Sea Legs, page 19
“Is that what you want?”
“That’s just the beginning. I’m hoping for a lot of dates.” She tugged Natalie’s head toward hers and delivered a soft kiss. “I don’t want to rush things, though. If I get too charming, you’ll have to call me down.”
“I’ll grant you a little leeway in that department.”
Their eyes met in a sultry gaze that might have led to another kiss had Didi not suddenly appeared on the balcony next door.
“You two ready for dinner?” From the smile on Didi’s face, she relished every single chance she got to disrupt their private moments. Now that she was on to their jealousy scheme, she would probably be even more annoying, at least until Natalie set her straight.
“Sure, see you in the hall,” Natalie answered as she went back inside. “I need a few minutes with Didi.”
“I’ll tell her to wait for you, and I’ll walk up with Pamela.” Kelly stopped at the door and turned. “Be sure, Natalie.”
“I am.”
Natalie took a deep breath and opened the door to the hallway.
Didi was leaning against the wall with her arms folded, wearing what looked like a satisfied smile. “I take it you got my message.”
“I did.” She held her tongue until an older couple passed by. “You looked like you were enjoying yourself in that hammock. We used to have one of those in our yard in Mississippi, till the neighbor’s dog chewed the rope on one end and my poor Aunt Maureen fell on her behind and dumped a whole glass of ice tea on her Easter dress. Mama said the dog didn’t have anything to do with it, that—”
“You’re rambling, Nat. What did you think about what Steph said?”
Natalie couldn’t believe she had walked into this conversation without planning exactly what to say. It was no simple matter to explain that she didn’t want their old relationship back again, nor did she want a new one, even on different terms. At a complete loss for words, she shook her head.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means I’ve been thinking about it, and I believe we’re better off as friends.”
Didi flashed an irritated look before plastering on a smile. “That’s exactly what I want too—a lover and a partner who is also my friend. I was wrong, okay? I admit it. We should have chilled just a little bit and gotten back together a year ago, but then Pamela came along. Call it a midlife crisis or whatever. I was an idiot, but I’m over it.”
Natalie couldn’t argue with that, but there was nothing in Didi’s declaration that told her their life would be better than before. And even if there had been, she now had a new piece of information in the form of Kelly Ridenour. Actually, it wasn’t only what she saw in Kelly. It was what she saw in herself, which was a hunger for a different dynamic, one in which she didn’t constantly feel pressure to impress. “I’m not the same person I was two years ago…or for that matter, a week ago.”
“Look, if you’re worried about Pamela, I promise we’ll cool things until we get back and I’ll break up with her as soon as the plane lands. I just don’t want to ruin her trip, you know?”
As usual, Didi wasn’t listening. “This isn’t about Pamela. It’s not even about you. It’s about me. I don’t want to go back to what we had.”
Didi caught her elbow and they stopped at the entrance to the dining room. “So what do you want? What do I need to change?”
“Nothing, Didi. You’re a wonderful person just the way you are, and so am I. But we don’t go together anymore.” She forged ahead to their table without waiting for further argument. If Didi wouldn’t listen, she would have to find another way to make it clear they were finished. The obvious answer was to be more open about her new feelings for Kelly but now that their attraction was no longer a charade, she didn’t feel right about using Kelly to make her point.
Kelly held the door against the stiff wind as Natalie stepped out onto the Promenade Deck. “It’s cool out here. We must be getting farther north.”
Natalie pushed her arms through the sleeves of her sweater and hooked her hand around Kelly’s elbow. She had been quiet through dinner, and declined the invitation from Steph to take in a movie.
“You okay?”
“Fine.” Her face was expressionless.
“How did your talk with Didi go?”
Natalie shrugged. “I talked, but that doesn’t mean she listened.”
So was Natalie quiet because Didi had pleaded her case and gotten to her, or was she frustrated that disentangling was going to be more difficult than she thought? “I don’t think anyone takes no for an answer the first time. They always think they can change your mind if they say or do just the right thing.”
