Page 31

Geeta pushed out of the lake and sat by Nicola on the floating platform. She dried in the warm sun while dangling her legs over the side, letting the cold water slip through her toes.

The park nearby came to life, with children's voices in the distance and the pop of a tennis ball from courts, and a couple of swimmers arrived and set off across the lake.

Nicola reclined next to her, fabulous with her eyes closed and face tilted to the sun, propped up with those toned arms, one elegant leg extended and the other bent up at the knee. She shuffled a moment, stretching out the side of her swimming costume to check her patch, before leaning back again.

“Do they come off in water?” Geeta asked.

“Not usually.” Nicola glanced at her.

“Has it helped you much?” Geeta had wondered before.

“HRT?” Nicola sat up and dangled her feet in the water next to Geeta’s. “Complete game changer for me. I couldn't have kept working as a barrister without it.”

“Oh.” She’d no idea Nicola faced any difficulty.

Nicola smiled gently, perhaps guessing her thoughts.

“Looking back, I found it harder in my forties. The signs of perimenopause were all there, but I stumbled badly when I hit menopause. My joints seized. Everything, and I mean everything ,” she looked down there, “started to dry up.” She laughed. “Moisturiser and vaginal gel companies made a fortune from me. And the brain fog. Lord. That’s the one thing I couldn’t handle. Getting by as a woman lawyer is hard enough, without having to sweat through hot flushes under a wig and gown when they’re demanded. So, yes,” she sighed, “my body didn’t work, and I couldn’t work without it.”

“I’d no idea.”

“It’s lessened in the meantime.” Nicola waved it off. “But I want the long-term protection from osteoporosis too.”

“Right.” Geeta frowned. “I wasn’t offered it.”

“Me neither, darling. I had to beat on my GP’s door to demand it.” Nicola looked away, then returned her gaze after a few moments. “I realise now, that’s my privilege showing. That the doctor listened and caved. Try the new one if you’re at the Iffley practice?”

Geeta nodded.

“What about you?” Nicola asked.

Geeta thought back. “Lockdown compounded menopause for me. It all descended at the same time, hormones dropping off a cliff and isolation. My libido completely vanished for a while.”

It made sense now. Hitting that change. Sumit essentially absent, with mind always on work. The rest of the world off limits. She’d found it devastating as someone who needed company.

“I think,” clearer again in retrospect, “I tipped into depression for a while, and it came to a crunch with my marriage.”

Nicola watched her, a seriousness and sympathy in her eyes.

“It took longer to unravel. I was always trying.” She glanced up. “But that’s when it broke.”

“And now?”

“Still the flushes. And the aches, unless I take every supplement under the sun. And I pound the towpath with thousands of steps to keep my bones healthy.”

“Tell me about it,” Nicola laughed quietly. “Low sugar. No alcohol, for a long time for me. Taking HRT. Maintaining muscle and strength with Pilates. Drinking god-awful tasting collagen. I know it sounds tedious as hell, but it’s less boring when it means I can walk and work and,” she gave Geeta’s body an appreciative look up and down, “have fabulous sex.”

Geeta laughed.

She trailed her feet slowly in the water, watching it run over her toes and trickle into the lake. She looked her age. They both did. Their bodies, hidden from sun most of the day, wearing more slowly than their faces. Still strong and fit, shapely and soft, though character and history were gently evident in their skin. Not youthful perfection, but honestly it didn't seem that bad to Geeta. Look at Nicola. She seemed more magnificent than ever. Age suited her. People said men became more distinguished with age, that experience defined them. But that didn’t hold a candle to a woman who’d done more.

“You know,” Geeta started. “I don’t mind getting older. Not the greying hair, or the lines. I just don't want it to hurt so much.” And she meant in all the ways.

Nicola's smile curled on her lips. That very suggestive one.

“Age suits you, Geeta. We’re both doing just fine, despite the rollercoaster of life. It’s quite something, isn’t it. Puberty, periods, pregnancy, perimenopause, before dumping you on the other side and wishing those hormones back.”

“Hmm,” Geeta agreed.

This was another subject she didn’t get to talk of usually, and another thing she and Nicola chatted about with ease.

“Besides,” Nicola shuffled closer, “you’re even more gorgeous than when I met you fifteen years ago.”

“Puh.” Geeta tutted, dismissing it, although it lacked commitment. Like when she tried to brush off Nicola’s compliment lately of always being the most beautiful woman in the room. “That’s because you despised me,” she persisted, not wanting to acknowledge what the praise really meant. “It's difficult to find someone attractive when you hate them.”

Nicola paused. She swished her feet in the water, but everything else said she skipped a beat, and the pause fell heavier.

“No,” Nicola said. “That’s not it.”

Geeta’s breath caught. Did Nicola mean not that reason, or had she not hated Geeta as much as thought?

