By the time they left the club Scully was flushed, partly due the heat of the dance floor, but more from the passion of the handful of kisses she had shared with Stella. Although they hadn't talked about what might happen next, Scully felt like a bottle of carbonated water that had been shaken up, nervous and excited and unsure, as they rode in silence on the way back to the hotel, having decided to take a cab rather than walk.
Stella took her hand as they entered the lobby, and Scully hoped that Stella wouldn't find it too cold and clammy. Somehow, they managed to make it up the stairs, stopping at the door to Scully's room. This was it, the moment of truth.
Scully glanced at Stella, wondering how she could still seem so calm, and then swiped the card to unlock the door. "Do you want to come in?" She hadn't planned what she was going to say, hadn't thought any further ahead than what was right in front of her, but it seemed like the right thing to say. She didn't want this evening to end, not yet; the thought of Stella kissing her again had her shivering with a mixture of nerves and anticipation.
"If that's what you want."
Scully nodded and they entered the room together. Scully tossed her purse down on the desk before sitting down on the edge of the bed and gratefully slipping off each of her shoes in turn with a satisfied groan. "I have such a love-hate relationship with high heels. At least I didn't have to run in them today."
Stella had seated herself in the wooden chair with embroidered cushions to the left of the door and was removing her own shoes as well.
"Listen," Scully felt the nervous urge to continue talking, to get things out in the open, even though it felt horribly awkward. "I don't know what you were… um, what your expectations are for…"
Stella looked up at her as she tucked her shoes beneath the chair and then straightened up. "I don't have any. What happens tonight is entirely up to you."
Scully wished she didn't sound as flustered as she felt. "I don't know. Kissing you was… amazing…" Ugh. She could feel the scorching heat of her blush spreading across her cheeks like the flash of dry tinder going up in flames. "The thing is, I don't know how to feel about this."
Scully stood up, unable to sit still, and she paced over to the window to look out over the picturesque street below. "This conference, this whole trip, was part of me trying to sort out the emotional standstill I feel like my life has become, and I don't want to drag you into this mess with me because I'm confused," she said quietly before turning back to face Stella. "I don't want it to feel like I'm using you as a stand in for something I want but can't have. That isn't fair to either of us."
"But you are using me. And I'm using you. Sometimes we need something that we can only get from another human being and it's okay to want that." Stella stood up and stepped closer, keeping her eyes locked on Scully's face. "You aren't promising me something you aren't prepared to give, and I have no illusions about the temporary nature of our relationship. It's okay to have this."
She was so close now, and Scully could feel the agitated fluttering of her heart inside her chest. Stella slid a hand around behind Scully's neck, sliding her fingers through the base of her hair. "It's okay to want something just because you want it." She kissed her softly and Scully's hands moved up to frame Stella's face, holding her there as she returned the kiss with a deepening passion. "It's okay to let go," Stella murmured between gasps for breath. "It's okay to allow yourself to simply feel, to experience this moment in time for what it is and nothing more."
Abruptly, Stella's mouth left hers as she stepped back, her hands loosely resting on Scully's upper arms, holding her in place. They were both panting, pupils wide with arousal.
"Why did you… did I do something wrong?" Scully's brow furrowed in confusion.
"No. Nothing. But I want you to make the decision, before this goes any further, if this goes any further." Stella gave her a tender look and the corner of her mouth quirked upward. "I like you, Dana. I'm attracted to you. I have no qualms about what's happening between us. If this is something you're going to regret in the morning, I'd much prefer that you walk away right now." Stella paused for a moment, her eyes drifting over Scully's face, lingering on her lips, but coming back up to her eyes once more. "You're a friend, and I don't have many of those. I won't be offended if you decide this isn't something you want to take any further."
Scully took a step back and Stella released her, letting her arms fall to her sides, needing the physical disconnect so that the rational part of her mind had a fighting chance to exert itself. Did she want this? Yes. She licked her lips, remembering the feel of Stella's mouth against them, the sweeping languor of her tongue. She couldn't help the way her gaze shifted down from Stella's eyes to her lips. It had been so long since she'd been in a situation of unadulterated, reciprocated desire; to want and be wanted in return. Stella was a safe harbour — this could never be more than it was, a temporary moment in time for just the two of them. There was no partnership, no life's work, to damage if this didn't work out, if it was the wrong decision.
