Strange Foreplay

Gale nodded. "Yeah, those stairs really gave under all that weight."

"And if you say that it was because of my weight on them, Gale, I swear, I'll throttle you!" Rachael warned.

"What?!" Gale smirked. "I never said a word." She allowed her eyes to rake slowly over her lover. She did love the way that Rachael looked in jeans and a white t-shirt. Not to mention, her leather jacket never failed to drive this little rich girl crazy, she thought.

"You don't have to; I know you." Rachael knew that even in circumstances like these Gale would not be able to resist making a joke to lighten the mood. It was just her lover's way to deal with a situation in that manner. Whenever things got too serious, out came the jokes.

"Well, Ray, the stairs did break after you stormed down them in your 'I am Xena. Hear me roar,' frame of mind."

"Xena?! What the hell are you talking about? You watch Way too much damn tv." Rachael turned away from her girlfriend, knowing that she had charged down the stairs, acting first and thinking later. Hoping to take the pressure off of herself, she added, "You know that stuff will rot your brain." "Oh, goody, I got trapped in here with my mother," Gale frowned.

"You can't do the things that we do with your mother, Gale."

Placing her hands on her hips, Gale's jaw muscles danced beneath the surface."Who says? Y'all are about the same age; aren't you?"

Looking over her shoulder, Rachael huffed a laugh. "So you're saying you like to fuck your mother?"

Gale's response was less than vocal but, it said plenty. The raised middle finger only brought about a laugh from Rachael.

"Oh, you're going to need more than that one finger to get a rise out of me, lover," Rachael countered smugly.

Fighting not to laugh, Gale placed two fingers to her mouth, parting them into a "v" around her lips and wiggling her tongue obscenely between them.

"Have I mentioned how much I love it, when you talk dirty to me, Gale?"

Rachael thought that she and Gale had always shared an odd sort of foreplay. Her girlfriend doing a small curtsey in her short black dress, only furthered Rachael's belief that this had to be one of the most facetious woman that she had ever met.

Next to yourself, of course, her inner voice added.

Brown eyes narrowed on the younger woman as she took in the sexy black dress. She wondered why she had not noticed it before now. Gale's dress looked more like it should be a slip or some sexy nightie than it did an actual dress. Why so dressed up, she wondered.

Rachael might have asked about the reason for the sexy attire if now, had been the time or place for such discussions. For now, she told herself, it would just have to wait.

Looking up at the first few stairs which had managed to survive the collapse, Rachael wondered how they could get up to the door. "Hey, if I lift you up there, do you think that you can reach the door?"

Gale frowned, biting the corner of her bottom lip. "I guess, love, but..."

"But, what?" Rachael asked. She motioned for her girlfriend to join her. "Come here, lover."

Sighing, Gale went to her girlfriend. She used Rachael as support while she took off her strappy black heels. Her nervousness showed in her hazel eyes as she stared up at the stairs hanging ominously above them.

"I've got you, baby," Rachael promised. "I won't let you fall."

Gale took comfort in the words uttered by her lover but, she still looked very concerned about what might happen next. "I know that you wouldn't let anything happen to me, corazón. It's those stairs that I am worried about. They don't like me the way you do."

Rachael tensed a bit. "Do you want to try to find another way?"

Smoothing her lover's cheek, Gale shook her head. "Thanks for offering, love, but, we both know that this is our only way out."

She hadn't wanted to pressure Gale into doing this, if she had felt that it was too dangerous to do. Then again, Rachael knew that this was, in all honesty, their only way out. There were no tables, no boxes, no ladders. There was nothing of any kind that they could use to boost themselves out of this makeshift prison. What stood out even more in her mind was that she could see no windows of any kind. Basements always had small windows in them. Why was this basement any different?

Rachael bent her legs at the knees, placing her weight into them. While standing shoulder-width apart, she laced her fingers together tightly. She concentrated on strengthening her arms, then motioned with her chin for her girlfriend to go, whenever she was ready.

Gale placed her left foot inside Rachael's hands. Securing herself by holding her girlfriend's shoulders, she could feel her body being hoisted upward. Once raised high enough, she crawled onto her lover's shoulders. Then timidly, she stood on those shoulders, hoping that she was not too heavy.

"You're fine," Rachael said, seeming to sense what her girlfriend was thinking at that moment. She looked up, taking in the smooth line of the woman's lean legs, moving higher still until her eyes stopped on the apex of her lover's legs.

