Despite all their luxuriating in their triumph, Helen knew that Nikki had to return to the same old job and that some of those she worked with would inevitably share the views of the hostile reporters and the dreadful tabloid headlines, which embodied those unthinking reactionary attitudes, which she had loathed with all her heart and her passions. To her intense relief, Nikki trotted out the door and her manner was resolutely normal.
"So how did your first day go, sweetheart?" Helen said with deliberate sense of warm positivity. She kissed and hugged her briefly and as her lips rested against Nikki's ear, she spotted the studiously blank looks of disapproval from the obvious narrow-minded critics. By contrast, a fresh faced man with that ageless look about him grinned and waved at them both."Pretty weird but there's nothing I can't deal with," Nikki said shortly. "Come on, let's head for home."
"Isn't that your friend, Tony?" Helen observed as she put the car into second gear and Nikki waved at the man who was headed for the nearest underground station.
"That's him and he's been fantastic." Nikki said warmly as a smile spread across her face." If it hadn't been for him, I might have seriously walked after taking a lot of shit from the obvious culprits."
Helen's senses jangled at the deliberately flat, deadpan tone of voice with which Nikki spoke with just that flicker of a forced laugh. She knew that Nikki was deliberately understating the situation. She wanted to squeeze her hand in sympathy but that wasn't compatible with tricky gear changes and steering in London rush hour traffic.
"……It's just as well I wasn't born in mediaeval times, Helen. I'm sure I'd have been burnt long ago as a witch with plenty of their kind to build the bonfire and set it alight……."
"In what way, being a lesbian, an outspoken trouble maker, a free thinker or just simply existing?"
Nikki's laugh became more real. Helen had put her finger on her nature with sure precision.
"Good question, Helen. I guess all of them in no particular order."
"In a way, it's a backhanded compliment for them to think that way of you. Just think if Fenner had ever thought that I was soft and easy going, I would have known for certain that I was seriously going wrong ….."
Helen instantly noticed a flicker of doubt in Nikki's eyes. She realized that she was sounding glib and superficial, as if the situation could be so neatly packaged up and everything would be fine. She hastened to leap onwards and reach Nikki's need for emotional healing.
"…………That's not all of it. I know only too well that it doesn't make it any easier in dealing with the pain of it all. What it does do is make it a little bit easier to stop them getting to you. You know I've been there….."
"You're the only one I know who has the right to tell me that."
"So come on, let's think positive. For a start, what's this Tony like?"
"He's a good guy. It's strange that he's shy and diffident or at least thinks of himself that way but he's been inside there to seriously think of getting out. He's a little like Dominic, except that it takes him a lot to get roused."
Nikki's observation temporarily petered out as she could see how engrossed Helen was with her driving. The smaller woman knew very well that Nikki couldn't wait to unburden herself until they got home. The most important thing was that her lover's state of mind was on the level. Helen smiled reassuringly and patted her shapely fingers and propelled their way homewards.
Once inside, Nikki reached out for Helen and slid her arms round Helen's waist. The smaller woman could feel the neediness emanating towards her and their mouths sought each other's out eagerly and passionately. Their coats were cast carelessly on the ground at their feet. The feel of each other's hands running along each other's backs was both reassuring and seeking comfort as they pressed against each other. They planted little kisses on each other's skin and breathed in each other's perfumes.
"I know you don't want to go to bed with me, at least not yet," Helen volunteered with perfect confidence.
"I want to lie down with you and talk. As for the rest, darling, I can be easily persuaded," came Nikki's reply, neatly mixing the serious and the seductive.
They moved straight towards their bedroom where they lay down and faced each other. Nikki's head lay between Helen's breasts and she delicately rested her hands along the smaller woman's flank while being gently caressed. Even though they were both fully dressed, they felt as intimate as if nothing separated themselves from each other than their skins. Helen forbore from saying anything and waited for Nikki to gather her thoughts. It was the way things had always felt between them now that they shared a history together.
