This time when Anya woke, she wasn't alone. Raven was safely tucked into her side sleeping soundly and still naked from last night's activities.
Anya smiled and relaxed against the pillows as she reminisced over the wondrous evening she'd shared with Raven. Her clit vibrated as she recalled Raven's skilled tongue flicking against her most sensitive parts repeatedly without mercy.
Turning over, Anya watched Raven's lids flutter as she slept. She desperately wanted to wake the sleeping beauty and tell Raven how much she loved and had missed her all those months.
But she hadn't figured out how to tell the brunette just yet, so decided to let the illusion play out a little longer.
Anya pressed a light kiss to Raven's forehead causing her to wake and smile. The blonde immediately took that as an invitation to slip over top Raven into a straddle.
But when Anya moved her lips toward Raven's, she was halted with a single soft index finger to her mouth.
"Nope, no more affection for you I'm afraid."
Anya visibly deflated and cocked her head at the other girl who laughed at the blonde's expression.
"Give me five thousand words today, and I'll do whatever you want tonight." Raven's smile to follow was a lascivious one.
Anya groaned as she collapsed beside Raven again. She couldn't work! She wanted to spend her every waking moment worshipping the beautiful brunette to have walked back into her life!
Raven laughed as she extracted herself from Anya and rose from the bed. "I'll make breakfast."
Anya groaned again as she silently prayed to any unknown forces that might be listening that Raven wouldn't start a fire and burn the house down.
"Relax, I can handle cereal," Raven said laughing, once again making Anya wonder if she could, in fact, read her thoughts. "After breakfast though it's straight to work for you."
Anya sat up as realization finally dawned on her. "Wait, so you're offering sex in exchange for word quotas?"
"Good plan, right?" Raven asked with a cheesy grin as she helped herself to Anya's dresser and pulled on a fresh pair of underwear and bra. "Feeling inspired yet?"
Anya settled back against the headboard and stared straight ahead into nothingness a moment. Something felt incredibly off about the situation. Sex for word quotas.
Had she not been in love with Raven, perhaps it would have seemed a dream come true kind of deal. A beautiful woman showing up on your doorstep one day with bags of food, then offering mind-blowing sex in exchange for doing your job. It was indeed a good deal.
But Anya was in love with Raven, passionately so.
Suddenly, an unpleasant hollowness ballooned inside Anya's chest. That same empty void to have plagued her for the past six months. A hole born on the night of Raven's death. The night Anya lost not only the woman she loved, but the woman who loved her back.
The sex the day before had been great, earth-shattering even. But it only just dawned on Anya that it was just that, sex. It should have been obvious. But now that the brunette stared Anya in the face, it was obvious Raven didn't love Anya. Not even a little. Raven didn't know her.
To Raven, they were just two women fucking each other to get off, when for Anya, it was anything but. Raven had said Anya was a client. Not a girlfriend. Not a life partner. A client. There was no romantic relationship between them. Raven had no clue how strongly Anya felt about her.
Anya watched Raven continue to dress as she helped herself to a pair of Anya's jeans and a white tank top.
"Hey, you got a belt for these?"
Anya couldn't suppress the smile that tugged at her lips as she pointed toward the closet. Her pants were a few sizes too big for the petite brunette. Raven did look so cute in the oversized clothes though.
"Hey, Rae?" Anya started as she gathered the courage to ask the next question to come to mind.
"Yeah, babe?" Raven called from inside the closet.
"What happens if I finish this project? Will you stick around?"
Raven walked out of the closet while still tightening the belt around her waist. "Trust me, by the end of this project, you'll be ready to let me go."
Anya cast her gaze to the floor and shook her head. "I don't want you to go, ever." Her tone was so low she was surprised Raven even heard the whisper.
Anya felt a dip in the bed beside her and faced Raven with tears in her eyes.
"Oh heeey," Raven cooed. "Look, I'm not leaving for a while yet, okay? But the way this works is that you'll be ready for me to leave by the end. If I do my job right anyway."
Raven winked at the end, sending a shred of hope through Anya's senses. Wiping the tears from the corners of her eyes, Anya forced a smile and squeezed Raven's hand.
Concern pervaded the chocolate orbs staring at the blonde and the next thing Anya knew, Raven's lips were on hers. It was the gentlest, most affectionate kiss they'd shared since Raven's spontaneous arrival.
When they finally broke apart, Raven's lids were still closed as she sucked her lips back over her teeth and licked them with a, "Mmmm."
"Thank you," Anya whispered.
Raven smiled and rolled her eyes, the goofy grin back in play. "Don't expect me to go breaking the rules for you again. Five thousand words, missy. And hurry up. I'm fucking horny."
Raven winked again before leaving the room and clambering down the staircase with heavy footsteps.
Anya threw the blankets off and swung her legs over the side of the bed, burying her head in her hands as she sorted her thoughts.
She had learned two things; one, Raven would eventually leave. But no way was Anya going to let that happen. And two, if that last kiss was anything to go by, Raven did feel something for Anya. Which meant there was a sliver of hope that Anya could win Raven back.
She had to figure out a plan of how to do that exactly. Should she start over with a series of romantic gestures and win her back the old fashion way? Or commit to finding a delicate way of telling Raven everything that's happened between them and risk scaring her off for good?
Anya wasn't going to get anywhere though if she couldn't write a novel by the deadline. How could she possibly think in her current frame of mind? She needed a plan.
Suddenly, an idea began to form. One that could solve both dilemmas. Quickly, Anya scrambled from the bed and dressed as quickly as she could before rushing downstairs to her home office.
She knew what she was going to write. Knew what her project was going to be and knew just how she was going to explain everything to Raven that's happened in full detail.
Perhaps reading the truth would spark Raven's memories back to life? Or maybe they were just irretrievable. Either way, Anya had been given a second chance, and there was no way she was about to waste it.
Sitting at the large oak desk in front of her laptop, Anya opened a desk drawer and reached for a pair of thick black-rimmed writing glasses she hadn't familiarized herself with in quite some time. Slipping them on quickly, she opened the laptop and brought up a blank word document to start her new project outline.
At the top of the page where she always wrote the title, she typed, How My Girlfriend Died and Became My Muse.