Chapter Six: You Are a Force of Nature

Lena spent the bulk of the afternoon at the rehearsal dinner laughing and talking with Sam where Alex was usually in tow, and Kara often not far behind. Toasts were made, jokes were shared, and stories were told; each weaving a rich tapestry of experiences on both accounts of the brides. They were celebrated for hours by friends and family alike. Alex apparently wasn't crazy about big to-do's or having a fancy ceremony, which is why the rehearsal dinner was the event to gather and let loose a bit. The couple had chosen a small, private beach ceremony with close friends and family for the next day to which Lena was invited. No bridesmaids or maids of honor, it was just going to be them surrounded by the people they loved as they bonded themselves to one another for the rest of their lives. Lena was enormously happy for her friend.

Throughout the afternoon Kara and Lena exchanged several glances and smiles between themselves, but neither seemed to yet have the gall—nor the time—to catch the other and engage in conversation. It wasn't until the sun was in its five o'clock position and had set the sky ablaze with a deep rust color that Kara decided to bite the bullet and seek Lena out. She circled the ballroom a few times in search of the woman she had been conspicuously avoiding for the better part of the day, and eventually found her just outside on an empty patio that dripped with strings of low hanging lights.

Lena had chosen to step outside for some air just shortly before and was currently nose up into the salty, subtle wind that buffeted her long hair like a fine linen drape. Easily overstimulated from too many conflicting noises, short breaks to gather her nerves seemed to do her some good. Small yellow bulbs from the hanging lights painted Lena against the wooden beams and railing of the patio in a way that made her look like pure sunlight. Kara smiled at the sight of her.

"I reckon this was the thing you had mentioned the other night." The blonde said as she took her hat off by the crown again with one hand.

"It is." Lena said with a small smile, somehow knowing that it was Kara who had come out to join her. Kara paused and stared, unsure of what to do with her hands at that moment and then hooked her thumbs into the front pockets of her jeans. Satisfied, and a little less awkward now.

"I'm… not ashamed of you, if that's what you're thinking—" The blonde began to explain.

"It's not." Lena stopped her from an apology she didn't need to offer and simply shook her head reassuringly. She turned to face Kara directly now, placing her hands behind herself on the railing.

Kara pursed her lips and nodded, appearing to just be grateful for the fact that neither of them seemed to misunderstand the other. After all, what were the odds that a wedding of all things would be the thing to reunite them? Kara had resolved to secret away the time she had with Lena in a safe and treasured place in her heart and had tried her best to keep it there. Little did she know that she failed just as fantastically in this effort as Lena had. The blonde took a step forward then toward the smaller woman leaning against the railing and then darted her eyes around. "I- I just didn't expect to see you again."

"Neither did I." Lena replied softly, looking up at the other woman through her lashes. Lena was still taking in Kara's appearance inch by inch and found herself in awe of how smartly dressed she was.

"But I'm happy to." Kara confessed after several moments.

Lena raised her chin a bit at that. "Are you now?" Her tone was a teasing one, but Kara apparently chose to double down and take another step forward.

"I am."

If anyone from inside were to walk out onto the patio with them right then, there would be no mistaking that these two women were having a moment. One that would have been sorely interrupted. Kara found herself once again swimming in the deep blue and green pools of Lena eyes, and she clawed desperately into the empty bowl of her mind for something more to say lest she stand there and drown.

"I heard there's a bonfire later on the beach, were you planning on going?"

"Sam mentioned it—" Lena replied, pulled her lips into her mouth and pushing herself off and away from the railing. She began to saunter slowly past Kara and turned her head to speak just as she reached the entrance back into the venue. "I'll see you there?" Without waiting for an answer, she returned inside.

Kara's heart thudded behind her ribs as she muttered lowly to herself, "Oh, wild horses couldn't keep me away." With a hard swallow and a deep breath, she turned to follow behind the other woman in order to continue the afternoon's festivities. But not of course without smiling from ear to ear like a complete fool.

