"I'm hungry,"Annabelle said, in her curiously childlike fashion as she veered off in another topic of conversation."I'm sorry. I've been so stressed out thinking that I forgot to eat. I should have thought."
"Want to lend a hand? You know the way round,"Simone replied with a quizzical look in her direction and indicating the door at the back of the living room.
It was in the spring break that Annabelle had inveigled Simone to put her up and, at that time, she was still clinging to the shreds of pretence that this was a teacher student relationship and this was just her offering pastoral care. She hadn't seen much of the kitchen since Simone had competently and quietly cooked for the pair of them while she'd stared out at the beauties of the rolling ocean. The younger woman feared that she'd just get under her partner's feet especially as she had never exhibited a major interest in domestic skills but that was when she'd lived at her parents. She acceded to the suggestion and, feeling a touch nervous, weighed up the intricacies of the kitchen. It shouldn't be such a big deal, she tried to persuade herself, her mouth feeling a little dry.
After some nervous preliminaries, she surprised herself in slotting round the neat movements of her lover and she started to understand the wisdom of what this very understanding woman was about. The fridge, the cutlery drawers, all the little spaces
were ordinarily the older woman's private places and she was gently letting her in. It was a way of getting to know each other in a very gentle easy going way.
"Want something to drink?" Simone invited her in her quiet way.
"Tropical fruit juice if that's OK...you expected me to say something wild like Jack Daniels or bourbon, didn't you. I'm through making out I'm the wild child all the time when all I really want is something cool and refreshing."
The younger woman's curious mixture of politeness, stark honesty and subtle humour endeared itself to Simone. The beach house had belt dreadfully lonely for so long and Annabelle was filling it, completing it with her presence. Was it only this morning that she'd woken up to the endless panorama of golden beaches and the infinite sea, all the splendid wonders of the world which didn't stop her from feeling cold, desolate and abandoned? She reproached herself for feeling so negative as no charges had been brought against her and she wasn't going to end up in some harsh Alcatraz like environment for years at a time. She ought to have been buoyed up by the fantastic good fortune but her spirits has slipped steadily down in the day following the good news. She glanced lovingly at the woman who had restored her to life in short order and poured the liquid from a carton into an ornamental glass. It was shaped more like a sculpture than a functional liquid container. She poured out another glassful for herself.
"Hey, you're not expecting me to say grace or half a dozen Hail Mary's or something?" Annabelle said suddenly. Religion was religion after all and she was freaking out in case the baleful influence St Teresa's Catholic School would insinuate itself into this paradise.
"Your thoughts are quite enough. I'm through with sticking to rituals that have no meaning,"Simone said lightly to the younger woman's intense and visible relief.
Annabelle savoured the unusually spiced salad and home made bread and it tasted delicious. They faced each other across the plain pine dining table and chattered inconsequentially away. Annabelle started to wonder if the older woman had something at the back of her mind that she was trying to conceal. As Simone laid her knife and fork
on the plate, Annabelle knew for certain that something was up.
"There's just one thing I've got to ask you and that is do your parents know you're here. I guess you live with them," the fair haired woman said nervously.
"Quit thinking you're still the teacher and I'm the pupil," the younger woman said with a flash of irritation. The second Annabelle said that, she knew she'd messed up. She half expected to be told that what she'd said was a case of teenage hormones and, deep down, she knew her lover would be right to say it. Instead, Simone fixed her with that infinitely forgiving, understanding and loving expression in her eyes.
"I've got past that one a long time ago darling. Don't you know how much you keep me on my toes?"
"I'm sorry. Yes, I have been living at home and it's goddamn unreal. I feel like my arms and legs are moving, my mouth says bullshit but it's not me."
"I want you to stay the night with me, more than the night, I mean in our bed, yes," Simone said, very shyly and girlishly, appealing to the younger woman to say yes. Unable to speak, Annabelle nodded her head eagerly. This was her idea of heaven.
