*again, blackindiaink is writing for karma and I am writing for amy*

Chapter 30

Amy

"Mmm…" I hummed. The sound of her voice upon waking was sweet like a memory. I had to remind myself that I was back. I had spent so many nights in odd hotels waking up with pillows on my face and sometimes even the girls were pressed up against me in the night when we were lacking for space. This was definitely better. I could feel Karma on me but I didn't want to open my eyes just incase I was wrong and it wasn't her.

I needed to hear that sweet memory and hold onto the thought of her for just a little bit.

Karma

"Ugh, I have to go to work," I told her.

I really didn't want to but I couldn't not show up. I'd already stretched my luck pretty thin asking for days off to go see Amy. The only thing that would make it okay is if she was there.

"Do you want to go with me or do you want to go home and maybe come by later?"

I wouldn't blame her if she wanted to go home and sleep. That sounded like the best thing to do but I still hoped that I wouldn't have to give up her presence just yet.

There wasn't really much I needed to go do to get ready. My suit and sunglasses, a shirt and pair of shorts. They were laid out already since I knew last night that I wouldn't get much sleep.

That was before Amy showed up. I got even less than anticipated and yet I felt like I was more alive than I had been in months. Happiness bubbled inside of me and I leaned down, kissing her sweet and soft.

Amy

I could hear her moving about the room. It sounded like she was changing her clothes. I kept my eyes shut to give her privacy just in case.

This morning was like so many of our mornings only different. It felt perfect.

She leaned in and kissed me softly. When she pulled away I opened my eyes and pulled her back down, kissing her harder, happy it was real.

I took my hand to her face and tenderly tasted her, wanting it never to end.

She laughed and pulled my hand down, laying ontop of me and staring down. Her eyes were so pretty. I looked down and noticed she was wearing a red bathing suit. Her hair fell down over her shoulders and rest on my skin.

"I want to go too," I said.

I knew she'd be sad if I stayed in bed or went home.

Our time together suddenly felt infinitely more important and crucial after everything. I was having pangs for sure. I felt that being without her was the stupidest thing I could ever do. I wasn't even gone that long, it was insane to be feeling so lacking in her presence when I had only been gone a few days.

Karma

Work was fine. I basically stared at Amy the entire time, we talked, no one drowned and I got to think about what this would mean for us. Telling everyone was kind of a big thing.

Some of them might not believe us at first. My parents would be overjoyed. Farrah would not. No one would really be surprised though. We had been dancing around this for the better part of a year.

I just happened to be too blind to see it. My reactions to things made sense now. My jealousy made MORE sense now. I had to stop myself from getting distracted by Amy but that was asking too much.

She was finally here. I took a break and sat by the pool with her. We had dragged two reclining chairs near the tower and were sitting there partially shaded by an umbrella.

"So, what do you want to do tonight?"

I asked because I had hopes. We could always stay in and have a Netflix night. It wasn't like I had much money to throw around but maybe we could get some snacks and just chill.

I pursed my lips and tried not to laugh outloud. My plan was literally to Netflix and chill with Amy. That idea had never had so many dimensions of awesome to it. She looked at me, eyebrow raised, like she knew I was thinking something dirty.

Amy

"I dunno," I lied, thinking about all the things I wanted to do. I let my eyes close as the sun hit me. It felt good to be back in Austin but strange to be by a pool with her that wasn't my own. For the first time in a long while I felt nearly listless. The only thing that interested me was her, being with her.

What I wanted to do was to touch her again but I couldn't just do that at the pool so I let myself give up and not care. Even now, her being inches away was too much. It was too painful to want her so I had given up while she was working and shut down allowing the sun to touch me everywhere and make me feel warm.

Now she was close with that question.

What I wanted to do involved being even closer.

I looked over at her and stared a little too long.

I bit my lip but it wasn't on purpose. By the time I noticed it, it was definitely too late. I was tired and I wasn't able to stop myself. I had let my eyes travel freely all the way down her body and then back up to her eyes. And all without noticing or thinking that she might see and I might be wrong. The sight of her in just her lifeguard suit and her small jean shorts definitely did things to me.

Soon as I caught myself I let my mouth hang open before I spoke.

"Ahh, what do you wanna do?" I asked, trying to cover, I rose my eyebrows just a tad. I knew that at the very least I seemed dazed and sleepy. Perhaps she wouldn't even notice. Perhaps she wasn't looking at all. Who can say?

Karma

I couldn't hide my grin, even though I bit the inside of my cheek to try to stop it. Amy had never looked at me like that, at least I hadn't seen it. Not even during the disastrous almost threesome. To an extent she was always holding back and now she wasn't so much.