Lena slipped a skinny strap of her ebony bikini over a shoulder as she eyed the rest of her outfit in the small bathroom mirror. Her matching bottoms were held together with gold colored metal rings at each hip and a smaller, similar ring situated neatly between her breasts pulled together her top. To finish it, she wrapped a thin silk sarong around her waist and donned a matching silk cover up which she draped over the tops of her shoulders.

The location of the bonfire, she was told, was along the beach just a five or so minute walk from the back steps of her beach house. The sand was cool enough now that the heat of the sun had dissipated, making it comfortable enough to walk along barefoot. By the time she arrived, there was already a small crowd bustling around a tiered stack of driftwood that was not yet lit. People had wine coolers and various cocktails in hand, many of whom she recognized from the rehearsal dinner earlier that afternoon. It appeared some had started drinking long before the beach, and loud roars of laughter fell upon Lena's ears as she walked around in search of Sam. When she found her, the brunette had her arms wrapped around Alex and was talking excitedly with a small circle of friends. Lena admired how she had seen Sam do nothing but smile and laugh for most, if not all of that day, and her heart swelled at the sight. She'd make her way over in a minute... but she first needed to deal with the quiet, raging urge to let the tide roll over her toes where the water lapped at the shore. It had been too many years to count since Lena had felt the gentle pull of the ocean. She was letting herself get lost in the feeling when a voice came from behind her.

"They look happy, don't they?"

Lena startled and spun, putting a hand to her chest.

Kara beat her to it this time, "Put the heart across you?" The blonde said, furrowing her brow as if she was trying to remember whether she had repeated the saying correctly.

"Yes." Lena admitted with a stuttered laugh that was more breath than voice.

"Sorry, don't rightly know how I keep doing that." Kara apologized and scratched the back of her head. Her wavy hair shimmered its bright golden sheen from the last sliver of sunlight upon the horizon.

Lena noticed Kara's bare arm move over her head as it bent at the elbow. Each time the other woman moved her eyes sought them out like magnets. Lena suddenly found herself thanking her lucky stars for the amount of sleeveless, well-fitting shirts that lived in Kara's wardrobe.

"Is it strange to say how good it is to see you again?" Kara asked quietly as the other woman eyed her up and down.

Lena blushed. "Only if it's not strange that I'm glad you've said it."

The crowd slowly began to dwindle as the energy from the day hung heavily on bodies that had danced and flitted from one place to another. The bonfire had been lit shortly after Lena arrived and people chatted and drank amongst themselves, some to excess. Sam and Alex were still arm in arm laughing next to the mostly spent fire with a few remaining guests when Kara announced to the small group that she was going to walk further along the beach for a bit.

Lena saw her opportunity and took it. "Mind if I come with you? The breeze along the water feels nice." She asked, flashing her eyes over at Sam quickly which the brunette recognized immediately from their college days as something that meant "You're up".

Sam cleared her throat then. "I'd join too if I wasn't exhausted… I think I might actually head back to the rental and lay down." Sam said, turning her head toward Alex as she bit her lip and half-lidded her eyes. "Will you be alright to stay longer babe?" As an added measure, Sam ran a hand up Alex's neck and splayed her fingers into the fine auburn hair at her nape, tilting her hips just an inch or two forward.

Alex replied without even bothering to look anywhere other than her fiancé's face, which was suggestively close to her own.. "I'm a little tired too, now that I think about it."

Lena hid a chuckle in her throat before it threatened to spill out. Damn, she's still good at that... she thought to herself. Sam had a way with persuasion that paid for the majority of their drinks in college. It also sweet-talked them out of a number of situations that could have turned into permanent marks on their records.

The bride-to-be released her lower lip with an audible -pop- and then bounced happily on her toes, looking back at Kara and Lena. "Alright then! You two be safe, enjoy the moon!"

Kara shrugged and grinned from ear to ear in her usual, endearing manner and then brought her attention back to Lena who stood quietly next to her. "Well, I sure wouldn't hurt for some company, I suppose."

After Alex and Sam waved their goodbyes, Kara began her slow, meandering walk with Lena along the water's edge where it rolled back and forth at their feet. She had taken off her boots and tucked them under an arm, and her hands were jutted stiffly into each of her front pockets as they strolled in a mostly comfortable silence. She had rolled her jeans up from the cuff and left them to sit tightly against each of her calves. Kara sighed into the ocean breeze, knowing Lena was just a single step away and could probably hold her hand if she wanted to.