“Didi should know better. She’s been working on me to move to New York for a whole year and I haven’t budged.”
Kelly hoped that meant she wasn’t budging now, because if she showed the slightest hint of being receptive to Didi’s pleas, she would have to back off and give them the space to try to work things out. “I don’t want to pull on you, Natalie. I meant what I said about not rushing things. I’m not going anywhere, and if you need some time to sort this out, you should take it.”
“I’m walking with you—not Didi—on the Promenade Deck and holding your arm.”
“Yes, you are.”
“I spent most of the day floating around with you—not Didi—in a romantic lagoon. And if I’m not mistaken, it was you I kissed earlier on the balcony.”
Kelly was picking up on the pattern, and she smiled at Natalie’s roundabout way of reassuring her.
“On top of that, I’m thirty-seven years old, which is old enough to know what I want, when and with whom.”
“Yes, ma’am.” They reached the back of the ship, where the waning moon cast a rippled streak toward them. Kelly wrapped her arm around Natalie’s waist and guided her to the rail. “I believe that’s our moon.”
“What makes it ours?”
“This.” Kelly dipped her head and waited for Natalie to meet her lips. When they came together, she folded Natalie into her arms and pulled her close. The delicate, womanly feel of her body sent a shockwave directly to her core, and she heated up quickly.
Natalie must have felt it too, because her back arched into the embrace as her arms slithered around Kelly’s neck.
The sound of footsteps broke their kiss but not their hold on one another. Locked in a fiery gaze, they were barely aware of another couple passing. Kelly could see her desire mirrored in Natalie’s face. “Do you have any idea what kissing you does to me?”
“I think I do.” She stepped back and reached for Kelly’s hand. “Let’s go back to our room.”
Natalie’s pulse quickened when Kelly latched the door and turned to reveal a lustful look. Within seconds, she found herself swept up in strong arms with Kelly’s mouth descending onto hers. The sensations darted from one place to another as her body awakened to the hands that streamed from her hips to her shoulder blades. The instinctive grinding of her hips encouraged the exploration and erased for both of them any fleeting doubts about where they were headed.
The seconds turned to minutes as their kiss grew more intense. Kelly’s lips left hers and traveled to the soft skin below her ear, sending a shiver up her spine. She dropped her head back and guided the hot mouth to her throat.
“You smell so good.”
Natalie made a mental note of which cologne she had dabbed behind her ears and in the hollow of her neck. Whatever Kelly liked was her new favorite.
Kelly had to know what she was feeling, but she seemed to be holding back as if waiting for something. Permission… submission…Natalie didn’t care if it was a mission of mercy as long as they didn’t stop. Finally, she felt a tug on her zipper and responded in kind, making quick work of three buttons on Kelly’s shirt.
“This would be so much better in bed,” Kelly said.
Natalie stepped out of her dress and waited self-consciously for Kelly’s appraisal, which came in the form of a low whistle. She would buy more black lace to wear with that cologne.
“Natalie Chatham, you are one beautiful woman.” Kelly followed her to the nearest downturned bed, which happened to be Natalie’s, dropped her trousers and shed her shirt. Her nipples peaked against her white tank top.
As Natalie lay back on the bed, Kelly straddled her, sliding one arm underneath to cradle her back. More kisses followed, now with Kelly lying almost on top of her. Never in her life had she been kissed so thoroughly, and never by someone who seemed impervious to her other urgent needs.
Natalie lowered her hands to Kelly’s hips, marveling at the rock-hard muscles beneath her fingertips. None of the other women she had been with had felt this way, nor had they moved over her with such authority and intent. She shamelessly writhed upward for more contact just as Kelly’s mouth left hers to start again down her neck.
Spiraling with want, she grasped the hem of Kelly’s tank top and pulled it upward. Kelly obliged, breaking contact to remove it and toss it aside. Natalie caught only a small glimpse of her small brown nipples before Kelly lowered herself to continue her attentions.
“Please touch my breasts,” she murmured, guiding Kelly’s hand to her lacy, strapless bra.
