Tessa, Zoe and three incidents with chocolate.
Zoe has given up on letting Malcolm bring her coffee from the canteen. He usually insists, but always forgets that it's a decaf and Zoe thinks if he does it again she might not sleep; he already brought her one at lunchtime and another at three. She drinks it out of politeness, but when he offers to go for her again before he leaves at five, she has to tell him that she fancies stretching her legs and she'll go herself.
Malcolm's been bringing her coffee for so long that she's almost had time to become unfamiliar with the canteen's layout. Finally, she spots the little table with sugar and spoons and other extras and heads there, carefully taking the plastic lid off the cup.
She smiles as she stirs in her sweetener, seeing that they have the chocolate sprinkly stuff to put on top; the Thames House canteen does have its perks, however slight.
"I thought you had Malcolm fetching all your drinks for you?"
She jumps a little at the voice behind her; Tessa's, low, amused, unannounced. She's so surprised that she manages to shake the dark chocolate cocoa powder all over her knuckle instead of on top of the coffee.
Moving into Zoe's line of vision, Tessa leans up against the edge of the table. She is close to Zoe, very close, but the canteen is empty and if she's honest, Zoe likes the confidentiality of her stance.
"He forgot the decaf," she tells her in reply.
"Ah," Tessa replies, tilting her head a little, looking at her rather coyly from under her fringe, "Quite an offence, in your case as I remember."
Zoe smiles a little wearily.
"Yes," she replied, "And he didn't tell me that there were chocolate sprinkles. I'm definitely going to have to fire him."
She realises then how stupid she sounds, but Tessa laughs.
"Yes, I would," she replies.
"But then, he might not have got it all over the place like this," Zoe tells her, seeing that she's got it on the table as well as her hand, "Sorry, I'm a bit stupid on caffeine."
She reaches for a paper tissue but quick as a flash, Tessa stops her hand.
"No," she tells her, a surprising firmness in her voice, "Let me."
Zoe looks at her, taken aback. Tessa wasn't the maternal sort who enjoyed cleaning up other people's messes. Frowning a little, Zoe looks at her as Tessa's hand moves towards hers, picks her fingers up gently in her own.
Zoe watches transfixed, unable to move, as Tessa raises her hand slowly to her lips and delicately sucks the chocolate off her knuckles. She watched her hand all the way to her mouth but, hers lips on Zoe's skin, Tessa's eyes flicker upwards, meeting Zoe's, staring into them. Zoe's arm has gone completely weak, her elbow has gone limp and only Tessa's firm grip is keeping her hand upright. She has never seen, never felt anything more erotic than Tessa's tongue on her skin, and her eyes looking at her like this. She wonders that she can still stand. When Tessa releases her hand it falls, limply, down to rest against her thigh. She cannot take her eyes off Tessa's face.
…...
She was looking forward to a day in her pyjamas, in front of the TV, with a leftover box of Lindt chocolates she found in the fridge that Danny had probably snaffled from somewhere. Danny and Tom were up in Birmingham meeting an informer.
She'd forgot that she'd given Tessa a key, in case she should ever want it. She didn't imagine that she would; Tessa was far, far more suited to the elegance of her own flat than the untidiness and residual student atmosphere of Danny and Zoe's. But when she hears a key in the door, her eyes are not met with the sight of Danny, wiping his feet and grumbling about a cock-up somewhere in Birmingham, but Tessa, looking around at her surroundings, looking altogether unsure not as assured as she usually does. But she has hidden it away by the time her eyes run through into the living room and catch sight of Zoe on the sofa, the box of chocolates in her hand.
"Danny's away, isn't he?" Tessa checks, her voice the epitome of unconcern, "Birmingham?"
"With Tom," Zoe nods.
There's a look in her eye as Tessa catches sight of the chocolates in Zoe's hand.
"What were you up to today?" Tessa asks carefully. But she catches the sight of the smile on Zoe's lips and a small, naughty smile appears on her mouth too.
"Not much," Zoe tells her coyly, "Just sitting here, really. And chocolate."
"Would you mind if I-...?"
"No, not at all," Zoe replies, taking one of the perfectly spherical chocolates from the box, untwisting its wrapper, putting it into her mouth, her eyes never leaving Tessa.
Tessa has sat down on the settee, kicked her shoes off, taken the the chocolate from Zoe's mouth with her tongue and slipped her hand into Zoe's pyjama bottoms, before the outer layer of chocolate has melted.
…...
Tessa has a cartoon of chocolate ice cream in her fridge. Like everything else about Tessa- it no longer comes as a surprise now- it is obscenely expensive. Too much to do this with. But too good to not.
There's a thin vein of caramel running through it, and Zoe bisects it cleanly as with the edge of her spoon as she takes another spoonful. She takes it to her mouth, letting it touch her lips, melting a little against them, not swallowing until the moment just before she returns to Tessa's naked body; taking her nipple into her cold, chocolate-covered mouth. Tessa gasps happily as Zoe runs her tongue round her, lapping at her, covering her in chocolate.
She is about to do so to the other breast when Tessa shakes her head languidly.
"Lower, Zoe," she tells her, "Put it on my thighs."
"It'll go on the sheets," Zoe tells her.
"Zoe," Tessa explains calmly, "You're the only person I know who given the choice between shagging and laundry would make the latter the priority."
Zoe feels herself blush.
"Sorry," she tells her.
"Don't be sorry, just put the bloody stuff all over my thighs and lick it off. Or do I need to show you how it's done? Again?"
Zoe feels her blush deepen, feels herself flush with excitement.
"You know," she tells her, "I think that might be the best thing."
"Oh, do you?" Tessa asks dangerously, sitting up.
Pushing Zoe back onto the bed, she takes the spoon off her, drops as much ice cream as she can straight onto Zoe's groin. Zoe gasps and shudders at the cold, her hips bucking off the bed, only making the ice cream further down. She lies there moaning with the sharpness of the cold as Tessa hovers over her.
"And I refuse to be gentle this time," Tessa tells her, "I haven't the patience. Do you understand that, Zoe?"
How can Tessa make something that would sound like a threat from anyone else sound like a promise, sound like the answer to every fucking prayer? Zoe nods frantically, bucking her hips again at the first touch of Tessa's lips on her.
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