Laura and Sara, for their habitual Friday evening dinner out, decided to try a trendy place in the Hayes Valley neighborhood called Bistro Rondine. Since Sara's mention of the attractive nurse who wanted to get friendlier with her, they had never so much as flirted with the subject again. Laura had kept a judicious and aloof silence, as if she were above it all, mainly to keep herself from hurting over it, and Sara had simply acted as if the conversation had never happened.

Laura had no idea whether they had slept together yet or not. Sara gave no clue, and Laura did not want to know anyway. Part of her was dying to ask, and even to hear the details, as if skewering the jagged knife deeper into her heart would make her understand and accept it better. The better part of her, however, was sensible and kept repeating to herself that she was no saint either.

The hostess at Bistro Rondine was a rather plain-looking black womanor so Laura thought at firstwith however a very attractive figure. She wore a severe black sheath dress that was anything but revealing; rather, elegant and chic. But you could tell somehow what was underneath it, and Laura had to control her eyes so that Sara wouldn't notice and make a telling comment, concealed by a deceptively funny face.

This was not easy to do since the bistro was very busy, catering to young professionals who were capping off the week with raucous and heavily attended dinner parties. The hostess hurried back and forth seating people and summoning waiters, though she never looked rushed herself but always calm and controlled. However, she had noticed Laura looking, and now and then as she passed somewhere in the room her eyes would flit to Laura's. Their gazes would catch, if only for a micro-second, not enough for anyone else to notice. But each time in this instant there was a quick flash of connection, an odd and exciting recognition, even an instantaneous flame up that made Laura squirm in her seat and made the hostess quickly turn her glance away.

The woman's eyes were light hazel, which somehow to Laura made her gaze even more electrifying. They were not as pale as Shontay's eyesand the woman was not light-skinned either, not like Shontay but darker, the same color as Sarabut they were still not dark brown or black, and they seemed to glow with a sad, haunted aura, which however was so fleeting that Laura wondered if she were imagining it.

The woman's face seemed plain until you looked at it a little harder, which Laura was loath to do but managed to find a stray minute for when Sara briefly went to the restroom. She had a fine, straight nose and a high forehead, and a mouth that somehow looked as sad as her eyes. Maybe I'm just imagining it, Laura thought again. Maybe I'm just romanticizing her, making her look haunting and desolate and unattainable. Maybe I should just cut it the fuck out since I'm having dinner here with the love of my life, even though she wants to let somebody else kiss that beautiful pussy I love so much.

Both she and the hostess finally seemed to realize that what they were doing was dangerous, for Laura never saw her again until she and Sara paid and left, when she glimpsed her helping an arriving party. Their eyes did not meet.

But Laura did not forget her. She and Sara spent a marvelous weekend together, and Laura put both Sara's impending affair (if it hadn't already been consummated) and the hostess at Bistro Rondine completely out of her mind. But on Monday morning she began thinking about the woman in the black sheath and could not stop. I've got to meet her, she thought. I . . . I shouldn't be feeling this way about a complete stranger, but there was something there. When we caught each other's eyes. Something really magnetic.

During her lunch hour she actually drove over to Bistro Rondine, not knowing what she actually expected herself to do. As usual, there was no place to park anyway. Then she realized that the hostess worked in the evening and would not be there at this time. Glumly, she returned to work, but at six o'clock she was there again, desperately circling the blocks for a parking space.

When she slipped inside the restaurant door, and though it was only six-thirty, she noticed the woman dealing with a dinner party that had preceded Laura. She wore the same black sheath dress she had worn on Friday night, or an identical mate. The woman's eyes shot to her, and she and Laura instantly took up where they had left off, the electrical current between them shocking and sudden. The woman turned back to her dinner party. Laura, flustered, turned away as if not to be conspicuous. At the same time, she found herself removing her earrings, dropping one in her handbag.

It seemed like an eternity until the woman returned. Laura rehearsed to herself what she would say. She only had to wait about two minutes. The hostess reappeared, coming from a different angle, surprising Laura.

"May I help you?"

Laura's head whipped around. "Oh . . . yes." She extended her hand. "Laura Robbins."

The woman smiled mysteriously and shook Laura's hand. "Makeeda Williams."

"I . . . I was here for dinner on Friday night, and I"

"I remember," Makeeda said, with a knowing look, as if to say, We flirted, we made eye contact across the room, it was exciting, don't you remember?

Laura self-consciously plucked at her earlobe. She realized that she was blushing and tried to fight it back. "I think I . . . well, lost one of my earrings. I was wondering if you . . . you know, found one?"

A broad, but not unfriendly, smirk crossed Makeeda's face, which did not seem at all plain when you were talking with her. Instead, it was animated and expressive, though still tinged, Laura thought, by the faint wisp of sadness or melancholy that she thought she had seen there from the start.

"Found one?" she said. "How about five or six? I usually have a tray full of those after a weekend." She smiled even more warmly now. "Wait a minute, I'll get it for you and you can look through them."

Laura grinned and nodded. Like an idiot, she thought. She couldn't keep her eyes from falling to Makeeda's splendid dark muscular calves as the woman walked way to get the lost earrings. Since she was making this up as she went along, she realized she didn't know what to do next. Her earring would not be on the tray.

"Here it is," Makeeda said, returning with a small tray on which were assorted pieces of jewelry. "One rule, though. I can't let you have it unless you can show me the mate. Otherwise, we spend hours settling whose earring belongs to whom."

"I can imagine," Laura smiled, looking briefly but deeply into her fascinating hazel eyes, trying to communicate the depth of her desire to know Makeeda much better.

Makeeda had to seat other newcomers and left her with the tray. While she was gone, Laura thought with desperate speed. She still had one of her earrings concealed in her palm. With a discreet motion, she dropped it on a chair at the corner of the bar, which was directly adjacent to the hostess's podium. Then she adroitly readjusted the chair so that it was in the shadows, and the earring was not visible. She finished doing all this just as Makeeda returned.

"Find it?" she asked Laura, looking at the tray, which Laura still held in one hand.

Laura shook her head. "Not there."

Makeeda looked up at her as if to say, Well, we knew it wouldn't be, didn't we. "I guess it didn't turn up," she said. "Look, if anything else shows up, I'll give you a call. Was it expensive? I mean, some girls wear diamond earrings here. Lucky them. Wouldn't want to lose something like that."

Laura shook her head again. "Not expensive. Just sentimental value, I guess you could say." She rummaged in her handbag for her business cards. Quickly, borrowing Makeeda's pen, she scribbled her home number on the back. "Can you call me if you find it?"

Makeeda's interesting face went solemn and serious suddenly, out of proportion to her reply. "It would be my pleasure, Laura. I will certainly call you if we find it."

Laura was somehow paralyzed by this response. She realized that both she and Makeeda wished they could stand here talking like this for the rest of the evening. But Makeeda had to work . . . and Laura had to vanish. She wanted to say, Why don't you just call me anyway? but did not dare.

"Okay, then," she said. "Thanks so much. See you."

Makeeda smiled in a very slow, sensual way and nodded back. "See you."

Laura floated down the street and back to her car. True, she had absolutely no reason to believe this would turn out well. They might not find the earring. Another diner might find it. It might get kicked under a carpet, or thrown out. But she has your phone number, Laura thought giddily. If she wants to call, she'll find a way. And something tells me she's as interested as I am. Laura hummed all the way home, trying not to think of all the factors that could make it unlikely for her ever to see Makeeda again.

Unfortunately, there were many factors, and after a night passed, Laura began to believe the contrary, that Makeeda would not call her. I was too obvious, she accused herself. She could see in my eyes that I wanted her. Maybe she's not even a lesbian but just enjoys being attractive to everyone. But Laura knew this couldn't be true. She had experienced their long-range, furtive flirtation on Friday night. You couldn't mistake that.

When Makeeda did call, late the next afternoon, Laura nearly jumped out of her skin, hearing her voice. Makeeda was very stiff and formal.

"Is this Laura Robbins?"

"Yes . . . it is. Yes, it's me!" Laura stammered, recognizing her voice. Usually she answered the phone with her name, but somehow this time she had lazily reached for it, being involved in something else at her desk.

"This is Makeeda Williams. Remember me? From Bistro Rondine?"

Oh god, yes, I remember you! Laura wanted to shout into the receiver with glee. Instead, she said 'yes' politely. "Yes."

"I think we found your earring. It was in the bar. Did you go in the bar when you were there Friday?"

"Let me think," Laura pretended. "Oh, yes. I think we did . . . for a minute or two. While we were waiting."

"Well, this is probably it, but I can't be sure. You want to drop by and pick it up?"

Laura looked at her watch. "How about half an hour?"

"Fine. The earring will be there. Unfortunately, I won't. It's my day off."

"Oh." Laura couldn't keep the disappointmentmore like the huge dismayout of her voice. "I guess . . . I was just looking forward to . . . seeing you. You've been so nice."

There was a deep pause at the other end of the phone line. "Maybe we should just drop the formalities," Makeeda finally said. "What do you think? I was sort of looking forward to seeing you too."

Laura felt light-headed. She nearly had a stroke from an overload of happiness. "Really?"

"You know, I'm house sitting for some friends. They have this big expensive house in Sea Cliff. It's right near Baker Beach. Do you know where that is?"

"Are you kidding? I drive down there all the time to watch the sunset. I love watching the fog bank roll in when it just engulfs the bridge, and the foghorns are all going. Don't you love that?"

Makeeda seemed to smile on the other end. "It sounds like we go there for the same reasons. Look, maybe when you get off work . . ."

"I'll be there by six. Is that convenient for you?"

"I'm looking forward to it, Laura," Makeeda said warmly. "See you then."

Even on warmish summer days the fog would soon begin to roll in, and by the time Laura arrived at Baker Beach it was beginning to push in huge, swirling gray billows and huge puffed wads through the Golden Gate, its tendrils embracing the beautiful red bridge. The long, loud, melancholy foghorns, each one different in timbre and pitch, were bellowing already to each other.

