"Something I needed to do. Tell you later." Candace looked a little flushed too as she took off the suede overshirt and relaxed into the chaise lounge next to Alice's deck chair. "There's quite a party going on just down the hall."

"So I noticed." Alice sipped the brandy, not sure if she would care for it, but found the heat on her lips and tongue, followed by a sweet smoky flavor, quite pleasing. Let's face it, she told herself, anything would please you right now.

Wrong, an inner voice corrected. Right now, a man isn't going to please you. You don't want Cary Grant, you want Carrie Grant. You want Candace.

What if she's stone? What if she only tops or only bottoms or only likes things one way, and as soon as you get going you realize that is exactly the one way you don't like it? What if... How was she supposed to explain she'd had a C-section because her pelvis was too narrow, and if Candace was hoping to get out some big toys it just wasn't going to work?

Candace was saying something about the moon, and Alice tried to settle her fears and worries and let her body take over. Her head might not know what to do, but her body seemed quite focused on what it liked. She sipped the brandy again as they chatted, and after a few minutes her pulse steadied to a more manageable level.

"I'd love to see Lesbos with you," Candace said. "We can maybe swap our departure times around to get into the same group."

"I'd like that." She took one more sip, decided she liked brandy very much, then put the gla.s.s down on the deck. She was trembling. She didn't know what part of her was in control as she transferred herself from her chair to perch on Candace's chaise. The veranda was private in the moonlight, and it seemed quite natural to lean down to find Candace's mouth.

Just before their lips touched she felt Candace's hand slipping around her waist. The kiss was completely mutual, soft and sweet.

"I was wondering what it would be like when I kissed you," Candace whispered. Her hand tightened its grip and she pulled Alice to her more firmly.

For a few minutes, at least, Alice was lost in the wonderful pleasure of another woman's mouth. There was none of the harsh possessiveness or raging haste she had been used to while dating and in the early years of her marriage, and she realized she could kiss a woman for hours. This alone was the best s.e.x she'd ever had.

But after a few minutes of whispered rea.s.surances and shifting positions until she was stretched out on top of Candace, she was aware that Candace's tongue was dancing with hers more and more deliberately, with teases and flicks. All at once Alice felt her nerves burst into flames at the thought of Candace using that sensuous, sensitive tongue to tease her nipples or flick at her c.l.i.t. She didn't know if Candace could tell what Alice was now considering, but Candace's body shuddered under her and their pelvises began to move in an unmistakable rhythm.

It was unreal, the way she felt, the waves of tingles along her ribs, up her back, across the soles of her feet. She was the one who unzipped her dress, until Candace finished the job, and she was the one who pulled the dress over her head as she straddled Candace's lap.

"Alice," Candace whispered, "you're a beautiful woman."

The dress fell from her fingertips as Candace slipped the bra straps off her shoulders. "Thank you."

"It's not flattery. G.o.d, woman, you're gorgeous." Candace ma.s.saged her shoulders lightly.

"You're certainly making me feel beautiful." Feeling a sensual allure that blossomed from the inside out, she unhooked her bra so that it fell into Candace's hands.

The noise Candace made was gratifying, and it was with heat that Candace pulled her down for more of those incredible kisses. Between kisses she unb.u.t.toned Candace's shirt and encountered a smooth cotton bra, oddly endearing and rea.s.suring. Candace made no protest when Alice unhooked it.

A moment later her b.r.e.a.s.t.s touched another woman's for the first time, and again Alice thought that this alone was the best s.e.x she'd ever had. Skin against her skin that was both similar and different. When Candace's nipples hardened she could feel the tight peaks against her own. Could Candace possibly feel this excited, this transported, at the sensation of Alice's body against hers? The idea that she could be having the same effect on Candace that Candace was having on her filled her with a sense of wonder.

When the chaise creaked alarmingly, Alice sat up with a laugh. "Perhaps we should go inside."

Candace ran one finger down Alice's chest to the tip of one nipple. "If you insist."

"I do." She drew Candace up to her feet and they held hands until they were in the bedroom, bathed in the low golden light from the bedside lamp. Alice's fingers went to the b.u.t.ton on Candace's trousers. "May I?"

"Be my guest." Candace pulled Alice to her for a long, wet, demanding kiss as the trousers were undone and there were more kisses as shoes and socks joined the heap of clothing on the floor.