But, what about Mulder? Was this a facet of her own self-destructive behaviours? Would this feel like a betrayal of something they didn't even have together, might never have together? Scully was tired of it. Tired of doubting herself. Tired of hiding behind walls of her own making to keep people from getting too close. It didn't work anyway. Mulder had worn them down with time, like water eroding away the cliffside until he had seeped through her defenses — nothing more than a trickle at first, and now a torrent of water that terrified her with its wildness and ferocity. And then there was Stella, slipping through the cracks like a mouse, squeezing through spaces that Scully had never even imagined would even be wide enough for her to fit.
She loved Mulder. She thought that, somehow, she always would. It was far too late to try and untangle herself from him now. But, that didn't mean that she needed to lose herself in the process. She was Scully — his Scully — but she was Dana, too.
Stella was regarding her calmly, and Scully was sure she could sense the number of thoughts that were wending their way through her mind. She appreciated that she had given her a chance to think, to sort things out as logically as she could, without trying to influence her.
So, what did she want?
She didn't want this moment to pass by, unexperienced, like so many others in her life. She'd always been so focussed on the path ahead of her — keeping her GPA as high as possible as an undergrad, med school, choosing a challenging specialization, excelling ahead of her classmates at Quantico, proving herself to her superiors, to Mulder. How many times had she put herself second?
It made her think of a psychology experiment that she'd read about years ago where researchers had offered a young child a marshmallow but told them that, if they could wait for a little bit without eating it, then they could have two marshmallows instead of just the one. The researcher would place the single marshmallow on a plate and leave the room for a few minutes, leaving the child alone with the temptation. Could they resist the lure of that single marshmallow when no one was watching them? Was the promise of having more worth the temporary discomfort of having to wait? Of course, this had all been extrapolated out into a lengthy paper on delayed gratification and willpower.
What had been left unsaid was that the whole marshmallow, delayed gratification idea was fine in theory but, in real life parallels of that same experiment, most of the time there weren't two marshmallows waiting at the end of it all. There wasn't even one. That first one that had been offered up was already long gone. It only counted as delayed gratification if there was some actual gratification to be had, and all that was left most of the time, if you were lucky, was the plate.
She was tired of missed chances at happiness.
She was taking the goddamn marshmallow this time.
Scully stepped forward, taking Stella's face between her hands. "I want this. I want you." She kissed her deeply, with no uncertainty or hesitation, gentleness overcome by the latent desire that was surging through her, singing in her veins as Stella pulled her close.
"I want you, too." Stella's fingers were in her hair, tilting her head to the side so she could slant her mouth more perfectly over top of Scully's, her tongue gliding into her mouth as they both groaned. Being of a similar height, there was no strain of needing to have her head back or standing on the balls of her feet in order to reach. She liked their combined softness and she liked that she didn't feel tiny or diminished compared to the woman in her arms. There wasn't the balance of opposites she was used to — hard and soft, large and small, delicate and strong — but rather a meeting of equals that felt just as right together.
Scully explored with her hands as they kissed, languid and slow like the deep currents in the dark ocean depths. She traced down her shoulders, following the slender path of her arms to the delicate bird bones of her wrist and then back again. This time, she continued beyond the delicate roundness of her shoulders down her back to trace the perfect sweep of her scapula and then further down again to her waist as Scully pressed herself even closer.
Stella began to make her way slowly, kiss by kiss, along her jaw and down the pale column of her neck. "I want to take you out of this dress," she whispered once she'd reached Scully's clavicle. "I want to look at you. See how beautiful you are."
Their eyes met as Stella lifted her head and Scully couldn't help murmuring, "You're beautiful. You look so beautiful like this." Stella's blonde hair was tousled from Scully's fingers, and her lips were plump and swollen from the kisses they'd already shared. She couldn't resist reaching out to touch them, and Stella kissed her finger tip as she did just that.
"You should see yourself," Stella answered. "You're magnificent." Her eyes were dark as she gently tugged Scully to turn around. Once Scully's back was to her, Stella stepped in behind her and put her hands around her waist. "Let's go look." She nodded her head in the direction of the mirror and, together, the two of them moved towards it with Stella steering Scully's movements. When they were close enough, they stopped.
