Chapter 274

Only a few hours after Kendra left, Laura got a call. Hoping desperately for it to be Sara, she dashed to the phone.

"Laura? Laura Robbins? Is that you? This is Shaniqua, remember me? Shaniqua Branch, from Dallas? We met when you were here about two months ago?"

This voice, though not Sara's, sent a completely different electrical charge through Laura. She sat down next to the phone, smiling. That darling girl... the one with the bangs, and the lean, fetching body. The one who wanted to transfer to San Francisco. And add to my troubles.

"Shaniqua. Hi. How are you. What a pleasant surprise."

"I'm not interrupting anything? You've got a minute to talk?"

"Of course."

"I know this is really short notice and all, but I'm coming to San Francisco. I've got a flight for tomorrow morning."

"You... do?" Laura was still trying to absorb the shock, and also the flutter of excitement at the thought of seeing this very desirable girl again.

"Yeah... it was unexpected. I have this friend who works for Continental Airlines, and she got me this deal. I couldn't turn it down. I know it's short notice. I was just wondering... if that invitation you made me about staying at your place still holds. Don't worry, I won't be disappointed if you say no."

Laura knew that Sara would not be returning from Mississippi before Tuesday at the earliest, but she guessed that Shaniqua would be staying longer than that. It was now, after all, only Saturday night. This had fallen into her lap so suddenly that her brain was racing in the effort either to come up with an excuse or to find an alternative place for Shaniqua to stay. She wanted to allay any suspicion Sara might eventually have, and she also wanted to spend some time with this delicious girl.

"I... I do have something... coming up," she stammered, trying to think fast. "About Wednesday. Maybe as early as Tuesday. I... I might have to take a quick trip to Cleveland." She had no idea why 'Cleveland' came to her out of the air; she had never been to Cleveland and had no intention of going. "A quick little trip the company wants me to take."

"You know, that might just work out," Shaniqua said brightly, without missing a beat. "Because I can't stay long anyway. I would have to leave by Wednesday. Maybe we could even drive to the airport together. I mean, you could give me a ride."

Laura cleared her throat nervously. Shaniqua had pretty much invited herself, and it would take a firm rejection from Laura to dissuade her. Laura did not want to reject her. Despite her guilt feelings involving Sara, and despite her clear conviction that this delectable creature Shaniqua was no doubt completely heterosexual and had no ulterior agenda, she was unable to stop thinking about what might conceivably happen if they were alone together for a while, here in her condo.

Before she quite knew she had committed herself, she heard the words coming out of her mouth. "Okay, I think that would be great." God, what am I saying! "I mean, if I have to leave by Tuesday, you might have to find a hotel room for one night."

Shaniqua was all bubbly with infectious enthusiasm. "Oooeee!" she squealed in a joyous outburst. "I was hoping you'd say yes!"

Laura gave her a few seconds to calm down. "Tell me when you're flight is arriving. I'll drive down and pick you up."

"Oh, would you?"

This went on for several more minutes. Shaniqua gushed, and Laura tried to act like she was completely in control, as if there were no risk involved. It turned out that Shaniqua would arriving early the following day, a little before noon.

Right after this Sara, of all people, called. This was one of those situations, Laura realized, where you ended up feeling guilty for no reason at all. True, she had been indulging herself with thoughts of undressing the darling Shaniqua and kissing every inch of that dark, lean body, but Sara could not know that. And there was surely nothing wrong with having a little fantasy. It would probably never come to anything anyway, so what was the harm in imagining a hot little encounter?

Still, Laura had to make a real effort to have her voice sound calm and even. "I thought you said no calls," she said softly to Sara.

"I know," Sara said, sounding tired. "I missed you. I hate you, Laura. I never felt this way about anybody before. I'm not asking if you're alone... what you're doing. I don't want to know what's going on. I just wanted to hear the sound of your voice."

Now Laura felt even worse. And again, for no reason. She felt her heart filling with love for Sara and guilt over having agreed to let Shaniqua stay with her. "You are the love of my life too," she whispered, meaning it. "And nothing's happening, so just put your mind at ease. I'm sitting here soaking my feet and drinking a glass of wine and longing for you."

