Coalescence - SF3 (30 page)

"Hmm," the dark woman said, addressing the issue seriously. "Well, being with you has changed my mind about that a little bit," she admitted. "Before we got together, I was pretty sure I wanted to have a child right after I graduated. But now I’m not so sure."

"I don’t understand why you would change your mind because of me?" Jamie asked, a small frown forming.

"I used to think that I would raise a child alone, and it seemed like a good idea to do it before I started a career. With you, I’m not in as big a rush. I won’t have the same worries about child care, being able to afford it, and things like that."

Taking Ryan’s hand in hers, Jamie led her to the window seat, where Ryan leaned up against the side wall, extending one long leg and bending the other at the knee. Jamie sat between her legs with her torso resting against Ryan’s chest. "Much better," the smaller woman sighed, as Ryan’s arms encircled her body. "Do you think it will bother you to let me pay for a lot of the expenses of child-rearing?" Jamie asked.

Ryan’s deep laugh rumbled through Jamie’s body. "I’m sure I’ll have a few issues," she admitted. "But if we’re going to have kids, my primary concern is to make sure they’re well cared for. I think I’ll be able to put my concerns aside to make that happen."

"That’s good to hear," Jamie said. "I’ve been afraid that we would argue a lot about things like that."

"Oh, we probably will," Ryan chuckled. "I have a sneaking suspicion that you and I have different standards about what constitutes the necessary expenses of raising a child. We’re going to have to come to some agreement about things before going forward."

"Details, details," Jamie assured her. "I certainly don’t need to raise our children in the style I was brought up, and I don’t think we need to stick with your family’s austerity, either. We’ll come up with our own little model."

"Sounds like a deal," Ryan agreed. "But, I would like to give you one little piece of reality, Babe. My youth was not austere. We were very average in our neighborhood, and I can’t think of anything I ever really needed that I didn’t have."

Jamie squeezed her partner’s arms as she quickly apologized. "Oh, Baby, I didn’t mean that like it sounded. I just meant that your upbringing was austere compared to mine. I was given everything—far too much, in reality. I don’t want to raise our kids like that. But I also don’t want them to have to work like you did for every little extravagance."

Ryan returned her squeeze and leaned over to nibble on Jamie’s ear, "We’ll see," she murmured, closing the door on the money issue for the time being.

"Given that, when do you think you’d like to start?" Jamie asked, returning to her initial question.

"I guess it still depends a little on what I want to do professionally. And of course, on what you want to do, also. I’m not in this alone anymore," she said with a smile.

"Is it important for you to give birth?" Jamie asked, assuming that it was.

"As selfish as it seems, yeah, it is important to me. I know I would love any child of ours the same, no matter which of us gave birth to it. I just feel that there is a connection to my mother that I can only have if I actually give birth myself. I want to feel that primal, instinctual connection that childbirth gives you."

"I can’t imagine how cute you would be pregnant," Jamie mused, picturing her partner’s perfectly flat tummy expanding to massive proportions.

"I feel the same way about you," Ryan replied, as she nibbled Jamie’s neck. "You would be devastatingly sexy."

"Do you find pregnant women attractive?" Jamie asked in a surprised tone, as she turned a little to make eye contact.

"Totally," Ryan said firmly. "And I’m sure you would be so completely hot looking that I’d be on you like flies to honey."

"So if our sex life gets boring, I could just get pregnant to spice it up?"

"Well, that’s one of the worst reasons I’ve ever heard of to have a child, but I bet it would work," Ryan conceded with a leer. She gave her a firm hug as she asked, "Is it important to you to give birth?"

"I’m certainly not averse to the idea," Jamie mused. "I always assumed that I would, since I would be married to a man, and they’re not very good at doing that. Now that I have a built in baby-making machine, I’m not so sure. I think I’ll just have to wait and see if I have a real need to reproduce. There is a part of me that might prefer to adopt a couple of kids."

"I’d be more than happy with that arrangement," Ryan agreed. "Although I have a very strong desire to have a cute little Jamie clone running around the house."

"I’d love to give birth if I could actually have a child with you, Ryan. But my desire is much less strong if I just have to use some stranger’s sperm."

"Well, there are a couple of near clones that you might be able to hook up with," she said with a wiggling eyebrow.

"Do you mean your brothers?" Jamie asked in surprise.

