I apologize for the wait you guys have had to endure for this chapter. Inspiration for this fic doesn't seem to be flowing as easily as it once used to : ( I must have written this chapter a million times. I'm finding myself second-guessing a lot of the phrasing, but I hope this chapter is ok for you guys anyway.
NoClarity, aww that was a very sweet comment ; )
HappyAsIAm.x, sorry to have prolonged the agony lol. Maybe I enjoy watching you squirm ; P
Kickstarts, yes, your reviews crack me up. Randomness in all of its glory. I adore the energy you seem to have. Whatever you're taking, assuming you're running on anything other than pure unadulterated happiness that is, can I have some please? Ps: I'm always right :P I should poke you for even questioning that lmao!
The Dark Slayer, I find it hilarious that you read this at work. I just hope you don't get nabbed and get into trouble because of me lol. Nice to her that you enjoyed it though.
Kolaps, I LOVE Eat, Pray, Love. Movie of the year in my opinion. Soundtrack's epic too. It's probably the most informative and helpful movie that anybody will see when it comes to life and the laws of the universe, yet up where I live it was at the cinemas for like two weeks tops. Government don't want people to know their true power, I suspect. I wasn't impressed. But I'm impressed with the fact that you're enjoying this fic.
GilmoreRos, thank you so much for your kind words :D
iMakesPaxtch, I was so glad to read your review and learn that you felt the passion that I was trying to convey in the last chapter. I had a sinking feeling that I hadn't quite gotten that across adequately, so thank you for…feeling it. *hugs*
n0rmalsov3r8d, I'm pretty sure this story would cuddle you back. I didn't raise no ignorant fic :P And maybe your ESP is…correct.
Niceoneblondie, please don't apologize hun. Review when and if you feel inspired to. Love that you're enjoying the ride!
Thank you to every single person who takes the time out to read this, or comment, or favorite and alert. It's appreciated. With the waves of light and love that I'm sending each and every one of you, let chapter 11 commence shall we?
Everybody was watching her, Naomi was sure of it. Nobody was going about their everyday business anymore; they were watching her as she lifted what were slow and heavy feet towards the blue's, maroons, and deep reds of the lingerie section, she was convinced of it. It was a notion which caused her to pull the beak of her baseball cap down even further over her eyes, like a celebrity who didn't want to be recognized, because God forbid Mr. Mclair or any of those other bastards who used to have it in for her at Temshall see her. God forbid anybody see her, because if they did they'd just know. They'd know of her reasons for being there – that she was gagging for sex off of her female lodger. The very thought relentlessly rounded her brain, similarly to a chord around one's neck, so it shouldn't have been a surprise when a jarring pain actually shot throughout her skull a second later, her flinch sending her shoulder into collision with the silkiest of lilac bras. Naomi quickly dropped to the floor to pick it up, as though nobody would notice the shifty, baseball-cap-wearing blonde at the back of the store if she acted with haste. Her one hand drew to the back of her neck, accepting the job of anxiously rubbing at its nape, whilst her free hand returned this bra back to its hanger.
"Fuck sake." She sighed, imagining herself in the various designs of lingerie surrounding her, and feeling absolutely moronic. "What are you doing?"
Truthfully, she didn't really know what she was doing. It wasn't like she'd thought this out. The idea had sort of just occurred to her, earlier on in the day, whilst she'd been collecting 5-day-old cups and plates from the floorboards of the attic.
"Fucking hell Emily, you're 25." Naomi whined, snatching up a few more beakers she hadn't even known were there. "If we get rats, I swear, I will feed you to th..." Her words derailed when she noticed the corner of an adult magazine peaking out from underneath of Emily's bed. The very sight of it seemed to hold all of the moisture in her mouth hostage as she bent to retrieve it, because, well…Emily, the woman she had this undeniable attraction towards, liked this sort of stuff, liked women like the half-naked one on the front cover of this magazine, and In that moment more so than ever, Naomi became painfully aware of the fact that she wasn't the lingerie-wearing woman who was bending over on the front cover of the mag – far from it actually. No, she was the boring, joggers-and-a-cardigan-to-bed-wearing…not Emily's type, sort of woman.
Stumbling upon this realization unlocked the gate for Naomi's anxieties to spiral out of control.
