New Dawning International Bookfair

Presents

A Sapphic Erotic Story

By

Giselle Renarde

Copyright © 2011 Giselle Renarde

Narcissist Seeks Narcissist

Chapter 1

“What’s that you’re scribbling, darling? It’s about me, isn’t it?” Szuszu reached across the table, nearly knocking over her backup scotch and soda. “Hand it over, Babs. Let’s have a look.”

Babette pressed the cocktail napkin flush to her chest, setting down her slim gold pen. “It’s nothing, Szusz. Just my shopping list.” She shook her head, eyes wide, guilty as sin. “Just my groceries.”

“Shopping!” Szuszu cackled, knocked back the scotch in her hand, then slammed the glass down on the table. “Darling, you haven’t done the shopping since you shacked up with that dairy cow you call a wife. You don’t need to shop -- just bend the old hausfrau over a bucket and you’ve got your milk for free.”

“Leave Matilda out of this.” Babette shoved the cocktail napkin in her jacket pocket.

“Ah!” Gazing across the table through the amplifying lens of an empty scotch glass, Szuszu pointed to Babette’s chest. “There! I see what you’ve written. It’s all smeared across your tits, darling.” Squinting, she tried to make out the loopy handwriting smudged on Babette’s skin. “noitaroda… lautum… rof… What is that, darling, Latin? Or have you had a stroke?”

Babette glanced down at the writing on her chest, wetting another serviette with Szuszu’s next scotch and rubbing it over the pen marks. “It’s backwards, darling. It’s an imprint, you know.” After setting the wet serviette down on the table, she pulled the dry one from her pocket. “Fine, then. Fine, if you’re so curious. Here it is. That’s what I wrote.”

Squinting at the flimsy square of paper, Szuszu held it up close and then away from herself, but the words still wouldn’t come into focus.

“I think you need to get yourself a good pair of specs, Szusz.”

Szuszu’s eyes twitched at the blasphemy. “Nobody wears glasses, darling, except librarians and Elton John. I was a model, you know.”

“Yes, I know, Szusz. Everybody knows.” Babette rolled her eyes like a teenager. “You do realize you’ve gone up to every person in this bloody lounge to tell them I was a model?”

“Well, I was on the cover of all the magazines in my day.”

“In your day, right, you were. Headlines read: War is over. Szuszu greets sailors at port.”

An overwhelming desire came over Szuszu to kick her dearest friend in the shins, but when she let loose, her snakeskin boot met the cylinder of metal holding up the table. “Oh, for Christ sake,” she moaned, rubbing her toe. “If I wasn’t legless, I bet that would smart.” Defeated, she handed the napkin back across the table. “Here, read this for me, Babs. I can’t see straight.”

“Can’t even think straight,” Babette mumbled. “All right then, you want to know what I wrote while you were babbling on about your glory days? I wrote up a personal ad, darling: Narcissist seeks narcissist for mutual adoration. Turn-ons include mirrors, soup spoons, darkened windows, and other reflective surfaces. Must enjoy photo albums, the sound of her own voice, and endlessly reliving days of cover girl glory. Doppelgangers will receive preferential treatment—see attached photo. Looks trump substance. Models preferred. Serious enquiries only.”

When Babette had finished reading from the serviette, Szuszu offered weak applause. “So you’re going to dump the dairy cow after all these years. Good show, darling. It’s about time.”

Babette’s ears turned bright red and she shook her head. “I am not dumping anybody. This ad isn’t for me--it’s for you. You’re the narcissist, darling. You’re the one unlucky in love.”

“Luck has nothing to do with it, Babs.” Szuszu polished off the last of her scotch and held up her glass for more. “I’m not like you, darling. I don’t buy into your little cult of Noah’s Ark, everyone in neat little pairings.”

“It’s hardly Noah’s Ark if it’s full of lesbians,” Babette muttered. “Only, I think you’d be happier if you had someone to share your life with.”

“Well, I do, darling. I have you, don’t I?” Szuszu took a sip of her replenished scotch, and the taste made her sputter. “Babs,” she hissed, “this tastes Welsh. Have a swig and tell me what you think.”

“It’s scotch, Szusz. It’s Scottish.”

“Perhaps it was served by a Welshman. Did you see who poured this drink?” Rising on unsteady feet, Szuszu asked the lounge, “Did anybody see a Welshman pouring my drink?”

“There are no Welshmen in this country.” Babette smacked her fist against the table. “Now sit down and shut up. I’m trying to tell you something.”

She fell into her chair, her bony ass smacking the seat so hard she felt it through her spine. In preparation, she took another swig of scotch. It still tasted funny. Maybe her taste buds had jumped ship.

“We’re going away for a time, Matilda and I.” Babs folded her hands over her heart. “Not forever, darling, only on holiday…but rather a long holiday, I’m afraid.”

In the back of her mind, Szuszu knew she ought to react, but her heart felt frozen. “How long is long?”

“Six months, at the very least. It’s a bit of a world tour sort of thing.”

“A world tour…” Szuszu tried to blink, but the folds of her eyelids were stuck together. “Well, I can come along, right?”

Babette reached across the table now, trapping Szuszu’s hand under hers. “I’m afraid not, Szusz. It’s a bit of a second honeymoon sort of thing.”

Szuszu took a swig from one of the other scotch glasses littering the table. “But darling…”

“Yes, Szusz?”

“You can’t leave,” she said. “Who will I drink with when you’re gone?”

Shaking her head, Babette released a deep sigh and handed Szuszu the serviette. “I only wrote this ad to amuse myself, darling, but I’m beginning to think you really need it. You just can’t survive on your own, now can you?”

Szuszu flattened the wrinkled napkin against the table as Babette rose to her feet. “Will you post this for me before you leave?” Szuszu asked. Her eyes were too hazy to make out the words on the paper. “And make sure to attach a picture from when I was modeling. You know I like my girls a little younger.”

“To think,” Babette mused, heaving Szuszu to her feet. “Matilda and I will be hiking in the Rocky Mountains and we’re bound not to see as many cougars as there are in this lounge right now.”

Resting her heavy head on Babette’s shoulder, Szuszu closed her eyes and laughed.

* * *

The lounge manager took Szuszu by the hands and planted two Hollywood kisses on her cheeks. “Beautiful as always, my dear.”

“Kenzo! I need some privacy and a prime location tonight,” Szuszu told him. “Somewhere with a clear line to the entrance. I’ve placed an ad, you see.”

“Szuszu, baby, you know I love you…”

“Yes,” she replied. “Everyone does.”

“But,” he went on, “we talked about this the last time you put out an ad: I simply can’t allow prostitution in my establishment, not even for you.”

She whacked him in the chest with the back of her hand, and nearly tumbled over in doing so. “A personal ad, Kenzo! A personal ad! On a dating site!”

“Oh!” He chuckled politely, tossing his head to one side and leaning back. “I do apologize. An easy mistake.”

“Right,” she grumbled, settling into the curved velvet booth near the darkened window.

Darling Kenzo brought her a couple scotch and sodas, and when she was finished with them, he brought over a few more. Time was always a hazy concept, but when she felt as though she’d been waiting quite a long time, she told Kenzo, “I specified in my ad that I’m looking for a girl who resembles me, all right?”

Kenzo nodded. “I understand, Szuszu, baby. If I see a decomposing rat skeleton in a blond wig, I’ll be sure to send it directly to you.”

“Yeah, thanks, darling.” She’d stopped listening, but grabbed hold of his hand when the lounge door swung open. This could be her doppelganger. This could be the woman who was so like her, so physically similar and devoted to the same ideals that they’d fall for each other in an instant.

A young woman in leopard tights stepped into the lounge and Szuszu’s heart thumped hard as she cast her gaze around the room. All Szuszu’s dreams, or at least the ones in recent memory, were coming true. “That’s her! My twin, my mirror image—that’s her!”