Actually, she was doing neither (though the longing was instantly, piercingly real) but thought this sounded natural and reassuring. She made up her mind to do both immediately after hanging up the phone.

"I want your body," she whispered into the receiver.

"My body is so beat you couldn't do a thing for it right now," Sara said, wearily.

"Bet I could," Laura flirted.

Sara had been settling financial affairs with banks, employers, insurance companies, and family members, for whom she had an astonishingly acid contempt. She had been named executor in her father's will, and even though the inheritance was small, the infighting, according to her, was acute.

Laura could almost sense the weary smile on Sara's face through the telephone. "I think you actually could," she acknowledged. "I wish you were here to do it."

They talked for a few more minutes, mostly love cooing, then hung up. Laura felt wonderful that Sara had broken her vow not to talk on the phone while she was away, and she continued to feel rotten about lusting after Shaniqua. True to her word, she poured a glass of wine and spent a half hour in her jacuzzi, thinking solely about Sara and almost absent-mindedly bringing herself to a surprising little orgasm with her hand while lying back in the warm, turbulent water and dreaming of her.

Shaniqua's flight arrived next day at mid-afternoon. Even though Laura had been floating in a blue funk of guilt over having agreed to the girl's visit and then having felt it was a certain betrayal of Sara, her mood was brightened considerably now that Shaniqua was actually here. For one thing, she had forgotten how good-looking Shaniqua was. For some reason, probably self-protective editing of recollections, she had been thinking that the girl was 'average-pretty' and nothing special. This was far from the truth, as one fresh glimpse of her proved.

Shaniqua emerged from the airplane with three different men fawning over her. She was vivacious and flirtatious and provocative all at once, enjoying the attention, leading them on outrageously. Laura, patiently waiting for her behind the red rope that kept greeters away from the debarkation gate, had two reactions. One, her thoughts that Shaniqua was so completely heterosexual that it was pointless to worry about sexual temptation were confirmed with shocking finality. Two, something about the girl made Laura want to rush up and fawn over her in exactly the same way these foolish men were doing.

She was wearing a short blue leather skirt that showed off her long, long black legs. Nobody, including Laura could keep her eyes off them. Shaniqua's dark hair fell in a swishing flag around her shoulders, and her enchanting bangs seemed to have the same effect on everyone that they clearly had on Laura. Her white, even teeth, flashing dark eyes, and easy smile had the three men and Laura almost panting as they devoured her with their eyes.

Laura swallowed dryly as she realized that this visit would be more difficult than she had thought. On the freeway, Shaniqua chattered with amazing fluency about everything while Laura tried to stay focused on the traffic and keep her eyes from darting to The Legs. Oh god, I never knew she had such gorgeous long legs when I met her in Dallas.

Shaniqua also smelled good. Laura could not tell whether it was a faint wisp of some classy perfume or just the natural odor of her body, but there was an ethereal scent emanating from her that stirred the fires in Laura's pussy. Maybe this is what those guys were smelling too, without even knowing it, probably.

She must have been focusing on all this instead of what Shaniqua was saying because as her attention drifted back to the girl's voice, she felt for a moment that she was hearing gibberish.

"So for a while," Shaniqua was saying, "I thought 'Wow, this is freako weird, you know?' I mean, I never believed in any of that shit about alien abductions and flying saucers. But I started reading their stuff and talking to this guy Jareeka who was one of the ones they took up there when they first came here, I mean not the first time, like, that was thousands of years ago, but this latest time when they returned, I guess you could say..."

What is she talking about? Laura wondered. Something about this guy Blas Fortuna and his group of alien clones that were planted here by outer space creatures in the year 8004 of the Stronion Era. Oh god, Laura thought, this darling girl is a member of some weird cult that believes in spacemen.

"You mean you belong to this... group?" she asked, mildly, wanting to say 'cult' but stopping herself, trying to keep the sharp skepticism out of her voice.

"Oh no," Shaniqua shook her head. "But I've been toying with the idea."

"Don't they..." Laura inquired tentatively, "sort of... require you to quit your job and give them all your money and move to... who knows, Los Angeles or something? I mean, I thought that's what all those groups do?" She wanted to add that most of them required the all the women to sleep with the cult leader, didn't they? But she restrained herself.

"It's not really L.A. A place called Rancho Mirage. You know where that is?"

