Chapter 28: Twenty-Eight

The midmorning sun beat down upon Faith as they lay in lounge chairs along the sandy Atlantic shore. She wore sunglasses over closed eyes and tried not to move. She had downed half a bottle of aspirin and an equal amount of coffee already. It had been way too long of a night. Tracey joined them for the rest of the evening, dancing and drinking. Faith wasn’t sure when they had arrived back home. Or how.

She heard Selby turn the page of whatever thick volume he was reading, and she winced at even that slight noise.

“It’s not fair,” she groaned.

“What’s that?” His voice was distant, and she knew he hadn't even taken his eyes off the page. She’d smack the book out of his hand if she could move.

“Why aren’t you in as much pain as I am?”

Now, she heard him close the book. “Let’s see, three shots of tequila, five of your Malibu and cranberries, and two Alabama Slammers. I do believe your pain is self-inflicted, my love.”

“So? You drank as much as I did.”

At that, he chuckled and the urge to smack him increased. “Hardly. I only did one shot, and after my second drink, I switched to water.”

“Only you and I kept drinking,” Tracey said as she walked in front of them.

Faith tensed, her eyes opening wide. Tracey spent the night? Where did she sleep? She hadn't seen the other woman when she woke up that morning.

“Here,” Tracey said, “I brought everyone a bacon and egg sandwich. I hope you don’t mind. I raided your kitchen.”

Her voice was way too chipper after a night like they had. Faith lifted her sunglasses and stared at the redhead. She had raided more than the kitchen. She wore one of Faith’s two pieces, one of the skimpier ones.

“I never turn down food no matter where it comes from,” Selby said as he reached for a sandwich.

Faith took the offered food with a whispered, “Thanks.” Confusion mixed with residual intoxication in her mind.

“You two were pretty hilarious, matching each other drink for drink. I almost didn’t make it to the car with both of you.”

“Were we that bad?” Tracey asked around a mouthful of egg muffin.

“Oh, I’m sure everyone loved the show you two put on out on the dance floor. I’m surprised we didn’t get tossed out for indecent exposure.”

Faith looked at Selby with a shocked look. “What did we do?”

Selby grinned at her. “Well, the way you two were grinding against each other, they knew you weren’t wearing undies.”

Closing her eyes, Faith allowed her head to fall back on the lounge chair, embarrassment reddening her face. She would never drink again. Hell, she’d never leave the house again.

It didn’t help that Tracey only giggled. “Did she really scream out, ‘Make way for my lesbian lover’?”

Selby started laughing harder. “She did, clearing a path on the dance floor to the exact middle. Then, when I finally got her to the car, she had to pee, so she lifted her skirt and went right there in the parking lot.”

Faith covered her face with her hands, the heat of the sun no match for the heat of the embarrassment on her face. “And you didn’t stop me?” How could she have allowed herself to get so out of control?

“And let you pee in my car?”

Tracey must think her a fool, but all the other woman did was laugh.

She felt Tracey's lips on her fingers, which were covering her face. “It’s okay, sweetie. We all get that way once in a while.”

“I want to die.” What she really wanted was to kill Selby, but not in front of a witness. It was one thing to behave the way she did when Selby and she were in another city surrounded by strangers, or in a private spot with Edwin, but in a bar where people who knew her could see her? How could Selby allow her to get that far out of control?

“It’s fun to cut loose. No harm, no foul,” Tracey said as she sat on the sand in front of the couple.

Faith dropped her hands to her sides and stared at the redhead smiling up at her. “Did we ..?”

Tracey and Selby both chuckled, but it was Tracey who answered. “Did we have hot, amazing sex? No, sweetheart. We didn’t. I wouldn’t let you take advantage of me.” She grinned around her bottle of water.

“I tried....to...you know?” She felt her face going even redder.

“Oh. Yeah,” Selby said through a mouthful of his sandwich, pushing some egg back into his mouth with his finger. “In the bar, the car, the driveway, and the house. You even said you had been thinking about her all day.”

