Chapter 255

Ever since Laura and Taneesha had run into Shontay in the hallway outside Laura's apartment-a scene so painful to remember that Laura avoided anything but a high-level awareness in her mind that it had indeed happened-Laura had been tormented by her realization that Shontay's feelings for her were somehow deeper than she had known. She kicked herself for not having understood it.

Though at work Shontay was aloof, cold, implacable, and apparently much disliked by her direct reports, with Laura she was soft, vulnerable, pliant, and warm, full of delight in her own body, which before Laura she had apparently come to hate and detest for its long, bony frame and sharp angles, and also her inability to come very easily. Before Laura, she confessed, she had never climaxed with another person-meaning a man, of course-only by masturbating.

Laura had quickly put an end to that, and with her Shontay now had several orgasms each time, some of them stupendous shockers that left her weak and gasping. For Shontay, Laura realized belatedly, it was like being reborn. She had blossomed, at least when she was with Laura. She was relaxed, funny, sensual, and very affectionate. She had even left her old baggy business suits in the closet and began to show off a more stylish wardrobe at work-which Laura, fearing a scene, had only detected by spying around corners-one that more successfully flattered her long, slender legs and charming little rump.

Laura cursed herself for not having seen these signs. Anyone would have noticed them. You might not want to call it 'love, ' but it was surely a deep sexual attachment and also a deep affection they shared. For all Laura knew, Shontay did think of it as 'love'. She certainly had seemed startled and pained to see Laura with another woman (or girl, Laura thought; it was hard to think of the delicious 'Valley Girl' Taneesha as a woman, though she fucked like one). Shontay, seeing them, had clearly been devastated. Laura could still see the big, silvery tears sliding silently down her smooth, light brown cheeks, her magical pale brown eyes above them stricken and lost.

For nearly two weeks now at work Laura had played cat-and-mouse, trying to avoid her, coming early, leaving late, skirting the areas where Shontay was certain to be. She wondered if Shontay might not be doing the same thing, since they never ran into one another. But the guilt kept gnawing at her, and then the desire, for she actually missed Shontay. Their intimacy had been unexpected, but Laura found that it was captivating. And the more she recalled Shontay standing in the hallway with tears sliding down her cheeks, the more she felt a deep urge to comfort her, to enfold her, to reassure her (by what, more lies? she wondered), and ultimately to take off her pretty new clothes and rub against her until Shontay exploded in ecstasies even more intense than the ones she had experienced so far.

Laura did not know how to deal with this impasse. Shontay could be frighteningly cold and withering in her personal manner, and Laura realized she was a little afraid of her (probably the reason Shontay's employees feared her, too). She could be cutting. She could be an ice pillar of scorn. And Laura knew she herself deserved whatever was coming her way, which made it harder to invite it.

Trying to turn her thoughts to other things, she contemplated moving to a new place. She had lied about it to Taneesha, but the very process of lying had made her wonder if it might not be a good idea. Maybe it was just a peculiar architectural flaw that made the sounds generated in her apartment so audible in the one above. She never experienced such anxieties in Shavon's place, or Randi's, or Karen's. And god knows, we sure whoop it up sometimes, she thought. It's only in my place that I feel this terrible fear that they're going to hear us shrieking.

She was thinking of this so hard one evening as she came home from work that she barely noticed the Gibsons wheeling their stylish and expensive luggage out the door to their Mercedes as she was checking for her mail. They smiled at her vaguely, and she returned the abstracted, neighborly smile they had all apparently agreed on. Then, as she was looking through her mail before heading for the elevator, it occurred to her that they were leaving... for a vacation, or a meeting, or something.

Oh god, does that mean Shontay will be coming back over here to feed the cat? she wondered.

As far as she knew, no one showed up the first night, which was the actual night the Gibsons had left. At least, Laura heard no sounds overhead. Though she usually heard little from them when they were home, occasionally a floorboard would creak, or there would be a distant thump, as if something were dropped. She heard nothing.

This made her all the more nervous on the second evening, because if Shontay were dropping by to feed Willie, she certainly would not wait much longer. And in fact, Laura did hear a noise upstairs on the second evening, a definite creak. She's there! she thought.

