Moonlight Reveries Ch. 01

Lilith arrived at work with minutes to spare, hair windblown dry and heart racing from the bike ride over. After locking her bicycle and fixing her hair up into a fashionably utilitarian bun, she made her way over to the office to clock in.

"Good morning to ya there, Lily," her shift manager chimed at her from across the room.

"A morning it is, Pam," she replied ruefully, smiling. "I left the good part under my blankets." Taking a pair of worn coveralls from the rack, she slipped the over her jeans and clasped them at her shoulders, covering the maroon spaghetti-straps of her shirt.

As she slipped back out into the covered flower terrarium, Pam called out to her again.

"Would you please restock the veggie seeds after you spot-water the greenhouse?"

"Got it," she tossed back, and made her way across the nursery to the tool shed.

As she opened the wooden door, a hot, stale breath of plastic, soil, and leather boot passed through her, leaving a slight grimace across her face. She grabbed the closest watering can still possessing it's rose top, and quickly exited, all but slamming the door in her haste to breath fresh air. Entering now into the plastic, pipe-ribbed greenhouse, she took a deep breath in. Though still warm and humid, this air had fresh oxygen from the plants, and the pleasant aroma of various flowers blooming. The herbs had found new leaves over the weekend, and they too gave a complex dimension to the air in her lungs. She stopped just inside the door, reaching out to the tap and filling the metal can with water. Beginning on the left-most row, she began to gently water the fresh starts; first the squash, then the cucumbers, then the tomatoes, noting how vibrant and healthy they all seemed. The Spring had been warmer than most so far, conditions in which the plants thrived.

As she reached the end of the vegetable row, she turned to face the first of the herbs, the Thai basil. To her dismay, at least half of them were bowed and wilted, soil bone dry. She was going to need more water for these poor souls. Striding back down the aisle, she once again filled her can to the brim, adding a dash of liquid fish emulsion to the mixture. As unfortunate as the concoction now smelled, she felt confident that the added mojo would perk the basil up in no time. Crossing back over, she began the journey down the herb row, tending to each plant with studied care. Riding some tangential thoughtwave on the irony of feeding fish to tarragon, she nearly collided with the first customer of the day, a tall young man who was closely examining a particularly sad dill start. Glancing over to her, he paused, then asked, "Do you have any better dill?"

"Sure, there are quite a few decent ones around where that one lives," she responded, but he made no motion to follow her direction. In fact, he simply held her gaze, brown eyes meeting hers, and after a longer than casual moment had passed, she turned back to her watering.

"Well, let me know if I can help you find anything else," she muttered, disengaging from his unnecessarily focused attention and trying to find her way back to her center. She moved around him, hoping that he'd make a decision and let her move in to water the dill. Instead, she felt his gaze on her periphery shift over to her again, and without a shred of modesty rake her body down, up, and back down again. Clenching her jaw to stem the snappy admonishment that threatened to lash out at him, she mechanically watered the rest of the row and returned to the faucet for a refill.

"Hey good lookin'," shot another husky voice from the next aisle over. "Would you lend me a hand?"

Already a bit peeved, her head shot around to confront the second voice. Two for two today, huh?, she thought grimly. Guess these overalls are a new fan favorite. But as she met the eyes of the newcomer, she was taken aback by the pure, mirthful joy shining through those amber-speckled, gold honey eyes that greeted her. There, she beheld a athletic, russet haired woman, perhaps in her early thirties, with sunkissed skin and an aura of pure mischief.

"I would love to help you," Lilith gushed back, abandoning her watering can and her unwanted admirer and floating over to the flower section. As the shelf structure passed between the man behind her and herself, she enthusiastically mouthed, Thank you. Those honeyed orbs just smiled back, a silent acknowledgment of understanding.

Coming to a halt to the woman's side, Lilith glanced down to see an empty box cradled in soil-stained hands.

"I've just moved into town, and I want my new planter boxes to be full of bees and beauty. Do you know which flowers can do that for me?"

