"We've come such a long way together Simone," Annabelle said softly and tenderly to the dim shape she could sense in the shadows. The fair-haired woman's presence was tangible even though Annabelle couldn't see her though the feel of her body lying next to her helped. This moment was one of those wonderful end of the day feelings which ought to last forever.
They'd had the time of their lives playing both new songs and running through their concert repertoire while Alison and Vanessa cheered them on once they'd taken their quota of photographs. They'd finally set off back to their studio only out of obligation to other customers due to call in. Very late in the day, they'd ordered a takeaway from the nearby pizza place and finally driven off back home, dog tired but not too tired to indulge in some sweetly tender pillow talk. "When I first came here, I loved learning to live with you, getting to know each other without any outside interference, just living in endless days of sun, sea, sex, walking on the beach together and eating hot dogs."
"I remember," Simone said fondly."We really needed that time together after all that stress and strain."
"We've also got a lot of friends who we can relate to," Annabelle said in a contemplative manner, thinking of all the women they'd come to meet.
"That's good," nodded Simone approvingly."It's what we need, our own mutual support network. It's made everything that happened before in my life obsolete."
"Now we're going to be part of a rock and roll band darling. I hope you don't regret it as I'm not sure what we're letting ourselves in for. It won't be what you're used to."
"I trust you," Simone said, giving her lover a long soft kiss and gently stroking her hair."Erin and Diane feel the same way we do. Everything just happened without either of us really planning it so it was made for this thing to happen same as everything that's ever happened between us," Simone replied in a beautiful stream of flowing words with an undertone of quiet determination." Correction, I was watching you play a Tori Amos song and you seduced me into uncovering another of my secrets- and I'm so glad you did it. I wouldn't have done it if it hadn't been for you."
"What about your photography and artwork?" questioned Annabelle in a worried fashion."I used to love watching you paint those photographs you took. You're really talented and I feel guilty that I've kind of sidetracked you."
"Just relax darling," Simone softly laughed running her fingers along the younger woman's smooth flank and delicately detouring around her flat stomach. The younger woman's heart skipped a beat as she smiled at the line this seduction was now taking. "I have seriously thought about it over the past few weeks but face facts. I'd have to go to college and study professionally to get anywhere to do it properly. I could do it if I put my mind to it but that's not enough. Rock and roll's simpler, more democratic that way and involves us both."
"And more competition from other groups," added the younger woman in a more serious vein, lying on her side with her head on her pillow."Don't forget that."
"That's where having you and Erin and Diane helps. It's not as I'm doing it on my own with you cheering me on from the sidelines. It's about all of us together."
"You really are a determined woman," Annabelle said admiringly. It struck her that this woman of her had had such a hard row to hoe in gaining a direction on her life, especially when she was torn between her desires and her professional obligations as teacher and that, once she'd battled her way through her emotional dilemmas, there was nothing stopping her.
"Come here honey," Simone said in her soft, clear voice, stretching out her arm to touch the other woman's cheek."I want you."
To her inexpressible delight, she felt her lover slide on top of her and opened her legs wide. She ran her fingers through Annabelle's long brown hair, and along the contours of her shapely back.
"You don't know what you do to me- on second thoughts, perhaps you do," she chuckled softly into her lover's ear.
"No perhaps about it. We're tuned into each other," the younger woman observed.
"Mmm. I adore the feeling of lying flat on my back..and you between my legs...and my breasts against yours," Simone sighed luxuriously, speaking in slow languorous phrases to emphasise her feelings.
Both women felt a delicious sense of sexual arousal and emotional intimacy. Added to that, they both had a profound sense of satisfaction with the way their lives were heading. It all made for a heady cocktail. They laughed softly, Annabelle's long hair falling over her lover's body. They tenderly kissed and caressed each other with no sense of urgency in their lovemaking. They were floating on an emotional high that each woman was the answer to what the other was seeking out of life. Their hands, their lips their tongues lovingly explored each other as desire slowly rose inside them.
Simone gave out a little gasp as she felt her lover's hand start to slide down her body and start to caress the contours of her stomach and then slip a little lower. Teasingly, she stopped short of her centre.
"Don't hold out on me honey," she pleaded softly, planting little kisses on Annabelle's face and lips.
"Don't worry, Simone, I'll never let you down," came the reassuringly middle-pitched reply from out of the shadows. While Simone's body was already moving, her soul was calm and reassured by those most wonderful words that said everything about their relationship, appealing both to her loving nature and her libido. Sure enough, the younger woman entered her and gently and infallibly caressed the right spot. Soon, the two women's bodies were moving increasingly rhythmically to the passions unleashed and the fair-haired woman came to a climax that was overwhelming that had her gasping for breath.
"Come here darling," she whispered after she had calmed down," it's your turn now."
And at that, Simone shifted on top of her lover and her tongue and lips lovingly caressed the younger woman's nipples and full breasts. Annabelle knew that Simone adored her womanliness and she arched back as she knew that her lover's appetites weren't exhausted by her orgasm but that she fully intended to go down on her with all her skills in lovemaking which had blossomed in such a short time. Tears of happiness prickled her eyes in gratitude.
"Playing in a band with you is so liberating. It takes me out of myself and puts me where I want to be," Diane said to Erin in a similar intimate conversation in the comfort of their bed."I'll never forget the first time you came into Chico's when I was still under Miranda's thumb."
Erin drew in her breath and exhaled slowly. Miranda had always been a topic of conversation that had been strictly off limits, partly because of Erin's frank dislike of the conceited bitch and Diane's bad memories of having been her lover.
