her small couch. Brenna had tugged her shoes off and provided a mini massage. With the clarity of hindsight, she realized the tingling she’d felt in her fingers during that incident had been lust, not nerves. Just like tonight. When it became clear they would be embarking on an intimate relationŹship, the same searing tingling had returned, and Brenna had become giddy with desire.

  Brenna was not a sexual novice; she knew they had been engaging in foreplay. She wanted to make love with Cassidy, but from a practical standpoint, she had no idea what sex with a woman would actually be like.

  Pulling off her clothes, she hung her blouse over the back of a chair to air and then lay back on her bed, tangling in her sheets, aware of their coolness against her bare skin. Overhead the fan’s slow rotation lulled her, and she laced her fingers over her stomach. The light touch on her abdomen and the faint sensation of moving air over her bare nipples made her stomach quiver, much as it had when Cassidy had kissed her in the tent. Tasting the passion that awaited her fantasy, Brenna lifted a hand to her right breast and circled the nipple, closing her eyes to focus on the images in her head.

  Come on, Brenna. You have a fabulous imagination. Just imagine it. Those

  words of advice from her acting coach two decades earlier rippled through her mind, inviting her to find her soul.

  First, she found Cassidy’s eyes. As Hanssen or off the set, her gaze always comŹpelled Brenna to meet it. The eyes were not a pure blue, but swirls of blue and white, like a cloud-filled sky. Sometimes they were colorless, giving Brenna the impression that she could fall into them and drown in a soul as wide and as deep as any ocean.

  Brenna imagined those eyes heating with passion as they drifted down to watch her caressing herself. She brought her other hand up, lifting her left breast and pinching the nipple between forefinger and thumb.

  When Cassidy’s head dropped, Brenna would see her hair falling forward around her face. Without the stage lights, the strands were more the color of honey than flax. She knew the texture was soft and fine, imagined the strands brushing against her chest and tangled in her fingers, as Cassidy lowered her head further still.

  In vivid panorama, her imagination weighted her down with Cassidy’s body, their breasts pressed together as they had been in the tent, the smooth legs tangled with her own. This time when the strong thigh nudged between her legs, she did not protest. The kisses she remembered so well caused her to arch into the phantasm above her, the sheets tangled tightly around her thighs and groin as she pulled at her nipples — which were swelling and rising in response to the attentions being paid to them by Cassidy’s mouth.

  Groin throbbing, Brenna arched spasmodically. She moved one hand a
way from her breasts, searching out the ache, knowing what she needed.

  She started quivering even before her fingers reached the patch of hair coverŹing her mound. Her fingertips slid through the evidence of arousal on her inner thighs, and when she finally parted her folds, she bit her lip to keep from taking herŹself over the edge immediately. She ran the tip of her tongue over her lips, tasting the perspiration already gathering from her effort to go slowly and fully explore the senŹsations.

  She curled onto her side, drawing her knees up as she moved both hands to her silken heat. She imagined Cassidy against her back, arms securely wrapped around her. She imagined both their hands finding her center, and finally, stifling her gasp of reaction, she orgasmed. Lightly stroking herself as the sensations ebbed, Brenna sighed. “Cassidy.”

  The whisper passed her lips as she burrowed under the sheet, a satisfied smile curling her lips, then drifted off to sleep for the two hours that remained before she would have to get up again.

  Cassidy knocked at the front door to the Talbot home. Lou answered it, still tying a robe around himself. “I’ll take Ryan,” she said.

  Lou waved her off. “Leave him sleeping. We’ve got a change of clothes for him for school.”

  “I shouldn’t.”

  “Shoulda thought of that three hours ago when you called and said you were on your way.”

  “Something held me up,” Cassidy said quietly.

  “I bet.”

  “I just started a pretty heavy script. Do you want me to arrange to bring him to the set after school, so you don’t have to keep him overnight?”

  “That set is no place for a five-year-old,” Lou remarked. “I saw last week’s broadcast. That farce…what was it? Brains and Brawn7. Sick. You really want your son to see you acting like that?”

  Cassidy blinked. “Excuse me?” The body-swapping script had been a fun one to do. As well as enlightening her to Brenna’s physical touch, experienced as ComŹmander Jakes had consoled the body-switched officers — her and Durham’s characŹters. She always enjoyed working with Sean, and helping him expand on his character had been a creative challenge. She wondered exactly what Lou’s problem with the story had been. Maybe it was her kiss with Rachelle’s Luria…Hwm…Cassidy shook her head. “I don’t write the scripts.”