Wheels in Motion

*** This series was awarded the

Most Literary/Genre Transcending

award in the

2020 Reader's Choice Awards

. Thank you to all my readers and all who voted. ***

Hello again friend, and welcome to Chapter Four of my Wheels In Motion series.

If you haven't read chapters One through Three, you are going to be very confused. Really friend, I don't want you to get a headache from the furrowed brows you'll be sporting trying to understand what's going on. So, do yourself a favor and read those first.

If you haven't read Chapters One and Two of 'Twas the Night Before... then you won't get what's going on in the first scene here, but it's not a deal breaker. More like... skipping the cheese on your cheeseburger or the vanilla ice cream with your apple pie. You can still eat it, but it won't be as good, so why would you do that?

As always, thank you to my ArmyGal33 for her beta-reading and letting me bounce ideas off her, and AwkwardMD, for her outstanding editing work. I look so much smarter with her help.

~~ Foggy Bottom, Washington, DC, May ~~

LIZ

"

So that's it, that's my story," Kat said. She picked up her margarita and gulped down the last of it, her third of the night. She caught our waitress's eye and held up her empty glass.

"I can't believe you wouldn't want to tell that story to anyone who would listen," I said, "Why does it embarrass you so much?"

"Because I hurt Megan, pretty badly, and for no other reason than my own ingrained prejudices. Thinking of myself as gay made me uncomfortable, even though I was completely in love with her and totally, one hundred percent, into her body. I let my own fear shove her away from me when I needed her support the most. I thought that me being with her gave Amanda a legitimate reason to take Cait away from me. In hindsight I see that was bullshit. Thank god she gave me a second chance. I could have deprived my daughter of the best parental-figure I could have asked for."

I rolled my empty beer glass between my hands, thinking over everything she'd told me.

"So, does that help?" she asked.

"A little? I guess? I mean, I've grown a pretty thick skin. People can be incredibly cruel or insensitive to handicapped people. I don't know that I'd let people's perceptions of me being with a woman be the thing that holds me back."

"But...?"

"It's just the... actual... nuts and bolts of it I guess? You spent your whole life until you were twenty-five, being into men, being attracted to men, sleeping with men. Then one day you jump into bed with Megan and have sex with her and then you're into women. I mean... what made you want to do that?"

"It's not like Megan was the best of a bunch of bad choices. I was desperate for

any

attention. Remember I hadn't been with a man for almost five years. The last man I've ever been with was Steve, who got me pregnant when I was twenty, then he ghosted me. I wasn't with

anyone

, for like five years after that until Megan. Secondly, I'd had that drunken three-way back in my party days with one of my boy-toys who came before Steve and some girl whose name I never knew. I was plastered and he talked me into it. It's not something I was wanting at the time, but I thought being a freak in bed to make my man happy was what I was supposed to do, so I did it."

Kat looked down for a moment, staring into her empty glass, and I impatiently asked, "And...?"

"And I never told him, or anyone else, but she rang my bell harder than any of my boy-toys ever could. I tried to forget that night out of embarrassment, but I always remembered how good she was. So, there I am, a twenty-five-year-old single mom with five years of no romantic companionship of any kind under my belt. This super cute girl ends up in my bed through the most fantastic chain of events I could imagine and then she puts the moves on me, more or less in her sleep. And, well, I just wanted someone to touch me. Anyone. So, I let her. And when she did, I liked it. I really,

really,

liked it."

"Hmmm," I mused. Wheels were spinning in my head.

"What?"

"I don't know. There's some parallels. I haven't been with anyone in... geez, almost eighteen months? And--"

"Hang on, Liz," Kat interrupted me. "I can admit now that I'm gay. Or bisexual with a seriously heavy lean towards girls--"

"You're Megan-sexual," I interjected with a grin.

"Hashtag facts, as Cait would say," she said with a grin of her own, "But, I'd been in denial for years. You said you've never been interested in girls, right? You said that you even tried to think about what it would be like to be with Addison and just came up blank, right?"

"Yeah."

"Okay. So, my opinion, for what it's worth, is that if you're contemplating making a move on Addison just because you miss your friend

and

because you're lonely because you haven't had a guy ask you out in forever, those are two separate things and it would be a

big

mistake to conflate the two. All you're going to do is hurt Addison even more in the long run, and still lose her as a friend."