Laura shook her head. "Some rich people's enclave near Palm Springs, I think. They must have a lot of money."

"Well, look at it this way," Shaniqua said, with a straight face, as far as Laura could tell, though she was paying more attention to the crazy freeway drivers. "If you were the guys responsible for putting the whole human race here in the first place, I guess you'd know where all the money is, right?"

Right, Laura thought. Even I know where the money is, and I'm not even an alien. What a strange world, she reflected. All I can think about is how much fun it would be to take this marvelous girl to bed, and yet she clearly doesn't go for popping in the sack with girls and would be shocked to find me hoping for it, and she is more interested in space aliens. Bizarre. What are we doing here in the same car?

However, she knew the answer to that question. Since it was only around three in the afternoon, before returning to her condo she took Shaniqua on a tour of some of the more popular tourist attractions. They ended up at Fisherman's Wharf for dinner, a place Laura never went except when showing somebody around. But she had a great time since Shaniqua was truly ebullient and vivacious by nature, and showed a fresh enthusiasm for every new experience. The subject of space aliens was discreetly avoided, and they enjoyed strolling the Wharf, dining on cracked crab, sourdough bread, and white wine.

They were both still a little tipsy by the time it grew dark and Laura drove them to her condo. Shaniqua almost stumbled going up the steps and had to lean briefly on Laura for support.

"Oooeee, I never drink that much wine," she giggled softly. "It's making me wobbly."

"Don't worry," Laura smiled, she hoped not too lecherously. "You can lean on me."

"This is such a fantastic place," Shaniqua said, pausing to turn around and survey the scene.

As usual, the tendrils of fog were curling among the treetops, the strange, fog-filtered yellow cones of light made by the streetlamps cast an eerie glow over everything, and it did look a little like some otherwordly refuge.

"I can't believe I'm actually here. San Francisco."

Laura unlocked the door and they went inside. "You're here, all right. You're not in Kansas any more, darling. As they say."

Shaniqua looked at her blankly. "Kansas? I came from Dallas."

Without missing a beat, Laura merely smiled and said, "Right. I forgot."

Shaniqua looked at her a little oddly, as if trying to understand how Laura could have forgotten that she came from Dallas when that was where they had met. But then she too seemed to feel like letting it pass was a good idea. We just seem to be misfiring on all cylinders, Laura thought, more exasperated than depressed. It was not really unusual to meet a person whose frames of reference seemed to be totally skewed from your own, but it was a trifle disconcerting when you were contemplating a few beautiful orgasms in her arms.

And what beautiful arms they were. Under the mango-colored sweater she wore, which she removed as they got comfortable, she had on a sleeveless blouse that showed them off to perfection. Shaniqua was very well-formed. Like her legs, her arms were long and thin but also shapely, very dark, the edges of her shoulders gleaming where the cloth of her blouse left them exposed. Laura wanted to take one smooth black arm in both hands, lift it, and run her lips all along it, from the gleaming black shoulder to the long tapering fingers.

"Why are you looking at my arm?" Shaniqua asked, suddenly self-conscious, looking down at the arm Laura had been lusting for and twisting it forward to she could scrutinize it, as if she had suddenly broken out in unsightly blotches.

Laura shrugged. "Beautiful arm. Your skin is so smooth and dark. I was just... admiring it."

Shaniqua relaxed. "Oh. Jeez, for a minute I thought something was wrong with it."

Whereas in the past Laura would have worried that Shaniqua had picked up some strong vibration of lust from her, she now found herself less troubled about it. She had Sara, she loved her, she had no deliberate designs on Shaniqua's wonderful body. She wanted her but did not need her desperately, which made her more comfortable about looking.

"Nothing at all is wrong with it," Laura smiled.

Shaniqua looked at her oddly.

Laura just gave her a mysterious smile and moved on. She showed her the second bedroom, which she had finally furnished with a bed and dressing table.

"Sorry, it isn't much. I just moved in here a few months ago and haven't got around to doing up a guest room yet," she apologized.

Shaniqua gave her a bright, pearly-toothed smile, plopping her suitcase down on the bed. "Cheaper than a hotel room, right?"

Laura nodded. "Especially in this town. I think they start at one-fifty a night."

