Page 22 of June (New Orleans #6)

“W e should talk,” Enid said.

“My mouth is a little busy,” Caroline replied before she licked Enid’s nipple.

“Babe,” Enid said with a little laugh.

Caroline stopped and sat up, straddling Enid’s hips.

“You really want to talk instead of letting me go down on you?”

“On this bed? Are you crazy? You’ll end up falling onto your desk.” Enid laughed.

“Good point,” Caroline replied. “We can take a shower together.” She wiggled her eyebrows.

“So that you can go down on me in there ? No way. My knees hurt just from kneeling on the floor in here.”

“Then, you’ll just have to be pressed against the dressers, Enid, because I am going down on you tonight,” Caroline said as she ran her index finger through Enid’s wetness.

“Can we take a break?” Enid asked, rubbing her hands up and down Caroline’s sides.

“Why? Viv is gone for the night. We should take advantage of that while we can.”

“I don’t want to have sex with you just because Viv isn’t here.”

“I know you don’t think that that’s the only reason why I want to have sex with you,” she replied. “I think you’ve felt how turned on I get just because you’re in the same room with me.”

Enid wiggled her eyebrows then and said, “Can you lie down with me?” She held out her hands for Caroline.

Caroline lowered herself until her head was back on Enid’s chest, and this felt like the right place to be. She had been with other women, and the sex had been fine most of the time, but it was after the sex that she usually felt strange. With Jodie, it had been somewhat better because they were friends, but the night they’d slept together, Caroline remembered not being sure how they were supposed to lie next to each other after they’d just done what they’d done without thinking of the consequences. She’d rolled over away from Jodie and stared at the wall.

With Brooke, they’d never cuddled or snuggled in any way. They’d had sex, and usually, Caroline had taken a shower right after. She hadn’t felt dirty for what they’d done; she’d just wanted to be clean. Brooke would already be asleep by the time she finished, and Caroline would roll away from her to get some sleep herself.

There hadn’t been many others, but the result was the same, so Caroline had always assumed that she just might not be the kind of person who wanted to cuddle after sex. It felt okay, but cuddling, holding someone, or being held by them wasn’t a big deal to her after she’d just shared the most intimate thing she could with a person. As she lay there, being held by Enid, though, she knew she’d been wrong about it all along.

“I like this,” she shared as she ran her fingertips across Enid’s skin.

“Which part?” Enid asked and kissed her forehead.

“All of it, but I was talking about this moment specifically. I like you holding me like this,” she admitted. “I’ve never really had this.”

“What? Someone holding you?”

Caroline nodded against Enid’s breast, and she gave the nipple a special kiss.

“No one has held you like this?”

“It’s not that they didn’t want to. I just wasn’t into it.”

“But you like it when I do it?” Enid asked.

“Yes,” she replied with a smile.

“I like it, too,” Enid said.

“You wanted to talk,” Caroline reminded her then.

“I wasn’t planning on coming here so that this would happen.”

“I know that.”

“And we’re okay now that it has?” Enid asked.

“Yes, it’s okay. I’m glad it happened like this.”

“You are?”

“You aren’t? This was sexy as hell, Enid. You touching yourself while I was attempting to sketch you will live in my memory forever. I plan on getting myself off to that image more than once in the near future.”

When Enid laughed, Caroline felt it vibrate throughout her whole body.

“It was also sweet,” she added. “You checked in with me and made sure I was okay. You know I like you. I want this. I want you and me.”

“Me too,” Enid replied. “I know you know this already, but now that we’ve done this, I want to make sure you know: I don’t want anyone else, Care. I just want you and me.”

Caroline lifted herself a little and smiled down at her.

“I wasn’t searching for a girlfriend, Enid Becker. I was supposed to be finding a major.”

Enid ran a hand through Caroline’s hair and said, “You can still do that. But can you do it with a girlfriend? Or, if you don’t like labels, can I just be the only one you do this with?”

“I’ve never really cared that much about labels.” Caroline winked at her, indicating that she was playing with her. “But I’d like to be the only one you do this with, Enid, so if that makes me your girlfriend, I guess I’ll just have to deal with that.”

Enid laughed and said, “Oh, you’ll have to deal with it, huh?”

She began tickling Caroline’s side.

“Hey!” Caroline laughed and tried to wriggle away, but there was nowhere to go in the twin bed.

She felt like she might roll off the bed for a second, but Enid’s arm went around her, holding her tight.

“I’ve got you,” Enid said.

Caroline leaned over and kissed her slowly in response. Then, she ended up back on top of Enid and moved her lips to Enid’s neck.

“I have an idea,” she said between kisses.

“What’s that?”

“Let’s take a shower together. I won’t go down on you in there, but we can grab dinner in the dining hall when we’re done, and when we come back up here, I’ll have my way with you.” Caroline licked from Enid’s collarbone to her earlobe. “Then, I’ll finish that sketch I started.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“After that, you can sleep next to me, and we can wake up together.”

“Yeah? I can stay over?” Enid asked.

“If you don’t mind a twin bed and not having air conditioning,” Caroline replied as she nibbled on Enid’s earlobe. “Oh!” She sat up quickly. “I forgot.”

“About what?” Enid asked.

“I have a package downstairs.”

“ That’s what you’re thinking about right now?”

