The Photographer and the Painter

I awakened to a slight glow in the room, unsure of the time. I was on my side, arm outstretched and an obviously empty spot where someone, in particular, had been when I'd finally fallen asleep the night before. I had a sticky spot on the side of my face, presumably from the honey or the whipped cream we'd decided to experiment with somewhere after midnight. My body was sore but in a good way. Especially my pussy and clit- although since they had been awakened by the unplanned and very unexpected playtime, they ached for more. I moved around slowly, gently- trying not to look alarmed by Fiona's absence. Last night had been amazing- beyond amazing- and I was hoping that I wasn't going to get up and shuffle to the kitchen to find a letter of apologies and, possibly, regret on the counter.

I raised slightly and glanced around the room. Fiona was tucked in the Papasan chair in the corner, near the foot of the bed, sketchbook propped up on her knees. One of my red and green handpainted coffee mugs sat on the drum table beside her. I smiled guiltily, knowing she'd fumbled around for a bit to find the mug and the coffee accouterments since I had them squirreled away in a little 'mini cafe' in the studio.

"Morning sunshine," I said, with what I'm sure was a goofy grin. She popped her head up over the top of the sketchbook, a beaming smile greeting me back.

"It's a good thing I got it mostly outlined before you went and woke up and destroyed the composition," she teased. "I thought we might go for brunch today," she followed, eyeing me for signs of reluctance to go out into the world.

"are you sure you don't want to take a hot shower and maybe have something delivered?" I countered, only partially serious.

She slid her legs down and set the sketchbook against the wall where I couldn't see what she'd been drawing. She set her pencils down beside the red and green mug and downed the remainder of her coffee.

"I *am* up for another shower, but I'd like to go out with you today," she said with a wink. Before I could rouse myself further, she lept from the Papasan and pounced on the bed, running her hands up my torso and tweaking one of my nipples.

"Hey!" I exclaimed as she straddled me. She bent down to kiss me and I realized I had morning breath and placed my hand on my mouth between us. "Let me go brush my teeth," I begged, muffled behind my fingers.

"Very well," she resigned, sliding off me and flopping into the piled-up duvet.

When I got into the vanity area, a cute little overnight bag was sitting on the side of the sink. I smirked- she had planned it. I wasn't the least bit upset about it. I could think of a lot worse ways to be seduced and honestly, last night's seduction rated pretty high on the 'better than fiction' scale. I brushed my teeth and ran a brush through my hair to tame some of the sex hair. Fiona had already done a little primping before I woke up, so it only seemed fair. When I went back into the bedroom, she was laying on the bed with her head at the foot, staring at her painting.

"I didn't know you were the one who bought it," she said softly, glancing over at me as I walked back in.

"It seemed very quintessentially you," I replied. She smiled at me like she had a secret.

"What?" I queried, curiosity piqued. She reached out to signal I should return to the warm comfort of the bed and her arms. I climbed into the bed and laid down beside her. She rolled over to face me. Her grey-green eyes looked deeply into mine.

"What?" I queried, again.

"That painting," she gestured with her free hand, never taking her eyes off mine. "It was inspired by you," she said softly, a little smile around her lips. She reached out and stroked my cheek. I wasn't sure if I was about to cry or not, so I leaned in and kissed her, hard and soft all rolled into one kiss- full of a whirlwind of emotions. She pressed her body against mine and slid her hand from my cheek to my hair. The slight tug she gave to the handful of hair at the base of my skull sent shivers from my toes through my body. I moaned against her neck, my free hand moving from her hip to her ass to pull her even closer to me. I took a deep breath, breathing everything about her in, savoring the smell of her skin, the taste of coffee on her lips. Her hand was back on my face, as she pulled back from the kiss.

"I want you," she said simply. "right now, tomorrow, next year. I want us. I know that's not your usual thing, so if you just want it to be for fun, that's ok- we can just have fun."

I was at a loss. I went from being pretty much a reclusive demi-ace to having the girl of my dreams in my bed asking me to join her polycule, overnight. I wondered how much subtext I'd missed from Fiona over the years. And how much of my 'hidden' feelings had shown through. I mean, I knew she had a variety of lovers in her life from her comet partners to her FWB, and her 'steadys', but I'd always just assumed I was 'just a friend' with her.

