Page 25

Geeta hurried back to the party, floating, out of body.

No-one had seen them, attendees either dancing or spectating, and she stood in the shadows of the cottages, not ready to face anyone yet.

She’d kissed a woman. She’d kissed Nicola.

Geeta didn’t know which was more extraordinary.

Sexy Nicola had dominated her attention all evening, but it was the flicker of vulnerability at the dance that made Geeta run after her. When she’d caught up in the quiet hall, the tall woman stood faced away, shoulders lifting in deep breaths, clearly struggling. And the relentless draw pulled hard.

She’d murmured her name. And for a moment, Nicola’s arrogance returned, and she thought she'd push past. But last second, Nicola held her arm with a gentle strength, and suggested she kiss her. And not with the absolute assumption that she should, but with a need that had Geeta falling.

Drawn to her lips, head already dipping and their warm breath mingling, she’d rested her fingertips on Nicola’s cheek, on the soft place she’d savoured in their goodnight kisses. The ones that made her quiver forbidden inside. And Nicola’s lips had fallen open, glistening and wet.

She’d stepped in, traced her finger around Nicola’s jaw and beneath her chin, watching for any lack of sincerity. But there was only urgency, and the gasp said it was no lie. Her fingers stayed light on Nicola’s cheek, she closed her eyes and kissed her. And nothing else had existed except the softest join of their lips.

It had been a kiss that silenced Nicola Albright, and made the world disappear.

Stunned. Hardly able to open her eyelids. Drowsy with the headiness of that intimacy. She’d had to pull herself away before anyone discovered them. And now she breathed in deep, waiting for her body to settle.

Now she knew that women, Nicola, were soft and delicious, a silkier smoothness than she’d imagined or craved before. And Geeta wanted more.

She’d followed as one person and turned back as another, heart beating with certainty, world changed, body exploding, and she stepped into the crowd again, barely hearing what people said.

She nodded to a caterer, hoping that’s what they needed, while her body hummed, wanting to seek Nicola at every turn. Limbs shaking as if nervous, she checked around the partners and Annie, and hung back at the edge of the crowd as Hugo and Liz led the speeches in front of the marquee. The shapes of people merged in a single silhouette against the night-lit college, and she stared, barely able to listen above the pulsing in her ears and longing of her body.

Then she felt Nicola near, more than saw her. A figure in front looked back, and quietly moved beside her.

Tingling again, the entire length of her side wanted to close the gap between them, Geeta blinked, wondering if she moved without knowing. She slowly turned her head, raising her gaze inch by inch, until she found Nicola’s sculpted face caressed by lantern light and eyes fixed on her.

“I want to kiss you again,” Nicola murmured.

Like lightning and a gentle question at the same time, Nicola’s finger touched hers. Body immediately buzzing, Geeta grasped Nicola’s hand, and a soft strength returned the same desperation.

“Come home with me,” Geeta whispered, and they gazed at each other, knowing Nicola meant yes.

Last guests gone, servers packed up, the hour late, they travelled in silence in Nicola’s car, the only sound the quiet whir of the engine and roll of tyres along the empty High Street. Colleges blurred past as Geeta stared through the windscreen, achingly aware that Nicola’s dress fell open over long bare legs as she drove. Her fingers twitched, wanting to reach out and curl around Nicola’s thigh, and her palms burned imagining the sensation.

The clunk of the car door was loud in Iffley, the village otherwise quiet and empty under glowing streetlights.

“Come inside,” she urged, reaching for Nicola’s hand, and they moved into the house.

Geeta closed the door. The house fell silent. And Nicola remained wordless. Then she stepped into Nicola’s space, just as the taller woman leant down, cupped her cheeks and delicately held her to her lips.

Cool and surprising at first, from the night outside, but then dipping hot and wet inside.

“Mmmmm,” Geeta let out. The feeling worked deep within, suggestive of hot, wet longing elsewhere.

They both halted with Geeta’s reaction, Nicola’s eyes wide at the shock and hunger of it.

“I want more.” Geeta whispered.

And they kissed again.

Not like their first, which left her floating and changed. This thrummed deep and low. What was she unleashing here? She’d never imagined she’d react so quickly.

Nicola’s hand swept around her back and pulled her close, everything heightening again as their bodies met, and Nicola groaned.

“Not just me then,” Geeta gasped.

“Not just you.” Nicola swallowed.

Kissing again, holding each other close, urgent hands beginning to wander and explore. She moaned as fingers swept around the side of her breast, then pulled away shocked to find her own at the top of Nicola’s chest, desperate to feel her fullness.

“I want to know more,” she whispered. “Much more.”

“Please,” Nicola shot back.

And they switched on the landing light and went upstairs.