Laura took a deep breath. I'm going up there. I'm going to knock on the door. I'm going to... what? I'm going to apologize. I'm going to tell her that I wouldn't have hurt her for the world. I'm going to tell her I'm just so sorry...

She clenched her fists and gritted her teeth, pacing, all in the effort to get courage, to be honest and forthright, to face up to whatever pain she had caused and try to remedy the situation. Seconds later, before she could think of it any more and allow herself to back out, she was heading up the stairs next to the elevator. She reached the ninth floor and marched resolutely down to the Gibsons' door and knocked.

Then, as she stood waiting, all her courage suddenly left her, draining away like the water in the bottom of a basin. It quickly dawned on her that Shontay would not open the door since she would know it could only be one of two unpleasant possibilities: either a rapist or burglar had got into the building, or it was Laura.

Her heart almost stopped when she heard a small click inside, behind the door. Then she realized it was the tiny hatch-door on the little peep hole in the middle of the door, about average eye-height. She had one on her own peep hole, since it was the same door. Everything was the same. Why couldn't they just make a stupid hole and leave the little hatch-door off? she wondered, knowing that Shontay-or someone, at least-was inside inspecting her now, looking at her, deciding whether to open the door.

"Shontay... it's me," Laura burst out, not having prepared to say anything, just hearing the words rush from her mouth in a hushed but semi-hysterical flood.

Still, nothing. No movement or sound from behind the door. Laura looked directly at the peep hole, composing her face into a soft, smiling, friendly mode. Just dropped by to say hi, her face tried to say. I'm... oh, you know, just friendly, neighborly Laura, not trying to... force myself on you or anything. Just wanted to talk, that's all. She smiled, then was afraid she had smiled too broadly, too falsely, and so shrunk her smiling muscles a little to appear more formal, more restrained.

Whether this strategy worked, or whether Shontay too found the moment becoming unbearable, the door was unlocked and slowly it opened-just a crack, though. Shontay peered out at Laura, her face expressionless.

"Hello... Laura," she said, very softly. Her eyes were intense and unrelenting, holding Laura's, boring into Laura's. "What do you want?"

The silence in the hallway where Laura was standing was painful, like a mausoleum, the place where dead dreams went to repose. Laura twisted her fingers.

"I wanted... to talk to you."

"That's all?"

Laura nodded.

"Talk, then."

Laura thought of asking to be invited in, then thought better of it. "I... wanted to... explain."

"You ain't got nothing to explain to me, girl," Shontay snapped, without, however, raising her voice. Her pale, fantastic, light brown eyes glowed with fierce hostility.

Laura had never heard her lapse into this kind of dialect before, which gave added emphasis to Shontay's controlled fury. No wonder I was afraid of her, Laura thought. Look at how stiff she is... and god, she looks magnificent when she's angry, with her regal, fierce contempt, her nostrils twitching like that. Laura fought against the clear realization that it was sexually arousing.

She shrugged, not disguising her feeling of defeat. "I wanted to apologize," she said, softly.

She let her eyes do the pleading, hoping to see some sign of softening in this magnificent, haughty, regal creature whose eyes burned and whose chin was held higher than normal, at an imperious height, which made Laura feel even smaller. Shontay glowered at her.

"Go ahead," she breathed finally, almost inaudibly, as if trying to decide whether to be bored or even angrier. "Apologize."

"Look... it's kind of hard to do it just... standing here. Could I come in? I won't stay but a minute."

Shontay glowered at her. She pushed the door open further and stepped back. Laura, very tentatively, as if she were going to be sliced and shredded instantly by invisible knives, stepped inside. Nervously glancing around Shontay's tall, angular body, she saw Willie, the cat, in the living room, a blur of white fluff with iridescent turquoise eyes, looking at them both. She brought her eyes-reluctantly, fearing the fiery anger there-back to Shontay's.

But now she saw in them what she had not been able to detect in the dim hallway: the faint, plangent throbbing of a deep and real pain, though it was almost successfully masked by the hideous and threatening anger Laura had initially responded to. But seeing it was, curiously, a relief to her. At least she's human, Laura thought, watching Shontay close the door. She did not fasten the deadbolt lock, clearly expecting a short visit, and also making it clear, in case Laura should be devious enough to have any ideas of reconciliation, that nothing more than stammered apologies would be tolerated.