Sparkling blue eyes engaged her. “You simply look better every day,” Nicola said, though clearly it wasn’t simple. “You become more you.”

And Nicola gazed at her, as if she loved everything about that.

Geeta's heart thudded, both appreciating the admiration from someone like Nicola, and fearing where she headed.

“That’s lust talking,” Geeta said quietly, shrugging it off, but knowing it wasn’t just that. She struggled to hold her gaze.

Then, as always, Nicola blinked and relented. A smile flickered on her deep red lips, and her eyes obligingly travelled Geeta's body, showing every bit of lustful appreciation.

Geeta inhaled at the attention. Yes, she knew Nicola switched it on, to spare them the moment. But god, it still worked.

How did she do that? Nicola’s gaze was tactile. Geeta felt it everywhere that Nicola lingered, and understood everything that Nicola intended doing to her, with that smile, and those eyes, and the tilt of the chin, that said, ‘How about it?’

Geeta bit her lip, her body glowing and warming under the sun and Nicola’s attention.

“Shall we go home?” Nicola purred with strong suggestion.

Geeta shook her head. “You...”

Nicola grinned. “Is that a ‘yes’?”

“You know it is.”

***

Showered. Hot. Sweating again. Even when braless with loose shirt and shorts. The summer day turned up the heat.

And hungry. Geeta scooped out two bowls of ice cream on the kitchen island from a tub they’d bought on the way back.

With the sound of a door opening down the hallway, Geeta looked up to see Nicola saunter from the bathroom, clean and showered, shirt open and long legs bare. Sigh. She loved that look.

Nicola stopped close and sultry, leaning her hip against the kitchen top, and tilted her head.

Geeta knew what it meant. Nicola had something else uppermost in her desires, and didn’t want to waste time on ice cream.

“No.” Geeta chided. “Not yet. I’m hungry,” she added, dishing out a large portion.

“Same,” Nicola purred, with a smile that promised everything.

“You’re going to have to be patient.”

Geeta pressed a finger onto Nicola’s chest.

A mistake. The softness spun her head, and she desperately wanted to descend her cleavage.

Nicola leaned into her, so her finger collapsed and whole hand engulfed tantalising chest.

“Why wait?” Nicola breathed.

Nicola this close made her buzz. The more they slept together, the more receptive she became, primed as soon as Nicola stood near, and body heat an instant trigger.

Nicola’s eyes bored into her and, without looking away, she reached for a bowl, swiped a small spoonful from the creamy mound, and balanced it next to Geeta’s lips.

“What?” Geeta whispered.

She stared at Nicola’s mouth, her body vibrant with expectation, and when Nicola licked her lips and suggestively opened them, Geeta obediently parted her own.

Delicately, carefully, watching with hooded eyes, Nicola offered it to her. The chill on her lips, and the silkiness of ice cream in her mouth, and simultaneous heated gaze from Nicola had everything singing alert.

“Oh dear,” Nicola murmured. “There’s a bit here.”

A finger dabbed at the corner of Geeta’s mouth, then trailed slick along her lower lip, and she felt that tingling trail twice, here and low down, and everywhere in between.

“Mmmnuh,” she sighed.

Nicola, in her audacity, clearly knew what it did to her, but the taller woman also flushed, as undone by it as Geeta. And that had her melting doubly.

Nicola scooped another morsel, then paused. Eyes on Geeta, the intent salacious, the glare captivating, it dared Geeta not to look while Nicola descended lower. The anticipation of where she would land had Geeta panting, the heat from Nicola and the promise sensational.

Then, gasp, an icy dab thrilled beneath her nipple.

Her tight response had Nicola breathing harder, and electrified blue eyes flicked down to Geeta’s open shirt. With a hungry smile, Nicola slowly and deliberately swept ice cream around her breasts.

Geeta laughed, in short gasps, then caved completely when Nicola dropped to her knees and began to savour her clean.

Hot tongue stroking down her cleavage, swirling around her nipple. Geeta’s head spun in pleasure, with her ice-cold breast submerged in the succulent warmth of Nicola’s mouth.

“Again,” Geeta pleaded.

She felt Nicola’s lips curve into a smile, before she indulged in another thrilling icy trail, and Geeta tipped back her chin and closed her eyes. Delicious.

The trill of the doorbell pulled her from the delirium. Ugh. Not now. She shook her head, coming to.

“Doorbell,” she slurred, not out of the spell.

Geeta blinked and peered down the hallway at a tall, broad shape through the frosted glass, an outline of someone holding a package. She shook her head again. She couldn't remember what she’d ordered. Geeta had enough trouble remembering where she was at that moment.

“Wait a sec,” she whispered. “I should quickly answer that.”

Nicola smoothly got to her feet. “I’ll relent a moment.”