Kelly worked her way downward at an excruciating pace, finally trailing her tongue along the top of her breast. The hand under Natalie’s back effortlessly released the clasp, and the other slid the bra from between them as Kelly returned to her mouth.
The sensation of their warm breasts together sent Natalie climbing even higher. She was on the verge of begging for more when Kelly finally took a breast in her hand and squeezed.
“I’ve never touched anything so perfect.” Kelly used every part of her hand—her fingertips, her palm, the backs of her knuckles—to caress her stiffened nipples. Finally her lips took over and she drew a taut nipple between her teeth.
The jolt traveled instantly to Natalie’s clitoris, which she began to grind against Kelly’s leg. She was literally moments from her climax when Kelly sensed her urgency and shifted her leg to the side. “I have to touch you.”
Natalie groaned at the loss of contact, but the sensation evaporated instantly. Kelly’s fingers were sliding under the band of her thong, which meant her secret swirl wasn’t going to be a secret much longer. Inch by inch, the lacy elastic slithered from her hip…to her thigh…and to the floor.
“So lovely,” Kelly murmured, her fingertip following the trail of the sculpted swirl into the wetness below. Lower it crept, until it firmly pressed against the base of Natalie’s vagina as if gathering its forces to breach the wall. Then it tracked upward along the cleft of her labia, stopping just short of her clitoris. Again. And again, the most exquisite torture imaginable.
“You’re driving me insane.”The rest of her body felt paralyzed as she concentrated on Kelly’s touch. When Kelly’s mouth found hers once again, the sensations intensified, now darting in a circuit from her center. She turned her head for air, but Kelly stayed close, their lips only millimeters apart as their breath came in shallow rasps. Finally Kelly slipped inside her and the sublime quiver began. “Oh, God…”
Kelly murmured something, but Natalie didn’t hear. She was subsumed with powerful shockwaves that made her bury her face in Kelly’s neck as she cried out.
“…beautiful…” Kelly brushed her lips along her chin as she withdrew her hand.
Natalie had craved each impulse, and even in the wake of her climax, her center still popped like a live wire. She suddenly became aware of her hands, which were tucked inside Kelly’s briefs, gripping her tight butt. What on earth did a person say at a moment like this? Thank you? Who knew?
Instead of using words, she tried to show her feelings with another kiss, this one smoldering for more than a minute. When they finally broke, she found Kelly searching her eyes. “That was amazing.”
Kelly opened her mouth to respond, but then shook her head. “I don’t even have words for it.”
“I’m still throbbing.”
A warm hand tenderly enveloped her mound and she stirred upward.
“More?”
Natalie shook her head. “No, I can’t. I just want you to hold me.” She fingered the elastic of Kelly’s briefs. “Take these off.”
Kelly complied and pulled the covers up around them as she snuggled close.
“I think we’re not finished,” Natalie said as she stroked the newly exposed skin. “Your ass is like a rock.”
“It’s a runner thing.”
“Magnificent,” she said, feeling the curves and cleft. “How would I go about making you come like I just did?”
Kelly laughed softly and kissed the tip of her nose. “I guess I’ll have to make a little more noise next time.”
“What does that mean?”
“That I came already, about ten seconds before you did.”
Natalie’s mouth opened in shock. That was the most amazing thing she had ever heard. “I wasn’t even touching you.”
“But I was touching you. That’s all it took,” she said, nibbling gently on Natalie’s earlobe. “You excite me like nobody ever has. So you can have your way with me again, or we can lie here just like this until we fall asleep. I couldn’t possibly be more content than I am right now.”
Natalie had never made love before with someone who seemed to take her pleasure from giving it. The invitation to have free rein was tempting, but so was lying in her arms in the warmest afterglow she had ever experienced.
She stared as Kelly emerged from the bed, her nude body sleek and ripped. Piece by piece, she collected their clothing and spread it neatly on the couch. “It’s a habit from being in the navy. I hate to iron.” Then she turned out the lights and crept back into bed.
“You have an incredible body.”
