Shontay by now would not even speak to Laura. She would only scowl at her coldly if their paths crossed at work, sometimes even moving to the other side of the corridor in an aloof and frigid manner, to show that Laura was leprous and untouchable. Her hair was yanked and knotted back behind her head more severely than ever, and she walked stiffly and with military precision, head high.

Laura, pausing in amazement and mild sorrow at these imperious rejections, found herself wondering if she would be craving the girl's body so much if she didn't know what lay underneath those awkward, baggy, even aggressively ugly business suits Shontay wore, having reverted to them after wearing for a while thin, summery dresses that showed off her marvelous café-au-lait skin and long, slender, but thrilling legs. The transformation was simply a return to her previous self, her pre-Laura self, as if all that hot sex and blossoming confidence in her physical appeal had never happened.

Laura also wondered in passing if she didn't feel the fires ignite in her pussy when Shontay marched so stiffly and contemptuously by her because that kind of scornful rejection only fanned the flames of her lust and doubled her determination to break through it. She had done it before in spite of, it seemed, impossible odds.

Since falling hard for Sara, and then getting involved, lamentably, with Dee Dee, Laura had seen less and less of Shontay, and Shontay, being fiercely bright and perceptive, had quickly picked up on Laura's shifting alliances. Even Laura's grief over losing Sara, it was obviously clear to Shontay, did not involve her. Laura wasn't moping because they hadn't slept together for a week. She was instead mooning after some rival, which sent Shontay not into the dumps but into a purple fury that she could barely contain.

Her manner, however, was not to protest, or whine, or accuse. Instead, she withdrew into an icy contempt, withering and frosty. As Laura had often reflected in the past, it was Shontay's 'Off with her head!' manner.

Since they worked in totally different spheres of the business, their paths rarely crossed. Occasionally, however, their presence was required at all-management meetings, and during one of stupefying dullness that had been called to review company financial goals, Laura found herself in a good position to gaze at Shontay for about forty-five minutes. Sitting behind a couple of men with broad shoulders, Laura was half-concealed and could admire Shontay unobtrusively, without seeming to stare; just a causal glance now and then.

Shontay was every bit the ice queen that her reputation called for, her head held high, her gaze sharp and imperious, her scowl intimidating. She was also ostentatiously taking notes, scribbling stiffly and conscientiously on a yellow pad in her lap.

Today she wore the off-white, ivory version of her baggy business suit, which hung on her bony frame like ill-cut draperies, the expensive fabric contrasting wildly with the awkward folds and ripples. The contrast of the ivory fabric with her skin, though, was ravishing. After days of rhapsodizing over the sleek, deeply black skin of Charise and Dee Dee, Laura was mildly startled to recall how enchanting she always found the rich pale clover honey hues of Shontay's skin, so richly highlighted by the ivory fabric of her suit jacket.

Her long swan's neck was delectably visible, even more so with her hair bundled up so tightly behind her head, and the shape of her jaw and her exquisite brown ears were just as perfect as they could be. She was really quite lovely, if you knew her as Laura did (naked, Laura thought, cursing herself for this salacious aside), and it was a great mystery why she felt compelled to appear so reserved, crisp, and scornfully distant. While watching her, Laura recalled how once, when they were lying together in bed after vigorously fucking, Shontay had confessed that though she usually seemed very much in control, she was actually 'scared shitless' most of the time.

Laura wondered if she were scared shitless at this moment. Probably not, she realized. Safety in numbers. Shontay, as if she could feel Laura staring, finally toward the end of the meeting whipped her head around nervously. Laura, safe behind her screen formed by the two men in front of her, merely leaned down to adjust her shoe, and successfully evaded this scrutiny.

She did manage deliberately to run into Shontay at the exit of the meeting room, slyly stepping in front of her to prevent her smooth escape.

"Oh . . . hi!" Laura said brightly, gazing up into those mysterious pale brown eyes that always had a hypnotic effect on her. "Long time no see."

Shontay was nearly four inches taller than Laura and could make anyone blanch by staring down from such a height. She scowled and looked like she wanted to flee. Finally, a pinched, noncommittal smile crossed her lips.

"Hello, Laura." She glowered, her light brown eyes flecked with sparks of anger, as if to accuse Laura of blocking her way, which was true.

"I . . . miss . . . our talks," Laura smiled, trying to appear as friendly as possible. Shontay had accused her often of only wanting 'black cunt,' her way of saying Laura was only after her sweet little pussy. And even though Shontay had exquisite skin the rich color of light molasses, her pussy was indeed very black, Laura knew—the lips, at least.

Oh god, Laura thought, Dee Dee had said the same thing. Maybe I'm becoming too obvious, too crude.

Shontay pursed her lips. "Right. See you, Laura."

She slipped around Laura and stalked down the hallway, not looking back. Fortunately, most of the meeting attendees had dispersed by this time, so that no one was nearby to notice this snub. Good thing, Laura reflected. Company headquarters staff were like the inhabitants of a small village when it came to gossip. She watched Shontay disappear, unable to keep her eyes from straying to the woman's marvelous high little rump that yawed and swayed ever so slightly as she walked, that jutted out a little, something not even the loosely hanging swaths of cloth could conceal.

Laura, though temporarily crestfallen, adjusted to this rejection, feeling that Shontay was certainly within her rights. Laura was deeply and painfully in love with Sara still, and whatever attention she could give Shontay would certainly not be what Shontay appeared to require of her.

To take her mind off it, she slept with Shavon a couple of times, and once with Yvette, always such intense experiences that nothing could put them in the shadows. Mercifully, Dee Dee was out of town in Ann Arbor, trying to see if she could get admitted there in the spring to complete her Ph.D. program. (Sara had paid for the trip.) Laura, though still suffering great miseries of rejected love over Sara, had come to a gradual realization that it was probably really over. This made her less reluctant to sleep with Dee Dee, especially since their times together were hot enough to burn up the planet. On the other hand, she could never quite relinquish a belief in the possibility that Sara would come back to her, and then the shit would hit the fan all over again when she found out that Laura had been screwing Dee Dee regularly.

