Past Loves Ch. 13: Bhanu and Hope

13: International Conference of Social Sciences and Humanities, New Delhi, India: February AD2023

Bhanupriya and Hope

Anthropologist Dr Bhanupriya Gupta looked down at her notes and cleared her throat to deliver the final conclusion of her lecture. All around her the hum of the dark auditorium filled her ears with the sound of the air conditioning and the distant muffled whispers of her fellow scholars. Her eyes flashed to the dimly lit front row and there met the eyes of Dr Hope Meadows, staring up at her with determined adoration. She saw Hope give a small imperceptible nod and a sweet smile up at her. The two of them had spent all of last night together honing the last lines of this speech, even now she wasn't sure if it was right, but it was now or never.

'So, as we can see from the examples that I have provided, from the archaeological remains of Mesolithic women in shared graves, through the writings of Roman noblewomen and Japanese courtesans, all the way up to photographic records of Victorian 'old maids' and Soviet pilots, these instances of two women engaged in romantic relationships occur throughout the entirety of history and across the whole globe.

'These twelve case studies that I have provided you with are mere drops in the vast ocean of untold tales of past loves between women. I am sure that there are countless more that could be told. But sadly that is all the time I have with you now Ladies and Gentlemen. Therefore I will close simply by saying this; the lesbians are here, they have always been here, and we are here to stay. Thank you...'

With that Bhanu took a small bow, gathered her notes and swept off the stage. She was accompanied by a wave of polite applause, as well as a few whoops from her more overly-enthusiastic students sitting near the back of the auditorium. As soon as she had stepped down the last of the stairs which led into the audience pit, she was enveloped in a wide open armed hug from beloved wife and partner, Hope.

'Babe that was wonderful! You were amazing! They loved it!' She said happily into her ear as she planted an affectionate kiss on her cheek. Bhanu chuckled happily and quickly returned the hug before hastily disengaging herself, embarrassed to be showing affection in front of so many people.

'Thanks, are you sure it went all right? I swear, there were so many things in there that I should have said differently. Or maybe I should have included that one case study about the Byzantine noblewoman, or that one about the Malian merchant?'

'Save it all for the book babe,' Hope replied with a happy smile, as she swatted at her with a playful palm.

Already Bhanu could see there were several other academics and journalists gathering at the front of the stage to speak with her. She could see many of them were holding notebooks or phones in front of them, no doubt wanting to either congratulate or interrogate her on her work. All she really wanted to do was to take Hope's hand and run away, to flee through the fire-escape back to their hotel room and burn off all the bubbling stress in her body in the best way possible.

She looked over to where her beloved wife stood, her mousey blond hair tied up behind her head in a sensible ponytail with two loose wispy strands tucked loosely behind each ear. Her wide rose-tinted lips spread wide in a happy proud smile and her dark framed deep blue eyes creased adorably at the corners. She caught her own eyes glancing quickly downwards to Hope's cleavage, exposed by the neckline of the pale blue dress shirt that she wore. And then down further to her long shapely legs which led down below her knee-length pencil skirt.

Even now after years of marriage, Bhanu thought that Hope looked the perfect figure of the stereotypical sexy secretary and she found a small part of her quiver inside as she remembered that this gorgeous, smart and fun woman standing beside her was her one and only wife. She hoped that she would never lose that feeling. But for now, she had to finish the job at hand. She leant over and gave Hope a small peck on the cheek before whispering in her ear,

'This might take a while, why don't you go back to the room and I'll meet you there soon.'

Hope looked back at her with a coy smile on her face, one dark eyebrow slightly raised, before she returned the chaste peck, gave her hand a small squeeze and stepped away. Bhanu watched her go before she turned back towards the small gathering crowd, smiling at the first person with a notebook and putting on her 'professional academic' face.

- - -

It took longer than she had thought it would. These things always did, a lot of people were there to congratulate her on her paper. Others were there to pick it apart piece by piece and she found herself having to defend every point and admit every flaw. She sometimes wondered if these nit-pickers would take the same attitude to her if she weren't a headscarf-wearing south-asian woman who wasn't ashamed of her homosexuality. But she had stood her ground and defended her writing to the last. Besides, she was just presenting the evidence, she had a strong case.