The waitress showed up to deliver Kat's fresh margarita while I sat lost in thought.

"So, what are you thinking?" Kat said after she'd taken a long sip.

I hesitated, then said, "I... you're right, I can't picture the idea of sleeping with Addison. But..."

"But what?" she prompted me.

I looked up to meet her gaze. "I can't stop thinking about that kiss."

She raised her eyebrows. "That good, huh?"

"It really... I mean I've never felt a shock go through me like that. It was almost electric. I almost imagined I felt it in my toes, and I can't feel anything in my toes. What does that mean?"

"Maybe it just means Addison is a good kisser."

"Maybe. But when that new lawyer from LWLS came in tonight, the pit of my stomach ached that it wasn't her. Every time I have a free day and I'm trying to think of something to do, my first instinct is to text her and see what she's up to. When I'm trying to go to sleep, all I can think about is the whole messed up situation and how she ghosted me."

"So, what do you think that means?"

"If I were looking at it from the outside, I'd think maybe I was falling for her."

"I mean, it kinda sounds that way," she said. "But what about the sex part of it? If you aren't gay, you aren't gay, Liz. Don't try and force something that isn't there. You'll only mess yourself up and hurt Addison."

I sighed. "I know. I'm wondering if part of the reason I can't picture sleeping with her is that my body is just too messed up for sex, period. I haven't had satisfying sex with anyone since I broke my back. I mean, I've had boyfriends, but no one has even come close to getting me off. I can only manage that myself and it takes forever. So really, I don't picture myself having sex with anyone, male or female."

Kat made a sad face into her drink. I understood. It can be difficult to be positive with someone who has an irreversible disability. Life is what it is.

Our waitress arrived at our table. "Sorry to interrupt ladies, but it's last call. Can I get you anything else?"

I looked at my watch in surprise. It was nearly eleven, and we'd been talking for over three hours.

"No thank you, just our check please," Kat said. "We're sorry we kept you so late."

"No worries. I had the closing shift. I'll be right back with your check."

I stopped her before she turned to go. "Can you add a shot of bourbon before you close us out?" I asked.

"Yes, of course. What brand would you like?" she asked, while Kat eyed me with pursed lips.

"Whatever top shelf your bartender likes the most. Make it a double, thanks."

I twisted my body to pull my wallet out of the backpack that hung on the back of my chair, then turned back to find Kat's disapproving gaze unabated.

"What?" I asked. "All I've had is two beers over the last three hours and I'm off tomorrow. And that's your fourth."

"I know, I've got no room to talk. I've had more tonight than I do on most nights out with Megs. I'll probably catch hell for it at home and I'm sure I'll regret it tomorrow. Will you be able to get home okay?"

I pulled out my phone. "Yeah I'll be fine. I'll order Lyfts for both of us after I pay. Hey, tell Megan I said not to give you any shit tonight. I needed to unload and I really appreciate you making the time."

"I was being a little over-dramatic. When I called her and said you wanted to hang out and get a drink she said 'I bet it's about Addison'."

"Are you serious?" I exclaimed. "I'm that transparent?"

"Only to Megan. I wouldn't have guessed. She's seen the fallout from both sides though. She mentioned to me that Addison made a fuss at work, but I didn't realize how big a fuss it was."

"Huh. Well, Megan is clearly more perceptive than I give her credit for I guess. So, what happened with Steve anyway?"

"What?" She asked, blinking at the non-sequitur.

"Cait's dad. Did he get his shit together?"

The waitress dropped off my drink and offered me the bill. I didn't look at it, just handed her my credit card.

"Oh. Yeah, he did, in fact. He started going to A.A. not long after our hearing. He's sober now, and started his own business. Cait has a really good relationship with him and the woman he's married to now. Cait stays with them every other weekend. He still pays child support every month, but Megan and I are doing well enough that we're just putting all of it into her education fund."

"That's really great, Kat. I'm happy for Cait." I took a long, slow sip of my bourbon. Top shelf indeed.

"He's taking Cait to Costa Rica this summer on an ecological tour for ten days, something she's been dying to do." She grinned. "Megan wants to take me to an all-inclusive beach resort in the Caribbean while she's gone. We've never had a real honeymoon with just the two of us. We're debating which resort to pick. She's lobbying for the one with the nude beach."

I coughed and quickly set down my drink, reaching for my napkin.

"TMI?" She asked, laughing at me.