She had no idea what kind of car Makeeda would be driving, and there were two parking lots at the beach, so that she had to park in one and look around, then move to the other one since she had not spotted Makeeda yet. It was Makeeda who spotted her. She was wearing dark pants and a white angora turtleneck sweater, and she waved at Laura from the edge of the parking lot, where it met the sand. Laura, as she parked and got out of her car, found herself wondering how she could ever have believed this woman was plain. Makeeda suddenly looked stunning to her, with a sharp, fascinating face, her dark brown skin set off to perfection by the white angora.

Also, while the sheath dress she wore at the restaurant did not accentuate her figure but did not conceal it either, Makeeda's incredible body was now even more apparent in the pants and sweater. God, she's one of those women with perfect proportions, Laura thought as she walked toward her. Tiny waist, luscious hard bottom, jutting breasts, perfect proportions.

As she got closer to Makeeda, she made sure her eyes were not focusing on the girl's terrific hard body. She probably gets more than enough of that, Laura thought. She thought it was so unseemly of her, or would be, to appear sexually interested in any way. After all, they eventually might wind up together in bed. That would not be a shocker. And yet it seemed so coarse and forward and arrogant to assume it. You will keep your eyes to yourself. This is just a nice, pleasant evening meeting with a potential friend, nothing to get your pussy in a lather about.

"Hi," Laura smiled as she reached Makeeda.

"Hello, Laura," Makeeda smiled back, a warm, welcoming smile, much softer and friendlier than any expression Laura had ever yet seen cross her face. Her hazel eyes were deliciously promising. "I'm so glad you could come."

"I wouldn't have missed it," Laura said, looking past Makeeda's shoulder at the spectacular sight of the huge fog bank steaming through the Gate. "Look at that."

Makeeda glanced back over her shoulder, then back at Laura. "I know. I can never get over it. Sometimes I just sit here for hours watching it, or waiting for it to happen."

"Let's go down there and walk along the water."

Makeeda nodded. "We can leave our shoes in my car." She indicated a faded red Toyota, about twelve years old, parked closer than Laura's car.

There were few other people at the beach: some Filipino fishermen at one end, a couple of young kids splashing in the tide, watched over by their mother. Laura and Makeeda strolled barefoot at the shore's edge, toward the bridge. They didn't speak but let the fresh salt air blow through them.

"Did you get the earring back?" Makeeda finally asked, idly.

Laura shook her head. "Are you kidding? I drove straight here. Didn't want to miss this."

Makeeda smiled. They walked a little further in silence, listening to the moan of the foghorns. "Tell me about . . . you know, you and the girl you were with. I don't mean to pry. But you and she seemed pretty happy and comfortable together. Like you've been together a while."

Laura nodded. "True. About a year, I think. We're pretty close."

The same stricken, haunted look that Laura had seen once or twice in Makeeda's eyes returned briefly. But she quickly hid it. "That's so nice. It was kind of touching to watch."

If it was so touching, Laura thought, you must have wondered why I was secretly flirting with you every time you passed by. "What about you?" Laura asked. "You involved?"

Makeeda quickly shook her head. Her black hair was thick and coarse, and was being whipped by the wind. Her startling hazel eyes clouded up briefly, not with tears but emotion. "Was," she said, so softly that the wind nearly blew the word away before Laura could hear it. Then she looked out over the ocean.

Laura realized this was not something she should press. There was plenty of pain evident in Makeeda's face.

"Tell me about your name. Makeeda. What a beautiful name. Does it mean anything?"

Makeeda shook her head again. She smiled wryly. "It's not my real name. I just picked it out of a magazine. Stage name. My real name is Cynthia. Cynthia Brickus."

"Why did you change it? Cynthia seems like a pretty name to me. In fact, I think I'll call you Cynthia. Just to be different."

Makeeda glared at her but then smiled. "I wish you wouldn't. I changed it for a purpose."

"I know. You said stage name. What does that mean. Are you an actress?"

Makeeda shook her head. "Jazz singer."

Laura's heart leapt. "Oh god, you're kidding. I love jazz. But I never heard your name."

Makeeda smiled again grimly. "Not an easy business to break into. But I'm doing it . . . gradually. Lots of hard work. Starvation. Maybe a few breaks, if you're lucky. That's why I work at Rondine. To support myself while I'm trying to break into the business. I know the owners, and they're pretty supportive. They believe in me. In fact, they're the ones who own this house I'm sitting for them." She pointed up to the cliffs ahead of them, where expensive houses were perched, houses Laura had been awed by many times in past walks here. "See it . . . it's . . . yes, that one. The one with the red tile roof and all the shining windows."

But Laura was not to be distracted. "Tell me why Cynthia Brickus is not a perfectly fine name for a jazz singer."

Makeeda smiled wryly. "Let me tell you how Brickus is spelled. B R I C K H O U S E. Brick house. Have you ever heard the expression 'built like a brick shit house'?"

Laura smiled. "I think my uncle used to use it now and then when he saw a good looking woman. But only when he thought there were no kids around like me to hear him."

"Exactly." Makeeda stopped walking and stepped back a little from Laura. She made a gesture with both hands, sweeping them up and down her spectacular tight body. "Not bragging, but imagine the jokes that would be made if 'Cynthia Brick House' were appearing at the Plush Room, or Yoshi's. No thanks. So long, Cynthia. Now appearing: Makeeda Williams." They resumed walking. "Simple . . . but with a touch of the exotic African. Perfect."

Laura smiled and nodded. "I agree. Now that you explain it." I wouldn't be ashamed of that body, though, she wanted to add. People would kill to have a body like that, me included.

They were alone now at the far north end of the beach, having left the few other people far behind. "So . . . sing something for me," Laura asked. "Something that's your specialty."

Makeeda laughed, both flattered and embarrassed, then shook her head, patting down her thick hair, which was whipping about. "Terrible place to sing. The wind just sucks up the sound and you can't even hear yourself."

Laura let her disappointment show. "Let's go back to our cars. You can do it there."

Makeeda looked quizzically at her. "Why do you want to hear me sing?" she suddenly asked bluntly.

"I like you. I love jazz. I love singing. I sing in the shower . . . or in the car. I'll bet some of the stuff you sing is the stuff I sing in the shower. Except you're good. I know you are. I want to hear it."

"How do you know I am? Good, I mean?" Makeeda could not stop grinning and laughing softly.

"I would bet anything you are good," Laura said, solemnly, looking her directly in her beautiful odd hazel eyes and trying to keep the sex out of it for once. "Very good."

Makeeda appeared to consider it. Then she relented. "Look, the house on the cliff over there has a grand piano in it. I don't play well, but a guy taught me how to use spread chords to accompany myself. Why don't you come back for a few minutes with me and I'll sing for you."

Makeeda's eyes showed her pride as well as her diffidence, but they also seemed to contain a muted warning to Laura not to expect a riotous evening of fucking just because they were going back to the house together. Just singing. No sex. At least not yet. This was what her eyes were telegraphing to Laura, who sent back the message that it was perfectly fine with her. In truth, she liked Makeeda a lot and would bend over backwards not to rush things.

"I accept your invitation," Laura smiled. "Come on."

Ten minutes later she was standing by the huge ebony satin Boesendorfer piano in the living room of an absolutely spectacular house overlooking the ocean. How do I wind up in these fantastic places? Laura asked herself. First Amber's incredible apartment in the Fontana. Then this. With this terrific woman. God, I must be living right. Or I sure am lucky.

Makeeda was seated at the piano, picking out the chords, tentatively approaching a song. Gradually, she seemed to float into another world while Laura watched, aware of Laura's presence, but wholly concentrating on the music. She began to sing Skylark. Laura knew it and sang it often to herself. She also knew it was fiendishly difficult where the bridge returned to the first melody, and usually she quit in frustration, being unable to get her bearings again, ending up in another key that soared out of her range.

Makeeda flowed effortlessly through it, though of course, Laura realized, she had the advantage of using the piano to guide her back to the initial melody. She had a rich, thick, smoky voice that was supple and strong and flexible and very expressive. She did not look at Laura once but slid deeply into the song itself, singing it the second time through with even more expressive pain. It was not an especially sad song, but wistful, and she brought out the suppressed emotional distress that lay in the background.

Skylark, have you anything to say to me?
Can you tell me where my love may be,
Is there a meadow in the mist
Where someone's waiting to be kissed?

Laura was hypnotized. She had never had such a riveting experience. She had known Makeeda would be good, but not this good. Makeeda's hazel eyes were glistening as she played the last chord and looked up at Laura for the first time since she had begun singing. Laura realized that in a way it was like sex: you had to come back from it to the present; you had to shake away the spell of the music to rejoin mundane reality.

She clapped. "God, I knew you were good, but I didn't know you would be that good," she repeated out loud.

Makeeda laughed softly, looking like Laura did when she blushed, though Makeeda was too dark to blush. "Thank you."

"Why aren't you famous?"

"I am famous. I am now famous to Laura. One at a time, I always say. Soon you have a crowd of five or six."

"No . . . I'm serious."

Makeeda looked down, embarrassed. She had a charming shyness. "I appreciate your praise, Laura. You and a few others think I'm good. Maybe that will get me there, eventually."

Laura sat down in a chair adjacent to the piano. "Another."

Makeeda smiled, as if to demur.

"I'm intoxicated," Laura said. "Another. I insist."

Makeeda shrugged. "It'll have to be another ballad. My piano skills aren't good enough for me to do up tempo tunes on my own."

Laura smiled and waited. You enchanting woman, sing me to heaven. My pussy wants your pussy but my ears want your song more at this minute.

Again, Makeeda ascended into the place where she could play and sing without any distraction, leaving Laura rapt and solemn with pleasure. She sang:

If you could see me now,
You'd know how blue I've been . . .

This time her rich and throaty voice throbbed with loss and melancholy, curling around the words, making them ache, dropping to a distant hush and then rising with heartsore passion to the natural climaxes of the melody. By the time the final chord died away Laura could feel a tear sliding down her cheek. No one ever had this effect on her, not even the greatest of singers.