"Darling, it will be no surprise that I want to change my job."
"I expected that. You've been incredibly strong to stick them out as long as you have done, along with the trial."
"I don't want those buggers to drive me out of my job. I'll go when I choose it. I'm going to get back to filling in application forms and take whatever rejections I get. No matter how long it takes, mentally, I'm out of there now. What keeps me hanging in there at work is the paycheck and Tony's friendship."
"Not counting me? If I didn't know you better, Nikki, I might be starting to get jealous."
That quirky remark made the taller woman laugh out loud at herself. God knows, she could do with some lighthearted humour in her life. They had been compelled to be oh so very serious, determined and very focussed over the past months. She knew beyond doubt that it was necessary, as important as everything she had striven for in her life, whether it was the club she had helped set up or her university degree. Now she came to think of it, everything they had done to make progress in their lives since she had got her freedom had been deliberate and purposeful, even down to initiating Helen into the realities of living with another woman. She might have thought in what way was blissfully enjoying nights of sexual experiences with this passionate woman was in any way like work but it was purposeful but it was something to strive for. She suddenly realized that, at some point in time, Helen had truly arrived at what her heart had told her she had wanted to be and her bridges were gloriously and thankfully burnt.
"Helen, I really thought that I'd experienced everything life had thrown at me but this takes the biscuit. You know of course, darling, I have ways of showing you what my sexuality is like when it is roused," Nikki replied with a smooth, silky insinuation in her tone of voice that started to describe very pleasurable pictures in the other woman's imagination.
"And what might they be, babes?" Helen breathed back in her best sultry tones, while her fingers deliberately started to unbutton Nikki's shirt and caress her bare skin.
"You definitely have the almighty cheek in casting aspersions on my sexuality. I am a one hundred per cent lover of women and you in particular, Ms Stewart. You will find out the truth from me."
It wasn't so much her words but the way Nikki moved around on top of Helen and slid her out of her businesslike suit jacket and started to unbutton Helen's shirt. Helen's nipples stiffened and her own desires swelled up inside her but her conscientious nature made one last stab for responsibility.
"Nikki, as much as I love to be ravished by you, we were going to talk about your future. Duty calls."
"Later, babes," Nikki replied sexily." You know how it is, pleasure first and plenty of it, mine and yours, and then business later, much later. We will do both. Trust me."
'Oh yes. I want the truth, lots of it," sighed Helen, eagerly surrendering, as her clothes suddenly seemed far too constricting. Nikki stared down lustfully at her partner, her smart skirt having slid up, exposing a generous view of her right thigh and her white lacy bra in clear view inadequately concealing her shapely breasts. Desires surged up inside her as Helen slid her own shirt off her back and a flurry of the rest of their clothes was soon scattered around on the floor. Nikki looked down open mouthed at the perfection of smaller woman's shapely curves and the invitation on her lips and eyes and she moved down to taste all of the perfumes that Helen needily offered her. Everything was simple and complete in Nikki's mind about her sense of identity. This was what mouths and lips and fingers were made for and Helen proved herself as adept as any female lover she had ever known in triumphantly bringing her to orgasm.
"You once promised me a good time when you got out or was it me?" Helen dreamily mumbled against Nikki's nipple. The taste of Nikki's juices in her mouth reminded her of the soft feel of Nikki's body locked against her and the rhythms of her ecstasy pulsing through her and the abandoned verbal expression of her desires.
"You mean you promised me nights of sexual delights. I thought you once said you weren't into women," laughed Nikki sleepily, still gently pushing against Helen, their limbs intertwined.
"Ah well, I didn't know what I really wanted then. I just needed a little encouragement, babes," came the answer with false innocence, gently licking the bare skin on offer.
"That is the understatement of the century," laughed Nikki," but it does mean that I have the best lover I've ever had, not just the woman I'm most in love with. You understand the difference," Nikki urged, sliding her slim fingers gradually down Helen's stomach.
