Chapter 3

The Dawn Boulevard bridge was now in sight. A major thoroughfare of Heritage's northwest suburbs, it crossed the Heritage River and connected the community of Whispering Oaks with Rancho Garcia on the south side of the river. Six lanes of traffic crossed back and forth endlessly, instilling the faint odor of burned hydrocarbons with the fresh forest scent of the rest of the parkway. A large park and one of the most popular bike trail access points was here. The forest thinned away and made way to green fields, children's play areas, and beaches on the riverbank. They pulled up and came to a stop at one of the picnic tables just west of the bridge.

"My legs are quivering," Desiree said as she dismounted her bike. She walked around the table a few times, stretching them out.

"You'll get used to it in no time if you keep riding," Peggy told her. She took a few swigs from her water and used her towel to wipe her sweaty face. "Here, use this," she said, handing the towel to Desiree.

Desiree took it and wiped the worst of the perspiration from her face. She handed the towel back and then drank nearly half of her water bottle without removing it from her lips.

They sat down on the top of the picnic table, side by side, their feet resting on the bench, both of them staring out at the gently flowing river some fifty yards away.

"Well," Peggy said, "I've told you my sordid tale of playing around with the fair sex. Let's hear yours now."

Desiree looked at her nervously. "I told you," she said. "I don't have a tale. I've never been with a woman before."

"That's what you said," Peggy said. "But I don't believe you."

Desiree's eyes widened a bit. "You think I lied to you?"

"Lie is a strong word," Peggy said. "I think you just weren't ready to tell the story. But I noticed you couldn't meet my eyes when I asked you that question back at the Sundollars. There's something in your past, isn't there?"

"I really don't want to talk about it," Desiree said, shuddering a little, in embarrassment, in arousal.

"So there is something?"

"Just the normal teenage experimentation," Desiree said. "It wasn't sex or anything. It was nothing like what you and your coach did." She shrugged. "It was nothing."

"Tell me about it," Peggy chided.

Desiree sighed. She didn't bring this memory out very often. It scared her, embarrassed her, and made her question her very sexuality. It also turned her on something fierce when she did allow the images to come forth, something else that made her question her sexuality. But after hearing Peggy's story, after being so incredibly aroused by it (her nipples were still hard, her panties still wet, and she could feel her clit rubbing pleasurably against the cotton) she could hardly deny that the thought of women making love was erotic to her. Did that make her a lesbian? She wasn't sure. But it certainly wouldn't hurt to tell Peggy the story, would it?

"It was when I was fifteen," she said. "I was staying the night at my friend Julie's house."

"Julie was fifteen too?" Peggy asked.

"Yes. Her parents had gone out to some party or something and weren't going to be back until after midnight. Her sister, Laura, was home though. Laura was seventeen then, a senior in high school, and she had a boyfriend. We'd been downstairs watching TV with them and they started cuddling up together and kissing on the couch. Laura gave us this look at one point that kind of suggested we should make ourselves scarce. So after the show we were watching ended, Julie and I said we were going up to her room. Only we didn't stay there. After about fifteen minutes or so, Julie said we should go spy on them.

"Spying on her own sister?" Peggy said with a smile. "How deliciously naughty."

"Yeah," Desiree said. "I was a little nervous about it, but I went along with her. I was kind of curious about what they might be doing. I was pretty inexperienced with sex at that point in my life. We crept out into the hallway and then crawled along the floor until we came to the railing that overlooked the living room. We looked down there and had a perfect view of the couch. Laura's boyfriend had taken off her shirt and her bra and he was sucking on her boobs."

"Were they nice boobs?" Peggy asked, obviously getting into the story.

Desiree nodded. "Laura was very pretty. We watched him suck on one for about five minutes and then he started sucking on the other one. She was just running her fingers through his hair and stroking his back while he did it. Pretty soon, he reached down and undid the buttons on her jeans. He put his hand in her pants and started playing with her. She seemed to like this. She kept moaning and humping her hips up and down. When he tried to push her pants down, though, she made him stop. He complained about it and she got mad. They had a little argument and, next thing you know, their little session was over. She buttoned up her pants, put her shirt back on, and told him it was time for him to go home."

"She was a cock-tease, huh?" Peggy asked.