She wiped it away with one finger. Makeeda saw her doing it.

"Gosh, maybe I should be famous," she said, softly.

"You are to me," Laura said. "You are the most beautiful singer."

They spent another half hour at the piano, and Makeeda even showed Laura the interval in Skylark, the one that made it hard to get from the bridge back to the main tune.

"See, it's pretty easy when you know it. It is a little counter-intuitive, though, so you have to be paying attention when you get there."

"I think I can do it now."

"Want to try?"

"Are you kidding? In front of you? With a voice and a musical knowledge like you have?"

Laura was sitting next to her on the piano bench, very close, and it seemed for a moment like it would be the easiest thing to lean a little closer and brush Makeeda's smooth brown cheek with her lips. She knew Makeeda realized it too. For this reason, Laura scooted to the side and stood up, to avoid temptation. This was a pure and precious moment, and she wasn't going to ruin it by making an advance that would be repelled, and that could wait anyway.

Instead, she walked around the very expensive house. Makeeda joined her.

"So, where do you live when you're not enjoying all this . . . splendor?" Laura asked, sweeping one hand broadly across the room toward the windows, the ocean view from which was now beginning to fill up with swirling, steaming tufts of fog.

"Oh, I live in a little old house on Magee street in Berkeley. I . . . shared it . . . in the past with my . . . you know . . . what I mentioned earlier . . ."

"The one you were involved with?"

Makeeda nodded, a little grimly, looking away. "Actually, the people who own this house arranged for me to get a loan to buy her out. That's why I'm still living there. Otherwise, I guess I'd be renting some sky high apartment somewhere."

"They must be really good friends."

"They are." When Makeeda turned to face Laura again, Laura saw the pain in her eyes that periodically resurfaced.

They sat down together on one of the three sofas in the room with the piano, which looked like a page out of House Beautiful. "Want to tell me about it?" Laura said gently. "You know, the significant other?"

Looking directly into Laura's eyes this time, Makeeda shook her head. "Happened over six months ago. I should be over it by now."

"Some take longer than others," Laura said, again gently. "You don't have to tell me."

Makeeda smiled and said nothing. Laura wanted to embrace her in the worst way, more than ever at this instant, but restrained herself.

"I think I'd be frightened staying all alone in this big house," she said, looking around.

"It's a safe neighborhood. They have a security alarm, the one I punched off when we came in. The cops patrol it all the time. One of the advantages of being rich, I guess. They sure don't patrol my neighborhood."

It was now about seven-thirty, and Laura could hear her own stomach growling. Makeeda could hear it too.

"I'm sorry, you know sometimes when I get involved in my music I completely forget to eat," she said. "You must be starving. Why don't we have dinner?"

Laura smiled, looking down at her stomach and making one of Sara's faces. "It won't shut up. Guess we better."

Makeeda had leftovers from the previous night, which she warmed up for them. They drank wine and ate and became very relaxed together. At about nine, Laura knew that some kind of milestone was coming. She would have to leave, or they would have to confront what they were both feeling. And yet she could clearly sense that Makeeda was not yet ready to cross the line.

Even while Makeeda was talking, Laura would be speaking to her with her own eyes. Don't you worry, Makeeda, I will be there when you are ready. I am not going to push it. I just love being with you. I want you, but I can wait. Until you're ready.

She hoped Makeeda would get her message. At nine-fifteen, she looked at her watch. "I've got to go. Work in the morning, you know. I wish I could stay and hear you sing some more."

Makeeda smiled, rising to see her to the door. "You could come tomorrow. I may have a whole new repertoire by then. I usually practice in the afternoons."

"I will do that." They were clasping hands at the door, and Laura realized that this was the first time they had actually touched. "Would you mind a lot if I kissed you goodnight?"

Laura didn't know how this question had escaped her when she was trying so hard to maintain self-control. If Makeeda seemed surprised, she did not show it. She kept smiling.

"I guess . . . maybe we shouldn't," she said softly. "I'm . . . maybe just not . . . ready yet? Know what I mean?"

Laura nodded. "I understand perfectly. I hope you don't think I was being too forward."

"Oh no." Makeeda shook her head slowly. "Not at all. Maybe next time."

Laura nodded. "Next time." There was always hope. "Did you mean it about tomorrow night?"

"I certainly did. And tomorrow I'll make a real dinner. No leftovers."

They stood looking into each other's eyes on the doorstep for quite a while. Laura realized she had to leave before she grabbed Makeeda and kissed her anyway. "Okay, then. I'm going. I'll be here tomorrow at six."

Makeeda smiled warmly and watched her down the stairs. "I'm looking forward to it."

Laura was home only fifteen minutes, though, before the phone rang.

"Laura? This is Makeeda."

"I know who it is," Laura said with tart affection. "How could I ever forget that voice."

Makeeda fell silent. "You're so sweet. You're making it very hard on me."

"I don't mean to."

"Look, I never felt this way before . . . but it does feel a little lonely and spooky all of a sudden in this big house. Would you mind coming back over for a little while? I know it's a long drive back across town . . ."

"Not so far. The traffic wasn't bad anyway, this late. You could," Laura put a subtle little twist of sexual invitation into her soft voice, "come over here."

"I . . . can't. Can't leave this house. It's the reason I'm here, remember?"

"I forgot," Laura teased. "You're only rich in beauty and talent. Not money."

"There you go again," Makeeda laughed in her rich, throaty, devastatingly sexy way.

"I'll be there in a flash. Put the light on."

"Don't drive too fast."

"You go put the light on."

Makeeda not only put on the light but was waiting in the doorway as Laura drove up. She still wore the black pants but had changed out of the white angora sweater into a looser, thinner pale orange top that clung to her hard, out-jutting breasts in a way the sweater had not done. My god, it's tough to ignore this woman's terrific body, Laura thought as she ascended the steps.

"I'm back!" she said, giving Makeeda a pixie sort of smile as she reached the top.

Makeeda locked the door behind them, then turned to Laura and held out her open arms. "Let's do this the way we should have done it before," she whispered, her lovely hazel eyes glowing.

Laura came into her arms and their mouths met in a long, searching, emotionally potent kiss. Laura wondered if her heart might just come to a stop during this kiss. It was not especially scorching, instead slow, sensual, and patient, but it was packed with more feeling on both sides than she had experienced with anyone but Sara in years. Even the fleeting thought of Sara did not detract from its sweet intensity.

Finally, they came apart, both feeling a little stunned. "I'm glad we waited," Laura whispered to her. "I think my heart might have stopped beating if we did that the first time."

Makeeda grinned warmly, obviously feeling the same. "Come and sit down with me for a little."

This seemed completely appropriate to Laura, who followed her into the same room where they had sat earlier, the one with the piano. They were not going to dive immediately into the sack with each other. There was no unseemly haste. They were going to talk and simmer instead.

"The reason I sent you home is" Makeeda began, but Laura cut right across her.

"You don't have to explain anything."

"Maybe I want to."

"I love your eyes."

"Thank you. Now," Makeeda grinned, "as I was saying. I'm very . . . I don't know, wary about getting involved again. You know? The woman I lived with . . . for several years, actually . . . she couldn't handle my total focus on singing, you know? On making it as a singer. Because I am completely committed to it. More than I was to her, I guess. She knew it. It just tore us apart, after a while."

Laura nodded, more mesmerized by the pain in Makeeda's enchanting hazel eyes than her actual words. She knew that years of distress and emotional pain could not be bundled into a brief conversation and summarized in five minutes.

"And," Makeeda continued, now in a voice even softer and more diffident, "the fact that you are already involved with someone doesn't make it easier. She seems sweet and is very pretty. You seem like a nice couple."

"Well . . . you know . . ." Laura stalled, not knowing quite what to say. "Things are rarely what they seem to be. We are very close. But she's a little restless lately. Me too. I think we're trying to invent a relationship that allows us more freedom."

Makeeda raised one eyebrow.

"I know how it sounds," Laura said. "And I appreciate how you might feel. I guess I would feel the same way."

Makeeda's eyebrow dropped. She smiled. "I guess I could really do with another one of those kisses, though," she murmured. "I haven't had a kiss . . . or anything else, really . . . in over six months. Until that one. Haven't wanted to, either."

They scooted closer to each other and embraced again. "God, I was dying to kiss you so much when I was here before," Laura breathed, confessing her deepest feeling.

Before kissing they seemed to spend an agonizing amount of time simply looking deeply into each other's eyes. Then their mouths slowly melted together, opening slowly, their tongues meeting and sliding together, their lips curving for a better, closer, more intimate fit. This time Laura could feel Makeeda's fingers digging into her own flesh through her blouse before she even realized that she was doing the same thing back, holding her tightly, feeling Makeeda's firm flesh and hard muscles under her fingertips. The girl had the hardest body she had ever embraced since Brandi Pearson's, even harder than Kendra's.

This time their kiss was hungrier. Laura wound up sucking Makeeda's full lower lip while looking up into her eyes again. She released it, nipping it playfully as she let it go.

"You have the hardest body I've ever felt," she murmured. "You must work out or something."

"I work out a little. Mostly I swim. I swim every day. Great for breath control. Have you listened much to Sinatra? How he almost always has those long sustained notes that go on forever. They always come where everybody else breathes and ruins the phrase. That's breath control. I'll bet you didn't know that he swam every day and practiced holding his breath under water to improve his lung power."

Makeeda sat back a little during this disquisition, becoming slightly obsessed and professorial about it, a charming contrast to the warm, sensual woman she had been while Laura and she were kissing. "I didn't know that," Laura said, rapt and wide-eyed. "Tell me more. Can you hold your breath a long time?"

Makeeda winked at her. "Longer than you can, I bet."

Laura flirted. "What if I kiss you and you can't breathe until I stop?"

"Is this a test?" Makeeda laughed. "Okay. Go ahead."

Laura wiped off her lips theatrically with her fingers, as if preparing for an epic struggle. "I should warn you that I'm very competitive," she said, winking back. "You ready?"