Kenzo writhed in her grip, but she wouldn’t release his hand. All he said was, “That’s her?”

Chapter 2

“Holy crap, that’s her!” Naomi tapped her chewed up fingernail against the lounge’s darkened window. “That’s Szuszu! That’s her!”

Erin shielded her eyes against the glare from the streetlights and looked through the glass. When she turned her gaze back to Naomi, she looked like her eyes were about to pop out of her head. “That’s her?”

Digging through her big-ass purse, Naomi found the magazine she’d had in her possession for nearly as long as she could remember. She flipped through the weathered pages until she arrived at the spread that had put her to bed -- if not to sleep -- as she discovered her sexual self.

There was nobody nearby except the doorman, so Naomi held up the magazine for Erin to get a better look. Szuszu was nearly naked in most of the pictures, and fully naked in all the rest, but the face was definitely the same. The woman in the lounge was the woman in the magazine.

“I can’t believe a huge model would resort to taking out a personal ad.” Naomi felt absolutely giddy.

“I can’t believe any intelligent woman would resort to answering one,” Erin shot back.

Naomi raised an eyebrow. Comments like that made her feel like a bit of a moron, but nothing could douse her enthusiasm. “Well, we can’t all marry our bosses, now can we?”

Before Naomi could apologize for being catty, her best friend said, “Besides, this chick’s, like, twenty in those pictures, and she’s how old now? Like, a hundred?”

Naomi watched through the window as the woman whose photo spread she’d spread herself for all those years knocked back a drink. Szuszu imbibed like a cowboy in a western saloon, and that image made Naomi tingle. “So she’s a little bit older. So what? Your husband’s older than you.”

“That’s different.” Erin cleared her throat, but didn’t explain how or why her case was so unique.

“No it isn’t. Besides, she obviously has a great sense of humor, if her personal ad is any indication. I love that she doesn’t take herself too seriously, you know?”

Erin read Szuszu’s ad again. “I don’t know, kid. What if she’s serious? What if she really is a huge narcissist and she’s expecting some anorexic supermodel to walk through that door?” Erin glanced quickly up at Naomi, and then shifted her eyes back to the personal ad just as fast. “I mean…you know I love you, but you don’t exactly fit the bill.”

Naomi stepped back from the window until the glare allowed her to see her own reflection in the glass. She wasn’t very tall, but she wasn’t particularly short, either. Everybody told her she had a pretty face, and she believed them, but always with a grain of salt. That’s what people told fat girls to raise their self-esteem, wasn’t it? Such a pretty face! Like her grandmother, pinching her chubby cheeks as a child. Such a pretty face! She did like her hair, though. The cut and color Erin had suggested looked great: dark with bright red strands sweeping across the front and kind of spiky at the back. It suited her.

“You just don’t get the comedy in the ad because Szuszu’s British and they have a different sense of humor than we do.” Naomi was trying to convince herself as much as Erin. “And see? Look, she’s wearing a zebra striped jacket. Nobody wears animal prints anymore, except to poke fun at themselves.”

Erin looked Naomi up and down, knitting her brow. “You’re wearing leopard spot leggings.”

“Exactly.” Naomi shrugged. “Because I don’t take myself too seriously.” She turned her gaze back to Szuszu, watching the former model chatting with a handsome man all in black. “You know, it was Szuszu who basically forced me out of the closet. If it wasn’t for her, I don’t know when I would have come out.”

“Seriously?” Erin peered through the window again. “Why? Is she some kind of lesbian advocacy guru or whatever?”

Naomi chuckled at the thought. “I don’t think so. I didn’t even know she was into women until I saw her personal ad under ‘female seeking female.’”

“So then how did she make you come out?”

Sensing a flush in her cheeks, Naomi admitted, “My dad caught me stashing his magazine in my backpack. I think he was even more embarrassed than I was, but I’m glad it went down that way. I didn’t have to hide that I was attracted to other girls. He knew, so I could talk to him.”

“And he didn’t spend all your high school years asking, ‘Don’t you have a boyfriend yet?’”

Naomi chuckled. “Exactly.”

They stood in silence as Naomi crammed the magazine back inside her purse. She took a deep breath, but she was still nervous as hell.

“Aren’t you going in?” Erin asked.

She gave herself another glance in the darkened window. Erin was right -- if Szuszu really was expecting a girl who looked just like a supermodel, tonight would not end well.

“Want me to come in with you?” Erin placed an arm gently around Naomi’s shoulder and offered a gentle squeeze.

“No,” Naomi replied, buttoning up her black velvet jacket. “I’ll be fine, thanks.” Plastering on a smile, she walked toward the lounge entrance. “Wish me luck!”

Chapter 3

“I know how you despise contradiction, Szuszu, baby, but that girl looks nothing at all like you!”

Szuszu glared at the man, urging her eyes to shoot laser beams at him and singe his pride-and-joy hair. “Kenzo, darling, you know I only frequent establishments where the customer is always right. Particularly if that customer happens to be me.”

The gorgeous girl raised a hand above her head and waved in Szuszu’s direction. Granted, her outlines were a little fuzzy, but everything was a blur when Szuszu had been drinking… and it was a rare event when Szuszu had not been drinking.

Rushing to the table, the girl called out, “Oh my God, I can’t believe it’s really you! It is you, right? Szuszu? The model?”

Szuszu started, then touched her own hair, both cheeks and her nose. “Well, mostly it’s me, yes.”

“After drastic refurbishment,” Kenzo muttered. “You’ve got about fifteen percent original parts, I’d say.”

Szuszu glowered, but the girl threw her head back and let out a hearty laugh. After a moment looking back and forth between her and Kenzo, Szuszu joined in too. “Yes, yes, Kenzo. Very amusing. Now won’t you be on your way and fetch two scotch and sodas?”

“Oh, not for me,” the girl said. She was still standing rather far away. “I’d like a…hmm…something fruity? Not too much alcohol.”

This time it was Szuszu who laughed, with both the manager and her date looking at her like she had three heads. “What?” she asked. “You can never have too much alcohol, darling.”

Kenzo nodded before taking a step back. “I’ll bring you a mango Bellini, and two scotch and sodas for my Szuszu baby.”

This corner of the lounge seemed rather darker than the rest of the place. Szuszu squinted, but could only really make out the huge smile on her date’s face. “You are so like me, darling -- all teeth. Back in the day, photographers commented on my teeth, you know. We had our own back then, the teeth God gave us. Everything’s different today. It’s all false you know, darling.”

“Wow,” the girl said, still standing what seemed to be halfway across the room. “It’s so great to meet you. You have no idea how exciting this is for me. I’ve worshipped you since I was, like, twelve years old.”

“Yes,” Szuszu went on, watching for Kenzo to appear with her drinks. “They were always asking for more T ‘n A during my photo shoots. You know what T ‘n A stands for, of course, darling -- teeth in action. I would smile until my gums bled from exposure. It was agony, darling, simply agony!”

The girl clapped her hands together, laughing hysterically. When she doubled over in hysterics, Szuszu caught a glimpse of her cleavage jiggling beyond the fold of her jacket. She had to applaud their size: “Nice tits. Bigger than mine, I’d say. When you’ve lugged me home after closing time, we’ll have to take all our clothes off and compare.”

“I knew I shouldn’t have been nervous about meeting you,” the girl replied, still in fits of giggles and struggling for breath. “Oh my God, you are so fricken funny!”

It wasn’t until the girl shuffled onto the bench next to Szuszu that she realized she’d neglected to offer the little darling a seat. When she felt the warmth of a foreign body against her leg, this silly experimentation with the dating world seemed all too real. Babs had set it all up so she wouldn’t feel lonely while her dearest friend and the dairy cow were off on holiday, but sitting so near to a perfect stranger only reminded Szuszu that Babette was gone, at least for now.

“Where is that bloody man with our drinks?” she asked. “Does a woman have to be dying of thirst before she’s served in this establishment?”

