How To Catch A Falling Star

Heather's hands went under Norah's knees and held them apart. Her tongue gently kissed her inner thigh, moving towards the centre in a series of agonizingly slow pecks. Each time, her lips pressed against Norah's skin and pulled on the skin.

Her lips were nearing Norah's clit now. She studied the engorged mound of flesh intently before prodding it with the tip of her tongue. Her tongue darted out again, pressing against the sensitive spot. Norah emanated the sweaty aura of sex, her body writhing under the ferocious pleasure coursing through her nervous system.

Heather held on and steadied Norah to keep her in line with her tongue. Slowly, she ran her tongue down along her inflamed lips. They were already wet and Heather eagerly slurped her lover's liquid arousal.

Norah felt a restless need grow within her. She was sweating and every sense in her body was working at full steam. With every passing second, her vision slowly gave way to a swirl of colour. It was as if her entire body had become one large erogenous zone. She let out a guttural groan, raw, insatiable lust ruling her body. Every sensory cell within her lit up brightly, like a million fireflies fluttering within her until the glow of her arousal threatened to burst through her skin and dazzle Heather.

Heather dropped one of her hands and traced out the inside of Norah's labia with a finger. She felt the fleshy warmth and pressed harder, moving her fingertip slowly. Her ministrations caused a rush of hormones through Norah's body, heating her all the way to her core. She opened her eyes wide and looked upwards. Feelings long dormant blazed through her mind in vivid flashes.

Heather wanted to devour, to consume her idol. But even more than that, she wanted to love her.

Norah moaned at the feeling of Heather inserting two fingers into her sopping wet depths. Heather was gentle and moved carefully until she felt Norah shudder. Her G spot lay in Heather's reach. She looked into Norah's pleading eyes and gently rubbed. Every stroke of her fingers caused a paroxysm of pleasure to course through Norah's body. She squirmed and bucked, pushing off the bed and embedding Heather's slender fingers deeper within her. Heather took the opportunity to lock her lips around Norah's clit and sucked on it. She used the underside of her tongue to massage the aching clit, before switching to a rough layer of tastebuds.

Norah was already delirious with pleasure. The fingers and tongue in tandem spurred her ecstasy to hitherto unknown highs. She bucked and thrashed on the bed. Her back arched upwards, pushing Heather's fingers deeper within her. Her head rocked back and she felt the dark abyss of her pleasure hurtling closer. She closed her eyes and surrendered herself to it. All her senses gave way to the inky blackness.

Then suddenly, she had a feeling akin to an electric shock surging through her body. It set every neuron ablaze and made her scream. Waves of pleasure cascaded through her body, making her spasm and convulse. Her thighs locked around Heather's face, holding it in place as her orgasm erupted. She looked into an incandescent flash of colour before going black again. Her body felt limp and her weak limbs gave way as she floated back down from the euphoric high of orgasm.

Even as she lay, gasping for breath, she saw Heather's sweaty smiling face clambering up to see her. Evidence of her titanic orgasm was splattered all over that young face, dripping off the corners of her smile.

They kissed, tasting the unique cocktail of their sweet mutual adoration.

Norah lay flat on her back and gazed upwards at the starry night. A myriad twinkling stars looked down at her, embedded into the black fabric of the sky. Sweat glistened off her body and her breasts heaved with each pant. Heather was propped beside her, equally naked and sweaty.

"I see why you like this place, Heather. The view is incredible."

"So is the view here," said Heather longingly, propping her head up and gazing at her lover. They kissed softly.

"The best part is I have no cell signal here. This is my personal bubble."

They lay back and looked upwards once more. Norah heaved a sigh. It was not the sigh of someone who had just won a case against an oil giant. Neither was it the sigh of someone resigned to dying before her next birthday.

It was a sigh of futility. Her hardened exterior had dissolved and now she was bare and vulnerable in a way she hadn't been in a while.

"Penny for your thoughts?" asked Heather, resting her face on Norah's shoulder.

"A few regrets," she said heavily. "I fought to save nature, but I never got the chance to admire it. I just wish I could see the world's best natural sights before I go."

"You're rich now, thanks to Chevron's generosity," Heather reminded her. "You can go see all the forests and lakes you want."