So, as a result, here she was, stood in the lingerie section of God knows what shop – something with 'whip' in its name – her fingers tentative against some of the softest silks she'd ever come across, her blue's a storm of self-critique and shame. She sighed, catching sight of herself in one of the store's mirrors. You're a fucking mess, she thought, staring herself in the eye with something akin to disbelief. And Naomi had need to be a mess with everything going on in her mind just recently; it wasn't easy living in a house with someone who made her want to close her eyes and let go of the steering wheel, even if it meant crashing the car. It was a challenge, more of a challenge than running L wing had been because at least there had been days off from Temshall. But with Emily it was relentless, that growing desire to just invite the redhead into her room for the night, into her bed, into her, becoming more and more impossible to ignore. But, of course, everything wasn't as black and white as that for Naomi. She knew she wanted to have sex with Emily…a lot, but what if she was shit? What if Emily got so bored during the act that she just…fell asleep or something? What if she froze? What if she looked shit in lingerie?
What if I fall for her before I can catch myself? Naomi asked herself, her fingers promptly dropping the material of the lilac silk bra that she hadn't even realized she'd still been thumbing. The emotional ambush to come from that very question froze her for a few seconds – anyone passing by would've diagnosed her with the shock of a loved one's death – before she eventually got her legs to obey the command to take her home.
The vague echo of a car door shutting outside clapped an awakening hand over Naomi's ear and stirred her from her slumber on the couch. She sluggishly glanced at the mahogany wall clock and raised her brows at how many hours she'd dozed away. It seemed like only minutes ago that she'd been stood in that awful store, surrounded by jeering bras and knickers telling her how pathetic she was. The chance to once again berate herself over that experience fell by the sidelines as the front door clicked and gradually swung open, Emily shuffling in with a warm smile.
"Someone looks gorgeous in all of their half-asleep glory." The redhead chirped, waving with a silly childishness whilst she closed the door and kicked free of her trainers. "You don't understand how glad I am to be home. It's been an, how can I put it?" She paused to consider it for a moment, the answer coming as she hung up her jacket and nodded. "Eventful day."
A lethargic noise parted from the blonde, something she hoped would quench Emily's need for a response.
She should've known that her lodger wouldn't please that easily…
The couch whined almost as loudly as Naomi did when Emily launched herself on top of the blonde. "Are you ignoring me mardy bum?" She husked, feeling the body beneath her wriggle each time she bounced up and down and poked her fingers into its ribs.
"S-stop…it." Naomi twisted and fidgeted under Emily throughout the assault, her rationale telling her to frown, the sensations plaguing her ribs forcing fits of giggles past her lips… The same lips she found herself trying to provide moisture to a mere second later when all the laughter had subsided, and it was just her and Emily, staring at each other in complete silence.
Emily was the first to shift, reaching a hand down to neaten the soft blonde strands which were fanned in a disorderly beauty against the cushions of the sofa. She was also the first to paint the silence with a thick husk. "Do anything interesting whilst I was at work?"
Naomi knew that Emily cared nothing about the incremental ins and outs of how her day had gone, she could see it. Emily just wanted to talk to her, wanted to reach closeness through meaningless chitchat, and that very fact wafted throughout the blonde like a warm, fuzzy, heater. Her appreciation was impossible to hide and boasted itself within her small smile up into the inquisitive hazel orbs peering down at her.
After some time, Emily grinned. "Naoms, are you actually going to answer me or are you just going to keep spoiling me with that smile of yours?"
Emily found herself not waiting for a response. Instead she just allowed her body to fall sideways into the tight space between Naomi and the back of the sofa. It was odd at first for Naomi to watch and feel feminine arms, as white as milk, thread through her own and clasp around her waist. That default reaction to just stiffen up arose, but with Emily's next remark, a chuckle bubbled in her stomach and somewhat relaxed her: "It's fucking freezing outside. I needed this cuddle."
The blonde scoffed, not fooled for a second. "You can sit in the snow and not so much as bat an eyelid, yet you need cuddles from ice queen Campbell to warm you up after having just come in from outside?"