She had absolutely no evidence to back up this belief.

A few days after this meeting in which Laura ogled Shontay from three rows away, and got contemptuously snubbed at the exit door, an obligatory management retreat was announced. It would be held at a resort in Santa Cruz that was especially designed for business meetings, and would occupy three days of the following week.

Being currently unencumbered by relationships, Laura enjoyed driving down alone, trying not to think of Sara, or what unknown faculty members, male or female, Dee Dee might be fucking in Ann Arbor in order to grease the wheels of graduate admissions. I really became wound up with these two beautiful women, didn't I? she realized.

She hummed to herself, her old standby.

I fall in love too easily,
I fall in love too fast,
I fall in love too terribly hard,
For love to ever last . . .

After a while her thoughts deviated to Shontay, whom she knew would also be at this retreat. Oh god, another three days of freezing stares and huffy tossings of the head. Looking at that long smooth neck . . . that pretty little rump. Those hypnotic light brown eyes. Can I stand it? Having her wither me with a glance?

Forcibly, almost as if to get her mind off Shontay and the mixed blessing it would be to be thrown together with her at this retreat, she let her mind drift back to Sara. Now that she was (mostly) convinced they would never be together again, she could indulge her pained and elaborate fantasies to the fullest, imagining what it would be like at this very instant to be pressing her lips to the swollen, dewy black petals of Sara's lovely wet pussy, nuzzling with her nose the silvery pussy ring (or 'captive bead ring,' as Sara always, with scrupulous accuracy, referred to it), letting the tip of her tongue find the little firm nub of clit underneath it, hearing Sara gasp.

This fantasy almost made Laura's heart stop, before filling again with a sharp pain of loss, and she had to tighten her grip on the wheel in order not to veer off the road. I better think of something else.

I guess I'll have to dream the rest . . .

she hummed again.

If you can't remember the things that we said,
Those nights when my shoulder held your sleepy head,
If you believe that parting's best,
I guess I'll have to dream the rest . . .

At the resort, she got settled in her room and went out to the pool. There would be a group dinner, preceded by a cocktail party, but until then her time was her own. She knew Shontay would not be appearing at the pool—even if she had already arrived—because she was very self-conscious about her 'skinny' figure. Laura, on the other hand, had nothing to hide and even enjoyed the stares she frequently drew. Let them want, let them wonder, she thought, realizing that she sounded a lot like Dee Dee.

After dinner on the second night (the first had passed without incident, and she had only rarely glimpsed Shontay at the party and the dinner), Laura found herself with about five other management employees in the room of the French representative of their company, playing Trivial Pursuit. It was a friendly and uproarious game, and she enjoyed herself immensely. On her way back to her room, she stopped by the small lobby shop for a magazine and ran directly into Shontay, who was clutching an issue of Marie Claire in her hand and heading for the counter.

"Oh . . . hi," Shontay said, caught by surprise.

"Hi, Shontay," Laura said calmly. She began leafing through a magazine, more as a prop than anything else, just to be doing something, not looking directly at Shontay.

Shontay continued to the counter and paid for her magazine. Laura was right behind her as she left the shop. Shontay looked around.

"I wish we could talk," Laura said softly, though as far as she could tell only resort employees were left in the lobby.

Shontay looked tired and a little distracted. No wonder, Laura thought. Trying to keep up that cold, hostile exterior all day, all the time. Must be a real effort.

"I don't think we have anything to talk about, Laura."

Laura pursed her lips. "Come on, I'll buy you a drink." She pointed with her head toward the bar.

"You know I don't drink. Hardly ever."

Laura smirked at her, teasingly. "This is a retreat. Make an exception. We're supposed to relax. Get to know each other."

"I already know you as well as I want to," Shontay said, her voice cutting, her face sour.

"Ouch." Laura winced visibly. "You're so cold."

Shontay's pale light brown eyes clouded over briefly, as if this conversation were causing her as much distress as it was causing Laura. "I'm tired. I'm going to my room. Good night, Laura."

Not knowing what else to do, Laura watched her walk away, her magazine clutched in a thick roll under one arm. "By the way, how's Willie?" she half-shouted after Shontay, surprised at the way her voice reverberated through the mostly deserted lobby.

It was a little embarrassing, but a quick look around told her that no one had heard. Shontay turned and appeared shocked that anyone would holler at her after her withering comments. She frowned, as if Laura were an unpredictable maniac. Willie was her parents' cat.

"I . . . miss him," Laura stammered. "Willie and I . . . always got along."

"Willie's fine," Shontay said coldly.

But this mere pause allowed Laura to cross the space between them again. Now she spoke more softly, intimately.

"If you won't have a drink, why don't we sit by the pool for a few minutes? I really would like to talk to you."

"We have nothing to talk about."

Laura let her gaze fall from Shontay's mesmerizing eyes to her sensual lips. If simple civility would not work, she was willing to try veiled sexual invitation. She realized that sex was really the root cause of Shontay's hostility, and yet they had shared so many intense sexual moments, and sweet ones too, that Laura wondered how Shontay could ignore them.

"I just like to be near you," Laura whispered. "Just for a few minutes?"

Shontay shook her head. She turned and began walking away again. This time Laura followed. They reached the place where the wings of the convention center forked, leading to two different corridors of rooms. Laura stopped and watched Shontay go down one. Shontay looked over her shoulder and saw Laura watching her. She came back.

"Are you following me?" Her eyes looked amused as well as angry.

"I . . . I'm sorry," Laura looked down.

There was a long, painful silence. Laura could hear Shontay breathing.

"Hell . . . if you want to talk so much, okay," Shontay finally said. She began walking back in the same direction, toward her room. "Don't you know we shouldn't be seen having a quarrel like this? Somebody might see us and think we're . . . you know, closer than we are."