"Mira?" she whispered, and I realized I'd just been laying there, without responding to her putting her heart out there.

I smiled at her, the kind of smile you can't help, that touches your eyes and radiates out. "For a one-of-a-kind girl, I am more than happy to step outside of my 'usual thing'."

For someone who had often seen her own feelings and desires as a liability, that was a huge step. And I did have to fight to not make a joke to relieve my discomfort with emotions. I could have said I was in lesbians with her and downplayed the moment for a laugh as we both enjoyed the movie that line came from, but that just didn't seem right.

Before I knew what was happening, I was on my back, she was on top of me, her red hair cascading around our faces, and her lips were on mine with a fervor I hadn't even experienced during our wine-fueled craziness the night prior.

I smiled in the middle of our kiss. She opened her eyes for a second, smiled back, and started kissing down my neck. Her touch, her kisses, caused my entire body to respond- my breath caught, my hips rocked, and as her lips grazed my nipple, my eyes rolled back into my head.

"Keep your eyes closed," she said, leaning off me for a moment and fumbling in a bag beside the bed. When she returned, I heard her messing with something for a moment, then felt the shock of a cold substance on my nipple. She leaned down and blew on it and I wasn't sure if it was so cold it burned or if it was actually hot feeling.

"That's so weird," I giggled. She took my other nipple between her thumb and forefinger, rubbing the cream on it as she pinched it hard.

"Such lovely nipples," she sighed. "They are the perfect punctuation for your perfect breasts." She cupped them from the sides and pushed them together. Leaning down and nuzzling my cleavage, she purred in appreciation. "Perfect."

She started tonguing my anointed nipples, causing the confusing hot/cold to be even more intense. Once her hot mouth left one to tease the other, the cold air of the room would cause even further tangling of my senses. It was delightful.

"MMMM.. minty and tingly on my lips," she said, coming up to kiss me and share the strange sensation. The cooling, warming gel tasted like strong peppermint gum and confused my mouth as much as it had my nipples.

"Before we get back into all this," she said, playfully gesturing to our entangled bodies, "I would like to go get some brunch, maybe grab a couple of those amazing mango mimosas from Felix's, and take a look at some of the shots from last night. Then, I would absolutely be down for round two. I mean, if that's ok with you."

I felt a little nervous and I wasn't entirely sure why. Perhaps the heat of the lights and the wine had created the perfect storm last night and things wouldn't fall into place again. Perhaps it was a once-in-a-lifetime moment and then there was the pressure of feelings now- like when she said she wanted us, did that mean FWB or something more? And how would that work with her other partners? Although I did realize I hadn't heard her talk about any of them in quite a while.

"Maybe grab some more of that delish wine you brought over last night?" I replied, cautiously, my brain running at 90 MPH while I tried to navigate the conversation without awkwardness.

She laughed and I thought she was seeing through to my lack of confidence. "I probably shouldn't tell on myself like this, since it totally worked to my advantage," she said, kissing my shoulder. "That was not really wine, per se. It was that new sober-curious stuff that gives you like a relaxed feeling without the inebriation. If you like, we can pick it up by the case. They have some that's supposed to be like gin so you can make fancy cocktails without the hangover too."

There was a good bit of relief and a tiny bit of embarrassment that washed over me. If Fiona had disappeared in the morning, I really wouldn't have been able to claim the influence of alcohol for my forward behavior. But I felt better knowing that neither one of us had been mentally compromised - we had just been caught up in the moment and rode the energy to its, perhaps inevitable, conclusion. I guess I'd been a bit more in denial than I'd thought about the sexual tension between us. Damned neuro-divergence- making it hard to tell if someone was interested or just nice, and never sure if I was expressing too much interest, not enough, or perhaps even the wrong kind.

I think she sensed my embarrassment, and possibly how I was slipping just a bit too much into my head, as she hopped up and pulled me out of bed and towards the shower. After plenty of rubbing each other down, and a second round with the water-proof vibrator, we were washed and ready to venture out into the world, on what was kind of feeling like a brunch date.