"That would be selfish," she replied, turning to her side. "I'd rather donate the money to environmental NGO's around the world. They need whatever they can get."

Heather thought over it for a few moments.

"What if I pay for it?" she said. "I could come too."

"You would?"

"Why not?" reiterated Heather with more purpose in her voice. "I have more than enough money and you'll need somebody to take care of you when the cancer gets worse."

Norah gaped at her. The possibility seemed so strange.

"Don't be silly," she said. "You'll never get that much time off work."

"I'll find a way," Heather replied with conviction. "It will probably take me about a month to get medical custody of you and sort out some other legalities, but it can be done. You could use that time to get your affairs in order while you're still able."

Norah laughed at the absurdity of it. She sat up and spoke, her voice distinctly mirthful. "We met at a theatre one week ago and you want to sacrifice one whole year of your life for me. Do you realize how bizarre it sounds?"

Heather smiled and beckoned Norah over to her. They kissed once and Heather pointed to the sky. Norah turned to see a single star racing through the cosmos, flying past its stationery companions.

"When I saw you as a kid, I used to wish I could be more like the woman on screen. You were my falling star. When I let my dream go, I let you go..."

Heather paused and composed herself.

"I'm never letting you go again."

JUNIOR PARTNER

Heather cringed seeing the name on the door. She despised every letter carved into the polished wood and embossed in bronze. Light gleamed off the writing, telling her she was about to knock on her boss's door. She steeled her resolve and rapped her knuckles twice.

"Come in."

Heather Franklin walked in, her lips pursed. She saw the top of her boss's head as he looked down into a mass of paperwork. His salt and pepper hair grew sparser by the day, leaving significant patches of scalp exposed.

"Yes?" he asked, not even looking up.

"This is regarding that mail I sent earlier, sir."

Finally, the junior partner turned his head and deigned to look at his visitor through his gold rimmed glasses. He studied his protégé carefully, scanning her from head to toe. Every pore in her body exuded resolute purpose. He moved his glasses further up his nose and spoke.

"Yes, I did receive that mail," he said smoothly. "It was certainly interesting."

"Will I get it?"

"I don't know," he stated. "It's not the policy of this firm to give one year long sabbaticals."

"It's not exactly firm policy to receive oral sex from your subordinates either, but that hasn't stopped you, has it?"

Eugene chuckled. In two decades of practising law, he had never seen anyone as sharp as his new acolyte. He got up from his plush chair and walked towards the door.

"You really are special, Heather. I hope you realize that," he said softly, closing the door and walking up to her from behind. She stiffened, feeling his hot breath on her shoulder and up her neck. Her skin crawled with disgust as his wrinkly lips pressed onto her shoulder. His arm reached around her and pinched the underside of one of her breasts. His fingers curled upwards as he cupped her supple flesh through her shirt. She stood rooted to the spot and let herself be groped.

"You have a bright future ahead of you," he whispered into her ear, then brushed his tongue against her earlobe. "You are willing to do whatever it takes to get what you want. Whatever it takes."

His hand slipped lower, slipped into her pants. She clenched her eyes, gritted her teeth and stood perfectly still. Every cell in her body screamed out in revulsion, but she did not move. Her veins literally throbbed all the way to her head. A maddening rush of blood coursed through her body until she was barely able to hear Eugene's voice over the blood pounding in her ears.

Yet she didn't move a muscle.

"It will be tough, but I think I can convince the senior partners to agree to your unusual request. When do you want to start your leave?"

"From the end of the month," said Heather, exerting a superhuman amount of effort to ignore the hand which had slipped under her dress and fondled her bare breast. This hand felt so rough and animalistic in stark contrast to Norah's soothing touch.

'Norah," she thought, remembering why she was here, why she was tolerating this ordeal.

"One month," he said in a breathy voice, inhaling her feminine scent. "One month should give you plenty of time to earn your sabbatical."

Finally, he released his grasp of Heather's body. Her eyes remained closed, every bit of skin feeling the lingering sensation of her boss pawing at her. It took a resolute determination on her part to keep a straight face.

"You are destined for great things, Heather," he said wistfully, unbuckling his belt. He undid his button and pulled his expensive trousers down a few inches.

"But for now, you're an associate, climbing up the ladder. For now, you must obey your superiors, starting with me."