"Yeah," Desiree said with a shrug. "I guess so. Anyway, as soon as we realized there wasn't going to be anything else to see, we crept back to Julie's room and closed the door. Julie suggested that we get into our nightclothes so I got in my bag and took out the long t-shirt I slept in. I took off my pants and my shirt and was just standing there in my bra and panties. Julie was undressed to her underwear too. Suddenly she starts talking about how cool it was that Laura's boyfriend had been sucking on her boobs. I agreed that it had been a sight worth seeing. And then... and then she looked at me and said, 'Dez, you ever wonder what it feels like to have someone suck your tits?'

"I kind of shrugged a little and said 'sure, a few times'.

"I started to pick up my t-shirt to put it on and Julie says, 'do you want to try it?'

"'Try what?', I asked."

"'Let's suck each other's boobs, ' she said. 'Just to see what it feels like.'"

"I was kind of shocked by what she said. She was talking about lezzy shit, you know. But part of me... part of me was kind of turned on by the thought. I looked at her, standing there in her bra and panties, and I could see that her nipples were hard. I had seen her bare boobs before, of course. We had gym together and we'd slept over at each other's houses half a dozen times. I knew they were really nice boobs. Julie was a little bit on the plump side — not fat or anything, just a little bigger than normal — but her boobs were really big and she had huge nipples. The more I started thinking about it, the more I wanted to try it — just to see what it felt like, like she said.

"So I kind of shrugged nonchalantly and said, 'okay, I guess we could try it.' We took off our bras and stood there in front of each other, looking at each other's boobs, both of us too afraid to be the first. Finally, I told her to lie on the bed and that I'd go first. She lay down and I got on the bed next to her. I took her boob in my hand and put my mouth on her big nipple and started sucking."

"And how did it feel?" Peggy asked.

"It felt good," Desiree said. "It felt very good. I loved the feel of her nipple in my mouth. I ran my tongue all over it, suckled it like I was a baby, and then grabbed the other one and sucked it too. While I was doing that I started squeezing the other one with my hand. Julie kept moaning and telling me how good it felt. And then I felt her hands on my boobs. She started playing with them while I sucked on hers, started pinching my nipples. Next thing you know, I was kind of rubbing my crotch on her leg."

"This is a hot story, Dez," Peggy said, breathing a little fast now. "If we weren't out in public I think I'd have to touch myself."

Desiree felt a shudder go through her at these words. The image of Peggy masturbating right in front of her was powerfully erotic. "Yes," she said. "I usually have to touch myself when I think about this."

"What happened next?" Peggy asked.

"Julie rolled me over and said it was her turn. She put her mouth on my left boob and started sucking it. It felt good, better than I'd ever imagined it would. It didn't matter that it was a girl sucking on me. I didn't want it to end. I kept playing with her boobs with my hands, like she'd done to me. And then... after a few minutes, I felt her hand down on my tummy. It kept going lower and lower and pretty soon, I felt her fingers going into my panties. I didn't try to stop her. I was dying to be touched there so I just opened my legs and let her do it. Her fingers went into my pussy and she started to rub up and down.

"'God, Dez, ' she said to me. 'You're so wet.' I didn't answer her. I just put my hand on hers and made her start rubbing me again. I knew if she kept it up that I'd come and I wanted to come. I wanted to come real bad.

"And then... and then she took her face out of my boobs and looked at me. She had this wild look in her eyes and she was licking her lips. Real softly, she said, 'Do you want me to lick your pussy? I'll do it.'

Desiree stopped talking. She looked out at the river for a few moments, feeling the wetness between her legs, feeling the turmoil in her soul. That turmoil was the reason she didn't haul this memory out very often.

"Well?" Peggy asked.

"As soon as she asked me that," Desiree said, "it kind of brought it home what we were doing. If I let her lick my pussy, we would just be fooling around anymore; we would be having lesbian sex with each other. And I wasn't a lesbian. I told her no. And when she tried to suck on my boobs again I made her stop. I pulled her hand out of my panties and put on my nightgown. I told her I was tired and it was time for me to go to bed. She kept trying to talk to me about what had happened, but I changed the subject every time. I didn't want to talk about it.

"Our friendship was never the same after that. There wasn't any dramatic end to it or anything, I just stopped hanging around with her. Within a month we weren't even saying hi to each other in the halls at school."

"That's sad," Peggy said.

"Yes," Desiree agreed. "She was a really good friend. And I never made friends all that easily."

"But you enjoyed what the two of you did together?"

"Yes," Desiree said without hesitation. "I enjoyed it a lot."

"And do you ever wish you would have let her do what she wanted to do?"

She considered lying. In the end, she couldn't bring herself to. "Yes," she said. "I wish that quite often."

Peggy smiled, standing up and stretching. "Good story," she said. "Thank you for sharing it with me. I can imagine how personal that was."