Thankfully she was the only one in the lift when she finally made it to her hotel. She looked at herself in the mirrored wall and allowed her 'professional' face to melt away at last. Her shoulders slumped, her smile faded and she saw the true tiredness behind her eyes. At 34 years old she thought she was still looking pretty good all things considered. She had a few grey hairs beginning to speckle her long dark locks, admittedly they were covered by the gold speckled purple headscarf that she had worn today, so hardly anyone ever got to see them anyway.

Her eyes definitely looked more tired, with the beginnings of some crow's feet beginning to crease their corners. Hope always said that the older she got the wiser she looked, the dark colour of her brown eyes adding depth and shadow with each passing year. Thankfully she'd always been blessed with a good complexion and youthful looking light brown skin.

The lift finally reached the right floor and Bhanu made her way sleepily along the corridor to the room she and Hope shared. The two of them had had a full day of lectures, interviews and presentations and more of the same tomorrow. She was looking forward to being in the audience for Hope's lecture this time. Her darling wife had been working hard for more than a year now on something about economic patterns in south-american micro-markets, or something. A lot of the time Hope's economy-speak sailed right past Bhanu's head, but it would be fun to watch her present her findings nonetheless. Even if the subject matter itself was beyond her, Bhanu always enjoyed watching her wife's lectures. The way she used her arms and hands to illustrate points, or her emphatic passionate delivery always made a small part of her shiver with joy when she saw it.

Finally Bhanu opened the door to the hotel room and walked in to see her beloved wife sleeping with one naked leg out of the covers, an open book on the pillow beside her. Her short mousey brown hair was wonderfully tousled and splayed out beside her and the smallest of whimpers escaped her lips as she sensed Bhenu entering the room. Seeing her lying there so peaceful and sweet made Bhanu's heart melt for the thousandth time as Hope's sleepy eyes flickered open in the light of the bedside lamp.

'Nooooo,' she mewed softly, 'I was going to wait up for you and surprise you with sexytimes!'

Bhanu laughed happily as she came down to sit on the bed beside Hope. As hope pulled the covers back slightly she revealed that she was indeed completely naked under the thin sheets and Bhanu was treated to a brief glimpse of her left breast, plump and round and perfectly tipped with a small pink nipple.

'I'm sorry darling, that took longer than I thought it would. I'm sorry for keeping you waiting.'

Hope smiled and reached up to hold the back of Bhanu's neck. Pulling her in towards her for a soft tender kiss. Their lips met and Bhanu felt the cares and stresses of the day truly begin to melt away as she tasted her wife's soft kissable lips. She tasted like cherry and sweet alcohol, some kind of cocktail, and her hot tongue passed her lips to flick deliciously out and intertwine with her own.

'You make the wait worthwhile.'

Hope whispered softly as their foreheads pressed lightly together and their delicate hands intertwined their fingers. Hope reached up with her free hand and pulled gently on the silk of Bhanu's head scarf and Bhanu allowed the fabric to be pulled away freeing her long dark hair at last to fall like a long dark waterfall over her shoulders. Hope always loved running her fingers through Bhanu's hair, it was her special privilege she said and Bhanu leaned into her palm and let out a soft sigh as she felt her wife's fingers pull gently on her scalp while she combed out the knots that she found there.

Bhanu reached and tenderly massaged the soft silky smooth skin of Hope's neck, shoulders and bust, which merited its own delicate sigh from the prone woman as Bhanu knew exactly which spots to touch to make her wife's skin tingle. There were a few fumbling moments of pulling and stretching but soon the two women were lying side by side on the bed, completely naked and staring into each other's eyes.

Hope's eyes were two diamond haloes of blue surrounding the phantom black recess of her irises, and Bhanu's were deep dark brown vortices of amber shadows framed by her similarly dark heavy eyelashes. Their hands wandered freely over each other's bodies savouring the soft smooth texture of their skin and the firm plump roundness of their backs and sides. Both women held each other close as their mouths pressed tightly together in tender passionate kisses, breathing one-another in as the cares of the day melted away.

'My darling, I love you, I need you now!' Hope moaned breathlessly as Bhanu nibbled firmly on her neckline.

'I love you too.' Bhanu replied as she reached down towards the crook of her wife's legs where a budding wetness was already brewing.