"Yeah. Conor has already offered. He told me years ago that he’d be happy to help out."

"Wow!" she replied with excitement. "That puts a whole different spin on the issue. That would almost be like having a child with you."

"It’s a close as you can get without cloning," she said with a twinkle in her eyes.

"Gee, I don’t know, Ryan," Jamie hedged. "Having Conor for a dad and you for a mom could be really dangerous."

"And just why is that?" she asked somewhat indignantly.

"You’re both so wild and full of energy! I don’t know if I could keep up."

"Yeah, but your moderating influence would be important, too. Maybe the baby would take after you."

"Have you paid any attention to the dominance of the O’Flaherty genes?" Jamie demanded. "Everyone but Rory looks like they came from the same mold. Even your cousins don’t look like their mothers. Those are some powerful genes, Baby."

"I guess you’re right, there. Maybe you would do better to just go to a sperm bank."

"Uh-uh," she said with a determined shake of her blonde head. "I love every little O’Flaherty gene," she insisted, as she turned to kiss Ryan soundly. "I would be pleased beyond words to bear a child that resembled you in any way at all."

They sat in the window seat for a long while, each silently musing about their future children. Ryan’s libido woke up after a bit and she started to caress Jamie sensually. Her partner gave her a devilish little smile and said, "Let’s go somewhere else. We’ve done this room thoroughly."

Ryan gave her a crooked grin and asked, "Where to?"

"Well, first, you need to hop in the shower," she decided. "I want to munch on every little part of you, but you’re still salty and sandy."

"Be right back." Ryan smiled as she hopped to her feet and scampered into the bath.

When she emerged, she noticed that Jamie had set out a little outfit for her to wear. "Mmm, dress up time?" the dark woman asked.

"Yep," the green eyes danced. "I love having my own life-sized dress-up doll." Ryan was still drying her hair with the towel, and as she paused to comb it Jamie asked, "Did you play with dolls when you were little?"

"Yeah, but not much here," she mused, sliding the wide-toothed comb through her tresses.

"Here?"

"America," she clarified. "Aisling and I played mummies and daddies all the time in Ireland."

"Mummies and daddies?"

"Yeah. Playing house, you know?"

"Oh, right," she said. "Why not here?"

"Which of my cousins do you think I could get to play house with me?" she asked, blue eye twinkling.

"Riiight," Jamie drawled, finally realizing the problem. "Didn’t you have any little girl friends?"

"Nope. I didn’t make friends with girls until I was in grade school. Sara was actually my first real girl friend in America."

"Sara?" Jamie interrupted. "You didn’t have girl friends until high school?"

"No, no," Ryan laughed. "I think I told you that we were friends in grammar school. She was in third grade when I was in second, and we were on our school’s pee-wee soccer team."

"I don’t remember if you told me that, Honey," she said softly. "But it makes it even clearer why losing her friendship was so horrible for you."

"Yeah," Ryan nodded, unwilling to go into the incident again.

"So tell me more about this mummies and daddies thing," the blonde asked, trying to lighten up the mood.

"It was funny," Ryan recalled, apparently content to continue talking about her youth. "In Ireland, all of my friends were girls because of Aisling. But in America, it was all boys."

"Which did you like better?" Jamie asked.

"Neither. I liked them both. They were just different. I did different things and played different games, depending on whom I hung out with. I was actually quite good at playing mummies and daddies. Guess which I always was?" she asked with a wide grin.

"Hmm, how many guesses do I get?" Jamie teased, slapping her partner hard on her bare butt.

As Ryan stood surveying the outfit that had been prepared for her, she held up a tiny scrap of fabric and asked, "Is this a hankie?"

"Nope," the blonde head tossed in denial. "Those are your panties."

"Panties?" Ryan asked as she held the fabric up, spreading it with both hands. The little elongated triangle of shiny black material, would actually have been too small to be an effective handkerchief, Ryan had to admit.

"It’s a G-string," Jamie chided her gently. "Come on, let me help you into it."

Ryan gamely placed her hands on her partner’s shoulders and lifted first one foot and then the other. "You know," Ryan said as she felt behind herself and ran her fingers up the string leading to the tiny waistband. "I never understood why it was called a G-string. But it’s actually shaped just like a G that’s lying on it’s back." She twitched her hips a few times to settle the material between her thighs. "I bet most women who put one of these on end up on their backs pretty quickly too," she mused, with a leer at her grinning partner. "So where do you want to take this off of me?"