"Oh that's so good to hear! Welcome to our little slice of paradise," Lilith exclaimed excitedly. "I know exactly what you're here for. This beauty is a local variety of butterfly bush, a must have for all pollinators. This one here is calendula, and this lavender...," she gushed on, spilling her floral enthusiasm all over the place. To her satisfaction, she heard the man with the dill grunt frustratedly after a moment, drop the plant, and stalk off towards the exit. Glancing over once to see him cross the threshold, she turned back to her companion to find a toothy grin plastered across her face.

"What an absolute nutsack," she spoke through pearly white teeth. "His ass wasn't even that great!"

At this, Lilith burst into deep-bellied laughter, throwing her head back and cackling until she had to come back to earth and wipe a tear from her eye.

"You're a lifesaver, you know," she began once she had caught her breath. "What's your name?"

"Lyra," she said. "Lyra Delphina. A pleasure to rescue you from your own village idiot." She extended a hand, then hesitated, looking down at the dirt coating it. Without hesitation, Lilith extended an even filthier hand, grasping Lyra's in a close grip.

"Lilith," she replied. "Lily for short. Lover of plants and no stranger to the earth they grow in. It looks like you've found your way into some yourself; what's your muse of the day?"

"Oh, I've just been mercilessly yanking the overgrowth from my planters, making room for these lovely flowers you've so graciously shown me to. I think with the medley I have here, I'll be busy for the rest of the day transplanting". She mocked a sigh as she peered down at the now full box in front of her, then slipped into a smile of anticipation. With a big whiff of the variety before her, she picked it up and began to stroll towards the exit. She paused briefly at the door, turning back to look at Lilith one last time. "It wasn't just my natural mockery speaking, you know," she called out, locking eyes steadily from over her shoulder. "You really are quite radiant. I hope the rest of your day is as beautiful as you are."

With a coy wink and a warm smile, she turned and disappeared into the world, leaving Lilith standing in the greenhouse, alone, with a beaming smile growing on her lips. Taking a moment to revel in the compliment, she shook her head and returned to her watering can, finishing the rest of her rounds with newfound energy. At last, she returned to the dill, and upon seeing the disheveled plant that the man before had unceremoniously tossed on the table, she couldn't help but crack a wicked smile remembering his departure. She took but a moment to put things back in place, and determined that the slight inconvenience was vastly outweighed by the satisfaction of seeing the lecher so completely snubbed. As she made her way to the seed section to restock and reorganize, she let her mind wander, finding new threads of conversation with the lighthearted Lyra in her head. She was such a playful, carefree spirit, a kindred greenthumb, and with such an irreverent sense of humor, it was hard to imagine any other path but friendship ahead of them. Daydreams of all the possibilities played through her mind as she floated through the rest of her shift, hopeful.

~

Pulling into her driveway, Lilith hopped off her bicycle in one smooth, well-practiced motion. The daylight was well past its peak, afternoon breeze beginning to blow away the heat of the day. It was mid-May now, and with daytime extending further and further into the night, after-work activities were becoming a possibility again. Lilith leaned her bicycle against the brick of her front porch, then took a moment to stretch to the left, to the right, to the sky, and to the floor. Cracking her back with a sharp twist, she determined that before she took her after-work shower, she would take a moment to pluck the new weeds from her precious garden.

She had learned, though a childhood spent between garden beds and flower pots, that the best approach for weed management was frequent and meditative. She found a quiet symbiosis in the garden, her own sacred Eden where her ever-churning mind finally lay still. Kneeling before her first victims, she tore out the unwelcome newcomers with quick precision, watching her chosen plants emerge from the jungle, triumphant. She sang and whistled to her plants, pausing to listen to the birds around her harmonizing. Before long, she had reached the end of the first bed, then the second, and as the sunlight began casting sepia tones over the world, she found herself at the opposite end of the garden, victorious. She began to turn away from her newly maintained oasis, when she was startled by a vicious growl.

