Emily
I'm dreaming, and to be honest, I don't care if I never wake up. Naomi is beside me, kneeling by the bed, stroking my face softly and staring intently at my face. In my dream, I smile at her and she places a single gentle kiss on my lips. Now my smile is so wide, she has to break off the kiss and lean back. But still she's looking at me with such love in her eyes that my heart swells inside me so much I catch my breath. She's so fucking lovely, those intense blue eyes softened with affection...towards me. I sigh again in my lovely dream. Because I know it's not real. She's in Bristol, probably calling me every name under the sun, determined never to give me the chance to say how sorry I am for doubting her. I feel my face crease into a frown and her eyes go wide in recognition of the change. She touches me again, stroking my cheek with her warm fingertips and whispering something so soft, at first I don't hear it. Then she says it again, slightly louder, and I do.
"Hey sleepy head...I'm home" she says in a voice that's tired but happy. My frown changes to a more hopeful smile and she returns it.
I mumble in my sleep.
"Don't want to wake up...want to stay in my dream...with you Naoms" I say, pleading in my voice.
"Shhhh" she whispers again and this time kisses me slightly harder. Not with need or desire, but more firmly, possessively than before. I return the kiss and make a small noise in my throat. A sound of pure pleasure. I really don't want to wake up at all...this is so good, so lovely...its almost as if...
My eyes open suddenly and I stare at a shadowy figure next to me. A thrill almost like an electric shock goes through my body, making me shudder. My mouth opens to say something, but again those lips are on mine and all that comes out is a muffled gasp.
This kiss is like the last, firm, possessive and long. I relax into it and let growing consciousness fill in the gaps. "She's really here!" my brain screams at me even as I relax into another of those addictive kisses. Her hands are cupping both sides of my face and I feel like I could lie here and let her just...kiss me...forever.
Naomi
She looked so peaceful, so innocent lying there. Lying sideways, on my side of the bed, the pillow tucked under her head. Just like I remember her sleeping when I shared this bed with her, about a thousand years ago.
I'd let myself in quietly, having driven in the early hours so I could get here at dawn. I was tired, but as every mile disappeared behind me, I grew more determined. Emily had been wrong to doubt me, but I had been just as wrong to run off without talking it through. She was being asked to take the word of someone she had known for weeks against people she had known all her life. There was bound to be a tiny part of her brain that wanted to believe them. My default position, when my integrity is challenged is to get mad, then get out of there. Running. I do it very well...as I should do...I've been doing it most of my life. If in doubt, fuck off and start again.
Well this time I was sure I didn't want to do that. All my adult life I had been hoping for something like this, someone like this. Now I had her...and the decision I had to make...no HAD made...was to hold on to it, to her.
Creeping through the dark flat, I took off my shoes and topcoat, dropping them on the couch, before slipping inside the open bedroom door. My heart leapt in my chest as I took in the sight of her sleeping form. Emily...my Emily, I thought, with a rush of endorphins to the brain no chemical substance could match. Fuck MDMA, fuck Ketamine, this was the greatest rush known to man...or woman in this case.
The first time I kissed her, after I had quietly knelt by the bed and watched her for a couple of seconds, was just what I had hoped it would be like. Her mouth was slightly open, her breath steady and deep. I knew she was asleep. Her eyes were faintly reddened and had dark shadows under them. My fault, I scolded myself. Totally my fault. But if you're asking if that detracted from her beauty? Not a chance. Emily Fitch, asleep or awake, is the most perfect woman on the earth. She could make a hat stand fall in love with her.
She didn't respond to the kiss, just sighed as I pulled back. Then a tiny smile twitched the sides of those soft lips. I had to kiss her again. Theresa May and all the oily, sneering Tory cabinet could have been sitting there in rows watching and I would still have kissed her. Fuck, even Cook with his cheesy sexism and knowing leer wouldn't have made me pause for a pico second.
So I kissed her again. This time, when I pulled back, stroking her face, a small frown replaced the smile. Even without thinking, I knew why she had. She thought she was dreaming. So I kissed her a bit harder.
She muttered something low, something about wanting to stay asleep. My heart thumped again at how innocently adorable she was.
Now the smile was back again, swiftly followed by a puzzled crease of her brow. I could feel reality creeping through her slumber. Her eyelids fluttered and she opened those gorgeous brown eyes wide.