"And you're not wearing panties," she added with a bit of surprise.

Gale felt the heat of the blush upon her cheeks. "Yeah, well, that was supposed to be one of your surprises for the evening." She reached upward, straining desperately in the hopes that she might grasp the stairs. "Surprise!" she joked wearily.

Rachael didn't want to take her eyes away from her lover's sex. She took in the natural slope of her and the thin sliver of dark hair left untouched by Gale's almost ritualistic waxing. Lips seeming to pout for attention forced her to finally look away. Her heart beating wildly inside her chest only heightened this hunger that was steadily taking over her thought pattern.

Think about something else, her inner voice commanded.

"Janet Reno. Janet Reno. Janet Reno," she whispered over and over again in a soft chant. "What?" Gale asked stretching even more to reach those elusive steps.

"Nothing. I'm fine."

Arching her brow, Gale glanced down quickly. "I will ignore that, for now."

"What?"

" 'I'm fine,' never means, I'm fine, when a woman says it."

Rachael smiled in a way that showed the purity of her thoughts. "Lover, hurry. You are distracting me."

"Oh," the younger woman blushed. "Sorry."

Gale found her eyes locking with Rachael's for a moment which left her under their spell. Luckily, the hand patting her thigh awakened her from her trance. She immediately returned to her task, knowing that they would need to get out of here soon.

While Rachael struggled with the wicked thoughts running throughout her mind, she knew that she would need to think of anything that might distract her from Gale's exposed sex. She forced herself to think of the situation at hand, concentrating on Gale's actions.

Gale managed to catch hold of the bottom stair with her left hand. Clasping her other hand on the remnants of the railing, she fought to get a good grip.

Rachael did her best to push Gale up as much as she could until the younger woman was in mid-air suspended by her arms, hanging onto the stairs.

Pulling herself upward in the hardest chin-up of her natural life, Gale fumed. Why would someone do this to them? It didn't make sense. Who could possibly want to trap them like this? And what had happened to poor Sarah, she wondered.

Watching her lover crawl up onto the stairs, Rachael could all but, feel Gale radiating heat. She wanted to tell her that the feeling was mutual but, decided against it, for the time being.

Gale carefully stepped onto the next stair, hearing the wood creak and groan in protest. She held her breath for a moment as the steps lurched downward a few inches.

"Gale?!" Rachael rushed forward, fearing that her girlfriend might fall.

"I'm okay, love," Gale said more to assure herself than her lover. She took another step, ignoring the moan given by the swaying stairs. "Apparently, the gods of fate are against us doing this."

Gale took another step after waiting for the swaying of the steps to cease.

Rachael arched her brow, hating that she was down on the ground while her girlfriend was on that weakening platform. She was the police officer. It was her job to take these kinds of risks. It was not her girlfriend's job to be risking injury now.

Gale reached out, taking hold of the railing, when a few nails began tearing away from the wall with an eerie slowness. Please don't let me fall, she began to repeat in a silent mantra.

"Gale?" Rachael waited for what felt like an eternity before she heard Gale speak in confirmation of her safety.

"I think it's going to hold me," Gale said infusing her voice with hopefulness.

Arching her eyebrow, Rachael swallowed hard. Gale was lying. As surely as she could feel her heart beating out of control, she was certain that her girlfriend was lying to her now. "You're lying. Crawl back to me. I don't want you getting hurt. We'll find another way. There are always windows in basements. I know that we didn't see any but..."

"I'm up here. I'm staying until I get through that door. Don't worry, love. This is a peace of cake."

Again, she is lying to me, Rachael thought.

In response to Gale's unspoken, "Things can't get any worse," there was a loud shrieking of wood tearing. The stairs drooped down several more inches as the young woman struggled not to fall to the cement floor below. From this high up, the fall would be much worse than it had been the first time, when they had been nearer to the bottom steps.

Rachael was forced to jump back as the step behind the petite woman smashed into the floor just in front of her. "Gale!"

Hazel eyes did not leave the nails steadily beginning to pull away from the wall. Their whining grew worse as she moved forward, knowing that if she didn't go for it and rush toward the door, she was going to shatter against the ground just as that board had done.

The stairs groaned one final time as they tore away from the wall. The surface collapsing completely beneath Gale's feet was accompanied by a single scream.

"Ray!!!"

