An Awakening

My lips parted wider and I moaned just a little louder as Danny's hands moved inwards sliding slowly, slowly underneath the halter and up the side of each breast until the tips of his thumbs reached my nipples, now almost painfully erect. I gave the tiniest of nods and leaned into our first full kiss, the touching of our lips so very gentle until his hands pushed the material of my top inwards even further, his fingers spread over my now naked breasts. As he gave a gentle squeeze I moaned more loudly yet into his mouth, my tongue darting between his lips.

How long we kissed for, standing there, gripping each other so tightly, I have no idea. I didn't even realise that the room had emptied entirely other than for Stephie, nor have any notion of who might have witnessed the passionate embrace. I didn't care.

But I did care when Stephie coughed politely from our side, "Allie?"

"What?" I snapped.

"Enough, angel. Let Danny go back to his room and we'll see him tomorrow, okay? We'll have a busy day."

My eyes opened wide as I stared at her, my mind all too aware of Danny's hands slipping from my top, "What the... heck?" I looked back at the guy, "Danny, don't listen to her, I–"

"Danny," Stephie said softly and easily, "Just go now and Allie will come and see you tomorrow, okay? You've not done anything wrong, so don't fret. It's just that I have something I need to discuss with her right now."

"Don't listen to her!" I almost yelled at him as he started to back away, "She's not my mother and whatever she's got to say can wait!"

I felt Stephie's hand on my arm, restraining me, "Allie, please do as I say?"

Danny was evidently more intimidated by Stephie than he was desperate for me – a situation which I failed to see the funny side of until a long time later. He turned, muttered a 'see you' and 'you were really great', and dashed from the room.

I turned on Stephie immediately, "You bitch! Just because I finally got a guy and you got nothing you have to go and... and fuck things up!" I never swear as a rule, but the cursing didn't seem to faze Stephie. She stepped forward and put her arms around me. "Let go you evil cow!"

"Allie, angel? Listen, huh?"

"I will not listen to you ever again you... you jealous, evil, bitch!"

"Allie, it was just going from nothing to everything way too fast after all you've been through, okay?" I went to interrupt her but she shushed me and kept talking, "Allie, you were brilliant. Sexy, gorgeous, really turned it on – turned the guys on as well and not just Danny – but Allie, my lovely Allie, trust me, you need just a few calm, deep breaths before you choose what to do next."

I tried to shrug free but Stephie was holding me tight. "You hate me!"

"Allie," she hugged a little harder for a second, "Allie I don't hate you. I love you! You've always been like the sister I never had and I will never ever see anything bad happen to you if I can help it, okay?"

"You're just spoiling my chance for fun!"

"Not at all. I'll help you get any and all the fun you could ever want – anything at all – but I also need to make sure there's some balance there, some forethought. Allie, I just don't want to see you ever hurt by another guy, that's all, and I want to see you able to respect yourself. I really do love you, Allie."

I was about to try to shrug her away from me, maybe even to chase after Danny, but that last sentence somehow seemed to take the wind out of my sails. It also seemed to break down the last of the barriers I had so studiously built up both through my adult life and especially in the last couple of years with boring Brian. I didn't want to, tried so hard to stop myself... but I burst into tears. And not the pretty little sniffles that Hollywood would have us all cry. I was sobbing in seconds.

Stephie held me and stroked my hair, the two of us standing in the middle of the room, all alone now in the small hours of the morning.

It felt so comforting and so unusual, so rare this contact between us even though we had been friends for many years. It still hurt that my best friend had interrupted me just when I thought I was finally breaking free but deep down I knew she was right – this was rebound in its most dangerous form and as she held me there I knew as well that being touched and kissed by some strange guy wasn't even what I wanted or was looking for.

Stephie had encouraged me to be more daring but really what was the big deal about sunbathing topless in a distant foreign land where 99% of the women here did the same? She wasn't really encouraging me to be daring, just to feel how lovely it is to have the sun on more of my body, the gentle breeze caressing my skin, to receive admiring looks because, damn it, I was a cute enough woman still.

I realised then that Stephie knew all this. She was looking out for me just like she had a hundred times before. A thousand maybe. And when he said she loved me I knew now that she meant it.