Laura followed her without a word. Why is she doing this? she wondered. Why is she inviting me in, after being so cold and mean? Shontay opened the door with her key but paused, turning to Laura.

"Only for a few minutes. Nothing's happening."

"I know. I promise. Just a few minutes."

After turning on the bright overhead light to completely illuminate the darkened room, Shontay turned on the small, dimmer light by the bed, then switched off the first one. She tossed her magazine on the bed and sat down next to it, since there was only one chair. Laura sat in it.

Shontay's face was blank, expressionless. She almost glowered at Laura, waiting for her to begin.

"You wanted to talk."

Laura squirmed. She clasped her hands and rubbed them together awkwardly. "I . . . think I just wanted to be near you. For a few minutes. Without you glowering at me."

Shontay gave Laura one of her patented, pinched smiles. "How's this?"

"I want to kiss you," Laura said, so softly that both of them could barely hear her.

"Laura, you are such a cunt."

"What a thing to say," Laura teased, with a long face. "I made you pant. I made you quiver."

Shontay nodded seriously. "I can do without it."

Laura raised one eyebrow and shrugged. She started to get up. "I can't force you."

"You don't have to go yet," Shontay said, without moving.

Laura sat back. "I don't?"

Shontay shook her head. "Tell me what you think of the meeting."

They discussed the meeting for a few minutes, though Laura was very guarded and noncommittal. Shontay seemed to be fishing, but not too hard. She smoked, opening the window wide to let out the smoke.

"I'm not supposed to smoke in here. It's a non-smoking room."

Laura knew that Shontay smoked when she got nervous. She smoked two cigarettes in a row.

"May I kiss you now?" Laura whispered, getting up from the chair, as Shontay snubbed out the second cigarette.

Shontay seemed paralyzed, her pale brown eyes pulsing as she looked up at Laura coming across the small room. There was no sign on her face of the implacable hostility that earlier had been there. Still, she shook her head. Laura stopped.

"No kissing." She turned her cheek to the side to deflect Laura's kiss, which grazed her cheekbone instead.

Laura pulled back. "Sorry. I thought . . . since we're both forced to be here at this cruddy meeting, we might comfort each other a little."

Shontay gave her a sharp look. "You don't like the meeting? You were lying earlier?"

Laura shrugged. "I never said I liked it."

"I'm on the planning committee for this off-site," Shontay said, sounding wounded. "Tell me what you don't like about it."

"I'd rather not," Laura said, trying to kiss her again.

"Cut it out!" Shontay scooted to the side. "What are you going to do, rape me? Isn't that what you do every time I see you?"

Laura smiled understandingly. "I didn't think you objected. Before."

"I object now. Maybe you'd better go."

"Shontay, you're very lovely. May I take your hair down? You always look so sexy with your hair down. It makes me just . . . quiver inside. Turn your head, and I'll take your hair down for you."

"Don't you touch me!"

Now Laura believed she meant it. Shontay was shaking with fury. Laura backed off. "Okay . . . okay. I know when I'm not wanted."

She pulled back, still standing, not really knowing what to do. Shontay looked completely discombobulated and did not stand up for a few seconds. When she did, she strode in just two steps to the door, her legs being very long and the room very small. Laura looked at her sadly.

But Shontay herself was apologizing as she held the door open for Laura. "I'm sorry . . . it just didn't work out," she mumbled.

Laura paused, half in the door and half out. She whispered, not wanting any stray passerby in the hallway to hear her. "I'm sorry you feel the way you do."

She raised one finger to Shontay's cheek and caressed it, slowly, meaningfully. Then she turned and walked down the dark corridor to the fork, then up the other wing to her own room. She did not know if Shontay was watching her as she walked away, but she did not hear the door shut.

Back in her own room, she showered, then turned on the TV, sound down low, to distract herself. She must have nodded off briefly, for she was awakened by a soft rapping at her door. She crossed the room and opened it a crack, leaving the brass chain fastened.

"Shontay." Quickly, Laura unfastened the chain. "How did you find my room?"

"Are you going to let me in?" Shontay snapped, under her breath.

"Of course."

Laura opened the door, and Shontay slipped inside. Laura's heart had started thumping inside her chest when she noticed that Shontay had taken her hair down. It hung in disheveled clumps around her ears and cheeks. She was wearing a cream-colored terry cloth bathrobe that made her honey-hued skin more beautiful than ever.

"I . . . peeked," Shontay confessed, looking briefly at the floor in embarrassment. "When you left . . . I walked behind you and peeked down the hall. To see which one you went into."

Since Laura did not dare to say anything else at the moment, she closed the door and refastened the chain. Both of them watched her fingers, as if it were a significant gesture, resonating with sexual overtones, the mere slipping of a knob of metal into a slot. Laura turned off the TV. She looked at Shontay, who seemed petrified.

Calm down, honey, Laura said with her eyes, still not daring to speak. We've done this before. Remember?

They were both still standing, only inches apart, since Laura's room was as small as Shontay's. Laura crossed the remaining distance, looking up, since Shontay was so tall.

"Ready for that kiss now?"

Shontay didn't say anything. She didn't move away, either. "I . . . was sorry you left," she whispered. "I'm sorry I made you leave."

"There's nothing for anyone to be sorry about," Laura murmured, uptilting her mouth to Shontay's, trying to beckon Shontay to lower hers a little, since their lips were still inches apart.

"Maybe I should go," Shontay said, suddenly.

This, Laura knew, was a way of acknowledging that if she stayed, they would fuck. Laura smiled at her gently. Shontay was always so skittish, like a thoroughbred.

"I'd be very unhappy if you did," Laura said.

Now Shontay's pale, light brown eyes swam with sexual meanings that she could not suppress. "Okay, then," she said, very softly. "I'm ready."

To make it special, Laura raised both hands to her face, luxuriating in the feel of Shontay's hair brushing her fingers, swinging loose around her cheeks, and pulled Shontay's mouth gently down into hers. A thrilling electric charge coursed through both of them as their lips met, a scintillating current borne of their estrangement, the time that had elapsed since they had last done this, and their evasive circling since then.