"Ready." Makeeda appeared to be having difficulty holding back her laughter.

Laura leaned forward and began kissing her tenderly, slowly, opening her mouth a little and coaxing Makeeda's open, slithering her tongue past Makeeda's lips, between her teeth. They kissed as before for a few seconds, but then Laura began to push Makeeda back into the cushions of the sofa, pressing her mouth harder into hers, stabbing her tongue in deeper, and clutching her marvelous hard body through her clothes. Makeeda began to gasp and giggle, and Laura did too. In a moment they were laughing so hard they could not continue.

Laura sat up. Makeeda was still half-sprawled against the back of the sofa, her hazel eyes pulsing, looking sexier at this moment than she ever had yet.

"You don't play fair, Laura," she laughed. "You pushed me down and pressed against my lungs so I couldn't keep going."

"I couldn't help it," Laura defended herself. She leaned closer again and brushed her lips meaningfully against Makeeda's smooth dark brown cheek. "You are incredibly desirable. When I touch you, I go crazy."

Makeeda smiled slowly in disbelief. "You know . . . I believe you? It's been years since anybody said something so nice to me."

"Oh, what bullshit," Laura teased her. "You're a stunning woman. People must be standing in line to ask you out."

"You'd be surprised how few," Makeeda said.

"Then it's only because you're standoffish."

"I suppose you're right."

Before she could speak again, Laura pulled her closer. She realized, as Makeeda no doubt did also, that they were fencing and dodging and skirting the issue out of nerves. They wanted to be in bed naked together and were still figuring out how to get there. Laura kissed her and stroked her face.

"I am right. I know I'm right." She kissed Makeeda's lovely brown neck, her chin, her earlobe. "I'm the one who wants you more than any of those people."

Boldly, she dropped one hand to Makeeda's waist and slipped it under Makeeda's loose orange top, running it slowly all over the warm, hard flesh of her bare back.

"I . . . want you too, Laura," Makeeda whispered, her hazel eyes throbbing and glowing. "I wanted you when I first saw you. Even when you were with your friend."

Laura was already lifting the orange top, pulling it up, inching it up over Makeeda's bra. Makeeda watched her without objecting. When the cloth was above the white bra, Laura stopped and lowered her lips to the deep shadowy cleavage between Makeeda's amazingly firm breasts. She let her lips linger there for a long time, then pulled her head up and brushed her lips against Makeeda's again.

"Will I muss your hair if I pull it up over your head?" she whispered.

"I have a feeling you're going to muss my hair anyway," Makeeda whispered back. "So what does it matter?"

"You're right," Laura grinned, pulling the top up over Makeeda's head and off her arms, with Makeeda's help.

She pressed her lips to the upper slopes of Makeeda's breasts, still enclosed within the bra. Makeeda watched and even shifted her body a little to make it easier for Laura. She ran her fingers through a few strands of Laura's hair while patting her own back into place. Again Laura paused with her lips deep in Makeeda's cleavage. Makeeda's breasts were not small, so there was plenty of deep valley there. They were not too large either. Just perfect, Laura thought. She has just a perfect body.

"May I kiss these?" she asked, looking up flirtatiously again into Makeeda's eyes.

"You're kissing them."

"I mean all of them."

A wry, delighted grin curved Makeeda's sensual lips. "How can I refuse?"

She leaned forward and reached behind her to unfasten her bra. This gave Laura, who had to pull back a little herself, her first real glimpse of Makeeda's half-naked upper body, as the bra cups sagged and the thin straps went slack on her gleaming brown shoulders. Oh my god, was all Laura could think. She has an even more perfect body than I thought. How can anyone be so physically perfect?

Laura could not even see all of her breasts yet since the sagging white bra cups were still in the way, but it was clear already that this was the kind of body, or torso at least, of which works of art were made. Makeeda's flesh was the tint of polished dark mahogany, perfectly proportioned, as Laura had noticed before. Below the sagging bra cups her hard-muscled stomach was a masterpiece of firm rippled flesh, but not ostentatious and chiseled like Brandi's, simply smooth and beautiful and impossibly perfect, the way you would wish your own stomach to be but knew it never could be even after years of working out. You had to be born this way.

All this Laura had to absorb in only seconds, but for her it was as if time were briefly suspended and she could scrutinize Makeeda's svelte, vibrant flesh with every scintilla of her most fervent concentration. Her eyes were drawn immediately to Makeeda's very unusual navel, a taut, thick knob of flesh, larger than most, nestled low in the plane of smooth, hard abdominal muscles, with its own shadowy concavity beneath it or flowing down from it, an artist's magnificent touch, as if this delicious shallow depression had been scooped out of Makeeda's enchantingly perfect stomach just to hold this round little fleshy jewel of a hard nub, something new to kiss and lick and suck and adore.

Makeeda saw Laura looking at her navel. "Funny-looking, isn't it," she said softly.

"It's not funny-looking at all," Laura protested. "It is the oddest, most wonderful, most enchanting bellybutton I've ever seen. I want to kiss it."

Makeeda, who was not unaware of the magnificence of her naked body, slowly shrugged her shoulders forward so that the loose straps of her unfastened bra slid down her arms, and the whole bra fell off. This smooth gesture was almost as if to say to Laura, Are you sure? Are you sure you wouldn't rather kiss these first?

Laura felt a little ashamed for being so awe-struck by this woman's body. She had seen lots of women's naked bodiesbeautiful women, average women, skinny women and fleshy ones, short and tall, large and small breasted, women with thick and thin and long and short and perfect waists, women with huge nipples and tiny nipples, women with abs, muscular women, women with lean dancer's bodiesbut she knew she had never seen in the flesh this kind of physical perfection, and it made her swallow and gawk.

Makeeda was amused and gave her a wry smile. She had obviously seen others react to her body in the same way. "You don't have to stare . . ." she teased. "You can touch too."

"You're . . . perfect." Laura felt silly to say it but was compelled.

Makeeda laughed and threw her bra to the end of the sofa. "I'm not perfect. Nobody's perfect. I'm me. Here," she reached out her arms, "kiss me and see how unperfect I am."

"That's 'imperfect,'" Laura corrected, half-smiling, unable to take her eyes off Makeeda's breasts.

They were about as perfect as you could get. They were classically beautiful. Again she found herself thinking of the art photography magazines you occasionally flipped through at the magazine rack, where nude women's bodies were photographed as if they were sublime landscapes. Makeeda's body was like that. Her naked breasts were not gourd-like, or supernaturally round, or pear-shaped, or saggy, or skewed to the sides, or fantastically high and 'perky,' whatever that meant; instead they were perfect, the model of what beautiful breasts should be: firm, round, well-proportioned, full, exquisitely formed.

Her nipples and areolas were deeply black, the centers thick and long, the corona's slightly swollen and wide and perfectly round. Tiny bumps were beginning to surface on them here and there.

"You look like you're trying to memorize them," Makeeda said, with her arms still outstretched to Laura. "Come here and kiss me. Or rather, first take off this thing." She plucked at Laura's blouse.

Now it was Laura's turn. She knew she wasn't perfect, but experience had taught her that her body was pretty desirable, and she smiled in a sultry way at Makeeda as she unbuttoned her blouse down the back and removed it. Since she nearly always wore sexy underwear, Makeeda's hazel eyes widened, fascinated, as Laura's bra came into view. It was a pale green lacy one that cupped her small breasts like treasures, the tops of the cups dipping low, and she enjoyed Makeeda's hungry eyes on her as she reached behind her back to unfasten it.

"See," Makeeda murmured, caressing Laura's naked breasts with her hazel eyes, which were now throbbing and pulsing with thick sexual emotions, "more than one of us is perfect." She held out her arms as Laura too threw her bra to the end of the sofa on top of Makeeda's.

Laura came into Makeeda's outstretched arms as if a new world had suddenly opened up for both of them. There was a world of difference between kissing while clothed and kissing while half-naked. So much so that Laura marveled she had never realized it before, at least in this way. It wasn't only that their naked breasts now pushed together, and she could feel the thick, rubbery stubs of Makeeda's delectable nipples pushing against her skin. It was more, it was the feel of their warm, firm, smooth, and in Makeeda's case hard flesh pressing everywhere together, sliding together, gliding together. It was Makeeda's incredible smooth and hard back under her fingertips. It was Makeeda's hands on her neck, on her shoulder, Makeeda's mouth on her throat, on her collarbone.

This time when they kissed it was another world too. It was far more serious than before, when they had only been leading up to this. It was a kiss of very deep intimacy, and their lips and tongues performed a slow, sweet dance of meaning, while their fingers moved in tender, loving caresses over each other's increasingly excited flesh. They knew where they were headed, but neither one would sacrifice this moment, and both wanted to prolong it.

Make it last . . . make it last forever, Laura prayed to herself. I know we're both bringing baggage to this encounter, but she is so terrific, so warm and so vulnerable, I just have such strong feelings for her, stronger than I ever expected, and I want it to last and go on and I want us to just hold and kiss each other like this forever.

Makeeda may have been feeling the same thing. During a pause in kissing, they simply smiled and looked into each other's eyes for the longest time. Then Makeeda raised her hands up Laura's body to her breasts, cupping them. She leaned forward again, and her mouth caught Laura's more hungrily.

"You are a wonderful gift to me," she whispered against Laura's cheek, after a brief, hungry kiss. "You came from nowhere . . . completely unexpected. You are a gift, Laura."

Laura kissed her neck, her smooth gleaming brown shoulders. She too raised her hands to Makeeda's amazingly firm breasts, then lowered her mouth to them before Makeeda could utter another sound.

"We are a gift to each other," she whispered to Makeeda, extending her tongue and curling it around the erect, thick black nub of one of Makeeda's nipples.

"Hhhh!" Makeeda gasped at the first touch of Laura's tongue, her fingers biting momentarily into Laura's back.

