Hard Landing Ch. 04

"God... so good."

She used her left hand to settle my thigh more firmly on her shoulder, then surprised me by lifting my other leg off the ground, taking my full weight and resting my right leg over her other shoulder.

"Eep! Jesus, Jo!" I cried out as she held me against the wall and buried her tongue in me. I grabbed her hair with both hands, both for balance and to pull her head more firmly into me. "Oh my god..." I closed my eyes again and reveled in the sensations she was pouring into my body. I tried to use my feet to rub her back with my socks, but she was too distracting. I kept forgetting to move my legs as my breathing quickened.

"I didn't think... I could... come in this... position... my god, Jo. Oh my God!" I squeezed Jo's head between my thighs and started shaking.

After an interminable length of time, I felt Jo set my feet on the floor, stand up and slip into my arms. I could taste myself on her lips when she kissed me.

She slid an arm under mine and then reached under my knees and picked me up to carry me to bed. I didn't have the strength for even a small "eep". She peeled off her shorts and laid down next to me, staying up on an elbow and stroking my legs, occasionally reaching down to run her hands over my feet.

"So, do these satisfy your foot fetish?" She looked only slightly embarrassed now.

"I don't really have a foot fetish, believe it or not. I mean I'm not super into feet but I've always just liked the look of girls in ankle socks, I couldn't tell you why. Any kind of socks. But these are like the platonic ideal of them for me I guess."

"I should stop wearing my sandals as often and go for the socks and sneakers then." Interest immediately flared in her eyes. "Oh, I was joking but you'd like that a lot, wouldn't you?" I snaked an arm around her neck and pulled her down to kiss me.

"What about you, Blue. Isn't there something you wanted me to wear for you? We kind of skipped over that part when you came out of the bathroom."

"Mine is more something I'd like to see you wear on stage for a show, but if you want to put it on now you'll get no complaints from me. There's a velvet bag in my purse over there." She got up to fetch the bag for me while I sat up in bed.

"Here, sit on the edge here," I positioned her on the edge of the bed facing the dresser mirror and knelt behind her. "Normally I'd have you hold your hair up, but it won't be an issue with you. In fact, it think your short hair makes for a better look with this." I opened the bag and took out a dark blue velvet choker with a small silver oval buckle on the front and lightly wrapped it around her neck just holding it in place. "What do you think?"

"Um..."

"You don't like it..." I heard disappointment in my voice.

"No! That's not it at all! I just... I'm sure you've noticed that I don't wear any jewelry. This might be the most feminine thing I've ever had on my body. It looks... sexy. I'm not sure I could wear it for a show though. It feels like something I should only wear on a hot date. Or in bed. I think if I wore this for a show I'd be feeling like I was performing in my underwear or something." I had been fastening it around her neck as she spoke.

"Well," I said, coming around and kneeling on the floor in front of her, "in my mind you're wearing this on stage, no hat though. Just your hair spiked up, with your Captain Marvel shirt, rocking out while I stand out in the audience in front of you imagining you wearing nothing but my choker." She groaned and I pushed her back to rest on her elbows looking down at me. "But I'm also perfectly content to have you wear it while I look up at you watching me do this." I ran my tongue between her lips and she gasped.

"Fuck, when we met I knew you were hot, Blue. But I had no idea you were going to be this fucking sexy."

"I try hard Jo," I said, and buried my head between her thighs.

"Fuck!" She cried out, again.

JO

Jo was surprised to be awakened by the alarm on a phone going off on the nightstand next to them. Blue reached over her, pressed the snooze button, turned her phone face down, and then pulled Jo tightly against her and mumbled, "Five more minutes."

She reached out and picked up her running watch. Eight AM. She looked over at her shoes in the corner, then remembered Oh right, Blue wants to swim this morning. She hated to admit to herself she was nervous. She couldn't tell if it was just because she'd never swam for distance before, or because she was afraid of not being the best or toughest at something. She was somehow certain that Blue and Sara were going to swim her ragged.