Throwing her arms up to protect her face from the pieces of scattering debris, Rachael felt her heart dropping with the sight of her lover impacting mercilessly into the basement floor. She rushed forward, kneeling down beside Gale, who lie crumpled motionlessly in the midst of the broken stair remains. Sweeping the younger woman into her arms, she gently cradled her head.

"Gale," Rachael whispered smoothing her girlfriend's hair away from her face. Her fingers lightly traced over the gash above Gale's right eye. "Baby, wake up." The lump in her throat threatened to make her sick. "Come on, love. I know you like to make jokes but, this isn't funny. Wake up, now."

The woman in her arms was so still. She watched over her now unable to take her eyes off of her.

Rachael had found a blanket within the confines of this basement turned prison. She had placed her motionless lover gently on to it. Her leather jacket had been draped over Gale as a makeshift blanket with the same compassionate disposition.

A deep sense of relief filled her as she heard a soft moan followed by the sight of lashes fluttering in the attempt at waking. It was not long before hazel eyes slowly opened to greet her.

A sleepy smile curled Gale's lips as she looked up at her lover. She took in a deep breath, snuggling more into the warm jacket protecting her which smelt of her girlfriend's skin. "I do love waking up to you," she said dreamily.

Rachael smiled happily after gently bestowing a kiss to Gale's head. "And you know how much I love to accommodate, you, pet, but, let's not make a habit of this."

Gale frowned sleepily. Her eyes drifted down her girlfriend's torso then stopped on a collection of crimson at the abdomen. Fearfully, hazel eyes widened. "What happened? You're bleeding!" She lurched upward, then stopped as a wave of vertigo caused her to nearly black out again.

Catching the woman, Rachael eased Gale's head to her chest. "Easy, love. That isn't My blood. You've been out for a while." She looked over her lover with concern in her eyes. "You fell; remember?" The slow nod that she received as her answer brought a slight comfort. At least nothing serious had been damaged in Gale's memory, she told herself.

"How long was I out?" Gale held her head, feeling the pounding within.

"Three hours."

Rachael tensed her as mind recalled the sight of Gale's head hitting the basement floor. She pushed that thought away with much effort. "While you were out, I could hear them talking."

"Them?" Gale frowned, unconsciously nuzzling her lover's neck. "How many are there?"

A new kind of tension filled Rachael with the sensation caused by Gale's lips brushing against her skin. "There are at least four," she said. "I heard a woman that sounded a bit like Sarah. I couldn't make out what they were saying but, I'm certain that they haven't hurt her yet. They're keeping her alive for some reason. She must know something. Although, I haven't heard them for at least an hour. From what I can tell, I think they left."

Gale took comfort in the arms embracing her. She turned inside embrace, leaning back against her lover. Her lips slowly kissed over Rachael's wrist while she theorized on what Sarah could possibly know that would endanger herself so badly.

"When was the last time that you spoke to Sarah, Ray?" she asked absently, taking in her girlfriend's scent which had been lightly placed on Rachael's wrist.

Rachael looked down on Gale, when she felt teeth raking teasingly over her wrist. She continued to dismiss Gale's actions as little more than affectionate touches. "We spoke today on the phone. She said that she was in trouble." A weary sigh left her lips. "I thought that she was exaggerating again. I completely blew her off."

Gale reached around to the woman behind her, hugging her tightly. "There is no way that you could have known that any of this was going to happen."

In deep thought, Rachael listened to her lover's voice. She had not been aware of her hand slipping beneath Gale's dress until she felt the contrast between the cool airy fabric of the black dress over her hand and the smooth warmth of Gale's breast against her palm. For the longest time her hand, remained motionless except for her thumb idly moving over the side of her girlfriend's breast.

"Gale, I should have known that something was wrong. Maybe if I had..."

Rachael felt the arms around her tighten their hold. The embrace put a definite end to her sentence. She gave a weary sigh, silently telling her girlfriend that she would stop trying to blame herself for this. Well, stop trying to blame herself aloud, she thought.

Her lips kissed lazily over a cinnamon shoulder, moving their way up a long neck. In that moment, Rachael smiled despite their situation. Stabbing into her palm, she could feel the results of her kisses. A hardened nipple told her that Gale was enjoying her attention.

"This is going to get us in trouble," she teased, nipping at her lover's neck.

Gale was all but, purring. "I know. You really should stop doing that, lover."