With the realisation, the acknowledgement of what should have been so very obvious, a surge of elation washed through me, making me gasp. I stood straight up.

Stephie cocked her head to one side, her arms slipping down lower on my back, "What's up, Als?"

I shook my head and gave a gentle laugh, "I just realised you mean it, is all."

"That narrows it down. Mean what, exactly?"

"I just mean I realise you do look out for me, and, well..." I took a deep breath, "that you must love me to be such a great friend."

She cocked her head to the other side, "Glad you finally noticed, but I figure someone has to watch out for you, my naïve angel, and," she paused and gave a wry smile, "yeah, that's all to do with love."

I had no expectation, no forethought and in retrospect, no real clue as to what triggered the barriers to break. Kindness? Security? A hot steamy French night? I don't know to this day and I'm not so sure I even want to know. At the time, the trigger was just that last word that Stephie had said – 'love'. As she straightened her head I leaned forward and planted a short but firm kiss on her lips. Full lips, I noticed.

Stephie's jerked her head back, but slowly, uncertainty in her blue eyes, "That's... a thank you, I take it? And most welcome but not really necessary, you're–"

I leaned in and kissed her again, my mind seeming to short out, but a deep welling of love down in the pit of my stomach making me pull my friend, my Stephie, closer. The kiss was just a little longer than the first but allowed me a tiny moment to savour the softness and warmth of those full lips. A tremor ran through me.

My friend pulled her head back again so that she could look into my eyes, "You know I'm a married woman, don't you? Only that kiss was a tad warm for a thank you..."

"It was an 'I love you too' one," I blurted out, now sure that I'd taken a step too far, offended Stephie. I frowned and glanced down, "But... you're still holding me..." It was almost a question and I'm not sure which one of us it was intended for.

It was Stephie who answered, her voice suddenly low and quiet, "Yes, and I'm seriously contemplating returning that last kiss. The 'I love you too' one."

Our eyes were locked. I took a deep breath, but there was no calmness in me. The feeling of love was now raging through my chest and into my throat. "Fifteen years we've known each other and I never realised..."

"it would be more than a holiday friendship kiss, you know?" Stephie was now whispering.

"And you're a married woman."

"A straight married woman," Stephie's voice was almost too quiet to hear.

"Who's holding a straight girlfriend."

"I'm normally so sure about these things but not any more..." Stephie shook her head and gave a soft laugh, "Not at all."

My beautiful friend leaned forward and our lips met hesitantly, our eyes still locked and widening. We both turned out heads to the same side for a moment then I switched sides. Then, oh then, Stephie's hands tightened on my back and she hugged me so firmly. The kiss was suddenly firmer, then firmer still. My mind dissolved into love and white sparks and I pressed back.

I had by then kissed many, many times. In friendship, in desire, in what I had thought was love, but that kiss with Stephie was sending explosions throughout my body. I recall easing one hand onto the back of her head to ensure she couldn't end it before I wanted her too, then realised that there was a hand entwined in my own hair. And then... oh and then I realised her lips had parted just a fraction. A tiny amount that was the biggest invitation I had ever received.

I suddenly knew beyond any doubt that I needed to taste those lips more fully, that I needed to probe that tiny gap... My tongue, as hesitant as a new born foal trying to stand for the first time, slid along Stephie's lower lip, then back, a little deeper across the surface. And as it reached the centre...

Oh I can barely draw breath enough to carry on typing here... as it reached the centre of Stephie's glorious mouth, the tip of my tongue touched the tip of hers as she sought out the gap that was forming in my own lips. There was a pause, and now the look that was passed between our still-locked eyes was one of pure love and pure need, all spiced with shock and awe.

My mouth widened in time with my friend's, our tongues entwined and pressed and tasted as they explored each other's lips and the deeper.

The kiss lasted for minutes or hours before Stephie leant back, gasping a little, "This, my darling Allie, is turning seriously hot and seriously serious. I was trying to tell you not to jump into things..."

"Fifteen years I've know you," I managed though my own panting breath, "Hardly jumping quickly."

"Have you any idea what we're doing here?"

"Actually, none at all," I told her with a shrug, "Except I really do love you. Just in more ways than I had ever imagined."

