Melinda Tuning grinned widely, then threw her arms wide, hugging Susan.
"Surprise you?"
"Surprised! I can't believe it," Susan replied still a bit stunned to find Jace's younger sister standing at their door. "Why didn't you call? Why didn't you let us know you were coming?"
"You know me," Melinda said with a laugh while they moved into the house. "I'm the original free spirit, compulsive. When the urge to fly comes over me, I fly."
Flee was the truth, but Melinda wasn't ready to go into that.
Later, when Susan and Jace were together, she would tell them her real reason for the unexpected visit-at least part of it. Even later, Jace would learn the whole truth.
Susan, still grinning, let her gaze run over the young, black-haired woman, her future sister-in-law. Three years younger than her brother, Melinda was every bit as beautiful a woman as Jace was a handsome man. The brother and sister shared so many physical characteristics. However on Melinda they were sheer femininity, while on Jace total man.
"Whatever the reason, Melinda," Susan gave the girl another warm hug, "I'm glad you're here. I'm sure Jace will be too as soon as he gets back from the city."
Melinda returned the hug. "You don't know how good it is to be here. Despite four years on the West Coast, this is still home to me, Susan. And it's so good to be home."
Taking one of Melinda's bags, Susan led the girl upstairs to the spare bedroom.
"Come on, let's get you settled in, then come into the studio and talk. I've got a book cover deadline breathing down my neck."
Inwardly, Melinda breathed a sigh of relief. She didn't want to talk with Susan right now. She needed time to pull her thoughts together and to rest. "If it's all right with you, I think I'll refresh myself, then take a nap. I caught my flight after staying up all night. I could use a little shut-eye."
"Fine," Susan replied, thinking she caught a trace of nervousness in the young woman's voice. "Then I'll let you get settled and get some sleep. I'll be in the studio if you need anything."
The phone rang. Susan cursed, her concentration broken.
Tossing the sketch pad atop her drawing table, she stretched, then rose and crossed to the wall phone. "Tuning and Howard Graphics, Susan Howard speaking."
"Susan, it's Jace."
"Jace, where are you? Did the car break down? I was expecting you home by now."
She glanced at the wall clock. It was eight already.
"Sorry, Baby, but I'm still in the city." Jace's voice was soft and filled with regret. "A couple of things have popped up here and Janet wants me to stay the night…"
"Damn agents," Susan cursed.
"… I've got to make a presentation to Tegner's tomorrow morning," Jace went on. "It could be an advertising account for us, plus big money."
Susan's heart jumped in excitement. Tegner was top man in one of the best advertising firms around. "Jace, that's terrific.
Even if it does mean I spend the night alone. Give it to 'em with both barrels."
"I plan to," Jace replied. "If we get a foot in the door with Tegner, it could mean big things for us."
"Oh, Jace," Susan interrupted him. "Melinda's here. "
She quickly told her business partner and lover of his sister's unexpected arrival. Jace was silent for a moment.
"Melinda?" His voice lacked the excitement she expected.
"Did she say why she was there?"
"Jace, is there anything wrong?" Susan was perplexed by his reaction. "You're usually excited when Melinda comes."
"Everything is fine," he assured her in less than convincing tones. "It's this Tegner meeting and Melinda's unexpected visit.
It isn't like her to just drop in on us without calling. Did she say anything was wrong?"
"No," Susan answered. "She said she just had the urge to fly home and did it.
Are you sure everything is all right with you? You don't sound right, Jace."
"Susan, everything is okay here," he replied and Susan detected a definite edge to his voice. "Look, I've got to go.
Janet wants to go over a few things with me before tomorrow's meeting. You take care and give my love to Melinda. With any luck, I'll be home by mid-afternoon."
"Jace, I love…" A rude click over the receiver cut Susan off… Jace had hung up. Puzzled and a bit hurt, she set the phone in its cradle.
What was going on with Jace? Why was he so fidgety? Business meetings usually didn't bother him. And why did Melinda's visit seem to upset him so?
Susan shook her head, looking around the studio. Her gaze fell on her almost completed sketch. Another hour and she would be ready to transfer the drawing to illustration board and begin the painting. She looked at the clock again and her stomach rumbled. The sketch could wait, she decided. Dinner was long overdue.