Alice hadn't meant to be so bold as to pull Candace's underwear off with the trousers, but now Candace was naked and she would not listen to the little voice that kept repeating "What if you don't know what to do?"

Stepping back, Candace pulled down the covers on the bed, then sat on the edge. Alice moved naturally between Candace's knees, leaning down to resume the wonderful kisses. She wanted to say she couldn't believe this was happening to her, that for the first time in her life her desires made sense, but kissing was too good to stop for mere words.

She wiggled her hips as Candace hooked her thumbs into her pantyhose, helping the process along. She wanted to be naked too. Candace's hands were warm and firm as they ma.s.saged and squeezed her hips. Alice already felt as if Candace had touched her body more than anyone else ever had before, and this was, she thought with a shiver, only the beginning.

When Candace's hands moved from her hips to her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, Alice moaned into their kiss.

"Is this all right?"

"Yes, it's very all right." She nuzzled along Candace's neck and gently pushed her back on the bed. "And I hope this is all right too."

"A gorgeous woman wants to rub her body all over mine? Hmm, let me think."

Alice tickled lightly under Candace's chin. The shared grin further relaxed her, and some part of her that she'd never felt before knew it would be okay to take Candace's straining nipple into her mouth.

She knew her own body and the feel of the rough, erect flesh but had never felt it with her tongue. She played with it, along the flat of her tongue and against the edges of her teeth, loving the responsive textures and feeling drunk on the sound of Candace's moans. She remembered all at once that the last woman to touch Candace had probably been Ginny, and she had loved Ginny. Ginny had known what to do.

She nearly stopped, feeling abruptly lost, but Candace's hand came around her head with a loving, encouraging gesture. The encouragement continued as she moved to the other breast, rubbing her lips in delight along the underside. The soft, yielding slope of Candace's stomach was equally delightful, and all at once she was sliding down to her knees and there it was, another woman's s.e.x.

She had to close her eyes for a moment. It was too beautiful to take in, too sacred and too s.e.xual. She had eagerly studied all the pages of Tammi's Femalia, astonished at the infinite variety of the hundreds of photographed c.u.n.ts. They were as different as snowflakes, and as beautiful. She opened her eyes to look at Candace again, studying the curls and twists of hair that parted to reveal gleaming red that gave way to pink. She fluffed the kinks of hair that obscured what she most wanted to study, but shuddered as her fingertips came away wet and slick.

She licked her fingers. It was instinctive. This was what s.e.x tasted like, she thought, and she could not stop herself from bringing her mouth directly to the source of the sweetness. Candace groaned. The folds of Candace's c.u.n.t were soaked and slippery, and Alice's tongue found its way farther in.

They had made her giggle, references to honey and nectar in erotica, but what else could this be called? Her chin and cheeks were smeared with wetness. By any name, she wanted to bathe in it.

When the firm b.u.mp of Candace's c.l.i.t jumped under her tongue, it was unexpected. She lifted her head for a moment to marvel at the flared hood and what it revealed. It did look like a pearl, but it didn't feel like one. She kissed it wetly, eagerly, and explored the yielding nerves with her tongue. She pressed and it slid away, delightful to chase and kiss. She played it under her tongue, back and forth, until she caught it briefly between her lips and heard Candace groan, long and loud.

After that her head swam with an overload of sensations. Her mouth and Candace's c.u.n.t were equally wet. The sounds Candace made were echoes of the ecstasy Alice felt inside. Candace's hands were suddenly in her hair, around her head, then grappling for her wrists until their fingers entwined and Alice found herself pulled up onto the bed, rolling over it into Candace's embrace, their legs tangling as Candace kissed her. Now both their faces were wet, and Alice wondered if Candace was crying too.

"G.o.d, woman, are you trying to kill me?" Candace kissed her way down Alice's throat. "That was fantastic."

Alice felt light as air. "I'm glad you liked it."

"Like is for a pair of shoes. If I'd known all those years ago you could do that to me, I'd have run away with you on the spot. I loved that."

"It felt fantastic to me too."

"Oh, I think I can make you feel even better than that." Candace licked around one of Alice's nipples, then blew on it softly. "Much, much better."

"Okay," Alice said weakly.

