Only a few hours after Kendra left, Laura got a call. Hoping desperately for it to be Sara, she dashed to the phone.

"Laura? Laura Robbins? Is that you? This is Shaniqua, remember me? Shaniqua Branch, from Dallas? We met when you were here about two months ago?"

This voice, though not Sara's, sent a completely different electrical charge through Laura. She sat down next to the phone, smiling. That darling girl . . . the one with the bangs, and the lean, fetching body. The one who wanted to transfer to San Francisco. And add to my troubles.

"Shaniqua. Hi. How are you. What a pleasant surprise."

"I'm not interrupting anything? You've got a minute to talk?"

"Of course."

"I know this is really short notice and all, but I'm coming to San Francisco. I've got a flight for tomorrow morning."

"You . . . do?" Laura was still trying to absorb the shock, and also the flutter of excitement at the thought of seeing this very desirable girl again.

"Yeah . . . it was unexpected. I have this friend who works for Continental Airlines, and she got me this deal. I couldn't turn it down. I know it's short notice. I was just wondering . . . if that invitation you made me about staying at your place still holds. Don't worry, I won't be disappointed if you say no."

Laura knew that Sara would not be returning from Mississippi before Tuesday at the earliest, but she guessed that Shaniqua would be staying longer than that. It was now, after all, only Saturday night. This had fallen into her lap so suddenly that her brain was racing in the effort either to come up with an excuse or to find an alternative place for Shaniqua to stay. She wanted to allay any suspicion Sara might eventually have, and she also wanted to spend some time with this delicious girl.

"I . . . I do have something . . . coming up," she stammered, trying to think fast. "About Wednesday. Maybe as early as Tuesday. I . . . I might have to take a quick trip to Cleveland." She had no idea why 'Cleveland' came to her out of the air; she had never been to Cleveland and had no intention of going. "A quick little trip the company wants me to take."

"You know, that might just work out," Shaniqua said brightly, without missing a beat. "Because I can't stay long anyway. I would have to leave by Wednesday. Maybe we could even drive to the airport together. I mean, you could give me a ride."

Laura cleared her throat nervously. Shaniqua had pretty much invited herself, and it would take a firm rejection from Laura to dissuade her. Laura did not want to reject her. Despite her guilt feelings involving Sara, and despite her clear conviction that this delectable creature Shaniqua was no doubt completely heterosexual and had no ulterior agenda, she was unable to stop thinking about what might conceivably happen if they were alone together for a while, here in her condo.

Before she quite knew she had committed herself, she heard the words coming out of her mouth. "Okay, I think that would be great." God, what am I saying! "I mean, if I have to leave by Tuesday, you might have to find a hotel room for one night."

Shaniqua was all bubbly with infectious enthusiasm. "Oooeee!" she squealed in a joyous outburst. "I was hoping you'd say yes!"

Laura gave her a few seconds to calm down. "Tell me when you're flight is arriving. I'll drive down and pick you up."

"Oh, would you?"

This went on for several more minutes. Shaniqua gushed, and Laura tried to act like she was completely in control, as if there were no risk involved. It turned out that Shaniqua would arriving early the following day, a little before noon.

Right after this Sara, of all people, called. This was one of those situations, Laura realized, where you ended up feeling guilty for no reason at all. True, she had been indulging herself with thoughts of undressing the darling Shaniqua and kissing every inch of that dark, lean body, but Sara could not know that. And there was surely nothing wrong with having a little fantasy. It would probably never come to anything anyway, so what was the harm in imagining a hot little encounter?

Still, Laura had to make a real effort to have her voice sound calm and even. "I thought you said no calls," she said softly to Sara.

"I know," Sara said, sounding tired. "I missed you. I hate you, Laura. I never felt this way about anybody before. I'm not asking if you're alone . . . what you're doing. I don't want to know what's going on. I just wanted to hear the sound of your voice."

Now Laura felt even worse. And again, for no reason. She felt her heart filling with love for Sara and guilt over having agreed to let Shaniqua stay with her. "You are the love of my life too," she whispered, meaning it. "And nothing's happening, so just put your mind at ease. I'm sitting here soaking my feet and drinking a glass of wine and longing for you."

Actually, she was doing neither (though the longing was instantly, piercingly real) but thought this sounded natural and reassuring. She made up her mind to do both immediately after hanging up the phone.

"I want your body," she whispered into the receiver.

"My body is so beat you couldn't do a thing for it right now," Sara said, wearily.

"Bet I could," Laura flirted.

Sara had been settling financial affairs with banks, employers, insurance companies, and family members, for whom she had an astonishingly acid contempt. She had been named executor in her father's will, and even though the inheritance was small, the infighting, according to her, was acute.

Laura could almost sense the weary smile on Sara's face through the telephone. "I think you actually could," she acknowledged. "I wish you were here to do it."

They talked for a few more minutes, mostly love cooing, then hung up. Laura felt wonderful that Sara had broken her vow not to talk on the phone while she was away, and she continued to feel rotten about lusting after Shaniqua. True to her word, she poured a glass of wine and spent a half hour in her jacuzzi, thinking solely about Sara and almost absent-mindedly bringing herself to a surprising little orgasm with her hand while lying back in the warm, turbulent water and dreaming of her.

Shaniqua's flight arrived next day at mid-afternoon. Even though Laura had been floating in a blue funk of guilt over having agreed to the girl's visit and then having felt it was a certain betrayal of Sara, her mood was brightened considerably now that Shaniqua was actually here. For one thing, she had forgotten how good-looking Shaniqua was. For some reason, probably self-protective editing of recollections, she had been thinking that the girl was 'average-pretty' and nothing special. This was far from the truth, as one fresh glimpse of her proved.

Shaniqua emerged from the airplane with three different men fawning over her. She was vivacious and flirtatious and provocative all at once, enjoying the attention, leading them on outrageously. Laura, patiently waiting for her behind the red rope that kept greeters away from the debarkation gate, had two reactions. One, her thoughts that Shaniqua was so completely heterosexual that it was pointless to worry about sexual temptation were confirmed with shocking finality. Two, something about the girl made Laura want to rush up and fawn over her in exactly the same way these foolish men were doing.

She was wearing a short blue leather skirt that showed off her long, long black legs. Nobody, including Laura could keep her eyes off them. Shaniqua's dark hair fell in a swishing flag around her shoulders, and her enchanting bangs seemed to have the same effect on everyone that they clearly had on Laura. Her white, even teeth, flashing dark eyes, and easy smile had the three men and Laura almost panting as they devoured her with their eyes.

Laura swallowed dryly as she realized that this visit would be more difficult than she had thought. On the freeway, Shaniqua chattered with amazing fluency about everything while Laura tried to stay focused on the traffic and keep her eyes from darting to The Legs. Oh god, I never knew she had such gorgeous long legs when I met her in Dallas.

Shaniqua also smelled good. Laura could not tell whether it was a faint wisp of some classy perfume or just the natural odor of her body, but there was an ethereal scent emanating from her that stirred the fires in Laura's pussy. Maybe this is what those guys were smelling too, without even knowing it, probably.

She must have been focusing on all this instead of what Shaniqua was saying because as her attention drifted back to the girl's voice, she felt for a moment that she was hearing gibberish.

"So for a while," Shaniqua was saying, "I thought 'Wow, this is freako weird, you know?' I mean, I never believed in any of that shit about alien abductions and flying saucers. But I started reading their stuff and talking to this guy Jareeka who was one of the ones they took up there when they first came here, I mean not the first time, like, that was thousands of years ago, but this latest time when they returned, I guess you could say . . ."

What is she talking about? Laura wondered. Something about this guy Blas Fortuna and his group of alien clones that were planted here by outer space creatures in the year 8004 of the Stronion Era. Oh god, Laura thought, this darling girl is a member of some weird cult that believes in spacemen.

"You mean you belong to this . . . group?" she asked, mildly, wanting to say 'cult' but stopping herself, trying to keep the sharp skepticism out of her voice.

"Oh no," Shaniqua shook her head. "But I've been toying with the idea."

"Don't they . . ." Laura inquired tentatively, "sort of . . . require you to quit your job and give them all your money and move to . . . who knows, Los Angeles or something? I mean, I thought that's what all those groups do?" She wanted to add that most of them required the all the women to sleep with the cult leader, didn't they? But she restrained herself.

"It's not really L.A. A place called Rancho Mirage. You know where that is?"

Laura shook her head. "Some rich people's enclave near Palm Springs, I think. They must have a lot of money."

"Well, look at it this way," Shaniqua said, with a straight face, as far as Laura could tell, though she was paying more attention to the crazy freeway drivers. "If you were the guys responsible for putting the whole human race here in the first place, I guess you'd know where all the money is, right?"

Right, Laura thought. Even I know where the money is, and I'm not even an alien. What a strange world, she reflected. All I can think about is how much fun it would be to take this marvelous girl to bed, and yet she clearly doesn't go for popping in the sack with girls and would be shocked to find me hoping for it, and she is more interested in space aliens. Bizarre. What are we doing here in the same car?

