Beggar of Love (48 page)

She ushered Dawn off the sidewalk. Despite the chilly weather, steel drummers were beating out a melody nearby. She pulled Dawn into her arms and swung her around, then settled them into the world beat of the drums and danced around the dry fountain, which had once flowed so boisterously it had nearly drowned out the music of her life.

Dawn laughed and this time followed without a misstep. When they had made the circuit, they laughed their way back to the car and drove downtown without hitting one light.

Chinatown was as crowded and hectic as ever. Dawn knew the shops well and steered Jefferson along like a little tugboat with a barge. They bought a bag of ice and put the groceries in Dawn’s cooler, then drove back uptown to the new Greek restaurant Dawn’s friends had raved about. She realized she’d been checking everywhere they went to see if Ginger was in sight, an old, old habit left over from when she was out with one of her flings. She’d been careful to the point of hypervigilance.

Three of Dawn’s friends were already seated at the restaurant, giggly on late-lunch wine and the rest of the afternoon off. Jefferson felt like a rooster in a henhouse. In front of her, one of them said, “Your friend is utterly charming, Dawn.”

“Try these, Jef,” Dawn urged. Dawn reached across the table and held a fat, purplish olive on a fork out to Jefferson. The waiter had brought a bowl of them to the table. “Kalamata olives are incredible.”

She waved it away with a smile, saying, “I’m not into olives.” But Dawn insisted and she worked it off the fork. Willie Nelson’s “To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before” was being performed up-tempo on Greek musak.

Dawn’s friend Francesca, who worked at the Brooklyn College library, rushed in late. Francesca, in a floppy green beret, laughed as they were introduced, her eyes holding Jefferson’s. As she bent to her seat she displayed enticing cleavage and removed the beret. Down fell a cascade of dark red hair onto her shoulders. Jefferson was caught with her mouth open, about to bite into the still-dripping back olive that she held between her thumb and index fingers. Her hands tingled, grew warm. She popped the salty, oiled olive into her mouth. She laughed now too, feeling the ebullience again, feeling her butch power swell inside her. She’d never tasted olives like these. Were they fresh off some tree in Greece? Would Francesca go with her to some hot Greek isle? Or was there another woman like this one already on that island, waiting to feed her ripe olives? Dawn need never know; it wasn’t as if she’d leave her now. For that matter, nothing was stopping her from moving back to the city, a city in which she would now be homeless, jobless, and more loveless than ever, no matter how many Francescas she bedded.

She felt Dawn’s eyes on her and looked up. Dawn looked from her to Francesca, then back again. Briefly, Dawn’s eyes turned wide and horrified. Then they went calm and she smiled. There was no question in Dawn’s eyes and no hesitation as she got up and moved around the table to sit by Jefferson’s side. She didn’t say a word to Jefferson, but kept up her part of the conversation with the other librarians. Jefferson felt a rush of air beneath her, as if the floor had opened up and she was falling, as she had in her childhood nightmare, falling beyond safety, with no loving arms to catch her. Then Dawn set her drink on the table and laid one hand on Jefferson’s forearm, fingers and thumb curved as if to still a live beast. Her message of possession was clear.

Jefferson pulled her chair closer to Dawn. When she put her arm around Dawn’s slight shoulders, the feeling of falling stopped.

This sort of claiming was new to her. Ginger never had and, as long as she had been with Ginger, no one else would. Dawn, pleasantly, good-humoredly, was challenging Francesca. Dawn was, incredibly, telling the world that Jefferson belonged to her and no one was to get between them. Jefferson felt a quiver of excitement in her belly and another between her legs. At age forty-nine, she was too big for the restaurant. Her shoulders seemed to have broadened in a moment and her hands, her hands could shape mountains. She sat tall, until she feared the buttons on her shirt would pop off. Dawn’s protectiveness had awakened her own and she curled a hand around Dawn’s shoulder. When their eyes met, she smiled. This feeling of safety actually aroused her. Dawn might be as much sexual adventure as she needed. Still chatting with her friends, Dawn slipped a hand under the tablecloth and kneaded the inside of Jefferson’s thigh, high up. It felt great. She felt great. She and Dawn would go to the apartment as soon as they got out of here and they’d make it theirs.

Lounging back in her chair, she surveyed the friends, but thought of her Dawn. They would add on to the cottage, raise the kittens, cruise the lake on summer nights, ice-skate in winter. Had she learned enough about love from six kittens? She would trust that she would not leave Dawn, that Dawn would not leave her. Dawn had claimed her; Jefferson was no longer a beggar and only had to surrender to the terrific force inside her that was love.

She looked from Dawn to Francesca. God, this was hard. Then she looked back to Dawn.