Easing out from under Blue's arm, she went into the bathroom. While she was brushing her teeth, Little Voice wished her good morning in his own special way. "Collins, what kind of bullshit was that last night? Fuck her all you want, but you've gotta stop running your mouth about mom and shit. You know every time you let her in like that it's going to be that much harder to kick her to the curb when you have to leave."

She stopped brushing and stared into the mirror. "Can't I just enjoy being with someone for a while?" she whispered.

"You know you always turn it to shit Collins. It'll be less of a mess if you'd just..."

"What'd you say, babe?" Blue said from behind her as she slid her arms around Jo and kissed her neck.

"Just trying to psyche myself up for swimming."

Blue laughed and smacked Jo on the butt. "Don't worry, I'm sure you'll do better at my sport than I did at running."

They got to the beach a little after nine, Sara, Jo and Blue dumping their sandals and towels in a pile. Surprisingly Larry had joined them.

"Oh, the black guy can swim, what a shocker. That's so racist of you ladies," he joked.

"No, I just can't believe you dragged yourself away from Pikachu," Jo said.

"That lightning mouse and me have something very special going on. Don't tell Suzanne though. I'm worried she'll try and throw down with Pika and that's a fight with no winners."

Blue looked down the beach as they waded into the water. The surf was really light, just some low rolling waves that were breaking a foot or two, in close to the shore.

"So, I think we should just go to that pier down there and back today. Remember this lifeguard stand here is where we left our stuff."

"Seriously? That's like two miles!"

"It's not even a mile, we'll do less than two to get there and back. And we'll take it slow. I recommend a nice easy backstroke since none of us have goggles."

Blue led them out just past the sandbar, so they could easily get back into standing depth if they needed to and they started off as a group. Jo was next to Blue and tried to copy her easy, looping backstroke. "Doing good Jo!" Blue said. Larry was moving out in front quickly due to his long arms. "Hey Larry, you're going to burn out and I'm gonna catch you if you don't pace yourself," she yelled ahead to him.

"Eat my waves Jill!"

They stroked their way down the beach. By the time they reached the pier and turned back, Jo's shoulders were burning. Blue looked completely comfortable, lazily pacing Jo and Sara. Jo had rolled over a couple of times to see how far they had left and saw Larry was a good fifty yards out in front of them.

Jo was breathing heavy. This was a totally different burn than running. She stopped and started treading water, and Blue stopped with her. "Ok Jo?"

"Yeah, I think I'm done though. My shoulder is bothering me from where I wrenched it in OC."

"Oh man, I forgot about that. Sorry, yeah you should go in and just walk along beside us on the beach. That'll let me kick it out the last half mile anyway," she said, grinning.

Jo laughed, "Tell you what, you run down Larry and beat him and I'll buy you dinner anywhere you want tonight."

Blue's eyes lit up. "You're on! See you back at the towels." She rolled over and started a powerful freestyle crawl and seemed to shoot away from Jo. By the time Jo walked out onto the beach, Blue had caught back up to Sara, who yelled "Hey!" as Blue passed her. Sara turned over and started a crawl herself, trying to keep up. Jo walked along the beach following Blue's progress. She was catching up to Larry quickly, but they were approaching the lifeguard stand where they'd left their stuff. Larry was still on his back and saw Blue coming. He didn't turn over into a crawl, but he increased his strokes, trying to stay ahead of Blue. She was slowly closing on him.

God damn, look at her go, Jo thought. I thought yesterday was cute when she tried to run with me, but... she's a damn athlete. She must have done this in high school or college or something. Jo started grinning as she walked the shoreline abreast of the three swimmers. Larry was huffing and puffing and his strokes were starting to lag. Blue's stroke was only increasing in strength, and she was only turning her head to breathe every two or three strokes. Sara wasn't far behind Blue and Larry either. Watching them was... it was almost exciting, like a real race.

