Cruising the Strip (5 page)

Keri kissed her soundly on the mouth. “Me, too. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, isn’t that right? So nobody has to know that we liked the pool and intend to try the other four pools. Or if we decide to have veal for dinner.”

“I’m not going that far.” Marcie laughed and kissed Keri back. “We won’t confess that your tongue was hanging out a
mile
over those women at the pool.”

“It wasn’t a
mile
,” Keri protested.

Marcie leaned back against the counter, still smiling, but her expression more serious. “Is that what you like? All the hair extensions and surgical enhancements? Is that what women were like in the big city?”

“I’m just looking. I do like to look at women.” She wasn’t going to apologize for that. “But yeah, back in Manhattan, I drifted toward that type. That’s all they were to me, too, a
type
.” Keri trailed her fingertips lightly down Marcie’s tummy. “I wasn’t capable of seeing more. I know what I’ve got, now. And…I’m feeling things I haven’t before.”

“I’m glad you could come with me,” Marcie said softly. “I know we’ve only been dating a short while, but…I like you. Thank you for caring enough about yourself to get sober.”

Keri grinned. “I like being around you, too.”

“Good, because I think you’re stuck with me.”

“I think we’re going to be a little bit late to dinner,” Keri said, then she gave in to the overwhelming urge to nibble Marcie’s lovely, full lips.

They moved together for several minutes, sharing long, deep kisses, but no more words. Keri didn’t know why Marcie, as soon as they started fooling around, stopped talking. She knew why she did—she was afraid some of the things she wanted to say would appall Marcie. Marcie was no virgin and no prude, but she was totally vanilla. She’d be shocked and uncomfortable if Keri were to admit that right now she wished in the worst way she were packing so she could push Marcie’s legs apart and have her right here on the counter. That right now, looking at the light in Marcie’s eyes and feeling the heat of her skin, she didn’t want to make love, she wanted to fuck. She wanted to do Marcie until her hair snarled, her eyes glazed, her skin slicked with sweat, and they were both drained beyond coherence.

If she started talking like that, she’d never stop. Marcie lit a bone-deep fire inside her, and she was worth learning some patience. It was also true that since giving up booze she hadn’t really been cat-scratch-fever with a woman. Given that seeing the world through clear eyes and keener perceptions was at times overwhelming, she could only imagine how intense hot, wild sex would feel to her. It wasn’t something she wanted to experience with just anyone. Marcie was not just anyone, though. She trusted Marcie completely.

She slipped her hand between them, grinning at what she felt on her fingertips. “Are you going to be soaked like this all through dinner?”

“With any luck.” Marcie looked almost shy. “We’re going to be late if we don’t start getting dressed.”

Reluctantly, Keri let Marcie go. Her own hair was drip dry, but Marcie took more time because the wild curls were always a challenge to tame. Keri went to get her best clothes out of the suitcase. They only differed from the rest of her clothes because the black jeans were new, sort of, and the shirt was black silk.

She padded over the thick blue carpet, liking the way it felt under her feet. It was soft enough to fuck on, but floors didn’t have the appeal to her forty-year old body they once did. She couldn’t wait to try the king-sized bed. She went back to the bathroom to find Marcie leaning forward to peer at her face in the mirror. She wore only her bra and panties so far and Keri couldn’t help herself. She ran an appreciative hand over the curve of Marcie’s ass.

Marcie’s responsive shudder took Keri’s breath away. Their gazes locked in the mirror and Keri slowly pressed her fingers into the crotch of Marcie’s panties.

“I’m not sure you’re going to make it through dinner in this condition.” Keri hooked her fingers around the fabric and pulled it out of her way. Marcie was steaming hot.

“There’s no time,” Marcie protested. “You know how long it takes me to—”

“There’s time for this, honey.” Keri got right behind her, trapping her against the counter. She pushed two fingers inside Marcie’s heat, which felt fantastic. “I’ll go down on you later, I promise, and you know I don’t care how long it takes. I know this isn’t your first choice, but it could be faster. Could be what you need right now.”