She looked at her boss's expression. It reeked of chauvinism built over decades of being in power over his subordinates. Even as junior partner, he earned far more than his contemporaries at other firms. Eugene emanated everything she stood against in her early days, but she was wiser to how the world worked now. There were few sure ways to get what she wanted and one of them was right before her.

Heather turned her stony gaze down her boss's body to his groin, where she saw his penis sticking out of his jockeys. His hairy balls hung loosely under the wrinkled member, gradually filling with blood flow. She saw it harden and stand straight, pointing in her direction.

Wordlessly, Heather Franklin sank to her knees. She brought her lips close to the grimy head of her superior's dick. She felt his hand at the back of her head, pushing her forward. She wrapped her lips around the cock of corporate America and sucked hard; just like a good whore should.

"I still can't believe you're doing this," said a clearly incredulous Norah.

"Stop whining before I change my mind," snapped Heather. She lay on her back, her legs spread and knees resting on Norah's shoulders. Norah took the cue and returned her meticulous attentions to the inflamed clit in front of her. She placed the nub between her lips and sucked delicately.

Heather hooked her legs around Norah's shoulders, drawing her lover's face deeper into her mons. Her orifice leaked copiously onto Norah's chin and dripped onto the bed. Norah placed her thumbs on either side of Heather's lower lips and pulled them apart. Her tongue slipped inside Heather's warm crevice, gliding into her velvety depths. She pulled her tongue back and repeated her motion, going deeper with every successive movement.

Heather threw her head back and her eyes rolled. She felt a warm sensation spreading from her pussy. Her muscles tightened, anticipating a burst of pleasure. It came, followed by more. Little waves of ecstasy lapped at her body, ebbing and flowing in tune with Norah's tongue. The waves crested, peaking her arousal before washing over her in a warm flood of bliss. It went on, stippling Heather with goose-flesh all over.

There was a break as Heather lifted her legs off Norah and held them apart. This gave the older woman more space to manoeuvre, now running her tongue from top to bottom of Heather's vulva in slow, languid licks. Every time, the tip of her tongue just feathered Heather's raging clit before falling back again. Heather's face contorted, her muscles taut. Sweat was layered all over her body.

Norah licked with greater urgency, plunging her tongue deep within Heather. One of her fingers went into the sopping opening so invitingly spread out before her. She probed gently, feeling Heather roll her hips as she approached her destination. Heather's velvety muscles closed around her, like a tightly fitting glove. She licked around Heather's clit and gently grazed her teeth over the hypersensitive mound of flesh, causing Heather to open her eyes wide with the jolt of pleasure shooting through her.

She was close. Heather pressed her hips forward and Norah pushed even deeper into her. An electric feeling seared through her and illuminated every sense into overdrive. She writhed and squirmed, waiting for the dam to burst and send her into the heights of climactic oblivion.

And it happened... not with the explosive inferno engulfing her as she had expected, but a quiet, quivering flame which heated her core. She felt light headed, floating blissfully on a cloud while Norah eagerly lapped up the liquid satin dripping between her thighs. Norah's tongue tasted the tarty sweetness, savouring every drop. She kept her tongue firmly in place, even as Heather floated down from the high of her sexual nirvana.

Norah propped herself up on her shoulders and looked at her lover's naked body. The low violet light in the room shimmered off every bead of sweat. One drop trickled down Heather's side, reflecting the light all the way down to a pool of perspiration on the bed. Heather gasped and heaved, her breasts rising with every breath. The lawyer who seemed so powerful in the settlement seemed so vulnerable now.

Heather was vulnerable. She was trying to break all those shields she put up all around her and figure out what it meant to be vulnerable.

Norah crawled up and saw Heather staring out of the window. Her eyes were fixed on the starry darkness, her lashes fluttering.

"What's the matter?"

"I was admiring the night. Beautiful, right?" she said with a longing sigh.

"Mother Nature is beautiful. It just takes someone as beautiful to realize it."

"Is that why you fought so hard all your life?" Heather asked, turning her face to look at Norah.

"Among other reasons," Norah replied.

"You sound so much like my mother," Heather reminisced. "You would have liked her. She always wanted me to chase my dreams. Even when Dad got laid off, even when she got cancer, she never wanted me to quit my job so I could earn more."