“Nothing compared to yours, lady. I’ve been fantasizing about that ever since our first day at sea when you came out on the pool deck in your swimsuit.”
Natalie chuckled and gently pinched her rib. “You have not.”
“I have so. I was watching you from behind my sunglasses so you wouldn’t see me. I got jealous when that redhead Aussie woman started hitting on you.”
“Julie…I didn’t come on this cruise to have a fling.” She went silent as the magnitude of what she had just done struck her. This was how it always started—sex first, with love to follow. Neither she nor Kelly had ever said what this meant, but she hoped it hadn’t been just a sexual thing.
Kelly nuzzled her neck. “Good. I hope that means you want more than a fling.”
“Mmmm.” Natalie relaxed and smiled to herself, thinking that Kelly had read her mind. It was way too soon to put words to this new feeling, but she liked where it was headed, and gave Kelly a warm, reassuring squeeze.
The slow, even breaths signaled Natalie’s restful sleep.
Kelly wasn’t so lucky, left awake and wondering why her question had gone unanswered. Maybe Natalie hadn’t realized it was a question. Her only response had been a hug, which Kelly would have relished had it not seemed like a dodge.
No matter what happened after tonight, making love with Natalie had been one of the most wonderful experiences of her life—sweet, satisfying and filled with promise. While she wanted to believe it could lead to mutual love, the cold hard reality was that she and Natalie had very little in common. Few things could be so different as construction and fashion. In fact, her only real understanding of fashion was that Natalie looked fantastic in everything she wore. That didn’t mean she wasn’t willing to learn about the important things in Natalie’s life, though it was hard to imagine developing a real interest in it beyond what mattered to Natalie.
Despite their differences, one thing they had going for them was chemistry, especially if tonight was any indication. The question was whether or not it was enough to seed a lasting relationship. In some ways, it was the most important piece, because if Natalie felt the chemistry too, it was motivation to work for more. But it was also the most fleeting, the easiest to let go, since it could totally vanish once they left the romantic setting they currently shared.
She closed her eyes and tried to imagine their lives one month from now…three months…a year. It made a nice fantasy to see herself hanging sheets of plastic in the doorways at Natalie’s house in preparation for gutting the kitchen. In her mind’s eye, Natalie would watch her with excitement and interest as she showed off her construction skills. They would share an ice-old beer and trade kisses as they talked about the new fixtures and designs. Then she would take Natalie’s hand…
Chapter 19
Natalie stirred, grasping at once that she was alone in bed. Several times in the night she had awakened to find herself comfortably draped across Kelly’s chest, wondering what the morning would bring. Then she would sigh, snuggle closer and drift off to sleep again, secure in Kelly’s strong embrace. She was convinced this was a wonderful new thing, a chance to build a relationship with someone who valued her for the person she was, no matter what she wore or how she looked.
Upon finding Kelly gone, she grew uneasy. Yes, she ran most mornings. And yes, she usually brought both of them coffee so they could relax together in their room or on the balcony a few minutes before facing the rest of the world. It was sweet that she did that every day…but after what they had shared the night before, it would have been nice today to wake up in Kelly’s arms.
Kelly had said she wanted more than a fling…or something like that…and that’s what Natalie wanted too. In her life, she’d had only two sexual encounters that she considered flings. Both had been fun, but emotionally empty. She had expected more this time. It was too soon to be taken for granted, and that’s how she felt about Kelly leaving her on her own this morning.
It wasn’t as if she didn’t have misgivings of her own. They were as different as night and day. And then there was the image of them together in public, her ultra-femme look to Kelly’s butch persona.
It must have been her hormones at work, or just the fact that she hadn’t had sex in over two years. No matter what had caused her to set all her judgment aside and give in to her lust, this thing with Kelly probably had zero chance to turn into a relationship. It was true that with Theresa and Didi she had established a pattern of sleeping with a woman first and then working to build a relationship based on physical attraction. That wasn’t going to happen here, no matter how good the sex with Kelly had been… and it had been very, very good. Sexual chemistry wasn’t enough to overcome her misgivings.