Shontay's mouth was warm and sensual, and Laura's lips curved into hers slowly, with agonizing sensitivity, before their tongues even met. She was in no hurry and wanted to enjoy every micro-second of this to the fullest. Finally, Shontay's teeth parted, and Laura's tongue slithered inside her mouth, probing, dancing, exploring the entire warm wet cavity, coiling with Shontay's tongue now. She still held Shontay's face in both hands. Shontay was soft and yielding, so different from her earlier sharp, hostile manner. She yielded her mouth to Laura's, letting Laura's tongue fuck her mouth without any counter aggression, until finally the fire inside grew too hot and she began to kiss Laura back more hungrily.

Now Laura was forced into the passive role as Shontay drove her tongue deep into her mouth. Shontay clutched Laura's body through Laura's thin housecoat, and Laura dropped her own hands, finding the sash of Shontay's bathrobe and pulling it loose. She slipped her hands inside, clasping the girl's warm, lean, naked body.

Shontay had a long, supple back that was just a dream of rapture for Laura, who ran her fingers all over it, feeling the long smooth muscles that ran the length of it from her shapely shoulder blades all the way down to her dimpled sacrum.

"I love your back," Laura whispered, momentarily disentangling her tongue from Shontay's, panting. "I want to kiss it all over . . . god, what a beautiful back."

She swept her hands forward as Shontay began kissing her again, pulling them up to Shontay's enchanting small breasts, the size of delicate teacups. Anyone who did not know Shontay's body well, as Laura did, would have been surprised to find them there since in most of her clothes Shontay looked severely flat-chested. But in fact, she had these marvelous, perfect little globes, firm and round, capped by thick, dark caramel nipples that Laura was now pinching gently, insistently.

Shontay pulled back from kissing Laura long enough to smile. "You like those too, don't you," she panted, her lips wet with Laura's saliva, her eyes shiny and hot.

It had taken her a long time to get to the point where she could enjoy Laura's adoration of her naked body. Shontay was very tall and thin, even skinny, some would say, with thin thighs and marvelously-etched bone structure, prominent collarbones, rounded but also slightly bony shoulders. Her ribcage protruded slightly, and her elbows and knees were occasionally a little awkward. But she had a model's body, and certainly a model's face, when she let her hair down, and once you got used to the length of her body and its angles, you could easily become enraptured by it, Laura knew. This rapture of Laura's was almost the sole cause of Shontay's becoming prouder of her physical charms. And ever since that had occurred, she had loved teasing Laura about Laura's hunger for them.

"Tell me how you love my titties," she whispered in Laura's ear, her fingers now scrabbling for the buttons on Laura's housecoat.

"I could eat them for breakfast, lunch and dinner," Laura murmured, pulling open the bathrobe now, squeezing the marvelous small globes. "I could suck them in my sleep."

"Ooooohhhhh," Shontay giggled softly, "you're awake now."

"Oh, I can suck them when I'm awake too."

Laura dropped her mouth to Shontay's breasts, holding them in her hands and peppering them with hot kisses, enchanted by seeing more and more of Shontay's rich honey-velvet skin come into view. In the dim light of her room it glowed with a fine sheen like light molasses, and Laura extended her tongue, licking wide swoops around Shontay's glimmering caramel nipples, then letting her lips approach closer to one, while Shontay looked down at her mouth.

"Ahhh!" she gasped as Laura sucked the shiny, soft caramel bud inside.

Laura sucked it gently at first, swirling her tongue all around Shontay's nipple and feeling it grow thicker and pulpier inside her wet mouth. Shontay stroked Laura's head, whimpering softly, watching. The harder her nipple became in Laura's mouth, the harder Laura sucked it, until Shontay was moaning and trembling.

"Oh shit . . . I've got to lie down, Laura," she gasped. "You're making my legs weak. God, you do that so well!"

"Quick, lie down on the bed," Laura murmured. "Here, take this off."

Shontay was pliant and obedient, so different from her earlier self, slipping the bathrobe off her body with Laura's help. Laura was quickly out of her housecoat too, and she pulled the bed coverings down, exposing the sheet, in one rapid motion.

"We'll have to be very quiet," she whispered to Shontay, as they stretched out facing one another.

Shontay's pale brown eyes were wide and shiny. She nodded. "I know."

Laura gazed deep into them, hypnotized as usual by their odd sexual power over her. "Now give me that other lovely little breast," she breathed.

Shontay, half-embarrassed but saucy at the same time, cupped her other breast in one hand, looking down, offering it to Laura. "You can do it a little harder, if you want," she murmured.

"Mmmm, does it make your pretty pussy wet when I suck you hard?" Laura asked, quickly taking Shontay's other nipple into her mouth, laving it fervidly with her tongue.

"Oh god, yes!" Shontay whimpered again.

Laura smiled up at her, holding Shontay's wet, erect, caramel nipple playfully between her teeth. She released it momentarily. "Can I see how wet it is?"

The same half-embarrassed but sexually excited grin passed across Shontay's face. She nodded.

But Laura was unwilling to leave Shontay's marvelous small breasts just yet and resumed sucking the wet, pointing nipple she had just released, then returned to the first one, mouth-mauling it passionately now. Shontay squirmed. Her fingers fluttered in Laura's hair, and she arched her back a little, pushing her wet nipples into Laura's face.

"Now . . . let me see," Laura teased softly. "Should I see how wet it is with my finger . . . or my tongue?"

Shontay giggled and panted nervously. "Either one."

"Which do you like the most?"

"Tongue."

"Mmmm . . . it's a long way down this long, beautiful body," Laura purred, now descending, her lips moving skillfully across Shontay's long, palpitating stomach, kissing it everywhere.

"Oh Laura . . ."

