Page 12 of Bliss

Callie

As if in synchronicity, the rain and thunder grew quieter as Callie and Alex’s breathing normalized. It was somewhat bittersweet. Callie was so comfortable with Alex lying on top of her, holding her and running her fingers through her hair and over her smooth skin and the strong muscles in her back. She wanted to stay like that all night, and maybe go for round two soon. But the break in the storm was a window they needed to take advantage of.

Callie kissed the side of Alex’s neck and lightly tugged her hair. As Alex lifted her head from her shoulder, Callie smiled at the sleepy, intoxicated way she was smiling down at her.

“This has been perfect, and I’d love to stay like this all night, but maybe we should see if the rain has let up enough that we can get home to Daphne. And if you still have power, I can cook dinner for us.”

“I love that you’re so considerate of Daphne.” Alex gave her a kiss, lightly sucking her bottom lip for a moment, which reignited her arousal, but she pushed it down, hoping they’d be intimate again later. “I have a few options for cooking, if the power is out.”

As Alex rolled to the side of the bed and stood up, Callie battled with her sense of responsibility and libido. Alex was stunning and Callie wanted to spend hours traversing her feminine curves and strong muscles. She wanted to taste her and discover her scars and beauty marks.

Alex put on her underwear and sports bra, before crawling back onto the bed, and while hovering above Callie, she rapidly delivered kisses to her lips, chin, cheeks, forehead, and the sides of her neck. It was reminiscent of kisses from an excited puppy, and Callie couldn’t help but laugh.

Smiling down at her, Alex teased, “Do you plan on leaving here naked under your rain jacket?”

“That’s an idea,” Callie cooed, and flashed a naughty grin with a lift of her brows.

Alex dramatically groaned as she bowed her head and latched onto the side of Callie’s neck. The sucking nibble further tempted Callie’s libido, and she had to fist the quilt to keep from grabbing Alex.

When she lifted her head, Alex asked, “Will you stay with me tonight?”

“Yes.”

Beaming, Alex bent and planted a firm kiss on her lips, then leapt off the bed. “I’m going to grab my jeans from the bathroom. I’ll collect our shirts and your bra from the living room too.”

After Alex dug her cellphone out of the pair of sweatpants Callie leant her, she turned on its flashlight and left the bedroom. Callie sighed as she reluctantly climbed off the bed and started putting her clothes back on.

Once dressed, Callie packed an overnight bag with pajamas, clothes and shoes for tomorrow, and her toiletries. After blowing out the candles in the living room, they put their shoes on and left the apartment, using the stairwell since the power outage made the elevator inoperable.

The rain had lightened from a torrential downpour to a gentle drizzle, and the standing water in the parking lot had lowered to about half an inch. When Alex pulled out of the parking lot, and reached the front of the development, flashing red and blue lights drew their attention to the reason they’d lost power. A tree had uprooted and fell into a power line. The poles were tilted inward with the cables cradling the tree several feet above the roadway. Police officers in yellow rain jackets with lighted handheld Stop signs and lighted batons were directing traffic through one lane of traffic, allowing one side to go at a time. It took several minutes to be able to pull out and merge with traffic, but it was smooth sailing from there; they didn’t encounter any other debris in the roads or accidents.

When they pulled into Alex’s neighborhood, Callie was relieved to see the lights on outside and inside people’s homes.

“I’m glad you have power, but I was intrigued to see how we would have cooked dinner without electricity.”

Alex smiled as she pulled into the driveway and tapped through the menu on the screen built into the dashboard, navigating to a home security app. After holding her thumb over the print reader, she tapped the button to open the left garage door. As she pulled inside, the interior lights came on, and Alex answered, “We could have used my grill on the back porch, or cooked over the fire in the fireplace, or I could have pulled out my butane stove I use for group camping trips.”

“Cooking over the fire would have been interesting. I’ve never done that before. Well, I’ve roasted marshmallows for s’mores over backyard fire pits, but that doesn’t count.”

After putting the Jeep in park and cutting the engine, Alex looked over at Callie with her head tilted. “Have you ever been camping?”

“Nope. Never.”

Smiling as if Callie had just handed her a gift, Alex asked, “Would you like to?”

Callie hummed thoughtfully, drumming her fingers on her chin, then looked over with a grin, and asked, “Will I get to watch you chop the firewood with an axe?”

Alex chuckled and nodded, answering, “I’ll even wear a flannel with cut-off sleeves for you,” before she hopped out of the Jeep , quickly coming around to Callie’s side and opening the door for her.