The girl turned away, still chuckling faintly, and then pointed. “Here he comes, Szuszu.” She turned back, a blur of white skin and dark hair -- possibly the color Szuszu’s would be if she didn’t bleach it within an inch of its life. “Can I call you Szuszu? I know we just met. Is that okay, or is it too familiar?”

“Too familiar?” Szuszu asked as the lounge manager set their drinks down on the table. “Darling, I’ll show you too familiar.” Szuszu wrapped an arm around the girl’s shoulder and pulled her in for a wet kiss, missed her mouth on the first clumsy attempt, but struck heat on the second. The girl seemed startled at first, not surprisingly, but she melted fast, then answered back with a writhing tongue.

When Szuszu felt a hand on her thigh, she gasped. How long had it been? Truly? When was the last time she’d even thought about grand romance, or even physical love? Or lust? Well, lust had taken her firmly in its grip now. Lust had her throbbing between the thighs, her heart pumping fast, her lungs desperate for air. She would have kissed this girl forever if Kenzo hadn’t slid his hands between their foreheads and pried them apart.

“Please, ladies,” he said as Szuszu gasped, pressing a hand to her hammering chest. “Patrons don’t frequent my lounge to see pretty young girls making out with archeological remains.”

“Of course not, darling.” Szuszu guzzled her scotch between breaths. “It’s your brilliant wit that brings us back night after night, isn’t it?”

When he’d winked and walked away, Szuszu realized the girl beside her was breathing hard, that cumbersome chest rising and falling, exuding pheromones and sheer heat. Szuszu could have sworn she smelled the thick tang of the girl’s pussy on the air. Her mouth watered as she imagined tearing the clothes off a woman who was in every sense her twin, planting her face between perfect thighs, and eating her savory cunt. It had been such a very long time since these thoughts had crossed her mind -- so long they nearly frightened her.

Wrapping her hand around the only scotch glass that still contained any scotch, Szuszu watched the blur of a girl sipping a Bellini. “I haven’t asked you your name, darling, have I?”

The girl set her drink down on the table. “No, but that’s okay.”

“Well,” Szuszu asked, “what is it, then?”

Though her teeth still glowed white, her cheeks seemed to flush at the question. Or maybe it was a delayed reaction to their kiss. “Naomi,” she said. “I’m Naomi.”

Chapter 4

By the time she’d half-carried, half-dragged Szuszu out to a taxi, Naomi still hadn’t figured out whether or not Erin had been right. Was Szuszu really just a washed-up old scrap of model material? Or was she actually the funny, quirky, strangely charming woman Naomi wanted her to be? It was hard to say. That kiss had colored every word that followed, as had the three Bellinis she’d downed over the course of the evening. All Naomi wanted was more.

“Where to?” the taxi driver asked as he helped Naomi with Szuszu’s seatbelt. The man looked a little like Sammy Davis Jr., and for some reason that made Naomi feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

“Uhh…I don’t know,” she said. “Szuszu, where do you live?”

Like a jungle cat, Szuszu pounced, grabbed Naomi by the lapels and pulled her down into the car. “Darling, you’re not coming home with me?” For a scrawny little thing, this woman was strong with a capital S. “Oh, you must, darling! You simply must!”

How could Naomi say no to such a pathetic plea for company? She crawled into the seat beside Szuszuseatcs and let the slender woman rest a bony cheek on her breast. It was nice to feel needed, to feel useful. As she watched the lights from outside pass across Szuszu’s passed-out face, she couldn’t help smiling. Maybe humor was this woman’s fortress; maybe she needed the help Naomi was always so desperate to give.

In the time they’d spent together that evening, Szuszu had talked about nothing but herself. Erin would have called her a narcissist for sure. Was that necessarily the case? Maybe she just didn’t have many friends. Maybe she’d become socially isolated since her days of fame and glory. Erin would have said Naomi was just making excuses because she was so enamored of Szuszu, but even if she was, who’s to say those reasons weren’t true?

The cab fare was rather a lot, but Naomi paid it because Szuszu was, apparently, one of those women so rich she didn’t need to carry money. Szuszu didn’t seem to have keys on her, either, so it was lucky the doorman on duty had a set and could unlock the elevator access to her penthouse flat.

When the doors opened, Naomi gasped at the view. Szuszu was draped across her back like Superman’s cape, and she dragged the zonked scarecrow across the room to get a better look at the skyline beyond floor-to-ceiling windows. As she turned in a circle to take in the rest of the apartment, Szuszu’s snakeskin boots dragged along the floor behind her. This place had everything you’d expect to see back in those 1980’s episodes of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous: black velvet chaise, white baby grand, sunken living room and raised Jacuzzi. She hadn’t seen a light switch yet, but the city illuminated the space well enough to take in its rampant luxury.

“Your home is beautiful,” Naomi whispered to the thin face hooked over her shoulder. “You’re so lucky to live like this. I’m going on six years in a basement apartment underneath an animal hospital.”

Szuszu grunted. “Wretched beasts.” The woman smelled so strongly of alcohol Naomi was sure she was getting drunk off the fumes.

“I love animals,” Naomi said, dragging Szuszu to the chaise and draping her emaciated body across it. “I work there, just doing reception and stuff. They give me a break on the rent. It’s pretty cool.”

After pulling an ottoman up next to the chaise, Naomi sat quietly for rather a long time, simply watching the model at rest. Szuszu’s mouth hung open and a thin crystalline stream dribbled from her heavily-collagenated lower lip down to the velvet upholstery. It was a little like watching a unicorn take a piss, something Naomi felt blessed but also a little uncomfortable to witness.

Naomi plucked the weathered magazine from her purse and opened it again to Szuszu’s spread. In truth, Szuszu didn’t look much different now than she had back when these photos were taken. She’d obviously had some work done, unless she’d aged ridiculously well or washed her face in sheep placenta every day or something. Her face was beautiful, truly. In a sense, Naomi felt envious, but in a larger sense she felt awed. How had she managed to weasel her way into a model’s penthouse? And a model she’d imagined making love with for years. This whole evening was unreal.

What was the cover girl like under the covers? She watched Szuszu smack her lips in her sleep and then wipe them with the sleeve of her zebra stripe jacket. Was it pervy to want to undress a woman in slumber? Well, of course it was pervy! What kind of a stupid question was that? Still, Naomi wanted to do it. She wanted to undress Szuszu and see if everything under that outfit looked as it did in the pictures. Naomi smiled at her reflection in the darkened windows, then rolled up her magazine like a newspaper and smacked herself on the wrist.

“Whaaa?” Szuszu’s torso leapt up from the chaise in response to the noise. She looked like she’d been defibrillated, with her head and her feet still flush to the black velvet. “What was that?”

Should Naomi confess her perviness? Well, sure! Why the hell not? She pulled the ottoman in closer to the chaise unrolled the old magazine, and held it up for Szuszu to see. “I’ve taken you to bed more than you’ll ever know.”

Szuszu looked up at her, squinting and confused. “When was this? Did you drug me, darling? Where the hell am I?”

With a chuckle, Naomi said, “We’re at your place, silly.” Szuszu was such a joker! “Here, this is what I’ve taken to bed with me half my life. It’s you… pictures of you.”

Szuszu took hold of the magazine and held it up close, then very far away, and then peered at it through the base of an empty glass from the side table. “Well, would you look at that! Those are my tits, darling!”

Naomi laughed. “I know…” She swallowed hard, watching Szuszu’s face grow distant, forlorn, as she set the magazine down on the floor. “I never thought I’d get a chance like this. I’ve seen you naked hundreds of times, but never in the flesh. You’re real… and you’re here… and… I want you. Is that okay?” She could hardly breathe.

A tender smile bled across Szuszu’s full lips. “Oh darling, of course it is. There’s nothing I love more than pleasing an admirer.” She pushed herself up from the chaise with great effort, struggled with the buttons of her zebra jacket, then finally gave up on them and tumbled back down. “Would you be a love and undress me, darling?”