Scully stared at their reflection, nearly overcome by the combination of desire and need. They were beautiful together, her red hair and Stella's blonde, their flushed cheeks. Stella's lips were parted slightly and they both watched as her hands edged from Scully's waist to move upward at a painfully slow pace. Scully pinched her bottom lip between her teeth, knowing where she was headed and already imaging how her hands were going to feel. She could feel the strain in Stella's arms as she held herself to the maddening pace she'd chosen.
"Oh, please…" The words fell from Scully's lips unbidden as she struggled to keep her eyes open. Stella's hands didn't waver from their snail-like ascent, but her breathing had quickened, and a tight gasp escaped from her mouth.
It was torture. The glacier of each finger scraped away the landscape of each hilled rib and then the valleyed furrows of flesh that lay between them. She was trembling, maybe they both were, it was becoming harder to tell. At the first touch to the underside of her breasts, Scully whimpered, and Stella let out a long slow exhalation of breath.
"Yes?" Stella asked.
"Yes…" Scully was amazed she could even form the word.
The light pressure of Stella's caresses was sliding the material of her dress back and forth over her already sensitive skin, and the added friction was both arousing and maddening. She wasn't wearing a bra, despite having bought one — her breasts weren't large enough for it to be much of an issue and there was an allure in going bra-less, a hint of hidden rebellion that only she knew about.
Instinctively, she arched her back, trying to bring Stella's hands up to where she was aching to be touched. Her nipples were hard, and the brush of fabric against them was nowhere near enough.
Finally — finally! — Stella's fingers reached them, but not with the same cautious exploratory touch that had been climbing the mountainous ascent of her torso. No, as soon as her fingers came into contact with the peaks of Scully's nipples, she gripped them firmly, rolling the taut nubs between the pads of her fingers.
Scully's eyes flew shut and moan erupted from her throat as pleasure arced through her, sending a bolt of pure want to her already throbbing core. Her knees buckled. She would have sunk to the floor had it not been for Stella holding her up.
Still rhythmically kneading her breasts and tugging her nipples, Stella lowered her head to the exposed slant of Scully's neck and lightly suckled, pulling the skin tight with the suction of her mouth. With each inhalation of breath, she could smell the floral notes of Stella's perfume, light and feminine.
"More." It wasn't enough. She wanted to feel her everywhere and Stella seemed to know this intuitively as the suction on her neck increased followed by the pinch of teeth, slight at first, and then harder. She could feel herself getting wetter, getting more aroused, with each bite, with the way that Stella's control seemed to be slipping, too.
She nearly cried when suddenly everything ceased, Stella's mouth and questing fingers stilling abruptly. Scully was shivering uncontrollably as Stella hooked a finger in the curved line of fabric above Scully's breasts and tugged on it lightly. "Time for this to come off, I think." Her voice was husky, rasped with desire.
All Scully could do was nod at their reflections in the mirror. The pale skin of her neck was flushed a dusky rose where Stella's mouth had been and her eyes looked glazed and wild, a doe startled into flight by a hunter. Stella's eyes were hungry, and Scully was ready to be devoured.
With one finger, Stella traced over the arch of one of the thin shoulder straps and then slid it slowly over the rounded acromial of her shoulder. Seemingly unhurried, except for the way her breathing quickened and a slight tremble in the motion, she did the same to the other side. Starting back in the middle between Scully's breasts, Stella's fingers painted a trail along the skin above the neckline of her dress, circling lazily around from the front to the back until she reached the tiny zipper. She pulled it down and the sides of the dress opened like a flower, delicate petals folding back to reveal Scully's naked upper body beneath it, and there was an audible gasp from both of them. They both stared, unable to look away.
The sheen of black fabric and lace clung around her hips and Scully's hands came up to pull it down, but Stella's hands came around to press on hers gently, halting their movement. "Let me."
Scully nodded, letting her hands fall to her sides as Stella carefully eased the dress down over the curve of Scully's hips until it fell loose around her legs and she was able to step out of it. Stella let out a long breath, meeting Scully's eyes in the mirror as her hands curled around Scully's waist, pulling her back against her. The only thing hiding her full nakedness was the wisp of midnight blue satin between her legs and she didn't think she'd ever been this turned on in her life.
