The fact that doors had been installed in our floor and bedroom had me jittery with anticipation. After I’d let the obrec back out into the city, I practically ran up the stairs towards the room I shared with Grace. I was still a little tingly after the kiss during dinner — gosh, that had gone on way longer than I intended. I hope we didn't make the others too uncomfortable.

When I arrived at our floor, I stepped through into the common room and carefully closed and locked the door. Then I was rushing over to the door into our room, where I paused, my heart thudding in my chest. Was I thinking about this too much? Was I expecting something that wasn’t going to happen? We hadn’t talked about anything happening tonight — we hadn’t really mentioned it since that first night in Millowhall.

Blowing out a huge puff of air, I gently opened the door and stepped inside, closing it behind me and leaning back against it to stare at Grace. She was on the bed, in her sleeping clothes but on top of the covers, feet crossed at the ankles and hands behind her head, looking relaxed.

“Hi!” I blurted, a little too loud.

“Hey,” Grace smiled, eyes finding mine.

We stared at each other for several long moments before she tilted her head and raised an eyebrow. “You coming to bed?”

“Um, yup, definitely,” I nodded like a dumbass. Why was I so nervous? Grace was being casual, and they were just doors! Doors that gave us complete privacy to do whatever we wanted…

Turning my back to the bed, I stripped down and changed quickly into my sleeping clothes — a soft shirt and panties. Grace had her eyes on me when I slipped in bed, but I was too nervous to meet them. Instead, I pretended that I was really focused on the sheets.

With me under the covers, she followed suit, then held out her arms to me. I scooted over and melted into them, and it was like all my nerves and worries and fears and just… everything — it all vanished as so much smoke in the wind. Because in the end, I was with Grace, and I trusted her down into the deepest depths of my heart. I loved her.

I could hear her heartbeat from where my head rested on her chest, and each gentle breath she took felt like it was pulsing life into me too.

Pushing myself up, I shifted to look at her, drinking in each line and curve of her recently altered face. I reached up to touch it — playing my fingers delicately across the smooth skin of her cheek as she watched me from behind her lashes.

“You’re so beautiful,” we both said at the same time, which prompted a shared grin.

With that smile still on her face, her fingers snaked into my hair, pulled me down, and kissed me oh-so-gently. Just briefly, though, because she pulled away and whispered, “Thank you for earlier at the table. I know it was… kinda embarrassing, but… it feels really good to know you care about me no matter who is watching.”@@novelbin@@

Smiling, I began to formulate a reply, but then— well, her lips were on mine again and my thoughts scattered. I didn’t even remember what I was going to say after a moment anyway, so it probably wasn’t amazingly important. Instead, my attention was wholly on her, on each brush of our lips, and each amazing burst of goosebumps as her tongue flickered out to tease. Only, it kept disappearing when my lips parted to let it in! Tease!

Deviously, I came up with a plan to turn the tables — I bit her bottom lip, just gently, and got a gasp, followed by a growl. I was flipped onto my back in a hurry — a playfully scowling girl above me. Oh no, oh no. The plan worked too well!

“Cheating,” she stated breathlessly, her eyes alight and wanting. Wanting me.

“I’m not sorry,” I grinned, staring cheekily back up at her and earning an eye roll in return.

She dove back down, but for my neck this time, to press little kisses just under my jaw, forcing my head back into the pillow. I shivered.

“Tell me if you want me to stop,” she whispered into my ear, her voice warm and thrumming in a way I hadn’t ever heard from her. Where was this coming from?

“Um, no. Please, don’t stop,” I blurted, as each heavy breath I took flared the excited ache in my stomach. Wait, I’d just sounded really sexual just then! Holy moly, that was… I liked how I sounded just then. I wanted this so badly. Not that I knew what this actually entailed. I mean, I knew the like, broad basics, but— 

Grace’s fingers skimmed the underside of my boob, and my eyes flew open, rambling thoughts blasted away. When had her hands gotten under my shirt? Then I winced and flinched just a little.

“Ow!” I blurted. One of her fingernails had scraped the skin.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, her hand vanishing from beneath my shirt.

“Your fingernail was scratchy,” I mumbled, feeling embarrassed now.

“Oh crap, sorry… I bite them and… I’ll go fix it, hold on,” she said, her own face going red.

I grabbed her before she could get away and pulled her hand close. Summoning one of my small, magenta blades with a flourish, I carefully nicked the offending spike of fingernail off. Then, I quickly trimmed all the nails til they didn't look scary. Damn, I was good with these things now.

“Show off,” Grace laughed as the blade dissipated.

“Just impressing a girl,” I shot back, giving her a teasing grin.

Grace replaced the grin on my face with her lips, warm and smiling, leaving damp kisses from the tip of my nose, to my cheeks and then to my lips. “You’re such a dork,” she said, smiling into the kiss.

Instead of speaking, I just sorta shrugged and pulled her down flush against me. Talking time was over — I wanted to be ravished.