"More than I could ever say in words," came the slight gasp in her throat, as the husky voice continued," but perhaps you could remind me." Nikki could feel the lurch in Helen's stomach and the thrilling sensation of where those fingers were heading for. Nikki's mixed feelings of accomplishment, desire and love rose to a climax as her fingers slid in and pressed hard against the center of Helen's sexuality. It was at moments like these that Nikki was overjoyed at how much of an unashamed sensualist Helen had become, or maybe always was if she had but known it.
"It was all Tony's fault," sleepily murmured Helen much later.
"I'll forgive him and you."
"And now for business. You promised," came the more businesslike tones.
"Must we get dressed?" moaned Nikki regretfully.
'Why should we? This isn't a business meeting. We just have to talk of the future. We can be as naked as much as we like, so as long as you don't try to seduce me. At least not yet." came the playful reply.
'Oh good." came the relieved reply.
"Well, come on, then."
Nikki felt replete and very much like a lover and less like a business planner. It took a real effort of will. Nevertheless, her recently developed business head let her put her lusts on the back burner and she forced herself to concentrate, even lying next to Helen. This woman temporarily became her respected co planner, the owner of a sharp, astute and sympathetic mind. Background thoughts peeped out to remind her that this solid reliable support made her even more of a perfect lover.
"Yeah, well. I think I can stick in there at work. I laid it on the line who I was, how I should be treated and I think they got the idea that I won't take any shit and I'll do the job to the best of my ability. I think a mixture of force and firmness will do the trick. There are a lot of them but I can face them down. None of them have any bottle."
"What about behind your back, Nikki?"
"I think I can fix it that I'll watch Tony's
back and he'll look after mine. I think that will hold the
situation."
"Does he know that you're moving on? He might
feel differently if he's going to be left on his own."
"Who knows? People change the habits of a lifetime, just like you," grinned Nikki."I'm lucky. He's a good straight friend. He knows I'm not secretly dumping on him."
"So that's fixed then. Just what help do you want from me?"
"Hmmm," Nikki said thoughtfully before feeling her way in a slow and intuitive fashion before slowing down to her conclusion." I suppose I could do with your patience and any advice you can think of …….and most of all, honest advice. I don't know also if I need to brush up my interview technique. I've been doing the interviewing for years without all this human resources crap. At Chix, I was the 'human resource.' Everything there was a bit more rough and ready. It was my rules and Trisha's that counted. My only experience in the world I want to get into, or something like it, is this job and either it was a sheer fluke or they were desperate for anyone off the streets……. I think that's about it…apart from watching out for anything I miss. This is definitely an area of life that you are one up over me."
"I don't think there's anything you missed, Nikki."
Helen's warm comforting tones wrapped themselves round Nikki's senses. She felt better with every idea explored, everything out in the open. All the stiffness in her bones was eased away and she stretched herself luxuriously against Helen.
"I'll get onto the passport application and we'll see Jo Mills about the covering letter. We'll bust that one wide open especially from what John Deed told me. After we get that, darling, we ought to seriously think about a holiday together," Nikki pronounced in more definite businesslike tones.
"Oh yes," breathed Helen," there are other beds that we can christen with our presence."
"Now where did you ever get such a one track mind from?" Nikki questioned softly, a smile of satisfaction spreading across her face and her own desires suddenly breaking through to the surface.
"Well, if you lie back, sweetheart, then just let me show you," came that sultry Scottish brogue that promised such delights as did those slim fingers, which expertly stroked her neck and shoulders. Nikki was bedazzled by the sight that glorious full-breasted figure with soft lips, straight determined nose and large eyes, a vision of wonder, which hovered over her and promised her such certainty of a lifetime of delight.
"Then you can convince me…all night long," whispered Nikki as she lay back and waited for her lover to take her into her possession.