"You'd better talk about it kid. It's a long time coming to get everything off your chest."
Diane looked downwards at herself, at her slim spare shape and laughed briefly. Then her expression grew serious as her turbulent past came back into her mind..
"Ever since I was at high school, I've loved the drums. My school had this corny old fashioned band and they couldn't get any girl to play the drums. It wasn't a very girly thing to do so I thought to myself that I haven't anything to worry about so why not?What's stopping me from doing what I've had a half-conscious hankering for since I was a kid?"
Her partner's profound desire to be the woman she wanted to be melted Erin's large heart that she concealed under her tough facade. She felt the way the younger version of her partner had battled with the strange looks, the whispered conversations behind a covering palm of the hand and the sheer guts in stepping out.
"I'm so glad you did that. That took courage,"Erin said, smoothing her lover's long trailing fair hair out of her eyes. Diane smiled shyly. Receiving compliments made her bashful, even from Erin.
"My music teacher was really good. She sensed very soon that I had natural rhythm and I never really had to work at it. It got so that as long as I could get behind that drum kit, I found a way out of my natural shyness and kind of be the person I wanted to be."
Erin nodded her head slowly at the truth of the remark. Forever imprinted in her mind was the image of her lover's whirling drumsticks and her hair floating back in the wind. She set up this gut root back-beat that Erin knew that Simone and Annabelle got off on. Come to think of it, it talked to her own bass playing which talked back to her lover.
"I've been meaning to ask you. I never asked you how come you got a drum kit of your own?"Erin asked seriously, loving the feel of her arm around her lover's shoulders as they lay, side by side in the shadows.
"You know my folks are separated. Mom told me that he didn't want her little girl to mess around with that rock and roll crowd, to mix up with drugs and boys. Mom knew that I was the other way inclined and figured out that drumming would keep me safe. Somehow she got the money out of him as his part of a graduation present as all he was ever concerned about was money. She even put up with my drumming practice at home. She knows we share this apartment and he doesn't. To him, I'm somehow 'out there'."
Erin shuddered at the way Diane talked of her father. The absence of human reference was very telling.
"I starting hanging out in places before it was legal. My looks got me by. It was only a matter of time before I found Chico's and I first laid eyes on Miranda...In my naivety, I thought she was the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen and she was interested in me. I was shy then and couldn't talk except through my drumming. I walked into the room and felt everyone's eyes upon me and I froze. She rescued me as I thought- for her own purposes as I finally found out. I'd fooled around but she was my first lover proper . Very soon, she made it clear in her intellectually obscure way that she was the mentor and I was her initiate. She told me what books to read, how to think, how to make love- her way. At the same time, she gave other women the eye and kept me insecure- especially what I'd heard of her reputation."
Diane's words poured out in a solid stream that scared Erin. She'd never really heard this before except as throwaway asides which were never followed up.
"My drumming was part of my trouble with Miranda. She saw me as this naïve little girl she could mould, being the older sophisticated woman. I really couldn't feel for all all these books I read and I couldn't pretend to talk like her. I sat in with her older friends while all this intellectual conversation went on and she could show me off to them All this time, I kept up my illicit affair with my drum kit when I visited mom. It ought to be cited as co respondent in the breakup. As soon as I sat on the drum stool and started kicking ass, I knew what was real and what wasn't."
Erin laughed at her lover's sharp wit and gave her a long and gentle kiss on her lips. She could feel her lover smile with gratitude and her long arms wind themselves gratefully round her neck. This wasn't really a prelude to their lovemaking but this really close and tender friend comforting her when she needed it.
"I couldn't believe it when I saw you come through the doors at Chico's. You looked so strong and certain of myself. I knew I'd found my escape from an impossible situation."
"I'd only called in for a beer or two. I'd been running around trying to get a job as a bass player and got turned off by all those male musicians who thought maybe I'm a dyke with a carving knife concealed on my person," Erin said in her direct humorous fashion which was right up Nikki's street.
"I saw Miranda and all her friends fade into the background and you stood out. Of course, Miranda was giving me dirty looks which I was oblivious to. I didn't know it but she became history as soon as I saw you. Couple of days later, I was out of there."
"So what do you see in me, baby. You know I love hearing you sing my praises," Erin said with a joking laugh.
"You're honest and centred. I know where I stand with you. Believe me, I was starting to wonder if I'd made a mistake in committing myself so early on only to women until I saw you. I couldn't believe it when you told me you were a bass player. That was too much of a coincidence. I instantly made up my mind that I wasn't going to let you slip through my fingers so I asked you out on our first date- well away from Chico's- so I got away from that intellectual crap forever."
"You took to Simone when you first saw her," Erin said softly, starting to feel those delicious feelings of two women with nothing between them except bare skin and all the time in the world.
"Simone's fine. She's really kind-hearted and generous. I know how well educated she is but she isn't pretentious about it. She'd had a really tough time with all that shit the cops pulled on her but she's come out the other side and she's all the stronger for it. I can't believe she put mine and your song ahead of her own when Vanessa took photographs of us. She and Annabelle took our song and took it places where I could hear it going but we couldn't get it right."
Diane was starting to feel pulses of pleasure start to go through her system. It wasn't just their personal joy that mattered but she knew that their friends generosity of spirit made this evening extra special as they started to run their fingers over each other's bodies.
"She and Annabelle go together so well. I can't believe that she really taught her," Erin said in a slow contemplative fashion that gave way to outright incredulity. Diane burst into an attack of the giggles. This observation was totally priceless. In such an uplifted moment, Diane slid on top of her lover and started to passionately kiss and caress her lover in earnest.