Marcie made a sound Keri hadn’t heard before, then she pushed her ass back into Keri’s crotch. “God, Keri, why does that feel so good?”

“I don’t care why.” Keri couldn’t help herself. She wrapped an arm tight around Marcie’s waist, and used her hips to thrust her hand even more firmly inside. She gritted her teeth so she wouldn’t say words like
pussy
and
juicy
and explain, in between her own groans, how hard her own clit was getting from the way Marcie looked, her breasts heaving, her face flushed, her body braced to push back as Keri got even more forceful. “Come, baby, on my hand.”

Marcie let out a surprised gasp and did just that.

*

“Okay, so we’ve talked about everything else over this wonderful dinner.” Marcie licked the spoon free of rum cocoa sponge cake. She lowered her voice. “Everything except what happened in the bathroom.”

“What about it?” Keri’s pulse had still not recovered. She really enjoyed sex with Marcie, adored going down on her, and appreciated the same in return. Before they’d gone to bed the first time Marcie had explained her belief in the naturalness of the female body and how sex should reflect that. Even before that, their obvious chemistry had prompted both Nirvana and Sunshine to pointedly discuss, in front of Keri, the heterosexism that tainted much of lesbian sexuality these days. It still made her mad that they’d equated her butchness with thinking and wanting to be like a guy. They were Marcie’s closest friends, so she hadn’t retorted that she was a woman who fucked women who liked to be fucked by women, and anything she did, therefore, was about being a lesbian and not some secret longing to degrade her sex partners to the status of
the little missus
. “I gathered that you, well, enjoyed it.”

“It felt, well, like…it was new. I mean…”

“Was it okay?”

“Yes.” Marcie’s eyes widened in emphasis. “It was, I mean if it was for you.”

“Baby, I
loved
it.”

“That’s new, too—you haven’t called me baby before.”

Keri felt her cheeks color. She hadn’t realized she was doing it. “Sorry. I know you find it infantiliz—”

“Not the way you said it then,” Marcie said quickly. “It felt…safe, nurturing.”

“Okay.” An unexpected glow of pleasure radiated through Keri’s chest. She wants to be my baby, she thought.

The rest of dessert was consumed with many shy glances, and Keri wondered what Marcie was thinking about. More fucking? She hoped so, because there was a multi-screen, full on, Marcie-on-her-back-Keri-on-top scene repeating in her head so loudly sometimes she missed what Marcie said.

They left the restaurant arm-in-arm. Catching sight of their reflection in one of the many mirrors, Keri said, “You look so beautiful in that color.” The deep Caribbean blue tunic over a long, simple wrap skirt in the same color brought out the delicate, light color of Marcie’s eyes.

“Thank you. You look pretty damn good yourself.” Marcie turned slightly and Keri wondered if it were her imagination that Marcie’s nipples were hard and pressing into her arm through the thin black silk shirt. She wanted to explore Marcie right there, find out if she was right.

Marcie patted her tummy and said, “I could use a little stroll…before…”

Keri finished the sentence in her head with, “Before I fuck you senseless,” but she was pretty sure that wouldn’t be Marcie’s choice of phrasing. All she said was, “Me, too.”

Marcie fished in her pocket and withdrew a plastic card that Keri first thought was a room key. “Our bundle of freebies had this gift card to Prada. A hundred bucks probably doesn’t go that far.”

Keri tucked Marcie’s hand under her arm and turned toward the curving escalators that led to the designer shops. “Let’s go see.”

Marcie’s prediction turned out to be correct. For the items that even had price tags the gift card hardly dented the cost. Much as Keri would have liked to have seen Marcie in Prada heels, she knew neither of them could afford that kind of extravagance.

“It was still fun looking around,” Marcie said. They exited the store and stepped out of the way of two leggy, shapely women. Keri recognized them from the lobby—the two slinky brunettes.

“I’m going to get it right now, Kitty,” one was saying to the other. “I’ll wear it to the poker finals. I won that gift card and I’m going to use it, even if I have to make up the rest.”

“Ladies,” Keri said. “Would you like another gift card? We can’t use ours.”