Not every woman did this, and Laura took it for a sign that Makeeda's nipples were extra sensitive, at least at the moment. They were also extra gorgeous, springy and long, the black areolas semi-swollen and puffed up now with erotic excitement. Laura could only lick so long before she had to have the whole bud inside her mouth. She carefully took Makeeda's wet nipple into it, then sucked her gently, looking up to catch her eyes, loving the electricity that flowed between them while she held Makeeda's exquisitely perfect breast in her mouth.

Makeeda's hazel eyes, now flecked with fiery sparks, held Laura's eyes as long as she could, then rolled up. Her head lolled back a little against the back of the sofa. "Ohhh . . . you do that well . . ." she sighed.

Laura said nothing but held Makeeda's very firm breast in both hands and licked her nipple more aggressively, then sucked it a little harder. By now Makeeda's nipple was very stiff and rubbery, and Laura twirled it gently in the thumb and forefinger of her hand while moving to the other one, a virgin, not having experienced Laura's mouth yet. Makeeda's breasts and nipples were so beautiful to her that her spirit soared and her blood gushed with sweet passion as she sucked and caressed them, and Makeeda began to twist and moan and mewl, her fingers flittering in Laura's hair, her breath labored.

"Ohhhh . . . god, you do that so well . . ." she moaned again.

"I'm never letting these go," Laura murmured. "I'm in love with them."

Makeeda smiled and opened her eyes. She said nothing but simply gazed at Laura, enraptured, languid, dazed, happy. "You like breasts, don't you," she said softly.

Laura's mouth was traveling slowly across Makeeda's smooth dark chest from one wet, erect black nipple to the other. She nodded and smiled. "I like these. I've never seen such perfection."

Makeeda panted, actually arching her back a little as Laura again sucked one nipple deep into her mouth. "Oh! There you go again," she laughed softly. Her feverish hands found Laura's breasts and squeezed them. She began to twist her body so as to sit up, to pull Laura down. "I like breasts too," she panted.

The next thing she knew, Laura was the recipient and Makeeda the aggressor. She lavished the same slow, skilled attention on Laura's naked breasts that Laura had shown hers, doing even more, doing what Laura herself often did, kissing them all over and especially down on the bulging undersides, slithering her tongue into the crease where each breast met Laura's body, then creeping up the sides again to Laura's swollen, aching nipples, which she tongued and sucked slowly and patiently.

"Oh! Oh . . . yesssss!" Laura groaned softly, looking down at Makeeda's mouth on her wet, pointing, throbbing nipples.

After several minutes of this, minutes which drove Laura to the very edge of sanity once or twice, the tables were turned once again, and Laura held Makeeda's magnificent breasts in both of her hands, squeezing and tenderly sucking them until Makeeda was keening and gargling deep in her throat, helplessly gripped by the pleasure Laura was causing.

"Ohhhhh," she sighed, "if you keep that up I'm not going to make it to Act Two."

What Laura was feeling was exactly what she recognized as love. She felt this way with Sara, especially in the beginning, but often even now, and had felt it with Deshona once, even a denuded variety of it long ago with Randi, and Rina. It was love. Fortunately, she had learned enough in the interim not to be blurting it out awkwardly, where it could cause embarrassment to them both, but she knew what she was feeling.

Unfortunately, it was the old dilemma. How could you love two people at once this way? How could you want to obliterate your being in the pleasure of a shared sexual explosion sweeter and more intense than any other, and yet know in the back of your mind that it was only the newest, not the most intense, of emotional and sexual attachments you would ever have? Makeeda was everything to her at this moment: a warm, vibrant, intelligent, charming, hungrily sexual woman like herself, with the added attraction of a miraculously gorgeous naked body, which she was giving to Laura freely and gracefully, requiring nothing in return but what Laura was eager to give her.

"I'm happy enough with Act One," Laura bantered back softly to her, in order to wrench her own thoughts and feelings away, at least momentarily, from the sharp intensity they were assuming. "I love your beautiful body."

Makeeda pulled Laura up from her breasts to kiss her. But first she was solemn, staring right into Laura's eyes. "I'm serious. You're going to make me . . . you know . . ."

Laura kissed her before she herself could weaken and blurt out her love after all. Makeeda seemed to know why she was doing it, as if she too were fighting against an unseemly confession. Not really believing that any kiss could be packed with more meaning than several they had already shared, Laura nevertheless realized that this one was throbbing with it. Their breasts were damp from each other's saliva, and tended to stick together now, so urgently did they embrace and squirm.

"I think you're right," Laura murmured into her lovely brown ear, after pushing aside a thick wad of black hair. "Time for Act Two."

Makeeda took Laura's face in both hands and looked directly into her eyes. "I want you to know something. I feel very lucky that we're doing this. But I won't interfere in your . . . arrangement with your friend."

Oh god, it was so fucking awkward! Laura thought. Her face must have shown this expression. "Please don't ruin it," she begged softly, now imploring Makeeda with her eyes. "Don't make me say how I feel about you. It's all . . . too complicated."

Makeeda nodded, her swirling hazel eyes reflecting a deep recognition of Laura's feelings, and possibly a memory of similar feelings she had experienced. She sat up and took Laura's hand. "Let's go in to my bed. I want the whole thing. All of you."

In the bedroom Makeeda was using during her stay, actually one of the guest rooms, she pulled down a huge, thick floral comforter, then the blankets, exposing the designer sheets, all filigreed with flowers and vines. It had felt very strange to Laura walking here with only her skirt and shoes on, while Makeeda had only her black pants, having kicked off her sandals earlier. But it had given her a chance, great connoisseur of naked backs that she was, to scrutinize the back she had been touching and caressing up to now but never seen.

When Makeeda bent over to pull the blankets down, Laura was right behind her, embracing her from behind when she stood up again, kissing her shoulder, then her neck, and pushing her own small naked breasts into the smooth hard flesh of Makeeda's back.

"I love every inch of your body," Laura breathed, cupping Makeeda's astonishing hard breasts from behind with her hands. "I want to kiss every inch of you. Is there no part of you that isn't perfect?"

Makeeda laughed throatily, twisting to embrace Laura face to face. "The bottoms of my feet are very ugly," she laughed. "All leathery and callused and horny. I went barefoot all the time when I was a kid. My toes aren't too pretty either."

"Did I hear you say 'horny'?" Laura teased her.

The smile drained away from Makeeda's face. "I'm so horny for you I could die," she confessed to Laura.

Laura had already dropped her hands to the elastic waist band of Makeeda's black pants and was pushing them down, over her jutting ass, down her muscular thighs. Makeeda's fingers inched down the zipper on the side of Laura's skirt. Laura kicked off her own shoes. She slid Makeeda's wispy bikini panties down until they dropped around her ankles.

"You better not, " Laura whispered against her lips, taking them one at a time between her teeth, nibbling, sucking, then letting them go. "I have plans for you."

While she was doing this, her hands strayed across Makeeda's now naked ass. She had known from gawking that it would be great, but she quickly realized she had had no idea. Two smooth, fleshy, and hard moons filled her hands, beautifully shaped, high and round.

"Oh god, you're ass is beautiful too," she breathed into Makeeda's neck, making both of them laugh, since by now it had become a little joke between them, though true.

Makeeda slid her fingers under Laura's panties and dug them into Laura's cheeks. "You ain't so bad yourself, sista," she murmured. She pulled Laura closer to the bed, then down onto it, both of them hurriedly skimming Laura's panties down her legs too, so that now they were both completely naked.

Laura didn't know how long they simply stretched out and held each other and kissed. It seemed forever. I love you I love you I love you, she kept hearing inside her head, exercising iron discipline not to groan it, not to sob it. There would be no going back from this moment, she knew, and it would change everything. She knew she did not say anything aloud, but she had to wonder when Makeeda whispered,

"You don't have to say anything, Laura. I know how you feel. You know how I feel."

This could have been a reference to Laura's mild outburst back in the piano room when she had begged Makeeda not to complicate things further. She nodded solemnly.

"I can't say how much I feel for you," she whispered, an ambiguous comment if there ever was one. I can't tell you how much because it's too much; or, I just can't tell you because I'm not supposed to be feeling this way for another.

"I know," Makeeda half-smiled, speaking very softly. "Me either for you." She grinned wryly. "Too dangerous."

Now when they kissed it was totally different. It was the beginning of the conflagration, Laura knew. Their mouths were aggressive and reckless, and their teeth clanked together more than once. Makeeda's tongue stabbed almost down to Laura's throat. Laura's fingers bit into the girl's marvelous hard breasts.

And yet it was urgent but not fast. They were hungrier than ever for each other but in no hurry. Somehow it felt to Laura like she had made love with Makeeda a hundred times before this, and their bodies were in complete harmony, their hearts beating together, their blood pounding in rhythm. It was all impossibly fresh and piquant and new and wildly exciting, and yet at the same time it felt seasoned and knowing and amazingly, heart-piercingly tender.

Sliding down past the amazing mounds of Makeeda's breasts, wanting to stop again for a feast, wanting to devour those thick, jutting black nipples again, Laura now feasted instead on the smooth, long ripples of the girl's equally amazing stomach. Makeeda was muscular, but it was the smooth muscularity of a swimmer, not the bulging, grotesque, exaggerated musculature Brandi had, which was thrilling in its own way but not fundamentally as desirable in a woman as this. Laura ran her lips all over these long smooth muscles, allowing herself to fantasize how it would feel to rub her wet pussy on them, which she now knew she would be able to do before the night was over.

Soon she reached Makeeda's unusual navel and began to kiss it passionately. It was a thick, slightly protruding nub, somewhat larger than a nickel, and Laura kissed and tongued it hungrily. She had always unreasonably thought that 'innies' were the preferred navel, especially those with a taut little flat lip at the top concealing the shadowy secrets within. But this one, though not herniated, was a paragon of an 'outie,' and showed how seductive they too could be. Of course anyone as hard-muscled as Makeeda would have a shallow indentation in her abdomen at the navel, but hers was a miracle, very shallow at the top but flowing out from the bottom like a sculptured deep valley. At the very top of the valley sat this splendid little bulb which Laura was attacking.

