A Taste of Sin (16 page)

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Authors: Fiona Zedde

Tags: #African American Women, #General, #Romance, #Erotic Fiction, #Adult, #Love Stories, #Fiction, #Lesbian, #Lesbians

BOOK: A Taste of Sin
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“Come in.”
“What’s on the stove?”
“Nothing now, but I did make grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup. Table’s already set.”
“The truth is I’ve just had a late breakfast and am not even a little bit hungry.” Dez bit her lip and tried to look charming and forgivable. “But I’d love to watch you eat.”
Victoria laughed and shook her head. “Come sit at my table anyway, you shameless flirt.”
The house smelled like home, toasting bread, and bubbling cheese, and felt warm in a way that Dez’s did not. A radio was playing, an oldies station advertising an old school party at the end of the week. Then George Clinton came on, funking out the beginning notes of “Atomic Dog.”
“This song and even your house remind me of my aunt. She liked Parliament, too.”
“I don’t know whether to be insulted or . . . insulted.”
“Neither, please. I was always very comfortable at her house. With her I always felt very wanted.”
“Good.”
It felt very different sitting at the dinner table with Victoria than with her Aunt Paul. There was that sweet ache in her cunt, for instance. The other woman smiled next to her at the table, sharing her secret to the perfect grilled-cheese sandwich.
“It’s in the cheese, of course.”
“Of course.”
Dez slipped easily into her warm gaze, found herself saying ridiculous things just to hear her laugh. Victoria was very entertainable.
“What are you doing this weekend?” Dez asked.
“Not much. Getting some orders ready for Monday.” Victoria paused. “Having a bath or two.” She took a leisurely bite of her sandwich.
“Want to go for a drive with me?” Dez watched the slow movement of her mouth around the bread.
“Where?”
“Somewhere close. I can have you back in time for work on Monday morning.”
Victoria’s brows shot up.
“I promise.”
“That’s quite an invitation. Do you always ask strange women to go away with you for the weekend?”
“You’re not strange, are you?” At the look on Victoria’s face, she grinned. “It’s not an invitation for sex.”
“Really? That was the one thing I was holding out for.”
“Very funny.” Dez leaned in. “Unless you’re not joking.”
Victoria chuckled, lifting a spoonful of tomato soup to her lips. “I’m
not
an easy lay.”
“I didn’t think you were. So will you come with me? I promise to get you back here in once piece, your chastity intact.”
Victoria was quiet for a moment. “I’ll let you know after lunch.”
 
When Dez pulled up in the truck a little after nine that evening, Victoria was already waiting in the driveway with her duffel bag and backpack. The truck idled as Dez leaned out the window. Victoria sat on her duffel bag, looking comfortable and incredibly sexy in faded jeans and an oversize sweatshirt that advertised her bookstore. Dez stared at the oversize V and A for longer than was really polite.
Finally she cleared her throat. “Ready?”
“Sure.” Victoria smiled and stood up. Dez hopped from the truck to pick up Victoria’s bag, then walked around to open the passenger door. “May I have the pleasure of your company, young miss?”
“Since you ask so nicely.” She took her slow time walking to the truck before doing an odd sort of ass-in-the-air hop and dance to get into the vehicle. “Thanks,” she said when she was finally settled in. Dez firmly closed the door.
They drove silently out of the city, each woman distracted by her own thoughts. An hour into the trip, Victoria looked over and caught Dez’s eyes on her.
“Shouldn’t you be watching the road?”
“I am.”
“Call me crazy, but I don’t consider myself a part of the landscape.”
“Okay, crazy.”
Victoria groaned. “That wasn’t very funny.”
“Never said I was.” Dez laughed.
“So what’s on your mind?
“Nothing much.”
The silence stretched comfortably between them.
“Just wanted to get away for a while. Then I thought of you.”
“How . . . gratifying.”
“What?” Dez actually turned around in her seat to look at her.
“I was an afterthought.”
“Less and less these days actually.”
Victoria looked at her, mouth hanging open. “I guess I should be grateful for your honesty, huh?”
“With me, it’s always the little things.”
“I’m starting to see that.”
 