"Shhh" I whispered and kissed her again. NOW she was awake and tried to say something as her eyes registered me there beside her.
"Hey sleepyhead, I'm home..." I said simply and stroked her face with both hands. Her arms shot out from under the duvet and her hands gripped me like a drowning woman.
"Oh God...Oh Jesus...I thought it was a bloody dream...I'm so sorry, I should never have..." she babbled, still hugging me so hard I could hardly catch my breath. After a couple of seconds I pulled free of her arms, holding her bed warm hands in mine.
"Em...stop it..stop apologising. We were both wrong...but I've tried to be alone again...I just can't do it. You're 'it' for me Emily Fitch. For better or worse...you're stuck with me. Now..." I smirked at her "Are you going to let me into my bed...it's been a long cold drive and I've been sort of looking forward to finding out if you're a bit more mobile with those little legs yet...all the way up here from Bristol"
Her face went from surprise to sultry amusement in a second and she threw the duvet aside, wriggling backwards so I could get in beside her. I stripped off my tee, short skirt and knickers quickly, seeing her eyes go dark and intense as I lost my clothing.
"I think I can manage what you're promising Naomi" she said archly "Get in here...right now"
So I did...and she did...manage, I mean.
XXX
Emily
Lying here, on my back, its still hard to imagine things could turn round so quickly. I went to bed with two emotions competing to control my brain. Anger at my sister and mother and despair at the continued absence of my lover. I still had residual anger bubbling away in the background, but the despair was gone completely. She was home...with me...and currently lying on her back, sleeping sweetly. It might have been uncomfortable at times earlier on, certainly clumsy. But making love with her had been as satisfying and overwhelming as always. She stared into my eyes, seeming to need my approval as she took my tee off and stroked me until I screamed and writhed in ecstasy. No one ever before got me into such a frenzied state in bed...and I never wanted to find out if anyone could in the future. If I was 'it' for her, she was 'it' for me too. My lover...my Naomi.
We never got the chance to talk about my discovery. First it was all hot kisses and exploring hands. Then it was all about competing to see who could make the other scream the loudest. There were no winners and two winners, make of that what you will. She completes me and it seems I complete her. Cheesy but I don't really give a flying fuck.
Once we'd exhausted each other, and even though I hated the idea of her taking her hands away from me and her lips from my neck, we were exhausted nevertheless, she slipped into a deep sleep with her fingers entwined with mine. I slept too, I don't know how long for, but it was fully light and traffic was buzzing past the building when I finally opened my eyes again.
I looked sideways and noticed the green digits on the clock radio said it was after 11. Mid morning then. I yawned and chanced a careful stretch of my legs. The pain in them was restricted to a dull ache after exercise nowadays, and I grinned to myself at the definition of 'exercise' I had just experienced. Sex...lots and lots of glorious, fulfilling sex. That'll blow the cobwebs away...there's paracetamol for anything else.
I heard her breathing change and looked back. Sure enough, those eyes were on mine again. She smiled drowsily.
"Going so soon...little Fitch...just when I was getting used to your presence" she joked, her voice thick with sleep.
"Better get used to it a lot more" I grinned back "I have no intention of letting this morning be a one off"
She reached for me and there would definitely have been a round two...or was it twenty two? But just as I let her lips cover mine, my phone rang. At the same time the doorbell went.
"Jesus" she complained "Timing is everything...who the fuck is that?"
I'd totally forgotten about calling the cops last night until that moment. But as I struggled out of bed and lifted my phone, checking the display, it all came back to me. The call was from Katie...my fucking treacherous sister. I swiped the red button to block the call and threw the handset onto the bed just as Naomi sat up, a curious look in her eye.
"Katie..." I said grimly "she can fuck right off...but I think you might be interested in our mystery caller" I said hopefully.
Sure enough, when I got to the front door after wrapping myself in one of Naomi's dressing gowns, which was hanging on the back of the door, there was a vague shape in the small window in the sturdy door. Naomi got up too, giving me a very welcome if frustrating look at that lithe, curvy body, before it was wrapped in towelling.
I got to the door and peeked through the spy hole. It should be Sergeant Major...but I had no intention of opening the door if it turned out to be one of my double dealing family.
It wasn't.
A familiar bulky shape stood the other side of the door. I could hear her talking broach squawking as if to confirm the owner.
I swung open the door and saw her don the professional mask of indifference. They must have a special charm school at Police College. They all have this 'fuck you...you're obviously lying to me' expression on their face when you talk to them.
