Les Tales (30 page)

Accept your own decision. Kai has.

Thinking about the lifetime she would have without Kai, she felt the hopelessness begin to descend on her. But a warm kiss at the top of her foot brought her eyes flying open.

Chloe gasped at the sight of her lover. She was crouched like a cat over her, beautifully naked. Her slender body was everything Chloe had ever imagined and more. Her hair was loose down to her waist; her eyes were heavy lidded in the candlelight. Her breasts were small, the nipples a deep brown and large, making Chloe's mouth water to taste them.

The dildo strapped to her was average size. A golden brown to match Kai's skin, the leather straps black and gorgeous against her flesh. The intent in Kai's eyes curled Chloe's nails into the couch. Her pussy twitched.

“I want to fuck you,” she murmured as she kissed her way up Chloe's leg. “Can I do that?” Her voice rumbled against Chloe's skin, sending shock waves of arousal through her. “If you don't want me to, I can get rid of this. There are many other ways for us to enjoy each other.”

“I want you to fuck me,” Chloe whispered. “Please.”

“You never have to beg me for anything, love.” Kai kissed her thighs, delicately biting her as she nudged them apart. “Everything I have is yours. Everything.”

Her hot breath steamed over Chloe's clit; then her tongue slid over her with slow stroking licks. Chloe moaned and widened her legs, watching Kai's face. Watching the way she licked her pussy, her tongue long and graceful through the thick hairs of her cunt, her mouth slurping as she found her buried treasure and sucked it into her mouth. Again. And again. The breath shivered in Chloe's throat as the beginnings of orgasm sparked between her thighs.

She gripped the arm of the couch behind her, arching her hips to shove her soaked cunt into Kai's mouth. She panted and moaned as the sensation built. She cried out, clawing at the arm of the couch, and then the feeling snapped tight inside her body.

She cried out Kai's name as she came. In the same moment, Kai rose up and sank her dick into Chloe's quivering cunt.

“Oh!” Chloe gasped. “Fuck!”

Kai's mouth covered hers, kissing her deeply, as her hips moved between Chloe's thighs. She was surrounded by Kai's smell, her hair, her body, her sweat, as they slid together, a slow and intense fucking. The dick moved inside her, raking up shudders of pleasure, building an urgent sweetness deep in Chloe's belly.

Kai squeezed Chloe's breasts to the rhythm of her thrusts, an easy and intense song of sex, like a drumbeat, a song Chloe had heard a million times but had never known the meaning of, until now.

“Kai!”

She called out her lover's name again and again, singing it in time to the magical song weaving through her. They came together like crashing waves. A symphony of noise and movement, flesh meeting flesh, that left them both breathless and staring wide-eyed at each other.

“Chloe.” Kai touched her damp forehead to hers. But she didn't say anything else.

She held on to Kai, knowing what she felt, both tenderness and regret, not that their lovemaking had happened, but that it would never get the chance to unfold again. She threaded her fingers through Kai's locks, traced a line down her sweat-dampened back to the muscled curve of her ass.

“Make love with me all night, Kai.” She whispered the words against her lover's mouth. “Let's just take tonight. Nothing else matters right now but us.”

Kai stirred against her, lifting her head to look down into Chloe's face with her starlit eyes. She blinked. “You are the only one who matters tonight, love. We'll let tomorrow take care of itself.”

She braced herself above Chloe with her palms flat against the couch. Then she began to move her hips again.

Their night was long, a heated dance that took them from the couch to the bed to the floor, then back to the bed again. Their breaths and bodies came together over and over until the sun rose. Then, after they had taken a nap at dawn, Chloe reached for Kai, and their lovemaking began again. It was as intense as it was surprising. Kai's stamina was more than Chloe had ever dreamed. Her inventiveness. Her patience. Her willingness to try things that Chloe had always wanted to but never had the chance.