Now that she had Shontay in her bed, Laura was in no rush. Though many may have thought Shontay's naked body to be overly angular, bony, and thin, Laura found it enchanting. Shontay's honey-gold skin was covered with a fine, silky down that Laura reveled in rubbing her cheek against, and she could feel the fine silk under her sensitive lips as they inched slowly down the taut, heaving muscles of the girl's very long midriff.

She had to pause for a few seconds at the glistening, raven-black curls of Shontay's small pubic patch of hair, nuzzling the sparkly filaments with her nose, letting the ripe perfumes of Shontay's aroused cunt drift up to her nostrils. She had not tasted this exquisite pussy for weeks, maybe almost two months by now, and she recognized a sharp, sudden hunger in herself for it.

Unlike the rest of her body—long arms, long legs, long torso, long neck, everything very long—Shontay's beautiful pussy was a small treasure, a juicy little wet magenta slot enclosed by glossy black cunt lips that were now gaping and swollen. At the top, presently concealed, was, Laura knew, a tiny but very sensitive clit that she loved to coax out with her tongue, while feeling Shontay's body twinge and clench in fierce anticipation of the climax she often had some difficulty reaching.

"Oh honey," Laura murmured, kissing the smooth, warm inner skin of Shontay's slender thighs, "this pussy is so wet for me. I'll bet you want me to kiss it . . . and lick it . . . as much as I want to."

"Unhhh! Oh . . . yes . . ." Shontay gasped, twisting, looking down her long, thin, undulating body at Laura crouched between her thighs.

"Too bad we have to be so quiet," Laura murmured. "I'd love to suck this beautiful pussy until you scream."

"Oh god . . . we can't make any noise!" Shontay keened, suddenly panicking. "If anyone knew we were doing this . . . oh god!"

It was true. They were very vulnerable to being overheard. It wasn't as if total strangers inhabited all the other rooms along this corridor. They were fellow workers, 'colleagues,' supervisors and vice presidents. To overhear two of their number furiously rutting in the next room, gasping and squealing and shuddering through the beautiful, intense orgasms Laura and Shontay were capable of giving each other, would be a source of endless amusement and salacious gossip for years to come.

Moreover, Shontay, being an Executive Director, had much more to lose than Laura did. She also had a hard crust exterior she showed constantly to the world, which she was clearly not eager to have penetrated. Finally, the fact that they were having a torrid lesbian encounter could not fail to raise eyebrows and cause months of prurient titillation.

"Don't worry," Laura smiled up at her reassuringly, parting Shontay's wet pussy lips with the fingers of both hands, exposing the glistening magenta flesh inside. "I'm going to make you come so softly you won't even know it's happening until it's over. Just grab one of those pillows if you feel like moaning too loud, okay?"

Looking like a frightened animal—but also a beautiful woman consumed by fierce sexual excitement—Shontay nodded. She reached one long arm up behind her and pulled down one of the pillows, leaving it close to her head.

In truth, though, Laura was wondering too how she could make Shontay come without unleashing a gusher of helpless moans and shrieks. Shontay was one of those women who did not come easily. She required absolute concentration and focus, and very great patience from Laura, to get to the finish line, and often by the time she got there her physical tension was so supreme that when her climax finally erupted, there was no way she could restrain her piercing cries.

But even though it was daunting, Laura wasn't going to let that stop her. It had taken a lot of anguish on both sides to reach this point in their relationship, and now that Shontay had surrendered once again after an initial resistance, Laura was not about to spurn the offer of this beautiful, long, angular body, or the sweet, sensitive, vulnerable girl who was offering it.

Holding Shontay's small, slick, oozing pussy open with her thumbs, she began slowly to lick the wet, exposed, inflamed cleft sensually with her tongue, starting at the bottom and ending at the top by wriggling the tip of her tongue up under the little hood that sheltered Shontay's tiny clit.

"Oh! Oh!" Shontay gasped, her pelvis jerking up excitedly. "God . . . I don't think I can be quiet!"

"Mmmm, yes you can," Laura purred, now burrowing her tongue into the juicy warm pit. "Just tell me if it gets too intense . . . then I'll slow down."

"Oh! I don't want you to slow down! It feels so good!"

For the next two or three minutes Laura was very careful and Shontay very silent, though the sexual tension was building gradually and relentlessly. Laura did not want it to go too fast, and Shontay was incapable of exploding without warning anyway. Often she shook and strained and mewled for several minutes before erupting. She quivered and mewled almost inaudibly while Laura luxuriated in the opportunity to lick her beautiful wet quim to her heart's content. Finally, Shontay's clit began to swell and become more visible, and Laura could not keep her tongue from sliding over it too.

"Oh!" Shontay gasped, her body clenching now more frequently. "Ohhnnnn!"

Laura found herself recalling her old apartment, and how she had struggled countless times to keep the neighbors from overhearing her cries and those of her climaxing lovers. The last neighbors upstairs, whom she had taken pains to guard from these ecstatic screams, were Shontay's own parents, though they had always been gone when Laura and Shontay had fucked, often heatedly, once after a ferocious cat fight, fucking savagely and sweetly on the floor in Shontay's own parents' apartment. It was hard not to remember it all now as she patiently, carefully, tenderly, then more passionately, licked the wet, shiny, bright magenta insides of the lovely, complicated girl's gorgeous, small, festering pussy, bringing low, guttural moans of pleasure from deep in Shontay's chest.

"Unnhhhh . . . unhhhh . . . unhhhhh Laura . . . ohnnnnn!"

"You're going to come . . . you're going to come, aren't you . . . darling . . ." Laura murmured to her, not really knowing if she was yet, since you never knew with Shontay until it actually arrived, but hoping to encourage her, build her confidence, get her to the pinnacle by cheering her on.

"Oh yes . . . oh yes!" Shontay whimpered, twisting, her beautiful, thin, honey-gold, long body writhing and her small breasts sliding up and down on her chest.

"You missed me, didn't you . . ." Laura chuckled softly. "You missed me sucking and licking your pretty pussy like this, didn't you?"

