The Stroke of Midnight

THWACK! The dart entered the center red circle and my opponent groaned in defeat. I had closed out everything and had about 100 points on top of it. Not bad for a female at almost 2:00 am with about ten mudslides- with- an- extra- shot- of- vodka wreaking havoc in her system.

I had come to this dirty little biker bar in the weirdo- hippie- punk- rock- freak section of town looking to take home some horny man for a night of meaningless rough sex and had ended up talking about the damned snow in Vermont with a bespectacled woman that I had taken for uptight but who was actually turning out to be quite a firecracker. We had sat at the bar for a couple of hours talking about Vermont because we had both lived there, loser men because we had both had them, and french erotica because we both had a passion for Anais Nin and Georges Bataille. She was drinking straight vodka and I was guzzling the aforementioned concoctions like there was no tomorrow. Not a single man had approached either of us all night, and in addition to finding it hilarious (we must have looked like a couple of dykes, talking and laughing loudly, pounding down hard liquor), it was nice to have a break from the usual pickup procedures. Funny how things happen - like I said, that was exactly what I had intended to attract when I set out for the evening.

Her name was Courtney and she had just moved to Atlanta from Tucson, Arizona. She was attending Georgia State University, working towards a masters degree in child development. Like me, she had moved around a lot as a child, living in pretty much every region of the U.S. She had grand hopes for Atlanta but was already dreaming about where she would move when school was over. I, too, had come to Atlanta to find "something" and was in the process of moving to some tiny town on the east coast of Florida. She was dressed plainly in jeans and a black t-shirt. I was decked out in a tight black dress with a severe slit up the side. Something attracted us to each other, though, and I was loving the company.

"Damn!" She pretended to sulk as she pulled the darts out of the board. "I'm horrible at this game anyway."

I slurped the last of my drink from the glass and set it down with gusto, drawing an annoyed look from the bartender. "Too bad they don't have cards here, I'd whip your ass at gin too." She grinned at me and shook her head, cheeks flushed from the alcohol.

I announced my need for a trip to the restroom and she said she was going to go order us more drinks. I stumbled to the back of the bar and into the bathroom. Closing the door to a stall, I hiked up my dress and sat down. I leaned back and closed my eyes, feeling everything swimming and churning and spinning in my head. "Toooooo much alcohol.." I sighed, finished my business, and lurched out and to the sink. I looked into my own leary blood-shot eyes and smiled. "Hey, Courtney, I'm no dyke, but I'd like nothing more than to run my hands up your thighs and drive my tongue down your throat." I chortled at the stupidity of what I had just said to my reflection. It was true though. I was attracted to her in a way I had never felt about a woman. I kept trying to brush it off as the inebriation speaking, but the warmth between my thighs whenever I thought about her lying nude on my bed was impossible to dismiss.

The door slammed open and I jumped at the sound. Courtney stood there, slightly swaying, a drink in each hand. "Are you going to come out or should we just bring the party in here?" She took a few steps towards me and let the door close behind her. We giggled as she held my drink out to me and I spilled some of it on the floor. "Cheers, dahling!" With that she tipped her glass back and downed it in a single swallow. Her cheeks turned bright red for a second, her eyes watered. "Whew!" She cupped her hand under the faucet and drank some water from it. I sipped my drink through the straw as she stood up, wiped her face, and declared that the last drink of the night.

We went back out and sat down in a booth. Looking at each other across the table, we started grinning. "What?" "What, yourself?" "I asked you first!" We broke into a fit of snorty laughter and I thought I was about to just tell her I wanted to spend the night with her.

"Too bad none of these guys are my type - I really feel like a fuck right now." I was a bit taken aback by this comment, but I murmured a shared sentiment.

Damn it, Courtney. I sat back and closed my eyes for a second. My heart was beating like crazy and my palms were sweaty. What was I thinking? I had never been with a woman before, and this girl could turn out to be a good friend and I was actually going to fuck it up by propositioning her?!?

"I am soooooo drunk." I looked at her from slightly raised eyelids as she nodded agreement.

"How far away do you live?" Shit, that's right! I had a LONG drive ahead of me.

"Um, like 20 miles." I smiled sheepishly as she shook her head.

"You are NOT going home like this. I live just up the block. You can sleep on my couch or something." She stood up and got the check from the bartender.

As she sat back down she tossed it on the table. "$82.50." We cracked up at this for some reason, left $100 on the bar, and walked out into the night.

"Do you realize for that amount we could have bought ten times as much liquor at a store?" I asked. "That's insane."

She finished lighting a cigarette and pointed out, "Yeah, but then we never would have met each other..I don't go out much. I almost stayed home tonight."

We walked in silence for a minute, listening to the gravel crunch under our feet. I heard her inhale then breathe the smoke out. It was difficult to keep walking but my body went on automatic pilot or something and I managed a pretty straight path. After a few minutes she flicked the half-smoked cigarette into the road and said, "It's just up here, the blue house." She pointed a few houses up the road to a partially-hidden Victorian surrounded by trees and bushes. The landscaping was immaculate, the house well-kept.