Rachael nodded. "I should," she agreed, moving her other hand around to cup Gale's other breast.

A smile curled Gale's lips. "Oh, I can see that you are going to stop," she chuckled softly.

"I am," Rachael protested weakly. She slowed her kisses. "See."

Angling her neck to grant more access to her girlfriend, Gale let her hands slide over the woman behind her. "Perhaps, we should distract ourselves before we get too into this."

"Hmm, maybe you're right. What should we discuss?"

"You pick, love."

"Anything?"

"Anything, you want, my love."

Rachael smiled victoriously. "I'm going to hold you to that."

"Alright, give me your best shot."

"There is something that I would like to talk about," Rachael started weakly. "Um... about earlier. You know, in the car..."

A tension filled her lover. Rachael could feel it. She decided to press on allowing her concern to openly fill her voice. "We got into it kind of bad today and..."

"Do you really want to talk about this now?!"Gale asked with a groaned displeasure. She pulled away slightly.

"Why not?"

"This isn't exactly a good time," the younger woman sighed.

"I just need to know what happened... you know, in your opinion."

"My opinion?"

"Yeah, what do you think happened, Gale?"

"I can't believe you want to have this discussion, now."

"What's so bad about now? We aren't going anywhere, baby. Unless you have something better to do than talk to me about this?"

"I don't want to talk about this, Ray!"

"Why not?" Rachael already knew the answer to that question but, she was going to make Gale tell her regardless of that fact. "Tell me, lover."

"Why do you always ask me questions which you KNOW that I would much rather not answer?"

Sighing, Gale muttered something about Rachael not fighting fair which caused her lover to smile. She finally gave in to her girlfriend's request. Although, she was less than pleased with Rachael for asking this of her or herself for complying with the request.

"I kind of broke my own code of ethics with you, today."

"What code?" Rachael asked.

"Getting too emotional about things..." Gale glanced over her shoulder to the woman behind her. "I really put myself out there with you. I felt just like I did on those stairs and my response from you was to... just kind of pat me on the head and say, 'Aw, that's sweet.' I didn't handle that well."

The raven-haired police officer winced. "I wasn't that bad; was I?"

Looking down, Gale remembered the tension-filled drive. "I said that I wasn't used to that; okay. You can call me a princess if you want but, I'm used to picking out what I like, saying that I want it and having it simply because I want it." She laughed softly under her breath. "I had more toys than any child I can think of."

"What happened, when you got bored with them?"

Gale opened her mouth to respond then stopped, suddenly thinking better of it.

"Uh-huh." Rachael nodded. "You're past history with the things that you want hasn't been great after you lose interest. It worries me a bit. I mean, I'm not a toy to play with until you get bored, sweetie. I wasn't going to get out on that limb with you until I knew where you stood. I'm not making promises I can't keep. Can you respect that?"

The right corner of Gale's mouth turned upward with a sigh. She backed into her lover, wrapping Rachael's arms tightly around her. Her head resting against a shoulder brought a bit of contentedness. "I'm not going to lie and say that I like this."

Rachael smiled. "I don't expect you to." She quickly added, "Lie to me, I mean."

"Alright, I will respect this, if that's what you need but, I need you to know that I didn't tell you that I loved you for any other reason than that is how I feel about you."

Holding her lover closer to her, Rachael shifted so that together they could fall back against the wall. "I know, Gale." She paused. "I'm still working on that whole, 'There isn't any ulterior motive' thing. Penalty of being with a cop, I guess. We're always looking for bad guys."

"Well, let's clarify. Criminals bad. Girlfriend good."

Gale pointed upstairs. "Bad." Then, pointed to herself. "Good." When she repeated the act again, Rachael laughed.

"God, you're a wise ass."

"What did you say about my ass?"

Rachael forced herself to stop laughing while pulling Gale even closer. "Just shut up and give me a kiss before I reconsider hanging around such a little shit."

Gale gasped melodramatically. "Well, that's no way to talk to the woman, who loves you."

Seeing that her lover was about to make another joke, Rachael silenced the woman with a kiss. Her lips moving softly against Gale's were almost lazy in their unhurried approach. She breathed in her lover, cupping her face and pulling her closer. The tip of her tongue slipping into a yielding mouth was welcomed by a muffled moan. She deepened their kiss, feeling the first of that familiar fever taking hold.