"I guess you're on different planets from your parents like I am with mine. That won't stop them from keeping up appearances with neighbours and pretend parental concern if you disappear into the blue. You might as well get in there first and tell them what you're doing as we'll get shit from them sooner or later. It's in their interest to keep things quiet,"Simone said persuasively.
The dark-haired woman felt like melting on the spot as, in her quiet way, she was proposing they live together and she was being true to her promise to treat her as equals. Simone was delicately persuading her to help her take on this tricky bit of diplomacy and being prepared to deal with the hassle, head on. Her eyes glowed at Simone with tender emotion before her mouth set in a hard line as she fished out her mobile from her holdall.
Simone sat back and marvelled at the controlled way she handled the barrage of furious complaints that were obviously coming down the line and she met them, point by point, in her steady way. Simone knew how she could hold up her end of the argument but she was breaking new grounds. It would have been so easy of her to get either angry or upset and get drawn into a misplaced battle of emotions but she avoided all the traps. Finally, with a touching display of dignity before rounding off the conversation.
"I wanted to make sure you know I'm safe and I've told you where I am. You know
that I'm not part of your world and you're not part of mine so let's quit this mother daughter bullshit. I'm sure you've got more important business to be getting on with."
Annabelle's eyes were glowing with a sense of achievement and there was a rapid intake of breath and exhalation from the battle that she'd just fought. It was even visible in the darkening room as the sun was setting down on the ocean in a blaze of a shifting range of strong primary colours. Both of them had been so preoccupied with each other that they hadn't noticed the change. The younger woman's pulses started to race as she waited for the words on her lover's moist lips to be framed and to kiss the air they were going to be spoken upon.
"Darling, why don't we have ourselves a nightcap and take it to bed. I want to make love to you slowly and lovingly all night long."
"Sweetheart, I thought you'd never ask," she replied in unchararacteristically trembling tones. Least of all, she wasn't acting cool and didn't care if she wasn't. This was what naked emotions were all about.
The whole world was moving in delicious slow motion as they faced each other in the snug and comfortable room in the soft and gentle light. Simone loved the feel of gently unpeeling her lover's white top from over her body and seeing the younger woman shake her long hair free and loose. In turn, Annabelle delicately unbuttoned her own white shirt and gently eased it off her shoulders. She gazed in rapture of the red bra her lover was wearing that night they first slept together and lovingly unclasped it. Simone could almost hear the tinkling sound of her lover's guitar, her achingly sweet voice with that husky edge promising her that she will 'shelter her from the storm,' a mantra repeated over and over again.
"What are you thinking about, darling,"Annabelle's smoky eyes and gentle voice asked as she gently started to unzip her loose fitting slacks while she softly kissed her lover's face, her hips and neck..
"About that song you sang me at the party. I can almost hear it," Simone said softly as she started to unfasten her lover's skirt and returned her kisses with the utmost gentleness. They were slowly and calmly undressing each other knowing that the night was theirs and was infinite.
Once they were finally naked together, they stood holding hands and stared with delighted pleasure at each other, no tension and no guilt and with the calm assurance that they'd found each other. They lay down on the bed side by side and softly embraced each other, sighing with pleasure at the physical contact.
"This feels so right. I haven't felt right or complete without you," murmured Simone. She received an affectionate squeeze and her lover's leg sliding hungrily down her own. In between kisses, they looked into each other's eyes, not believing their luck while Simone's arm reached around between the pillow and her lover's head and ruffled her long hair affectionately. Their little movements against each other was the prelude of what was to come. Each woman was hungry for the other but wanted to take their time. This wasn't just about sex but being emotionally complete and that took delicacy of touch. .