The water felt cool against their feet where the small waves reached across the sand and for a while, both of them seemed content to walk and take in the night air without marring it by conversation. The beach began to empty the further they walked where little boardwalks ended and tall, stiff bristlegrass began at the landward edge of the shore. After a while, they began to mill lazily around small rolling dunes topped with short, scratchy vegetation and soon Kara realized that they were well beyond where most beachgoers frequent. The moon had risen high into the soft, midnight blue sky and offered a surprising amount of a low, glowing light for them to see further up along the beach. Anything past the water's edge was an endless black as she looked to her left, and suddenly, out of the corner of her eye to her right, Lena stopped.

The beach had been split by a small channel of water that reached all the way up and spilled into a shallow pool which backed up to an earthen wall. It was a steep drop-off from the land's edge, but not so much that you would quite call it a cliff. Kara watched as the raven-haired woman stepped into the low pool where the water nearly reached her waist, and then turned to look back at her.

"I still can't believe you're here." Lena finally said. They had walked for maybe over half an hour before either of them had spoken and it seemed that her sense of disbelief still informed her choice of words. Truthfully, Lena had indeed thought of many things to say for the whole of their walk, but where to even begin was apparently the thing that she wrestled with the most.

Kara shrugged as she sat on a soft, grassy part of the pool's edge. "Well, Alex would probably kick my ass if I wasn't, so… there's that."

Lena laughed. "Oh, I highly doubt anyone could do that. Look at you. You are a force of nature."

A pause fell between them.

"Didn't use to be." Kara admitted as she cast her eyes down into the dark water. The top of it shone brightly like a mirror held up to the moon and danced around the porcelain skin of Lena's hipbones.

"It's always been Alex." Kara sighed as she continued, "My sister has always made sure I was okay. Especially when we were younger. Kids could be cruel sometimes, and they said things..." Kara admitted, painfully leaving out the part where it hadn't just been other children in her life to sneer and make judgements of her, but adults too. Many of which she had admired greatly, which hurt her even more.

Lena's heart ached at the admission.

"It's a small town." Kara added, a bittersweet attempt at explaining away bigotry, as if to make it somehow okay that it had even happened to her to begin with.

Another pause.

"I noticed." Lena replied carefully. "Everyone I met was so nice though… I can't imagine anyone being cruel to you. I just don't know what makes people like that—" She shook her head. "Certainly not in the way that you do, perhaps."

Kara hung her head a bit lower. "Every orchard has its bad apples. Nice and sweet looking on the outside, but sometimes on the inside they're just rotten. They're there, trust me." Kara said, raising her head finally. There was a faraway look in her eyes then. "It's why Alex left."

Lena moved in the water toward her then and stopped when she reached her knees. She crossed her arms over them and then leaned her chin down to rest there. "I'm sorry."

More truthful words than Kara had ever spoken to another human being in the whole of her life, the blonde felt an undeniable and intense urge to jump outside of her skin. Talking about herself even on a good day made her feel uneasy and vulnerable, but the mix of both blue and green eyes staring up at her seemed to dull her rising panic. Kara sat still for just a short moment longer and decided to shift the mood of their conversation. Anything to be closer to those eyes. She pulled her legs out carefully from underneath Lena's forearms and stood to kick off her jeans and drag her shirt over her head. Then, with a sly grin, she hopped into the water next to the other woman, making her squeal in retreat from the sudden splash.

Kara didn't want to talk about what came before. None of it was important. What was, however, was currently bobbing in the shallow water just out of arm's reach and looking at her with a smile that could persuade the moon to fall from the sky. Kara found her footing against the soft, malleable sand bottom of the pool and then looped her long arms around Lena's waist, pulling her close. She pressed a hand against the small of Lena's back as soft thighs came to wrap around the tops of her hips. The water gently pushed and pulled at them, splashing softly against the shallow space between Lena's breasts as they sank lower. They were alone again, and quietly entranced by each other once more.