"Not so fast, Pal," Jamie chided, as she handed her the rest of the outfit. Ryan looked at her with a puzzled frown as she accepted the tight gray ribbed tank and black Lycra boy-cut shorts.

"Are we going out?" she asked, not wanting to journey far with the G-string flossing her butt.

"Not really," the smirking blonde answered rather enigmatically. She watched as Ryan added the tank and workout shorts, then handed her a pair of socks and her cross-trainers.

"Workout clothes?"

"Come on," Jamie urged. "Play nice, and I’ll give you something good to suck on later." Her dark blonde eyebrows wiggled dramatically, causing Ryan to laugh out loud.

"I just bet you will," she said with a wry grin. "But first, I get to choose an outfit for you. If I’m gonna display my wares, so are you!"

When the smaller woman was dressed in a green and blue print sports bra and blue running shorts, they walked along the path to what looked like a large garage. Ryan asked, "How do you know none of the key-holders are here today?"

"The gardeners were here this morning, as you can tell." She indicated the overflowing green recycling bins near the garage. "The housekeeper only comes once a week when no one is home. I’ve gotta admit I don’t know when the pool guy comes, but we’re not going far," she said, leading Ryan to a door on the side of an enormous five car garage. There was an interior staircase just inside the door, and they walked up it, hand in hand.

Jamie opened the door at the top of the stairs and turned to see Ryan’s jaw nearly hit her chest. The large room ran the length and breadth of the massive garage. It was carpeted with nice deep green plush, and floor to ceiling mirrors covered every wall. The room held the latest and finest weight machines and free weights that Ryan had ever seen. There were machines to work every part of the body, and racks of free weights neatly lined up along a wall. There was a treadmill, an elliptical cross trainer and a recumbent bike. A large screen TV sat against a far wall, and huge speakers hung from the ceiling.

Ryan turned to Jamie wide eyed and said, "Why didn’t you show me this before?"

"Because I wanted to hold your attention. I wanted you sweating over me, not over this iron," she said with a grin. "But now I want you to sweat
for
me," she revealed, as she leaned in to capture Ryan’s ruby lips.

Ryan pulled her head back slightly as she gave her partner an indulgent grin. "I have got to say, Jamie, that if I had known what a little firecracker you were, I would have put the full court press on you that first day in class."

"Well, you know now, Sweetie. So get ready to light my fuse," she breathed, right into Ryan’s smiling face.

"Name your pleasure," Ryan said as she looked around the room, still amazed by the completeness of the gym.

A slight flush grew on Jamie’s cheeks as she said, "I need you to indulge me a little bit, if you don’t mind, that is. I’ve been dreaming of this since we worked out together on our ‘Gay for a Day’ outing."

"Was that when you had really good sex with Jack?"

"Good memory, Sweetie," she laughed. "Yeah, I still feel guilty about that. He was making love to me, but I was making love to you," she said with an even pinker blush. "My powers of denial even amaze me sometimes. I convinced myself that all of the women in the gym wanted you, and that it was perfectly natural to have those feelings. I just chalked it up to animal attraction."

Ryan was intrigued to find out some more facts about how this process had worked for Jamie. "Did you fantasize about me after that?"

"Not when I was with Jack. I really did feel guilty about it, and it took some of the pleasure away. But ever since February, I don’t think I’ve touched myself without seeing your face or your body."

"I thought you said you didn’t touch yourself very often."

"I didn’t. I think that is a very big reason why I didn’t. My denial is only so strong, Ryan. And masturbating while thinking about your lean little body was tough for even me to reconcile," she laughed. "So I think I tried to suppress my entire sexual response."

"Well it doesn’t seem very repressed now," Ryan whispered into her ear.

"No, I would tend to agree with that diagnosis, Dr. Freud," she said, kissing Ryan on the lips. "Now, let’s get busy." She led her smirking partner over to the machines dedicated to the shoulders and back. "I don’t know if I’ve ever told you this, but I’ve found out that I’m a back woman," she said with a little eyebrow wiggle, as she kissed each exposed shoulder.