However, she knew the answer to that question. Since it was only around three in the afternoon, before returning to her condo she took Shaniqua on a tour of some of the more popular tourist attractions. They ended up at Fisherman's Wharf for dinner, a place Laura never went except when showing somebody around. But she had a great time since Shaniqua was truly ebullient and vivacious by nature, and showed a fresh enthusiasm for every new experience. The subject of space aliens was discreetly avoided, and they enjoyed strolling the Wharf, dining on cracked crab, sourdough bread, and white wine.

They were both still a little tipsy by the time it grew dark and Laura drove them to her condo. Shaniqua almost stumbled going up the steps and had to lean briefly on Laura for support.

"Oooeee, I never drink that much wine," she giggled softly. "It's making me wobbly."

"Don't worry," Laura smiled, she hoped not too lecherously. "You can lean on me."

"This is such a fantastic place," Shaniqua said, pausing to turn around and survey the scene.

As usual, the tendrils of fog were curling among the treetops, the strange, fog-filtered yellow cones of light made by the streetlamps cast an eerie glow over everything, and it did look a little like some otherwordly refuge.

"I can't believe I'm actually here. San Francisco."

Laura unlocked the door and they went inside. "You're here, all right. You're not in Kansas any more, darling. As they say."

Shaniqua looked at her blankly. "Kansas? I came from Dallas."

Without missing a beat, Laura merely smiled and said, "Right. I forgot."

Shaniqua looked at her a little oddly, as if trying to understand how Laura could have forgotten that she came from Dallas when that was where they had met. But then she too seemed to feel like letting it pass was a good idea. We just seem to be misfiring on all cylinders, Laura thought, more exasperated than depressed. It was not really unusual to meet a person whose frames of reference seemed to be totally skewed from your own, but it was a trifle disconcerting when you were contemplating a few beautiful orgasms in her arms.

And what beautiful arms they were. Under the mango-colored sweater she wore, which she removed as they got comfortable, she had on a sleeveless blouse that showed them off to perfection. Shaniqua was very well-formed. Like her legs, her arms were long and thin but also shapely, very dark, the edges of her shoulders gleaming where the cloth of her blouse left them exposed. Laura wanted to take one smooth black arm in both hands, lift it, and run her lips all along it, from the gleaming black shoulder to the long tapering fingers.

"Why are you looking at my arm?" Shaniqua asked, suddenly self-conscious, looking down at the arm Laura had been lusting for and twisting it forward to she could scrutinize it, as if she had suddenly broken out in unsightly blotches.

Laura shrugged. "Beautiful arm. Your skin is so smooth and dark. I was just . . . admiring it."

Shaniqua relaxed. "Oh. Jeez, for a minute I thought something was wrong with it."

Whereas in the past Laura would have worried that Shaniqua had picked up some strong vibration of lust from her, she now found herself less troubled about it. She had Sara, she loved her, she had no deliberate designs on Shaniqua's wonderful body. She wanted her but did not need her desperately, which made her more comfortable about looking.

"Nothing at all is wrong with it," Laura smiled.

Shaniqua looked at her oddly.

Laura just gave her a mysterious smile and moved on. She showed her the second bedroom, which she had finally furnished with a bed and dressing table.

"Sorry, it isn't much. I just moved in here a few months ago and haven't got around to doing up a guest room yet," she apologized.

Shaniqua gave her a bright, pearly-toothed smile, plopping her suitcase down on the bed. "Cheaper than a hotel room, right?"

Laura nodded. "Especially in this town. I think they start at one-fifty a night."

"I'm still tipsy . . . and a little tired, too," Shaniqua admitted. "Mind if I just change into my jammies and my bathrobe?"

Laura shook her head. "Want to take a bath? I've got a jacuzzi in the big bathroom."

"Oh god, you can't be serious!"

Laura nodded. "I am."

She took Shaniqua into her bedroom and the adjacent bathroom and showed it to her.

"Oh god, I would die to use it," Shaniqua said, unable to keep a tiny, excited squeal out of her voice.

"You can use it as long as you're here," Laura said evenly, recalling all the bathtub, and shower seductions she had participated in over the years. "I can even bring you another little glass of wine, if you like, so you can be truly luxurious."

She prided herself in how offhand and relaxed she was going about all this. She does, or she doesn't. It won't really matter to me. Though she is pretty goddamned hot, Laura thought. I could eat her alive.

Shaniqua appeared to be thinking it over. "Why don't I just get it first. Then I can take it in with me. We won't have to worry about peekies."

"Peekies?"

"You know, like in a girl's gym. For some reason it always made me nervous. I thought people were . . . like, looking at me or something. Staring."

"I can't imagine why," Laura said, deadpan, but with a twinkle of teasing in her eyes too.

"I know why, but I'm not going to tell you."

Laura tilted her head. "Fair enough." She found herself hoping it didn't have anything to do with space aliens. "Come on, I've got a bottle I opened last night in the fridge."

She poured Shaniqua a small glass of Chardonnay and then, in the bathroom again, explained to her how to operate the jacuzzi.

"No soap. Clogs the jets, I guess. Just soak and enjoy," she smiled.

"If I don't show up in about a half an hour or so, you better come in and make sure I didn't pass out," Shaniqua grinned.

Oh goody, Laura thought. Could she really mean it? Somebody who's afraid of 'peekies'? "I'll send for the paramedics."

"You better not!" Shaniqua giggled. "Just come down the hall and holler in the door to see if I'm still alive."

The next twenty minutes or so were pleasant torture for Laura. The small motors that powered the whirlpool jets made a lot of noise, and so as she sat in the living room, sipping her own small glass of wine and leafing through a magazine, she could imagine Shaniqua all naked and black and shiny as the turbulent warm water foamed up around her smooth young flesh. Even now, paradoxically, she was not tormented by the need to fling herself on the girl and fuck her senseless, but there was no way she could ignore the images of Shaniqua's sleek, lean, wet body that danced before her inner eye.

At first she tried making her reveries veer more toward Sara. After all, she was becoming resigned to the fact that there would be no sweet intimacies with the fetching Shaniqua, who was enchanting but also a little more prim and wholesome than Laura had expected. But try as she might, she could not make an image of Sara's naked body swim into her mind due to the sound of that whirlpool in the rear bathroom going on in the background. Instead, she kept seeing Shaniqua's sleek naked body, dark and glossy, beaded with shiny droplets of water. Of course, she had never seen the girl naked, so she was imagining it all.

But it was easy to imagine. She's lying back, Laura thought, and the water is running over her thighs, bubbling and frothing, and only once in a while can you see the darker triangle of her hair patch between her legs. Not thick, meaty thighs like Sara's, or hard, swelling thighs like Kendra's, but tapering columns of black flesh, beautiful too in their thinner way. My eyes drift up to her wet breasts, exquisite little balls. Thick black nipples, dewy with moisture. Laura frowned, in the midst of her reverie. She had no idea what Shaniqua's body looked like, except for her long, shapely arms and legs. I'm just making this all up, she realized. And I never will know, either, because she seems quite oblivious to my interest in knowing.

Oh well. Life goes on. I can't have every pretty thing I meet.

Without quite knowing when, she became aware that the sound of the jacuzzi at the end of the hallway had stopped. Expecting Shaniqua to reappear at any moment, she pretended now to focus intently on her magazine. But Shaniqua did not reappear. Five, ten minutes passed. Laura put down the magazine and got up from her chair. After all, they had joked about her doing this, so why shouldn't she do it?

She walked slowly down the hallway, into her bedroom, and called to Shaniqua.

"You all right in there?"

Shaniqua peeped around the corner of the bathroom door, wrapped in a large fluffy white bath towel. She was so gorgeous and alluring at this moment that Laura nearly lost it. Water beads still glimmered on her round, bare, black shoulders. She smiled innocently.

"I nearly died of pleasure in there," she said brightly. "I'll be out in a sec."

"Okay . . ." Laura said, reluctantly withdrawing. "Just checking."

"Can I use some of this body lotion you have in here?"

Oh god, Laura thought. Not unless you let me rub it on. "Sure, go ahead."

She returned to the living room. Shaniqua did not reappear for another five minutes, during each of which Laura tried to master her swelling sexual excitement, for which she knew there was no hope at all. Just quit it, she told herself. This girl hasn't the faintest idea what you're thinking.

After a few more minutes, Shaniqua appeared wearing a simple cotton flannel nightgown that was pink with small roses all over it and covered her from throat to ankle. Even though most of her flesh was concealed, she looked so fresh and bright and sweet and sexy that Laura could feel her own pussy fluttering wildly as she watched the girl sit down on the sofa.

"You know," Laura said, clearing her throat, "I have to go to work tomorrow. It's Monday. We better make a little plan of things for you to do until I get off. Maybe I can take off a few hours early and meet you somewhere."

"I hate being a pill," Shaniqua said. "Just draw me a little map and point me in the right direction. If I get lost, I'll just bat my eyelashes at some guy. They always help me."

Laura nodded. I'll bet they do. "Come over here to the table and I'll show you a few places you might like to go on the map."