Naomi’s breath caught in her chest. This couldn’t be for real. Would Szuszu really let Naomi strip her bare? Only one way to find out: she started with the jacket, unbuttoned it and slipped it from Szuszu’s limp arms. Hot pink underneath, a tight, low-cut sleeveless top. Her cleavage was astounding. Szuszu must have had work done there, too. Naomi had never touched fake boobs before. Would they be hard and unyielding, or soft and warm like real ones? Only one way to find that out, too.

“Can I take off your top?” Naomi whispered. Szuszu had closed her eyes again, but Naomi could tell from the pace of her breathing that she was still awake. “I want to touch your boobs. Is that okay?”

“More than okay.” Szuszu’s eyelids fluttered. Her lashes were thick with black mascara, and her lids were done up in purple. The blush was too red for her washed-out skin tone and her lips looked like glass under that pink gloss, but there was something about all that whorish makeup that was endlessly exciting.

Naomi felt dirty as she pulled the base of Szuszu’s top out of her leather skirt to expose a sallow white stomach. It actually dipped inward, like it was begging Naomi to undress and sink her big belly into that space. The thrill of getting it on with a notorious slut, and a centrefold to boot, made Naomi’s insides bubble with anticipation, though she felt guilty for thinking of Szuszu in such unsympathetic terms. It was wonderful, she self-corrected, that Szuszu was willing to share her body so readily. If Naomi were more attractive and not so fearful of rejection, she’d do just the same.

“Oh, get this bloody thing off of me,” Szuszu growled, suddenly awake and alive. When she’d pulled her pink top up and over her head, Naomi got a good look at gorgeous tits basking in the support of a firm black bra. That didn’t stay on for long. Szuszu fiddled with the clasps and miraculously got them undone. The black cups tumbled down her belly and the straps down her arms, but Naomi was more enthralled by two hard pink nipples standing at attention, just begging to be sucked.

“God, Szuszu.” Naomi pulled the bra away and tossed it to the floor. “Your tits…they’re… God, they’re amazing!” There was no other word for them: large, full, showing no signs of age or operation. They were perky, perkier than Naomi’s and certainly bigger. Naomi couldn’t imagine undressing in front of someone she’d just met, particularly someone this gorgeous, but Szuszu had no shame. Naomi admired her for that quality.

Holding Szuszu’s thin frame, Naomi sunk her face into that hollow chest. She first rested her cheek against one breast and then shifted to the other. They weren’t hard at all. They were warm, soft, welcoming -- everything Szuszu wasn’t. Naomi licked one firm pink bud, and Szuszu took in a swift breath above her head. “Oh darling…oh yes…”

The approval made Naomi smile, and she ran her closed lips side to side over Szuszu’s pleading tits.

“Oh, lick them, darling,” Szuszu begged, her voice a whimper.

It made Naomi feel larger than life, knowing she could bring someone as infamous as Szuszu to her knees, so to speak. She pressed her beautiful tits together, licking them one by one, then licking the place where they were all smooshed into a gorgeous line of cleavage. Naomi’s heart pounded as she took one of Szuszu’s nipples fully into her mouth and began to suck it, rolling her thumb over the other.

Szuszu, moaning now, hiked up her leather skirt. Naomi guided her hand across a bare thigh, toward the heat of her center. Her panties felt tight against Naomi’s fingers, like a fine mesh, and Naomi fought against Szuszu’s hand for primacy. What a struggle, of fingers against fingers, cupping, stroking, rubbing Szuszu’s mound. The heat was indescribable. It seemed odd, to Naomi, that the only portions of Szuszu’s body that weren’t ice cold were her tits and her pussy. Or maybe that wasn’t weird at all.

Thrusting her hand beneath Szuszu’s underwear, Naomi met the heat head-on. It was amazingly wet, which was quite a shock -- she’d always heard that women in Szuszu’s age bracket didn’t get wet on their own. All dried up, in need of lube. Szuszu was a rarity in every way possible. She was like no one Naomi had ever met. She was a gem.

Naomi stroked the slick flesh between Szuszu’s thighs without giving up on her gorgeous breasts. She planted her face in them, licking, sucking, all the while rubbing Szuszu’s engorged clit. Three fingers, rough strokes up and down, circles round and round, all trapped within fine mesh panties. With every pass, Szuszu gasped and sighed. She bucked her hips up off the couch and into Naomi’s hand, moving faster and faster against that beautiful wetness.

Everything was so slick Naomi would have questioned the friction had Szuszu not started to moan, “Oh yes, darling, yes!” Szuszu pressed Naomi’s head down flush to her wonderful breasts, and Naomi sucked like a babe. Her pussy was throbbing, too, but she rejected the thought of asking or accepting anything in return. How many times had Szuszu gotten her off, unwittingly? She was only returning the many, many favors.

Szuszu’s whole body shuddered under Naomi’s giving hand, and she writhed side to side on the chaise, making it difficult for Naomi to keep up. She raised her hips fully off the cushion, up into Naomi’s hand, fucking it with her clit. Her bare thighs trembled. Her heavy breasts shook. “Yes!” she cried. “Yes!” And then she fell back down on the chaise and closed her legs against Naomi’s firm assault. “Oh darling, I simply can’t bear any more. No more, no more…”

Her breath grew deep as Naomi listened to her heartbeat. It was incredibly loud for such a slim woman, and Naomi removed a hand from those wet panties to give the gorgeous woman some relief. She sighed as Naomi kissed her tits, little pecks all over them.

When Naomi sat up on the ottoman and looked down on Szuszu, relaxed and smiling, she felt strangely proud of herself. This couldn’t possibly go on, could it? Not more than this one night. Naomi couldn’t possibly find herself so fortunate. Relationships didn’t blossom between fat girls and centerfolds, not in real life. Maybe this whole night had been a dream.

Chapter 5

“Back when I was a kid, my dad was terrified of heights.” Naomi unscrewed the cap on the nail varnish, then set the bottle down on Szuszu’s low glass and chrome table. “I remember we were on vacation this one time, when my mom still lived with us. We were driving out to some lighthouse, and my parents started arguing in the front seat, whispering but arguing, because dad refused to go up to the top with the rest of us.”

Szuszu loved listening to Naomi’s tales of family adventure. Those stories brought what was distant and nearly forgotten in her own life streaming to the fore. It was wonderful, really.

“My brothers were both asleep in the back seat, and my mom must have thought I was, too, because she said something to my dad that I’ll never forget. She said, ‘You know, Jim, the only people who are afraid of heights are the people who want to jump.’ I can’t imagine she wished any of us kids to hear that.”

Szuszu sunk back against the white leather couch and watched Naomi sitting there on the ottoman and painting her toenails pink -- at least, she thought it must be pink. In truth, she wasn’t a good judge of color at this distance. Increasingly, she wasn’t a good judge of anything at any distance. But that was an issue Szuszu chose to disregard for now.

“And you know what, Szusz?” Naomi stopped painting for a moment and looked up at her.

“What is it, darling?”

Though her lips were a red blur, Szuszu could feel Naomi smiling, somewhat whimsically. “For the longest time, that’s kind of how I felt about lesbians. Does that sound weird? No, I know it does, I just mean… what do I mean?”

“Darling, I haven’t the faintest idea.” Szuszu laughed, reaching for her scotch on the side table. She’d cut back quite drastically, upon Naomi’s insistence in fear for her liver and all that drivel, but, even so, a tipple now and then wasn’t likely to kill her.

Cradling Szuszu’s foot in her lap, Naomi proceeded to paint, seeming lost, like a child off with the fairies. Where had this girl come from? What had Szuszu done to deserve someone like her? Someone who cooked actual meals -- actual honest-to-God food -- and who put sticky, gooey concoctions in a hot oven only to pull out cakes and scones and the like. The processes and procedures of turning groceries into cuisine increasingly fascinated Szuszu. She would sit in the kitchen just watching, in awe, as Naomi chopped and grated and julienned.