Shontay did not move. She did not try to draw Laura further into the apartment.

"Go ahead."

"Shontay... that girl you saw me with is... the niece of a friend of mine, a business associate, actually," Laura began, sounding to herself horribly false and treacly.

Shontay looked at her, expressionless again, and said nothing. The silence propelled Laura forward.

"It was just... something that happened. I didn't mean to hurt you."

Shontay nodded, a very slight, menacing up and down movement of her head. Her sensual lips were pressed together in a straight line, her eyes hard.

"You didn't," she said in a clipped voice.

"Oh." Laura paused uncomfortably. "I-"

"Is that all?"

"No, it's not 'all'.

Shontay's pale brown eyes flashed. "I don't have anything more to say to you, Laura."

Laura put a hand on her wrist, instinctively, without really knowing she was doing so. Shontay snatched her hand away.

"Don't you touch me!"

"Shontay... for god's sake. Please."

"Go, Laura. Go."

"I don't want to go."

Shontay looked exasperated. "I want you to."

Laura was determined not to leave. There was too much at stake. It could not end like this. She sucked up her courage and took a step forward. She raised her hand to caress Shontay's cheek, as she had done many times in the past. Shontay parried it quickly with her forearm, a slashing movement that pushed Laura's arm awkwardly to the side.

Laura's shoulders slumped. She wasn't willing to fight physically about it. She felt defeated. Willie took this opportunity to show up at the door. He recognized Laura and began rubbing against her ankle. She smiled and looked down at him, hearing him purr loudly.

"At least somebody's happy to see me."

She looked up and saw Shontay's eyes cloud over briefly, a surprise to Laura, and apparently to Shontay too since she immediately turned her head to the side and shook it, as if to clear the cobwebs. Laura quickly leaped on her advantage.

"Shontay... I'm not going. Not until we talk."

"You already talked. You said you were sorry. Thank you. Apology accepted."

She tried to step toward the door to open it again, but Laura blocked her way. "No... we have to talk more."

Shontay shook her head, her eyes again steely and fierce. Laura did not know what to do but felt something must be done, and so she stepped around her and walked into the living room, sitting down in a large, soft-upholstered easy chair that she had not noticed on her last visit. Maybe it was new. It was very comfortable, and she sank a little into the cushions, suddenly realizing that this was a disadvantageous position for her since she was slumped awkwardly in the soft chair while Shontay now loomed over her, angular and tall and imperious as ever, as she approached.

Laura struggled back up, sitting perched on the edge. But instead of confronting her, Shontay sat on the sofa across from her. Willie came in and stared back and forth at the two of them, as if not knowing which one to approach.

"You've got Willie confused," Laura said, calmly. "He thinks we're fighting. He doesn't know which one to snuggle up to. Last time he saw me we were naked and... you know, happy together."

Shontay scowled, as if Laura had said something obscene and loathsome. Don't remind me, her eyes said.

"I really like your new clothes," Laura said, rushing on, unwilling to let Shontay gather her anger for a new assault. "They look so stylish on you. They really show off your best features. I especially like that dress. So summery and... you know, bright. The bright colors look great on you."

Shontay really did look terrific, Laura thought. She might be cold and implacable, but physically she looked like a model, thin and beautiful in her bright, flowery dress, which clung around her long, thin, but very shapely legs. The ivory hue of the fabric, which was splashed with brightly colored flowers, was especially striking against Shontay's smooth, light brown skin and made her look a little darker than she really was, like rich, thick molasses.

"Thank you," Shontay swallowed uncomfortably, wary of accepting any compliments from someone as devious and treacherous as Laura. "... I guess. You were the one who criticized my clothes, remember?"

She said this without a trace of humor, as if she resented it deeply. And yet she had changed her style, and the results were undeniably successful. Laura took this contradictory signal as an encouraging sign. She hates me, but she can't forget. I made her pant.

Laura smiled at her warmly, this time genuinely forgoing all the sentimental treacle she had initially had hoped would break down Shontay's resistance.

"Can't we be friends again?" she asked, softly.

"Who said we're not friends," Shontay said, not smiling, in fact very grim.