The admiration in her eyes was open and I wanted to keep them on me. Stretching was a good way to go about that. I finally sat down and focused on her, wanting to reach out and touch her cheek.

"I want you do what you want to do," I demurred.

My intention was backed by the rise of my eyebrow and my survey of her body. "You really should put some sunblock on. You want me to do it for you?"

Her eyes nearly popped out of her head and I chuckled. "No, but really. I just thought we could stay in." I shrugged. "At your house obviously and watching something in our pjs."

I reached over for the bag I kept by the guard stand and looked through it for the sunblock. If she got a burn touching wouldn't be so fun and I had plans for her. "Come here."

I scooted over, swinging my legs over the deck chair, reaching down to pull it over so I could sit. She cleared her throat and sat up, looking nervous as I squirted some of the white liquid into my palm.

She didn't move so I had to lean over and start rubbing it into her leg from her ankle and around to her calf. "Are you going to help me?" I handed her the bottle and smiled to myself as I kept rubbing slow circles on her skin.

Amy

Karma had to know that, I was much too sensitive to her touch for her to be playing these teasing games.

The way she stared at me just then was definitely predatory before it turned to straight-up teasing.

I wasn't sure how I'd manage to ever calm down about her.

I'd been laying on this chair for hours, barely moving but still all I had to do was take one glance at her and I was completely turned on. And then she touched me and began to rub and my hormones skyrocketed. People don't really talk enough about how awkward it is to be completely obsessed with someone and attuned to their every breath and move.

"Maybe you shouldn't do that here," I said nervously, and she scoffed. From the look on her face I could tell she thought I was being ridiculous.

Karma

It couldn't be that awesome. All I was doing was rubbing sunblock into her skin. Then I started to think about her doing it to me and my hands started to slow, but I kept on anyway, bold in the knowledge that I was affecting her.

"Why?"

I kind of wanted her to say it but I also knew she wouldn't. It would just come out as a garbled bit of explanation. "Is it bothering you?" She smacked me on the arm and I fell over laughing, the smell of sunblock and Amy strong.

This was the best day ever. I didn't want it to end but it would and maybe there would be even better ones coming soon. I took the bottle back and stuffed it in my bag. It was almost time to go and I was eager to get Amy alone.

"Gimme like ten minutes to switch out and then we can get out of here." I stood up and looked around the pool, realizing that I'd been shirking my duty while I was enjoying Amy. My replacement emerged from the shower area and I almost clapped. I'm such a nerd sometimes.

After we got our stuff together and walked outside to start the mile long trip back to Amy's. So very awesome that it was so close. I began to think of all the times I could just go straight there from work. It was kind of dangerous and awesome at the same time. I could get drunk on Amy so easily. I already was but this was a new kind of addiction.

Amy

The walk home was semi-awkward but only because I felt I could crawl right out of my skin any minute with how excited I was to be holding Karma's hand and also how nervous I was to possibly see Lauren and my mom.

I secretly hoped they wouldn't be home.

Karma had made it sound like a night in with me was all she wanted. And though it was still barely mid-day I was ready to start that night the second she brought it up.

Holding her hand as we lazily walked down the sidewalk, we exchanged frenzied looks that only left us both more anxious. I wished I had driven us to the pool. If I had driven us I could've kissed her as soon as we got in the car.

I also wished Karma had changed at the pool. If she had changed I could've followed her into the locker room and shown her what teasing like that does to me.

My thoughts wandered. I could've snuck up on her and turned her around, kissed her hard and pressed her back up against the cold of her locker. We could've had secret time.

Thinking about that while walking had a way of tripping me up.

Karma

I could tell that we were both thinking the same kinds of things and just not saying it. The tension was almost visible. It would be easy to push her into the bushes that lined the road on one side. No one would see us and we could act out the things going through my mind.

We were so close to her house though. As tempting as the bushes were, there was a really nice bed in her room and an awesome lock on her door. If Farrah wasn't home we could skip the small talk and go straight up.

I chewed on my lip, trying to hold out. Her thumb kept rubbing on my knuckle and it had me cursing my weakness. Never before had she impaired my mind like this. I was becoming a slave to the hormones and it was confusing because this hadn't been true in all our years of friendship.

Questioning why didn't help me so much when she was walking beside me, looking all hot in her shorts.

"You never answered me about what we should do? If you don't want to stay in we can go find something else to do."

By then we were approaching her house and I couldn't tell if anyone was home because the garage was closed. She dug her keys out and opened the front door.

My dreams of being able to just sneak up to her room were totally exploded when we saw Lauren in the kitchen, decked out in an apron. Amy cursed under her breath and I smiled when I realized that we hadn't dropped each other's hands. Well, this was awkward.