"I'm still tipsy... and a little tired, too," Shaniqua admitted. "Mind if I just change into my jammies and my bathrobe?"

Laura shook her head. "Want to take a bath? I've got a jacuzzi in the big bathroom."

"Oh god, you can't be serious!"

Laura nodded. "I am."

She took Shaniqua into her bedroom and the adjacent bathroom and showed it to her.

"Oh god, I would die to use it," Shaniqua said, unable to keep a tiny, excited squeal out of her voice.

"You can use it as long as you're here," Laura said evenly, recalling all the bathtub, and shower seductions she had participated in over the years. "I can even bring you another little glass of wine, if you like, so you can be truly luxurious."

She prided herself in how offhand and relaxed she was going about all this. She does, or she doesn't. It won't really matter to me. Though she is pretty goddamned hot, Laura thought. I could eat her alive.

Shaniqua appeared to be thinking it over. "Why don't I just get it first. Then I can take it in with me. We won't have to worry about peekies."

"Peekies?"

"You know, like in a girl's gym. For some reason it always made me nervous. I thought people were... like, looking at me or something. Staring."

"I can't imagine why," Laura said, deadpan, but with a twinkle of teasing in her eyes too.

"I know why, but I'm not going to tell you."

Laura tilted her head. "Fair enough." She found herself hoping it didn't have anything to do with space aliens. "Come on, I've got a bottle I opened last night in the fridge."

She poured Shaniqua a small glass of Chardonnay and then, in the bathroom again, explained to her how to operate the jacuzzi.

"No soap. Clogs the jets, I guess. Just soak and enjoy," she smiled.

"If I don't show up in about a half an hour or so, you better come in and make sure I didn't pass out," Shaniqua grinned.

Oh goody, Laura thought. Could she really mean it? Somebody who's afraid of 'peekies'? "I'll send for the paramedics."

"You better not!" Shaniqua giggled. "Just come down the hall and holler in the door to see if I'm still alive."

The next twenty minutes or so were pleasant torture for Laura. The small motors that powered the whirlpool jets made a lot of noise, and so as she sat in the living room, sipping her own small glass of wine and leafing through a magazine, she could imagine Shaniqua all naked and black and shiny as the turbulent warm water foamed up around her smooth young flesh. Even now, paradoxically, she was not tormented by the need to fling herself on the girl and fuck her senseless, but there was no way she could ignore the images of Shaniqua's sleek, lean, wet body that danced before her inner eye.

At first she tried making her reveries veer more toward Sara. After all, she was becoming resigned to the fact that there would be no sweet intimacies with the fetching Shaniqua, who was enchanting but also a little more prim and wholesome than Laura had expected. But try as she might, she could not make an image of Sara's naked body swim into her mind due to the sound of that whirlpool in the rear bathroom going on in the background. Instead, she kept seeing Shaniqua's sleek naked body, dark and glossy, beaded with shiny droplets of water. Of course, she had never seen the girl naked, so she was imagining it all.

But it was easy to imagine. She's lying back, Laura thought, and the water is running over her thighs, bubbling and frothing, and only once in a while can you see the darker triangle of her hair patch between her legs. Not thick, meaty thighs like Sara's, or hard, swelling thighs like Kendra's, but tapering columns of black flesh, beautiful too in their thinner way. My eyes drift up to her wet breasts, exquisite little balls. Thick black nipples, dewy with moisture. Laura frowned, in the midst of her reverie. She had no idea what Shaniqua's body looked like, except for her long, shapely arms and legs. I'm just making this all up, she realized. And I never will know, either, because she seems quite oblivious to my interest in knowing.

Oh well. Life goes on. I can't have every pretty thing I meet.

Without quite knowing when, she became aware that the sound of the jacuzzi at the end of the hallway had stopped. Expecting Shaniqua to reappear at any moment, she pretended now to focus intently on her magazine. But Shaniqua did not reappear. Five, ten minutes passed. Laura put down the magazine and got up from her chair. After all, they had joked about her doing this, so why shouldn't she do it?

She walked slowly down the hallway, into her bedroom, and called to Shaniqua.

"You all right in there?"