As the heat and tension built back up between us, her fingers were tugging at my shirt again, slipping under and taking up where they had left off. I closed my eyes when they brushed from the underside of my breast, around and up until they met my collarbone. Goodness, the way she touched me…

She spent time just tracing her fingers around for a while, and I’d never even considered my own collarbone to be at all sexual until that moment. Sure, hers was hot… but mine?

Then, her fingers trailed down the gentle slope of my breast, until they skimmed my nipple. Each finger stopped to gently tap it one after another. My breath caught in my throat, and she backed off from the kiss to search my face. I nodded quickly, but words were way beyond me now, and she smiled knowingly.

My shirt was already up around my shoulders by that point, but she decided that was too much, and I shifted to allow her to take it off me. Topless now, I watched with nervous excitement as her eyes ran down the length of me.

“Oh…” she whispered, her smile gone, replaced with a look of awe. “Oh… Ryn…”

Hands coming down again, she touched me reverently — over the dip and curve of my waist, to the gentle rise of my stomach, then back up to my breasts again. She didn’t stay there though, and I closed my eyes, relaxing back into the bed as she explored me. The feeling was… wonderful, and not just because I had my lover’s hands on me. It was impossible to ignore the femininity of my own body as her adoring hands highlighted each soft inch.

My eyes flew open again when I felt the wet flick of a tongue on one of my nipples. Shocks danced down my nerves, and I quivered. I was pretty sure the image I captured in that moment would be cherished for the rest of my life. I was looking down at her, at the girl I love, with her mouth around my nipple, and my own boobs sitting right there in my field of vision. Holy shit I was a girl, I was a girl in love with a girl… about to make love to that girl.

She spent long, toe curling minutes there, small flickers of tongue or the briefest brush of teeth sending sparks flying through my body. I buzzed with the sensations — my thighs quivering and my breath stuttering. My heart though, it was full to bursting with raw love for her, for my Grace. I wanted to touch her, too.

My hands reached for her hair. My fingers wove their way in, playing with the short multicoloured strands. I loved her hair, it was so thick and soft, but just rough enough to give a tactile feeling that I relished.

By the time she was moving down my body — eyes locked with mine between each breath-hitching kiss to my chest and stomach, I was wet beyond measure. A wetness she discovered when she pulled my underwear all the way down my long legs, which once free, parted almost of their own accord.

“Wow,” she grinned up at me.

“What?” I blushed, my hands coming up to hide my face. “You’re hot and you turn me on and you were just sucking on my nipples.”

“I know, but… goodness,” she said, illustrating her point by running a slow finger through sopping folds from the bottom up until she brushed a small part of me that pulsed with heady warmth.

I shuddered, my heart doing backflips. I clenched my eyes shut. Fuck, I was so sensitive. She’d gotten me all worked up since dinner, and now I was made of nothing but nerve bundles, love and a desperate need.

Except… as much as I wanted her to go down on me at some point, I wanted her up here more. “Please come back up? I want to kiss you… while…”

“Sure,” she said, her tone gentle and caring.

That didn’t stop her from giving me a flat-tongued lick however, which had me gasping in surprise. “Oh my goodness… Grace!”

“Sorry,” she laughed, not sounding at all sorry. “I wanted to taste you.”

I grumbled meaningless sounds of annoyance and pulled her towards me, until she obligingly kissed me. I loved the way she settled half on top of me, one leg wrapped around mine, keeping me open to her. I was able to concentrate on our kiss for all of two seconds before her fingers found my center, and then breathing suddenly became rather difficult. At least, it felt like it when she— oh.

I was so hopelessly turned on that I knew I was going to come any second now, my body tensing as her fingers weaved pleasure through my nerves. My hips were moving on their own, up and down, mindlessly questing for more as I gave in to her — to the affection with which she was now murmuring my name in between little kisses to my cheek. I couldn’t find it within me to worry about coming so quickly, though. We were both girls after all, and if there was one thing I knew about all this, it was that we had a long, wonderful night of this ahead.

Her gentle fingers kept moving, and under their touch my quiet gasps quickly became breathless moans. I had no idea what was even happening down there, just that her fingers were moving over me, inside me, and it was the most incredible, back-arching sensation I’d ever felt. I was slowly coming undone, and the fact it was Grace here next to me… gosh I loved her. I loved her so much.

Then she did something else, pressed a fingertip somewhere different, and I gave a tiny squeak. “Yes! Grace! More— more of tha—” I said, although it was barely a whisper.

She did it again, softly and rhythmically swirling her fingers over, my hips rising completely off the bed. Something began to build, a rising, sizzling wave, with Grace's consistent, gentle urging to encourage it onwards.

The wave broke.

Holy shit, holy sh— Were my eyes closed? I don’t know, but I couldn’t see. All I could process was the buzzing thunder of warmth that was exploding through me.

It wasn’t just the warmth of ecstasy that rushed down every limb though, my heart joined in, braiding a note of joyous love in with the pulses that ruled me. As the pleasure ebbed, I was able to open my eyes and see her, watching me, enraptured.

“Grace,” I heard myself say, voice breathy with exertion. “I love you!”