Geeta shot her a chastising look, or attempted to, because her face didn't comply, too dozy with seduction, which made Nicola’s satisfaction beam wider.

She pointed. “Be patient.”

“I’ll be thinking of you,” Nicola sang, and she wandered around the island, out of sight of the front door, with a last look over her shoulder that had intentions.

And Geeta was ready for those intentions to walk right over her.

Focus.

She buttoned her shirt over her breasts and smoothed it down her shorts. Presentable enough for the postie. And dashed along the hallway. The package might be for a neighbour who was out. Just grab the parcel and hurry back.

Engage brain. Open the catch. Breathe in to say, yes of course she’d keep it for whoever. And...

“Oh my god, Kate!”

“Hi.”

Big movie-star smile. Very familiar face and long honey hair. Person way too linked to Geeta for appearing at the door in this state.

“Kate.” Shit. “Hi.” Oh god.

“Sorry. I’ve surprised you?” Kate said, lifting her eyebrows in question. “Olivia sent you a message?”

“Right.”

She hadn't looked at her phone for hours. Too busy being lusted after and covered with ice cream. Her brain stalled.

“I’m on my way to a weekend shoot and popping this round for her?” Kate offered a box forward with an amiable smile.

Geeta continued to gawp, brain stuck somewhere between Nicola Albright’s lips around her nipple, and now an Oscar-winning actress at the door.

“Um.” Kate wrinkled her nose. “It’s quite heavy. Can I put it down on the stairs?”

“Yes...”

Oh god. Oh god.

“Olivia told me to hide it down the side passage if you were out,” Kate carried on.

Kate moved forward, towering above Geeta, and she automatically stepped back to let her in. Kate nudged the door shut with her curvy bum and walked towards the stairs.

“I also wanted to give you an invitation personally,” Kate continued in her easy manner. “Oh, not this one.”

Kate put an envelope in her mouth and searched through her jacket pockets. Then her jeans pockets. Then her inside pockets. She raised an index finger, to say one minute, then quietly searched again.

“Are you coming back?”

Oh no. The voice emanated from down the hallway. And it was a voice that had reach and was very distinguished, also very distinguishable.

Kate froze.

And Geeta froze.

When Kate’s mouth dropped open, the invitation wafted from her lips, like a feather to the floor. No-one moved to pick it up.

“I know you told me to be patient...” the voice continued. “And you’re the only person on Earth who can tell me what to do...”

It would have been such an innocent sentence, but insinuation purred in that voice. Not a prayer Kate would miss it.

“...but I’m too hungry to wait any longer...”

No, no, no.

Geeta kept her eyes on Kate’s which grew by the second, and in her peripheral vision she tracked Nicola approaching down the hallway. There was an inevitability about it that was gently crushing. Any moment now.

“Come back, my darling, and I’ll cover you with...”

Geeta closed her eyes in a desperate attempt to avoid this utter car crash. She almost expected to hear a smash. When the moment met silence, she opened them again.

Nicola wore a polite and professional expression, as if to welcome a client. However, it was undermined by the spoonful of ice cream at Geeta’s nipple level.

She glanced down. Oh god. Her cleavage was covered in cream.

Kate’s eyes pinged to Nicola. Down to the spoon. Across the trail gracing Geeta’s cleavage. Up to Geeta’s face, and the whole circuit again.

An ecstatically gleeful smile began to dawn. Oh it was huge. Eyes back and forth between them.

Please, somebody say something.

Anything.

“Ah. Kate,” Nicola managed. “Good to see you.” Then she shrugged.

To be fair, there weren't a hell of a lot of options here.

“Hi Nicola.” Oh, Kate was grinning way too much. “And Geeta,” Kate said, turning that ecstatic smile to her. “And Geeta and Nicola.”

Kate reined in her glee, adjusted her stance, and put hand on hip. She blinked and feigned an innocent seriousness. “So, are you, um, helping Geeta eat ice cream?” Kate raised her eyebrows and bit her lip.

“Yes,” Nicola replied. “Would you believe she's a very messy eater.”

The tiniest snort came from Kate, before she clawed back a semblance of solemnity. “I hadn’t noticed. Well, that is a surprise.”

“Hmm,” Nicola agreed.

“Hmm,” Kate added a whole octave higher. She looked as if she could burst. “Almost as much of a surprise as you being messy.”

Geeta shot Nicola a look. Ice cream trailed all over her chin. She closed her eyes again. There was nothing ambiguous about this situation. The poise of the spoon by Geeta’s chest, the state of Nicola’s undress, the smears over her face.

“So I...” Kate looked back and forth between them. “I’m going to leave the box in your hands, and you to enjoy your...eating.”

Kate side-stepped to the door, grinning all the way. She peered back with an ecstatic smile, tip of the tongue sticking from lips, as she walked to her car in the lane.

“Have fun!”