Feeling very emboldened but still not knowing if anything would come of it, Laura stood up from the easy chair and went over to the sofa, sitting down cross-legged on the floor next to it, and next to Shontay's legs. She smiled up at Shontay and rubbed her cheek against the skirt of Shontay's summery dress, where its folds fell behind her calf.

"It smells good, too," Laura whispered. "You smell good."

"I think you better leave."

"You look so much more beautiful with your hair down. Why don't you take it down? Why don't you let me take it down?"

Shontay shook her head.

They did not speak for several minutes. Laura's brain was working furiously, and she wondered if Shontay's brain were scheming too. Parry... thrust... parry. Will she give in? Will she give up?

"I was looking through this big coffee table book I have about models," Shontay finally said, quietly, almost inaudibly. "I saw this picture of, what was her name, Stephanie something... Seymour. Stephanie Seymour. Do you know her?"

"I've never been introduced," Laura smiled.

"I mean who she is. You look just like her. She was a famous model. Probably still is, but she must be a little older now."

"You're the one who looks like the model," Laura said.

"You mean tall and skinny?" Shontay said, revealing a trace of her old bitterness.

"I mean tall and slender and impossibly beautiful," Laura said, looking up over Shontay's knees and straight into her eyes.

"That's just bullshit, Laura," Shontay said, breathing more than speaking the words. "That girl you were with was beautiful."

The knife turned in Laura's gut. She had thought they were slowly, painfully climbing out of this particular morass, and now they had fallen abruptly back into it. Instead of allowing it to happen, she charged on blithely.

"Maybe all you need is a little more meat and potatoes. Why don't you come downstairs and let me cook you a big dinner. I can cook, you know."

Shontay grinned. "I know. You helped me in the kitchen right here, don't you remember?"

"I do remember." Laura let her eyes flow and crackle with sexual innuendo. "I remember everything."

Shontay looked away. "I'm not hungry."

By this time Willie had found Laura's lap. Laura petted him in a relaxed, leisurely way and again rubbed her cheek sensually against the fabric of Shontay's dress, this time letting her cheek brush also against the smooth, warm skin of Shontay's long, shapely calf. Shontay felt it too. She pulled her leg away, not dramatically, but just far enough to make it clear to Laura what was off limits.

"I'm going to have a cigarette," Shontay said, abruptly pushing herself up from the sofa.

Laura had forgotten that Shontay smoked, especially in tense moments like this. She was a little disconsolate, sitting on the floor with her back to the sofa, petting Willie, feeling foolish. On the other hand, being at floor level gave her the opportunity to stare at Shontay's ravishing long legs as she walked across the room on her way to the kitchen to get a saucer to use for an ashtray. The skirt of her thin, flowery dress fell only to her knees, and her long, willowy, flexing brown calves were fully-gloriously-visible. Laura, as she watched the sleek muscles ripple, could not now hide from herself the distant quivering deep inside her pussy.

She fully expected Shontay to avoid the sofa when she returned, since Laura had so obviously been trying to weaken her by subtle, devious caresses, but instead she came right back with her lit cigarette and saucer to the same spot and sat down. She placed the saucer on the coffee table and expelled two long streams of tobacco smoke from her nostrils. She was nearly as stiff and contemptuous as ever, but Laura wondered if this were a sign.

Where do we go now? she wondered.

She noticed that Shontay's legs were no further away from her than they had been when she stood up, and so she scooted closer to them, readjusting Willie in her lap. She wanted more than anything to kiss one, but instead she leaned across and rubbed her cheek against Shontay's bare calf again, a caress of astonishing intimacy nevertheless, which was not lost on either of them. This time, to Laura's intense delight, Shontay did not move her leg away. Willie, however, probably tired of the maneuvering and the awkward tension between the two women, hopped off Laura's lap and began to preen himself.

Shontay continued to smoke in brusque, haughty movements, blowing smoke out of her mouth now in straight, even streams. Slowly, Laura turned her face, still rubbing her cheek against Shontay's calf muscle, until her lips grazed the girl's hard shin. Shontay didn't move. Laura let her lips slide across the shin bone and over to the curved calf muscle, pressing them lightly against it. Still, Shontay did not move.