By now Laura was being much more adventurous, sucking Shontay's clit, hood and all, into her mouth, swirling her tongue around it, kneading Shontay's pretty, smooth little buns with her fingers.

Shontay's body suddenly clenched in a noticeable spasm, and she immediately began churning and panting faster. "Oh god, I think I am going to come, Laura! Yes! Oh shit . . . right there! Yes! Right there! Ungghh!"

Laura wanted her to come, but the closer they got, the more frightened she became of the consequences. It was a terrible dilemma. She wanted to pour it on about now, to give Shontay what she really needed to reach an obliterating orgasm of the kind Laura had given her countless times in the past. Shontay had become almost addicted to the way Laura often slid one long forefinger up into her ass just before she came, igniting exuberant firestorms of coming in a girl who had known nothing but her own tame, masturbatory orgasms before Laura came into her life. She craved it and would beg for it. It was, Laura reflected, about as kinky as they had ever become together.

Shontay was close to losing all control, and yet Laura, who knew she couldn't risk the finger-up-the-ass this time—it was way too dangerous—could not resist slipping one of her fingers between Shontay's smooth, tight little buns and pressing her fingertip against Shontay's perineum, the small area of skin between the lower part of her cunt and her asshole, a very sensitive spot, Laura knew.

"Ahnnggmmiiee!" Shontay cried out, her body almost jackknifing at the touch, her cry much louder than anything Laura had elicited from her so far.

"The pillow, honey . . . the pillow," Laura coached her softly, reaching up with her free hand and pulling it closer to Shontay's face, which was already torn by a grimace of piercing sexual feeling.

"Oh . . . oh yes! Unhhhhh!" Shontay panted, now swirling her hips, pushing her pussy up into Laura's mouth.

This was, to Laura, a very good sign. She's close. She is going to make it . . . any second. Now Laura began to massage Shontay's perineum while sucking and tonguing her pussy even more heatedly, though well aware that any instant she might have to take quick measures to muffle the girl's helpless screams as Shontay's long body began undulating more rapidly, and her breathing became more labored.

"Yes, honey . . . yes, honey . . . I'm going to suck your beautiful pussy so hard . . . you're going to come so hard . . . I'm going to fuck you so hard . . ." Laura murmured, knowing also that even though she would deny it, Shontay got aroused by having Laura talk dirty to her while fucking her.

Now Shontay began straining, and small, tortured, cawing sounds fought their way of her throat as her flesh clenched and stiffened. Laura had seen this before and was briefly discouraged. Often Shontay would nearly come and then for some reason fall back, as if getting to the peak were something she could not permit herself, as if there were obstacles that even she could not overcome.

But Laura had helped her overcome them dozens of times in the past, and now she only redoubled her efforts, half-gratified anyway that it wasn't going to end too soon, that she still had plenty of time to slurp this delicious small wet black pussy she was so hungrily devouring. The warm, thick nectars that flowed from Shontay's inflamed slit were tangy and tart and sweet and buttery all at once, and Laura drank them, grunting and snuffling almost comically herself with fervent lust as she rubbed Shontay between her anus and her pussy more and more insistently, and lashed Shontay's nearly-bursting clit with her tongue.

"Ungghh . . . ungghhh!" Shontay groaned, tossed her head, her body again jerking upward at the feel of Laura's finger pushing ever more sharply against her perineum.

"Oh yes . . . it's coming, honey . . ." Laura panted to her, sucking her clit, swallowing her sweet juices, now so in tune with Shontay's surging, pulsating flesh that she actually could feel the moment when Shontay finally arrived. "Oh god . . . it's now, baby!"

She didn't need to tell Shontay. Fortunately for them both, the first lightning bolt of Shontay's orgasm struck her so severely that the breath totally left her lungs. Only a tiny, hysterical squeaking could escape from her throat as her long, gangly body stiffened and then collapsed in spasms. This momentary silence gave Laura the opportunity to slide up Shontay's body, while replacing her tongue with her finger, thrusting it up into Shontay's clasping pussy and fucking her rapidly with it, as she covered Shontay's mouth with her other hand and held her, hearing the cries explode from deep in her chest.

"Awwoommnnnnggg!" Shontay groaned loudly into Laura's palm, her body jumping and straining as each fresh spasm wracked her. "Unnggmmm!"

A wrenching, crushing orgasm roiled inside her, and she lay twitching and shuddering through it for almost half a minute. Laura held her and kissed her smooth cheek and waited. Finally, it begin to release its grip on her.

Laura was briefly alarmed that Shontay's cries were too loud, but before she could grab the pillow and turn Shontay's face into it, they began to subside into long, tremulous sighs of pleasure. The undulations of her body began to slow too, and the fluttering of her eyelids grew still. Laura held her, removing her hand from Shontay's mouth now, but still gently moving her fingers inside the warm, greasy folds of Shontay's still-throbbing pussy, unwilling to let the smallest twinge of pleasure die away.

After a few seconds of truly intense moaning and thrashing together on the bed, they were silent. The room was silent. It was quiet enough to hear their breathing, slowly returning to normal. It seemed like an eternity to Laura before Shontay turned her head and smiled wanly, her magical pale brown eyes still pulsing with the afterglow of this thrilling climax.

"I don't care how much you hurt me, I guess I'll always come back," she confessed in a hushed voice. "I don't think I could ever come like that in my life unless you did it."

"What a thing to say," Laura teased, acting mildly shocked. She wiggled her finger inside Shontay's warm pussy and watched Shontay's magical eyes roll up briefly. "One, I never tried to hurt you. Two, you might come even better with someone else, if you tried it."

Shontay shook her head solemnly. "I don't think so. And you do hurt me. You hurt me when you ignore me."

This was unpleasant information, though Laura could hardly act as if she didn't already know it. She was already so aroused from bringing Shontay to a stupendous orgasm and trying to make sure they weren't overheard that her mind could barely concentrate on Shontay's so typical complaints.