An hour and a half later the moon was a gleaming jewel just beyond the truck’s windshield. Dez was mesmerized. Not by the moon, but by Victoria, whose voice hummed low and soothing as she spoke of nothing in particular, but moved easily from subject to subject with only a few words from Dez, understanding that she was in a mood to just listen.
“I’ve been with other so-called feminine women before and it just never worked out for me,” Victoria continued. “I’m not saying that I buy into the whole idea of butch-femme, but for me personally, there is just something about a girl with a swagger . . .” she slid her companion a glance. Dez offered a brief smile, but said nothing.
Victoria sighed. “All right, I’ve babbled on enough. Your turn.”
“What? I was enjoying your monologues. Go on.”
“I don’t think so.” Victoria crossed her arms in her lap, hugging herself through the seat belt. “You show up at my doorstep with your big sad eyes and—”
Big sad eyes?
“My father is in town with his new family, and I don’t want to be there to meet them.”
“That’s not so bad. Derrick told me your father was going to be here for the weekend. He seemed excited.”
“Well, on top of that, my mother could be dying. I’m not handling that very well either.”
Dez concentrated on the road in front of her, wondering why in hell she just said that.
Because you need someone who you can be real with, that’s why.
“Why did you tell me?” Victoria turned to look at her travel companion.
“Why not?” Dez laughed. Then the ugly humor faded from her face. “I’m sorry.” She prolonged the silence for as long as she could.
“I found out when I was in New Mexico over a month ago.” I-75 stretched out distant and dim before them. Other cars sped by, easily overtaking the Lexus’s eighty-mile-per-hour speed. “It’s not important how I found out, only that it wasn’t from her.” Dez’s voice roughened. “At first I wouldn’t believe it. I thought maybe someone was playing a trick on me.”
A low-slung sports car zoomed passed, then merged in front of the truck without signaling.
Too close.
Dez tapped on the brakes, then continued speaking as if nothing had happened.
“But it was real.” She laughed again.
“Have you talked to anyone else about this?”
“Of course not.” Dez’s eyes moved briefly from the road to look at Victoria. “Please don’t think I told you to get a pity fuck or something. I don’t even know why I said anything; but whatever the reason, you don’t have to respond. Don’t hold my hand, don’t tell me everything is going to be all right, none of that bullshit.”
“Do you want to talk about it?” The
it
hovered like a specter in the car between them.
“Not really.” Dez managed a quick smile. “Thanks for listening, and thanks for coming with me this weekend. Especially since we hardly know each other.”
Victoria nodded. “Just to let you know, you did me a favor by suggesting this trip. I need this break as much as you do.”
“Good.”
 