Downstairs in the kitchen, the young blonde artist pulled a package of cold-cuts from the refrigerator, glancing at the steaks she had taken out earlier for Jace's dinner. Steak sounded good, but she didn't want to bother with them. Throwing together two sandwiches and popping the top to a bottle of beer, she placed it on a tray and moved into the living room.
"The telephone woke me." Melinda said sleepily, entering the room from the opposite side. "I then noticed I hadn't eaten in over twelve hours. Think I could find something in the fridge?"
"Lunch meat, leftover meat loaf, milk, pop, and beer," Susan answered, displaying her own tray. "Grab something and join me.
I like company when I eat."
Melinda nodded and went into the kitchen. Susan's gaze followed the girl while she settled into a chair and placed her tray on a coffee table. Melinda wore a negligee, sheer and silky.
It clung to her young body, revealing the shapely proportions- also revealing that her future sister-in-law was completely nude beneath. Susan took a bite from one of her sandwiches, feeling a twinge of jealousy. Melinda was glorious, there were no other words to describe the young, black-haired beauty.
While Susan realized she wasn't exactly what men describe as "a dog," she also realized she wasn't the most beautiful woman in the world. To her, her mouth seemed a bit too big, her facial features a little too rounded, her hips slightly too flaring. But Melinda had that sensual combination of womanly voluptuousness and the sleek appearance of a model. She imagined every man who looked at the raven-haired girl felt a wanton ache within his loins, while most women felt a yearning to possess just an iota of Melinda's goddess-like appearance.
"Just what I needed," Melinda said, returning with a sandwich in one hand and a glass of milk in the other. "Where's Jace?"
"That was Jace on the phone," Susan answered, her gaze caught by the blackness of Melinda's gown. It clung to the ripe forms of her breasts, hiding little from the eyes. "He's got to stay in the city overnight. Our agent has set up a presentation with the head of an advertising firm."
Melinda sat on the couch. A blank expression moved over her beautiful face.
Tears welled in her eyes. She tried to stop the wetness, but the tears rolled from her eyes and trickled down her cheeks. The young girl struggled to hold it back, but she couldn't, not any longer. She started to sob, letting the feelings she had locked within her come boiling out.
Susan dropped her sandwich back to the tray and quickly moved to the younger woman's side, taking her in her arms. "Melinda, what's wrong?"
Melinda tried to gather her thoughts, tried to stem the flow of her tears. She wanted to spill it out, tell this woman everything. But she couldn't-and especially not to Susan. Never Susan. Still she had to let some of it out, telling it to someone, even if she had to color it, hide the most important thing.
"It's Robert," Melinda managed to find her voice between sobs. "He threw me out."
Susan's arms tightened around the girl. She shivered, something unknown moved within her, stirred by the nearness of this young woman, the warmth of her near naked body. "It's okay, Melinda. It's all right now. Tell me what happened."
"It's been coming to a head for the past year, I guess." Melinda gained some control over her voice, feeling safe with Susan's arms about her. "We were just too different for it to really work. I think I knew that from the beginning."
Susan had met Robert once, just before Melinda decided to move into the writer's apartment and live with him. That had been about fourteen months ago.
To be honest, she had never cared for the man much. The ten years separating his and Melinda's age didn't bother her so much as the philosophical gap.
Robert seemed to be still living back in the fifties while Melinda belonged to the eighties.
"He called me a pervert, a slut, a whore and threw me out," Melinda continued.
"Susan, it was horrible."
Shaking and crying, Melinda subtly modified the events of her breakup with Robert. She couldn't tell Susan the real reason for Robert's real anger, only Jace would understand that, Jace who shared her secret, a secret Robert couldn't live with. Instead, she told Susan, the problem stemmed from a difference in their sexual appetites, which in fact it was.
"I've also thought that the things a man and woman share in their bedroom were natural as long as it didn't involve physical or mental injury to either one of them." Melinda carefully formed her white lie. "But Robert couldn't accept that. Even something as good as oral sex was repulsive to him. Finally he went wild, telling me I was no better than a slut, doing the things men pay whores to do to them."
Susan had heard of such men, but luckily she had never met one. She pulled Melinda closer, cradling her shaking body.
"Shhhhh, it's all right now. Robert's not here and there's no way he can hurt you."
"I know," Melinda said, sucking in a deep breath. "But I feel so cheap… used and degraded."