Now Laura trailed her fingers tenderly along Shontay's bare leg, caressing it and beginning to kiss Shontay's shapely calf muscle instead of just pressing her lips against it. Now Shontay pulled her leg away, not abruptly, in fact slowly, but with definite intent.

"Don't do that."

She glowered at Laura, her head wreathed in smoked, as Laura looked up at her.

"Your legs are so beautiful," Laura said in a hushed, worshipful voice, meaning every syllable.

"They're skinny. You aren't going to start all that shit again, are you? 'You're legs are so beautiful. You're so gorgeous. Why do you cover up that beautiful body.' Just drop it, okay?"

"Okay."

Laura again scooted closer to the leg Shontay had moved away from her. Next time Shontay moved it, she would truly have to alter her position on the sofa. I'm not going to let you wiggle out of this too easily, darling, Laura thought.

She let a few moments pass, until Shontay had finished her cigarette and snuffed it out in the saucer. When Shontay again sat back, Laura again pressed her cheek against her calf.

"This is getting a little repetitious, Laura," Shontay said, unable to keep a slight trace of amusement out of her voice, but not moving her leg.

"Mmmmm, I'm sorry... maybe I should kiss the other one," Laura murmured softly, shifting her position so that she was angled between Shontay's legs, her lips now close to the other smooth, light-molasses colored calf.

She caressed it carefully with both hands and kissed it more ardently, moving her lips up Shontay's shapely calf to her knee, kissing it too. Shontay squirmed a little but did not stop Laura. Her thighs even yawned open slightly as if to help Laura, who obligingly moved her body up a little, planting slow, tender, but increasingly passionate kisses on the smooth inner flesh of Shontay's slender thigh. As her face rose higher, she pushed up the thin skirt of Shontay's dress to about five inches above her knees.

She turned her head and kissed the inner flesh of Shontay's other thigh too, hearing a tiny, half-concealed intake of breath as Shontay gasped. Shontay's delicious thighs were very slim, and Laura could see how she might have been teased by others about them through her no doubt gawky teenaged years: spindleshanks, stilts girl, and other stuff. But now, though thin, they were delightfully firm and shapely, warm and marvelously smooth under Laura's moving lips, the skin richly tan like pale clover honey. Laura, unable to resist, began to lick it sensually, not a major sexual uptick, but just a smooth transition from kissing to also tasting.

A soft, very distant mewling sound came from deep inside Shontay's chest, a sound she tried to conceal by swallowing and breathing more loudly, but she was unsuccessful. She did not move, however, except to open her legs a micro millimeter more for Laura.

Since every time Laura opened her mouth, she got her words flung back in her face, she now kept silent and lavished her attention on kissing Shontay's thighs, which was thrilling her so much anyway that she scarcely had energy for anything else. The feel of Shontay's warm, velvet flesh under her lips was indescribably beautiful and erotic at the same time. The long, smooth muscles of Shontay's thighs tensed, relaxed, flexed in small isolated areas as the sensations caused by Laura's lips excited them, then moved on.

Laura pushed Shontay's skirt up a little farther, moving her face up higher between Shontay's thighs. She could now see the pale green fabric of Shontay's panties in the shadowy valley of her crotch.

"Don't do that," Shontay said, squirming, trying to give her quavering voice an authority that would compel Laura to stop, but not succeeding.

"Don't you like it?" Laura asked softly.

"Yes."

"Then why do you want me to stop?"

"I... don't. I hate you, Laura... for making me... feel this way."

"Mmmm... you don't hate me," Laura murmured, her lips moving higher, higher. "You wish I would do this to you every night."

Shontay giggled softly in spite of herself. "Oh god... it really feels good," she panted, a trace of a smile now curving the sides of her sensual mouth as she looked down at Laura.

"I'm going to make it feel even better."

"No... I don't want you to."

Shontay made of a show of trying to close her legs, to push Laura out, but she was clearly not serious, and Laura gently pushed her thighs open again with her fingers, taking the opportunity to move her lips even higher, so that her mouth was now only inches from Shontay's panties. They were damp, not soggy yet, but noticeably moist, and fragrant with her flowing cunt nectars. Laura knew that Shontay's hot little slit was open and pulsing and oozing behind the thin, damp fabric, and she deliberately-certainly before Shontay had realized that any such move was likely-moved her mouth up farther, pressing her lips into Shontay's pale green panties just where they covered her pussy.