It was a dream of sex. Electric and never-ending, it left Chloe's body sore but still wanting more from every angle, every surface, with every kind of touch that both of them could imagine. Now she knew what the big deal was about sex. It was amazing and magical, and she wanted to do more of it. Especially with Kai.

But she knew that wasn't possible. Which was why the coming of the morning, the bright 11:00 a.m. sun, found her with tears on her face.

She opened her eyes to find herself lying sideways on the bed, her legs entangled with Kai's, the sun pouring over them from the large windows on either side of the bed. The covers lay heavy over them, shielding their bodies from the slight chill in the air. Her lashes were heavy from her morning tears, and she felt the dried tracks of them on her cheeks as she stirred. Kai's arms tightened around her, and she realized that the other woman had not been sleeping, had merely been holding her while she slept.

“I don't want today to come,” Chloe murmured, snuggling into the warm body of her lover. She felt torn in two, saturated with both sadness and sexual satisfaction.

Kai trailed gentle fingers down her back. “But it's here. Let's make the most of it, no matter how it unfolds.”

But Chloe closed her eyes, not wanting to hear that. Not now. Not after the amazing discoveries of the night. She wanted to run away with Kai. Never mind the decision she had made the day before. Now that she'd experienced the completion of their lovemaking, she wanted more. She wanted an even deeper connection. She wanted more time.

“Baby, it's going to be fine—”

The sound of the doorbell cut off Kai.

“Who
is
that?” Kai reached for her cell phone on the bedside table and squinted at its display. “It's not even noon yet.”

Chloe stretched against the sheets and pressed a kiss to Kai's throat. “You know, some people have already done their entire day's work by now.”

Kai muttered something about her work just beginning and climbed from the bed. She pulled on boxer shorts and a tank top before leaving the bedroom. Chloe curled up under the sheets, her bare body sliding into the warmth Kai had left behind. In the living room, she heard Kai's voice. Something in it made Chloe sit up and listen.

Seconds later, Kai rushed into the bedroom, her face pinched and cold. “Get dressed. Noelle is here.”

“What!”

But Kai was gone again.

Chloe jumped up from the bed, hissing silently at the rush of cold air on her skin. She grabbed the first thing she found near the bed and yanked it on. Ran to the bathroom to brush her teeth and wash her face and hands. In the mirror, her face looked terrified. The hot water burned her cold hands and splashed all over the bathroom sink. Her fingers trembled as she brushed her teeth.

Her mother? Here? Why?

She frantically tried to remember anything about their phone call that said her mother was about to come to New York, but she remembered nothing. Only the tears and the guilt and the relief that she had decided not to say anything about her and Kai, after all. She shoved her hands through her hair, fluffing it as best she could. Her eyes were wide with panic. She stared at her reflection, trying to think of what to say to her mother, wondering if she could just stay in the bathroom until she left.

“Chloe?”

She flinched when her mother called her name from down the hall. Wild-eyed, she checked her reflection one last time, hoping there was nothing about her face that gave away what she had been doing all night.

Wiping up the water she'd spilled around the sink, Chloe delayed for a few seconds more before taking a breath and leaving the bathroom. In the living room, her mother was pulling off her thin leather gloves, saying something to Kai, who had her back to Chloe. She looked elegant and chic as usual in thick black leggings, riding boots, and a sweater that came nearly to her knees. Her thick gray hair was tousled by the wind.

“Surprise!” Her mother rushed toward her with a smile and kissed her cheeks. “I figured if you weren't coming back to Atlanta for a while, I'd just come to you. And I brought you some extra clothes for work. You know you never think about things like that.”

When Chloe didn't say anything, she drew back, narrowing her eyes at her daughter. “What are you wearing?”

With the note of suspicion in her mother's voice, Chloe saw her plans for avoiding the discussion about Kai go up in smoke.

She glanced down at herself and realized she had on a pair of boxers and one of Kai's black undershirts. The shirt, clearly too small to adequately contain Chloe's C-cup breasts, was obviously not her own. And it was inside out.

Shit.
“Sleep clothes,” she said, unable to prevent herself from responding to her mother's interrogating tone of voice.