"It's beautiful!"

"Yeah, the landlords are gay, I think that's why." She laughed. "They always seem to have a better eye for things than straight men." We walked up the front steps and she unlocked the security door. She led me up the first flight of steps, then the next. "The stairs are a pain sometimes, but I got the cool ceilings and windows for my trouble.." She turned and smiled at me as she pushed her front door open.

The first thing that hit me was the smell. It was incredibly soft, musky, like sandalwood and juniper. A lot of my friends like to burn incense and they totally overdo it, creating billowing clouds of raunchy odor. This was nice, like aromatherapy. She switched on the light to reveal one huge room, but it was organized to form different spaces for different needs. To the left the floor sunk a few steps into a living area with a kitchen wrapping aroud behind it. To the right was a queen-sized four poster bed with an elegant cherry nightstand and dresser. The walls were a medium blue color, creating a very tranquil atmosphere.

"This is the most amazing apartment I have ever seen!" I felt like a little kid at Disneyland, gaping at everything.

"Well, thanks!" She threw her keys on a table and proceeded to push her shoes off. She padded over to the kitchen and opened a cabinet. "Want some tylenol? I always find that taking two at night after drinking usually eliminates a hangover.."

"Sure." I bent over and unbuckled my shoes. As I stood up she walked towards me holding a bottle and a glass of water.

"Hold your hand out." She dropped a couple of tablets into my palm, handed me the glass, and recapped the bottle as I gulped the pills down. I put the glass down on the table and looked at her still standing there. She was watching me with a little smile on her face. We stood there for a second, not saying anything. "I don't want to make you uncomfortable..."

Say it say it say it say it.....

"...because I've had a REALLY good time with you tonight and I want to stay friends. The thing is..."

Thank you god, I will go to church and tithe and all that bullshit...

"...I wanted to hold your hand when we were walking back here. I wanted to embrace you when we got in the door. I want to kiss you now. And I want you to sleep in the bed with me, whether anything happens or not." She looked down at the floor, clearly uncomfortable with the uncertainty of what she had just said.

"OK." OK? That was all I could muster? I had a million things I wanted to say to her, that she was beautiful, that I felt the same way, that I wanted to make love to her and taste her and feel her body on mine and next to me and....

She reached out and ran the outside of her hand lightly across my cheek. I closed my eyes and sighed, nuzzling back againt her a little. She took a step towards me and reached out with her other hand to brush my hair back from my face. "You're so soft..." she whispered, her breath warm on my face. Her lips grazed mine, sending shivers throughout my body. I pressed back, feeling her full lips againt mine, parting them a little, running my tongue across them...

Her hand pressed me closer to her, our lips parted, and her tongue sought mine. This was the most passionate kiss I have ever experienced. Her tongue slowly circled mine, pressed it, retreated...I felt the heat rushing between my legs and shifted, feeling the friction on my throbbing clit. She broke away and looked into my eyes, matching the lust there with equal intensity. Her hand slid down my neck and flattened out as it came into contact with my breast, squeezing lightly, kneading the flesh. She found my erect nipple and pinched gently, causing a low moan to escape from me. My breasts had never been particularly sensitive to stimulation but this felt like there was a direct connection between my chest and my pussy. I actually felt a drop of moisture escape and roll slowly down the inside of my thigh. "You want to go lay down on the bed with me?" she asked. I nodded and she turned off the light and locked the door as I walked towards the bed. Once there I turned around, feeling slightly awkward. She walked up and slid her arms around my waist, pulling me close to her. Our breasts met and I could feel her hard nipples through her shirt.

As we kissed again, more urgently this time, I reached down and cupped both of her breasts. I massaged around the sides and up to the nipples, which I twisted lightly and flicked with my fingers. She groaned and pulled away from my mouth, her hands covering mine, leading me to squeeze harder. She leaned in and licked my neck from my collarbone to my earlobe. She sucked gently all over, causing waves of pleasure to course through my body. I was losing my concentration on what I was doing with her but she didn't seem to mind. Her hands returned to my tits and circled around, rubbing and caressing and tweaking my aching nipples.

I was nervous as hell, wanting to move my hands further down, but it was like there was a barrier there preventing me from going below her chest. Everything about Courtney was turning me on - she was a wonderful kisser, she smelled great, and she tasted even better. I was feeling the first waves of pleasure coming over me - how insane that I might actually orgasm without having had any sort of stimulation "down there". Our moans and breathing mixed with the licking and sucking sounds againt the quiet night were a powerful aphrodesiac, and I felt like I was on a totally different plane.

I ran a hand slowly between her tits, across her sternum, and down her belly where my fingers ran lightly across her navel. She twitched a little and smiled. "I'm ticklish.."

I moved my hand a little lower and she backed away a bit. "You probably don't want to do that.."

"Why?"