Faith focused on her food. No more drinking for her. She finished her sandwich and then laid her head back and allowed the sun to punish her. She couldn’t deny that she had fun. And she had been thinking about the smaller woman. So, why the embarrassment afterward? Tracey talked as if it were all a natural occurrence in her life. Perhaps, for the redhead it was. For Faith, it was still all very new. She never thought of having sex with a woman before. It went against everything her parents ingrained into her. So had fucking someone other than her husband for that matter, but she didn’t have any problem with that.

She glanced over at the two beside her, and suddenly, she regretted agreeing to go to Tampa. The adventure was here, right in front of her. And it was just kicking into high gear. What would happen in a week’s time? Would momentum wane? And then, she wondered why Morgan asked her instead of Cherish. True, Faith was the one busting her ass the whole time while Cherish took numerous smoke breaks, but her sister had the position and the seniority. Faith was just a grunt. Was it possible Morgan wanted to promote her? Rutherford was putting together a traveling team to open new offices and expand. Perhaps, this was his way of seeing if Faith could handle it.

She turned and saw Selby stretched out on his lounge chair, his nose buried in Emma by Jane Austen. He was one of the few people she knew who could get absorbed in any genre. Books were like music to him. He liked them all. The question was, did she want to be away from him for week-long periods of time? What if it was longer?

Faith glanced at Tracey and blushed. This woman had inserted herself deeper into their lives, and not just Selby’s life, but both of them. She made Faith do things that always repulsed her before, and Faith wasn’t sure what to do with it. There was that voice telling her it was wrong. Yet, she couldn’t deny the flutter of her heart and the warmth that heated her sweet passage. She found her eyes drawn to the fall of auburn locks as they hung free as Tracey tilted her head back to catch the sun with her face. The taut skin of her graceful neck led to her tender globes encased in a flimsy white bikini top Faith forgot she owned. Selby must have loaned it to her. The material was thin, and Faith could see Tracey’s nipples pushing against the fabric, straining for freedom. Her stomach was flat and firm, and while her body had small dustings of freckles, they enhanced her beauty instead of detracting from it. Her legs were not long, but they were dancer legs, strong and beautiful. Her arms were slender and fingers small, but they carried a strength Faith had felt between her legs. She felt her face blush at the memory of the two of them at the bar. She made herself look away from the woman stretched out before her and gazed at the ocean.

A sand crab skittered sideways along the grayish sand avoiding the foamy pounding of a wave redecorating the shore. The soft roar of the ocean drifted over them. Faith stared at the choppy sea. How could she be thinking of Tracey the way she was? And what of Selby? Or Edwin? Where did Edwin even fit into all this? He was fun, no doubt, and the game they had started was a thrilling rush Faith was enjoying too much to abandon. She had no idea where it would go or how far, but she didn’t want to lose it. To be honest, she needed it, and she had no idea why. She knew she couldn't have gone through with it if her marriage wasn't secure. Selby and she had never been stronger. Her adventures with Edwin actually excited him as much as they did her.

She took a deep breath. What Bizarro world had she stepped into?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“I think I overdid it,” Faith said as they passed through the sliding door to the Florida room. Her skin was the color of the inside of her favorite steak. She felt microwaved, and she was sure her flesh had shrunk on her body. How long had they been out there?

“You are kinda reddish,” Tracey said, her face puckered in empathy for what Faith must be feeling.

Selby merely chuckled and shook his head.

“I know, I know.” Faith dropped her towel on a wicker chair as she passed through to their bedroom.

Tracey glanced back and forth between the two. “What am I missing?”

Passing through the inside slider and into the bedroom, Faith reached behind her and pulled her bathing suit top loose. “He has no sympathy for Floridians who get sunburned. We should know better.”

“Bully.” Tracey swatted Selby as she took Faith by the arm and led her to the king-sized bed. “Here, dear, lay down. We need to get some aloe on those burns.” Tracey pushed Selby toward the bedroom door. “You can get us some water with lemon slices.”

Selby grinned, giving the fiery redhead a mock salute before leaving the two girls alone.

Faith allowed Tracey to ease her onto their chocolate comforter. She wasn’t sure how to refuse Tracey, even if she wanted. That was also her confusion. She didn't know if she wanted to refuse the other woman anything.