"I don’t think you have," Ryan said. "As a matter of fact, I don’t really know what about me turns you on, besides these," she added with a grin, as she placed her hands under her full breasts and lifted them tauntingly.

"That’s because everything about you turns me on, silly." She gave Ryan a little squeeze as she added, "Looking at other women has shown me that some parts just get my attention first."

"And just where have you been looking at other women? Hmmm?" Ryan’s tone was light and she clearly was joking, but Jamie still flushed deeply.

"I…I…I don’t really look…" she began, but Ryan cut her off.

"Everybody looks, Honey. Most people just aren’t honest about it. It’s not a problem."

Jamie rolled her eyes in relief, happy that her partner was so low-key about these issues.

"Soooo," Ryan urged, her playful grin back in place. "What works for you?"

"Well, as I just told you, shoulders and backs are big favorites." She trailed her fingers down Ryan’s back, feeling each individual muscle under the gray cotton. "And I like to go a little farther down, too," she whispered, as she placed both hands on Ryan’s firm rear and palmed her cheeks. She turned her around and ran her hands all over her muscular thighs. "And these make me throb," she said, as she knelt to snake her tongue up one taut quadriceps. She looked up from her position to see Ryan’s tightly closed eyes and small smile. "C’mon, Baby," she said, as she stood and took her lover’s hand and led her to the lat pull-down equipment. "Time to sweat."

Ryan pulled up short and asked, "So…the game is to have me work out and then make love?"

"Umm…well…I guess that’s about it," she admitted. Looking up at her partner with a questioning gaze she quickly added, "That doesn’t bother you, does it?"

"Ahh…no, " Ryan laughed. "Combining two of my favorite activities is all good. But if I’m going to work out to turn you on, it only seems fair if you do the same for me."

Jamie crossed her arms over her chest, striking a confident pose. "So…tell me what floats your boat, Hot Stuff."

"Pardon?" Ryan asked, blinking her blue eyes ingenuously.

"I told you about my favorite body parts. What do you like about me?"

"Hmm," the brunette mused, walking around her partner to study her thoroughly. "What do I like about your smokin’ little body."

"Come on," Jamie urged. "We haven’t got all day."

"Don’t rush me," Ryan insisted, continuing her perusal. "I don’t really focus on individual parts very much. I have more of a macro approach."

"Really?" Jamie asked, dropping her arms and cocking her head. "You don’t have certain parts that always arouse you?"

"No, not really," Ryan said, shaking her head briefly. "I meant it when I said that I was most attracted to energy. Oh, I notice certain parts, if someone has an extraordinary something-or-other, but I wouldn’t say that any part particularly arouses me."

Jamie sat down on a padded bench, staring at her partner for a long moment. "Do you think it’s weird that I focus on…things?"

Ryan squatted down next to her, placing her hands on Jamie’s knees. "Do you think it’s weird that I don’t?"

A quick headshake and a furrowed brow indicated that she did not. "That’s not the same thing," Jamie said. "Not doing something is never as weird as doing something."

"Ahh…I would tend to disagree, and I have hundreds of examples to support my case, but let me assure you that I do not think you’re weird in any way, Babe. My guess is that more people are like you than me."

Jamie leaned over and placed a quick kiss on Ryan’s lips, then pulled her up to join her on the bench. "So, tell me how you get aroused," she asked, in a shy voice.

"Okay," Ryan happily agreed. "Let me think…I’ll tell you how it is when I’m with you, all right?"

"Sure."

"This is pretty simple actually. I’m always aroused when I’m with you." A goofy grin covered her lovely face, and Jamie couldn’t help but laugh at her.

"Okay, Smarty-Pants, tell me how it is…I should say ‘was’ with other women."

"Alright," Ryan agreed once again. "It’s sort of a ‘what came first, the chicken or the egg?’ with me," she posited. "I’d be kinda horny, and I’d call someone or go to a club and meet someone. I’m kind of a self-starter," she laughed.

"Surely that wasn’t always true," Jamie admonished.

"No, of course not. Sometimes someone I knew would call, or I’d run into them. If they asked me to come over, I’d get aroused thinking about how we’d had sex before. If I met someone that I didn’t know, I’d have to say that the thought of exploring someone new was always arousing for me."

"That’s how you got in the mood," Jamie insisted. "I want to know how you actually get aroused once you’re in the mood."