“There’s a good reason I just thought of it. My parents ordered it online for Viv and me. It’s a cooler thingy that you add ice to, and it helps cool down the room. Viv and I already bought ice. It’s in the fridge.”

“Frank?”

Caroline smiled down at her and said, “I love that you just casually called my mini fridge Frank like that, but no, in the main kitchen freezer.”

“Okay. You want to get it?”

“It’s going to get very hot in here later,” she replied as she ran a fingertip between Enid’s breasts. “We should try to cool the room down if we can.”

“We’re not getting any sleep tonight, are we?”

“No,” Caroline said with a smile. “Now, I have to jump down off this bed. Do not look. I’m not sure what my ass will look like mid-flight.”

Enid burst out laughing.

◆◆◆

“You can have the water gun,” Enid said. “But I want that lava lamp.”

“How is that equal?” Caroline asked as they joined the dinner line.

“You can also have the little stuffed bear thing.”

“Fine. But what about the plastic handcuffs?”

Enid cleared her throat and asked, “Do you want those?”

“Only if they’re on you,” Caroline replied.

“Yeah?”

Caroline laughed, and when they arrived at the table of the student employee, she handed the guy her card.

“Can you swipe it twice? Once for her.”

The guy looked up and over at Enid and asked, “Is she a student?”

“Yeah,” Enid replied.

“Student ID?” he asked with a plain face, clearly not happy with his work-study-assigned job.

“Come on, man,” Caroline said. “Don’t make me look bad in front of my older, more sophisticated girlfriend here. She’s a grad student.”

Enid laughed, and the guy, who swiped the card twice after all and handed it back to Caroline, replied, “Whatever.”

“How am I sophisticated? I’m arguing with you about a lava lamp and a water gun.”

Caroline handed Enid a tray and replied, “Don’t forget the handcuffs.”

“They’re still in my car.”

“Yeah? We should get them before we go back upstairs. You grab those. I’ll get the package and the ice.”

“Hmm,” Enid murmured in her ear. “Now I’m thinking about handcuffs and ice cubes. And you should know that you’re naked in these thoughts.”

“How fast can you eat?” Caroline asked.

“Hey.”

Caroline and Enid turned to see Jodie standing behind them in line.

“Oh, hey,” Caroline replied as she put silverware on a napkin onto her tray.

“I got some snacks. Want to do popcorn and a movie in your room tonight?” Jodie looked around Caroline then and spotted Enid. “Oh. Hey, Enid.”

“Hey,” Enid replied and added a cup to Caroline’s tray before she did the same to her own.

“I can’t tonight. Enid’s here,” Caroline said.

“Taking advantage of Viv being away?” Jodie asked.

“Something like that,” she said, knowing she was giving herself away.

“Okay. Well, do you mind if I join you for dinner, or is this a date?”

“Not a date. We’re just eating cafeteria food because it’s convenient.”

“Hey, Jodie, do you have any need for a Slinky?” Enid asked.

“What? Why?” Jodie asked, laughing a little.

“We won one last night. It’s neon and rainbow-colored. It’s yours if you want it,” Enid said.

“What if I wanted the Slinky?” Caroline teased her.

“You’re getting the handcuffs. Let her have the Slinky.”

“I’m sorry. There are handcuffs? What kind of arcade did you two go to last night?”

They both laughed, and a few minutes later, they were sitting at the table across from Jodie. Their shower had been brief, and while Caroline hadn’t gotten down on her knees, she had still managed to convince Enid to let her touch her. Then, after Enid’s orgasm, they’d dried off and headed to the dining hall for a late dinner. Running into Jodie hadn’t been planned, but it was nice to share dinner with her best friend and her girlfriend. Caroline looked over at Enid, who was laughing at something Jodie had said, and smiled. She had a girlfriend.

“She played one game the whole night?” Jodie asked.

“For about an hour, yeah. But she won us a bunch of tickets. It’s why I have random cheap prizes in the back seat of my car right now,” Enid replied.

“Did you win any candy?’ Jodie asked. “I got salty stuff at the store. I didn’t grab anything sweet.”

“Yes, but I get all the Jolly Ranchers,” Enid said.

Caroline laughed and replied, “You can grab whatever you want from my purse, Jodie.” She placed it on the table and opened it. “But leave my Jolly Rancher-starved girlfriend here those, please.”

“Girlfriend?” Jodie asked, looking up from the bag half-filled with candy. “Already?”

“She’s just that cute,” Caroline replied with a shoulder shrug.

Enid laughed a little and wrapped her arm over the back of Caroline’s chair. Caroline took a drink of her water and rested her head on Enid’s shoulder. Jodie found a few pieces of candy and looked up at them.

“You two look good together,” she said.

“Thanks,” Caroline replied.

Jodie gave her a nod, which told her that she was happy for her, and that made Caroline feel like things would be good with them. Dinner over, they dropped their trays on the rack and headed to the mail room, where Enid carried the big box up the stairs for Caroline. Then, they said goodbye to Jodie at her room and walked on until they got to the kitchen, where Caroline got the bag of ice she and Viv had bought. She’d replace it tomorrow. Shortly after, they had the thing up and running, and Caroline texted her parents to thank them because it really did help cool the room down.

“Now that we’ve cooled off, let’s get you naked again,” she said to Enid as she pressed her against the dressers.

“No arguments here,” Enid replied and lifted her arms to let Caroline pull her shirt off for the second time that day.