“Oh wow, you’re kidding, right?” The taller of the two gave Keri a skeptical look. “Why would you do that?”

“I can’t throw it away.” She glanced at Marcie, who nodded encouragingly.

“Well, hey, that’s really sweet.” Perfectly painted lips curved in a smile. “Here, it’s not right if I don’t give you something back. I’ve got a gift card to the toy boutique that our convention is having in one of the suites. The last thing I need is more toys.”

She pressed the card into Keri’s hand and accepted the Prada card in return. “Suite fifteen hundred.”

“Women like that are selling toys?” Marcie was genuinely puzzled as Keri led her to the elevators.

The distant ringing of slot machines was a match to the alarms going off in Keri’s head. You’re going to freak her out, she told herself. If you bring toys up, and she says no, things will never be the same. You’re falling for her, and after all the bad times, she’s a great time you shouldn’t mess up.

“Not those kinds of toys, honey.” She had a sudden inspiration. “I think we should go pick out something really outrageous as a gag gift for the Solstice White Elephant.” Keri’s heart was beating inside her eardrums.

“Oh, you mean…”

“Lube, silicone, leather.”

“I’ll bet a hundred bucks doesn’t buy much in that store either. I’ve never actually shopped for that kind of thing before.” Marcie was blushing. “When in Vegas…”

Just a few minutes later, Keri was feeling seriously faint as she watched Marcie mull over the choices in dildos. She was very business-like, picking them up to see how much they weighed, and only rolling her eyes at one so large it could have served as a table leg. Keri kept her hands in her pockets as Marcie touched vibrators and even some of the bondage supplies. When she got to the lube samples Keri finally got up the nerve to make it clear she wasn’t exactly a novice.

“Try this one,” she suggested, squeezing a single drop onto Marcie’s fingertip. “I think that stretchy and slightly viscous is the most…natural.”

Marcie’s eyebrows arched as she rolled the lube between her fingers and thumb. “That’s…I didn’t think it would feel quite so real.” A gorgeous flush crept up her throat.

“I know the older I get the more a little extra moisture helps.”

“I hadn’t noticed you lacking.” Marcie sniffed the lube, but Keri knew it was odorless.

“Nor me you. All I have to do is look at you and…” She winked. “Course, there are high stress days where worrying about being wet enough is almost enough to turn off the libido. Lube is like permission to get ready. If there’s a hurry, it’s permission to skip foreplay and just—” She broke off, blushing. “Like this afternoon.”

“I’ve never been into fast and…hot and bothered, I mean…the way you make me feel.” Marcie kept playing with the slippery stuff on her fingertips as if she couldn’t help herself. “I’ve always wanted the slowness, the time.”

“It’s almost like a ritual with you. I love the care you take to set the stage, and how it always seems like an occasion, I really do.” But it doesn’t always have to be that way, Keri wanted to add.

“Maybe I’ve been unimaginative for the last twenty or so years. Or maybe it’s you bringing out something in me.” Marcie moved closer and whispered, “Your fingers felt really good inside me. I really didn’t need…time. I needed…you.”

“Baby,” Keri whispered back, “I could do that to you right now.”

Marcie swallowed hard. “Shall we get these things? Um, this one—we could say it was a holistic art work and see who figures out first what it really is.”

Keri liked the size and look of the marbled toy. It was a classic non-representational shape, sleek from tip to base. Today was the first time she’d really explored the inside of Marcie, but her guess was the toy would be a good fit. Not that she would suggest they use it. This was a gag gift. Right.

“What about lube? If we give someone a toy, they ought to have lube.”

Marcie held up a small bottle of Nirvana brand. “Sunshine will think that’s funny.”

“Nirvana won’t.”

“Nirvana doesn’t think anything is funny, but that’s okay.”

The traded gift card just covered the two items and Keri tucked the toy package under her arm as if it were perfectly natural to walk around that way. Marcie opened the lube bottle to smell it as they waited for the elevator to arrive. She tipped a drop onto her index finger and rubbed it around. “A little really goes a long way.”