Fast-forward a few hours, brunch, with mimosas, and my first PDA since college, walking the boutiques and swinging in one of the galleries that had her work to pick up a check, I was actually beyond ready to get back to my place and see just how well I could swing this 'girlfriend' thing, but she wanted to make a stop before we went back to my place. And it required an Uber, so of course, I was a bit nervous. I was 99.9% sure we were going to go buy sex toys, and when the car pulled up in front of the Hustler store, what could I do but say to myself "i told you so".

Somehow, going to the store in the middle of the day, completely sober and with a person I was involved with made it a lot more 'normal' than the times I had gone as a college kid, with a mixed group, tipsy and full of confused and unspoken sexual tension. It almost got weird when we walked in and the guy behind the counter was Derek, someone we both knew from the art scene, and he was SO happy to see both of us. Fiona was amazing though and after some brief pleasantries, asked him to point us in the direction of the girl-on-girl toys.

It had been a couple of years since I'd been shopping for toys, and I had done it online when I did, so being surrounded by the technological array was pretty impressive. Once we were in the section alone, she looked at me and said she wanted to come here with me so we could have a discussion about our interests and pick out some things to explore with. Somehow being surrounded by the gamut of sex toys, from vein-bulging 18 inch super cocks to sleek, brightly colored, iPhone-esque looking remote control vibrators, made the whole conversation feel less 'intense'. And maybe that was backward from how it should have been, but it felt like it was easier to talk about my mostly vanilla desires when there were much more spicy things, like violet wands, thigh cuffs, BDSM gear, and nipple clamps, nearby.

As I looked around at some of the 'equipment', I realized I was more curious than turned-off by a lot of the stuff than I had been when I'd been younger. I guess time and perspective really did open doors, lol. Like, I remember being in my early 20s, thinking I'd never let someone tie me up or bind me, but looking at the mannequin all done up in some freaking gorgeous shibari, I was actually imagining what that might feel like, and if the inability to move as a trusted partner did whatever they wanted to me would be amazing or panic-inducing.

"So, I am quite bi," she said, looking at some of the more phallic-looking toys. "I have a fantasy of riding a cock while my girlfriend goes at my clit, and if that's something you might be up for one day, I'd love to have that experience with you, but I understand if you're more sapphic," she said, blushing a little, which surprised me.

Her vulnerability emboldened me, to the point that I was totally feeling like someone else was talking as the words started coming out of my mouth. "I think I could also appreciate the sensation of a full pussy and having my clit sucked, but it doesn't have to be attached to a guy for me. I could do that, a girly threesome, or the right toy with me and you." I had to physically walk away because my face was ON FIRE. I couldn't believe I gave voice to that, to Fiona, in public. It was the kind of thing I thought about while masturbating when my usual fantasies weren't cutting it, but it was not something I'd ever admitted to anyone.

She came after me and put her arms around me from behind, giving me a moment to recover.

"You sharing that with me, I know that took a LOT. And my pussy is now dripping wet, The fact that you're open to exploring things with me, and you feel comfortable talking to me about them, that is so fucking hot," she whispered in my ear. Her breath was hot on my neck, and as much as my face was still burning, I wasn't sure how that was possible. Feeling her body pressed against mine was comforting, and I could feel the heat start to drain from my face. I turned around to face her, ready to get back to the wall of sex toys.

She smiled at me and tilted her head in that way she does when she has found something that tugs at her feelings a little bit. "And I am not saying I want to jump right into bringing anyone else into our time- I want to spend as much time as you want with just me and you, and its ok if it's just me, you, and our big dildo Bob forever," she said, snickering. "But if you're comfortable, that really is something I'd like to explore, with you, one day."

We wandered over to the BDSM-lite section for a moment to give us something else to focus on. Beside the Fifty Shades of Gray starter kits, feather wands, and a range of crops and paddles that ran from 'costume accessory' to "that will leave a mark", was a glass cabinet with violet wands, some Wartenburg wheels, some glass and metal rods that I wasn't sure the purpose of, and some locking restraints that made the sparkly leather ones with the sherpa lining looks like girly ribbons. I wasn't ready for that.