Heather paused. Her tearless grief bled inwardly.

"Even when she lay on her hospital bed, she told me 'Please don't let your dreams die with me.' I just wasn't strong enough to listen to her."

Norah brought one of her hands up to comfort her lover. She caressed her soft cheek and stroked her hair. Heather continued without flinching in the slightest.

"The day she died I was at her side, holding her hand. She was too weak to speak clearly, but I could make out one word from the incoherent jumble. She told me 'sorry'. She apologized to me because she made me give up my dream. That was the last thing she ever said to me... sorry."

There was a splash of liquid on Heather's cheek. Something had finally given way inside the world weary Norah; a stray teardrop crept past her defences and fell. Heather continued to look upwards with that stony look and dim disquiet. She never grieved, she internalized.

Grieving was a luxury reserved for the weak. She was not weak.

"How long did she suffer?" Norah asked, her fingers still stroking Heather's face.

"One year. I saw her suffer in front of my eyes. Not a day went by when I didn't cry for her. I used up all my tears. I've got nothing left."

"Why do you want to see someone else suffer and slowly die for one more year?"

Heather smiled wistfully.

"My mother had one year to die. You have one year to live. I'm going to do it right this time."

Norah studied the woman in front of her. There was so much about her she understood, and so much more she didn't. Heather was an enigma to her and at the same time, the woman she seemed to know all her life. The dichotomy hung in the air, like a spectre over the sweaty lovers.

"Where shall we start?" asked Norah, forcefully changing the topic.

Heather smiled. "Let's go to Arizona. I've always wanted to see the Paria Canyon. From there, sky's the limit."

ABOUT A YEAR LATER

SOMEWHERE ABOVE THE ARCTIC CIRCLE

"I think it's time," said the doctor through pursed lips. He stood beside the bed, ready to perform his duty.

Heather looked down. She saw Norah lying on the bed, pitifully weak. Over the year, Norah had grown progressively worse. The headaches grew more intense and more frequent. Norah barely ate, vomiting whatever passed her lips. Her steely resolve, however, refused to give way.

She had her first major seizure while admiring the spectacular green vista of the Ngorogoro Crater in Tanzania. Heather took her to the nearest hospital where they sedated her. When she came to, she wanted to go back to seeing leopards and lions streak across the grassy expanse.

She passed out a few days later, inside the Jeita Grotto in Lebanon, admiring the magnificent stalactites and stalagmites reaching out. Luckily, Heather was mindful enough to have a doctor accompany them.

Her seizures became more frequent. More than once, Heather considered returning to New York and admitting her into a hospital, but every time Norah firmly dissuaded her and insisted they keep to their itinerary.

"I don't care how much it hurts, I'm going to see all I can."

And they did. From the ice caves at Gangotri to the Ayers Rock in Australia. They fed dolphins off the coast of Malaysia and gazed at the incredible view of Moraine Lake in Canada. Norah began losing her vision as the expanding tumour pressed against her optic nerve, but she forced herself to keep watching.

Towards the end, she became delusional. She would be unaware of what she was saying or where she was. Heather stayed at every sight until Norah was lucid enough to appreciate it.

"Shall I do it now?" said the doctor, forcing Heather back to reality. She looked at the doctor, his eyes fixed on the morphine drip. Norah wanted to slip away quietly into the night and morphine could do that.

She nodded. The doctor was about to press the button, when they heard a weak voice. It was so frail that they had to double check to make sure it was real.

"I want to go outside. One last time."

"The cold will kill you," said Heather.

Norah smiled as best as her emaciated face would allow. "It'll be painless, Heather. Just you wait and see."

Heather looked at the doctor. He slumped back into his chair, emotionally wrecked from the experiences of the last few weeks. "You can wheel the bed outside or carry her if you want."

Heather needed the doctor's help to take Norah in her arms. Her thick coat and multiple layers of warm inners weighed her down enough, but she still found the strength to hold her lover. She carried her out to the deck of the hired yacht. The sea was placid and the yacht stood still.

"Put me down now, Heather."

Norah lay flat on her back and looked up at the sky. The aurora borealis was visible. Green lights flared across the sky, arcing in bright streams. They swayed against the black night, occluding the stars.