Then she breathed a slow stream of warm air through the fabric directly into Shontay's gaping, aching quim. This caused a deep quiver to roll through Shontay's long body, as if radiating out from the center, where Laura was softly blowing into her pussy through her panties, spreading through her flesh all the way from her toes to her scalp, and she even made a soft whinny as she shook, totally helpless for about three seconds.

"Oh! Don't... do that!" she gasped. "Ohhhhh!"

Laura ignored her. By now she had pushed the skirt of the flowery dress way up over Shontay's waist, exposing her whole groin. Still pressing her lips against the damp cloth of Shontay's panties, she continued to caress the tense muscles of Shontay's inner thighs with her fingertips, though by now Shontay had begun to squirm so much that gentle caresses were getting to be beside the point. She was whimpering too, though Laura could tell she was embarrassed to have yielded so easily.

"Ohhhnnnn... oh Laura... what are you doing?"

Laura said nothing. She was still forcing her warm breath through the cloth of Shontay's panties into her wet pussy, and she loved the effect it was having on the girl, who seemed to be turning to jelly before her very eyes, and under her very fingertips. Her warm breath and Shontay's wetness had made the damp cloth sag into the open groove of her pussy, forming a small indentation into which Laura could easily insinuate her tongue.

This she did without hesitation, pushing the cloth into Shontay's pussy and enjoying the tangy dew that now touched her taste buds for the first time. The thick, sweet, musky odors emanating from Shontay's excited cunt became quickly more apparent too, and Shontay stiffened, then undulated, whimpering louder, more aroused than ever.

"Unhhhhh! Oh... Laura... unnhhhhh! Oh god!"

Having finally got the upperhand, Laura was not about to relent. She did not want to pull back, then have Shontay suddenly regain her self control, shutting her legs, maybe even ordering Laura away. She also knew she had little to fear from Shontay coming too soon, because even though Shontay was clearly aroused, she did not spill over quickly, and in fact Laura was the only one who had been able to make her come, using skill and patience.

And so she worked her tongue deeper, pushing the cloth deeper between Shontay's pussy lips, and feeling the cloth become wetter too against the tip of her tongue, still breathing between Shontay's cunt lips as well as invading them with the rest of her mouth. As her tongue pushed the damp cloth deeper into Shontay's pussy, the edges of Shontay's panties began to pull in, exposing the smooth crease on each side where her thighs joined her pelvis, and also a glistening black fringe of shiny pubic hair on each side.

Laura wondered if she herself could stand the sexual excitement she was creating here. Both she and Shontay had become enveloped very suddenly in a hot cloud of seething sex, and whatever fencing and skittishness they had both displayed earlier had completely vanished. She caressed the smooth parts of Shontay's body that had appeared where her panties had pulled away, pushing the cloth even deeper into the girl's pussy with her tongue, then pressing the flat base of her tongue hard against the top where she knew Shontay's tiny, engorged clit had to be.

"Ungghhhh!" Shontay suddenly groaned.

"Oh yes," Laura heard herself murmuring, thrusting her tongue forward, waggling her head a little, letting Shontay feel the full force against her clit and the upper part of her small pussy through the wet cloth of her panties.

"Unnghhh! Laura!" she groaned again.

Now Laura pulled the wet cloth out of Shontay's pussy with her fingers, tugging it to the side, and allowed her tongue to slip directly between the slick, buttery black lips and into the shiny hot pink cleft. Shontay's body arched against the back of the sofa.

"Ohnngg! Oh shit!"

"Honey... honey..." Laura purred, slowing the pace a little, now fearing that Shontay might indeed come too quickly after all.

The girl was wildly excited, her mysterious pale brown eyes flecked with dancing sparks of sexual fire as she looked down at Laura's face in her crotch. She was so lovely and vulnerable here with her summery dress pushed up around her waist, her body lying askew across the sofa, her hair half-disheveled and beginning to fray and stick out from its tight bun, her honey golden thighs spread, her mouth slack, her eyes throbbing, her pussy wet and red and swollen, that half of Laura wanted to just go ahead and deliver the coup de gr'ce right now.