Her mother stared at Kai, who had slid the lock home on the door and stood facing the room with her arms crossed over her chest. She looked combative. And guilty.

“Why did you come out of Kai's bedroom?” Her mother frowned, as if she couldn't believe she was actually asking that question.

“Mom, I—”

“She's sleeping in there since I set myself up in the guest room,” Kai explained.

Chloe squirmed as her mother narrowed her gaze at Kai once again, taking in everything about her best friend. Boxer shorts, a thin tank top with a clear imprint of her dark nipples beneath. Her bare feet, tousled hair. The constellation of hickeys on her fair-skinned neck and throat.

Her mother's voice went low. “Did you just lie to me?” She put her hands on her hips, staring at her best friend.

“Noelle . . .”

“You did. I know that look anywhere.” She turned to Chloe. “What's going on?”

“I'm in love with her.” Panic turned Chloe's voice into a squeak. But at that moment she felt she had to say the words, take that leap out into open space, and hope her love for Kai would save her.

Her mother froze. “What did you just say to me?”

“She and I w-were t-together last night,” Chloe stuttered, before getting the words out properly. “I started it. I was the one who seduced her.” She crossed her arms over her stomach, trying to quell its tremor.

Kai cursed softly before striding to the bar on the other side of the room.

“Don't move, Kai. Don't you fucking move!” Her mother's eyes were wide and afraid. They blinked quickly as she looked from her daughter to her best friend. “Tell me exactly what happened. Tell me right now.”

Kai ignored her and grabbed a decanter from the bar. She poured a heavy measure of whiskey into a glass, quickly swallowed some of the liquor before turning to face her best friend.

“Things just happened. I didn't do this to hurt you, Noelle.”

“Do what?” Her mother's voice was frantic. “What the fuck did you do, Kai?”

Despite what Chloe had said before, it seemed that she only now understood what her daughter was telling her. Chloe, her
daughter,
had just been having sex with her best friend.

“Chloe, go into the bedroom.” Her mother's voice snapped with anger. Then she flew at Kai, slapping her hard. The sound was loud and echoed in the room. Her sweater jerked up around her hips; her hair was wild as she reared back for another slap. “What the fuck!” She slapped Kai again, and her best friend didn't try to stop her. “Kai. Tell me you didn't do this.”
Slap.
“Tell me!” she screamed, the noise a wailing cry of sadness and betrayal. Her arms windmilled, mercilessly pummeling Kai.

“Mom, stop!” Chloe rushed across the room, but her mother shoved her firmly back. She stumbled against the couch.

“I said go to your room, Chloe. This doesn't concern you!” Her mother screamed at the same time that Kai ducked and backed away from a punch.

“It's okay, Chloe.” Kai spoke with effort, trying to hold off her best friend. “Do as she says.” A bruise was already forming on her cheek.

“I'm not a child!” Chloe righted herself against the arm of the couch but did not go toward them again.

Neither her mother nor Kai was paying attention to her. It was like her mother had transformed into that girl on the stoop in the long-ago photograph. Her lip was curled in a sneer, and her body was a slim and deadly challenge.

Chloe was truly frightened. Noelle Graham didn't seem like her mother anymore, but like a broken woman flinging shards of herself at someone she had once loved, someone who had shattered her completely.

She flew at Kai in a rage, slapping her friend in the face, punching her chest, arms, and anywhere else she could reach. Kai tried only to hold her off, to avoid getting hit again.

“What the fuck is wrong with you that you're fucking my child? She's only twenty-three, for God's sake!” Her mother was crying, tears running down her face.

“Noelle. I didn't hurt her.” Kai's voice broke as her own tears began to fall. “I promise. I didn't mean to hurt you.”

“Have you always been looking at her like that? Were you grooming her to be your sex toy this whole time?” Her mother screamed more obscenities, cried out each new scenario that occurred to her as she slapped and railed at Kai.