She didn't feel any of those things. She felt betrayed and hurt. How could Robert profess to really love her, yet be so unable to accept that one secret of her life?
"Shhhhh," Susan whispered again. She pulled back a bit and lightly kissed the girl's forehead. Melinda's desperate distress swamped her. She wanted to somehow protect her, to keep her from any other hurt. "I understand, really I do. But it's over now.
He's gone and you're safe, here at home."
Susan's hands softly drifted to the younger woman's face, cradling it gently.
Her fingers wiped away the flow of tears and she tenderly kissed the girl's cheeks.
"Susan, you're so great," Melinda said, a smile weakly moving on her lips.
"Also like a member of the family, a sister."
Susan's brow wrinkled a bit. Melinda's remark puzzled her.
Melinda sounded as though she didn't know of Jace and her forthcoming wedding.
Hadn't Jace told his sister?
"I knew it was right coming here," Melinda continued. "I just had to be home among family and friends. Thank you, Susan.
You don't know how much it's helped talking with you."
The way Melinda emphasized "friends." It bothered Susan even more. Wasn't she family?
Melinda leaned forward, her lips lightly brushing against Susan's mouth. That unknown sensation stirred within Susan once again. She was suddenly totally aware of Melinda's closeness, the thinness of her negligee. A whimpery moan escaped softly from her throat.
Melinda's coal-black eyes flitted up, locking onto Susan's gaze. For a moment, neither speaking, they stared. Susan trembled, trying to deny the glimmering glimpse of understanding she now felt. She felt a shiver shoot through the younger woman, as though she had just recognized the same feeling.
Unsure, Melinda slowly nodded her head. Her dark eyes searching Susan's face for some answer to her unspoken question.
A question that neither wanted to place in words. To do so would be to admit to the strange, uncertain feelings they shared.
Susan's head nodded in reply.
Uncertainty still haunting her jet eyes, Melinda's hands reached out and cautiously brushed over Susan's face. A watery fluttering rippled through the older girl's stomach. She quivered, wanting, but not wanting, afraid, but not frightened enough to pull away.
Tentatively, the black-haired woman's finger-tips softly floated over her face, trembling while they traced over the fullness of Susan's mouth. So familiar those inward stirrings felt now, as she accepted them for what they were. Yet, so different, so forbidden. She wanted to speak, to tell Melinda they shouldn't, it wouldn't be right. But it felt so right.
Melinda's head tilted forward. She was a bit more certain now, less hesitant about the feelings that drew her to this woman, her brother's business partner.
Her lips once again gently brushed over Susan's.
It's not too late, Susan told herself, knowing that it was.
She shivered at the intimate contact of Melinda's lips. Before the young woman's kiss had been but a thank you. Now it held much more.
Firmly Melinda's lips pressed, covering the other woman's mouth. Her tongue tenderly moved out and Susan's mouth opened, admitting the moist pinkness of her oral probe. There was no turning back now, nor did she find herself wanting to. She returned the kiss, while her hands drifted to her future sister- in-law's gown, opening it.
The black-haired young goddess sucked in a deep breath, then trembled. Susan's hands cupped the twin cones of tits standing proud and firm on her chest. She threw herself against the blonde artist, her mouth once again possessing her feminine lips and at the same time pressing her tits into Susan's hands.
Not since those first days of puberty when she and her young friends had explored their knot-like developing breasts, had Susan's fingertips so intimately touched another woman. Now the excitement of Melinda's smooth, young flesh within her hands sent fire racing in her veins. She felt weak and liquid.
She surrendered to the taboo desires that burned within her.
"My titties," she said when their lips parted. "Use your hand on my tits."
Melinda nodded, her fingers working free the buttons of the lovely, blonde artist's blouse. While the younger girl freed her bra, Susan's hands ran over and around the alluring mounds of Melinda's breasts. Sleek and smooth, they were like silk to her touch, so warm and vibrant.
"Ohhhhh," Susan moaned, new flames leaping within the lusting core of her body.
Melinda's hands covered her tits, squeezing the heavy-laden melons.
Neither seemed to hold any doubts now. The warm, loving feelings they created within their very feminine bodies seemed natural and right. For that moment, that was all that was important.