“Darling,” Szuszu cut through the silence. “What were you saying before, darling? About fear of jumping and all that?”

Naomi finished up with her toes and then screwed the varnish brush back into the bottle. “It’s kind of silly, I guess. I’m not sure if it even makes sense, but for a long time, when I was younger, every time some girl came out to me or just mentioned casually that she was into women, it scared the hell out of me. It scared me because I’d automatically want to jump her, and it didn’t matter who she was or what she looked like or what kind of personality she had.”

A spark of recognition lit within Szuszu’s belly. “Oh yes, darling. Yes, of course.”

Naomi stroked the tops of her feet with just fingertips, and Szuszu was somewhat surprised she could feel the sensation. Her body seemed to be returning to life. “But, I mean, it scared me so much I would just leave. I’d get away from her, whoever she was, as fast as I possibly could because I was so afraid I’d throw myself at her like a fool.”

“Yes, darling, and why not?” Szuszu asked.

Naomi cocked her head, giggling a touch. “Uhhm…why not throw myself at random women I’ve just met?” She laughed again. “I think a lot of them wouldn’t have been too pleased about me pouncing out of the blue.”

Now Szuszu felt confused, because she’d done just that on more occasions than she could ever hope to remember and never met with acrimony. “But we’re gorgeous, darling, you and I. A gorgeous woman can go up to any random person, shove her hand down their pants, and receive nothing but accolades. And I’m not simply referring to random dykes, darling, or even men for that matter. Even straight girls wouldn’t object.”

This time, Naomi’s chuckle sounded a tad strained. “Well, speak for yourself, Szusz. You’re the gorgeous one. I don’t doubt you could get away with anything.”

Puzzling, Szuszu thought, for her spitting image to take on such a disparate worldview. “Darling, do you not realize how very much we beautiful people can get away with? Haven’t you noticed yet that you exist in a different category than all the plain people out there in the world? The power lies with us.”

Naomi wrapped her hands around Szuszu’s ankles and squeezed, released, squeezed, released. “You have got to be kidding me,” she said. The girl was shaking her head as well -- Szuszu could see that much. “You are kidding, right? Because at first I thought it was all jokes, but now you keep saying it and I’m just…”

Szuszu couldn’t bear the upset in the girl’s voice. Naomi was younger, she had to remind herself, and young people were so concerned about equality, weren’t they? It was true that beautiful people like she and Naomi existed in a class above the rest, but young people sought to abolish class structures. For the first time since Babs had gone off on holiday, Szuszu felt desperately worried that she might lose something precious.

“Kidding,” Szuszu said. “Yes, kidding, darling. Of course I’m kidding.”

The atmosphere seemed to sink below ocean level, and Szuszu reached for her drink in order to dull the heavy emotion pervading. She placed the glass back down when she realized Naomi had slunk from the ottoman, and now knelt behind it. Moving back and forth, from one foot to the other, Naomi kissed the pads of Szuszu’s feet, kissed her instep, kissed her heel, kissed every tender spot at the base of her being. Licked. Nipped. That mouth felt hot and wet and simply wonderful.

Each time they made love, Szuszu felt strikingly more alive. Perhaps this merely coincided with her lessened consumption of alcohol, but Szuszu liked to imagine it had to do with romance in some sense. The greater her bond with Naomi, the greater sensation they would experience together. It was a thought so lovely Szuszu was surprised it had bloomed inside her own mind. She wasn’t generally a romantic of any sort.

“What about you?” Naomi coaxed her feet to point and then blew on her toenails. “Not that you’re old or anything, but it mustn’t have been easy back in the day.”

Confusion again. “What wasn’t easy, darling?”

Naomi stopped blowing the polish dry and tilted her head upward. “Well, you know…meeting women and all that. It’s not like you could go on the internet and log onto lesbian forums or dating sites or whatever.”

Those days…oh, those long ago days…so spaced and so wasted, perpetually, chronically. Everything blurred together into an extended orgy of drugs and alcohol and, yes, of sex as well. Sex for sex’s sake, she’d always told herself, but the shutter of a camera in the back of her mind told her otherwise. “Oh…” She gasped, clasping her hand to her heart.

Naomi squeezed Szuszu’s tender feet. “What’s wrong?”

“I just…” Szuszu couldn’t quite believe it herself. “I had a…memory.”

Seeming not quite as impressed as Szuszu was with herself, Naomi asked, “A memory of what?”

Szuszu closed her eyes and watched the scene play out in a fog, describing each recollection as it came to her: “A photo shoot…before that centerfold you showed me, years before that. I was barely eighteen, already more street smart than I should have been, and yet still more naïve than I could have been. The drugs…they made us…he made us…”

Naomi rubbed Szuszu’s ankles and the base of her legs, those hands like silk, moving slowing, caressing her long-forgotten body. “Who made you do what?”

“Oh, the drugs, the booze.” Szuszu sighed. “We were so young and so susceptible, and when the photographer told us to, we did. The luxury of that life, all the finest things, clothing and gourmet meals and jewelry -- they gave us everything we could ever want. All we had to do was kiss, to start, and then he told us to undress each other, and we did that too. We were so eager to please. We tore off the clothes, those gorgeous, expensive frocks, and we followed impulse as much as command.”

“The photographer’s command?” Naomi asked.

Szuszu nodded without opening her eyes. Everything was right there in front of her, the past, or at least that segment of it, playing like a filmstrip against her eyelids. “When he asked me to suck her tits, I did it, and eagerly. I wanted too. I was flying so high, so high above it all, and I wanted to consume her flesh. He told me lick between her legs, and I did that too. I’d never tasted her before -- never tasted any woman -- and there was no going back from there. I was sold, right from the start. The subtle curves of her body…oh, we were so thin in those days. We were nothing -- next to nothing -- and it was no wonder: all our lives, we’d been told we were nothing, and in time we became nothing.”

“Szuszu!” Naomi pressed her thumbs into the soles of Szuszu’s feet now. “Look at me, Szusz.”

With a start, Szuszu came out of her memory, like waking from a strangely sensual nightmare. “Darling?”

“You don’t still think that, do you?” Naomi’s voice pleaded. “Whoever convinced you that you were nothing is an idiot.”

It had been so many years since childhood had flashed before her eyes, but for a glimmer of a second she could see it all again. “My father called me a daft blighter, said I’d never amount to anything, said that to all us girls. Mum never contradicted the man. But I showed them, didn’t I?” And then she pushed it away. She made it go away.

Naomi was quiet for what felt like a very long time, brushing fingertips along Szuszu’s bare legs. “I’m sorry, Szusz. I mean…I’m really sorry.”

With a shrug, she tried to downplay the hurt. She reached for her scotch, and then stopped herself. No more swallowing the past. It never did sit well. “Babette had it much worse off. She had a funny uncle lodging with them, growing up, and…you know how that is.”

“No, thank God.” Naomi kissed the pads of Szuszu’s feet. “But I know what you mean.”

“Well, my father only drank, but he was a holy terror when he did. There were eight of us kids, you know. A ninth on the way when Babette and I left home.” It had been years since she’d reflected on those early years. She and Babs never discussed them.

“How old were you?” Naomi asked.

“Babs was nearly sixteen, I think. I was a year behind her. We’d more than outstayed our welcomes at home by then. She’d quit school to work in the shops. I’d never worked a day in my life, but we had our eyes set on America. We got there, eventually, but…” She didn’t quite know what to say. She glanced at her scotch glass, but the sight repulsed her. Naomi’s face, though, that was an inspiration, even if she couldn’t see it as clearly as she’d like.

“I’m sorry,” Naomi repeated. “Thanks for telling me all that.”

Szuszu felt her head nodding. Something seemed to break open in her chest, like an egg radiating sunshine, and the very idea made her smile. “It’s oddly wonderful to have someone in my life who will listen.” She felt more alive than she’d felt in years, all owing to this wonderful creature bathing her feet in humble affection.