Tracey’s fingers grazed her sensitive flesh she pulled Faith’s bikini top off her scorched flesh. She winced, both from the sting as well as the sudden exposure.

“Oh, baby. Ouch.” Tracey tsked, looking at the lobster color that encircled the death white flesh that had been hiding under the bathing suit. “You really did a number. Now, we’ve got to get the rest of you tanned.” She caressed the pale flesh with her fingers as she pushed Faith backward, making her lie down. With tender fingers, Tracey gently pulled the bottoms down Faith’s scorched legs and off her body. She tossed them toward the closet door without thought.

Faith tried to cover her intimate parts only to have Tracey smack her hands away. “I’ve fingered this body, silly girl. Besides, we have the same parts. Now, roll over.”

With embarrassed reluctance, Faith rolled onto her stomach, the backs of her hands overlapping as a makeshift pillow for her right cheek. She closed her eyes wanting to hide her nakedness. Why did she give into this woman? She gasped as the cold of the aloe gel bit her heated skin and was inwardly glad she was sunburnt to keep Tracey from feeling how her body reacted to her touch. Of course, if her fingers came near Faith’s pussy, Tracey would know for sure.

With slow but strong circles, Tracey worked the healing gel into Faith’s reddened skin, massaging as she went. Faith quickly forgot her unease about being naked, lost in the working of Tracey’s hands. A moan squeezed past her lips as she heard Selby come back into the room, glasses clinking with floating ice.

“Now, this is a sight I can get used to,” he said as he set the water glasses on the oak nightstand.

“Spoken like a man,” Tracey said.

Faith felt the depression of the bed on her left side and then Selby had one of her feet in his hands massaging with his thumbs. She laid there, a gelatinous mass under the two sets of hands that worked her body over. Tracey applied more lotion and rubbed it in as she massaged down Faith’s back and over her rounded ass-cheeks, putting lotion even on skin that didn’t need it. She moved to Faith’s thighs before the prone woman could get nervous about the other’s hands. Selby set one foot down and picked up the other, his hand kneading at her muscles.

When Tracey finished with the front of Faith’s thighs, she swatted Faith’s ass and told her to flip over. Faith hesitated. Her exposed ass was one thing, but to open her most intimate parts for casual observation? It didn’t help that she was the only one naked.

Tracey swatted her ass again. “Over.”

Faith felt Selby pulling her foot around, twisting her to the left so she would flip to her back. She took a deep breath and followed his lead. She avoided eye contact with either of them as she shifted to her back, choosing to focus on the dark ceiling fan above her.

“So shy,” Tracey whispered in a tsk-tsk voice.

The cold of the aloe fell above Faith’s breasts, and her body tensed as Tracey’s hands started massaging the gel into her reddened skin.

“Relax.”

Easy to say, but not so easily obeyed. Faith felt the tiny hands massaging her pale globes, the soft fingers flicking over her nipples as they hardened under the touch. Did she moan? Oh, god, she hoped not, embarrassed that the woman’s touch aroused her.

Tracey slid her hands from Faith’s breasts to stomach, rubbing the lotion in with slow, steady circles. Faith tensed as she felt Tracey’s fingers getting closer and closer to her...

And then, Tracey massaged Faith’s thighs, squeezing, caressing. Faith released a slow breath, relaxed that the other woman had not...

But then, she felt Tracey’s fingers slowly inching higher, closer to the wetness Faith knew glistened from her soft mound. She felt her body tense again as her legs slid apart allowing Tracey access to work—or play.

Faith opened her eyes and glanced down at Selby who was on the edge of the bed watching, his face wearing a soft smile. Tracey sat at Faith’s knees, her hands massaging the inner thighs. Faith glanced at her, the auburn-haired woman smiling down at her, her face a light dusting of freckles that the sun had brought out. Their eyes met and stayed locked for a moment.

Then, Tracey lowered her mouth to Faith’s slick channel and blew softly on the tiny pearl, her hair cascading in a canopy around her, hiding her face. Faith felt her body arch, her hips rising to meet the other woman’s lips. Her body wanted the forbidden kiss, craved it no matter how her mind fought against it.