They stood, stunned, in the doorway.

“Well,” Nicola said, while they both watched Kate retreat. “That’s potentially awkward.”

“Potentially?!” Geeta whipped round her head.

“I was thinking of the repercussions should Kate not be discreet.”

“You think?!”

Bloody hell. Where to even start.

Then they both stood straight, when Kate headed back towards them. Still with the smile. Still biting her lip.

Kate raised her hands in peace and quietly said, “This is yours. This is not mine to tell even my closest loves. In case you were worried, I won’t tell anyone of,” she waved a hand in a circle, “your surprising method of ice cream consumption.”

“Right.”

“Right.”

“OK.”

“Although,” her smile became softer, “everyone should enjoy ice cream with another.”

And this time she did leave, and Geeta shut the door.

She was not ready for anyone, least of all Olivia, knowing about this. She hadn't even talked to her daughter properly since the divorce, let alone announced she was sleeping with her idol. Geeta covered her eyes, but that didn’t exactly help with explosive and vivid imaginings.

She dragged her hands slowly down her face. Gawd.

“Do you think she’ll say something?” Geeta said through her fingers. “To Olivia or Charlotte?”

“No, I don’t.”

“What if she does?”

Nicola shrugged. “Then complete and utter devastation.”

“What?” Geeta spat out a laugh.

“Can you imagine?”

Well, yes she could. And it didn’t bear thinking about. Her kids had enough issues with her being a sexual person, but it was in a different league for squeamish Olivia. And with someone not Sumit. And someone who was Olivia's idol. And the mother of her best friend.

Then there was Charlotte’s perspective to consider. The best friend of Olivia, who’d become Geeta’s friend too. And Geeta was now fucking her mother.

“Oh ssssh....”

Geeta covered her eyes again. She’d been living in a bubble of lust with Nicola, enjoying carefree exploration with the most unlikely person, and it had felt like there were no consequences.

Oh, this was some real-world shit hitting the fan.

“But what if she did say?” Geeta whispered.

“Then,” Nicola inhaled through her nose, “impossible to predict how that would go. So, I'd play it by ear, rather than overly worrying.”

“Really?” Geeta dropped her hands in disbelief.

Nicola regarded her with serenity.

Look at that calmness. Nicola was taking this far better than her. She must be like this under pressure with clients when commanding a courtroom. Was Nicola unperturbed because she had to think on her feet all day long?

“Aren’t you worried about people knowing?” Geeta asked, incredulous. “That you’ve slept with me? That you like...women?”

Nicola tilted her head and hesitated for once.

“I started with someone I wanted to tell the least. So, it largely gets easier from here, with a few exceptions.”

“Me?! Telling me?” Geeta realised. “But I’m easy, surely?”

She’d always been open and accepting of queerness.

Nicola regarded her with one of those looks that didn’t shy away. Nicola never shied away. But she withheld something. Maybe she considered all the permutations, then strategically stayed quiet. Rare again.

Then Nicola continued with, “And work will be tricky.”

So, they were moving on. Fair enough. She wasn’t entitled to all Nicola’s thoughts. Even when they did the most intimate things to each other, and their conversations ran open and varied.

“Aren’t you worried about your family though?” Geeta couldn't help asking. “What they’ll think?”

“If they found out? Yes, there’d be much to work through, some of which I dread.”

“But?”

“The paths and possibilities are infinite. But for now, I imagine Kate will be discreet.”

Geeta stared.

“If anyone knows the value of privacy, it’s Kate.”

Geeta nodded at last, the point ringing true. Nicola had represented Kate in her personal quagmire of a divorce, with messy details of her marriage going public. And she’d fought to keep her family life quiet for her kids.

“So,” Nicola said, gently. “For now, how about we sit in the garden and eat tidily?”

Geeta laughed at that. “That’s one hell of a steady nerve.” She pointed at the cool barrister.

“Shall we though?” Nicola offered an arm.

And Geeta took it, shaking her head in disbelief.

Unsettled, but still laughing, they sat by the river and each ate their own bowl of ice cream, Geeta a bag of nerves, and Nicola turning pre-occupied at times, but always bringing Geeta round again.

They seemed on borrowed time suddenly, and Geeta wanted to cling to it. She didn’t move inside when the sky darkened at dusk, and Nicola sat closer to keep them warm.

“Can you stay longer?” Geeta whispered, when their time slipped into darkness. Because she didn’t want this weekend to end.

Like a vacation, and those holidays as a student that defined her in between the things that everyone said were more important, she realised how much she’d cherished this private time with Nicola, now that it came to an end.

And eventually, of course, they went inside and had sex. Because Nicola gazing at her like that had her succumbing every time. She followed upstairs to bed, and fears quietened a while, and Geeta laughed and relaxed.

And besides, sitting on Nicola Albright's face was one of her favourite things.