"It's good to talk about things," she said. "I've never told anyone that story before. Not even my husband."

"I'm flattered that you trusted me enough to share it." She looked off toward the trail. "Are you about ready to head back?"

"Yeah," Desiree said. "We'd better do it soon before my legs cramp up on me."

The route up the bluff was shorter coming from this direction, just a little over a quarter of a mile of switchbacks. The reason it was shorter, however, was because it was considerably steeper. Desiree was forced to gear down to her lowest gear in order to keep pushing forward. Even so, it was a struggle just to maintain forward momentum. By the time they were halfway up, her legs were burning with fatigue and her breath was tearing in and out of her lungs.

"I'm... not... gonna... make it," she gasped out at one point.

"Keep pushing," Peggy encouraged, a little breathless herself. "You can do it."

She kept pushing. The climb in front of her looked like Mount Everest. And the end was still not in sight.

"Don't look at the climb," Peggy advised. "Look down at your front tire."

She tried this and found that it helped. She concentrated on pushing her pedals down, on keeping her bike moving. The seconds went by like minutes. Her speed had dropped to five miles per hour.

"Almost there," Peggy said. "We'll rest at the top if you want."

She kept it up. Just when she thought she couldn't take another second, the trail suddenly leveled off. The pedaling got easier. Her legs stopped threatening to rebel against her. They were at the top.

"Jesus Christ," Desiree panted, wiping sweat from her forehead with her arm. "That was... was brutal."

"But you made it," Peggy told her. "You wanna rest for a few?"

"I think I'd better," Desiree said. Her heart felt like it was beating about two hundred times a minute and she couldn't quite catch her breath.

"Follow me," Peggy told her. "There's a nice little place just off the trail."

"Right," Desiree said, taking up position behind her.

Peggy led her forward another tenth of a mile or so and then turned off on a narrow dirt path that led off to the right. The path passed among the dense growth of oak trees and bushes that marked the top of the bluff.

"Where are we going?" Desiree asked.

"There's a little overlook at the end of this trail," Peggy said. "There's a picnic table there. We can rest up and look at the river."

"Okay," Desiree said, bumping and bouncing over the uneven trail.

They wound in and out of the trees until the main path was no longer visible. The trail was about an eighth of a mile long. At the end of it was a small clearing, surrounded by vegetation and trees on three sides. The fourth side was open and looked out over a sheer granite cliff. The river flowed placidly by some two hundred feet below. As promised, there was a wooden picnic table near the edge of the cliff. It looked like it had been there for at least thirty years.

"I like to rest here," Peggy said as she parked her bicycle next to the picnic table and dismounted. "It's quiet and peaceful and very pretty."

"I like it," Desiree said, bringing her own bike to a halt. She got off it and found her legs were so shaky from the climb up the hill that they would barely hold her up.

"Here," Peggy said, grabbing her around the waist and steering her to the table. "You better sit down."

"Sorry," Desiree said, allowing herself to be led. "I guess that hill took a little more out of me then I thought." She climbed up on the top of the table and sat down, facing out toward the river. Now that she was not moving, she was able to catch her breath, but sweat poured off her skin in rivers, running in her eyes, dampening her shirt. Even her legs were clammy.

"My God, you're a mess," Peggy said. She went and pulled her towel out of her bag and carried it over.

"I'll be okay in a minute," Desiree said. "I'm just not used to pushing myself that hard."

"Here," Peggy said, "let me dry you off a little." She stepped up in front of her and began to mop at Desiree's face with the towel. Her strokes were gentle as she wiped the sweat from her forehead, her cheeks, her eyelids, and then her neck.

"Thank you," Desiree said, enjoying the touch. She made no move to take the towel and do this herself.

"You're absolutely soaked," Peggy said. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"I'm getting my breath back," Desiree told her. "I'll be fine in a minute."

Peggy moved the towel from Desiree's face and moved it to her legs. She wiped the perspiration away from her thighs, using those same gentle strokes. Desiree's legs opened up a little, allowing her to get the insides of her thighs. She felt her breathing start to get heavier again, but not from exertion. She was getting turned on again, turned on from her friend's touch.

Peggy stepped forward a little more, so her body was right up against the bench Desiree's feet rested on, so she was standing between her knees. She reached down and pulled up the bottom of Desiree's shirt, baring her stomach. She put the towel on her tummy and wiped the sweat from here, dabbing at it gently, moving the towel in a semi-circular motion, going a little bit higher with each movement.