How do I always find myself here, she berated herself, clutching her angry stomach. In her excitement, she had overlooked her afternoon meal, and now she was beginning to feel it. Pulling her bike up the few stairs to her front door, she entered her house and leaned it against the wall, making haste to her fridge. After opening it to find, to no surprise, little resembling an edible option, she resigned herself to takeout once again. She called for a pizza, and passed in and out of the shower to knock some of the day's dirt from her skin. Emerging fresh but increasingly hungry, she slipped into comfortable clothes just in time to hear a knock at the door.

"Coming," she yelled, frantically looking for her wallet on her way to the front. Snatching it from the arm of the sofa, she pulled the door open to find a familiar set of brown eyes staring back at her.

The man from the greenhouse stood at her threshold, holding a pizza in his hands, a pleased look in his eyes.

"Here you are, miss," he began. He extended his arms to give her the pizza, as if he had brought her a gift. "Smelled good the whole way over. Real tasty like. You planning to eat the whole thing yourself?" At this, his gaze slipped past her, looking for anyone else whom she might be sharing with. "Looks like it's just you then, huh?" His smile widened.

Lilith just stared back at him, wondering if he thought he was being funny or charming. Her eyes slipped momentarily to the length of pipe that she kept just inside the doorway, then back to him.

"How much?" she asked flatly.

"19.99," he replied, "but I'm getting off real soon. I could help you out. You know it's pretty big..." His eyes slipped down, not quite making it to the pizza now resting in her arms. Her reply came swiftly, in the form of a slamming door and a sliding bolt, twenty dollar bill still fluttering to the floor.

"Keep the change, asshole!" she fired, a muffled shout.

"Fuckin' bitch," he retorted, snatching the bill from the ground and slinking back to his car, peeling away into the dusk.

~

Setting her novel down, she gave a contented sigh. Her belly was full, her bed soft, and her clothes comfortable. She turned to her back, gazing to her wall of shadowy leaves. There was no wind to speak of, and in the silence the crickets chirped incessantly from the woods outside. She found flashes of the night before filtering back through her mind, first as a trickle, then as a flood, inundating her thoughtscape with animal grunts and furred weight. She began to shift restlessly, her blanket suddenly too warm for her skin. She remembered how her arms felt, outstretched and pinned, as the beast had thrust himself deeper and deeper inside of her, filling her.

Her hand slid down her stomach, passing over the trim patch of hair that adorned her mound. The pads of her middle and ring finger found their way to the top of her warm opening, slowly starting to circle her now swelling hood. She brought her hand lower, rubbing herself up and down, picking up newly forming dampness on her fingers. With another pass, all the way up her parting folds, she pressed her lips together and exhaled sharply through her nose, the hint of a moan playing at the base of her throat. As she thought of the teeth, pressed into her skin, her fingers found a faster pace, rubbing the nerved nib that radiated pleasure through her core. Every now and again, her fingers would slip inside herself, and she'd remember how long it took his tongue to slide up her slit. It felt like that moment had lasted far longer than it should have, every instant finding another length of tongue to taste her.

She was well and truly fired up now, kicking off her blankets and spreading her legs wide open. Her breath was ragged, now, panting rhythmically as she rubbed herself feverishly. She licked her other hand, now, and brought it to her clit, taking over as her two glistening fingers plunged inside of her, playing against her top wall. Her lips had come apart, now, and each rush of exhale brought a sigh from her throat. Tension began to twist in her center; her entire being felt like it had reached the top of the hill, and was now looking over the precipice. She remembered the gushing warmth as he had come deep inside of her, and that was all it took to drop her over the edge.

She was plunging down, even as she soared into the sky. Her center unwound itself, shooting sparks in every direction. It was all she could do to hold on, on hand staying pressed against her sex as her legs clamped shut around it and shuddered. She rolled herself to her side and lay there in ecstasy, riding the waves and wishing, more than anything, that she could be full again, the weight of her spent lover pressing her against the floor. She drifted off to sleep, landing into dreams of being chased and being caught in the moonlit forest once more.

~~