"Ok, you caught me." Emily relented much too easily, the turbulence borne from her chuckle sending her nose into brushes with Naomi's neck, though the blonde would soon learn that the contact was no accident when the redhead cooed, "You smell fantastic," and wriggled to snuggle that little bit closer, before heating the back of Naomi's neck with a content sigh. "So, you should know that there have been times when I've been in bed at night…"
Upon hearing that, Naomi thought to interject, thought to swat Emily's sentence dead, because what if she couldn't handle what was about to follow from her lodger's lips? But for reasons unclear to her, she resolved to remain quiet, resolved to let Emily continue, almost as if testing herself. As for what she was testing, well, not even Naomi was sure of that.
"And I've imagined what it would be like to snuggle with you. It's easy to let my mind wonder what with you always being just downstairs, but yeah, this is a lot more fun than I ever could've envisioned." Emily let that sink into the silence, a silence which was prompting a reaction from the blonde with a firm demand, but what exactly was she supposed to say? Was she supposed to ask how many other women Emily had said these things to? Was she supposed swap her own bedtime stories and regale Emily with tales about how she'd spent the last few nights in hot sweats, with her fingers playing out blissful percussions deep inside of herself as she imagined the redhead's lips tracing various parts of her body? I don't think so, she thought, and with that very thought came the decision to put a stop to all of this cuddling.
Before Naomi had sent any instruction for her legs to move, Emily whispered. "Where are you off to?" like she'd somehow sensed that something had gone awry.
Naomi swung her legs out and planted her feet to the carpet, as though grounding herself. "Bed." She let that settle in the silence in an almost cruel fashion, not even turning to face the disappointed smile lingering in the features of the woman now lying alone in the couch.
Naomi closed her bedroom door, her azure's flushing shut as she rested her head against it. She relied heavily on its solidity to hold her up for a moment, the familiar surroundings of her room somewhat of a comfort. "Just relax." She muttered, frustrated with herself for letting overwhelment bully her into running once again. "Relax."
That train of thought saw the blonde beneath the covers of her bed a matter of minutes later, eyes closed, breathing slow and steady, and with each deep breath expelled, Naomi quickly began to notice the weight of her emotional rut lifting from her chest as much of her recent thoughts began to evaporate into nothingness. It was an odd thing, but their absence seemed to leave a space to be filled, and filled it was, with an undeniable inner monologue which appeared strangely, to the blonde, to be coming from a place outside of herself.
"Fear is just an indicator as to where you are, a platform for which to embark to a new place. It's nothing to fear. It's something to acknowledge for the sole purpose of moving on from it, because to fear fear is to bring about more fear. Emily is punishingly beautiful, she stimulates your mind, she's vastly intelligent, much as you are, she's passionate, she keeps you on your toes, she's endlessly enthralled by you, she's endlessly enthralled by you, she's endlessly enthralled by you…"
Naomi found that just by holding the desire to oppose this inaudible inner influence, it ceased. Evaporated just like that. She listened, or rather felt for it a second time but…nothing. Her eyes slowly lifted, and she took enquiring fingers to her frowning forehead, as if the action was going to help her out with the information she appeared to've just received. She couldn't even remember it now, just seconds later. The information was behaving like one of those elusive dreams; so vivid and precise one moment and hazy and forgotten the next. But somehow the overall feeling that the kind, loving, soothing, encouraging words had conjured within her, had left her feeling lighter and more aware, everything sharper.
The drawer beside her, a drawer she hadn't thought to look in for years, suddenly sprung to mind with a blissful sprightliness, and simply feeling inspired to, she gently lifted from the mattress with respect for her relaxed muscles, and reached over to pull open this drawer. The impossibly soft golden silk belonging to the nightdress inside made love to Naomi's fingertips as she lifted it up in the air and watched it unfold like a scroll.
"How long have you been hiding in here?" She whispered at the garment, the moment feeling much too special to trample on with fullness of voice.