Lena leaned forward then and kissed her, and Kara had never felt safer.

For all of the blonde's hardness concerning her physicality and somewhat closed off nature, Lena thought that kissing her was like living inside velvet, or caressing the downy feathers of a gosling. She knew that Kara could be as hard as steel on her worst days, but even then, she surmised it would be like scaling the ancient, moss-covered stone walls that scrawled across her homeland. Kissing Kara was a way to see over to the other side, toward the soft, earnest, and gentle creature that didn't wish to harm anyone, or anything.

"I don't want you to leave, not just yet." Lena whispered as she clung to Kara's trapezius muscles like she would drift away with the current, never to be seen again. "Stay the night with me?"

Kara nodded wordlessly against her forehead and climbed out of the tide pool nearly in shambles. Together they walked hand in hand until they met the door of Lena's coastal beach abode another half hour later and fell against it with clumsy, urgent kissing. With a misstep here and bump of a hip against a wall there, each of them managed to paw and climb their way up the small, narrow stairs and burst into the bedroom. The rich and silvery light of the moon drenched the top of the bed as Lena fell back against it, bereft of her silk coverings and bathing suit now which lay in a messy trail all the way from the door downstairs to the top of the staircase landing. Kara's clothes lay scattered with them, leaving her in just a single silver Cuban link chain which hung from around her neck.

Lena took appraisal of the marbled figure in front of her, never seeing anything quite as spectacular. Every sinewy length of muscle ran lean and taut over Kara's bones, her chest a pleasing mix of both pectoral and breast. Squares of smooth abdominal muscles ranging in size from large to small down to a jaw-dropping Adonis belt, the round firmness of her thighs… Every inch of Kara's body sloped together magnificently, making all of her parts into one absolute and perfect form of strength and splendor. And that was just what lived on the outside.

"I can't stand it anymore; I want you all over me." The raven-haired woman confessed.

Kara was a blur in the dark until she climbed onto the bed, towering over her for a moment where her chain dangled closely above her nose. The she lowered herself on top of her, sighing into her neck. The feeling of nothing left between them as their warmed skin lay upon each other from head to toe sent a bolt of hot, twisting desire straight to the depths that lived between Lena's legs. They kissed each other until they were breathless, and Lena turned her hips abruptly to roll and position herself on top of Kara, who lay beneath her now.

"Lena…" It was barely a whisper, but Lena was sure that she heard it. It was the first time that the blonde had said her name when they were close like this, and it did something to the dark-haired woman that made her feel like she no longer inhabited her own body. It now moved of its own volition, seeking warmth from the woman below her. She leaned lower and took each of Kara's hands to hold them in her own above their heads on the bed, and then moved to straddle her at her waist. Lena need only force her hips downward to press her center over Kara's and they would be connected again in the same way that had split her world in two just a couple of days before.

"Will you let me do it?" Lena asked, kissing Kara senseless again.

The blonde nodded timidly, managing to rasp out a single word, "Yes."

When Lena did, Kara jolted in the way one would if brushing up against an electric fence and then shuddered a long breath onto the lips hanging just above her own. It drove Lena mad. She moaned and slotted her center against Kara's again, their slick want for each other clearly audible in the smallness of the room. Kara was nearly overwhelmed. They moved slow and heavy against each other, rutting back and forth in a patient, cherished rhythm.

"You feel so good—" Lena cried into Kara's shoulder and repeated, "Oh God Kara, you feel so good." She bit down with her teeth suddenly, expelling a low growl from the woman underneath her.

The minutes piled on as Lena held Kara by the wrists and with some final rough and jerked gasps, she came unexpectedly. Having no other choice but to submit to it, Lena rode her release on top of Kara with small, unexpected spasms and eventually caught her breath, panting short and quick through her nose.

"I'm sorry…" Lena began to apologize, "That was a little intense—" Kara quickly caught her by the mouth before she could go on and kissed her passionately. The hands holding her wrists were gone then and reappeared only to cup either side of her face.

