Chapter 271

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

She had absolutely no evidence to back up this belief.

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

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

She hummed to herself, her old standby.

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

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

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

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

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

she hummed again.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Willie's fine," Shontay said coldly.

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

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

"We have nothing to talk about."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"You wanted to talk."

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

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

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

"Laura, you are such a cunt."

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

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

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

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

Laura sat back. "I don't?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Don't you touch me!"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Of course."

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

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

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

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

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

"Ready for that kiss now?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Oh god, yes!" Shontay whimpered again.

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

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

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

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

Shontay giggled and panted nervously. "Either one."

"Which do you like the most?"

"Tongue."

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

"Oh Laura..."

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

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

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

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

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

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