Leaning to Melinda's chest, Susan's lips softly kissed one of the dark brown nipples asleep atop the younger woman's tits. She felt the shivery approval that shot through the black-haired beauty. Approval echoed by the rapid stiffening of that dark cherry. It swelled until it stood hard and turgid, straining the slightly darker-colored aureole surrounding it. Susan then tasted the tempting button with the tip of her tongue, then her lips once again, sucking and licking at the womanly taste of the girl's breasts.
Leaving one hand to taunt and tease at Susan's breasts, Melinda's fingers glided down over the flatness of the blonde's belly. Easily, she unclasped the buttons to her jeans. Her fingers slid beneath the elastic band of Susan's panties and into the downy muff of her cunt.
"God!" Susan moaned around the mouthful of tits she sucked.
"I never expected it would be like this! Not with another woman!"
"It's good," Melinda said, wiggling a finger into the already moist crevice of the blonde's pussy. "You feel so good."
Inwardly, Melinda's exploring finger delved the hot, wet, channel of Susan's quim. Each tiny movement sent shuddering new sensations coursing through her now totally willing body. She moaned, spreading her thighs to allow the younger woman even deeper penetration of her body.
She found herself comparing Melinda's touch to all the men she had known. But there was no comparison. They had been men and this was the touch of another woman, the only woman to ever touch her this way. Her movements, her finger sliding in and out of the needy slit of her cunt, were the same as a man's, yet they felt so different. It didn't take long until the first, small, quivering orgasm rocked her.
Susan then moved her attention from Melinda's tits and kissed downward.
Imitating the way Jace had gone down on her so many times since that first night, she used tongue and lips to fan the desire and lust mounting in the raven-tressed goddess. Melinda's finger slipped from the wanton groove of her pussy lips. She moaned as Susan's mouth touched the black fur-covered knoll of her cunt. Weakly, she leaned back on the sofa, stretching out before the blonde.
Susan gave no instruction to the younger woman, but Melinda's thighs parted lewdly, opening the way for her. Lightly, Susan ran the tip of her tongue up and down the pink, moist lips of the girl's cunt. Melinda tasted salty and a bit more bitter than a man, but it was a taste that was far from repulsive to Susan. In fact it excited, sending new thrills to her own aching loins.
Melinda moaned, her body quivering above the blonde. Her hands reached down and caressed the older woman's head, tenderly speaking their approval of her mouth loving.
No longer nagged by the taboos of society, Susan's tongue squirmed around within the outer lips of the raven-haired woman's pussy. Inward she worked, slipping her oral digit between the inner scalloped lips and into the tunnel of Melinda's quim.
Melinda's hips thrust upward, forcing Susan's tongue even deeper into her young body. It felt so good, like a man but oh so different. Twice before, while she lived in the dorm, she and another girl living on the same floor had embraced, kissed and even felt each other's body. But they had never gone this far, both afraid of the feeling that fired their young bodies. Now it seemed so right.
There was no fear, only desire and want for what Susan could provide. Did Jace have any idea that his fellow artist held such desires? Why her brother wasn't balling this delicious blonde on a regular basis, Melinda could never understand. And she knew just how much her brother could provide a woman.
In and out, Susan's delicate tongue reamed the musky slit of Melinda's pussy.
Eagerly she went about her task. Her tongue laved over the fluid flowing folds of Melinda's cunt. She licked and gyrated her tongue. She sucked away and swallowed the juices that flooded the heated channel of the black-haired beauty's sex.
All the time, lust flamed in her, burning with a consuming intensity.
Her stomach quivered. Her thighs glowed. Melinda writhed, her hands pressing Susan's face between her legs. She moaned and whimpered, now completely abandoning all hesitancy and giving herself to the fires of lust.
Higher and higher Susan's whipping tongue drove her. She came, crying out in delight, her body quaking beneath the strength of her release.
Lifting her head from between Melinda's thighs, Susan glanced up at the ecstasy-gripped woman. She was beautiful. Robert must have been a fool to send her away. No man in his right mind would ever abandon such a woman.
Melinda's eyes pushed back their leaden lids. She smiled gratefully up at the blonde, then managed to rise. Lovingly, she kissed Susan.
When their mouths parted, Susan helped Melinda slip off her jeans. Then the blonde artist sank back in the cushions watching the younger woman's head move down, down, down.