05 - Angel of Mercy

At the sounds of her friend making herself a cup of coffee, she gathered what little wits she had left and managed to make it to the bathroom.

She didn't even bother checking if there was hot water left.

*****

Eyes brimming with unshed tears, Ariel looked up from the phone she was clutching in her hands.

Amelia went to her and embraced her.

"Is it Jeremy?" She asked quietly.

"Yes." Ariel answered with a flat voice. "It's a matter of hours now. I need to go."

"I know, sweetheart. Do you want me to drive you?"

"No, I'll be fine. There's nothing... You must have tons of things to do here. I'll let you know when it's done."

"Please do. You don't have to do this alone, you know."

"I know. I won't be. I'll be fine, I promise."

Amelia walked her friend to the door and hugged her one last time. She stood there, watching her get in her car and drive away. She didn't have any idea then, any more than she ever had in the years she'd known her, of where Ariel found the courage and inner strength to do what she did.

*****

Hours later, she was sitting at the kitchen table, waiting for water to boil to fix herself a well-deserved cup of tea. The apartment was sparkling. When she was upset, Amelia cleaned, and she had been very perturbed that morning.

At first, she wasn't sure what she heard. She looked around, trying to pinpoint the source of the noise, then she heard it again. It came from the front of the apartment. Damn mice. It was the time of the year when they tried to get in the house before...

She raced to the door. This was no mouse.

Ariel was standing there, looking so despondent it nearly broke her heart. She was clutching something to herself. With a tremulous smile, she handed it to her.

After a snort, Amelia put the bottle of massage oil on a small table and opened her arms. Wracked with gut wrenching sobs, Ariel ran to her and held on as a drowning woman to a ring buoy.

Gently, Amelia brought her in and sat with her on the couch. It seemed like forever, but, eventually, the woman stopped crying. She didn't let go. Neither did Amelia when she realized that Ariel had fallen asleep in her arms. She managed to stretch her on the sofa and put a cushion on her lap for the woman's head.

As she caressed her hair tenderly, she thought this wouldn't do. The intervention of the previous day had been for two physically exhausted persons. This was worse, so much worse. The woman was killing herself because she cared too much.

An hour later, Ariel stirred. Her friend had been about to wake her from what must have been a nightmare. Her piteous mewls were heart rending.

She stayed there, clutching the hand she had grabbed.

"It was a bad one?" She asked softly.

"There are no good ones, Am. At least, he was at peace. The worst part for them is often watching their parent's misery. He... In the end, he smiled at them and slipped away, holding their hands."

She was quiet for a long time. Amelia would have thought she was asleep again if not for the occasional squeezing of her hand. She knew there wasn't much she could say. Ariel was the counselor.

"What's with the massage oil? Do you want to show me your beautiful body... again?" She smiled at the chuckle her question elicited.

"Only if you'll teach me so I can give you one too."

"How could I say no to having your hands on me, sweetheart? How about after supper? I bet you didn't eat anything all day."

"There wasn't much time for that. Now... I've been put on sick leave, Am. Serge too." Serge was her colleague who specialized in grief counseling for the parents and families. "The prescription is sleep, lots of sleep, and we can't go back to work until our own counselors deem us fit." Ariel didn't miss her friend's sigh of relief. "See, mommy? The doctor said I had to be a good girl if I wanted to go back to play."

"I knew there was something I liked about that man." Amelia leaned in to kiss her friend's head. "I happen to know a nurse who specializes in dealing with unruly little girls."

"I am not unruly." Ariel mock-protested. "But I could be your..." Amelia could barely hear her. Her heart skipped a beat at the implications.

"Baby, you don't have to..."

Ariel turned on her back and reached to caress the older woman's cheek.

"I know, dear heart. But I... I want to. I think I've wanted to for a long time. This morning, I had a good long look at myself. And at you too. Aside from... you know, we've been closer than I've ever been to anyone, BFFs included. You... You're so beautiful, inside and out..."

"Stop that. You're trying to make me blush. You're the gorgeous one." The hand she had on Ariel's cheek moved to her neck so she could massage some of the tension out of her, at least as much as she could one-handed.

Ariel let her hand trail to Amelia's neck too, but she continued to her chest, tracing her collarbone, then the cleavage in the V-neck t-shirt. She smiled when she saw the goosebumps she caused to rise and the flush flowing down from the burning cheeks.

"I may look gorgeous, but you are beautiful, Amelia." Her second hand caressed the side of her friend's breast. "If I ask nicely, could I have a happy ending too?"

Amelia opened her eyes and saw her desire reflected in the most perfect dark brown eyes. Her heart swelled when she saw something else too.

"You said you wanted me to teach you massage. I could tutor you in that too." The blinders she had put on fell at last.

"I hope you're a patient instructor, then. I'm afraid I will require many, many sessions." Ariel cupped her friend's neck and gently pulled her down. When their lips met, it was so soft, so... right. She moaned when Amelia caressed her cheek, but her heart really began to race when her hand travelled lower. She was arching upward long before it reached her breasts.

She put her hand over Amelia's to forestall further exploration. She wanted to savor their first kiss. She nibbled on her lower lip, traced her mouth with the tip of her tongue before passing the parted lips. Both women were panting as their tongues caressed each other, gently, then more forcefully as they got familiar. Ariel pulled Amelia in her mouth to make oral love to her tongue, eliciting deep moans.

