Author's Note: Thank you very much for all the reviews, I'm always glad to read them and to reply to you.

Chapter Seven

"Louise chatted me up."

Maura hadn't needed any further explanation. Jane's words had passed underneath her skin before rushing to her heart where they had set off a storm of feelings. The whirl had reached her lower stomach and anger had risen there within a minute. She had pushed Jane against the brick wall of the fire escape of Jane's Back Bay apartment before unzipping the jeans short to slide a hand between Jane's legs.

Perhaps Maura would have been more discreet if Jane hadn't bought large plants that hid them from the neighbors. She would have chosen any spot inside the apartment instead. But the curtain of green and the soft breeze of the evening made this spot against the wall perfect.

Jane didn't complain. On the contrary. Her short breath highlighted her obvious arousal.

They had dropped the grocery bags on the kitchen counter before going to take a drink outside on the fire escape. That was when Jane had told Maura about Louise. Maura knew the bartender, she even found her to be rather pretty which only made it worse. Now their bottles of beer lay on the ground while Maura's fingers directed a tantalizing ballet between Jane's legs.

Her flesh was hot and her inner muscles already tightened around Maura's fingers. Neither of them managed to hold it for very long when they chose roughness over sweetness. They didn't need foreplay: Maura pushing Jane against the wall before penetrating her was enough to turn Jane on.

Maura's tongue traced an invisible path on her friend's neck. She hadn't even kissed Jane on the lips once. She had gone for her jaw instead, and then her neck. Her free hand was holding Jane's hip tightly against her waist.

Jane's back arched but Maura didn't slow down her pace. It had started raining rather heavily but the water drops were hot against her nape and sliding down between her breasts. The feather touch kept on making her swallow hard because she imagined it wasn't the rain but Jane who brushed her skin right now.

A summer storm. It smelled of grass and of warm asphalt. The night had fallen over the city and Jane's sighs embraced the silence of the area. They echoed the sound of the rain with sensuality. She never moaned when they had sex outside of a room. She remained oddly quiet until Maura made her come, sometimes twice.

It wasn't make-up sex because they hadn't argued. Yet Maura knew that her intentions weren't driven by any sexual release. The meaning of her roughness lay deeper within herself. It was a mix of anger, fear and bitterness. A singular combination that turned her on even more, unless her excitement was simply caused by the way Jane kept on arching her back and pulled Maura closer and closer to her body as if she wanted her friend to pass underneath her skin.

"Don't try to resist me. Not now."

Maura's hoarse voice was low and her breath just as short as Jane's. She had always enjoyed giving pleasure to her sexual partner but it reached another level with Jane. She was almost on the verge of reaching her climax herself while nobody had touched her. Jane had just sunk a hand in her hair to pull her closer to her neck.

A subtle touch with Jane's sensitive bone caused Maura to understand that her friend had reached a point of no-return. She didn't make her wait any longer. She wasn't in the mood for any kind of teasing. She just wanted powerful feelings, mind-blowing orgasms. Rough, bare ones.

She sped up the pace of her ministrations inside of Jane and let a smile of victory play on her lips as she felt her friend's orgasm embrace her two fingers.

...

They had had sex for the last three hours but Maura still had to feel satisfied. Her body kept on asking for more. More kisses, more caresses. More orgasms. She and Jane had probably broken a personal record but it wasn't enough.

She walked inside her house. The living-room was plunged in the dark. Lucy had told her that she woud spend the evening out with a few colleagues. Of course, Maura had tried to remain calm but the storm of joy that had burst in her heart had made it hard. Lucy's absence was the perfect excuse for her to spend the evening with Jane.

And it was what had happened.

She didn't turn the lights on. She headed to the kitchen instead to check if Bass had eaten all his exotic leaves. She didn't talk to him though. She couldn't. The anger she had felt a few hours earlier still had to vanish and she didn't want to sound sharp to her African tortoise. The last thing she wanted was Bass to suffer from her very own stupid mood.

Leila, and now Louise. Maura pursed her lips. She wasn't a very sarcastic person but she felt the urge to assume that Jane attracted women whose name started with an "L". Perhaps she had to make sure that Lucy would keep her distance from her friend.

A sentiment of shame had invaded her on her way back home. The way she had used Jane, the way she had released her anger on her was not fair. Jane hadn't taken it badly and she had even enjoyed it but Maura knew that things weren't supposed to work this way. A relationship based on anger and jealousy was unhealthy, even one that was driven by sex only.

"Whatever."

Maura took her stilettos off and went to her bathroom. She needed to have a shower. The torrential rain that had slid on her skin while she had made Jane come had dried in a way that made her clothes stick to her body. The sensation was not pleasant at all.

She quickly undressed before stepping into the shower.

Her gestures became rather mechanical. She washed her body with a large amount of soap before her hair to disappear under a layer of organic shampoo. Then once water washed it all away, Maura leaned against the wall and slid a hand between her legs.

Jane had made her come several times within the last three hours, in many different ways, but the frustration Maura felt pushed her to do it once again. All by herself.

She hadn't had sex with Jane. She had fucked her. She had shamefully marked her territory because a wave of jealousy had made her heart beat faster. She may have no hold over her reaction, it was still immensely stupid and childish because Jane didn't belong to anyone and because their rules were clear.

They were allowed to date a third party. Whatever they had was not exclusive. It was just fun, stupid and meaningless fun.

Her finger brushed her flesh before heading straight for release. She needed it just as roughly as Jane had delivered it earlier. Except this time, an extreme loneliness wrapped up Maura as her body began to react under her touch. A lump formed in her throat and she swallowed back unexpected tears. The moment was strange, almost surrealist. Maura had always associated sex to pleasure yet all of a sudden it was linked to a burning wound that she couldn't explain.

She didn't stop though. She could feel her arousal build in spite of the tears that were now running down her cheeks. Her sobs drowned under the shower water drops and were swept away by her stifled moans. She arched her back and spread her legs slightly. She didn't even need to close her eyes to imagine Jane going down on her. The fantasy was easy, too easy.

Her orgasm hit her without any warning. She didn't feel it build in her lower stomach nor did she notice how fast her heartbeats were. She gasped for air and widened her eyes under the hot water of the shower that fell on her body like a cascade.

She stepped out of the bathroom ten minutes later. Her body was working but her brain had shut down. She felt shocked, and immensely tired. She had spent the last five minutes sitting down in her shower trying to understand what had just hit her.

She went straight to bed before grabbing her cell phone.

You never finished your beer.

J.

The grin that played on Maura's lips made her feel guilty. She had hoped for a text message from Jane in spite of the oddness of the situation, in spite of her delicate feelings. She sat up in bed and ran her tongue over lips while she stared at the screen of her device.

I don't care about the beer. The only thing I'm craving is your body.

M.

Maura refused to see their sessions as a dependency. She kept on telling herself that she could put an end to it at any moment and that it wouldn't change anything. She and Jane would do just fine because there were no feelings involved. Because it wasn't a relationship.

But the more she repeated the sentence in her head, the less this mantra of some sort made sense. She didn't believe it anymore as much as she wanted to. As a matter of fact, she saw it as a lie, a beautiful and comforting lie. Except lies had their limits and she was brushing them dangerously.

Jane hadn't even showed any interest in Louise. She had simply told Maura that the barista had asked her out on a date. The tone Jane had used had been light, and amused. Yet it didn't have any effect on Maura's jealousy. She didn't manage to reassure herself.

Everything looked way too fragile.