They discussed Shaniqua's itinerary for about an hour. Laura assured her she would check about jobs here, should Shaniqua want to move from Dallas. They would meet for lunch.

Shaniqua yawned and stretched. Her small breasts moved under her nightgown, drawing Laura's attention. "You must be tired," Laura said.

"That bath. That jacuzzi. I think it made me sleepy."

Off to bed with you then, dear, Laura thought. Just looking at you like this makes it harder and harder on me. Out of sight, out of mind. I hope.

Shaniqua looked drowsy but also kittenish and playful. "You know, I found something in the bathroom. Let me get it."

She got up from the table, went back down the hall, then quickly returned. She dropped on the table a small, silvery ring with a bead at each end, where it would meet in a circle if it did. It was Sara's pussy ring. Laura, who was resigned by now to nothing happening between her and Shaniqua, had been very good so far at not blushing in the face of one-way innuendoes, but this moment was different. She felt her whole face suffused by a hot, red bloom of blood.

"Is it yours?" Shaniqua asked, curiously.

Slowly, Laura shook her head. "It . . . belongs to a friend."

"I know what it is, you know," Shaniqua said, almost smugly.

"You . . . do?" Laura was so stunned and off-balance that speaking was still difficult.

Shaniqua nodded. "I used to go out with this guy, what a creep, that always had lots of porno magazines lying around. It's a pussy ring. Some girl's wear them, or whatever you call it, on their pussy. I can't imagine why. Looks like it would hurt to me. I mean, maybe not wearing it but just getting it done." She shivered involuntarily. "Eeooww."

"I know what you mean," Laura grinned.

"Anyway," Shaniqua said airily, "I was just interested in why you had it there. No big deal. I'll put it back."

She started to take the ring but Laura reached for it at the same time and their fingers met, touched, almost caressed, though accidentally. Laura looked up to see Shaniqua looking directly into her eyes. "I think I'll put it somewhere safe so I'll remember to give it back to her," Laura said.

Shaniqua smiled. "Good idea." She watched Laura pick up the ring, pulling her own shapely black hand back. "You . . . must be really close to her. I mean, for her to leave it here and everything."

Laura nodded noncommittally. "We are. I think she left it by accident, though."

"I . . ." Shaniqua seemed briefly at a loss for words. "I guess you should know that it doesn't bother me."

That's mighty good of you, darling, Laura thought. You don't mind sleeping in the same house with a lesbian? What if she gets up in the night to take a 'peeky' at you?

Shaniqua appeared to think Laura did not believe her. "Really," she emphasized. "I mean it."

"Thanks," Laura smiled warmly at her. "Want a cup of hot chocolate before bed?"

"Don't think so. That bath really did me in. What a marvelous thing to have in your own house. I think I'll just go to bed, okay? Wake me when you get up."

"Will do," Laura smiled at her, folding up the map as she watched her go down the hall to the spare bedroom and close the door behind her.

A few minutes later Laura went to bed too. And this time, while lying there trying to fall asleep, she did manage to have a successful reverie about Sara, fueled perhaps by Shaniqua's discovery of Sara's 'captive bead ring' in her bathroom. It was a short leap of the imagination from seeing the ring to seeing Sara's beautiful black pussy, with its plump outer lips and shiny wet pink interior, the tiny, miniature bullet of her clit sheltering under the little v-shaped dark tent at the top, which itself was pierced by the silvery ring only a little higher up.

It was so real she could almost smell it, almost inhale the thick, musky, pungent, fuck-me odor of it. She was half-fantasizing and half-dreaming this, lying on her back in her own bed, and it was as if Sara were there with her, squatting over her face, letting her look up into this sweet moist cavern of ecstasy, tempting her with it, beckoning her to slither her tongue right up into the warm buttery furrow. This half-dream/half-reverie made her hot, so that without knowing it she kicked off the sheet and blanket. Her fingertips were fluttering frenetically around her naked thighs, where her nightgown had ridden up.

Oh . . . Sara! Oh . . . Sara! Her fevered brain swirled with images of Sara: Sara's face grimacing in a seizure of pleasure as she came, Sara's thick, sensual lips curving into her own, Sara's sparkling, knowing black eyes, Sara's perfect, sculptured breasts, Sara's large, gleaming black nipples . . .

She was so deeply submerged in this hot, throbbing sequence that she did not even hear the soft knock on her door, or hear it opening slightly either.

"Laura?"

Seconds later Laura nearly jumped out of her skin as she felt someone lightly shaking her shoulder and awoke with a start. "Oh shit!"

"I'm sorry . . . I didn't mean to scare you," Shaniqua apologized softly.

Her eyes were big, shiny round saucers in the dark. Again Laura could smell her fresh, healthy odor and felt enormously stimulated by it, as if she were transferring the sexual arousal that was a residue of her interrupted reverie to Shaniqua. Shaniqua sat tentatively on the edge of the mattress.

"I . . . I couldn't sleep," she confessed. "I wondered if it would be all right with you if I just turned on the TV for a while." She paused, giving Laura a chance to surface out of her groggy stupor. "I didn't want you to wake up and hear it and get scared."

Laura smiled dreamily and shook her head. "I don't mind."

Again Shaniqua paused, but she did not move. "On the other hand, maybe if I just laid down here with you for a few minutes, it would calm my nerves. You know, I'm usually not like this, not at all. Spooked by the dark and everything. I guess it's just this trip, this new city, new friend, everything new. It's got me racing inside. I think if I stretched out here for a minute, I could get calm. Would that be okay with you?"

Again, Laura smiled, her head clearing finally from the drowsy sensuality in which she had been wallowing. She scooted a little to the side of her enormous bed to make room.

"Forgive me for saying so," she said in a warm, husky, even sexy voice that she was surprised to hear coming out of her throat, "but you're not going to do too well with those space aliens you were telling me about if you get spooked just sleeping your first night in San Francisco. Although, of course, some people seem to think San Francisco is outer space." She winked, wondering if Shaniqua could see it in the dark, even though their eyes were now adjusting to it. "Come on, stretch out there."

Shaniqua climbed onto the bed and stretched out the full length of her body next to Laura. She was just as long as Laura was. There was about a foot between them.

"Here . . . here's a pillow," Laura said, pushing one over to her.

Shaniqua lay on her back with her head on the pillow, staring up at the ceiling. "I think you're right about the Fortunans. That's what they call themselves. I think I would be . . . you know, like, horrified, really.

Moreover, they probably take 'peekies,' Laura thought, unable to resist this ungracious observation but sensible enough to keep it to herself. She reached over and patted Shaniqua's hand in a sisterly way. "Don't worry, you don't have to go. You're safe here."

They were silent for several minutes. Laura, though very aroused by the situation and by the continuing sweet fragrance of Shaniqua's body that kept drifting over to her, was very proud of herself for keeping her self-control. I'm not going to touch this sweet thing, she thought. I am not a predator. She's a little uneasy, and I'm not going to add to it by preying on her lovely young body.

After a while, Shaniqua broke the silence. Still staring up at the ceiling, she sounded shy and tentative, not at all her usual brash and vivacious self.

"Laura . . . mind if I ask you a question?"

"Of course not."

But Shaniqua did not ask it, not right away. Two more minutes elapsed before she again opened her mouth, and they seemed like an eternity somehow to Laura.

"I hope you won't be offended . . . but . . . would you mind my asking what it's like to . . . you know, make love . . . to another woman?"

Laura could feel a warm glow spread throughout her body so that even her toes and her fingertips began to tingle slightly. She carefully suppressed a smile that was beginning to form on her lips. When she did not answer right away, Shaniqua jumped back in nervously.

"No . . . forget I said that. I apologize. It's really none of my business . . . and very rude. You've been so nice to me, letting me stay here. Please accept my apology."

Laura turned her head slowly to face Shaniqua, but Shaniqua would not look at her. Instead, she kept staring up at the ceiling.

"I don't mind," Laura whispered. "I'll tell you this. It can be very sweet . . . and very hot. It sort of depends on the moment."

"The moment?" Shaniqua said shyly, finally turning her face to Laura's, her eyes wide and questioning.

"You know, how you both feel. Sometimes it's both sweet and hot."

Shaniqua, though it was still so dark that Laura could barely see her, looked a little frightened. Frightened of herself, Laura thought. For letting herself ask that question.

Finally, after another long silence, during which Shaniqua again lay her head on the pillow and stared up at the ceiling, Laura asked softly, "Do you want to find out?"

Shaniqua's head whipped to the side, almost in alarm, so that she was again facing Laura, her eyes wide and shiny. "Oh no . . . not me!" she giggled nervously. "I . . . I've never done anything like that. Never even wanted to."

After a second, Laura nodded and smiled. "Oh."

They looked at each other in the dark for almost a minute without speaking.

"It's okay," Laura murmured, finally. "I think you're very attractive . . . but if you don't want to, I understand. Why don't we go to sleep?"

"I don't think I can sleep. I told you, I'm just racing inside."

"Maybe if I hold you, it'll calm you down," Laura purred softly, suggestively, still not knowing how far she could go.