God, I'd hate to be one of them. Never trusting anyone.
"Come in..." I said politely. She followed me into the lounge, which still had last nights screwed up tissues on the couch (for copious tears...nothing nasty!) and a half empty bottle of Spanish Rioja wine I had tried unsuccessfully to anaesthetise myself with before bed.
"You said you had some information regarding the theft of your husbands watch?" she said, pulling out her notebook and refusing my gesture for her to sit down. Bitch, I thought...I needed to sit down myself, but I was fucked if I was going to let her tower over me like I was a suspect or something, so I stood too.
"Yes...very important information" I said confidently
Just then Naomi walked into the lounge, yawning and pulling the dressing gown tighter round herself when she saw who it was standing in the room.
"Oh..." she said, her face going cold and hard "What is it this time...setting fire to Her Majesties Dockyards...Treason...?"
Sergeant Plod's face barely changed expression, but I caught the hard glint in her eyes.
"Miss Campbell?...no...nothing quite so exotic. Mrs Fitch here asked me to call...said she had some information?"
Naomi looked at me with a slightly odd expression on her face. We should have discussed this last night, but as we were otherwise occupied most of it, we hadn't, so I shook my head at her.
"Yes.." I said, turning back to Sgt Major "I had an interesting conversation with our neighbour at No 62 yesterday...Mrs..?" I turned again to Naomi and raised my eyebrow.
"Mrs Judd?" she answered, her face reflecting her total puzzlement at this turn of events.
"...Mrs Judd.." I continued "Apparently, I had a rather strange request for her the other day. Miraculously, my leg casts..." I pointed down at the thick white material covering my lower legs "had disappeared. Just long enough for me to ask her to let me into the apartment because I'd 'lost my keys'. Mrs Judd was quite surprised that I had been re plastered when she saw me a few days later"
You could clearly see the cogs working in Majors head and by the stare I was getting from Naomi, she was already way ahead of her.
"So...let me get this straight...you are saying...well, what are you saying, Mrs Fitch?" the policewoman said slowly.
I realised I would have to spell it out. God, where do they get these people from?
"I have a twin sister Sergeant. A twin sister who apparently visited here...while Naomi and I were at the Doctors getting me a fresh prescription for painkillers. A twin sister who persuaded our elderly neighbour that she was in fact...me...and, well, do I really have to draw you a picture about the reasons she wanted to get in here while we were out?"
Naomi was shaking her head and muttered something darkly, but I ignored her for the moment. I needed our numbskull copper to join up the dots. Like now.
For a second, that look of disbelief stayed on her face, but then the penny dropped and she scowled.
"Right..." she said "Have you spoken to Mrs Judd since she told you this Mrs Fitch" she asked.
"Nope" I said "In fact, its the first time I've spoken about it to anyone, including Naomi here...who as you can see, is as shocked as you"
Shocked is probably too tame a word for what she was feeling, but it was the best I could come up with at short notice.
"OK...then I need to speak to Mrs Judd right away...then I think we will be wanting to have conversation...under caution...with your sister...Katie, is it?"
I nodded. Dobbing my twin sister in wasn't something that came easy, but she hadn't exactly left me with much option, had she?
I let Sergeant Major out and walked (hobbled) back into the lounge where Naomi was still standing where I'd left her, biting her lip and staring out of the window.
I wrapped my arms round her from behind and squeezed. Her body was trembling.
"I should have told you last night...but you kind of...distracted me..." I said quietly into her ear.
For a second I didn't get a response and my worry alarm began clanging away in my head. Perhaps I should have stopped the lovemaking long enough to give her the good news? Maybe she was angry with me for holding out on that information?
But she quickly turned round and hugged me back, picking me up and spinning me round.
"Fuck...fuck..." she kept saying over and over.
I grinned at her delighted expression.
"My thoughts exactly Miss Campbell...bedroom, now...where you can demonstrate that activity?"
She squealed in delight and walked me backwards in her arms to the bedroom door.
"I think Detective Fitch needs to get her reward...don't you?" she laughed, reaching down for the dressing gown cord round my waist.
"Definitely" I smirked, pulling her face down to mine and kissing her mouth hungrily
The bedroom door slammed behind her as she kicked it with her heel and we collapsed onto the unmade bed in a tangle of white towelling and naked skin.