Coalescence - SF3 (20 page)

When it became too difficult to breathe, Ryan lifted off of her and sat back on her haunches, sucking in a lungful of the slightly humid air.

Jamie’s head had dropped and now hung down towards the floor, her damp hair tossed forward, framing her face like a golden halo. Her eyes were tightly closed, and she was also having a difficult time getting control of her breathing. As Ryan watched her flushed chest deeply expand and contract, she felt another jolt of sensation shoot through her groin, and she had to struggle to control her aggression.

She began to kiss and lick every inch of skin, up and down her back and sides. Jamie was moaning continuously as Ryan slathered her with tender nibbles and warm wet kisses. Her arms finally gave out as she dropped down onto her forearms, her head hanging down loosely, small, soft moans tumbling from her mouth.

A delighted smile crossed Ryan’s face as she paused for a moment to gaze at the overpoweringly erotic vision that her partner presented. Her mouth began to water at the thought of finally tasting the gorgeous creature that was so temptingly displayed before her. Ryan climbed between her legs and dropped her head as she leaned in to kiss the glistening flesh for the first time, but as her lips brushed the first dark blonde curl, Jamie moaned a short "NO" before falling limply to the floor. Ryan immediately dropped down beside her and took her into her arms, running her hand through the damp blonde hair in a reassuring gesture. "It’s okay, Baby, it’s okay," she soothed, unsure of what had caused the reaction.

Jamie shook her head a few times, gasping with arousal as she said, "It’s too much right now. Just a little too much."

"My touch?" Ryan asked, confused and still a bit stunned.

"No." Jamie shook her head slowly, trying to explain herself. "
That
touch.
That
touch was too much."

Relief flooded Ryan’s body as she sought to calm her partner. "That’s fine, Love. No big deal. We’ll just do what feels good to you right now." Sliding her hand down the slick body, Ryan slipped the tips of her fingers between Jamie’s overheated lips and started to stroke her with a very tender touch. "How’s that?" she soothed. "Feel good?"

A rapidly nodding head reassured Ryan that her partner was still receptive to her touch, and the little grunts of pleasure that followed enhanced that impression. Jamie’s legs spread wider as the touch increased in speed, and within a few moments she cried out loudly, "Oh God, oh Ryan, ooooh, don’t stop, don’t stop, YES! Right there, Baby, Yes, Yes, YES!" One final gasp of air, and the small woman collapsed in a heap, panting roughly. Jamie’s arms were raised up over her head, and her legs were splayed apart as she continued to gasp. Ryan leaned over her and just barely heard her whisper, "Hold me."

She gladly complied, lying down next to her and wrapping her arms around the limp body. Ryan fidgeted for a moment against the hard wooden floor until she could position Jamie’s head onto her outstretched arm. She held the still panting woman to her tightly, until Jamie pulled away to roll over onto her back. She stared up at Ryan with largely unfocused eyes. "My God, what did you do to me?" she moaned.

Ryan beamed down at her, gazing fondly at the look of total, spent satisfaction that graced her face. "I just loved you," she said simply.

"Then I’ve clearly never been loved before," she said with a heavy sigh.

"You’re going to be loved an awful lot, Sweetheart," she cooed. "Do you think you’re up to it?"

"I’m more than willing to try," she said gamely, as she gave her a bright but weary smile. Ryan continued to trace small patterns on her skin as they lay together in the afterglow. Jamie would occasionally turn to gaze at her or rise up to kiss her lightly.

"I love the way you respond to my touch," Ryan purred.

"Really?" she asked tentatively, seeking the reassurance that Ryan was happy to provide.

Ryan leaned over to rub her whole face against Jamie’s neck, then slowly intoned, "I absolutely, positively, unequivocally love it."

Ryan was beaming such a happy smile that Jamie couldn’t help but join her. "When I look into your eyes, I see such love and acceptance… It’s wonderful, Baby. Just wonderful."

Ryan wrapped her arms around her partner and nuzzled her head into the crook of her neck. "I’ve been pleased beyond measure, Honey. I love you so much that when you touch me it feels like an electric shock! I’ve never experienced the kind of pleasure that I’ve felt so far from making love with you. And it’s only going to get better," she promised with a big smile.