"Hold me? You mean put your arms around me?"

"That's usually how it's done."

Shaniqua appeared to be thinking it over. "No sex or anything though, okay?"

"Of course not. No sex. You already told me you never did anything like that. Or even wanted to."

Shaniqua nodded. She scooted closer to Laura. "Okay . . . I guess."

Laura slipped one arm under her neck, the other arm around her back, hugging her gingerly, not forcefully, though feeling the slight pressure of Shaniqua's small breasts against her own through their two nightgowns. "We'll just try it for a minute," she breathed. "To see if it works. If not, we can stop."

"Okay," Shaniqua said again in a small voice.

She began to shiver almost as soon as Laura's arms enclosed her, not violent shivering but just faint tremors of anxiety.

"What's the matter, are you cold?" Laura asked softly.

"Oh . . . no," Shaniqua shook her head. "In fact, it feels kind of good."

"Good," Laura purred, stroking Shaniqua's back gently through the flannel with her fingertips. "In a few minutes you won't be racing inside any more. You'll just be calm . . . and sleepy . . . and warm."

After a few minutes, Shaniqua said, "Laura . . . you're so sweet."

"Why do you say that?" Laura smiled, letting her fingers slowly crawl up the back of Shaniqua's nightgown to the lace-like, ruffled collar.

"Because you barely know me. And here you are, comforting me, soothing me."

"I like you."

Laura's fingers now flittered over the collar and caressed the warm, smooth, black skin of Shaniqua's beautiful neck. Shaniqua did not seem to notice, or if she did, she did not object. Laura's lips were just inches from the girl's smooth cheek. She pushed her face forward a little, closing the gap, letting her lips brush the phenomenally smooth skin.

Shaniqua let her do it and did not pull back. When she did, her eyes were dark and shiny. She had stopped quivering. "I think I'm getting better," she said.

Laura could not keep the disappointment from showing in her face, though the room was still dark and she didn't know whether Shaniqua saw it. Oh god, does that mean I have to stop holding you like this?

"I can feel your boobs through your nightgown," Shaniqua said suddenly. "Can you feel mine?"

Laura nodded. Before she quite knew what she was doing, she pushed her face gently, almost playfully, into Shaniqua's warm black neck and began kissing it sensually. Again, Shaniqua did not stop her.

"Ooohhh god . . . that feels good," she sighed, tilting her head to one side to give Laura's lips more access to the smooth column. "God, Laura, you're making me feel too good. Maybe we better stop."

Laura kissed the smooth skin under her jaw, then ran her lips up to one earlobe, tickling it with the tip of her tongue. "Do you want to stop?"

"Not really. I thought we said no sex, though."

"We did. This isn't sex. It's just playing."

Shaniqua laughed internally, a joyous little spasm that barely escaped. "I like it."

"Me too."

Since she was already tonguing Shaniqua's earlobe, it was a small leap to move her head higher still and slip her wet tongue directly into the girl's ear. Shaniqua's flesh jumped and stiffened a little momentarily in Laura's arms, and a tight little whimper of surprise escaped her lips, but then she relaxed again, though her faint quivering resumed.

"Ohhhhhhh!" she sighed, clutching Laura more tightly with her arms and hands as Laura's tongue traced the whorl of shiny black flesh, finding every crease. "Oh shit, that feels good! Pardon my language."

"You like it?" Laura purred.

"Yes. But don't do anything else. I might like it too much."

"I wouldn't think of doing anything you don't want," Laura purred.

But she noticed that all this clutching and clenching had brought their bodies more tightly together, even though the flannel of their nightgowns was still in the way. Moreover, the nightgowns presented a slight difficulty because neither one unzipped or unbuttoned. They were the kind you pulled over your head, and since they were both long, even pulling one up far enough to get your hand underneath it would be shockingly obvious. It would be 'sex,' as they had so far called it.

I want to touch her sweet, warm body, Laura thought. How am I going to do it? Without alarming her?

On the other hand, she was pretty convinced that Shaniqua was not going to back out now. She was enjoying the sensuality of Laura's tongue in her ear, Laura's lips on her gorgeous neck, Laura's breasts brushing against hers even through the soft barrier of the two flannel nightgowns.

Laura let her lips fall gently again from Shaniqua's ear down across her incredibly smooth cheek. When they were close to Shaniqua's mouth, Shaniqua suddenly turned her face a little, and there was no preventing Laura's mouth from meeting hers. Though it seemed like an accident, and may have actually been one, their lips were pressing together now seriously, non-accidentally, and Laura was giving the girl the most sensitive, romantic, careful kiss she had given anyone in a long time.

Shaniqua did not kiss back, but neither did she turn her mouth away. Laura did not try to force her to open her lips, being content with a painstakingly solemn and serious closed-lips kiss, moving her lips achingly against Shaniqua's, letting her hands caress the girl's back through the flannel, then dropping them slowly, almost imperceptibly, to her sacrum, to her swelling ass, caressing it gently too as they kissed.

Shaniqua pulled her face back slightly, squinting and smiling at Laura, her voice soft and almost hoarse, clotted with a suppressed excitement Laura recognized. "Laura . . . you're breaking the rules."

"I . . . I'm sorry," Laura said, feigning embarrassment. "What am I doing wrong?"

"You're touching my ass," Shaniqua said, a devilish sparkle in her eye. "That isn't right, is it?"

"I don't know. Is it 'sex'?"

Shaniqua shrugged and made a sexy little smirk. "I don't know . . . I guess not. I still have my nightie on."

Laura raised her fingertips to Shaniqua's cheek. "You're skin is so smooth."

"You like it?"

Laura nodded, moving her fingertips over to Shaniqua's very sensual mouth. "I like this too. Can I . . . ?"

She did not dare to say 'kiss' and so simply pushed her head forward until their lips met again. This time Shaniqua's mouth was open from the beginning, not wide, not salaciously inviting, only opening modestly so that eventually their tongues could meet just outside their teeth. Laura probed and feinted with her own tongue, but not enough to seem overly aggressive.

"Oh . . . I love to kiss you," she whispered. "You are a beautiful kisser."

Shaniqua smiled without removing her lips from Laura's. "I never kissed a girl before. I never thought I'd want to, but it's kind of fun. Maybe it's just you. I like you, Laura."

"Mmmm, I like you too."

For the first time, Laura slipped her tongue past Shaniqua's teeth and into her mouth. Shaniqua opened her mouth a little more to let it in, then met Laura's tongue with her own, pressing her lips more tightly to Laura's. This heated them both up quickly, so that their breathing accelerated, and Laura noticed they were both squirming against each other as never before.

Hating herself for being so devious, she managed to pull up Shaniqua's nightgown a little while they were panting and kissing more hungrily, until she could actually get her hand on the warm, smooth back of one long thigh. Shaniqua acted like she didn't notice and kept kissing Laura patiently and sweetly.

"I think you have your hand on my leg," she finally whispered.

"I do," Laura whispered back. "I can't help it. I want to touch you."

"Oh."

"Do you want to put your hand on mine?"

"I . . . guess so."

Laura pulled her own nightgown up too, exposing her thighs. Giving Laura a shy, furtive look, as if she were stealing candy, Shaniqua dropped one of her own hands to Laura's leg, caressing it tentatively. Laura moved her own hand up a little, toward Shaniqua's ass.

She could feel the tight crease below Shaniqua's firm round buttock with her finger, then the firm bulging flesh right above it as she raised her knuckle slightly. Shaniqua stopped their kiss in mid-progress and smiled at Laura.

"You're touching my ass now . . . and my nightie isn't in the way," she said softly, but not in an accusatory tone.

"I know. Do you mind?"

"I guess not. Maybe we should just go ahead and take these off." She gently plucked the sleeve of Laura's nightgown.

I thought you'd never ask, darling, Laura smiled back at her. "Won't it be 'sex'?"

Shaniqua was already pulling hers up and over her head. She gave Laura a killer stare. "I don't know about you, but I kind of like sex."

Laura, though mildly flabbergasted by this swerve in the road, which caught her unawares, quickly recovered and pulled her own nightgown off too. Already Shaniqua was pressing her forearm against Laura's and cooing about how cool they looked.

"I never got naked with a white person," she confessed. "Except in gym. Not the same. Look at how beautiful our skins are together, Laura. I mean, it's dark, but you can still see it."

"I know," Laura purred, tossing her nightgown across the room to a chair and carefully enfolding Shaniqua's warm, silky body in her arms again, now that they were both naked.

"Have you ever done this with a black woman before?" Shaniqua asked, perkily.

"Once or twice," Laura murmured, again burying her face in Shaniqua's exquisite neck, then kissing her shoulders, licking the skin beneath her clavicles.

"Ooooh, you do that good," Shaniqua half-giggled. "It gives me the shivers. The happy shivers. I really like feeling your body against me like this. I'm glad we took them off."

Laura realized that Shaniqua was chattering like this out of nervousness. She had done the same thing in the car on the way back from the airport.

"I'm glad you don't mind my peekies," Laura murmured softly as she continued to kiss the girl's marvelous smooth black skin. "I think you have a lot of good stuff to peek at."

