The first time had been incredible. It had passed in a frenzied blur of emotional and physical release, soundtracked with ecstatic screams and moans of pleasure. A frantic thrashing of limbs, tongues and fingers, starting on the kitchen floor and table of Holly's flat and only progressing to the bedroom when sheer exhaustion mandated it. Karen's youthful energy and the firm clicking into place of Holly's realisation of her true sexuality had crashed together in a tumultuous explosion of desire and need. An almost literally stunning experience that had left both women exhausted, wrung out and, in Holly's case, actually bruised. In the shower the next morning she gingerly prodded at the two impressive purple and yellow blotches on her inner thighs; probably acquired when Karen had roughly shoved her legs apart to… anyway, the sex had been so pure, so fulfilling that she simply hadn't noticed anything as inconsequential as pain at the time.

So she wanted the second time to be different.

She'd taken Karen out to eat, rather than cook in her flat as they had done before. For some strange reason she didn't want piles of dirty dishes and lingering cooking smells to spoil the atmosphere. Karen objected – she didn't like the idea of Holly always having to pay – but Holly insisted.

"I'm getting a job once my exams are over," asserted Karen, firmly. "Then I'm going to take you out."

She looked so fiercely determined and adamant that Holly couldn't help grinning, and kissing her on the forehead. "Don't worry, sweetheart. I want to. Honest. Just let me. This time"

They went to a little Thai place that Holly really liked. It was a risk, sure. They could be seen. But Holly had dated enough married men in her time to have become quite adept at this cloak and dagger stuff.

They had a table for two at the back of the restaurant, secluded in a dark corner so they could hold hands occasionally. The taxi ride home was torture, sitting apart in the back seat of the cab, each of them pointedly staring out of the window in opposite directions, Holly, especially, studiously avoiding catching the driver's eye in the mirror.

So when Holly closed the door of her flat behind them she immediately swept Karen into a long, lingering kiss.

"I love you."

Karen smiled, wiped away a tear, and dived in for another.

Eventually Holly broke away. "Come and get comfortable." She kicked off her shoes.

Holly lit the candles she'd scattered throughout the flat earlier that day and put on her favourite album.

Karen was curious. "Who's this?"

"Mazzy Star. Before your time."

"I like it."

Karen settled onto the sofa, tucking her legs up, looking every inch the teenager in skinny jeans and sloppy t-shirt emblazoned with the name of some band that Holly had never heard of.

"Cup of tea?"

"OK, sure"

Holly put the kettle on, and then just couldn't stop herself from returning to the sofa while it boiled. They snuggled together, embracing closely, arms and legs entwining as each of them sought to find the position that brought their bodies closest together. Holly's hand wandered over Karen's bum and under her t-shirt, roaming over soft skin and luscious curves, as she wondered – not for the first time – how she had ever found males attractive. Sweat and body hair and stubble and hard blocks of muscle that they spent ages in the gym cultivating because they thought it made them more attractive. Why on earth had she fallen into that? Because here was the real deal; she had never been more sure of anything.

Karen broke away from the longest of kisses and wiped away a tear. "I don't want this moment to end," she sighed. "I want it to last forever."

Holly kissed the tip of Karen's cute, turned-up button nose. "It will."

Karen pulled back a little, doubtful. "How will it?"

"Oh sweetheart. Just remember, whatever the future holds for us, this moment will always have existed. Will always exist. Remember that."

Karen sniffed. "Oh God, I love you so much. I think my heart is going to burst."

"Me too. It's so fantastic, really. We're so good together. I can't really describe it. I don't have the words."

"You should take a creative writing class," said Karen, mischievously.

"Cheeky!" Holly aimed a playful slap at the top of Karen's head. Karen ducked away, squealing.

Holly's mobile rang. She'd placed it on the coffee table through sheer force of habit and now the bloody thing was ringing and moreover she recognised the ringtone. Her Mum. Holly looked at Karen.

"Sorry… can I just answer that? It's my Mum. If I don't answer she'll just keep ringing and if I switch it off she'll assume I'm dead and drive straight over here."

"Sure… of course. Don't be long though."

"I'll get rid of her as soon as I can."

Holly picked up the call. "Hi Mum, Oh, OK, you know, nothing much. Staying in, just watching a film. A what? Yes, I do have one of those. Blu-Ray, it's called. Yes, the picture is better…"

Karen had slid down the sofa and her head was resting in Holly's lap. After a minute though, she got bored with listening to Holly's increasingly desperate attempts to end the call with her Mum and went into action. She slid off the sofa and knelt on the floor in front of Holly, parting her knees.

Karen gazed adoringly up at Holly, who in turn looked down at her beautiful teenage lover and wondered what was coming next.

Karen lifted Holly's left foot; she kissed the heel before licking round the instep, Holly's toes curling in response. Karen then kissed each toe in turn, starting with the little one, before finally taking the big toe into her mouth and sucking on it luxuriantly. All the while, Holly was staring incredulously down at Karen, trying to maintain concentration on the inanities that her Mum was spouting down the phone at her. The occasional "Mmmm" or "Really?" was Holly's only contribution as her Mum's monologue about the extortionate charges at College Square car park seemed to dribble on interminably.

Because Holly was finding what Karen was doing intensely – albeit surprisingly – erotic.

How was she doing this, wondered Holly. How could she be so inventive? How did this young, sexually inexperienced girl know how to turn her on better than any man she had ever dated? Even those guys in their late thirties or early forties who supposedly had years of experience in pleasing women were clueless in comparison to her Karen. Guys, concluded Holly bitterly, just had no fucking imagination. More often than not they just wanted to head straight to the bedroom for a session of grim-faced rutting, while she stared at the ceiling, spotting cobwebs that needed sweeping away, letting the guy get on with it and waiting for it to be over, so that she could then maybe have a bit of a cuddle. If she was lucky.