Ever the gentlewoman, Alex carried Callie’s overnight bag inside for her. Callie wouldn’t have held it against her if she hadn’t, or if she didn’t open doors for her, or didn’t offer her hand for support when she climbed in and out of the Jeep . But Callie really liked and appreciated the gestures. They made her feel seen and cared for.

As soon as Alex flicked on the kitchen lights, Daphne appeared at the double French doors between the kitchen and dining area, stretching up with her front paws on the glass and whining.

“I’m coming, I’m coming,” Alex said, with a smile. After setting Callie’s overnight bag on a chair at the dining table, she unlocked the French doors, and as soon as Alex opened the doors, Daphne darted forward, squeezing herself through just a few inches.

Instead of performing her typical serpentine around Alex’s legs, then sitting on her haunches and chirping in greeting, Daphne climbed Alex like a tree, coming to rest with her hindlegs pressing into her chest, and tucking the rest of herself into the side of her neck.

Callie couldn’t help but laugh. And even while hissing in pain from Daphne’s claws digging into her chest, Alex was laughing too.

“I know, I know. That was a scary storm.” Alex firmly stroked her head and back with one hand, while stroking her paws with her other. “Come on, Daphne, retract the claws.”

Callie bit her bottom lip, and asked, “Is there anything I can do to help?”

Alex quietly hissed again as Daphne pressed in closer. “Can you open a can of food for her and fill her water bowl?”

Callie easily found the stacks of canned cat food in the cabinet Alex pointed to, and found Daphne’s dinner plate in the dish strainer next to the sink. While she pulled the tab on the can, she looked over to see Daphne had lifted her head from Alex’s shoulder and was watching her intently. She smiled when she emptied the food onto the plate and Daphne released a loud meow.

As soon as she set the plate on the woven rug next to Daphne’s water bowl, the long, sleek, orange and white cat leapt off of Alex’s shoulder and zipped around the kitchen island like the fierce predator she was. Instead of attacking her dinner, however, she crouched and ate it daintily like a little lady. Instead of risking a swat from Daphne’s clawed paws for picking up her water bowl while she was eating, Callie filled a glass and poured it into the bowl. Daphne paused in her dining to watch her, gave a single chirp that Callie decided to accept as a thank you, then went back to eating.

After setting the glass back in the dish strainer, Callie turned to see Alex had undone the first few buttons of her shirt to inspect the claw marks on her chest. There were four little groupings of tiny beads of blood, and two groupings that were dripping in thin two-inch-long crimson lines.

“Shit. You need to clean those. How’s your leg?”

“It’s probably scratched up too.” Alex exhaled hard as she fully removed her shirt and saw she had a couple of scratches on her hip and abdomen as well. “I need to wash up. Do you want to come with me?”

“Will Daphne be okay by herself?”

“Yeah, she’s fine. She’ll come find us if she doesn’t want to be alone.”

With her shirt in one hand, and Callie’s overnight bag in her other, Alex led Callie to the front of the house and upstairs. As soon as they walked into Alex’s bedroom, Callie felt a sense of peace and comfort much like her own bedroom gave her. The reddish-brown stain deepened and highlighted the gorgeous patterns of the grain of the wood furniture. The rustic plank-style head and footboards looked like pieces of art framing what looked like a cloud — if Alex wasn’t wounded, Callie might have given into the temptation to fall back onto the cream-colored pillowy comforter.

After Alex set her overnight bag down on a bench next to a door that Callie assumed led to the closet, and placed her shirt in a hamper, they entered the en suite bathroom. Callie’s head immediately swooned from the intoxicating, woodsy scents of Alex still lingering in the air. The bathroom was just as clean and organized as the rest of Alex’s house, and Callie practically swooned again, seeing the bathroom had both a beautiful stone walk-in shower and a large soaking bathtub with rounded neck rests on either end. Callie’s cheeks blushed as the image of her and Alex taking a bubble bath together floated across her mind.

The sudden sound of running water startled her out of her daydream, and she whipped her head around to see Alex holding a washcloth under one of the two sinks in the double-basin vanity.

Callie sidled up next to her, and asked, “May I?”

Alex looked up at her through the mirror, held her gaze for a moment, then nodded and allowed Callie to take the hot washcloth from her. After it was soaked through, and Callie lathered it with the anti-bacterial soap that Alex gave her, she turned to face Alex.

Biting her bottom lip, she slipped a finger under the band of her sports bra and tugged on the waist of her jeans. “You should take these off so we make sure we don’t miss any scratches.”

“So, you want me to get naked, Dr. Davenport?”