Shaniqua pulled Laura's face up with both hands and kissed her. "You're so sweet. You know, one of my nipples is bigger than the other one. It always makes me a little embarrassed, so I get it out of the way at the start. Have you ever seen that? I mean, you probably have a little more experience. A lot, actually, since I've never done this at all. With a girl, I mean."

Laura knew that bilateral symmetry was rarely perfect, and she had indeed known women who had one breast slightly larger than the other; usually the right one, if they were right-handed, and vice versa. She could not recall, however, anyone who had one nipple larger than the other.

"Let me see," she said, with true childish innocence. "Let me turn on a small light. Better yet, let me light a candle."

For just such occasions as these, Laura kept a fat, fragrant candle in a saucer on the bedstand, and it took her only a few seconds to get a book of matches from the drawer and light it. The soft, flickering candlelight was bewitchingly romantic in any circumstances, let alone at this moment, when her eyes fell on Shaniqua's long, dark, delicious naked body for the first time.

It was every bit as ravishing as she had expected. "Oh god, you're beautiful," she could not help saying.

But Shaniqua's eyes, wide and shiny, were focused on Laura's naked body, and she too seemed transfixed. "You too."

Laura stretched out languidly beside her and pulled her down into an easy embrace, pushing their naked breasts together, kissing Shaniqua's smooth black cheek, running her fingertips up and down the girl's long, sinuous back.

"Just kiss me for a minute. Before we go on."

"Mmmmm," Shaniqua smiled sensually. "I guess I can do that. You feel good."

"You feel more than good. You feel like heaven."

She kissed Shaniqua's round black shoulders, and her throat, and her smooth upper chest. Pulling back a little, enchanted by the ways the candlelight seemed to lick the smooth dark planes of Shaniqua's naked flesh the way she wanted to do with her own tongue, she glanced down at the girl's small, beautiful breasts. They were perfect, not large, but perfectly proportioned to her long, lean body, not saggy in the slightest but firm and round, her nipples highly placed, giving each breast an upswept appearance.

In fact, they were so gorgeous that you didn't notice the anomaly Shaniqua was so concerned about. Her left nipple was indeed a tiny bit larger than her right one. They were both delectable puffy little black satin cones with springy center nubs, mouthwatering, Laura thought. They were not extra-large, like Sara's, but not tiny either, just soft, swollen bulbs of black candy that Laura was eager to taste.

She glanced up to see Shaniqua scrutinizing her face in the flickering candlelight, as if Laura were going to drop a bombshell.

Laura's eyelids felt heavy with sex. She now wanted this girl desperately. "I want to taste the small one first . . . then the bigger one," she murmured. "Okay?"

Shaniqua nodded slowly. "You don't think they're . . . funny looking?"

Now Laura suspected that Shaniqua was doing a little fishing for compliments. Nobody, even looking in the mirror, could mistake these perfect breasts for anything but the masterpieces they were.

"I think they are so beautiful," Laura purred, taking both naked breasts in her hands and running her thumbs lightly over the springy bulbs of Shaniqua's nipples.

She bent her head and extended her tongue, slightly lifting Shaniqua's right breast with her palm and licking the smaller nipple with long, sensual swipes. Shaniqua quivered, looking down. When it was wet and shiny with Laura's warm saliva, she drew it slowly into her mouth, feeling Shaniqua's back muscles tense a little as the excitement grew more acute.

"Unhhhh!" Shaniqua gasped softly.

For several seconds Laura did not even suck this marvelous, puffy little miracle but instead massaged it sensually with her tongue, luxuriating in the feel of the sensitive wet bud in her mouth, feeling it thicken and stiffen. When she finally did begin to suck it gently, Shaniqua gave a faint whimper, so faint that Laura almost could not hear it, as if it were coming from the next room. Then she felt the girl's fingers sliding through her hair to her scalp, clutching her head, holding it steady, as if encouraging Laura, or certainly begging her not to stop.

"I don't know how I can go on to the other one, I love this one so much," Laura smiled up at her, taking a breather, then sucking Shaniqua's excited nipple back into her mouth for more passionate attention.

"Ohhh!" Shaniqua gasped. "You don't have to hurry. God, that feels good!"

Laura meant what she said. She was in no hurry. She sucked Shaniqua's delicious smaller nipple, then released it from her mouth to toy with it, teasing the wet black bulb with her tongue, lashing it, pinching it with her lips, then sucking it inside her warm mouth again, sucking harder, sucking more of Shaniqua's small breast into her mouth along with Shaniqua's nipple. This minor increase in passion seemed to tip the balance for Shaniqua, whose fingertips now dug spastically into Laura's scalp, and whose soft whimpering now keened up semi-hysterically.

"Annhhh . . . annhhhh . . . oh Jesus Laura oh god oh yes . . . god that feels good! Unhhh!"

Laura looked up at her face, smiling, slowly releasing Shaniqua's wet, excited nipple from her mouth. "Can I do it to the other one too?"

Shaniqua's dark eyes were cloudy and glassy, her mouth contorted in a slash of intense pleasure and sexual excitement. "You better," she half-grinned. "Oh god, you do that good."

"Mmmm," Laura grinned up at her, moving across to her scrumptious other breast, gazing lustfully at Shaniqua's still-virgin (to me, at least, she thought) slightly larger nipple, which was even a little puffier and tent-like than the smaller one. "Does it make you all wet and horny?"

Shaniqua looked down, watching Laura's wet pink tongue snake out and encircle her nipple, then stab the center nubbin playfully. "God, it makes me hornier than shit," she panted. "Excuse my language."

Does it make you want me to fuck you, darling? Laura thought, not daring to say it yet, though she was sure the answer would be yes. Since she knew the temperature level had risen pretty fast, she wondered whether she should raise it even more, devouring this girl in a hot whirlwind of passion, as she was very tempted to do, or draw things out, let the temperature percolate and simmer, until they were both clawing each other with need.

I'll let her pace it, she thought, feeling Shaniqua's long, slender body begin to undulate slowly under her. Shaniqua settled onto her back from her side position, inviting Laura to roll more on top of her, still watching intently as Laura sucked and teased her left nipple, her eyes rolling up occasionally when Laura sucked it harder than usual. She was becoming more and more aroused, panting harder, whimpering faster, her fingers now dancing in a frenzy through Laura's hair, her hips twisting.

"Oh! Oh!" she sighed, her head falling back, then tilting up again as she insisted on watching Laura's mouth and hands on her saliva-wet breasts. "Oh . . . Laura!"

"Oh, yes, baby . . . yes," Laura purred. "I love your beautiful body. I want all of your beautiful body. I want to lick it . . . everywhere. It's so beautiful. I love your smooth dark skin . . . I want to kiss it . . . everywhere," she repeated softly, caressing Shaniqua's long firm stomach, her sides, feeling the smooth ripple of her ribcage under her fingertips, letting her hands descend slowly lower, until they were caressing Shaniqua's long slender thighs.

"Oh . . . Laura!"

"I want to kiss your secret places . . ." Laura whispered, now trailing her lips across the marvelous smooth plane of Shaniqua's taut belly. "I want to kiss your lovely pussy . . . do you want me to kiss your pussy?"

"Oh god!" Shaniqua gasped.

But this was not a 'no'. It was more on the order of: How will I be able to keep myself from exploding if you kiss my pussy?

Laura was eager to find out. She was also unable to tear herself away from each heavenly, black velvet inch of Shaniqua's incredible flesh. She brushed the warm skin of Shaniqua's stomach and lower belly with her lips, sliding them around the small patch of glistening black pubic hair to her inner thigh, kissing it hungrily. This allowed her to gently push Shaniqua's thighs open farther, exposing the dark treasure between them, a very long, thin slit, only now beginning to glisten along the seam with shiny beads of moisture.

Since she had been preoccupied with dreams and visions of Sara for days, it was impossible for Laura not to reflect on how different Shaniqua's pussy was from Sara's, one so thick and puffy and plump, the other this thin, very long line that she had to coax open with the tips of her fingers. But seeing the wet, red, squishy inner flesh slowly revealed as she pulled Shaniqua's cunt lips apart was like having a curtain pulled away and heaven itself exposed.

"Oh god, you have such a beautiful pussy, Shaniqua," she said in hushed tones, slowly but deliberately sliding her tongue forward, between the long, thin pussy lips and into the warm, oozing, buttery pit.

"Unhhh!" Shaniqua suddenly gasped, her body jerking slightly but trying to remain calm as Laura carefully but methodically began to enjoy her feast. "Oh!" she whimpered.

"Take it easy, darling . . . just relax," Laura purred to her, now licking the long, blossoming slit from top to bottom, then back up again, this time pulling up the tiny hood at the top with her fingertips and exposing Shaniqua's pretty little bullet-shaped clit, tenderly touching it with the tip of her tongue.

"Oh!" Shaniqua groaned again, her hips quaking almost helplessly this time.

"Oh, you're not going to come yet, no no," Laura murmured. "I want to enjoy this beautiful pussy for a long time before you come."