Opening her silk robe, Szuszu parted her lips with her fingers, inviting Naomi to feast between her thighs. If there was one thing the girl seemed to enjoy eating more than cakes and biscuits, it was pussy. “Would you care for a nibble, darling?”

Szuszu had to admit to herself that she couldn’t see Naomi’s expression clearly. That face was a blur of pale skin and unreadable features. More and more, that irked her because, more and more, she realized she actually cared what the girl might be thinking. Finally, Naomi shifted the ottoman out of the way and fell to her knees. She crawled forward like she was following the scent of a cunt. “Right now? Are you sure?”

But Naomi’s face was already planted between her thighs. That precious tongue wasn’t waiting for an answer, but she offered one anyway: “There’s a sense you arouse in me, darling, and it’s something more than passion. It’s more than arousal or attraction.”

Pressing her warm cheek against Szuszu’s mound, Naomi replied, “It’s love.”

Her response was so simple, yet Szuszu’s whole body froze at the mention of that word. If it wasn’t for the face between her legs, she might have fled, but she wouldn’t bring herself to abscond from this pleasure. Naomi’s hot tongue melted her resistance to the very idea of love, and she realized all at once that it was compassion she’d been seeking all her life. How could she have gone so long without something so vital, so fundamental to the existence of anyone…of anything? There were animals in this world that were treated better than she’d been treated, and yet she’d never realized it until Naomi gave her what she needed and showed her what she didn’t.

Szuszu ran her fingers through Naomi’s hair. It was longer than it had been, more silky, less spiked. Dark. Szuszu couldn’t be sure why she’d thought Naomi was blonde like her -- never had been, never would be -- but even her own natural color was growing in, or so Naomi had informed. Szuszu was at odds with the mirror, just now. Everything was an almighty blur.

The heat of arousal flooded Szuszu’s belly as Naomi licked her clit in rapid succession. She was a wonder, this girl, and so confident in her abilities. Szuszu heard herself murmuring faint messages of approval as her fingers gripped Naomi’s hair. Her body moved of its own volition, writhing, bucking against that powerful tongue.

She closed her legs around Naomi’s head, trapping the girl at the center of her being. Naomi cupped her ass in those generous hands and gave her cheeks a squeeze. Szuszu took her own tits in hand and pinched her nipples sharply, sending bolts of pure electricity down to her core.

When Naomi took her clit between those perfectly plump lips and sucked, Szuszu nearly lost her mind. Clutching the sofa with one hand, and her breast with the other, she thrust into Naomi’s mouth as if she had a cock between her legs. “Suck it,” she heard herself saying, whispering at first, and then calling out louder and louder still. “Yes!” she hissed, bucking, ramming her cunt into Naomi’s face. “Suck it, harder!”

Naomi not only sucked, but nibbled and bit at Szuszu’s engorged clit, making all sorts of noises, from kittenish mewls to tiger-like growls. This was every sort of heaven Szuszu could imagine, and she gave herself over to the push erupting from her core. The explosion was magnificent, as it always was with Naomi, and Szuszu wondered what pleasure had felt like before now. She suspected she’d never truly been present for it, that everything she’d experienced throughout her adult years had been trapped in a haze of substances, everything dulling her perception of experience. Well, no more of that. Naomi was a treasure, and Szuszu planned to cherish her always.

Chapter 6

“I’m looking forward to meeting Babette when she gets back from her trip.”

Szuszu obviously tried to stifle her laughter, but it didn’t work. She cackled against the painted fingers covering her mouth. “Oh darling, she will not be fond of you.”

Naomi tried not to react, but she could feel her expression falling. “Why not? What’s wrong with me?”

“Nothing. Nothing, darling, you’re perfect. It’s only…well, you see, Babette might not see you the way I do. And she does get jealous. Only, we’ve known one another since we were children. She wants only the best for me.” Szuszu was back-peddling now, a move that had become increasingly recognizable over the past six months.

Naomi liked to tell herself it wasn’t Szuszu’s fault she was so rude at times -- she’d lived so long in a world drastically different from Naomi’s. It was like they were from different planets, both meeting here in Szuszu’s penthouse and trying to make life work.

“How do you like the lamb?” Naomi asked, steering clear of the whole Babette issue.

“It’s divine, darling. You are a fabulous cook.”

A little tingle jumped across Naomi’s heartstrings, not so much at the compliment itself, but at the fact that Szuszu was finally eating regular meals and enjoying them. The first few months they were together, Naomi nearly had to cram food down the woman’s throat, and even then she’d only accept morsels. It had little to do with her cooking, she realized, and more to do with the fact that Szuszu was hardly drinking at all anymore, and certainly not using drugs. That was the real compliment: Naomi’s love had filled that hole poor Szuszu had spent so many years shoving a bottle into. That was her true success. How could this Babette woman ever hate someone who could do that for her friend?

“I’ve heard English cooking is horrible,” Naomi finally replied. Even after all these months together, she still felt too bashful to acknowledge Szuszu’s compliments, like they might flutter away if she did.

“It’s like anything,” Szuszu replied with a mouth full of potatoes. “Depends on the chef. My mother was a horrible cook -- burned everything from porridge to poultry. Babette’s mum was quite good. I ate rather a lot of dinners at her house -- anything to get away from mine!”

Szuszu talked about the past all the time now, as memories bobbed to the surface. Naomi didn’t let herself get too self-congratulatory on that point, but she couldn’t help feeling like she’d made a huge difference in Szuszu’s life. That was love’s greatest possible achievement, as far as Naomi was concerned: its ability to change people for the better. Szuszu was a much softer person now than she had been back when they met. And she was eating!

“What’s for afters?” Szuszu set her knife and fork down on a cleared plate.

“Oh…I didn’t make anything.” While Szuszu was eating more, Naomi found she was eating less. No more nights alone, snacking in front of the TV. She still craved sweets, but the sweeter Szuszu became, the more Naomi craved her woman instead. “How about we take a dip in the hot tub for dessert?”

Szuszu let out a seductive coo, reaching across the table to run her fingers up Naomi’s arm. “Naomi, you little minx!”

Her heart palpitated, nearly winding her as she stood to clear the table. “Let me just slip into my bathing suit and I’ll be right in.”

Szuszu was already half-naked and half-was across the room, but she turned as she slipped out of her around-the-house yoga pants. “Darling, I’ve been more naked with you than I’ve appeared in any magazine. You’ve seen right into me, straight inside my soul, and after six months together I’ve yet to see you in the nude?”

Naomi took their plates to the kitchen to escape Szuszu’s question, but no luck -- Szuszu followed right along. “I’m just not ready yet,” Naomi said. It was the truth.

“Darling, I don’t understand.” And it was clear from the expression of confusion on her face that she really didn’t.

Jamming their plates into the dishwasher, Naomi reasoned, “I’m not like you, Szusz. I’m not beautiful like you. I don’t have a body like yours. It’s intimidating, being with a cover model. I mean…” She closed the dishwasher and finally looked up into Szuszu’s eyes. “It’s easier just to please you. That way, I don’t feel self-conscious.”

Szuszu opened her mouth, but no sound came out. She looked stunned, and Naomi couldn’t understand why. It’s not like she’d said anything shocking.

“Self-conscious, darling? Why on earth would you feel that way? You’re gorgeous! You’re pretty as I ever was, and young to boot!”

“You keep saying that…” It was getting frustrating. She appreciated the compliments, and Szuszu seemed so sincere in issuing them, but they just weren’t true. “The mirror doesn’t agree.”

Shaking her head, Szuszu said, “Darling…” and simply trailed off.

“I appreciate everything you say, but…” Naomi struggled against self-deprecation, and lost. She always lost. “I think you’re seeing me through rose-colored glasses.”