I don't know which of us was more surprised by my words, but it was Stephie who managed the laugh. "You're a beautiful woman in every respect." With that she leaned forward once more and resumed the kiss, one hand back in my hair the other now gliding up and down my back.

I pressed against her, amazed to find my body suddenly aroused in every way, delighting in the feel of Stephie's breasts crushed against mine, exulting in the pressure between our bellies and the amazing heat that was building deep in my groin. As our mouths opened wider and the kiss became hungrier, I felt love spread through every artery and vein, my entire body tingling and hot.

Stephie finally broke the kiss long enough to gasp, "I haven't the faintest idea what the hell we're supposed to be doing next but I have the strongest feeling that I need to see you topless again."

I unlocked my hands from her hair and quickly untied the halter, letting it fall to my waist where our locked bodies halted its fall until Stephie stepped back. It fell to the floor and I felt more bared, more naked than I had even felt on my first trip out into the sun like that. But as Stephie's eyes roamed down to that nakedness I almost gasped aloud at the joy and excitement I suddenly felt. My mind sizzled and sparked and from nowhere came the most urgent of cries,

"Well," I said slowly, "you're the one who got me this way, you should be the one to cover me... with your hands maybe? Your mouth even?"

"I'm not used to my little Allie coming up with the leading ideas but... oh..."

With that Stephie's hands hovered, shaking very slightly, for a moment over the hot, smooth flesh of my breasts. I'm not sure to this day whether I leaned into her palms, or whether she pressed them against me – or whether it was a little of both – but in seconds her hands were cupping the heat of my breasts and when she gave the tiniest of squeezes I almost climaxed right there. When she dipped her head and her lips replaced her hand over my left nipple, I was back to the edge of climax in a second.

I've no idea where the boldness or bravery came from but I managed to gasp, "Oh Stephie, if you need to know how good that is making me feel, just touch the front of my little skirt!"

When the suction against my left nipple increased in intensity and I felt the grazing of her teeth, and when her free hand pressed first against the skirt, then lifted it, pressed instead against the little pair of cotton panties beneath... oh, then... then Stephie knew how much this meant to me.

She released my breasts form hand and mouth, took her other hand from my damp panties. "Allie, my Allie. Show me it all. Feed my love, and my lust!"

My fingers fumbled for a moment with the zipper on my skirt and then it was down and open without a further moment's consideration. I let it fall, delighting in my best friend's eager gaze. Then my fingers hooked underneath the waistband of my knickers and I eased them down my thighs until gravity took then to the floor. I freed them then lifted one foot then the other, unhooking and discarding my heels until I stood naked and steaming in front of Stephie.

"Oh jeez Allie you are truly gorg–"

As she reached to caress a breast my alien mind took over and driven by these new, wild feelings, I said, "Not until you're wearing as much as me."

Stephie gave a slightly strangled laugh and straightened up. "Wow, no wonder I love you so much!"

In seconds she had almost torn the clothes from her body and stood before me as naked as I was. We looked deep into each other's eyes and then she laughed, causing me to give her a quizzical look.

"I may," she said, "be the supposedly worldly wise one, but do you realise I don't have a clue what to do here?"

I shrugged, "You're certainly not alone there, but I have a feeling..."

"That we're about to discover some ways>"

"Precisely," I managed, just before our bodies locked together in the tightest of embraces.

I kissed her beautiful lips first then realised all we needed to know, all we needed to do, was offer up to the other just what we loved being done to ourselves. My lips moved from hers to her cheek then across to her ear where they lingered, kissing and nipping until I craned lower and kissed the smooth skin of her neck below her ear.

Stephie almost crushed me in the tightest of hugs before I felt her lips on my neck and knew then that I was doing things right for once. I let my mouth drift lower, onto her collarbone and then across to the little hollow underneath it where I paused to lick and kiss. Stephie moaned softly and I eased her away from me, bending lower still so that my lips travelled down to the gentle swell of her left breast.

I circled the proud pink nipple with tiny kisses, my nose brushing across its hardness each time my mouth passed beneath it, until finally I could take the desire no longer. I kissed the tip of the nipple, bringing a small mewling noise from my friend before it grew into a full-bodied groan as I drew the entire length of that nipple into my eager mouth. More moans followed as a I suckled, sucked and gently nipped, my left hand squeezing her right breast as I attended to that gorgeous left nipple, simultaneously experiencing the touch and taste of a breast for the first time in my adult life.