Stella worked the edges of her underwear down over her hips before crouching down, pressing hot wet kisses in the center of her tattoo as she slid them further down her legs until Scully was able to kick them off. On her way back up to standing, she pressed kisses and bites along the beaded rosary of Scully's spine.
"I want to kiss you," Scully murmured, leaning her head back against Stella's shoulder, her breath coming in short pants. "Please."
"Then kiss me," Stella whispered back, and Scully turned in her arms to capture her mouth in a kiss that was a frenzied dance of lips and teeth and tongues. Her hands were in Stella's hair, wanting her close, needing her close. The scratch of the material of Stella's dress was maddening against the hypersensitivity of her skin, both arousing and distracting in its own way, but she wanted the heat and softness of Stella's body pressed against her own. She reluctantly slid one of her hands out of Stella's hair and down her back, searching for the zipper on the back of her dress, but she was clumsy with lust and the tiny metal oval seemed to be eluding her.
"Take this off," Scully managed to get out between breaths. "I want to feel you."
Stella bit down on the plumpness of her lower lip, sending her reeling once more. "In a minute. I'm not done with you yet." She sucked Scully's lip into her mouth, massaging the area she'd just nipped with flat swipes of her tongue. "Bed." She slowly propelled them both a few steps in the right direction, never letting up on her assault of Scully's mouth. Her hands had found their way down to her ass, clutching her tightly in order to keep their hips pressed together. "Now." A few more steps and Scully felt the bed against the back of her legs as she bumped into it. "Lie down."
Scully gave one last sweep of Stella's mouth with her tongue before returning the bite on Stella's bottom lip. Stella groaned, and Scully felt the heady combination of both the desire to receive pleasure and to cause it in return rush through her body like an electrical current, sparking from nerve ending to nerve ending, synapses firing like shooting stars. She was wanted, desired, and she was making Stella feel the same. She was going to make Stella feel as good as she was feeling and it made her feel powerful.
She sat down on the mattress and tucked her feet underneath her so that she was kneeling. She trailed her fingers down over Stella's shoulders, down her arms, to grasp her hands, and pulled the other woman onto the bed with her as she edged back towards the pillows. "Where do you want me?" Scully was nearly in the middle of the king-sized bed now, the covers rumpled from her slide across it.
"Right here is good." She gently pushed Scully's shoulders, guiding her down as Scully unfolded her legs so she could stretch out fully. Stella eased herself to the side, out of her way, so that Scully had room to position herself however she felt most comfortable. Once she had settled into place, Stella clasped one of her hands in hers and guided it up next to Scully's head, giving it a light but deliberate squeeze as she let go to indicate that she wanted her to keep her hand there. She repeated the same action on the other side, her eyes warm and kind as she studied Scully's face. "This okay?"
"Yeah." She wanted more of Stella's hands, more of her mouth, everywhere, and it was an effort to keep her hips from arching off the bed, trying in vain to seek the contact her body was craving. But Stella wasn't touching her anywhere, not yet, consuming her with her eyes, and somehow that was nearly as erotic as a physical touch.
Stella's hair was a golden halo in the glow of the bedside lamp, and she was so stunningly beautiful in that moment that it made Scully nearly ache with the sight of it.
"Tell me what you want, Dana." Stella leaned down and brushed her lips against her mouth, and this time Scully couldn't stop the upward pulse of her hips although she kept her hands in place where Stella had put them. She wound her fingers into her own hair, needing to ground herself. "Do you want me to touch you?"
"Yes." The word was a whimpered plea as one finger touched the dip between her collar bones and lingered there, tracing a tiny circle that went around and around before gliding down her sternum. Another tiny circle there lasting as long as it took Scully to expel one ragged breath and draw in another, and then Stella's finger was moving again, taking a low circuitous path around the mound of her left breast. Once she was back in the center, she did the same to her right breast, tracing a figure eight over the heat of Scully's skin. Her nipples were so hard that they hurt, her areolas puckered.