When she sucked it, Makeeda suddenly exploded in a surprised and helpless soft little yelp. The hard muscles of her stomach contracted, and her thighs leapt reflexively.

"Yyiii!" she yelped, half-giggling at the same time. "Oh shit . . . nobody's ever done that to me before!"

Laura paused and smiled up at her. "Well, someone's doing it now. I'm going to eat you alive."

"I guess you really are," Makeeda smiled down at her. Her eyes rolled up again, and her stomach muscles clenched one more time. "God, that feels good!"

Laura's hands were busy while her mouth was hungrily sucking Makeeda's navel. One roamed back up to the girl's exquisite hard breasts, which, even though Makeeda was on her back, were jutting up like smooth hills. She squeezed one and lightly pinched Makeeda's erect nipple. Her other hand slid down between Makeeda's firm, muscular thighs. Makeeda obligingly parted them a little to let Laura in.

Laura's fingers brushed aside some damp, wiry strands of pubic hair and then grazed Makeeda's wet pussy lips before she had even seen the object of her fiercest desire. They were buttery and warm and thick against her fingertips. She could already inhale Makeeda's pungent, erotic cunt odors, and this was all it took to make her forsake the beautiful odd navel for the delights that awaited.

Seconds later she had slid between Makeeda's beautiful strong thighs and faced one of the most gorgeous juicy and inflamed pussies she had ever seen. Of course, Laura always thought the pussy she was about to lick was the most exquisite ever created by the gods, but in this case she wondered if it might not be true. Oh, it's just because I'm falling so hard for her, she thought, trying to right the balance, trying to bring some semblance of rationality to the proceedings, which she nevertheless knew was hopeless.

Makeeda's aroused pussy, then, was everything she could have expected and more. Like the rest of Makeeda's body (except maybe her odd and beguiling navel), it was perfect, as if an artist trying to depict the ideal form of the most beautiful black pussy possible had created it. Even though Makeeda was not especially dark, not like Dee Dee or Charise, or even Carmela, who was pretty black, her pussy lips were as black as midnight. Even making allowances for the dimness of the bedroom, they were very black, and shiny with dew. They were also wavy and thick and long and folding slightly outward like the petals of a living, blooming black flower.

Inside the petals was a burbling cauldron of wet fiery pink flesh, all runny and glistening and tangy to Laura's tongue, which slid right into the middle of it.

Makeeda's phenomenal body clenched again. "Anngghh!" a small, excited gasp escaped from her tight throat.

When the small of her back arched up a little, the shadows seemed to accentuate the beauty of her aroused, taut, naked body, making it shockingly desirable to Laura, who wondered if she herself might come just from the joy of watching Makeeda and tonguing her beautiful pussy. She knew Makeeda was very aroused. For one thing, she had earlier said that she had had no sex for at least six months, having been on the rebound from a searing emotional breakup with her longtime lover. For another, Laura could detect involuntary tremors in her incredible muscles. Her thighs twitched, and her stomach muscles contracted, her knees jerked up, her delectable ass squirmed and shimmied on the mattress under them, her forearms quivered.

She was also moaning almost constantly, low, sensual moans, moans of sweet almost unbearable pleasure, moans that reminded Laura of the firm, throaty, flexible voice that she used when singing.

"Ohhhnnnnn . . . uunnnhhhnnnn . . ." she moaned, almost melodically, but moans that increased in intensity with nearly each second. "Unhhh! Unhhh!" she began to pant more rapidly.

Laura knew she could make her come almost immediately, but that would deprive both of them of a universe of pleasure. Instead, she made love to Makeeda's festering, throbbing quim patiently, licking the black outer lips from top to bottom, just tickling the edges of the hood at the top that was now being forced back a little by the emergence of Makeeda's large, bulbous, swollen clit. It was a splendid big one, the biggest Laura had seen since Randi's, and she helped it grow by spreading the hood open further with her thumbs and stabbing it lovingly with her tongue.

This nearly sent Makeeda into paroxysms of sharp sexual pleasure. Her body clenched again and strained upward.

"Unngghhhh! Ohhhmmmnnnnggee!" she squealed happily, grabbing the sheet spastically with the fingers of both hands. "Oh god . . . you're killing me."

"Does it feel good?" Laura smiled.

"Ungghh! Oh god . . . yes! Oh god . . . Laura . . ."

"You want me to do some more?"

"If you stop," Makeeda panted, her striking hazel eyes streaked with red and desperate, "I'll never speak to you again."

"Ah, but will you sing to me again?"

In spite of her fierce sexual arousal, Makeeda grinned and laughed. "Never."

Laura ran her tongue right up the middle of Makeeda's wet, warm pussy, from the bottom all the way up to her now-bulging clit. "Then I could never stop."

They settled into a rhythm that permitted both to enjoy every small twinge and sensation of this beautiful moment. Makeeda too seemed to know she could come right away but preferred to delay it, as Laura did, just so that they could experience together this sweet and passionate intimacy. But of course that made her ultimate explosion potentially more and more shattering.

Laura for her part was deeply in love with this sweet, juicy feast. She already had deep feelings for Makeeda, far deeper, and much sooner, than she had ever expected, and licking and sucking Makeeda's pussy like this gave her the opportunity to express them fervently. She wanted to make her quiver, and loved hearing her moan, loved hearing Makeeda's moans grow more intense, and more helpless, and more shrill and desperate. She looked up Makeeda's undulating, thrilling naked body, relishing the look of tormenting sexual rapture on her contorted face, realizing that Makeeda was almost there in spite of her desire to prolong it.

"Oh! Oh!" Makeeda was gasping, clawing the sheet, her pelvis quivering as she shimmied her pussy up into Laura's devouring mouth. "Oh! Oh!"

Laura slid a finger into her pussy, now licking her bulbous clit more and more rapidly, feeling the tempo accelerate, feeling the reaction of Makeeda's body as she approached an inevitable climax. Her finger was quickly all warm and greasy with Makeeda's nectars, and instead of leaving it there, Laura quickly slipped it out and down between the girl's tight, clenching buns. She had no thoughts of anal invasion, certainly not at this point, but she did have in mind just a hint of stimulation that would make this burgeoning climax supremely powerful.

"Annhhh! Anngghh!" Makeeda groaned, her magnificent hard brown thighs flexing as her body rose up to the final moment.

Closer . . . closer. Oh god, honey, I want you to come so hard! Laura thought, wriggling her finger into the tight crease between Makeeda's hard round ass cheeks. Makeeda was going wild, her amazing body surging off the mattress, her pussy pushing into Laura's face. But Laura was relentless and skilled. She knew her target. Her fingertip found the concealed rosebud and at the same instant she took Makeeda's swollen, bulging clit between her lips and began sucking it sharply.

She did not try to push her finger inside but merely rubbed Makeeda's asshole firmly with it, meanwhile sucking her clit in rhythmic bursts. Makeeda gave a tiny, choked off yelp, then dissolved quickly into a kind of deep swoon orgasm that immediately reminded Laura of the ones Jonelle used to have with her, the kind that had made her even black out on occasion. Makeeda's magnificent naked body went suddenly from violent, surging, flexing contortions to stiff convulsions, her flesh and muscles quivering and twitching uncontrollably, her eyelids fluttering, her gaze stunned and unfocused, as wave after wave of orgasmic shock pummeled her.

During this time, which for Laura at least seemed to go on forever, she made no noise but an occasional helpless squeak, her breath completely robbed by the fierce spasms that were seizing her flesh. Laura knew it had to be good, but she was a little worried by the sheer power of it. Makeeda seemed completely stupefied and shattered by the wave after wave of killing pleasure that was pouring through her body. Finally, the spasms began to ease, and she let out a long, low, tortured moan.

"Ohhnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn! Ohnnnnnnnnnn god . . . ohhhhhh god . . . Laura!" she gasped, her eyes bleary as her eyelids fluttered open and this time stayed open for a moment while she gazed up at Laura, who was hovering over her now, hoping that Makeeda would survive.

"Yes . . . yes, darling . . . yes," Laura purred to her, embracing her but lightly, from afar, feeling her hard, magnificent flesh still quivering. "Go ahead . . . do all of it . . . let it go through you . . ."

"Ohhnnnnnnnnn!"

Laura realized that the most violent and stunning part of Makeeda's orgasm was over, but the aftershocks kept coming. She held her and stroked her, unable to keep her hand from returning to Makeeda's wet pussy, the source of these incredible convulsions. She had known only a few women who could come this hard, and it never stopped amazing her. It seemed life-threatening. She stroked the wet lips and swollen inner flesh of Makeeda's wonderful pussy, not trying to make her come again but only to caress her tenderly there.

Even when she finally stopped coming completely, Makeeda was still dazed and groggy from the experience. It must have taken her a full three minutes even to roll over and speak, Laura figured. When she did, she looked like she had been hit by a truck, her hair tangled in thick black wads, and her mouth slack, her eyes dilated.

"Laura . . ." she croaked. "You . . . oh . . . never mind . . ." She smiled wanly at Laura.

"What."

"Do you know how long it's been since I came like that?"

Laura kissed her nose. "I'll tell you what I know," she murmured. "I know that I've never come like that in my life. It looked like you were going to die. So, if it was a long time since you last did it, I don't even want to hear about it. Anyway, it was about six months, right? You said you hadn't had any sex for six months."

Makeeda laughed softly and smiled. She shook her head. "You know, Diane and I had good sex, good enough anyway, but I never came like that except in the beginning. So it's been years."

"How long were you with her?"

"Over four years."

"And you never had sex with anybody else during that time?"

Makeeda shook her head slowly. "To tell the truth, I'm kind of monogamous. I love it, don't get me wrong." She smiled at Laura with suddenly deep affection and ran a fingertip across Laura's bare shoulder. "I especially loved what we just did. But I've always been more interested in music than sex, I guess. One person, if she's the right one, is enough for me."

