Page 69

It was a risk, letting Helen go first. Last time she’d gotten off by her own hand, Helen’s pleasure had been enough to send her flying, but if it happened again, it would create a pattern of Helen taking what she wanted and leaving Annie to mop up.

Helen rolled off Annie, onto her back, and pushed the hair off her sweaty forehead, her eyes still closed. She licked her lips, then opened her eyes slowly, like a lizard on a rock.

“Still sorry?” Annie asked softly.

Helen looked at her and chuckled. “Not very, anyway.”

“Good,” Annie said. She felt a little strange with Helen basking in afterglow and herself still fully clothed. She still had her shoes on too.

“I thought maybe I was going crazy,” Helen whispered. “Have you ever gotten so turned on that you couldn’t function?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “I saw you today in the kitchen, and I just… And then we spent the whole day together, and it was too much for me. I couldn’t… I only had to make it one more day before you left for Christmas, and I couldn’t do it.”

She pushed herself up on an elbow. Her blouse slipped off her shoulder, framing the curve of one breast with the sheer fabric.

Annie shifted, pressing her thighs close together, feeling pleasure from the pressure. She had to move. She reached downand pulled her shirt over her head, shaking out her hair and sucking her bottom lip between her teeth.

Helen got the same look on her face that she’d had at the kitchen sink, the same look as when she’d let herself in and leaned back against the door to ask her made-up question about the airport. It was the face she made when she was thinking about kissing Annie.

It was Annie’s favorite expression.

* * *

As long as they were pressed together as close as possible, chest to chest, thigh to thigh, they could fit on Annie’s twin bed. She’d thrown a sheer pink scarf over the top of the lamp, and now everything was bathed in a rosy light.

Annie had dozed off briefly, and Helen had her head propped up on her hand, watching her sleep.

“Hey, kid,” she said. “You think you got one more in you?”

“One more what?”

Helen winked, pushed up off her side, and scooted down to the middle of the bed.

“You don’t have to do that,” Annie said, though she was already parting her knees to make space.

“I’ve been practicing.”

Annie propped herself up on her elbows and asked incredulously, “On who?”

“In my mind,” Helen clarified. “I’ve been thinking about how I would do it. What I like and how I’d share that with someone else.”

She positioned her face and propped one of Annie’s legs over her shoulder. “Is it strange I think you’re beautiful down here?”

Annie felt her face grow warm. She thought it was strange that anyone thought any part of her beautiful.

“Don’t take it personally if I can’t,” Annie warned. “It’s not you. The second time doesn’t always go as easy.”

“Don’t fail me before I’ve even started,” Helen said. “I’m the professor. I do the grading here.” She leaned in, kissing up one thigh and down the other, then zeroed in between Annie’s legs and licked, tentatively at first, then more boldly. She slid a hand up to part Annie’s lips to better penetrate her with her tongue, then circled her clit with her mouth, sucking lightly.

Annie squirmed.

“You like that,” Helen said. “You got wetter.”

“Are you going to go down on me or are you going to narrate?”

“I can do both.”

The first orgasm had taken Annie by surprise, though she’d been so turned on, it shouldn’t have. She had been sitting with her legs crisscrossed, Helen’s fingers inside of her and Helen’s mouth on hers. She’d used her own hand as a guide—a little to the left, a little faster. When she finally relinquished control, she came gently, like the tide lapping at the shore. Soft waves, quiet gasps.

But now she was at the mercy of Helen’s mouth. Annie clutched at the sheets, trying not to grab Helen’s head and thrust against it. Whatever Helen had meant by practicing—endlessly fantasizing orwhatever—it was working. Helen wasn’t teasing or trying to drag it out. Her tongue worked fast and hard, and Annie moaned loudly; she couldn’t help it.