Kara stirred beneath her with a renewed vigor, snaking a hand upward between them and wrapping it firmly around Lena's long and beautiful neck with a delicious pressure. She lifted her up and away from her lips with a quiet -smack- and Lena's body reacted to being taken by the throat with a writhing emphasis, squirming on top of Kara in a way that said, "Have me, undo me".

"Don't be so quick to apologize." Kara said, sitting up effortlessly with the smaller woman now upright in her lap. "I ain't through with you."

"Ah—" Lena squeaked past Kara's hand at her throat when the other pulled roughly at her hips. The blonde exerted more strength in that moment than Lena had ever felt during any of their sexual encounters, and it only served to unravel her further. It was rough and demanding, and Lena would have done absolutely anything Kara had asked of her right then and there.

Kara gripped her fiercely by the waist, grinding the smaller woman hard onto the washboard of her abdomen. Each of Lena's limbs shook loosely against her like the tied rope joints of a marionette. The hand around Lena's neck let go then and she took in a rattling gasp, clearing the edge of her vision of its small, bursting stars.

"Fuck me, please…" Lena begged, licking her lips as she pulled in breath after shaky breath.

Kara gave a small grunt and pulled Lena onto her abs again with a strong and forceful emphasis, drawing another loud moan from the raven-haired woman's mouth situated slightly above her own. The blonde seemed to fully give over to body language and instinct at that point, and it turned Lena on so badly. The longer they undulated together like this, the higher the upward pitch at the end of each of Lena's moans began to give her approaching orgasm away and eventually, Kara took Lena by the underside of her jaw just as the first shockwaves of her own hit her. Suddenly, a hot and slick sensation spilled once, twice, and then three times onto the lower part of her abs.

Lena's heart was pounding in the middle of her ears as she arched her back into a beautiful curve and gasped desperately between her moans for air. Once the intense pulsing between her legs had mostly passed, she dotted featherlight kisses over the peaks of Kara's cheekbones and placed a hand at her favored spot on the blonde's chest just where her collarbones met.

"Oh my god—" Kara muttered lowly, smoothing a bit of dark hair from Lena's face to see her better. They were each covered by a thin sheen of sweat that glistened in the downward glow from the skylight above the bed.

Lena laughed quietly. "I never thought I could do that." She said, taking in another ragged breath and gesturing with her eyes down between their legs. They were still slippery and sensitive and Kara's stomach below her navel was coated with a shiny wetness. The blonde's eyes opened wide with astonishment as she realized.

"Darlin', I've never made anyone do that. So… Do with that what you will." The blonde huffed with a proud and playful laugh.

"Mmm." Lena leaned forward, sighing into Kara's ear contentedly. "Again."

Kara growled eagerly and gently threw one of Lena's knees away from her hip, straightening her leg. She quickly rolled them over and then bracketed her arms on either side of Lena's head.

"Yes ma'am."

The faint sound of Kara's alarm from her phone shot her straight upward. The bell tone was far away but unmistakable, and after a moment Kara remembered that it had been left in one of her boots downstairs. Blinking into the soft light of dawn, she glanced over at the smooth curves of Lena's bare back and drew in a deep breath. The woman lying there looked like a Renaissance painting, and she suddenly wanted to kiss every tiny vertebra along her spine.

Damn, is there time…

Doubtful, she cursed silently to herself and slipped out from under the covers with a quiet grumble. Something made her hesitate before she got to her feet, and she twisted to look back at Lena still sleeping halfway under the top sheet of the bed. Kara wanted so badly to kiss her one last time. She knew that she may not have another chance after the ceremony, but she needed to get back to her own beachfront lodgings and get dressed. Her sister was getting married in two hours.

Kara finally tore her eyes away from the dark-haired woman in the bed who began to stir for a moment. Grabbing her clothes from the evening before which were still somewhat damp from the ocean mist, she pulled them on hurriedly and quietly left out of the same back door they had entered.

With the night still fresh on her mind, Kara didn't manage to think of anything else until the moment she parked her truck and walked down the ribbon-decorated boardwalk to the beach later that morning. Even still, the image of Lena was burned into her retinas. For how long, she had no way of knowing.

How am I ever gonna let her leave after this?