"Listen, I love you and Megs like sisters, but yeah, maybe TMI."

She grinned ferociously "You know, the whole time Megs and I have been together, I don't think we've been alone for more than three straight nights. I'm looking forward to a week on a tropical island getting my freak on with my smoking hot wife."

I winced and laughed at the same time. "Well, good luck and I hope two enjoy, but I don't need to be imagining you guys throwing each other up against the wall. Especially since it's been so long since

I've

been thrown up against a wall by anyone.

~~ Tenleytown, Washington DC, June ~~

ADDISON

Viv somehow managed to keep her strap-on from slipping out of me as she pulled me to my feet from where I was kneeling on the edge of my bed, spun us around and pressed me up against the second-floor window in my bedroom. I gasped, my palms against the glass, frantically looking to see if there were any people out for a late-night stroll who might look up and get the show of their life. Of my life, anyway.

There was no one on the darkened Tenleytown street below me, thank god, and the only streetlight in sight was a hundred feet down the block. I felt totally exposed. I thought it would have been a bucket of cold water on my libido, as I wasn't much of an exhibitionist normally. But I found myself crying out even louder as she hammered her hips against my backside, thrusting deeply into me, her fist curled tightly into my hair.

Viv and I had fallen into a routine of getting together about once a week, usually going out somewhere for dinner or drinks or some kind of activity, then coming back to my place. Once I'd bought us box seats to see the Nationals play the Brewers. She'd rolled her eyes at me when I'd shown up wearing my Milwaukee jersey, but she had the last laugh when Max Scherzer threw a two-hit complete game shutout to beat my Brew Crew.

Tonight, I'd let her pick the activity and she'd taken us to the Lucky Strike bowling alley in Chinatown. Bowling had definitely been a thing when I'd been a teenager growing up in Wisconsin, but I hadn't bowled since I was an undergrad.

Viv, it turned out, was on a weekly bowling team with some of her Metro coworkers. After demolishing me in the first game 175 to 87, she decided she needed to give me lessons. Feeling her body pressing into me from behind while she supported my arms and whispered in my ear, showing me the finer points of throwing a hook into the pocket quickly had me all a-flutter. Add that to the Hendrick's martinis she kept ordering me from the full bar service, by the time we got back to my apartment I was ready to let her do whatever she wanted to me.

She'd dragged me straight into my bedroom, then torn off my clothes, leaving me naked. She'd pushed me to lay back on my bed, then stepped back and slowly and deliberately stripped off her own clothes, her eyes never leaving mine.

She stood, naked, in front of me stroking her hand over her stomach as she looked up and down my body, then asked, "How nasty do you feel tonight Addie?"

I didn't feel all that nasty. Sex with Viv was always more raw, more just fucking than I cared for. It wasn't ever what one would call 'making love' which was more my style. A couple of times I'd tried to slow us down, introduce some tenderness into it, but Viv always ended up ramping things up. I probably didn't have room to complain; she always got me off. Multiple times. And I tried my best to keep up with her, but somehow, I always ended up feeling the age difference when we lay together afterward. And feeling... cheap, I guess. I supposed I could get away with sleeping with a twenty-four-year-old at twenty-nine. Might as well enjoy it now, since I was sure I would never let myself do something like this when I was forty. Or maybe even thirty-five. But I definitely felt I was more of a relationship-girl while Viv was a get-down-and-nasty girl.

"As nasty as you want, Viv," I said.

She grinned at me, then turned and slowly and deliberately leaned over from the waist to dig into her backpack which she'd dropped by my bedroom door. The view was really nice.

She straightened up and turned, holding a flesh covered dildo with a web of black straps dangling from the base. My eyes widened.

"Are you serious?" I asked her. I could hear the hesitancy in my voice, "That thing must be ten inches long!"

She chuckled while she stepped into the straps and buckled it tightly around her hips. "It's not even eight," she assured me. She turned and grabbed a tiny bottle of lube from her bag and squirted a little into her palm. She walked towards me, stroking the dildo like it was her own dick, making it gleam with slickness in the dim light from the window. "What's the matter, never done this before?" she asked in a husky voice.

"Just... not in a while. Or one that big."

She knelt in front of me. "Don't worry, I won't hurt you," she said, then immediately started licking me.