Bhanu gently but firmly cupped the dewy mound that she found there in her hand, slowly kneading the ball of her hand into the head of Hope's slit, causing her to moan and arch her back into the motion, her long fingernails digging into Bhanu's skin ever so slightly. Then slowly and expertly, her two middle fingers parted the now dripping flesh between Hope's legs and bent inwards to gingerly penetrate the warm wetness within. Hope gasped with pleasure and anticipation as Bhanu's digits buried themselves deep within her needy dripping wet cunt.

'Oooohhh! Yes, my love!'

Bhanu continued to nibble and bite at her wife's neckline leaving small tender kisses in her wake as she worked her magic with her fingers and palm. Hope held on to her tightly as if afraid that she might escape or disappear and leave her bereft of this sensation. Almost distractedly, Hope fumbled her own fingers down to the slit between Bhanu's legs and gripped slightly on the small patch of dark fuzz that she found there, causing Bhanu to gasp and moan slightly as she did so.

Then in reciprocal symmetry, Hope also began to massage Bhanu's tingling sensitive clit with her middle two fingers. She knew that Bhanu always preferred to have her clit played with rather than to be penetrated, she knew just how to roll and stroke with her fingers to make Bhanu go wild with the sensation of it.

The two women were now lost in the moment. They held each other tightly with their free hands, their faces buried deep into the crooks of the other's shoulders or else pressing their faces tightly together as their tongues sought hungrily for pleasure in the other's mouth. Their hands flexed and rolled and beckoned with expert nimbleness and dexterity. They had been together for many years and each knew the other's body as well as they knew their own, able to play the other almost like an instrument to elicit moans and cries and gasps of pleasure at will.

Bhanu could feel her orgasm building inside her like an exploding sun, swelling and growing to fill her entire body with its pleasure. Her skin felt like it was tingling all over from the sensation of her wife holding her tightly to her body and her muscles stretched and flexed as if she was almost trying to pull away from the inevitable. Hope too was writhing and humping her pelvis into Bhanu's hand, forcing her fingers in and out of her like a piston as she continued to stroke her wet inner walls with her fingers.

'Oh fuck! Oh Bhanu, I think I'm close darling, please don't stop, don't stop!' Hope gasped as she continued to mercilessly frig Bhuna's defenceless clit.

'Mmmmmnnnhhh! Me too darling,' Bhanu moaned back, 'That's it, just like that, you're going to make me.... Uuuunnngh!'

The last words escaped Bhanu's throat almost as a strangled cry as the orgasm that had been building inside her from Hope's ministrations finally ripped through her. Bhanu's whole body tensed and shuddered and a long glorious animalistic cry of pleasure howled out from her into Hope's shoulder as she bit down hard on the tender flesh there.

'Yess! Yeeesss! YeeeeeeeeeeesssssSSSSSSS!'

But some small part of her maintained enough control to never for a second let up on what her fingers were doing deep inside Hope's dripping wet slit. She could feel her inner muscles begin to tense and squeeze around her hand and in the next moment she felt Hope finally come all over her hand.

A wave of heavenly scented moisture splashed out across Bhanu's hand as Hope came hard in her grasp. She too held onto her tightly like a shipwrecked sailor to a liferaft and her orgasm came in several short breathy gasps- her eyes wide open and her head flew backwards as her back arched into Bhanu's hand, her whole body tensed.

'Ohh! Ohhh! Oooohhhh! Ooooooooggghhhhhh! AAAAaaaaaahhhhhh!'

Hope cried as she let her body take control and shuddered like a possessed woman in the arms of her lover.

As the light inside both of their eyes receded and their bodies shivered and quivered in the aftershocks, the two of them panted in happy bliss in each other's arms. Bhanu reached up her hand to her mouth and licked the delicious juices of her wife off her fingers before meeting her in an open-mouthed kiss, offering her a taste of her own cunt. The kiss lasted forever, with neither wanting to be the first one to come up for air. But eventually their lips parted and they stared once more into one another's eyes, happy smiles crinkling their faces with joy.

'I love you darling.' Hope muttered happily as she nuzzled into Bhanu's shoulder.

'I love you too my dear,' Bhanu replied, stroking her wife's midriff tenderly, 'In this life, and the next.'