"That time of the month.." She looked apologetically at me as she caressed my hair.

Shit. I didn't know that I would ever feel comfortable initiating things with another girl, and who knew how things would be in the morning, when we were both sober. I stood still for a moment, wishing desperately that I wasn't so intoxicated - I couldn't even think rationally to try to figure out whee to go from here.

She saved me from further thinking by pushing me gently back on to the bed. "That doesn't mean we can't explore at all.." She raised my leg in the air, bending my knee, running her hand slowly across my shinbone. She unbuckled my shoe and tossed it onto the couch, smiling wickedly up at me as she brought my foot to her face, running the sole across her cheek. She slipped my big toe into her mouth and lightly sucked, causing me to burst out laughing. She sucked harder, running her finger across my sole as I squirmed, trying to get away. We were both laughing pretty hard as she let my leg down, then raised the other to remove my other shoe. My giggles died down and I watched her taking her time, looking at my body stretched out on her bed.

"You're very beautiul. I want you to know that it's hard for me to find a woman attractive in a sexual light. The minute I saw you I knew we would become lovers.."

Although this was kind of a brash statement, I understood it. I hadn't thought the exact same thing, but there had been an almost immediate attraction to her.

She got up on the bed and pushed my dress up to my hips. I felt exposed, lying there with just my panties hiding my very obvious arousal.

"I can smell you..." She ran her hands up my legs from my ankles, slowly, massaging at every stop along my thighs. I spread my legs a little wider, relishing the sensation of her soft hands on my flesh. After what felt like hours of torture, her hands delicately ran over the edge of my panties, up the sides of my hips, and began to trace the waistband. "Mind if I pull these off?" she whipered.

"Uh-uh..." It came out more as a soft moan than a statement, but fuck it. Everything this girl did was causing little pleasure explosions in my groin.

The panties came off and were flung somewhere near my shoes. She repeated the slow leg massage, driving me crazy with desire, and I was trying to scoot her closer, faster. My beathing was out of control and I was convinced that the second she touched my clit I would explode in a pulsating, screeching orgasm. I was wrong though. It was like three pulating screeching orgasms.

When she got to my thighs she bent her head down. Her tongue came to rest right above my pubic hair, where it drew slow cicles of saliva on my skin. She slid down a little, tracing a path down to my slit. Once there she gently pulled me open with her fingers and licked once at my clit. Some weird banshee cry came out of me and my body felt like it rose off the bed. If anything had been in me I think I would have pulverized it with the strength of the contractions in my vagina. The heat and the pleasure were almost unbearable.

She lay there between my legs, waiting out the storm, probably getting a very good glimpse of raw emotion. When I finally came down I was crying and laughing and trembling.

"Courtney, I - "

"shhh..." She was kneeling between my legs now, hitching my dress up further. As she began to massage my breasts, she started humming something. I closed my eyes, relishing the total relaxation.

"You want another one?"

I almost thought I had imagined it (because I could have sworn I dozed off for a second), but when I opened my eyes she was sort of leaning over me, waiting for an answer. I nodded my head and she adjusted herself on the bed, lying next to me.

"I want to see you touch yourself."

Odd. But ok. I reached down and started rubbing my clit, still sensitive from my monumental orgasm awhile ago. She reached down and pushed a finger slowly into me, working it around inside, pulling it slowly back out.

"You have a wonderful pussy, nice and tight. I wish I had a dick..I'd fuck you all night long." She licked my nipple as she said this, voice low and seductive. I have never been with anyone that talked dirty like that - I mean, the best I ever really got was the oh-yeah-oh-shit-yeah-fuck-yeah-oh-god-oh-god-oh-god. She pulled her finger out and when she put it back there was another one with it. She started a slow rhythm, in, out, in, out...the odd little tingling was coming back, and I was rubbing my clit a little more inistently.

"I want you to come for me baby, I want to feel your orgasm on my hand...come on...get yourself off..I love to feel you fingering yourself.." She actually started moaning. This totally drove me over the edge. Forgetting once again to be quiet, I stated moaning and panting, gyrating against her hand a little, massaging the hell out of my now completely engorged clit as she kept pushing her fingers deep inside me.

I felt the orgasm brimming to the surface and started thrashing around, feeling like my body was collapsing in on itself. "Courtneeeeeyyyy......oh goooood....." My hips were bucking with the strength of my climax, I was sweating and screwing my face up in concentration, wincing with each throb of my pussy. As it subsided I was completely exhausted, drifting off to sleep even as Courtney removed her clothes and laid down next to me.

"I love you," I whispered. And I meant it, at least in some way...she curled up next to me, our legs intertwined. Her hand rested on my breast, her head in the crook of my arm. I thought I heard her talking but it could also have been a dream. I don't remember a thing after that, but in the morning when I woke up it was raining and Courtney was still sleeping. The dark and the warmth of her apartment mixed with the soothing sound of the rain outside lulled me back to sleep almost immediately.