Jamie beamed a smile that equaled that of her partner in intensity. "I’m so happy that I’ve pleased you so far. I was worried that you’d be so experienced that I would just seem inept compared with your other lovers."

"You couldn’t be more ept," Ryan teased, as she gave her a little kiss.

Jamie tossed her arms around her lover’s neck and gave her an enthusiastic squeeze. "Will you always be this sweet and thoughtful?"

"No, of course not," Ryan laughed. "I was just trying to get you hooked on me. Now that I’ve got you, my real personality can come out."

Rolling onto her side, Jamie held her head up on one hand while the other slowly trailed over Ryan’s face. She spent a moment staring intently at the strong features, while she tried to imagine what her partner’s "real" personality might consist of. Unable to determine where Ryan was going with her tease, she finally gave in. "So…tell me what your real personality is," she asked with a fond smile.

Ryan appeared to give the matter some thoughtful consideration. She pursed her lips and mused, "Oh, I expect I’ll come home late most nights…probably drunk."

"Oh, you drink to excess?" Jamie asked, tilting her head in surprise.

"Oh yeah," Ryan agreed with a straight face. "I’m rarely sober. I figure I’ll get back into the habit of hanging out with my friends at various strip clubs. I won’t want to take you, of course, because you’ll get in the way of the lap dances I like to get."

"Why would I get in the way?" Jamie demanded, getting into the game.

Ryan gazed at her for a moment with a thoughtful look. "You just seem like the jealous type," she decided. "I can’t have you cramping my style."

"Oh…okay," she agreed. "Go on, Love, this is fascinating."

"Well, if I don’t get lucky at one of the clubs or the bars we go to afterwards, I’ll stumble into the bedroom around three in the morning and wake you up with a rough shove and say, ‘Do me right, woman!’"

Jamie was laughing so hard at this inconceivable image, that Ryan couldn’t maintain her poker face for long. "Okay, okay," she admitted, joining her partner in a hearty laugh. "That’s not
exactly
how I’ll be."

"Tell me how you’ll really be," the smaller woman begged. "I want to know what I’ve gotten myself into here." Jamie was clearly enjoying the game, so Ryan decided to keep it going.

"Okay," Ryan said. "It’ll be more like this. You’ll come home from school, and I’ll be in the kitchen preparing dinner. I’ll have the laundry all finished, and the house will be spotless, as usual. I’ll pour you a glass of wine the second you come in the door. After an artfully prepared dinner, I’ll make sure you’re comfortable, then I’ll clean the kitchen and go get ready for bed. When you come up, I’ll be clean and naked and ready for you, hoping that you’ll want me. Of course, I’ll never ask for you to touch me or make any demands on you. I’ll just hope that you can find it in your heart to want me." Trusting, hopeful blue eyes blinked innocently at Jamie, and she couldn’t resist the urge to grab her partner’s nose and give it a tweak.

"Given a choice between the two," the smirking blonde intoned, "I think I’d prefer the first scenario. You would lose most of your considerable allure if you became my little lap dog."

"Hmmm," Ryan said, considering the alternatives. "Maybe we should come up with a compromise."

"Okay," Jamie said immediately. "How’s this? We get drunk together, and then
I
give you a lap dance. We order carry-out food and leave the kitchen dirty, go upstairs and make wild monkey-love until dawn."

"I’m not sure I know what monkey-love is, but I’m more than willing to learn," Ryan grinned. "I think your idea is fantastic, Ms. Evans. You’re obviously the brains of this partnership."

"That’s only fair, since you’re the brawn," the impish blonde replied. "Now let’s go clean up, Tough-Stuff. I’m a little hungry, and if I’m hungry, you must be starving!"

"You know me too well," the darker woman replied. "And that’s just how I like it."

After their showers, they decided to have a cookout on the patio since the day was so nice. Ryan agreed to handle the grilling duties, while Jamie took care of the inside preparation.