Nervous. Oh my god, she was nervous. Her hand trembled as she switched on a standard lamp in the corner to cast a glow over the room.

She stood before Nicola, who towered over her.

“I don't know what I’m doing,” she whispered quickly. “Not a clue what to do.”

Nicola smiled, a hint of arrogance in the curl of her mouth, but gentler than ever before. “How about we make it up?” she murmured. “We can do whatever we want.”

“Then...” Geeta started. “I want to take off our clothes,” she blurted.

“OK.” Nicola’s smile broadened.

Nicola reached behind her own back and the sound of a zip undone was like a sensual stroke inside Geeta’s own clothes.

“Wow,” she breathed. “That’s...real.”

Because it really was her and Nicola standing there, both burning for each other and about to reveal themselves.

Nicola looked at her, with no hint of blue in the low light, only dark desire. When she stroked away the ruby red dress from her shoulders, Geeta felt the undressing on her own. Then Nicola let the dress fall low.

“Oh wow,” Geeta breathed.

Her eyes hungered over Nicola’s chest, and the plunge bra that breasts threatened to burst from, down the line of tummy and rise towards hips.

Nicola hesitated with a smile, before sliding her dress over her hips and stepping out. She cast the garment aside, eyes not moving once from Geeta’s. It was like she performed a private stripping, confident and taking pleasure in it. She reached around and unclipped her bra, and Geeta’s eyes widened when Nicola threw away the coverage.

Such beautiful, large, pale breasts, with deep pink nipples. Geeta didn’t know whether to cover her eyes or her mouth. She chose her mouth to stop herself from laughing.

“Sorry,” she breathed. “I feel like I shouldn’t be looking at your chest.”

Nicola tilted her head and quirked a smile, both mischievous and lustful. “I rather hoped we’d do more than look.”

And Geeta moaned with the suggestion.

Dizzy with longing, she stepped closer. She pulled her drunken gaze away from Nicola’s chest and searched her eyes.

“I’m not used to this. It’s been a while...” A long time since Sumit. Decades since anyone else.

Nicola nodded, patient and gorgeous, like it was natural to strip in front of her. But, of course, she was used to being nude and admired.

The realisation settled Geeta strangely, as did the fact that this was another woman. Someone used to being the same shape as Geeta, likely with her own vulnerabilities. Used to everything a mature woman’s body did and how it changed. It calmed her. At the same time her body thrilled because this was a woman . It was Nicola. Both facets of forbidden. Nicola as both friend and adversary was exhilarating and terrifying and reassuring all at once.

It was almost too much, but she couldn't stop gazing at Nicola’s body. In front of her stood a woman who’d lived, and still lived fully, both mature and gorgeous. Geeta thought Nicola should wander around naked all day with her strong, tanned arms and large pale breasts that made Geeta smile – beautiful and naughty – and those long shapely legs, and the softness of her tummy, which wasn’t perfectly taut. She was magnificent.

“Do you want to touch me?” Nicola whispered.

“Yes,” Geeta replied without hesitation.

She reached forward, her hand dark in the low light and against the whiteness of Nicola’s chest. She paused, cupping a fraction before Nicola’s breasts. Her thumb touched nipple first, the skin so soft she barely felt it, before pebbling, rude and firm beneath her touch.

She heard Nicola’s breath heighten, and she stepped closer to cup her breasts with more confidence.

“Is that nice?” she asked, searching Nicola’s eyes. She didn't have to wait for an answer. The look on Nicola's face gave it away.

“Yes,” Nicola gasped. “Although,” and amusement entered her tone, “I think you mentioned a ‘we’ when you suggested getting naked.”

Geeta smiled. “I did.” She stroked around Nicola’s breast as she took her hand away, her palm mourning its absence.

“Help me, please?”

Tunic gently tugged over her head. Bra released behind. A shiver of air thrilling over her own breasts. There. They were bare and chest to chest.

Nicola stared at her, face slack with want, and Geeta no longer felt the censure of staring at a woman, not when the other woman ate her up with her eyes like that. She loved being naked in front of Nicola when she looked at her so entranced.

Nicola reached forwards and Geeta expected her to touch. But Nicola dropped to her knees and kissed her nipple.

“Oh fuck,” Geeta slapped a hand over her mouth.

The sensation of hot, moist lips sucking her nipple struck everywhere at once. She knew she was already wet, and thrummed from chest to core. Nicola swirled her tongue around her, the sight naughty and shocking – the last person Geeta expected on her breast, and intensely erotic as the person she craved most.

Her legs shook.

“Can we sit down?”

“Mmm,” Nicola groaned, as if reluctant and drunk before leaning back. “Let me take these off first though.”