She glanced up to see Shaniqua biting her lower lip, her face contorted in excruciating pleasure. She held her eyes for a second before Shaniqua's head plopped back down on the mattress.

For the next two minutes, Laura made love to Shaniqua's exquisite pussy with elaborate skill and care, determined to give her the absolute heights of sexual pleasure but not to allow her to come too fast. Shaniqua's beautiful, sleek young body seemed marvelously responsive, very sensitive, easily aroused, and so Laura was extra cautious, very aware that the slightest overstepping on her part might bring on an explosion that she wanted to postpone as long as she could.

"Mmmm, baby . . . do you want to come?" she teased finally, feeling Shaniqua's entire body quiver with need.

"Oh, god . . . yes! But Laura . . . I can't ever come this way, I should tell you," she panted, propping herself up on her elbows and looking down at Laura's face between her yawning thighs, giving Laura's eyes yet another chance to devour her enchanting small breasts and now up-jutting, taut black nipples. "I've never been able to come this way."

Laura paused and smiled up at her. "Until now, you mean."

Shaniqua smiled back, half-embarrassed. "Even now. I feel . . . like I'm going to, but then I know I'm not, if you know what I mean."

Laura did know. She understood that the most potent sex organ was located between one's ears, as they saying went. I should have just swarmed over her and fucked her in a whirlwind of hot hunger, as I wanted to do a few minutes ago, she thought.

It's just because nobody, no guy, ever knew how to lick this gorgeous pussy before, darling, she wanted to tell Shaniqua. Auntie Laura knows just how to treat a hall-of-fame juice box like this one, and I can have you doing the Swiss yodel in thirty seconds, my dear. I guarantee it.

But suddenly another impulse swept through her mind and body, and before she quite knew what she was doing, she had slid her body up and slipped one leg under one of Shaniqua's thighs. Shaniqua was a little startled by this move too, and though foggy with desire and sexual need, she gazed up at Laura with wonder in her black eyes.

"I want to feel my pussy against your beautiful cunt," Laura, now seized and shaken by the desire to do it, explained to her.

She didn't hesitate but pushed the frothing, inflamed furrow of her own aching pussy directly against the long, blossoming red seam of Shaniqua's, scissoring Shaniqua's pelvis with her thighs and pumping in slow fuck-rhythm in order to make Shaniqua feel every acute and thrilling sensation of their wet, sensitive flesh sliding together. Shaniqua's eyes rolled up. Her body sagged, as if going limp in submission to Laura's clearly loving aggression, giving herself, her body, her pussy, everything to Laura's increasingly eager hip thrusts.

"Ohhhh . . . unhhh!" she grunted softly, now swirling her pelvis up into Laura's thrusts. "Oh yes! Oh god . . . Laura . . . I never . . ."

But her moans quickly obliterated her words, and Laura never knew what 'she never'. She didn't care much either at this moment, because now they were truly fucking, and the feeling of Shaniqua's hot slit against hers was nearly enough to send her into a delirium of frantic lust.

"I just . . . want . . . to eat you alive," she panted to Shaniqua, leaning forward, touching every part of the girl's dark, smooth body that she could reach, wanting to kiss her and suck her desperately at the same time that her own groin pumped and gyrated into Shaniqua's.

Remembering how she had nearly consumed Mavis by trib-fucking her this way during their last time together, Laura began grinding and pumping more vigorously, bringing Shaniqua quickly along with her, slipping one hand down between their mated groins and maneuvering her own and Shaniqua's cunt lips open so that they could feel the startling, hot slipperiness of their pussies sliding together. It was always an imperfect business, but with a little ingenuity and effort you could make it supremely intense and thrilling, and Laura was eager to go the whole way with this delicious girl.

The combination of Laura's effort and the sheer intensity of the experience seemed to send both of them into a slow, rhythmic, gyrating trance of serious fucking for several minutes. They didn't talk and didn't need to talk, sunk instead in a deep, pulsating physical connection so stirring that words and even panted endearments or playful obscenities were superfluous. Shaniqua was on her back, her crotch locked tightly to Laura's, gasping and churning, her small, exquisite breasts swirling and jiggling as Laura pumped her more and more vigorously, while Laura was half-sitting, propped on her long arms, unable to resist the sight of the beautiful girl she was fucking, and also eager to get the added leverage she could get by pushing with her arms as well.

From time to time Shaniqua's eyelids would flutter open, and she would gaze into Laura's eyes with frantic physical hunger, her facial expression making it very clear that she had never known sexual pleasure quite this deep. For Laura, the more they churned and slid their aching, oozing cunts together, the more sexual frenzy she could feel pouring through her own body and mind. The feeling she had had earlier that she should simply fling herself onto Shaniqua and consume her in a savage white flame of passion returned, and this time she knew the girl was aroused enough to accept it willingly.

And she realized that somehow the fire was catching, for she could feel Shaniqua's body growing tenser and more urgent too as it undulated and strained under the force of Laura's grinding pelvis.

"Oh honey . . ." Laura gasped. "Are you going to come now?"

"Oh shit . . . I think so . . ." Shaniqua panted, her lovely face screwed up in a tight grimace of need. "Oh god, Laura, I love it! Do it harder!"

Laura could control her burning hunger no longer. Bending up and forward, she managed to shift her groin a little so that she could press more of their bodies together, still however grunting softly and swirling her hips to rub her pussy more and more frantically against Shaniqua's. This new position brought her pubic bone up and actually made her exposed clit mash into Shaniqua's, which both felt instantly. It was as if an electrical charge shot through their bodies.

Shaniqua sagged a little, and whimpered, but Laura quickly grabbed her, pressing her own hot flesh against the limp girl and fucking her now in a wild frenzy, rubbing their pulsing clits together, squeezing Shaniqua's exquisite small naked breasts roughly in her hands, gasping to her, knowing both were on the edge of a killer climax, one that just might grip them at the same instant.

"Oh . . . I want to eat you alive!" she panted heavily, sliding her arms under Shaniqua's back, half-lifting her torso and jamming her own cunt into the girl's streaming slit repeatedly, violently, grunting and gasping in a fiery clench of incredible desire.

"Oh yes . . . Laura . . . oh yes! Unghh! Oh! Unghh!" Shaniqua gasped back to her, trying to match the frenzy of Laura's frantic hip thrusts with her own.

"Oh Shaniqua . . . you are so . . . beautiful!" Laura panted, suddenly feeling a hot stab of even more intense excitement deep inside her cunt, knowing that the moment was near.

Oh god, I'm going to come before she does! Laura panicked.

"Annggh! Oh! Oh Laura . . ."

"Come with me, baby!" Laura chanted, bending even closer to her, doing a kind of contortionist hairpin lean forward that surprised even her. "Come with me . . . come with me now!"

"Oh! Oh!" Shaniqua whimpered helplessly. "Yes! Ungghhh! Yes!"

From this second on they were both enveloped in a hot, throbbing haze that swirled around their straining, flexing bodies and wrenched them simultaneously. Laura quickly came so hard that she could only barely perceive through her shocking spasms that Shaniqua was coming too, in her arms, quaking and groaning.

"Awwonnnggg . . . ahnngghhiieeee!" Shaniqua cried out, arching her body, quivering helplessly as one wracking spasm after another shook her lean body.

"Aunnngghhhh!" Laura groaned. "Oh honey . . . oh! Honey! Unngghh! Aunngghhh!" she groaned again, her body riven by sharp shocks of killing pleasure.

"Oh, Laura!" Shaniqua moaned, going limp in Laura's arms, then stiffening again as another orgasmic quake gripped her. "Onngghhmmnnggiieee!"

Finally, the worst (or the best) passed, and they lay side by side, stretching out now to relieve the cramped muscles of their legs, cooing and panting, quivering with aftershocks. Laura, still thrilled by this moment, unwilling to let it pass, ran her hands all over Shaniqua's smooth naked body. She dipped one hand again into Shaniqua's crotch, rubbing her slippery wet pussy gently but insistently, trying to give her perhaps one last jolt. At the same time she kissed her cheek fervently.

Shaniqua smiled at her, still half-stunned by the ride. She gently undulated her hips, swirling her pussy up into Laura's hand as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

"You trying to make me come again, you devil?" she asked.

"I'm not a devil," Laura shook her head, wide-eyed. "I'm your fairy godmother here to take you to paradise. Again and again."

Shaniqua squinted, and her eyes rolled up briefly. "You keep that up, and it's gonna happen," she grinned. "I never came like that."

"You mean by rubbing your pussy against another girl's?"

Shaniqua laughed softly, sexily. "That too. But I mean so sudden . . . so quick. So . . . unexpected."

"I knew you were going to come," Laura purred. "I knew it. I could feel it in your body. Anyway, it wasn't unexpected. We were doing it for about five minutes before we both came. That's a long time for me."

"Not for me," Shaniqua admitted. "Sometimes it takes me twenty minutes. My boyfriend really gets pissed. He hates waiting that long. Usually he has to go ahead and finish, then bring me along behind him. He hates that."