Callie released a surprised laugh and her cheeks flamed red hot. Alex winked with a grin and quickly stripped out of the rest of her clothes. Alex was even more breathtaking than she’d been in the dimness of Callie’s bedroom. The soaking tub in the corner of her eye called to her like a siren’s song, beckoning her to give into her desire for the beautiful, strong, kind, compassionate, and chivalrous woman standing before her. The harsh beads and streaks of blood marring the honey-toned smooth skin of her lover’s chest gave her the strength to resist and shove her carnal desires down. She’d eventually be able to lose herself to that siren’s song and allow her passion to crash against her flesh and bones like a raging ocean battering a ship’s hull. But right now, she needed and wanted to take care of Alex.

While she gently rubbed the soapy washcloth over Alex’s chest, abdomen, and upper thigh, her sexual desire was further contained by her affection. No, this was deeper than affection. This was… It’s too soon to say love . Her heart suddenly ached, as if wounded by the thought. Had she fallen in love with Alex in just a week? She’d never felt this deeply for someone so quickly. And she had been honest with Alex in saying she’d never felt quite like this with anyone else before.

Alex’s earlier words echoed in her mind, “And while it takes time to share yourself with someone, time isn’t a cause of the closeness or lack thereof, it’s just a byproduct.”

While she watched the soap suds made pink by Alex’s blood swirl and disappear down the sink drain, Callie knew the buds of new love were breaking open and blossoming in her heart, filling the still-healing space with a field of wildflowers of incomparable beauty and scent.

After rinsing the soap from Alex’s skin, she grabbed a bath towel from a nearby rack and patted her dry. When she wrapped the towel around her, followed by her arms, and their eyes met, Callie felt like she was staring into a mirror, only this mirror saw inward, not outward. Alex’s smile lifted in sync with Callie’s, as if she too was seeing what Callie saw.

“Thank you for cleaning me up.”

“You’re welcome.” Callie sighed as she ran her hands over her head, luxuriating in the silkiness of her hair, then took a step back.

Alex continued to hold her gaze for a moment longer, before she bent to collect her clothes to put in the hamper. Since they were in for the night, they put on pajamas, then walked back down stairs to figure out what to make for dinner.

As they approached the kitchen, Callie’s nerves prickled, much like what she imagined what it must have felt like to have Daphne’s claws digging into Alex’s skin. But when they entered the room, and Daphne immediately started her typical serpentine around Alex’s legs, relief washed away the stinging sensation.

Alex smiled lovingly as she answered Daphne’s double chirp with, “Hello, Daphne,” then bent to allow her beloved cat to lean into her touch so she could pet her. “Are you feeling better?”

Daphne purred as she pressed in closer to Alex, rolling her head around in her hand and arching her body against her leg. The cute interaction only lasted a few minutes, and seeming appeased and relaxed, Daphne meowed, licked Alex’s thumb, then sauntered off to the living room.

“Can I ask you something?”

“Of course,” Alex answered, as she crossed the kitchen to wash her hands.

“Why do you keep Daphne locked in the sunroom when you’re not home?”

“The sunroom is locked when I’m not home as an added layer of security, but she’s not trapped in there.” Alex finished washing her hands, then quickly dried them and motioned for Callie to follow her out into the sunroom. As she squatted in front of Daphne’s cat condo and pointed, Callie squatted next to her. “See that rope ball in the corner? Daphne knows that if she tugs on it, she can get into the house.” Alex reached into the little house and tugged the ball, and a hidden door slid open, revealing a square tunnel about four inches on either side and six inches deep. “This puts her behind the sidebar in the dining room. There’s a cord on that side too for when she wants to come back out here.” Alex let go of the rope ball, and three seconds later, it slowly slid closed.

“Wow. That’s really something. How long did it take to train her how to use the door?”

“She had it down in one demonstration. And she loved it. She spent several minutes going back and forth, sprinting around the house, then back to the tunnel, climbed every platform on and around the cat condo, then repeated the hurried circuit.” Alex chuckled as she took Callie’s hand, pulling her up with her as she stood upright. “She likes having her own space, so she hardly uses the cat door for more than to come snuggle in bed with me in the morning or to wake me up because she’s hungry or wants to be let outside to sunbathe. If the storm picks back up tonight, she’ll most definitely let herself in and come snuggle with us.”

Callie smiled as they walked back inside and she caught a glimpse of Daphne curled up in her cat bed on the fireplace’s hearth. She hoped that if that happened, Alex wouldn’t sustain more cuts and scratches, but she didn’t mind that she might have to share Alex tonight.