The older woman couldn't believe what was happening. This straight woman was bringing her to the edge simply by kissing her. Seasoned lovers hadn't come close to giving her this intensity of feelings. Something broke inside her and a wound she hadn't known was there healed under the loving ministrations.

Ariel felt the tears fall on her cheeks, mixing with her own. Their busy lips were stretched in huge smiles as both finally acknowledged what their hearts had known all along.

By the time they came up for air, she had unbuttoned her own shirt and reached behind herself to unhook her bra and put her... lover's hand on her breast. Her spirit soared as soon as the shackles of convention and conditioning were unlocked.

She enjoyed the experienced hand's caresses, but she wanted more, so much more. Again, she stopped it.

"My darling Amelia, I want to see you too. I want to touch you, I want..."

Amelia's lips cut her off momentarily. The strong arms pulled her off the couch, and, their lips never breaking contact, they slowly made their way to the bedroom. It took a long time, but neither cared as they undressed each other along the way.

To Ariel's surprise, her friend climaxed the moment her fingers entered her and they ended in a heap on the floor before they made it to the bed. Amelia held her hand away from her pussy as they resumed their journey, contenting themselves with loving caresses.

The confident lover gave way to the shy lesbian virgin once they lay face to face, their bodies touching from lips to groin, their legs intertwined, arms holding tightly on as if fearing the other would pull away.

They looked at each other, clouded blue eyes drowning in glazed brown ones. Slowly, their hands resumed their caresses, more insistently, more pointedly, with a clear goal.

Ariel rolled Amelia on her back and straddled her hips. She sat there, taking her in, from her dishevel shoulder-length light brown hair, her rounded face with its expressive eyes, the pug nose she had often made light fun of, the full lips with their deep laugh lines. Amelia wasn't fat, only well rounded. Ariel knew the soft flesh hid strength. What others saw as unsightly filled her eyes with wonder.

She lightly skimmed the breasts with both hands, admiring the shape gravity gave them as she rested on her back. She caressed the large soft mounds, touching them everywhere but where Amelia wanted her to, judging by the whines and her arching back.

""Touch the damn nipples already, you tease! It's cruelty, plain and simple!"

"Is it?" Ariel asked coyly. "I'm new at this lesbian thing, you know. You have to be patient with me."

"What I am is dying, honey. And I don't believe you for a minute. This isn't your first rodeo."

"I assure you that it is." She leaned and kissed one hardened nipple with her wet lips, then the other, all the while tenderly kneading the breasts. "So this is...." She tickled them with the tip of her tongue. "What lesbian sex is all about..." She spread the breasts to run her tongue in the valley between them, then pushed them together and nipped the flesh. "I had no idea..." She pushed harder so she could take both nipples in her mouth at once and made love to them with enthusiasm. All long she kept a running light commentary going.

When she had Amelia's hips bucking beneath her, she kept fondling her breasts after a last playful sharp bite, which was rewarded by a yelp, immediately followed by a moan.

She left a trail of love bites, all the way to the origin of the heavenly scent which was assaulting her senses. A single nip on a thigh was enough for both legs to be pulled against soft breasts and held there. The whines she heard as she licked the cream which had flowed with Amelia's orgasm were music to her ears. She had never imagined the joy she could derive from giving pleasure to a woman.

She was sorely tempted to touch herself, but refrained so she could concentrate on her lover. Thinking of everything she loved to have done to herself, and everything she had always wished a man had done to her, she had Amelia teetering on the edge before she even touched her clit. So she avoided it for as long as she could, only brushing against it with her nose as she licked from perineum to top of the pink cleft, savoring the abundant cream she collected along the way as she reached in as deep as she could.

Spontaneously, she circled the puckered hole. She hadn't expected the wail it elicited as Amelia climaxed instantly, nor the relaxing of the muscles which caused it to become a gaping opening, begging for her to fill it. Remembering her own experimentations, she touched a finger to it, entering to the first phalange, then following the inarticulate pleading, a second.

Simultaneously, she pushed two fingers in the overflowing vagina. When she was fully inside, she paused to get the older woman acclimated to her presence. The twitching of inner muscles told her Amelia was ready for more. Gradually, she accelerated her tempi and was soon going as fast and as hard as she could, all the while nipping the inner thighs.

When she had Amelia covered in sweat and moaning continuously, she curled the fingers inside her vagina upward and covered her clit with her mouth, sucking and flicking it rapidly with her tongue.

*****

Amelia had been fucked by women of various degrees of experience all her adult life, but none had ever brought her to such high levels of pleasure before this virgin.

Every touch, every caress, soft or sharp, seemed calculated, planned, to rob her of any form of independent thought. She was a quivering mass of flesh at the mercy of the goddess who had taken over her every senses.

Tight as violin strings, every nerve of her body was plucked, bowed, played upon with unequaled mastery. She had long lost herself in the maelstrom of sensations and feelings when a last hurricane of pleasure swept her.

She was a woman who had willingly given herself, body and soul. She belonged to the other, to do as she pleased. Her last thought before she was overwhelmed by the most intense orgasm of her life was that she was where she belonged. At last.

*****

Ariel held her lover tenderly. She had kissed her tears of happiness and cleaned her summarily with a warm washcloth before joining her.

She smiled as her lover's breath tickled where her head rested on her chest. This lesbian thing was not at all what she expected. It was so much better in every way.

Never before had she been this intent on giving all the pleasure that she could. There had always been some restraint, some reluctance, some sense that something wasn't exactly right, missing. Now she knew what that was.

She had never made love before.