They got to their destination a few minutes shy of midnight, eyes bleary and asses sore from sitting still for three hours. Dez pulled into the drive of her aunt’s summer house and the sensor lights caught the truck in their stripping glare.
“This is it.”
“Great.” Victoria hopped out of the truck. “Where’s the bathroom?”
“Inside.” Dez tossed her the key. “The code for the alarm is 1980, then press ‘enter.’ The panel is behind the door. I’m going to the store for some groceries. Make yourself comfortable.”
When Dez came back, Victoria was already curled up under the covers. Only her wild hair was visible above the sheets. Her bags were nowhere to be seen. She must have already unpacked and stored them somewhere.
Dez unloaded the groceries, then checked to make sure that everything in the house was just as she left it last time. A woman came by every couple of weeks to make sure the place didn’t get overrun by rodents or any other vermin. Except for a light coating of dust, the place was spotless.
This was hardly how her aunt kept the house. Her casual housekeeping style always pleased the child in Dez even long after she stopped being one. Bathing suits strung over the porch railing for days. Ingredients for dinner strewn over the countertops long after dinner had been made and consumed, windows left open at night to let in the breeze off the water. Still, Dez could feel her aunt here, in the safety and warmth she felt walking into the beach house. In the face of her parents’ broken marriage, the security of Aunt Paul’s love had been a priceless thing, as was her willingness to answer every question Dez asked, no matter how embarrassing or painful.
Dez left the kitchen for the bedroom, feeling exhaustion bear down on her. She brushed her teeth, washed her face, and undressed down to her tank top and boxers before crawling into the bed beside Victoria’s very warm body. Before her hormones got the chance to act up, Dez fell asleep.
She managed to keep to her side of her bed during the night. The first thing she saw when she opened her eyes was Victoria’s face tucked into the curve of her own arm, delicate and vulnerable. The dawn light slowly shifted over Victoria’s hair and face, bathing her in shadowy blues that changed slowly to gray before bursting into amber and orange flames. Victoria breathed softly as the colors played over her skin. She only moved once. When Dez, in a moment of irresistible curiosity, touched her hair, the coils of red and pale and brown crackled, then, as if touched by a current of electricity, curled around Dez’s fingers, reluctant to let go. Victoria flinched in her sleep when Dez tried to pull away before being discovered. She opened her eyes.
“Did you sleep well?” Victoria husked, blinking at Dez through her curls. “Or did you spend all night staring at me?”
“I would have loved to spend all night staring at you, but the drive wore me out.” Her eyes lingered on Victoria’s sleep-softened face and mouth. “We can try some staring and touching games later, though.”
“Hm. Sounds tempting.”
“But no go, huh?”
The other woman shook her head, but a smile dimpled her cheeks.
“That’s fine. I can be patient.” Disappointed but not surprised, Dez sat up in the bed. “How about some breakfast?”
“You cook?”
“When it suits my purposes.”
Dez left Victoria to use the bathroom. After her shower, she poked through her supplies until she found ingredients for omelets and French toast. She was portioning out their breakfast when Victoria walked in. Dez smelled her first.
“I see you’ve had a shower,” she said without looking up.
“Too bad.”
“You like me smelling like raw ass, then?”
Dez laughed. “That wasn’t exactly the smell I noticed this morning. I’ll check for that one tomorrow, though.”
She tucked the last slice of toast on a plate and turned around. She was right to wait. Victoria’s appearance was a pleasant shock to the senses. Her hair curled loose and damp, exploding around her face very much the way the sunset had this morning. A white dress with tiny straps and a peek-a-boo lace hem that fell just below her knees added to her angelic look. Her feet were bare and the toenails brushed a light shade of pink. As always,
delicious
was the word that came to mind when she looked her fill of this woman. Dez’s mouth watered, ready to eat her up.
“May I smell you?” Dez asked. Her nose twitched to get more of that bewitching scent coming from Victoria.
She looked puzzled, but came closer. “Sure.”
“Thanks.”
Dez had always been a smell-oriented kind of woman. A lover could turn her on or off with a certain smell. And it was never as simple as body odor. Whenever a woman smelled good, it was hard for her to resist, especially when the scent was complex enough that she had to work to name it. Victoria wore such a scent now. Maybe it was her body oil, or even her deodorant. Whatever it was, Dez liked it. She liked it a lot.
“By the way, breakfast is ready.” She walked even closer to Victoria, smiling and being careful not to sniff her like a dog in heat. Her hair smelled clean, like shower steam and fresh fruit. Tangerines and honey with a hint of lime. The scent was at the back of her neck, caught in the damp curls that lay against her skin like vines. “You smell really good.” She could feel Victoria close her eyes, feel the soft body loosening, feel how easily she could turn into velvet in her arms, her pussy becoming wet and spreading open under Dez’s mouth while breakfast lay cold and forgotten on the counter. “May I touch you?”

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