"Do you like eggplant, squash, carrots or radicchio?" Jamie asked as she surveyed the contents of the refrigerator.

"Yep."

"Which would you like tonight?" the smaller woman clarified, as she closed the door.

"All of them, actually," Ryan decided. "I’m a little low on my vegetable intake today. Let’s split a steak and cook all of the veggies on the grill."

"Hmm, split a steak, huh?" was the doubtful reply. "Do you mean ‘split’ like--each get half, or ‘split’ like--you get it all?"

"Half," Ryan agreed. "Well...maybe a little less than half. But I don’t like to eat too much red meat."

"Okay," Jamie said warily, "but I’m gonna prepare all of the vegetables that we have. I need some food, too."

"That’s my girl." Ryan beamed as she went outside to start the fire.

They hadn’t spent any time on this particular patio, but Ryan had noticed it when she was searching for her partner earlier in the day. It opened off of the dining room and was obviously designed so that grilled food could be served quickly.

The large but cozy space was designed for both cooking and entertaining, so it had been built with a six-foot-tall dry-stacked stone wall to protect the inhabitants from the wind. Wrought iron flowerpot holders were spaced frequently along the wall, and each was filled with a brilliant fuchsia or other tropical plant.

The ground was covered in a soft, buff-colored flagstone, the spaces between the stones planted with curly thyme that emitted a nice scent when walked on. In the far corner of the area stood a gleaming stainless steel grill, just waiting for action. Ryan spent a moment figuring out how to turn on the flame before she finally got it going. There were separate gas burners on the far side that would allow for the cooking of an entire meal, and she wondered how often the Evanses used the massive contraption.
Boy, at our house we could throw the oven away if we had one of these
, she mused. Noticing a refrigerator tucked under the granite counter that flanked the grill, she opened it to find several kinds of beer and wine and mixers for cocktails. Snagging a Samuel Adams Summer Brew, she sat down on one of the generous spring chairs and put her feet up on the handy ottoman.

"Don’t you look like you belong here?" Jamie joked, when she emerged with a big platter filled with cleaned and cut-up vegetables.

"Do I really?" Ryan asked, a little surprised that she would give that impression.

"Yeah, you do." There was a note of hesitation in the smaller woman’s voice as she added, "That doesn’t bother you, does it?"

"Bother me? No, it doesn’t bother me, but I am a little surprised," she admitted. "I don’t feel like I belong, and I would think that would show through."

Jamie set the tray on the counter and went to the refrigerator for a beer for herself. She handed the bottle to Ryan since her partner had a much easier time with bottle caps than she did. Pulling a matching spring chair over to face her lover, Jamie sat down and kicked off her sandals, placing her feet on Ryan’s lap. "Tell me about that, Hon. Does it bother you to be here?"

"No, no, not at all," Ryan insisted. "It’s just not what I’m used to…in the extreme," she chuckled. "I have spent some time thinking about what it must be like to take all of this for granted, and I find that I have a hard time doing so."

"You know," Jamie mused, "this is the first time you’re seen me in my native habitat. Does it change the way you feel about me?"

Ryan gave that question the consideration that it deserved, spending several minutes thinking about it. Finally she looked at Jamie and said, "No, of course it doesn’t
change
how I feel about you, but it is odd for me. I mean, I know that you don’t judge people by their net worth, but I wonder if you ever think I’m a culchie."

"Culchie?" Jamie asked.

Ryan chuckled a bit as she explained, "One of my granny’s terms. That’s what she calls the people who live in the hills. It’s like a country bumpkin."

"Ryan!" Jamie cried, reaching out to touch her leg, "How can you even ask that? I feel inferior to you in every way except money! My God, I feel so incredibly lucky that you’ve chosen me to spend your life with…I can’t imagine feeling that I was better than you because of money!"

Now Ryan blushed a little, having been caught in an insecure moment. "Sorry, Love. I’m just a little touchy about the subject. Let’s get dinner started, okay?"

She was halfway out of her chair when Jamie placed a restraining hand on her leg. "Honey, wait…please." Ryan did so and looked at her attentively. "I think we need to talk about this."