After reaching under the mattress, Candace held up a small bottle. "I really want to make you feel wonderful, and we've got some of this, if it's needed. I'm sorry, I don't have any of the usual toys and goodies-"

Alice pressed her fingers to Candace's mouth. "It's okay."

Candace leaned up to kiss her again. "I want you to feel fantastic. I'll take care of you any way you want. I just don't have those-"

"Honestly," Alice said. "It's okay. I don't... I didn't expect..."

Candace's smile stiffened a little bit. "I'm really not all that adventurous. I've read lots, but what you did, just now, is pretty much my favorite thing. But I can do anything you want. I want to do anything that you need."

Alice saw the insecurity in Candace's eyes and realized she'd played her part too well. "I think I gave you the wrong impression earlier. Maybe on purpose."

"About what?"

"I've never done this before."

"Gone home-sort of-with someone you just met?"

"Well, that too. No, I mean... this." She indicated the two of them. "I'm a virgin."

Candace froze.

"I mean, I'm not a virgin, Tammi was conceived the usual way, and I dated some before I got married. But with a woman, I mean ... I've never ..."

A tender smile eased the stiffness of Candace's face. "You're right, I got a different impression."

"I've read about-oh dear heaven."

Candace's mouth closed around her nipple and at the same time one hand was between her legs. "We're not going to need the lube, at least not at first."

"Candace," Alice said softly, reeling from the intimate brush of fingers near and around places that seemed to throb in time with their heartbeats.

"I'm not going to hurt you," Candace whispered.

"I know, I know. I'm worried I'm going to hurt you somehow."

"I'm tough, darling." Candace straddled one thigh and ground down slightly.

Alice felt the lush c.u.n.t she had been making love to with her mouth wet and hot on her skin. She wanted to go back to doing that again. She couldn't do anything about the urge because Candace was leaning down to kiss her, and the heat of their bodies, once again pressed close and soft, made thought almost impossible.

Candace said very softly, "I want to feel the inside of you, before I taste you."

"G.o.d," Alice said explosively. "Yes." Don't cry, she told herself, don't cry.

But she did cry. Everything felt too good and too real and too intense not to cry. Just a few of the tears were for the years she hadn't let herself experience this kind of love, and all the rest were the wonder of a woman's sure and sensitive fingers touching places that had been there all along, in theory, but now she knew were definitely real. Like being a lesbian, she thought irrelevantly. I've been one all along, but now I know it. Now I feel real.

"Don't worry," Candace said. "Just let it happen. My first time I didn't understand, but it'll happen and it's really, really fun."

The touches were insistent, but gentle. If Candace added lube, Alice wasn't aware of it. Steady strokes all along the wall, just inside her, were melting years of ice and clearing away cobwebs-she had clarity about s.e.x for the first time.

She liked it. She enjoyed it. d.a.m.n and dear heaven, she really loved s.e.x with a woman.

When Candace's tongue teased and licked its way through every fold between her legs, when tongue and fingers worked together to open Alice for a kind of exploration she'd never felt before, Alice understood what Candace had been saying. Just let it happen-you don't have to understand. Just feel it.

She felt it, long minutes of red lightning behind her eyes and roaring thunder in her ears. She felt it until the dancing fire eased and tears turned into laughter.

Candace was holding her close and tight, kissing her smiling mouth. "You are a very responsive woman."

"I didn't know that. Thank you-that was... You were right. I didn't know. It's not like I had bad s.e.x before, but I didn't know."

Candace pulled the covers up until they were swathed and curled into each other's arms. "Stay the night?"

Alice regarded the drooping eyes and wondered what it would take to wake Candace up in the morning. She slipped one hand over Candace's hip and felt a reflexive response.

"Of course I'll stay the night." She walked her fingers down the length of Candace's hip. "You may have trouble getting rid of me in the morning."

Candace rolled on top of her with a lazy grin. "You say that like it's a bad thing. I'm pretty sure if I went back down the hall to the neighbor's I could borrow some restraints and you wouldn't be able to leave."

"It's okay," Alice murmured. Candace's warm skin was reawakening all the nerves that ought to have been quite, quite satisfied. Candace's little gasp as Alice's fingers found their way between her thighs was very pleasing. "I'm quite content with everything you have right here."