Jo trotted ahead and stationed herself in line with the lifeguard stand, knee deep in the surf and watched as they approached. It wasn't close. Blue and Sara both caught up to Larry and passed him with a hundred yards to go. The race was no longer between Larry and Blue, it was between Blue and Sara. Blue had a body's length edge, and maintained it through the line out from the lifeguard stand that Jo had drawn in her mind. The girls swam ten yards or so past, until during a breath Blue saw they had passed Jo on the beach and she pulled up and started letting the surf push her into shore. She and Sara were both breathing hard and high-fived each other when their feet touched the sand again.

"I'd have beaten you if I'd seen you coming," Sara huffed.

Larry dragged himself out of the water behind them, gasping. "First pull-ups and now swimming. Screw this noise, we're playing basketball next time. Jesus, I think I'm gonna barf."

~~ En Route to the Outer Banks, North Carolina ~~

JO

Jo's first big fuck-up happened that afternoon.

It was supposed to be less than two hours from Virginia Beach to Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina. Less than thirty miles out from Virginia Beach, Jack was sitting in the driver's seat during hour three, drumming his fingers on the wheel, staring at the gridlock ahead of them.

"Waze says there's a big wreck about five miles ahead and there's no way to get off before then," he'd called back to everyone an hour earlier.

Steve was sitting up front with Jack, messing around with Jo's mandolin, while Larry, Suzanne and Sara were playing cards at the table. Jo was reading a book on the couch, while Blue was tucked into the corner of the lounger with her sketchbook, making little motions with her pencil. Jo noticed she held her tongue in the corner of her mouth while she drew. She'd also worn sneakers today, and as soon as Jo had sat down, Blue had kicked off her shoes and started slowly rubbing Jo's leg below her shorts with her socks while she sketched in her book.

I did tell her my weakness, this is on me she thought. She had read the same chapter three times now and still had no idea what it was about.

Blue got up and went back to the bathroom, after giving Jo an extra playful poke in the leg with her toe. After a few minutes, Jo looked over at Blue's sketchbook laying on the couch. Curiosity got the best of her and she picked it up and opened the cover. Whoa. She turned the page. This is...

Sara looked up from the cards and noticed what Jo had in her hands, "Uh, hey Jo, I think—"

"What the hell are you doing?!" Blue yelled from the hallway as everyone jumped. She stepped forward and snatched the book out of Jo's hands.

"I, I—" Jo stammered.

"You don't freaking look at something like this without asking Jo! You might as well pull out my diary and start reading it to everyone! Jesus!" She stormed back into the bedroom and slammed the door. Jo had seen Blue adamant; she'd seen her determined. This was... pissed.

She looked around at everyone staring at her. "Uh, Johns, how bad did I just fuck up?"

"Not gonna lie, pretty bad Jo," Sara said.

"O-o-o-kay. Well..." She stood up and moved towards the back.

"I'm not sure that would be my move right now," said Sara.

Jo looked at Suzanne, who shrugged. "Sara knows her better than me. And you're not going to find any flowers or chocolates out here in this traffic jam, so I don't know what to tell you, Jo."

Jo took a deep breath and headed towards the bunk hallway.

"Go with God, little rabbit," Suzanne called after her.

Jo tentatively rapped on the bedroom door. "Uh, Blue, can I come in?" No answer. She rapped again, and then slowly opened the door. Blue was sitting on the bed staring out the back window. Her sketchbook was beside her and she had a wadded-up piece of paper in her hands.

"Uh, hey, listen..."

"Jesus, Jo. You don't ever do that. Do you know what I draw in here? It's like... the thoughts in my head? What I'm thinking? I don't want people to see it unless I choose to share it with them."

"I see that now. I had no idea. I'm really, really sorry Blue." Jo shut the door and sat down next to her.

Blue sniffed and rubbed one eye with the fist that was holding the wad of paper.

"Did you tear that out just now?"

"Do you think it's any of your business if I did?" Blue asked. She still hadn't turned to look at Jo.

"No, for sure it's not my business. Sorry. I just..." she sighed. "Blue, I really didn't know."

Blue turned finally and snapped. "What did you see? How far did you get before I stopped you?"

"Just the first two pages, that's all. And I thought it was—"

Blue turned back away from her. "What you thought of my art is so far away from what I need to hear right now."