Every groan and moan brought me so much joy that I was constantly on the verge of climax and becoming more eager for new tastes and touch sensations with every second.

My mouth almost reluctantly released the nipple and I moved lower and lower, kissing each rib before letting them caress the sweet softness of Stephie's belly. I moved down, on my knees now, and kissed the hardness of her left hip, then down the crease of flesh between her belly and her left leg, her heat palpable to my cheek.

I moved lower, then, but kept my mouth, my eager lips in check, attending now to her long, smooth thigh resisting Stephie's groans and the tug of her hand in my hair. I kissed every inch of that gorgeous, long thigh, stopping at her knee, then leaned slightly further inwards, starting my way back up again, this time with my lips caressing the supremely soft skin of her inner thigh.

As my head rose, her moans increased in intensity and volume, but when I skipped for her upper thigh to her belly, they became a wail of frustration. I drew back for a few seconds, my eyes locked on the most intimate of places on my friend's body until finally the frustration overcame me as well.

I plunged forward, my tongue seeking that hot – and now that I felt it – very wet slit. I paused again, this time to catch my breath and to let Stephie collapse onto one of the twin beds. When I was sufficiently oxygenated and my wonderful friend was stable on her back on the bed, I pressed forward once more, my lips meeting hers again but in an entirely more intimate, beautiful way.

I licked the length of her labia, up then down – then pressed my tongue inside her, pressed the bridge of my nose against the small, now exposed nub of her prominent clitoris. Stephie groaned so loudly as I began to lick and suck and nibble, to press my tongue as deep into her as I could. I began to rub at her clit with one thumb, my other hand sliding under her butt to help increase the pressure between us.

Juices began to flood my mouth as I sucked and now swallowed and I could feel a deep, deep trembling in those long thighs that moved wider apart as I pressed, sucked, swallowed and rubbed, massaged her.

I was forever on the verge of climax myself but I could have kept it all back for Stephie – for now I just wanted and waited her pleasure. I moved my mouth higher, taking her hard clit between my lips and teeth, sucking and licking.

With an almost guttural roar, the trembling in her thighs become a fluttering then a pulsing in Stephie's belly. Her hips bucked hard, grinding my mouth into her where I held on tightly. I felt her hands grasp for my hair as one buck followed another and then another. Through a ringing in my ears I could hear my gorgeous, wonderful friend gasping over and over 'Oh, Allie!' and that just made me twist my head and lick and suck all the harder.

With a trembling howl, Stephie's every muscle seemed to contract at the same time and she lifted her hips – and my head – a foot or more off the bed. She held that position for several long, blissful seconds before collapsing back onto the covers, gasping for breath, small twitches and shivers running through her belly.

A few seconds later I felt her scrabbling at my shoulders, heard her repeat over and over 'Come here!' and let my friend drag me onto the bed and then twisted over so that I was where she had been moments before.

I tried to tell her that there was no need to return the pleasure right then, but I was wrong and she knew it. Her mouth was at my womanhood in a second and as her tongue pressed between my soaking wet lips I felt the orgasm start to rise. Within a couple of seconds I knew that there was no controlling it and when Stephie paused and told me to come for her it had started almost before her mouth was pressed once more against my very centre.

I climaxed harder than I had ever done before – and that is not an exaggeration. Wave after wave of pure joy washed over and through me, a tsunami of emotion and pure pleasure. Ripples were still running through me when I found myself face to face with Stephie once more.

We kissed, maybe a hundred times in a couple of minutes. A hundred words of thanks between each kiss.

We fell asleep in that most cloyingly romantic way, in each other's arms.

*****

I'm back in Britain now, the holiday a perfect and not yet distant memory. I never saw Danny again on that last day although I did see Stephie naked in the daylight. And tasted her. I saw stars and a million new futures. I saw even, the problems that I – or hopefully, we – might face.

And here I am, a suitcase packed by my side once more. There'll be no holiday this time, but I will be seeing my Stephie again. She's not leaving Tim – I couldn't ask that – or at least, she's not leaving Tim yet, or I'm not asking yet. But there are a hundred hotels near where she lives and there are a million things that we need to discover about our new-found status as lovers.