She might be young but she really knew how to use her tongue. I was already wet, but after a few minutes of her attentions I seriously began to think the lube wasn't strictly necessary. She stood between my legs and pushed them further apart.

"Still feeling nasty?" she asked me.

"Yes," I panted, leaning up on my elbows to watch.

She grasped the shaft of her silicone cock and rubbed the head up and down my slit, parting my lips. I gasped as she brushed the head of it over my clit several times, then she placed the tip at my entrance and slowly pushed her hips forward.

"

Jesus,

go slow Viv! That thing's fucking thick!" I groaned.

"Don't worry baby, I won't hurt you... unless you ask me to," she said with a grin.

She looked down, watching while she rocked it in and out of me, going a fraction of an inch deeper each time. Finally, after a few minutes of me adjusting she was able to sink fully into me as I whimpered. She rested her hands on my knees, spreading them out wide and started to slowly stroke in and out. It felt like she was going to split me in half each stroke as I tried to rock my hips forward to meet her thrusts. It took a while before I started actually feeling good instead of just feeling full. As I started to relax and enjoy the sensation, Viv reached down and started stroking my clit in time with the motions of her hips. That's when I started to get really vocal, making involuntary animal-like sounds.

Just as I was midway up the hill of my climax, she stepped back and pulled out of me with an obscene, wet sound.

"Oh my god, why did you stop?" I complained.

"Your bed's too low," she said breathlessly, "My knees can't take it. Turn over!" She grabbed one of my legs and urged me to flip over. I did, then rose to my hands and knees on the edge of the bed. This had the unexpected effect of finding myself staring at our reflection in the mirror over my dresser. I stared into Viv's eyes as she guided the head of the dildo back inside of me. It sank easily into me up to the hilt and I groaned, watching us. We looked so wanton and primal. "Yeah, baby, that's better," she breathed. She grasped my hips with both hands and started fucking me in earnest.

As she pounded into me, I was missing her fingers on my clit. I took care of it myself, reaching between my legs and stroking myself with one hand. I wanted to keep watching her in the mirror, watching her breasts jiggle each time her hips impacted against my ass, watching the fringe of her spiky hair shake each time she thrust into me, but I was quickly overcome with sensations. I dropped my face to the mattress as guttural sounds of pleasure forced their way out of me.

"No you don't!" She half-snarled, as she grabbed a fistful of my hair and pulled my head back up to watch us. "Look at me! Look at me when you come!" It was enough to send me over the edge.

"Yes! Yes, yes, yes, yes, y-e-s-s-s-s!" I cried out as I came. It rolled on and on, my thighs shaking as my climax seemed to never end. Just when I thought I was ready to pull away from her and collapse onto my stomach, she grabbed both of my arms, pulled me to my feet and spun me toward the window.

"Oh my god Viv!" I cried out in protest. Somehow, she kept me impaled from behind during the entire maneuver, and immediately started thrusting into me again. The cold shock of the glass against my nipples added to being put on display for anyone who happened to be walking by somehow kept my orgasm rolling through me. She reached around to stroke my clit again and I very nearly screamed.

"Jesus! Oh god! Oh

God! Oh GOD! A-a-a-a-a-h!"

Finally, as the pitch of my voice neared the limits of my vocal chords, she slammed the cock into me once more and held it tightly there, stroking my clit through the end of my orgasm while wrapping her free hand around my chest to help me keep upright.

As I quivered and shook, I reached up with my hands and pushed us away from the window. We collapsed back onto the bed together. I gasped and panted as I slowly came down. Finally, as my breathing approached something close to normal, I looked over at Viv. She was lying next to me on her back, eyes closed, a satisfied grin on her face; a light sheen of sweat covered her breasts, making them glisten in the light from the window.

"Holy shit, Viv," I said. She opened her eyes and smiled at me.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah... that was... that was wild. Gonna take me a few minutes before I can return the favor."

She reached down and unbuckled the straps around her hips, then tossed the dildo towards her backpack. "No need, babe. Tonight, I just wanted to hear you make those noises I knew you had in you. Mission accomplished."

She scooched up to lay her head on the pillows. I followed her, laying my head on her chest and looking into her eyes. She wrapped an arm around me and closed her eyes with a satisfied look on her face. I leaned up and kissed her softly on the lips. She jerked, surprised, then opened her eyes and kissed me back. I kept kissing her but it was soon apparent that she wasn't into a long make out session.