Lee Lynch has been writing about lesbian life and lesbians from the time she came out, almost fifty years ago. She was first published in
The Ladder
in the 1960s. In 1983 Naiad Press published her first books, including
Toothpick House
and
Old Dyke Tales.
Her novel
The Swashbuckler
was presented in New York City as a play scripted by Sarah Schulman. Lynch’s play,
Getting Into Life,
caused consternation when performed in Tucson, Arizona, due to its realistic portrayal of lesbians. She is working on her next novel,
Rainbow Gap.
Her recent short stories can be found in
Romantic Interludes 2: Secrets
(Bold Strokes Books) and in
Read These Lips,
at www.readtheselips.com. She has twice been nominated for Lambda Literary Awards and her novel
Sweet Creek
was a Golden Crown Literary Society Award finalist. Her reviews and feature articles appeared in The Lambda Book Report and many other publications.

Lynch’s syndicated column, The Amazon Trail, runs in venues such as boldstrokesbooks.com, womenscommunityconnection.com, and camprehoboth.com. She is a recipient of the Alice B. Reader Award for Lesbian Fiction and the GCLS Trailblazer Award, and has been inducted into the Saints and Sinners Literary Hall of Fame.

Her other books are available from Bold Strokes Books. She lives in rural Florida with her sweetheart Elaine Mulligan and their furry ruffians.

The Pleasure Planner
by Larkin Rose. Pleasure purveyor Bree Hendricks treats love like a commodity until Logan Delaney makes Bree the client in her own game. (978-1-60282-121-7)

everafter
by Nell Stark and Trinity Tam. Valentine Darrow is bitten by a vampire on her way to propose to her lover Alexa Newland, and their lives and love are placed in mortal jeopardy. (978-1-60282-119-4)

Summer Winds
by Andrews & Austin. When Maggie Turner hires a ranch hand to help work her thousand acres, she never expects to be attracted to the very young, very female Cash Tate. (978-1-60282- 120-0)

Beggar of Love
by Lee Lynch. Jefferson is the lover every woman wants to be—or to have. A revealing saga of lesbian sexuality. (978-1- 60282-122-4)

The Seduction of Moxie
by Colette Moody. When 1930s Broadway actress Violet London meets speakeasy singer Moxie Valette, she is instantly attracted and her Hollywood trip takes an unexpected turn.(978-1-60282-114-9)

Goldenseal
by Gill McKnight. When Amy Fortune returns to her childhood home, she discovers something sinister in the air—but is former lover Leone Garoul stalking her or protecting her? (978-1-60282-115-6)

Romantic Interludes 2: Secrets
edited by Radclyffe and Stacia Seaman. An anthology of sensual lesbian love stories: passion, surprises, and secret desires. (978-1-60282-116-3)

Femme Noir
by Clara Nipper. Nora Delaney meets her match in Max Abbott, a sex-crazed dame who may or may not have the information Nora needs to solve a murder—but can she contain her lust for Max long enough to find out? (978-1-60282-117-0)

The Reluctant Daughter
by Lesléa Newman. Heartwarming, heartbreaking, and ultimately triumphant—the story every daughter recognizes of the lifelong struggle for our mothers to really see us. (978-1-60282-118-7)

Erosistible
by Gill McKnight. When Win Martin arrives at a luxurious Greek hotel for a much-anticipated week of sun and sex with her new girlfriend, she is stunned to find her ex-girlfriend, Benny, is the proprietor. Aeros Ebook. (978-1-60282-134-7)

Looking Glass Lives
by Felice Picano. Cousins Roger and Alistair become lifelong friends and discover their sexuality amidst the backdrop of twentieth-century gay culture. (978-1-60282-089-0)

Breaking the Ice
by Kim Baldwin. Nothing is easy about life above the Arctic Circle—except, perhaps, falling in love. At least that’s what pilot Bryson Faulkner hopes when she meets Karla Edwards. (978-1-60282-087-6)

It Should Be a Crime
by Carsen Taite. Two women fulfill their mutual desire with a night of passion, neither expecting more until law professor Morgan Bradley and student Parker Casey meet again…in the classroom. (978-1-60282-086-9)

Rough Trade
edited by Todd Gregory. Top male erotica writers pen their own hot, sexy versions of the term “rough trade,” producing some of the hottest, nastiest, and most dangerous fiction ever published. (978-1-60282-092-0)

The High Priest and the Idol
by Jane Fletcher. Jemeryl and Tevi’s relationship is put to the test when the Guardian sends Jemeryl on a mission that puts her not only in harm’s way, but back into the sights of a previous lover. (978-1-60282-085-2)

Point of Ignition
by Erin Dutton. Amid a blaze that threatens to consume them both, firefighter Kate Chambers and property owner Alexi Clark redefine love and trust. (978-1-60282-084-5)

Secrets in the Stone
by Radclyffe. Reclusive sculptor Rooke Tyler suddenly finds herself the object of two very different women’s affections, and choosing between them will change her life forever. (978-1-60282-083-8)