"We've got all the time in the world and no one to stop us inside and outside our heads," Annabelle said softly, her long hair swept away from her face and falling on her shoulders. Simone kissed this marvellous woman delightedly, her emotions running freely. Her slim fingers started to trace their way down the side of her lover's shapely body along the line of her hip. It was like touching the softest velvet and was a treat for her senses as much as the light kisses that Annabelle started to place on her neck and shoulders. In an unhurried fashion, they started to make love very tenderly and Annabelle started softly stroking her lover's flat stomach making her shiver inside with pleasure. Finally, she she twisted herself on top and her fingers started edging ever closer to where they were desired until finally, she penetrated her. Soon, the fair-haired woman arching her back and sighing with ecstasy as she felt her lover's nimble fingers reach down to the centre of her desires. This woman must be such a considerate lover, she thought to herself as she realised that her one night of boldness so many months ago wasn't going to be the death of her. Simone could finally live the dreams that had haunted her at the edge of her consciousness as she rolled her lover over in bed and started to lay a pattern of kisses down from her lover's neck and sought out her generous breasts. Annabelle's breath came shorter and faster as she felt the lips and tongue of this most unexpectedly sensuous of women caress her nipples. She couldn't believe it, she whispered to herself in inexpressible joy with this woman of hers as she reluctantly moved on to slide down her body and lay a pattern of kisses down her flat stomach and finally enter her. Nothing in all her sexual fantasies had prepared her for the most delicious of climaxes where her body and mind felt like exploding. It took a long time for her orgasm to gradually fade away a little at a time, leaving her with the most loving feelings towards this woman of hers who'd some such a long way. She lovingly ran her fingers through her lover's long fair hair and caressed the parts of her body that she could reach and gloried in the delicious feel of her lover who wasn't in a hurry to get out of her.
"I never took my poems seriously enough. I loved the purity of their meanings, their form but I never really realised that I was living my dreams."," whispered Simone as she lay on her back while Annabelle's tender face hovered over her while they lay full length against each other.
"Right from the start, I knew you had hidden depths darling. I had the feeling you'd be a really good lay," laughed Annabelle against the older woman's damp skin.
"Is that an appropriate way to talk about your one time poetry teacher?" Simone said with mock severity, drolly belied by the way that her fingers felt the contours of her lover's gorgeous body. She loved the gorgeous velvet feel and couldn't get enough of it. The humour of this blatant contradiction made Annabelle laugh as she sensed unsuspected depths of this fascinating woman.
"Oh yeah, report me to the Mother Immaculata for impure thoughts," joked Annabelle in light easy tones. Right now,there was nothing in this world she couldn't fail to deal with ."I knew right from the start that you were somehow different. I really had to know just what kind of different you were."
"I love you so much darling I don't want us to ever be apart from each other," Simone said passionately as she clasped her lover to herself."We were made to be with each other. I know it."
"I love you so much Simone. Every time I say your name to myself, I feel so good it sounds so beautiful. You make my heart fly and guess what, first thing in the morning when I wake up, I'll feel you next to me and see you."
The sheer sense of wonder in Annabelle's voice at the future unfolding before them moved Simone immensely as they skated delicately around each others' intentions. She pressed the younger woman's face to her breasts and felt her own unashamed desires rise up in her. They were completely divorced from time as the younger woman softly kissed her skin again and again. This must be some kind of heaven she'd never been told about, the younger woman felt as she felt the full force and unwavering passion of the woman she'd so long adored. .She knew that the days were gone when she had to cajole, persuade and seduce a conflicted nervous woman to fully commit herself and cast aside her hangups and in one night together had her first experience of how much of a luscious lover Simone was. What she hadn't been sure of was just how much of their relationship still held good. From the way that the older woman moved and sighed with growing pleasure, she knew beyond doubt that she wanted to give her everything. A fierce sense of protectiveness swelled up inside her that she'd do her best to keep any bad shit away from her, to be the friend and lover she'd always dreamed of being. From out of nowhere, intense emotions started to overflow within them both, tears running down their cheeks and they started gently rocking back and forth together as a celebration of finding each other.
A little while later after they'd lain wrapped up round each other, a shift in the balance of mingled sexual desire and freeflowing emotion took place and Annabelle started to kiss her way down her lover's flat stomach and slim body and she was enchanted by the way her thighs opened, ready to receive her into her most intimate spaces.