Stella stopped, and the sensation of touch disappeared. Scully's fingers pulled her hair as her head twisted to the side involuntarily, making her scalp prickle with a sweet almost pain. This was torture and she never wanted it to stop. Her eyes were closed and she felt incapable of doing anything other than lying there, wet and wanton, waiting for Stella's next move.
There was a warm breath of air over her right nipple and she shuddered. "Do you want me to use my mouth?"
"Please…" The word was little more than a whispered exhale, but Stella must have heard because a moment later, her mouth was there, suckling and pulling, and Scully's back bowed upward at the sudden shock of pleasure. "Oh… Jesus…" Stella's hand was at her other breast, kneading and tugging in counterpoint to her mouth, and Scully wondered if it was possible to come from this alone. Stella was making low hums of pleasure as she licked and suckled, and Scully felt like she was about to burst out her skin, breaking open like a piece of over ripened fruit. "So good," she found herself murmuring over and over again. "God, that feels so good."
Scully couldn't say how much time had passed before Stella's mouth began to move in a slow slide down the concave slope between the bottom of her rib cage to the smooth plain of her abdomen. There was a slight pause and a gentle kiss on her navel as Stella continued in a straight path down to where Scully was throbbing for contact. She lingered at the inside curve of Scully's hip bone, pressing delicate kisses to the sensitive skin there, making her shake with the anticipation of where she might go next.
When she reached her mons, she stopped again, hovering above the neat line where her pubic hair began. "Yes?" she asked.
Scully opened her eyes and looked down to see Stella's eyes searching her own. Stella's chest was heaving with each intake of breath and her arms holding her in position above Scully were quaking. She was gorgeous. There wasn't anything that she wanted more than this right now.
"Yes." Scully let her head relax back and closed her eyes again, holding the image of Stella in the back of her mind, and opened her legs a little wider. "Yes," she murmured again, wanting Stella to know she was sure, that she wanted this.
Scully felt the shift in the mattress as Stella lowered herself down and then the flat swipe of her tongue along her labia had her writhing and arching off the bed towards the heat of Stella's mouth. Everything about Stella was soft, and the combination of the slickness of her own arousal and the silken slide of Stella's skin against her own was like an extension of herself.
She was so close already, could feel her orgasm building. "More." The word came out as a moan. She needed more pressure, more stimulation, and Stella was there. Scully wasn't even sure what she was doing — a pattern of suckling and nudging her clitoris with her tongue and lips alternating with long hard licks that began at her opening and ended with a hard press once she'd returned to the top. Her fingers were gripping Scully's inner thighs, keeping her spread wide and open to her onslaught.
Scully's fingers were wrapped in her own hair, pulling the strands taught with the effort of keeping them where Stella had placed them. She was babbling, each word torn from her chest on a gasp of air. "Don't stop, Oh, God… please don't stop." Her hips were canted up, seeking release, as she ground herself against the firm press of Stella's tongue. She could feel the stuttering initial shocks of her impending release. So close, she was so close, and then it hit her all at once like the sudden deluge of a summer thunderstorm and she was going over the edge and she never wanted it to end. She was writhing, falling apart, and it was too much and not enough all at the same time. She was panting as she came back to herself, Stella still pressing her mouth firmly against her until all the aftershocks had passed.
Scully tossed her head back as her body relaxed, every ounce of tension seeping out of her. Stella lifted her head slowly, coming to rest against Scully's inner thigh as they lay there quietly and Scully caught her breath. Without opening her eyes, Scully moved her arm down from behind her head to lightly stroke Stella's hair.
"Thank you,'" Scully murmured. "That was… like nothing I've ever experienced before."
"Because it was with a woman?"
Scully opened her eyes, and was overcome by the beauty of the woman nestled between her legs. "No." She slid her fingers along the perfect contour of Stella's cheekbone. "Because it was with you. Because…" She blushed, not that her cheeks could get much pinker at the moment, she was quite sure. "Because you made me feel beautiful."
She traced the outline of Stella's lips with the tip of her finger, and Stella opened her mouth to kiss her fingertip.
"I want to do that for you," Scully whispered, holding Stella's eyes with her own. "I want to make you feel like that, too."