God, she thought, as Karen continued to kiss and lick her bare foot. I love being a lesbian. It's so much more fun.

Karen dropped Holly's left foot and, picking up the right, started the whole process in reverse. Sucking the big toe, then kissing each toe in turn, tongue along instep…

Then Karen started to work her way up Holly's leg, delicately placing butterfly kisses on her inner thigh, slowly pulling up her denim skirt as she went. Holly felt a shiver of anticipation, as Karen's face slowly but inexorably moved closer and closer to… and then she was there.

Holly's entire body flinched and she let out a loud, involuntary gasp.

"What? Oh, nothing Mum, just thought I was going to sneeze, that's all."

Karen attempted, but mostly failed, to stifle a giggling fit. Holly urgently put her finger to her lips in a frantic, silent "SShhh!" gesture.

Karen backed off for a moment, still grinning. Then moved up and over, lifting the hem of Holly's floral-patterned blouse and undoing the bottom button. She planted a big, wet kiss on Holly's soft, rounded belly. Then undid the next button and moved up, continuing the process until the blouse was completely open and she was nuzzling Holly's breast through her cream lacy bra. Her hand moved gently up Holly's back, fingertips lightly brushing the skin over her spine until Holly automatically leaned forward to allow Karen to unclasp her. Holly's breasts surged gratefully forwards, and that was it.

"OK Mum, really have to go now, something in the oven, call you tomorrow, OK? Bye then. Bye."

Holly thumbed the red button and dropped her phone onto the carpet by the sofa. She wagged her finger at Karen. "You little minx. You're a very naughty girl, you know that?"

Karen propped herself up on an elbow, chin in her hand, looking amused. "Am I, Miss Shawcross? What're you going to do, send me to see the head?"

Holly's face momentarily clouded at this unwelcome reminder of the enormity of what they were doing, and the potential implications. She glanced at Karen, who was too busy chortling at her own joke to notice Holly's discomfort. Well, if she's not worried about it, maybe I shouldn't be either, thought Holly after a moment. She shoved her concern into the junkbox in the corner of her brain and placed her hand behind Karen's head

"Now then, where were we…"

"You were making a cup of tea."

Holly laughed. "Oh yes, sorry, I'm being a terrible hostess."

"And I just need to pop to the loo" Karen kissed Holly on the forehead and trotted off to the bathroom.

Holly headed into the kitchen and switched the kettle back on. She flipped through the albums on her iPod in its speaker dock on top of the fridge, selected one, and hit play. She was in the mood now for something more upbeat, and immediately the irresistible synthesizer pulse of Saint Etienne filled the room. She turned the volume up. What the hell, 99.99% of the time she was a model citizen, and anyway the old lady in the downstairs flat was a bit deaf, so…

And, without thinking about it, she started to dance. Completely spontaneously, Holly spun around the room, eyes closed and head nodding, arms flung into the air, pirouetting and swaying on her recently-kissed toes. What a feeling. What a mad, euphoric, wonderful, liberated feeling. She hadn't felt like this since… well, actually, she couldn't remember ever feeling like this.

After a minute the sound of the kettle clicking itself off made Holly open her eyes. And she flung both of her hands to her rapidly reddening face.

Karen was standing in the doorway, leaning against the jamb, arms folded and with a mixture of amusement and curiosity registering on her face.

"Oh, sorry," stammered Holly, "I'm so embarrassed! I must look ridiculous."

"What? No, of course not. I've just never seen you like this, that's all. You're usually quite serious, you know? You didn't look ridiculous. You looked great. You looked happy."

Holly smiled ruefully. "Well, there's a reason for that."

"Oh?"

"I'm looking at her."

Karen swelled with pride. She felt like she grew two inches at that moment.

"You also looked kind of sexy."

Holly realised that she'd been dancing around her kitchen with her blouse wide open and her bra unfastened.

Holly slowly slipped the blouse from her shoulders and shrugged her bra off. She turned slightly to let the candlelight catch the contours of her breasts.

"And how about this look?"

Karen swallowed hard.

Quietly, Holly said, "Let me see you, honey."

Karen fixed Holly with a steady gaze, tugged her t-shirt over her head, and reached behind to deftly unhook her bra. She flung her bra and t-shirt into the furthest corner of the room, and reached up to free her hair; a tumbling mass of brunette locks cascaded over her slim shoulders.

"Let me look at you." Holly took both of Karen's hands in hers, just lightly holding the tips of her fingers as she stepped back to drink in the sight in front of her. She felt a flood of desire.

For her part, Karen stood tall, shoulders back and head held high, revelling in the feeling of giving herself so completely to Holly. She felt privileged, honoured to be this wonderful woman's lover. Her – the word was thrilling – girlfriend.

"Your boobs are gorgeous." whispered Karen at last

"Thank you. Yours too."

"Mine?" Karen looked ruefully down at her small swellings and little pink nipples, like pencil rubbers. "They're nothing to write home about."

"Nonsense. They're very pretty."

The music changed to a slower tempo; quiet piano chords announced the start of Hobart Paving, a beautiful, slow, emotional song.

Holly held her arms out. "Dance with me?"

Karen stepped forwards and kissed Holly lightly on the lips. "Always."

They moved together and kissed deeply. Holly felt her knees go weak momentarily; the delicious feeling of their bare breasts pressing together was intoxicating.

Holly clasped Karen's right hand with her left, slipped her other arm around the younger girl's waist, and they waltzed slowly around Holly's tiny kitchen, topless in the candlelight, heads resting on each other's shoulders, locked together in another everlasting, perfect moment.