"I . . . I've been . . . very distracted lately," Laura stammered apologetically. "I . . . got hurt very badly."

At first Shontay looked curious, then pained. "Welcome to the club," she smirked, unable to repress a smile as she said it.

Laura removed her fingers reluctantly from the girl's warm, buttery slit. Shontay instantly recoiled.

"Don't touch me with that shit!" she half-giggled, trying to pull away, though Laura wouldn't let her. "Eeeewwooo . . . you're fingers are all wet!"

Laura smiled in wonder. She couldn't get over the squeamishness some women had about their own love juices. "You made it," she teased Shontay, glad to have a reason to change the subject. She waved her shiny wet fingers in Shontay's face, threatening to touch her with them. "It's your pussy juice. I love it. Watch."

Sensually, she wrapped her tongue around her two fingers and licked them clean.

"Yum. You have a delicious pussy, my dear. Why are you so afraid of this yummy nectar?"

Shontay frowned at her playfully. "Since you like it so much, you can have it all."

Laura was still holding her close, preventing her escape with one arm. She wiped the spittle off her fingers on the edge of the sheet. Then, turning to her most sultry, submissive manner, she cuddled closer to Shontay.

"Make love to me, honey," she whispered. "Make love to me. Make me come. Just put your hand down there and let me kiss you while I'm coming so I don't scream."

Shontay softened. A tiny smile again tugged at the corners of her mouth. Her pale brown eyes suddenly swirled with flecks of scintillating sexual fire.

"You sure?" she murmured, bringing one hand up to Laura's naked breasts, caressing and squeezing them, twisting Laura's nipples gently in her thumb and forefinger. "You don't want me to eat your pussy? You have a pretty nice one too, you know."

"I do want you to," Laura nodded. "But I want to kiss you and look into your eyes. I want you to look into mine and rub me and make me come. You can eat me when we get home."

"Mmmm," Shontay half-purred, dropping her mouth now to Laura's nipples, teasing and licking them. "Who said we're going to do this again when we get home?"

Laura didn't want to answer. She didn't want anything to get in the way of this pleasure, which seemed to grow and swell by the second. For all their checkered relationship and mutual suspicion, she and Shontay had been making love for months, and Shontay knew what it took to ring Laura's bells. Her mouth on Laura's breasts had Laura climbing the walls very quickly.

"Oh . . . god, that feels good!" Laura breathed, looking down at Shontay's wet, pink tongue dancing over her stiffening coral-hued nipples.

Shontay sucked each one slowly, skillfully, passionately, stopping only when Laura began lowing and groaning softly, twisting, pushing her pelvis forward into Shontay's body, giving every indication that she would not last much longer and desperately needed Shontay to bring her off.

"Oh god, you're killing me, I need it . . . I need it!" she whimpered into Shontay's hair, again delighting in the way it fell in messy, sexy clumps around Shontay's cheeks and forehead.

Shontay lifted her head, smiling, still massaging Laura's saliva-wet breasts with her fingers, now scissoring Laura's erect nipples between her long slim fingers. "I wish I could come as fast as you do," she whispered, her light brown eyes swirling, pulsing.

The sexual spell they had cast together now swept away Shontay's resentments, and she was totally caught up in the heat of the moment, as Laura was.

"Kiss me, you idiot," Laura panted, half-smiling. "You sex maniac. You rapist. Kiss me and fuck me with your hand."

Shontay's magical pale eyes flickered with mischief. "What if I don't?"

"Oh god, please," Laura panted, her face contorted by fierce need.

"Mmmm, I love you to beg me," Shontay said, kissing Laura's neck, breathing in her ear, sliding one long, graceful hand down Laura's body to her crotch, which was so hot and wet it was nearly steaming.

"Unhhhhh!" Laura gasped as she felt Shontay slide two fingers up into her squinchy wet furrow.

Shontay pulled her face out of Laura's hair. "You smell so good, Laura," she whispered, her breath now coming faster too. She looked seriously, almost solemnly, into Laura's eyes. "You've got to be quiet too."

"Oh! Oh! Oh god . . . it feels so good . . . just like that, yes!"

Laura began to gyrate her hips in slow, sensual fuck-rhythm, feeling Shontay's long slender fingers slide in and out of her sopping wet pussy. Shontay knew the effect her hand was having on Laura, and she was quickly drawn into the whirling vortex of Laura's gathering need, moving her fingers faster, letting the bottoms of them slide across the throbbing nub of Laura's clit, even clutching Laura's body harder against hers with her other arm.

"Laura . . ." she panted, now fucking Laura's pussy so hard and squirming together with her that the bed began to squeak. "You can't make any noise!"

"I know!" Laura gasped, pressing the full length of her body into Shontay's warm flesh, feeling her damp nipples slide against Shotnay's stiff little buds, jamming her crotch down into the girl's thrusting hand. "Unhhh! Ungghh! Oh!"

"Laura!"

"Auunngghh!"

"Laura . . . the pillow! Here!"

For all her concern about protecting them from the consequences of Shontay's potentially loud orgasm, Laura when it came to her own seemed to lose complete control. She knew it was dangerous, she knew she must control her moans and her cries, but somehow the moment—this delicious connection with Shontay in her bed after so much pain over Sara and so much distress at feeling Shontay's rejection—was piercing and sweet and overwhelming all in the same instant. She wanted to scream with joy as she felt the hot, rushing jolt of a surging orgasm begin to fill her body.

"Here!" Shontay almost shouted again, snatching the pillow that Laura had earlier pulled close for her to use, and pushing it into Laura's face, forcing it between them, just as an ear-splitting, helpless cry of thrilling rapture ripped its way out of Laura's throat.

"Owwmmmnngggwwoommmmmoouunngghh!" Laura screamed into the pillow, her body stiffening, then collapsing into several sharp spasms as a stirring orgasm wracked her. "Unnmmmgghh . . . ohngghhh!"