Shaniqua peeped around the corner of the bathroom door, wrapped in a large fluffy white bath towel. She was so gorgeous and alluring at this moment that Laura nearly lost it. Water beads still glimmered on her round, bare, black shoulders. She smiled innocently.

"I nearly died of pleasure in there," she said brightly. "I'll be out in a sec."

"Okay..." Laura said, reluctantly withdrawing. "Just checking."

"Can I use some of this body lotion you have in here?"

Oh god, Laura thought. Not unless you let me rub it on. "Sure, go ahead."

She returned to the living room. Shaniqua did not reappear for another five minutes, during each of which Laura tried to master her swelling sexual excitement, for which she knew there was no hope at all. Just quit it, she told herself. This girl hasn't the faintest idea what you're thinking.

After a few more minutes, Shaniqua appeared wearing a simple cotton flannel nightgown that was pink with small roses all over it and covered her from throat to ankle. Even though most of her flesh was concealed, she looked so fresh and bright and sweet and sexy that Laura could feel her own pussy fluttering wildly as she watched the girl sit down on the sofa.

"You know," Laura said, clearing her throat, "I have to go to work tomorrow. It's Monday. We better make a little plan of things for you to do until I get off. Maybe I can take off a few hours early and meet you somewhere."

"I hate being a pill," Shaniqua said. "Just draw me a little map and point me in the right direction. If I get lost, I'll just bat my eyelashes at some guy. They always help me."

Laura nodded. I'll bet they do. "Come over here to the table and I'll show you a few places you might like to go on the map."

They discussed Shaniqua's itinerary for about an hour. Laura assured her she would check about jobs here, should Shaniqua want to move from Dallas. They would meet for lunch.

Shaniqua yawned and stretched. Her small breasts moved under her nightgown, drawing Laura's attention. "You must be tired," Laura said.

"That bath. That jacuzzi. I think it made me sleepy."

Off to bed with you then, dear, Laura thought. Just looking at you like this makes it harder and harder on me. Out of sight, out of mind. I hope.

Shaniqua looked drowsy but also kittenish and playful. "You know, I found something in the bathroom. Let me get it."

She got up from the table, went back down the hall, then quickly returned. She dropped on the table a small, silvery ring with a bead at each end, where it would meet in a circle if it did. It was Sara's pussy ring. Laura, who was resigned by now to nothing happening between her and Shaniqua, had been very good so far at not blushing in the face of one-way innuendoes, but this moment was different. She felt her whole face suffused by a hot, red bloom of blood.

"Is it yours?" Shaniqua asked, curiously.

Slowly, Laura shook her head. "It... belongs to a friend."

"I know what it is, you know," Shaniqua said, almost smugly.

"You... do?" Laura was so stunned and off-balance that speaking was still difficult.

Shaniqua nodded. "I used to go out with this guy, what a creep, that always had lots of porno magazines lying around. It's a pussy ring. Some girl's wear them, or whatever you call it, on their pussy. I can't imagine why. Looks like it would hurt to me. I mean, maybe not wearing it but just getting it done." She shivered involuntarily. "Eeooww."

"I know what you mean," Laura grinned.

"Anyway," Shaniqua said airily, "I was just interested in why you had it there. No big deal. I'll put it back."

She started to take the ring but Laura reached for it at the same time and their fingers met, touched, almost caressed, though accidentally. Laura looked up to see Shaniqua looking directly into her eyes. "I think I'll put it somewhere safe so I'll remember to give it back to her," Laura said.

Shaniqua smiled. "Good idea." She watched Laura pick up the ring, pulling her own shapely black hand back. "You... must be really close to her. I mean, for her to leave it here and everything."

Laura nodded noncommittally. "We are. I think she left it by accident, though."

"I..." Shaniqua seemed briefly at a loss for words. "I guess you should know that it doesn't bother me."

That's mighty good of you, darling, Laura thought. You don't mind sleeping in the same house with a lesbian? What if she gets up in the night to take a 'peeky' at you?

Shaniqua appeared to think Laura did not believe her. "Really," she emphasized. "I mean it."

"Thanks," Laura smiled warmly at her. "Want a cup of hot chocolate before bed?"

"Don't think so. That bath really did me in. What a marvelous thing to have in your own house. I think I'll just go to bed, okay? Wake me when you get up."