Stella lifted her head and maneuvered herself upward until Scully's face was nearly even with her own, and Scully captured her mouth with a fervour. She tried to convey, with lips and tongue and teeth, the raw emotional pull of vulnerability and desire that she was feeling. Scully rolled them so that she was on top, her naked hips straddling Stella's clothed ones as she nuzzled her face into the delicate perfume of her neck. "I want to undress you." Scully bit down on the skin just below Stella's ear and then licked it with the flat of her tongue. "I want to look at you the way you looked at me."
Stella gave her a look of challenge, her eyes deliciously dark. "What's stopping you?" Even though she was the one on top, Scully had no doubt as to who was really in control. Stella was the cat allowing the mouse to have her fun. And Scully intended to make the most of it.
She leaned down and kissed Stella gently, almost chastely, before grasping her lower lip between her teeth and carefully drawing it upward and biting down with increasing pressure until she heard Stella's involuntary gasp of pleasure. "Roll over," Scully murmured, lifting her hips up to give Stella room to move.
Stella gave a brief nod and then did as Scully asked.
Scully settled herself back down and took a moment to admire the view. She swept Stella's long hair off to the side and leaned forward to place a tender kiss on the nub of each vertebrae, working her way down her neck and spine until she reached the top of her dress. "Good?"
"Yes." Stella's already low voice had dropped even lower, and Scully was beginning to feel desire stirring inside her once more.
Scully grabbed the end of the zipper and tugged it all the way down, parting the fabric beneath her hands. Stella was wearing a pastel pink strapless bra beneath it, and Scully unhooked the fastenings on it, exposing the reminder of Stella's bare back. With a moan of pleasure, she picked up again where she had left off, kissing the rest of the way down her spine. Stella was grinding her hips against the bed in a rocking sway that soon had Scully pressing down against her, unable to keep her body from following the same instinctive primal rhythm.
When she'd kissed all she could reach, Scully slid off of her, edging down so she could stand at the end of the bed. Stella looked so delicate, sprawled across the crisp ivory of the blankets. "Lift up your hips." Scully tugged the dress the rest of the way off, taking the matching pink panties along with it, leaving the fabric in a pile on the floor. "Now turn over."
Stella rolled over slowly, letting Scully drink her fill. Her breasts were slightly smaller than Scully's, her body leaner with more sharply defined angles. She was fully waxed, her mound smooth and bare. As she stretched, watching Scully watching her, she reminded Scully of a wild cat, sleek and sinewed, giving the illusion of calm grace even while it hunted.
She crawled up Stella's body, forcing herself to go slow, to draw it out as much as she could, until she was sitting, perched on the delicate wings of her hip bones once more. There was no dress in the way this time, though, and Scully could feel her own wetness as she settled against her, skin to skin. She could smell their arousal, both hers and Stella's, musky and primal.
"You're incredible," Scully said in a low voice as she leaned down to kiss her, "in more ways than I could have ever imagined."
As they kissed, Stella reached for Scully's hand and guided it up, placing it firmly against her breast with a quick squeeze. Scully understood, moving her other hand to cover Stella's other breast. Stella moaned against her mouth, their teeth clacking together momentarily with the passion of it, as Scully gripped the bottoms of her breasts with her fingers and slid her thumbs firmly over the tops, ending with a circular rub of her thumbs across Stella's nipples. She repeated the motion, catching and rolling her nipples between her thumb and forefinger with each pass. Stella's hips were moving in a slow roll, echoing her movements, until Scully slid down to take one of the hardened nubs into her mouth.
The sounds Stella was making were making her even wetter, and Scully couldn't get enough of them. The hitched breath as she flicked it with her tongue, the long groan as she suckled, drawing both the nipple and areola into her mouth, the gasp of, "Oh, fuck," when she bit down. She moved to the other breast, lavishing it with the same attention as the first, before moving downward, trying to keep herself from going too fast, wanting to tease, wanting to draw out Stella's pleasure until she snapped.
So, she allowed herself to explore, savouring each new area she encountered. She licked along the underside of each breast, tasting the salt, breathing in the warm sweet smell of her skin. She nibbled down the notched ridges of her ribs, trying not to tickle, trying to ignore the insistent tugs of Stella's hands in her hair, urging her lower. Stella wasn't overly vocal or loud, but her soft sighs and drawn out hums of pleasure were all the encouragement that Scully needed to know that she was doing this right.