But there was some purple shibari rope that caught my eye. Maybe I would do some research and see what that was all about. I'd seen pictures, both online in Suicide Girl-type photo dumps and in actual galleries, but I think there was something more there that had to be experienced in person to really 'get' it. Of course, my mind was wandering to performance art and situational art experiences as well as thinking about what it would feel like.

"Anything catch your eye?" she queried, looking at what my gaze was settling on.

"I've got some thoughts about some stuff, but nothing for today," I replied, hoping my tone didn't come across like I was keeping something from her. I was impressed by my transparency so far today, and I really wanted to keep that honesty going. Something about Fiona, in all our years of friendship, and now this, she had never felt judgemental, so I'd always been pretty honest with her. Well, except for the crazy sexual attraction, but that had been more of a denial of my feelings to myself than a purposeful misdirection towards her.

We walked back over to the toys and she pulled a box off the wall that was a pair of app controlled vibrating panties. "How do you feel about this kind of thing?"

"Am I wearing them or controlling them?" I asked, honestly not sure which I would prefer. The idea of being at Fiona's mercy was both terrifying and thrilling, while the idea of her being at mine was thrilling and intimidating.

"That depends. Do you think you're a dom, a sub, or a switch?" she asked with a smirk.

"I think I'm going to have to think about that more," I replied, thinking about how I was still thinking about whether I wanted someone to tie my entire body up or not. I think my answer helped steer her in a more equitable direction though because then she was pulling a blue Jolly Rancher colored double-ended jelly dong off the shelf. "What about this?"

My ignorance of how that worked in the real world made me feel a little uncomfortable. I felt like such a noob at all this, especially compared to her. After a few minutes of weird silence, I spoke up. "So I know at my age, I should probably be more familiar with some of these than I am, but I guess I've been pretty sheltered. I had a couple of boyfriends in college, but, and please don't laugh, you're the first girl I've ever done more than make out with, so I'm going to need a little bit more guidance than I think you're used to."

Realization washed over her face and she blushed, briefly, again. "I'm a little embarrassed. I made an assumption based on last night's experience and I apologize. I should have asked." She put her arm around my waist. "Is there something you know you'd like to take home for us to play with tonight?"

I actually did see something that wanted to play with- there was a Kama Sutra Weekender box that included honey dust, a feather teaser toy, flavored and warming massage oils, cooling gel, and a blindfold. And there was a newer version of one of my favorite toys- it was a longish, thin vibrator with an angled bulbous end. It was AMAZING for simulating from the inside while doing other things on the outside. This was in my comfort zone, while stepping completely outside it by sharing it with Fiona.

"How about you go pick yourself out something nice to wear and I'll take care of the toys and we can surprise each other when we get back to the loft? I'll wait outside for you when I'm done" I suggested. I pointed my head over towards the other half of the store where the lingerie, role-play, stripper garb, and sex kitten shoes were.

Once she was barely visible amongst the displays on the other side of the store, I grabbed the items I'd mentally picked out, plus a couple of the sex stocking stuffer style toys to just play around with.

When I went to the counter, I asked Derek to double bag it as it was a surprise for later and he thoroughly enjoyed being let in on our little game. I'm pretty sure the flavored lube sample pack he snuck in the bag was meant as a gift with a specific purchase, but I was down to give it a try.

Once I checked out, I stepped outside and leaned against the big glass window of the store, seriously in awe of how the last 24 hours had gone for me. And in delicious anticipation of how the next 24 hours were going to be. We might need to pick up some Gatorade on the way back home.

***AUTHORS NOTE***

Thank you guys for reading- even though there's no explicit sex in this one, I think it's setting the stage nicely for some pretty hot and heavy sexy-times. It's been SOOOO long since I've written anything, especially erotica, so I'm having to ease back into it. I think it's going to be like riding a bicycle, and I'll get my writing legs beneath me sooner rather than later. I'm having to reacquaint myself with Fiona and Mira and see how they behave based on who I am now too.