"Will do," Laura smiled at her, folding up the map as she watched her go down the hall to the spare bedroom and close the door behind her.

A few minutes later Laura went to bed too. And this time, while lying there trying to fall asleep, she did manage to have a successful reverie about Sara, fueled perhaps by Shaniqua's discovery of Sara's 'captive bead ring' in her bathroom. It was a short leap of the imagination from seeing the ring to seeing Sara's beautiful black pussy, with its plump outer lips and shiny wet pink interior, the tiny, miniature bullet of her clit sheltering under the little v-shaped dark tent at the top, which itself was pierced by the silvery ring only a little higher up.

It was so real she could almost smell it, almost inhale the thick, musky, pungent, fuck-me odor of it. She was half-fantasizing and half-dreaming this, lying on her back in her own bed, and it was as if Sara were there with her, squatting over her face, letting her look up into this sweet moist cavern of ecstasy, tempting her with it, beckoning her to slither her tongue right up into the warm buttery furrow. This half-dream/half-reverie made her hot, so that without knowing it she kicked off the sheet and blanket. Her fingertips were fluttering frenetically around her naked thighs, where her nightgown had ridden up.

Oh... Sara! Oh... Sara! Her fevered brain swirled with images of Sara: Sara's face grimacing in a seizure of pleasure as she came, Sara's thick, sensual lips curving into her own, Sara's sparkling, knowing black eyes, Sara's perfect, sculptured breasts, Sara's large, gleaming black nipples...

She was so deeply submerged in this hot, throbbing sequence that she did not even hear the soft knock on her door, or hear it opening slightly either.

"Laura?"

Seconds later Laura nearly jumped out of her skin as she felt someone lightly shaking her shoulder and awoke with a start. "Oh shit!"

"I'm sorry... I didn't mean to scare you," Shaniqua apologized softly.

Her eyes were big, shiny round saucers in the dark. Again Laura could smell her fresh, healthy odor and felt enormously stimulated by it, as if she were transferring the sexual arousal that was a residue of her interrupted reverie to Shaniqua. Shaniqua sat tentatively on the edge of the mattress.

"I... I couldn't sleep," she confessed. "I wondered if it would be all right with you if I just turned on the TV for a while." She paused, giving Laura a chance to surface out of her groggy stupor. "I didn't want you to wake up and hear it and get scared."

Laura smiled dreamily and shook her head. "I don't mind."

Again Shaniqua paused, but she did not move. "On the other hand, maybe if I just laid down here with you for a few minutes, it would calm my nerves. You know, I'm usually not like this, not at all. Spooked by the dark and everything. I guess it's just this trip, this new city, new friend, everything new. It's got me racing inside. I think if I stretched out here for a minute, I could get calm. Would that be okay with you?"

Again, Laura smiled, her head clearing finally from the drowsy sensuality in which she had been wallowing. She scooted a little to the side of her enormous bed to make room.

"Forgive me for saying so," she said in a warm, husky, even sexy voice that she was surprised to hear coming out of her throat, "but you're not going to do too well with those space aliens you were telling me about if you get spooked just sleeping your first night in San Francisco. Although, of course, some people seem to think San Francisco is outer space." She winked, wondering if Shaniqua could see it in the dark, even though their eyes were now adjusting to it. "Come on, stretch out there."

Shaniqua climbed onto the bed and stretched out the full length of her body next to Laura. She was just as long as Laura was. There was about a foot between them.

"Here... here's a pillow," Laura said, pushing one over to her.

Shaniqua lay on her back with her head on the pillow, staring up at the ceiling. "I think you're right about the Fortunans. That's what they call themselves. I think I would be... you know, like, horrified, really.

Moreover, they probably take 'peekies, ' Laura thought, unable to resist this ungracious observation but sensible enough to keep it to herself. She reached over and patted Shaniqua's hand in a sisterly way. "Don't worry, you don't have to go. You're safe here."

They were silent for several minutes. Laura, though very aroused by the situation and by the continuing sweet fragrance of Shaniqua's body that kept drifting over to her, was very proud of herself for keeping her self-control. I'm not going to touch this sweet thing, she thought. I am not a predator. She's a little uneasy, and I'm not going to add to it by preying on her lovely young body.