This was an invitation to get into why 'Diane' either was or was not the right one for Makeeda, which Laura felt disinclined to do at the moment, being taut with unreleased sexual tension herself. I know I can't come like you did, she thought, but I still want to do it. Makeeda, who Laura was quickly beginning to realize was no slouch, could see it in her eyes.

"We're not talking about me," she purred, pulling Laura down against her body. "What we're going to do next is called Make Laura Almost Die Too."

Laura smiled and let herself be passionately kissed. "I want to rub my pussy on your fantastic stomach muscles," she breathed into Makeeda's perfect white teeth.

"Oh, you're one of those kind of girls," Makeeda teased her, now kissing Laura's body, her neck and shoulders, and squeezing Laura's breasts more aggressively. "Just want me for my body, eh?"

"It's sure is a terrific body," Laura said, panting a little with fresh arousal.

But Makeeda had taken over. "I think this is a terrific body," she purred, dropping her mouth to Laura's breasts. "You know, you may think I'm perfect, but this is the body I'd have if I could choose. Long and lean, with pretty small boobs like these. I love these deep pink nipples."

"Mmmmmm!" Laura moaned softly as Makeeda sucked one into her mouth. "Oh my!"

Makeeda looked up and grinned but did not release Laura's throbbing nipple from her mouth. In fact, she began sucking it and the other one more sharply than she had done earlier, quickly bringing Laura to a frenzied state. In seconds Laura was panting and mewling and twisting.

Makeeda finally paused, holding both of Laura's breasts in her hands and brushing Laura's wet, stiffening nipples with her thumbs. "You can rub yourself on my stomach later," she grinned, "but I want to taste the honey first, just like you did."

Laura, smiling dreamily down at her, was unable to resist running her fingertips tenderly over Makeeda's broad, smooth forehead. "Please . . ." she said, almost inaudibly.

From that moment on it was purest heaven for her. Makeeda was evidently telling the truth and spent the next five minutes or so adoring Laura's naked body as Laura had earlier adored hers. She might be monogamous, as she had claimed, but it hadn't prevented her from acquiring a variety of sexual skills that soon had Laura whimpering and gasping.

She was in no hurry, though Laura was, and spent a long time kissing Laura's belly and legs. As soon as her lips reached one of Laura's thighs, Laura had thought that it wouldn't be long until she felt Makeeda's sensual mouth pressing into her aching wet pussy. But Makeeda had other ideas. She kissed her way slowly down one of Laura's legs, especially arousing Laura when her lips seemed to find an extra sensitive spot just below Laura's inner knee, which made Laura's leg jump a little and brought a thrilling gasp to her throat.

"Mmmm, somebody likes that . . ." Makeeda breathed, letting her tongue snake out and lick the smooth tender skin under Laura's knee joint, which also sent quivers of hot lust through Laura's body.

"Ohhh!" Laura sighed, looking down, watching Makeeda's mouth on her legs.

She let her legs yawn further apart, as if the sight and smell of her inflamed and runny cunt would tempt Makeeda, or would at least cut short her journey. But Makeeda merely gave her an amused smile, well aware of the invitation but having her own agenda. She continued down Laura's leg to her foot, which she teased and tantalized before starting up the other side, Laura's other leg, which she kissed and caressed with equal skill and delay until Laura was cawing and writhing by the time Makeeda's lips reached her inner thigh.

"Oh god, honey . . . please!" she whimpered to Makeeda, feeling her belly heave up and down rapidly, and the pulsing in her pussy grow wild and urgent.

Makeeda smiled. She had reached her destination. "Oh my, Laura, what a beautiful pussy. I told you more than one of us was perfect." She placed her three middle fingers together and rubbed Laura's wet, swollen cunt lips with them in a slow, swirling circle.

"Unhh! Unhhh!" Laura panted, beseeching Makeeda with her eyes.

She knew she could come in an instant, and Makeeda seemed to know it too, which was why she was delaying it, toying with Laura, but apparently out of love or something like it, not malice. Finally, she stopped rubbing Laura's pussy and lowered her mouth to it. Laura's eyes rolled up. She could feel her hips slowly, rhythmically gyrating up into Makeeda's face, as if her body was out of her control.

"Oh! Oh!"

"Hold on, honey . . . just hold on . . ." Makeeda murmured softly to her as she began to make love to Laura's flooding pussy with her lips and tongue and fingers. "You're going to come, but not until Makeeda gets her little taste."

And she meant it, too. She tongued and sucked Laura's pussy until Laura was ready to scream and explode, and yet she was very skilled in keeping Laura on the edge but not letting her fall over. Damn, she is just as good at this as I am! Laura thought, writhing desperately, hearing her own clotted whimpering, and soon her desperate keening.

But soon she was writhing and straining and moaning and squirming so violently and desperately that Makeeda knew it was useless to prolong it any more.

"Okay, honey . . . okay, honey," she panted to Laura, giving in and pouring on the heat and passion.

Her love assault was supremely beautiful and fast. Though she knew Laura was close, she apparently had no idea how close. As soon as her lips touched Laura's swollen, throbbing clit, Laura began to come. Her body went into a long, slow convulsion, and a low guttural groan fought its way out of her lungs.

"Aauunnnggghhrrraannggghhh!" she half-growled, half-grunted, as a couple of savage spasms began to wrench her buckling body. "Ungghh! Ungghhh!"

It was not a sweet, emotional orgasm, as she had been anticipating, but instead a rough, violent shock that left her stunned and gasping for breath, her vision fogged and her mind dazzled by the power of it. This was not a blackout orgasm like the one Makeeda had had, but it was still pretty deep for Laura, and she found herself sighing and half-giggling from the release of tension as she slowly surfaced from it, shaking the fog out of her eyes to see Makeeda lying next to her, smiling happily.

She kissed Laura gingerly on the mouth, since Laura was still panting softly. "You are very beautiful when you come, Laura," she murmured.

"Hey," Laura blinked, still groggy, ravished by ecstasy, "that's my line." She grinned.

"Guess you'll have to share it." Makeeda scooted closer.

They embraced and kissed, and this time the kiss was full of the emotional intensity that Laura had expected to feel in her orgasm. The feelings were too intense for them to talk for several minutes. Instead, they dozed in each other's arms and enjoyed the sweet intimacy of this moment.

"Will you mind if I just sleep here like this with you all night?" Laura finally whispered to her.

Makeeda turned her head and smiled warmly. "I was hoping you would. Don't you have to go to work in the morning? You know, I work nights. I usually don't get up until around noon."

"I have, unfortunately," Laura made a long face, "an internal alarm clock that wakes me at seven, whether I want to wake up or not."

"Mmmm," Makeeda smiled, "maybe it can wake me up at the same time and we can have another little one of these before you have to go."

Laura frowned playfully. "I hope you don't get the wrong idea, darling, but I don't intend to wait until seven o'clock."

Makeeda would have blushed if she could. She was charmingly demure for a grown woman. She smiled almost bashfully. "I guess . . . I wouldn't want to wait either. You don't know how . . . good this feels to me."

Laura put a finger on her lips. "Don't get me talking. I'm liable to tell you how I feel about you."

Suddenly, a large tear formed in the bottom of each of Makeeda's enchanting hazel eyes. At first they did not spill, but then both rolled down her brown cheeks slowly.

Laura was shocked and pained. She cried herself sometimes, she had done so briefly earlier, when Makeeda was singing so touchingly, and usually, though not then, she realized to her dismay, it was a cheap manipulation; but these tears of Makeeda's, though few, were very genuine and deeply moving.

"Honey," she said, "what is it?"

Makeeda wiped away the tears with her fingers, gone as quickly as they had come, and shook her head. "Nothing."

"Tell me."

Makeeda shook her head. "No." She sniffed. "Don't get me talking," she repeated Laura's words. "I'm liable to tell you how I feel about you."

Laura nearly melted. She embraced her and kissed her with slow, loving passion. "I think we're both feeling the same way," she whispered in Makeeda's ear.

Makeeda nodded. Her eyes clouded up with water again, but she quickly sucked it back and got control of herself, as if it were a matter of pride not to do it twice.

"You know," she whispered to Laura, "I wanted this to happen from the first moment I saw you. In the restaurant with your . . . friend. I was so envious of her. So envious. I could hardly walk by your table."

Laura listened patiently.

"When I saw you again . . . about the earring, I actually felt my heart flutter inside my body. Like it was going to fly away or something."

Laura smiled. "I didn't lose the earring, you know. I left it there, in the bar, that day, when you were away for a moment."

Makeeda nodded. "I figured you did. That's when I began to get . . . I don't know, excited about seeing you again." She paused and looked away. She would not look at Laura again. "I"

Laura pulled Makeeda's face back to hers with two fingers on her jaw. She again saw unspilled tears in her beguiling hazel eyes. "Look, we both can't help the way we feel. You know what they say. Shit happens. Neither one of us expected this. Maybe this," she grinned and pointed to their naked bodies, "but not this." She pointed first to Makeeda's heart, then to her own.

"You were happy with her before I interfered," Makeeda said softly, seriously.

"I'm the one who called about the earring," Laura reminded her. "If I hadn't done that, I never would have seen you again."

Makeeda gulped and nodded. "How awful that would have been."

Laura beamed at her. "For me, too."

She figured they had talked about it enough. Any more talking and it would just become tortured, twisted, and even more painful. Besides, talking in this veiled way about how strongly they suddenly felt for each other was quickly arousing her sexually again. She wondered it the same thing were happening to Makeeda.

She ran her hands down Makeeda's smooth, hard back to her smooth, hard buns and squeezed them. Doing this necessarily pushed their naked breasts together harder than they had been pressing before, and it was impossible for either not to be aroused by it. Laura snaked her tongue out and slithered it between Makeeda's lips.

"I want to come with you," Laura whispered against Makeeda's teeth as she opened them to let Laura's tongue inside her mouth. "You know, at the same time. I want to look in your eyes when you come . . . and when I do."

Makeeda smiled shyly. "I've . . . never been very good at timing it," she said.