"Let's not talk about him," Laura said, firmly.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Shaniqua said, embarrassed. "I didn't mean to bring him up, really. Sex with him is nothing like . . . what we just did together. Wow. Like I said, I never came like that."

She leaned closer to Laura, brushing her lips against Laura's bare shoulder.

"And not just the quickness, either," she whispered. "It was stupendous."

"Does that mean you'd like to do it again?" Laura teased, stretching languidly beside her, rubbing their naked bodies together.

Shaniqua nodded solemnly. "I want you to know that I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I've come more than once with a guy. I just can't seem to get it going the second time." She smiled and brushed her enchanting bangs aside self-consciously with the fingers of one hand. "But with you . . . somehow I think I could. You're different. You're special."

"I'm so glad you think so."

"There's one way I always come, though," Shaniqua, who was something of a chatterbox, chattered on.

Laura tilted her head sympathetically and smiled. "Tell me?"

"From behind. You know, doggy style. Somehow it lights my fire. I come. I can't help it."

Laura listened with interest.

"I was thinking," Shaniqua continued. "Remember that ex-boyfriend I told you about? The one who had all the porno magazines lying around? Some of the girls in those pictures had these . . . you know, fake cocks with harness thingees. Have you got anything like that?"

Now Laura embraced her, burying her face in the delicious girl's long, black neck, nuzzling her mercilessly, dropping her hands to Shaniqua's incredible ass, which she had been too busy to visit so far but which she could immediately tell was in the masterpiece class.

"Oh, you darling creature," Laura giggled, nuzzling her neck and pinching her smooth ass cheeks, "do you want me to fuck you doggy style with my strap-on dildo?"

"Oh shit . . . yesssss," Shaniqua gasped, shivering and wriggling as Laura playfully tormented her. "You do have one? Will you do it?"

Laura played coy for a second. "I guess you could twist my arm."

Now Shaniqua turned sensual and kittenish, rubbing her warm smooth flesh against Laura like a cat wanting to be scratched and petted. "I'm kind of new at this," she murmured, kissing Laura's cheek, "but I think I could return the favor."

Laura could hardly believe they had been fucking and climaxing only a few minutes ago, so overcome was she at this moment by a hot rush of fierce sexual desire for this enchanting girl. She took Shaniqua's face in both hands and kissed her mouth ravenously. Now that the cat-and-mouse was behind them and they had shared a scorching meltdown of shared orgasms, Shaniqua was no longer shy either, and she kissed Laura back hungrily, squeezing Laura's ass, running her hands up to Laura's breasts.

"I don't think it's going to take me very long, either," she panted in Laura's ear. "I'm getting pretty hot. Where do you keep that thing? Better get it quick."

But Laura was so enchanted by Shaniqua's long, smooth, sinuous dark body that she couldn't tear herself away from it, even long enough to go to the drawer and retrieve the strap-on dildo. Now that she knew what was in the future, she intended to enjoy Shaniqua's body thoroughly first.

"I want to kiss the little one again," she murmured, dropping her mouth to Shaniqua's perfect little breasts. "I didn't get enough of it last time."

At first Shaniqua began to giggle softly, but almost immediately the giggles turned to moans as Laura slurped and sucked her smaller nipple into her mouth. It's really not that much smaller, Laura thought, swirling her tongue around the silky wet bud and feeling it stiffen. Only a little smaller. And very flavorful. I could swallow it.

"Ohhhnnnnn! You really like them, don't you," Shaniqua gasped, giggling, then moaning, then giggling again as she looked down at her black, shiny nipple disappearing into Laura's mouth. "Oh shit, Laura, that feels good!"

As she sucked, pulling some of Shaniqua's firm breast into her mouth along with the thickening nipple, Laura again ran her hands down to the girl's delightfully out-curved rump, kneading the firm balls of her smooth ass, tickling the crack between them with her fingertips. "Oh god, you have a beautiful ass," she whispered, letting Shaniqua's shiny wet nipple, now erect and pointing, out of her mouth for a brief second.

Shaniqua gave her a pleased smile. "Most people like it."

"I love it. I want to kiss it . . . and bite it . . . and suck it."

Seductively, Shaniqua lifted her other breast toward Laura's mouth with her hand. "Suck this one first. God, I love the way you do that. You suck so much harder than most guys. And longer, too."

Delirious with renewed lust, Laura moved her mouth to Shaniqua's other, slightly larger nipple and began to tongue and suck it hungrily.

"Oh! Ahnnnnnn . . . oh yes! Unhhhhh! Oh god, yes!" Shaniqua whimpered.

Now Laura dug her fingers into the resilient, springy round flesh of Shaniqua's fantastic bottom. "I want to fuck you," Laura panted, again letting Shaniqua's wet, shiny black nipple slip out of her mouth for a moment. "I want to fuck you . . . like you said . . . from behind. I can't wait. I need to fuck you."

"God, you make me hot," Shaniqua confessed, panting and squirming now herself. "Yes . . . do me. Do me quick. I think I can come so fast. You're getting me so hot."

In a flash Laura was off the bed and dashing to the bureau, where she quickly opened the drawer and retrieved the strap-on dildo and harness. She hopped back on the bed with it, quickly slipping on the harness, holding the shaft in one hand. Though her eyes were glazed and her body fluid with sexual energy and need, Shaniqua reached out one long, slender black finger and ran it along the ridges.

"Oooohhhh, let me see it!" she gasped. "It looks so . . . wicked. I bet those feel wonderful!"

Laura dropped the shaft, letting it bob between her hips, and took Shaniqua's lovely face in both hands, kissing her again solemnly, a preliminary to the scorching sex she knew was about to take place. It was a romantic, slow, wet kiss, with lots of tongue and meaningless murmuring, during which the simmering lust they both felt seemed to swell to unmanageable levels.

Without speaking, Shaniqua broke off the kiss and settled fluidly to the mattress, face down, her fantastic ass uptilted to Laura. The puckered, swollen seam of her wet pussy, glimmering red and shiny, was visible below the beautiful dark moons of her buttocks. Laura could not keep her hands off them. She ran her fingers over the resilient, smooth flesh, squeezing the moons, pinching them, then scooting back so she could bend her face down to them. She licked the firm moons of Shaniqua's perfect bottom sensually, then kissed them hungrily, and ended up by nipping each one in a passionate, feverish assault.

This treatment drove Shaniqua completely wild. Looking back over her shoulder at Laura love-mauling her high, round ass cheeks, she whimpered and moaned continuously, biting her lower lip, whooping as Laura's fingers and tongue detoured briefly into the dark crease between her moons.

"Oh! Oh god! Fuck me, Laura . . . I can't wait!" she whooped. "Please . . . fuck me now . . . please!"

It was impossible for Laura to keep the thought of fucking this delicious girl in her ass out of her mind, but the urgency they both felt at this instant made any deviation superfluous. Doing that would only deflect them from satisfying this incredible need they both felt. It would take oil, and preparation, and patience, and going slowly. Neither of them could tolerate going slowly at this instant. Shaniqua needed to be fucked, and Laura needed to fuck her.

"Yes, honey . . . yes, honey . . ." Laura panted, quickly rising and getting into position on her knees behind her.

Resting one hand on one of Shaniqua's delectable black moons, and captivated momentarily by the striking contrast of her own pale skin against the girl's delicious sleek black ass, with the other hand Laura guided the ridged shaft of the dildo up to the swollen, inflamed mouth of Shaniqua's beautiful, distended cunt. Carefully, she introduced the thick head of it between the long, curvy, shiny wet black lips of Shaniqua's gaping slit, sliding it into the glistening dark pink slippery flesh between them.

"Auungghhhhhhh!" Shaniqua groaned as the entire shaft slid into her body. "Oh yes! Oh Jesus!"

Laura, though pushing slowly, slid the pole into Shaniqua as far as it would go, until, looking down, she could see barely an inch of it protruding. Shaniqua seemed to be in a blissful state, cooing and gurgling softly, then panting as Laura's fingers began to rub and massage and squeeze her ass cheeks while she pulled the shaft out again, though not all the way. As long as they were both moving this slowly, there was no need for her to grasp it with her fingers, to hold or steady it. Shaniqua was very wet, and the dildo slid in and out of her slippery pussy easily, leaving Laura free with her hands to caress and rub the girl's marvelous ass at the same time that she fucked her.

She took the time to lean forward over Shaniqua, kissing her long naked back, nuzzling her shoulder blades and nipping the nape of her neck, even breathing hotly in her ear. "Oh baby, you are so gorgeous," she panted, not even moving her hips, leaving the shaft sunk deep in Shaniqua's writhing body as she made love to her back and her shoulders, then dropped her hands once more to the small, firm black melons of her ass.

"Oh! Ungghh!" Shaniqua gasped as again Laura withdrew the dildo, holding it this time with two fingers to make sure it did not come completely out, then pushed it back in harder, and deeper.

"Do you like it?" Laura panted softly, realizing how frantically aroused both of them were already.

This isn't going to last long, she thought. She was right. It really fans her flames. Look at the way she's swooping her ass back into me.