The next logical step lit up in the form of the inner wool of her joggers beginning to itch at her legs. They were discarded on the bedroom floor within seconds, her cardigan falling away to the same fate. She then carefully slipped into the luxury of this nightdress, letting the full-length mirror of her wardrobe capture her image and play it back to her with a sparkle she'd never seen from it before. And what an image she was: hips which resembled perfection as the fields of gold material fell past them, just stopping a few inches above her knees. A vast improvement from the unrecognizable state she'd looked in that store earlier. For the first time in ten years, Naomi Campbell felt presentable sexually, and it had nothing to do with what anybody else thought, had nothing to do with anybody else's approval because she'd given herself the approval. Naomi now understood that it had everything to do with her and how she'd felt – understood that she'd had the power the entire time. It seemed rather ridiculous to her when she pondered it; all she'd done was throw on a silk nightdress, but she actually felt like she could do this, actually felt like she could walk down those stairs and give herself to the woman she'd just ran from…
Her long legs were strong and confident as they conquered each step down the stairs, remaining that way over the cream carpet of the lounge to the doorway of the kitchen, where her eyes joyously rode the wondrous shapes of her lodger's body. That's when the hiss of those doubts and self-criticisms began to act up again, but now Naomi found that she could brush them to the side, to a less accessible part of her brain, quite easily. More easily than she'd ever been able to in the past. It was almost like through clearing out her mind, she was now able to rearrange the furniture in it to her liking, though that analogy was completely lost to the sound of Emily dropping a spoon into what had to be her nightly mug of hot chocolate. It registered as a claxon to Naomi's ears, her cue to take a few steps towards the oblivious redhead.
…
"Emily."
A quick glance over her shoulder and Emily's hazel's fell upon the goddess behind her…The mug of hot chocolate that she'd been so intent on devouring became a third-class priority as the growing inner black of her hazel's swallowed the casual tussle of blonde hair falling with effortless beauty from Naomi's head, and the graceful way with which the skimpy silk nightdress hung and embraced the tall blonde in every definition of the word perfect.
"Fucking hell." She muttered huskily, with a hard gulp.
Naomi chuckled, only a faint one and only once, the anticipation rising within her casting far too much dominance over the humor in the dumbstruck expression on Emily's face.
Fuck that magazine, I am her type, Naomi told herself, and like it was the most natural thing in the world to her, she rose her two hands and ran them up the sides of Emily's face, kissing her…hard. The sheer turbulence and velocity of it took Emily by surprise; her legs had not been prepared for such passion, and buckled momentarily, saucepans about the worktop ringing echoes throughout the small kitchen as the two stumbled. But that didn't deter Naomi's hunger. If anything it motivated it, the hand that she'd laced through the velvet trills of Emily's crimson locks bringing more of the redhead's tongue into her mouth with the more pressure she exerted on the back of Emily's head.
Emily's senses buzzed, hummed and trembled. She had not been expecting this. Of course she'd known it was coming but she hadn't been expecting…this. She'd expected that they'd go slowly their first time, expected that they'd treat each other like delicate china, expected that she'd have to go slow and hold off on the accelerator of her lust. The same accelerator which, in the past, had seen her lift women over her shoulder and shove them down to the bed. But…Naomi wasn't treating her like delicate china. In fact, Naomi had her pressed so hard into the kitchen counter that a pain was occurring in the redhead's lower back. A pain which was worth every second in Emily's estimation. She smirked into their kiss, sucking on Naomi's bottom lip, pulling on it as she then slowly leaned out of it to the image of dark hooded blue eyes.
And that was it.
"I'm going to reduce you to a shaking mess." Emily hissed next to Naomi's ear, or at least it sounded like a hiss to the blonde, but before she had time to process the pure filth coating Emily's 'threat', she was being walked backwards and hoisted atop of the table in the middle of the room. The legs of it did a hiss of their own against the hard floor as Emily grabbed Naomi's wrists and pinned them to the table's beige wood, so that she could quench her unrelenting need to carry her tongue up the length of the blonde's smooth armpit.
Overwhelming amounts of pleasure sketched a grimace into Naomi's features at the amount of want theming in Emily's actions. "Fuck." She rasped.
"I'll do more than that." Emily told the skin of Naomi's neck, causing the blonde to shudder.
"Fuck." Naomi's mouth spilled once more. It was the only thing that she seemed to be able to articulate, the sensation of Emily then climbing the table and kneeling between her legs inspiring her to wrap those long legs loosely around the redhead's petite waist. But the moment she peered up into Emily's eyes, things seemed to slow in momentum, almost as though slowing to give her a chance to perfect every little thing with regards to this experience, as though something wanted her to remember it as deliciously perfect, and as it went, Naomi did have a request.
Through accelerated breathing, she let it be known. "Take me upstairs Emily."