And then Szuszu laughed, fetching the salad bowl from the table. “Darling, if I were seeing you through any glasses, you’d be more than just a blur.”

Naomi crossed her path to continue clearing the dishes. “What do you mean?”

“Oh, Babs has been on about me needing specs for ages now.” Szuszu made a dash with a damp cloth, chuckling as she wiped down the table. “I never could admit that she was right, but darling…oh, I can’t believe I’m telling you this…I’m afraid I’m blind as a bat!”

Naomi nearly dropped a water glass, but recovered just in time. “As a bat?” she stammered.

“Well, perhaps not a bat.” Szuszu smiled, tramping half-naked into the kitchen. “Blind as something else, perhaps. Something that sees fuzzy outlines of shapes, but not the real thing.”

Naomi stood gawping at the woman she loved. She just couldn’t bring herself to believe she’d been going out with Szuszu for six months and not once had it occurred to her that her girlfriend couldn’t see. How could she have been so self-absorbed that she couldn’t see her partner’s impairment? Maybe love was blind, even to blindness. Szuszu’s love was certainly blind to Naomi’s curvature.

“What do you see when you look at me?” Naomi asked. She walked from the kitchen into the sunny brightness of the great room, and stood with her arms at her sides, awaiting appraisal.

From the kitchen entryway, Szuszu stood and gazed reflectively. Szuszu was a stunner -- no doubt about that. Naomi had convinced her to cut her hair a while back, and so much of her natural color had grown in that the platinum blonde was entirely gone. Since Naomi had started cooking for her, she’d put on enough weight that she no longer looked as though the wind might pick her up and steal her away. Szuszu had meat on her bones now, but meat was one thing -- fat was quite another.

“What do you see?” Naomi asked again.

“Undress,” Szuszu said.

“Do I have to?” She felt like a child asking.

“Yes.” Szuszu sauntered into the room wearing nothing but a sheer white camisole and matching panties. She looked gorgeous, as always, but not in a glamorous way, not like she looked in the magazines. In the months since they’d known each other, Szuszu had grown into her skin. So why did Naomi still feel larger-than-life?

“Take off your clothes for me,” Szuszu insisted. Grasping Naomi’s hand, she traced both their fingers along Naomi’s jaw line and down the front of her top. “What are you so afraid of?”

Without thinking, Naomi replied, “Nothing.” But that was another childish response, the answer to a challenge. She sighed, but gave in and edged toward the hot tub in the center of the room -- this was such a movie star home. Szuszu turned the thing on and it burbled to life, humming like a beehive.

Szuszu stripped bare, climbed into the tub and let out a moan Naomi knew only too well. Szuszu’s pleasure aroused her desires, and her whole body palpitated as she watched Szuszu writhe against the bubbles. “Come in, my lover.”

Naomi hesitated, but her feet crept forward. She said, “I don’t want to,” before realizing she was already taking off her top. Szusz couldn’t see her? The thought was painful, yet freeing. What was she hiding from if not Szuszu’s eyes? Only herself, and she’d have to face herself sooner or later. Might as well be now. Naomi tore out of her clothing and slid over the edge and into the warm bubbling water.

“Glad you could join me.” Szuszu was on her like a leech the moment she dipped in, sucking her neck, kissing that spot behind her ear.

Naomi could hardly breathe for the pleasure. “Oh God, Szusz.” That woman really knew what she was doing. And to think how much time Naomi had wasted playing the eternal aggressor, the top, the stone dyke who gave and gave and took nothing for herself…

“You have such soft skin,” Szuszu cooed right into her ear. That breath was nearly as hot as the steam rising from the tub.

“You can’t see the zits.”

Szuszu hushed her, tracing hands along breasts, arousing new desires in Naomi’s core. Her pussy palpitated, hoping. Even with the jets beating life’s stresses out of her lower back, she could feel Szuszu’s every caress. The one did not obliterate the other. In fact, they complimented each other, the hard pressure, the soft kisses and touches. The wetness was everywhere, in her and around her, accentuating the heat between them.

“Touch lower, Szusz.” She wanted it. God, did she want it.

As Szuszu traced fingertips down her breasts and across the curve of her naked belly, Naomi felt her whole body gasp. A tingling rush of anticipation took over, and she pushed Szuszu’s hand down between her thighs. Szuszu’s fingers knew exactly what to do, tracing the borders of Naomi’s lips gently as the water swished her trim hair.

When Szuszu dipped slender fingers into that slit, so slick and wet with desire, Naomi’s back arched of its own volition. She hissed, “Yes, yes!” while Szuszu stroked her clit so slowly it was almost painful. “Please, more. God…”

The blasts of bubbles against her back were powerful as anything, yet their strength seemed dwarfed by Szuszu’s attentive fingers. Maybe Naomi had simply waited too long for this. Maybe it only felt this good, this immediate, because of all those months of deriving sexual satisfaction vicariously, through Szuszu. True, her woman’s pleasure was indeed her own, but there was nothing to equal the sensation of her girlfriend’s fingertips scouring her clit.

Naomi bucked away from the jets and against Szuszu’s hand, which rubbed feverishly against her pussy. She heard herself yelping, hollering, making all kinds of noises that weren’t particularly sexy, but she really didn’t care. When she arched so high her tits passed over the water’s tremulous surface, Szuszu leaned right down and sucked one shimmering, wet nipple into that incredibly warm mouth. That put Naomi right over the edge. She couldn’t control anything anymore. Her limbs flailed in the water, body floating toward the bubbling surface before she could urge them back down again. Only her head was still, steadied by molded plastic of the tub itself.

Naomi kissed Szuszu relentlessly, feeling the firm press of her woman’s breasts against her own. God, they were wet. They were both so wet. They were like two water sprites, nude, frolicking in a springtime pool, and that thought made Naomi’s heart race. Szuszu was so beautiful, so stunning, and they were in this together, playing together, making each other feel good. Naomi hugged her gorgeous girlfriend close without worrying how big and round her belly would feel against Szuszu’s. It was such divine liberation to feel free in body and mind.

“Come here, Szusz.” Naomi wrangled her woman until she was seated again and Szuszu was perched on her thigh, straddling the thick flesh there. She gripped Szuszu’s hips and rocked her, feeling that familiar pussy splay in the wetness. “God, you’re my beautiful bouncing baby girl.”

Szuszu threw her head back and laughed, her smile shimmering, lips plump and glassy. Even her nose was beautiful, one of those perfect ski-jumps the model types often had, but it was Szuszu’s breasts Naomi couldn’t draw her gaze away from. Full and round, those perfect tits bounded with every jerk and jolt Naomi exerted. How could she resist leaning forward to suck those nipples? How, when they were drawn into tight pebbled buds in the cool air above the water’s surface?

Her flesh tasted of chlorine, but Naomi didn’t care, not when Szuszu was moaning with delight. She grazed her fingernails across Naomi’s wet scalp before latching on to hair the way a baby would, with absolutely no intention of letting go. Szuszu was moving her hips on her own now, grazing her pussy against Naomi’s thigh faster and faster, until she was breathless and pressing Naomi hard against her breast. Naomi sucked, licked, bit, gave her everything she could possibly desire in rapid succession, rapid fire.

The exultation in Szuszu’s shrieks brought Naomi right to the edge. When Szuszu let go of her hair long enough to tweak her nipple, that was enough to send her over. Naomi burst up from the water, standing, Szuszu still clinging to her, their bodies writhing together in the water. Hot and cold now, they kissed, they cried and sighed into each other’s mouths, and rode the wave together until it ebbed entirely.

Szuszu turned off the bubbles, and they sat together, Szuszu in Naomi’s lap. Her tall body curled so she could rest her head on Naomi’s shoulder. Naomi still expected, at times, to see that bleach-blonde bouffant and it was a surprise to realize her Szuszu’s hair was darker now, amber and honey with a smattering of grey, a short and funky cut. She looked quite different than she had, and the more Naomi thought about it, the more she realized Szuszu was different now. Very different.