"Oh shit . . . Laura . . . yes! Oh!" She looked back over her shoulder, her face grimacing with sexual pleasure. "Do it . . . deeper. Please. I can take it."

Smiling, Laura ran her hands up again to the backs of Shaniqua's shoulders, grasping them, massaging them, holding her there while ramming the dildo into her harder and deeper. "Mmmm, you want me to fuck you hard, don't you," she purred, now gyrating her hips more vigorously.

"Ungghh! Ungghh!" Shaniqua grunted, her eyes rolling up as the thrusts grew more passionate and fierce. "Oh god, yes!"

Without holding the dildo in her hand, Laura didn't dare to really let things rip, but for the moment she leaned forward and down over Shaniqua's back, pressing her own naked breasts into the smooth, warm expanse of it, nipping her shoulders with her teeth, and wiggling her hips every so slightly so that Shaniqua could feel the long shaft moving inside the wet, snug sheath of her cunt. Tiny excited whimpering came from deep in Shaniqua's chest as she pushed her ass up and back into Laura's strokes.

She began to writhe and squirm under Laura as the sexual flame in them both grew hotter. Laura was thrilled to feel the transformation of Shaniqua from a coy, self-conscious girl into a real wanton fuck bunny, who quivered and flexed her marvelous young body and beseeched Laura to devour and ravish her with sweet fucking.

"Oh! Harder . . . unghhh! Yes! Harder, Laura! Ohhhh . . . Laura! Unghh! Deeper, yes! Fuck me . . . deeper! Ungghh! Oh Laur—"

Quickly, overcome by the hot, hammering lust in her own body too, Laura pulled herself up and began screwing the darling Shaniqua in earnest. With the fingers of her right hand, still steadying herself by holding Shaniqua's smooth, beautiful black ass with her left, she grasped the strap-on dildo securely and rammed it up into Shaniqua's clinging cunt, pushing it in so far that she could barely keep her fingers in contact with it as her thighs nudged up against the moons of Shaniqua's bottom. She repeated this plunging motion three or four more times, and Shaniqua seemed to come positively unglued.

She did know her own body, and did know she would more easily climax this way, and Laura was now thoroughly convinced. Shaniqua seemed to fall into some frothing, maniacal delirium, scrunching her knees forward on the mattress to uptilt her cunt even more to Laura's thrusts. And this made the dildo ram into her body even deeper, so that with each thrust she yelped and whinnied and began to pump backward even faster.

"Ungghmmmnniieee! Ungghh! Yes! Ungghhh! Mnnggiieee! Oh! Yes! Oh fuck, Laura, yes! Oh shit . . . I'm . . . I'm going to do it! Oh!"

Laura was equally caught up in the hot maelstrom and complied by stabbing the strap-on deeper into Shaniqua's uptilted cunt each time, ramming it deep, rising up over her quivering ass and sinking the thick, rippling rod as far as it would go into the girl's flowing pussy. Oh, you beautiful thing! she thought, running her free hand along Shaniqua's flexible waist, then back down to her ass, then dipping two fingers between Shaniqua's cheeks to lightly caress her little pinched-closed asshole.

For her part, Shaniqua went wild, even wilder than before, and turned—to Laura's shock and deep delight—into a real screamer. Before she even had an orgasm, she was screaming and wailing and thrashing around under Laura like a person being murdered by pleasure. Never had Laura been so happy to be in her new, soundproof place, where Shaniqua's piercing shouts and shrieks could not be overheard.

"Onngghhnnggiieeee! Ohhhnngg! Unghh! Laura . . . yes ungghhh! Aunngghhiieee! Onnggmmmhnniiee!" Shaniqua screamed, twisting and clenching under Laura's hammering dildo-cock, whimpering, whinnying, then unleashing another cascade of shrieks.

" Onngghhnnggiieeee! Aunngghhiieee! Onnggmmmhnniiee!"

"Yes . . . baby . . . yes, baby!" Laura chuffed, panting wildly herself, holding the wet dildo tighter with her fingers so that it would not slip out, fucking Shaniqua heatedly, fiercely, passionately, feeling her own pussy flame and throb and give every hint of going off by itself without any more help than this frantic plunging she was doing.

And then, paradoxically, when Shaniqua actually did come, the screams stopped for a few seconds, completely throttled and chopped off by a shattering climax that stole any breath she had left in her exhausted lungs. Her body made a huge, violent jerk back and upward into Laura, then exploded into sharp spasms as she lay under Laura, wheezing and gurgling. Finally, she found her breath again and let out another horrific, though ecstatic, scream.

"Unggghhh! Ommmngghiimmnnieeeeeee!" she wailed, grimacing sharply, her body again jackknifing back and up into Laura as another fierce shock struck her.

Holy shit, Laura thought, clinging desperately to Shaniqua's beautiful, thrashing body, trying to make sure the strap-on dildo did not come out. This girl comes like it was the end of the world. She is so gorgeous. She's not even finished yet.

And it was true. Even though the shockwaves became less pronounced, Shaniqua was still hit by them repeatedly as she lay whimpering and gasping under Laura, her smooth flesh quivering uncontrollably, until finally, minutes later, they waned enough for Laura to push herself up and slowly begin extracting the thick shaft from Shaniqua's thoroughly pleasured cunt.

Shaniqua moaned the whole time until it was completely out. "Ohhhhhh god, Laura, how am I going to live without you?" she smiled, her face still blasted and stunned by ecstasy. "I never came like that before. God, the ridges on that thing are killer."

Slipping gracefully out of the harness and wiping the dildo off on the edge of the sheet, Laura stretched out beside her and kissed her back and shoulders, stroking the smooth black skin with her fingertips, since Shaniqua was still lying face down on the mattress.

"Tell you what," she murmured. "I'll get you one just like it. My gift."

"It won't be the same," Shaniqua pouted playfully, now looking up. "I need you driving it from behind. God, you fuck just like a man. Better than a man. You know just when to go slow and go fast."

Laura had heard so many times, from so many others, how great were the orgasms she delivered that she had begun to discount it as an effusion of the moment, caused by an especially acute and thrilling pleasure. She knew a lot could go into making up the sum quality of a particular orgasm, and she didn't want to take credit for more than she deserved, although she was entirely devoted to making each current lover have the best one attainable at the moment.

"Thank you," she murmured to Shaniqua, still kissing and rubbing her.

Shaniqua, now relaxed and satiated, coiled together with her, and soon was returning the favor, as she had put it. Laura helped her into the harness, and a few seconds later was being deliciously fucked missionary style by the beautiful girl, culminating in a rhapsodic orgasm during which she was sure she screamed almost as loudly as Shaniqua had.

"You know," Shaniqua confessed in a whisper before they fell asleep side by side in Laura's bed, "I think I might have to dump that boyfriend of mine when I get back to Dallas. This is just too good. Nothing like this with him, no siree. I think I have to move here so I can get this on a steady basis."

Laura smiled in the dark, having just snuffed out the candle. "I think there are plenty of women in Dallas who'd be glad to devote their attentions to this lovely body," she said, caressing and stroking and kissing Shaniqua's flesh affectionately.

"You know, I don't have to leave until Wednesday morning. If you don't have to go to Cleveland on Tuesday, we've still got at least two more days to do this."

She sounded to Laura like a little child let loose in a toy store.

"Plus," Shaniqua added, "you were going to find out if there are any jobs I can transfer to."

Laura smiled again and kissed her, trying not to feel any anxiety in the back of her mind about Sara's return. "I won't know until tomorrow if I have to go," she murmured, now in the darkness becoming aroused all over again and brushing her lips across Shaniqua's lovely face, inhaling the fresh, rich odor of sex on her body, the sex they had just shared, the hot fucking. "But I promise I will check about the job. First thing in the morning."

Shaniqua was silent for a moment, which gave Laura more chance to kiss and caress her. "Mmmm, you're getting me all tingly again, Laura. But if you want to know the truth, I'm a little tired. And my pussy is a little tender. Can we make love again in the morning instead?"

Laura grinned and nuzzled her smooth cheek. "Only if you promise me we can. I haven't had enough of this lovely body yet."

Even in the dark, Laura could sense how flattered Shaniqua was. "Am I as pretty as your other girl friends?"

Laura nibbled her ear. "Honey, you put the rest of them in the shade."

Shaniqua giggled softly, pleasantly, a very fetching giggle. "You're just saying that because you like my big nipple and my little nipple."

"Mmmm, I sure do," Laura whispered, dropping her head, descending toward Shaniqua's breasts with her mouth.

But Shaniqua pulled her face up again. "Now now. You said we could wait. I'm a little sleepy. Just hold me like this and kiss me good night. Okay?"

Laura fluffed Shaniqua's enchanting bangs across her forehead with the fingers of one hand. The deep darkness that had enveloped them after she had snuffed out the candle had given way now to a dimness that made it a little easier to see.

"Okay," she whispered back. "In the morning, though, before work, I am going to take you to paradise at least twice."

"Oh shit . . ." Shaniqua half-gasped, "I can hardly wait."