Luxury Options Radclyffe "I don't know, honey," Erin Carmichael whispered, leaning close to her partner on one of the b.u.t.ter-soft leather sofas in the s.p.a.cious health club reception area as she studied the choices on the reservation form. "Maybe we should just go for the basics."

"Remember what we said when we planned this trip," Valerie Tyler chided affectionately. "If we can only splurge on a vacation like this once every ten years, then we're going to be adventurous."

"I know, but don't you think a couples' ma.s.sage is daring enough for two thirty-something, happily-married-with-children d.y.k.es? We don't even know what 'luxury options' means."

"So we'll find out when we get in there." Valerie's gray-blue eyes took on a smoky tint as she brushed Erin's unruly curls away from her face. She traced the curve of Erin's ear with a fingertip and smiled with satisfaction as Erin's lips parted with a small gasp. "By the way, we're signing up for a double, but I'm really just going to watch."

"But I thought-" Erin glanced sideways toward the desk where one of the attendants entered information into a computer. Like all the women who worked at the spa, or anywhere on the ship for that matter, her buff body was displayed discreetly but enticingly in a white polo shirt with the cruise ship's logo over her nicely-shaped left breast. Black Lycra workout shorts came to the middle of her toned thighs. She wasn't looking in their direction, and neither was the dark-haired woman in the tight white T-shirt and faded jeans who leaned against the counter with her back to them. All Erin could see of her were broad shoulders, tapered waist and a tight, hard-looking a.s.s. A bit of smooth, tanned skin peeked through a rip in the denim just below the curve of her b.u.t.t. Even though she knew no one was listening, Erin dropped her voice so low it was barely audible. "Does this have something to do with your secret fantasy?"

"Sweetheart," Valerie murmured, her eyes drifting down over Erin's curvy, pet.i.te body and then back to her face. "It's the first time in years it's just been the two of us-no work, no worries, no after-school soccer or ballet. Everything about this trip is a fantasy."

Erin pretended to glare. "I'm talking about the one where you get to play director, and I'm the star of your private film."

"What if I said yes?"

Erin searched Valerie's face and saw the plea in her eyes beneath the unmistakable flush of desire. She drew a shaky breath, feeling heat suffuse her face and neck, and curled her hand beneath the lower edge of Valerie's shorts. As she fingered the hard muscles on the inside of Valerie's thigh in slow, firm strokes, she pressed close until her b.r.e.a.s.t.s brushed against Valerie's arm. Her nipples hardened, and she felt a tingle between her legs as if Valerie had lightly brushed her fingertips over her s.e.x. "Just remember. I told you that ma.s.sages always turn me on a little."

Valerie stiffened, imagining Erin's pale smooth skin gleaming with oil, the delicate scent of spice and s.e.x saturating the air. A stranger's hand gliding over her lover's body. Erin's fingers moved higher, and Valerie had to struggle not to lift her hips and push out for more contact. She was wet, throbbing and hard. "I hope you like it more than a little."

"You're sure?" Erin glanced quickly across the room again, saw that everyone was still occupied elsewhere, and pressed her fingertips quickly and unerringly down on the exact spot where Valerie's c.l.i.toris pulsed beneath the thin cotton of her shorts.

"Unh," Valerie gasped, jerking back on the sofa to escape. If the mental pictures and a little bit of finger pressure almost made her come, she was going to be in deep trouble very soon. "I'm... sure. Stop, sweetheart." She shivered, a knot of pleasure tightening her p.u.s.s.y. "Don't get too adventurous out here. G.o.d."

Erin laughed softly and moved her hand back to the top of Valerie's leg. "You've forgotten I was the one who made the first move, all those years ago."

"I remember you teasing me for weeks before you'd let me do more than feel you up." Valerie shivered. "I was so h.o.r.n.y all the time. I never spent so much time masturbating in my life."

"Mmm," Erin said. "Now that's something I wouldn't mind watching while I'm getting my ma.s.sage."

"Really?"

"Really."

Valerie covered Erin's hand where it lay on her thigh, twining her fingers through Erin's smaller ones. "You'll be okay? With someone else touching y-"

"As long as you're there." Erin wet her lips with the tip of her tongue. "I have fantasies, too, you know."

Valerie stared, her heart racing.

"Ladies! Ready?" the spa attendant called to them.

Valerie took Erin's hand and they hurried to the counter, just as the woman in the white T-shirt was signing a voucher.