“Are we meeting Babette at the airport?” Naomi asked. The still pool tinkled as water dripped from their hair, disrupting the calm surface.

Szuszu’s relatively slight form tensed against Naomi’s, only for a moment, and then melted back into her body. “No, darling. She lands wretchedly late at night. We’re meeting at Bayview for a late brunch tomorrow.”

Naomi hesitated before asking, “Can I come too?”

As before, Szuszu laughed, but this laugh rang maudlin to Naomi’s ears. “Oh darling,” Szuszu sighed, “Babette will not be fond of you.”

Chapter 7

Szuszu didn’t realize until they arrived at Bayview that she and Naomi had worn what amounted to matching outfits. Even in the blur and the fuzz, she could make out the subdued red of Naomi’s blouse, and the mahogany of her skirt set against leopard print stockings. The top Szuszu had worn was rather more pink, and the skirt rather more chocolate -- no animal prints, except the tiger stripe of her shoes -- but even so, Babs would never let her live down the similarities.

“Stop, Szusz.” Naomi pulled her toward a brightly-lit shop. “Come in here for a sec.”

“Darling, we’ll be late for Babs.” She tried not to let on how anxious she was to see Babette again -- no use in getting Naomi all upset -- but her heart was hammering now. She couldn’t deny how she’d missed her dear friend.

Naomi led her by the hand, and she followed. “How are you going to see Babs if you can’t see at all?”

“Not specs, darling.”

“Yes specs, darling.” When Naomi hugged her around the middle sheer warmth flooded her veins, and she couldn’t but listen. “Let’s talk to someone who works here and see if you need a prescription or how this works.”

When Szuszu picked up a pair of glasses at random, a smart woman with a shiny gold name badge approached to say she was just with another customer. Before that new information could sink in, another voice shattered the peace of her hope: “Szuszu, darling! Szusz? Is that…that’s not you, is it?”

Instinctively, Szuszu put the glasses on, and in seconds a much less fuzzy than usual Babette was standing before her, sickly, gaunt, arms outstretched, planting Hollywood kisses on the air all over her face.

“Babs…God, I’ve missed you!” She couldn’t think what else to say. After so long, so many months, Babette was back. “You look wretched, darling! Perfectly wretched!”

“Yeah, well, I’ve been in India, darling. You look wretched too. What’s your excuse?”

“I’ve been eating, darling. Food!” Once she’d grasped her oldest friend against her chest, her heart remembered the thing she’d been dreading. “Oh darling…darling, I must tell you…do you recall the personal ad you wrote up for me? I must introduce you…”

Szuszu backed away to meet a look of regulated horror in Babette’s eyes. “Don’t tell me there’s another of you tucked away in this specs shop. Go on then, introduce Mini-Me. Let’s have a look at her.”

When Szuszu glanced in Naomi’s direction, she saw the girl for the first time -- saw her for everything she truly was: plump, yes, certainly bigger than Szuszu herself. She had the face of a cherub, cherry lips and cheeks nearly as red. Her dark hair was streaked at the front, done up in a youthful style that matched her quirky jewelry and purse. The girl wasn’t anything like the image of Naomi that lived in Szuszu’s mind, and yet she found she wasn’t concerned. The girl was absolutely glowing, eyes glimmering as she stuck her hand into the lion’s den of Babette’s reach.

“Darling, is that what you look like?” Szuszu heard herself asking Naomi.

Babette was laughing -- cackling, in fact, very like a witch. “Just what the doctor ordered, hey? Look at the pair of you, with your au natural makeup and your short hair and your…hips! I mean, really, Szusz, honest-to-God hips? And a butt to boot!”

Szuszu hardly knew how to respond. For the first time in a very long while she felt happy with herself. But it took a certain type of person -- a type of person like Naomi -- to understand what that meant. How could she explain herself to Babs? The gap had grown too expansive since she’d been gone.

“You’ve spent ninety percent of your life fighting flab,” Babette went on. Szuszu’s heart seemed to shrink in her chest as she watched the expression of moderated anger on Naomi’s pretty face. “What happened, Szusz? Suddenly little miss blubber here comes along and you’re bathing in tubs of mayonnaise every night? Is that it, darling?”

Count on Naomi, the eternal saviour. Of course she stepped to Szuszu’s defence. “I know we’ve just met and you’re Szuszu’s oldest friend and I shouldn’t be rude to you and all that crap, but people aren’t supposed to be stick figures. Her weight is just right for once in her life, and she’s happy and healthy and in love.”

Again, Babette cackled, flicking her hair behind her shoulders. “Darling, you’re kidding yourself if you think this will last.”

“Excuse me?” Naomi looked as though she was tempted to throw a punch, and the shop assistant raced out onto the floor at the sound of escalating voices. “I know your game, lady. You’re jealous. Fine, whatever, but if you’re married to someone else you don’t get to hold Szuszu’s love life hostage forever and ever, amen.”

“That’s rich,” Babette spat back. “Thank you, Dr. Freud, for your brilliant analysis. Yes, that must be it: I’m jealous. I want my Szuszu all to myself. You’ve hit it on the head, haven’t you?”

The smartly-dressed shop assistant looked to Szuszu with a pleading gaze, and Szuszu could only feel joy in being able to see the girl’s expression clearly. The whole world felt revitalized, even if her oldest friend and her lover were making a scene in the specs shop.

“Can’t you be pleased your friend is eating more and drinking less?” Naomi was terribly close to Babs now, right in her face, tits smacking tits, and the image was inarguably quite arousing. “Instead of drowning her sorrows, she’s talking about them. And I think she looks incredible -- better than ever, in fact.”

“Better than ever? And you’ve known her, what, a grand total of two weeks? I’ve known her all her life, little miss. We were children together, and the bloody messes we went through bonded us in a way you’ll never understand, so don’t tell me…”

Szuszu noticed a mirror inside the shop and wandered toward it, mesmerized and perplexed, while Babette berated Naomi. She didn’t want to hear any more. She closed her ears to their harsh words and gazed at her own reflection. Had she perhaps worn specs when she was young? Yes, in fact, she had. She'd worn them when she was a child. How strange to have forgotten a thing like that, but seeing herself now, wearing minimal make-up, her hair its natural shade, her cheeks sporting the healthy swell of a girl who’s been clearing her plate, she recognized herself for the first time in more years than she cared to think.

“This is really me?” She pawed at the mirror like a cat. She couldn’t believe her eyes.

Babette and Naomi both fell silent and turned their heads in one fluid motion to meet her gaze in the mirror. Finally, Babs was civil enough to cut short her haranguing of someone who meant a great deal to Szuszu.

“It’s you,” Naomi replied. “You look great, don’t you think? So healthy.”

Judging from the downy expression in Babette’s eyes, she was sincere when she said, “Yes, darling, you look…well, you look rather…healthy, like the girl here said.”

“The girl is very important to me, Babs.” Szuszu’s voice was much steadier than she felt. Even her heart trembled when she saw Naomi’s broad, elated smile.

Babette bowed her head. “I know, Szusz. I know she is. I’m sorry.”

Naomi jumped on the opportunity to say, “You look beautiful, Szusz. You look just…so perfectly you!” The emotion behind Naomi’s adoring gaze brought a lump to Szuszu’s throat. Even Babette was smiling now, standing close, waiting patiently for once in her life. How could she have been blind to wellness for so long?

Szuszu agreed, reaching for Naomi’s hand and meeting her gaze in the mirror. When she observed them together, her heart swelled with recognition, and she squeezed Naomi’s hand that much harder. “I do look quite beautiful.” She brought Naomi’s hand to her cheek and pressed it there with all the love in her heart. “And you know why, darling? Because I look like you.”

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Naecissist Seeks Narcissist

Copyright © 2011 Giselle Renarde

Cover art by Dee Dawning

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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All sexually active characters in this work are eighteen or older.

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