Nicola ran her hands down Geeta’s stomach and slipped beneath the waistband of her trousers. She stroked them down around her behind, the impossibly smooth insides of Nicola's arms caressing her thighs as they swept lower, and she threw the trousers aside.

Nicola breathed warmth over her stomach as she asked, “What about these?”

A finger traced around Geeta’s hip and trailed over the material to the top of her slit. She couldn't answer for a second, the touch of Nicola, so close, sending her into a spiral.

“Yes,” she managed. “Take them off.”

The waist loosened, and she was suddenly naked where most sensitive. She pulsed beneath Nicola’s captured attention, the look of awe on the other woman’s face an intense, erotic touch all of its own. She dizzied.

“I need to sit down.”

“Of course.”

Nicola followed on her knees to the edge of the bed, while Geeta sat with legs on either side of her.

“Is this OK?” Geeta whispered.

Nicola lifted her head as if it weighed heavy, her eyes unfocused as they tried to find Geeta’s. “This is...”

Nicola's cheeks flushed deep pink, and mouth dropped open with lustful breaths instead of words.

Geeta leant forward to kiss her, lips hot and devouring now. When their breasts met, they both moaned and kissed deeper, before moving backwards onto the bed, desperate to kiss and move and touch all at once.

“Lie down,” Nicola panted.

And Geeta lay back, shaking with anticipation.

“I want to touch you,” Nicola murmured, and she lay alongside, her breast coming to rest lusciously on hers.

Geeta sighed incoherent, and their kisses became snatched between hoarse breath, as Nicola's hand trailed lower, over her hips and dipped between her thighs.

She couldn’t help thrusting in short bursts. She wanted to apologise, but Nicola’s urgent breaths heightened in the same rhythm. Then quicker again, as Nicola’s fingers sought higher and keener. Then suddenly ceasing when they slipped into Geeta’s moisture.

“Oh god.”

She didn’t know who said it. She tensed, aching and reaching around Nicola as she climbed.

“Ooooh,” Nicola groaned, her head falling overcome.

She wondered if Nicola would find her, and opened her mouth, ready to guide, when a soft sure touch found her clit. Tension shot over her whole body. She cried out as she pulsed in rhythm and pushed onto Nicola. She clung on, riding the sensation of Nicola touching her, and Nicola swept slow and deliberate, every circle pulling a groan from Geeta’s throat.

Then Nicola slowly widened her touch and her finger slipped inside.

“Wait,” Geeta whispered. “Will you be gentle?”

The movement paused. Nicola pressed her hand over her clit, as if to hold in her high. When Geeta opened her eyes, she found Nicola delirious.

“Tell me what you like,” Nicola whispered, her eyes hooded.

“Slow,” Geeta panted. “Like small nudging circles.” She kept having to pause for breath. “Shallow inside.”

“Tell me how far.” Nicola teased slowly in. “Tell me when–”

“There,” Geeta gasped.

Oh that touch, barely an inch inside, and she was climbing the bed. One finger then two. Geeta opened her legs, wanting more. Nicola gently rocked circles inside her, a small massaging movement conjuring something magical. The gentle but firm rhythm had Geeta groaning every time it caressed the sides, always a sensitive place for her. And, oh, that spot up high made her head light, and charged pleasure leaped up her spine, tingling through her teeth and inside her skull.

“Ah,” she breathed out, clinging hard around Nicola's back.

“Like that?”

“Yes,” Geeta managed, before a moan took all her words.

Nicola's firm, rhythmic caress had her climbing higher and higher, and she squeezed around her shoulders. Just as she thought her body had plateaued and couldn’t reach any higher, Nicola’s thumb swept to massage her clit, and she leapt into the sensational.

“Please don’t stop,” Geeta cried out.

She struck one arm down onto the bed, pushing into her climax, the other gripping Nicola. And a feral shout of ecstasy shot from her throat.

Like exploding. Like fireworks. Like she died and woke again.

She blinked open her eyes, coming to and squeezing Nicola – far too hard.

“Sorry,” she gasped.

She leant back on the mattress and released Nicola’s shoulders, then reached out to stroke her skin. “Are you OK?”

Nicola stared at her with the darkest eyes she’d seen, clearly incapable of speech.

Geeta smiled, breathing heavily. Then laughed, her eyebrows shooting up. She might cry with the intensity of it all. “I wasn’t expecting that...It’s been...Oh my god. It’s been a long time since I had an orgasm like that.”

She couldn’t help laughing.

“Oh my god that was nice.”

A flood of happy hormones, fatigue and ecstasy lifted her on cloud nine thousand. She still shook.

“Are you ok?”

And Nicola attempted to say something, but her head dropped and she quietly growled.