After a few seconds, she turned her face aside from the pillow to breathe as the intensity weakened, and her moans grew correspondingly softer. Her hips were still undulating and quivering, and she could still feel Shontay's two fingers sunk deep inside her pussy, and Shontay's long arm wrapped around her back, pulling her close. As Laura's groans subsided into panting, Shontay pulled the pillow away.

"You didn't get to look in my eyes, like you wanted," she whispered, kissing Laura's cheek. "You can look in them now."

"Oh god, I think I could have another one, if you just hold it like that!" Laura gasped, knowing with some mysterious certainty that she was poised on the edge of a second climax.

Looking into Shontay's pale eyes, so adoring, so soft, smoldering with so much sex and affection and sensuality, made it even more certain.

"Are you really going to come again?" Shontay asked softly, as if unbelieving.

"I . . . think so," Laura panted, again pushing her throbbing pussy down into Shotnay's hand. "Look at me . . . look at me . . . and fuck me . . ."

"Like this?"

"Oh god, yes! Unhhhh! Oh god . . . yes, right now . . . it's—"

This time she was not so afraid of screaming and merely pushed her face into Shontay's smooth shoulder, squeaking and mewling as a fresh orgasm streamed through her body like a radiant wave, filling her flesh with warm honey, then melting into small feathery spasms that seemed to last an eternity. Shontay held her throughout, then kissed her gently on the face as Laura began to recover.

"I'm so envious," she murmured, seriously, kissing Laura's forehead, finally removing her fingers from Laura's wet pussy. She wiped them, trying to be surreptitious, on the sheet. "Not only can you come so quick, you can also come twice. Like at the same time. First one, then another. God, I've never done that."

"Did I make too much noise?"

Shontay broke into a grin. "You were trying. I nearly suffocated you with that pillow to get you to stop."

Laura nodded. "You did. I guess it was necessary. I don't know what came over me. Just having you . . . hold me like that, and doing everything to me . . . and I just came and I couldn't help screaming."

Shontay loved this praise and nearly blushed herself, looking down momentarily. "I guess I'm getting it right."

Laura embraced her ardently, and kissed her sensual mouth hungrily. "I guess you are."

They dozed dreamily, nestled together, for a long time. Laura luxuriated in pushing her face into the messy clumps of Shontay's hair, inhaling the clean, somehow sexually stirring, odor of her scalp, and the musky perfume that now seemed to wreathe her skin as the consequence of their sweet coupling. She knew she probably smelled the same way to Shontay.

"I'm beginning to want you again," she murmured drowsily into Shontay's molasses-colored ear, slipping her tongue inside of it.

Shontay giggled softly and squirmed free. "Laura! We can't. It's bad enough we did it already. What if somebody heard? Do you know who's in these rooms next to you?"

Laura shook her head. "We were quiet enough. Don't worry."

Now that she had thought of it again, Shontay seemed very nervous. Laura tried to calm her.

"I want your body," she murmured, kissing Shontay's long, smooth, golden neck. "I want to push my pussy into your pussy."

Shontay squirmed again, this time not so much out of nerves as renewed sexual excitement. "We can't. Wait until we get home."

"You said we might not be doing this when we get home," Laura smiled, feigning petulance, pouting.

Shontay softened. "I can't . . . stop wanting to," she confessed. "I told you . . . I never came that way except with you. I can't stop wanting it."

Even though Shontay looked like she wished she could stop wanting it, Laura understood. "Great. Then, when we get home, we have a big fucking party at your place. How about it?"

Shontay frowned. "You're making fun of me."

"Am not," Laura grinned.

"Are too." Shontay cocked an eyebrow. "Why can't we have it at your place? Have you got something to hide?"

"Only the depths of my lust for your wonderful sexy skinny body," Laura laughed, dragging her down on her back on the mattress and swarming all over her in a passionate fever of mock lechery.

They laughed and rolled around tickling one another for about a minute, until the bed began to squeak. Then it seemed to occur to both of them at the same instant that they might be overheard having this tickle mania moment. How ironic to be caught playing when nobody overheard us fucking like two lust-crazed minks only a few minutes ago, Laura thought. She could see from Shontay's eyes, even though her face was contorted with suppressed laughter, that she was thinking the same thing.

They had rarely if ever shared such a relaxed, playful moment. Laura wondered if Shontay had ever shared one with anybody. It brought a new intimacy into their relationship, a deeper emotion that now made them both more reluctant to part. And yet Laura knew in the back of her mind that if she were not feeling so bereft of Sara, she would not be feeling this deep tug of emotion for Shontay.

"I have to go back to my room," Shontay said, sitting up, looking around the room for her bathrobe.

"I wish you would stay here," Laura purred, trying to pull her down to the sheet again. "We could sleep and, you know, cuddle and . . ."

"That's just the problem," Shontay pulled away. "I can't control my feelings." Her eyes sparkled at Laura, and she gave her a small, reluctant grin.

"You mean you want it like I do," Laura said.

Shontay nodded, but in the next moment she got up from the bed, found her bathrobe crumpled on the floor, shook it out, and slipped it on. "I've got to go back. In the morning there will be more people in the halls. They'll see."

"I know," Laura admitted.

It was the right thing to do. She couldn't deny it. She waylaid Shontay at the door. They kissed, softly, romantically.

"I had fun," Shontay whispered.

"Me too," Laura winked. "Sleep tight."

But after Shontay had left, Laura could not sleep herself. Boy, 'fun' doesn't even describe it, she thought. That was intense. She is a very intense woman. I mean, we just diddled a little and each of us came . . . but it was emotionally intense.

She switched on the small TV in the corner and realized after a few minutes that it had been the wrong thing to do. On the old movies channel, To Have and Have Not was playing, starring Bogie and Lauren Bacall. Laura recalled Sara having told her that if she had been born white she would want to look like Lauren Bacall. "Sorry, Laura," she had said, with her usual sardonic wit. "You're second."

The memory was piercingly sad to Laura, who sat up watching the movie until one o'clock, trying to pay attention to it without thinking of Sara.