When her slaps turned into punches to Kai's face, her best friend grabbed her arms and shoved her back. “Noelle! Please!” Her face was tortured, lips trembling as the tears fell faster.

Chloe felt as if she was the one breaking apart.

“There's nothing you can say to me that will make this right. Nothing!” her mother raged.

This is all my fault!
Chloe stared in horror at the fighting women. She had caused this.

“Stop it! Stop.” She shoved her way between them, then gasped as a fist smashed into her lip. Her head snapped back, and she tasted blood. She stumbled against Kai.

Her mother gasped. “Oh my God!”

Everything stopped for a moment. Chloe's body dipped, and her vision wobbled. The next thing she knew, she was lying on the couch.

“Get the fuck away from her,” her mother snarled. “I'll take care of her myself.”

“But you're the one who hit me,” Chloe muttered, putting a hand to her throbbing lip. Her fingers came away stained with blood.

Nausea seized her stomach. The sight of her own blood sickened her. But she saw that despite her words to Kai, her mother had moved aside to allow her best friend to put a damp cloth to Chloe's mouth. Her mother tucked a pillow under her head and smoothed her cheek. She sat down next to Chloe.

“I'm sorry, darling. I didn't mean to hit you.”

Chloe put a hand to her head and turned away from both of them. “I'll be okay. Just don't be angry at Kai.” She touched her mother's arm but looked at Kai, who now sat at the far end of the couch. “I . . . I was the one who started it. She didn't have anything to do with this.”

“I'm sure you didn't force her to eat your pussy.”

“Mother!” Chloe blushed so hard that her face hurt even more. She could not bring herself to look at Kai. “Please, don't say things like that.”

“I'm afraid the time for being coy has passed, my love.” Her mother closed her eyes and turned her head toward her friend. “Kai, for you, of all people, to do this to me . . .” A sob left her mouth. “This is the biggest betrayal. Even worse than when Evan abandoned me, leaving me to raise Chloe on my own.” She drew a trembling breath and seemed to fight for control of herself. “Kai, when did this start?”

Chloe opened her mouth.

“No.” Her mother squeezed her hand tightly. “I'm not talking to you right now.”

Kai, her face still wet with tears, squirmed in her seat. She stood up and went back to the bar with her empty glass, but she did not refill her drink.

It was a long time before she said anything. Then she answered, “I didn't touch her until this week.”

Chloe's mother hissed with angry impatience. “But when did you start
thinking
about her like this? Be honest. I need to know.”

“It was the day we dropped her off at school in California.”

Chloe strangled her gasp before it could escape her lips.
That long ago?

Kai stood with her back to the room, her legs spread wide, hands braced against the surface of the bar. She looked delicate in the thin tank top and the peace sign boxers, her skin bleached nearly yellow in the morning light. Her shoulders were shaking as she spoke.

“Chloe was already moved in. You and Duncan were off somewhere, trying to find out about visitor parking. I waited with the truck in case the cops came over to hassle us for parking in front of the dorms.”

Then Chloe
did
gasp. She remembered that day. She remembered it clearly.

She had just left her new dorm, feeling giddy at finally being in college and away from home. The sun was brilliant in Los Angeles, and everything smelled so different. The air. The trees. It felt like being set adrift in a beautiful foreign place where everything and anything was possible. And that day, as she walked across the lawn in her flip-flops, with her hair in wild twists and the new breeze on her skin, even her infatuation with Kai seemed different.

Kai was leaning against the large SUV Duncan had rented to take Chloe across the country. One foot braced on the ground, the other against the bumper of the dark green truck. She tilted her head toward the sky. Her hair twisted on top of her head, bound in a tie-dyed scarf, and her eyes closed as she savored the quiet she'd managed to find in the chaos of the campus. Her arms were bare in a white tank top, and a black strap of her bra peeked out. She wore cut-off jean shorts that were loose around her lean thighs and green Converse. Even now, five years later, that image of Kai was so clear to Chloe that she could have seen it only minutes before.