Her tongue dipped into the valley of her navel, circling the rim, as Scully slid further down Stella's legs, stretching herself out so she could balance even though she was partly off the bed at this point. She spent an eternity in the hollow of her left hip bone. Stella had paid extra attention to that spot on Scully when their positions had been reversed, leading Scully to the conclusion that it was likely a place Stella found to be highly erogenous.
Her deduction was correct.
At the first draw of her teeth over the bone of her iliac crest, Stella's hips canted upwards. When she kissed and sucked the skin in the concave curve below, Stella actually moaned, long and low. Without moving from that spot, Scully traced slow circles over the silken skin of her stomach, circling lower and lower until she reached the gentle slope of her mons. It was a smooth as it looked and Scully rested her palm against it with a small amount of pressure as she bit the patch of skin at Stella's hip bone.
She could smell her arousal more strongly now, and she lifted her head, pressing one last kiss to the blotchy lavender patch she'd left behind, so she could see. Her labia were wet, and Scully ghosted down the center of her vulva with the lightest of touches, feeling how slippery she was. A full body shudder racked through Stella's body as her legs opened further.
The inside of her thighs were covered with the crosshatches of old scars, and Scully's finger paused for a moment near her opening. She'd seen this before, self-inflicted wounding or cutting as a means of replacing emotional pain with physical pain. Somehow, she wasn't surprised. She had a strong desire to kiss her there, to run her tongue along every ridged line of skin, but wasn't sure if that was something Stella would want her to notice or pay attention to. Her gut feeling was that Stella would rather pretend that they didn't exist. So, without any further hesitation, she used both hands to part Stella's labia and leaned down, pressing the flat of her tongue against her centre and licking upward until she reached her clitoris.
She'd never done this before, had never even kissed a woman before Stella, but she didn't feel intimidated or lost as to what to do. She simply explored, mimicking the things Stella had done to her and trying to recreate the patterns and pressure that she liked herself. The taste and smell was different compared to men, less bitter. It made her think of the time when Charlie had dared her to lick the end of a nine-volt battery when they were kids… an almost electric coppery sort of tang.
Stella's hands had moved to her own breasts, pulling and tugging on her nipples, and she was panting and tossing her head from side to side on the pillow. In the pale light of the room, her skin glowed almost like it had been lit up from within. With her fingers, Scully began to tease at her opening before sliding one finger inside. Stella sighed, her hips pushing up against the firm press of Scully's mouth. Scully placed her other hand, fingers splayed wide, across Stella's lower abdomen, holding her in place as she increased the pressure, alternating between suckling and flicking her tongue in a half-circle around the raised nub of her clitoris. Stella's whole body was beginning to quake as Scully added a second finger, sliding them in and out in a counterpoint to her mouth.
She came with an inarticulate cry, her vaginal walls clenching around Scully's fingers. Scully held perfectly still, not easing up until she felt Stella's body relax completely.
Although she didn't really want to move, she was lying diagonally across the bottom of the bed with her feet hanging off, so she edged herself up and Stella pulled her towards her, wrapping her arms around her. Face to face once more, they traded languorous kisses back and forth, their bodies still tingling from the after effects of their lovemaking.
"I don't normally do this, you know." Stella turned her head to look at her, her chest still heaving with exertion. They were both sprawled out across the bed, still too hot to even contemplate wanting blankets over top of them.
Scully lazily turned her head to face her. "What?"
"Get emotionally involved with the people I fuck."
Scully laughed, boneless and relaxed, feeling like she could melt into the bed if her body made the decision that being corporeal was overrated. "Well, I don't normally fuck the people I'm emotionally involved with. I'm a master at it, if you must know."
"It may surprise you to know that I'd already drawn that conclusion some time ago," Stella said with a droll lilt in her voice, and Scully couldn't help the giggle that escaped. Maybe she wasn't about to melt, maybe she was about to float like a balloon instead. Solid to liquid. Solid to gas. Melting… sublimation… did it really matter?
She pressed a kiss to Stella's shoulder and they lay there, warm and comfortable, until they both fell asleep.
Happy New Year, everyone! Thanks, Josie Lange, for being the best beta in the whole world (and then some)!