"You can . . . you can," Laura encouraged her. "Just look into my eyes. Believe me, we'll do it together. I know we can." She sucked Makeeda's beautiful dark brown neck. "Oh god, I want you so badly. Last time only made me want you more."

"I want you too, Laura. I keep wanting you. I don't believe I'm still this horny after I almost passed out last time."

The more she dug her fingers into the incredible round flesh of Makeeda's ass, the more she wanted to kiss and suck it, Laura thought. It was an ass to dream of, an ass that would even put other hall of fame asses like Jane's or Dee Dee's in the shade. But that would have to wait. Remarkably enough, though Makeeda had a nearly perfect body, right now it wasn't her physical charms that were sexually exciting Laura. It was the deep emotional entanglement they had woven around themselves.

Since her hands were already on Makeeda's amazing, hard, round, swelling ass, she simply drew one around between Makeeda's thighs again, swiveling it a little to force them open. Makeeda smiled at her and opened them further.

"Like this," Laura murmured. "You too. Kiss me and fuck me with your hand."

"Yes," Makeeda panted, her eyes going briefly glassy as two of Laura's fingers slid up into her tight, warm, very wet pussy. "Laura . . ." she panted, "don't say . . . anything you'll regret."

"Unhhhh!" Laura gasped as she too felt Makeeda's long fingers groping in the warm, slippery crease of her pussy. "Oh Jesus, you make me so hot!"

"Don't say anything . . ." Makeeda repeated, panting. "And I won't either."

Laura, though already half-delirious with sweet sexual feelings, smiled and panted back to her. "We already know it," she said. "We know it. No need to . . . say it. Unhhhh! Oh god, yes, right there! Oh shit . . . oh, you're going to make me come too fast!"

"Should I slow down?" Makeeda laughed through her panting. "I don't think I'm there yet."

And she actually did slow her hand down, which had been thrusting her fingers pretty rapidly into Laura's pussy and rubbing Laura's clit pretty fast. They were kissing clumsily and hungrily, clanking teeth a little again, gasping and sucking lips. Laura realized that they needed a slight role reversal here, since she was about to come again with little help but Makeeda needed more coaxing.

"Just a little . . ." she panted to Makeeda before accelerating her own love assault.

She began kissing Makeeda's neck and sucking it passionately, letting her mouth slide down to her shoulder, her collarbone, her chest. Her right hand was still rubbing the girl's pussy but not rapidly, instead slowly, sensually, probing with her fingers, feeling Makeeda's astonishing big knobby clit under the flesh of her hand just below her fingers. But her other hand swept up Makeeda's beautiful naked body to her breasts, cupping one just as her lips reached the thick, protruding black nipple.

She sucked it fiercely, much more passionately than she had done to either of Makeeda's nipples earlier, almost enough to make her yelp. Makeeda did whinny softly and stiffen against Laura, but experience told Laura it was a helpless whinny of sharp pleasure. She could feel the girl's body flexing and quivering against her, and when she glanced up she could see the desperate fires of an approaching climax in her striking hazel eyes.

"Unhhh! Unhhhh!" Makeeda panted, her eyes wild with excitement, catching Laura's, instantly telegraphing to Laura that it was working, that she was almost there.

This is where we're headed! Laura thought excitedly, knowing they were about to reach their goal. Their hot bodies writhed and rubbed together, and now they were both moaning, unable to keep their hungry passion for each other silent. In fact, they were thrusting and writhing together so wildly that Laura had to release Makeeda's delectable thick, erect nipple from her mouth in order to breathe. She raised her face to Makeeda's again, looking in her eyes. Yes . . . yes!

"Makeeda . . . Makeeda . . ." Laura moaned, saying her name with infinite love since she could say nothing else at this moment. "Ohhhhh . . . Makeeda . . ."

"Yes . . . Laura . . . unhh! Oh god!"

Laura could see it in Makeeda's increasingly frantic eyes and feel it in her own body. There was no need for prompting, or managing the flow. The climax was building up in them at the same speed, and their hands were now swirling and pumping in synchronized rhythm, their hips gyrating forward and back, bringing them closer and closer. Makeeda, overcome briefly by a sharp surge of sexual feelings, sagged, her head lolling back, but Laura reached behind it with her hand and pulled it up again, looking into her eyes, beseeching her to stay focused for this moment. Makeeda's eyes blinked open and she half-smiled, reestablishing the intimate connection with Laura.

"Yes . . ." she panted. "Oh god . . . I'm going to . . ."

"Yes!" Laura gasped, knowing she too was going to.

She didn't realize how sharply they were clutching each other until this moment. She could feel Makeeda's free hand and fingers biting into her back, and though Makeeda's flesh was hard and firm, Laura's own fingers dug into her ass fiercely.

"Oh honey . . . come with me . . . now . . ." Laura gasped almost incoherently, feeling her eyes roll up, trying to force them back down, to maintain eye contact at the last, most thrilling moment.

"Yes . . ." Makeeda panted. "Yes!"

Laura felt a hot uprush of coming spout through her flesh like a geyser, welling up from her contracting pussy and womb until it was wracking every muscle of her writhing body. At the same instant she felt Makeeda's marvelous body twitch, and saw a stabbing flame leap up deep in her eyes, and her face grimace with piercing ecstasy.

"Auungghhhh!" Makeeda groaned loudly, her strong, athletic body surging against Laura's. "Unggh! Auunggghhhh!"

Laura clutched the girl harder than ever against her and let out a horrific moan as the most powerful jolts of her orgasm now wrenched her.

"Uummmnngghhhhh! Oh! Ungghh! Oh oh! Uummnnggghhhh!" she groaned, coming and looking into Makeeda's streaked hazel eyes and seeing Makeeda come too, feeling Makeeda's wonderful body flexing against her own as Makeeda's orgasm made her shudder and groan too.

Makeeda, though obviously hit by a shattering orgasm, never looked away either. Her eyes held Laura's throughout, while both of them groaned and shook and gasped and whimpered in the grip of rolling, crushing, and agonizingly sweet spasms.

"Auunnngghhhh!" she cried out again as an especially thrilling aftershock gripped her body, her eyes showing Laura that she did not, at least momentarily, believe such piercing pleasure was possible.

They did not know how long it lasted. Time disappeared. They came, they seemed to come and come, they slumped together panting, rubbing cheeks, whispering in each other's ear, kissing, sucking lips, cooing, until finally their writhing bodies came to a rest and their breath became more normal. Laura's fingers were slippery with cunt cream, and she knew Makeeda's had to be too. Slowly, they withdrew their hands and smiled at each other while wiping them on the sheets.

Laura kissed Makeeda's cheek and brushed her lips across Makeeda's mouth. "Are you sure I can't call you Cynthia now?" she murmured. "Just as a special little secret between us?"

Makeeda frowned, but more indulgently this time. Her head still seemed to be clearing from the cataclysmic orgasm they had just shared. "I wish . . . you wouldn't," she said calmly. "I think . . . you know how I feel about you. But I want you to call me Makeeda."

Laura nodded. "Fair enough. But I love the 'Cynthia' in you, the special essence of you, what you were before you became Makeeda. I want you to know that. I love them both."

Makeeda frowned and smiled one after the other. She put a finger to her lips and shook her head, making it clear to Laura that she should not be saying that. Laura understood perfectly and wondered if she had overstepped the boundaries.

They spent about half an hour kissing and cooing. It was unbelievable paradise to Laura. Then they fell asleep. In the morning she awoke at six. Usually, as she had told Makeeda, she woke at seven, but some internal reminder awoke her at six since she would have to drive home before going to work. Makeeda was still asleep and Laura had to disentangle herself carefully from the girl's arms. They had slept together the sleep of the romantically glued, unable to stop touching even in slumber.

Makeeda stirred and awakened while Laura was dressing, looking around for her blouse and bra, which she finally remembered she had left in the other part of the house. She smiled up drowsily from the bed, naked and dark brown and hard-bodied and enchanting. Laura wanted immediately to undress and crawl back into it with her.

"When am I going to see you again?" she asked Laura softly.

Laura smiled at her. "Silly question. You're going to see so much of me you'll be sick of me by Friday."

"Actually, I can't," Makeeda said, apologetically "When I invited you over tomorrow night I forgot that my friends are getting back home tomorrow evening. Then I'm off to L.A. I actually have a gig down there on Friday, at a jazz club. I'm going down a day early for a rehearsal. They're giving me Friday and Saturday night off at the restaurant. They're very supportive of my career. But," here her face fell, "I won't be here to see you. God, Laura, you don't know how much I want to see you." Suddenly she was uncharacteristically confessional. "I never felt this way. At least for a long time. I feel like calling up and canceling the gig."

"Don't do that," Laura said, almost crossly. "It's the most important thing to you of all."

Makeeda appeared to think about that. "It was. I don't know if it is now."

"Don't be silly. Of course it is." Laura came over to the bed. She leaned down and kissed Makeeda and ran her hungry hands all over the woman's enchanting naked body. "I will always be here. I'll be here when you get back. God, I wish I could go down there with you. And just sit there in the club and listen to you. And think about how we came together last night, while you're singing to me."

Makeeda laughed, her husky, throaty laugh that had so captivated Laura. "Watch it, or you'll have me thinking about it even if you're not there."

Laura grew solemn, sitting down on the edge of the bed now, taking Makeeda's face in both hands, gazing deeply into her eyes. Makeeda grew solemn too. "It was so great coming with you," Laura whispered. "It was just the greatest thing in my life."

"Me too," Makeeda whispered back.

They kissed slowly and sweetly. Both were overcome by strong emotions.

"I want to . . ." Laura began, but hesitated.

Makeeda put a finger on her lips. "Don't say it." She shook her head.

Now Laura's eyes filled briefly with hot tears. She sucked them back. "Okay."

Makeeda half-smiled. "Okay. I'll call you when I get back from L.A."

"Flying?"

Makeeda shook her head. "Driving."

"Oh god, be careful!"

"Laura," Makeeda said, patiently and calmly, "nothing in the world could keep me from seeing you again."