"Okay." They sat in silence for a while. "What do you need to hear? 'Cause I'm really shitty at this and I don't know what I'm supposed to do." Blue looked at her. "I mean it, I'm not pleading ignorance to get out of trouble. In every other 'relationship' I've ever been in, when I fucked up like this I just walked away. I've never tried to fix something like this. What do I do? Help me? Please?"

Blue's face softened a little and she glanced over. "It's... fine. It's fine. I'm just really embarrassed."

"What? Why, I did the bad thing, why are you embarrassed?"

She looked away once more. "Think about how you imagined me. In your mind. Your thoughts, that you have just for yourself. Like, before we started to get close. Maybe from the first night, you saw me and thought 'she looks hot' or 'I'd like to get into her pants' or 'this is what I'd like to do to her' or 'this is what she'd be like if we were dating'. Now take your mental image and put it on a piece of paper. Now, I'm going to pick that up and look at it without your permission." She looked back at Jo. "How do you feel about that?"

"Pretty uncomfortable."

"Right, so... here we are."

"But you didn't picture me naked or anything. At least not in the pictures I saw."

"But it wasn't you. It was an idea of you, and my idea of you isn't who you are."

"Blue, just because I don't sing doesn't mean I can't appreciate your imagination about me. I know you just said you didn't want to hear this, but that's the coolest picture of me I've ever seen. If I saw it in a gallery I'd buy it for my dad."

She looked over at Jo again and sniffed, wiping her nose with the back of her hand. "I knew I wanted to draw this when we were in Cape May." She pulled the sketchbook to her and flipped open the cover. "I started it before you told me why you don't sing."

The pencil sketch was based on one of the many photos Blue had taken at the Cape May music festival. Jo, shown from the waist up, playing her guitar, a microphone in front of her. She had her hand down low on the neck near the body of the guitar. In the drawing, she still had her aviator sunglasses on, but wasn't wearing her usual baseball cap. Her hair was tousled in the wind blowing the whitecaps on the ocean behind her. She was leaning back slightly, with her mouth open, obviously belting out some song into the mic.

"That's... that's really amazing to me that you saw me like that Blue. And the talent it took to draw that... If you're embarrassed about that, it shouldn't be because of me, because I'm so flattered that you see me like that."

Blue sniffed again. "I need a Kleenex." Jo looked around and found a box on the side table of the bed and handed her one.

"I'm really sorry I violated you like that. It won't happen again. I mean, I hope you'll choose to show me some more sometime, because this is incredible. But only when you want to, okay?"

Blue was motionless for a minute, then she turned and threw her arms around Jo's neck. Jo hugged her tightly. "I'm sorry I fucked up," she whispered.

Blue hiccupped and sniffed again. "It's ok Jo. I'm pretty sure this was my version of kicking Jack off his stool. I overreacted. I was afraid you'd be mad at me for drawing you."

"No way, Blue. This is killer. I love it." Blue pulled back and looked at Jo, then kissed her. Blue's cheeks were wet, and after she pulled back, Jo pulled another tissue from the box and wiped her face. "I'm sorry I upset you to the point where you had to rip that one out and wad it up though." Blue pulled the ball of paper into her lap and looked down at it. "Is... is that that second page?"

"Yeah. That's the one that really embarrassed me."

Jo grinned at her. "Hey, that's some hot shit there. In a different time and place, me and Spider-Gwen, we'd make a hell of a team, right?"

Blue laughed, and wiped her nose again then uncrumpled the paper and smoothed it out. It was a comic style drawing of Captain Marvel flying through space, looking down and blasting something off the page. Only it wasn't Carol Danvers. It was unmistakably Jo.

"I was totally fan-girling with this one. Knowing you'd probably seen this is what really set me off."

"This can't be any more embarrassing than me telling you about my sock thing, can it?"

Blue laughed, then hugged Jo again. Then she leaned back and stretched out her leg, running her foot along the side of Jo's thigh.

"Jo?"

"Yeah?"

"Lock the door."

To be continued...