With one hand holding Faith’s thigh and another on her hip, Tracey brushed her lips against the soft folds of Faith’s labia. Shots of passion went through Faith, her body tensing and a moan escaping her lips. She felt the warmth of Tracey’s tongue slip between her pussy lips, licking its way up to the sensitive bud at the top of Faith’s sex. Fingers gripping the quilt, Faith pushed upward to gain more of Tracey’s touch. Faith’s breath panted as her body tensed. Tracey kissed her clitoris before sucking it into her mouth, flicking it with her tongue.

Faith moaned louder, spreading her legs, giving Tracey full access to her warm channel. She felt the other woman slip between her legs and continue to love on her honey.

The bed moved beside Faith, and she glanced over to see Selby kneeling beside her, his pride aching for attention. When he had stripped, she didn’t know. With a hunger, she took him into her mouth, her tongue swirling around the rim of his bulbous head. She slid a hand under him, cupping his hairy balls, massaging them. His hand fell to her head as she bobbed back and forth on his hardness.

She moaned as Tracey slid two fingers into her, pumping as the woman’s tongue lapped at the swollen pearl. Faith’s body shuddered and rocked as it cried out for release.

Selby slipped from Faith’s lips and slid off the bed. Faith watched with glazed eyes as he ran a hand down Tracey’s back, fingernails grazing the woman’s flesh. When he reached the skimpy bottoms of her bathing suit, he slid them off, leaning down and kissing the softness of her ass. With the bathing suit bottoms tossed to the floor, he eased two fingers into the tight red curls between her legs. Faith saw the passion in his eyes, the grin on his face. He watched her as he toyed with Tracey’s wetness.

Faith smiled back and nodded.

Selby continued to watch Faith as he knelt behind Tracey, his hands on her hips. With a steady push, he speared the pink slit with his hard cock and slowly rocked back and forth. Tracey moaned into Faith’s pussy and pressed harder as she licked with faster relish. Faith moaned, and it was all she needed to let herself go. She gripped the comforter, pulling it to her as her body arched. Her cries of pleasure, passion, filled the room, mixed with Tracey’s whimper as Selby rammed into her.

As Faith’s body started to relax, Tracey laid her head on her thigh as Selby took her. Faith watched the pleasure on both their faces, felt Tracey’s hands gripping her hips, saw the woman’s body tense and knew the climax that ripped through both of them. It was as if she felt both of their orgasms in her body as the bed rippled under her.

Selby slowed the pumping of his hips as their bodies relaxed. He slid from behind Tracey and laid beside Faith, kissing her softly as his fingers pulled at strands of her hair. Tracey crawled up to Faith’s other side, and Faith pulled the woman toward her, brushing her lips against the other’s. She felt Tracey’s arm slide over her belly and squeeze. Everyone was still breathing heavy as Selby draped a leg over Faith’s thighs.

She didn’t know what to think. Cocooned between semi-naked bodies, she decided not to think and instead, closed her eyes and slept.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Selby felt sleep pull at his eyelids as he laid there, his fingers entangled in Faith’s hair. His leg lay draped across Faith’s, and he could feel the warmth of Tracey’s thigh with his knee as well as her hand as it rested between Faith and himself. Both ladies were already sound asleep, exhausted from the previous night, the warm sun, and their recent escapade atop the sheets. He was ready for a nap, as well.

Yet, his mind wouldn’t shut down enough. He stared over Faith to Tracey and wondered where she fit into the whole scheme of things. She was no longer the friend who ran the bakery. He felt drawn to her in ways he had never felt since Faith walked into his life. As he told Tracey the other day at lunch, she was family.

He smiled at the way her eyes never completely closed when she slept, her lips slightly parted, as well. He could smell the aroma of their passion mixed with the aloe, and he couldn't help but be content.

He picked up a strand of Faith’s hair between his fingers and pulled it gently into the air, smiling as each strand slipped free and fell back to the bed. She was the woman who had saved him, really. She taught him to open up and trust again, to love. She had his heart. So why did he feel this tug toward Tracey?

By the time sleep captured him, he still had not found an answer.