Never Too Late (34 page)

“You let her say awful things to me.” Carla backed up, pulling a Kleenex from her pocket and wiping her eyes.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have let it come to such an awful confrontation. I planned to tell you tonight at dinner. And I was going to tell you I moved out—”

“How could you be with someone like that?” Carla marched through the living room.

“Because I got lost, Carla.” Jamie followed her as fear tensed her stomach. What if Carla wouldn’t forgive her? “Ever since that night—”

“She’s a bully…homophobic…egotistical…” Carla stopped at the open doors to the patio.

Jamie scooted in front of Carla and squeezed her shoulders. “I. Left. Her.” Was Carla’s gaze softening? “I moved out Monday night.”

“You left her? Why?”

Jamie wiped tears off Carla’s cheeks with her thumbs. “Because I’m in love with you. I fell in love with you that night—”

“But…you’re not…you’ve changed, Jamie. I don’t know what to think.”

“Carla, I lost track of who I was. Until you came back into my life and made me remember that night—the carefree fun, the passion that neither of us expected…” Jamie searched for the words that would open the future she wanted by closing the past she didn’t. Carla’s eyes were softer but her arms were still crossed. Was it too late?

“I forgot about my dreams. I confused love with loyalty and responsibility and forgot about happiness. I was on autopilot, I guess.” Jamie shook her head as the path to her unhappiness became clear. “It started with my father. I should never have agreed to the clinic. But I loved and respected him, and I couldn’t disappoint him. After a while that became the way I handled everything. I stopped feeling my own unhappiness. So it was easy to do the same with Sheryl—let her dreams become more important than mine, take care of her without expecting her to support me.” Carla’s eyes showed some of the understanding Jamie desperately needed.

“I kept trying to please people who never cared about my dreams, never supported me or loved me for who I am, only for what I could give them. I can’t live that way anymore. I fell in love with you that night—real and powerful and full of hope, and then it was gone before I could grab onto it. I want us to have the happy ending we both wanted. Every day for the rest of my life I want you,” she whispered against Carla’s lips. She held her breath as she waited for Carla to determine her future.

Carla closed her eyes, a smile tugging at her lips. “Say it again.”

“I love you with all my heart.”

“Promise you’ll never break my heart or lie to me again.” Carla opened her eyes, the smile tempered by a tentative look.

Jamie kissed away tears as she rubbed her palm over Carla’s chest. “I’ll take very good care of this heart.” She caressed the inside of Carla’s breast. “And what’s over it.”

Carla crossed her arms again. “Out and proud isn’t just a phrase to me, Jamie. I’ve believed in it since watching you live it that night. Sheryl…giving Lissa and Steph a hard time—”

“I never should have stood by as if it wasn’t my concern. Talk about a lack of backbone. I’m so sorry.” Jamie would give anything never to have put that hurt in Carla’s eyes.

“I won’t hide who I am—not in public, not in your office.”

“I don’t want you to.”

“You work too much.”

“I’ll work less.”

“Vacations?”

“Absolutely. As many as you want.”

“And…do you even wear tank tops any more?” Carla’s voice was husky.

Jamie traced her hand down Carla’s abdomen. The muscles tightened under her fingers. “I’ll wear one every day.”

“I want more nights like that.” Carla’s eyes sparked with desire and her lips parted.

“I was just getting warmed up.” Jamie pulled Carla’s blouse from the skirt and slid her hand up soft skin to her breast encased in the satiny bra. She moaned as she cupped it and rolled Carla’s nipple between her fingers. “Anything else?”

“No…ahh…” Carla leaned into Jamie’s hand. “Maybe one more thing…”

Jamie kissed from her ear to the base of her throat and sucked gently as she caressed Carla’s other breast.

“Could you do something about the pressure between my legs?”

Jamie groaned as she backed Carla to the couch and fell on top of her as gently as possible. Her mind was fuzzy with need as she fastened her mouth to Carla’s, and their tongues danced against each other. Carla’s fingers tugged on her shirt as she worked her hand inside Carla’s bra and massaged the soft flesh that filled her palm. Moans escaped, but she wasn’t sure if they were hers or Carla’s.

“Damn your buttons. Help me,” Carla said, her voice as impatient as her fingers. “I never forgot how it felt to touch you,” she whispered.

Jamie slid Carla’s fingers aside as she worked her buttons open. Carla’s hand slid inside, and her palm rubbed back and forth from one breast to the other, making both nipples painfully hard. “God,” Jamie rasped, afraid she’d explode. Her clit clenched dangerously, and she shifted away from Carla’s thigh. Not yet.

Jamie stroked Carla’s knee, then under her skirt along her thigh. Her mouth found Carla’s again, and she kissed her hard and deep, making up for all the lost years. She played her fingers over Carla’s panties, teasing her until she groaned, then slipped inside, spreading the wetness. Her fingers were at Carla’s opening when her mouth was suddenly empty.

“No…wait.” Carla placed her palm against Jamie’s cheek as she tried to sit up. “Jamie? Honey, look at me.”

“What?” Jamie couldn’t focus on Carla’s words. The pressure in her center was climbing to critical levels again, and all she could think about was how badly she wanted Carla.

“I want to take a bath with you. I want our first time together to be—”

“Special.” Jamie groaned as she lifted off Carla and tried to turn her lust down to a simmer. She didn’t want their first time to be a heated groping on the couch, either. “Bedroom,” she said, as she stood and extended her hand.

Carla giggled. “We look like a couple of oversexed teenagers making out in the backseat of their parents’ car.”

“How would you know about that? I thought you were a nice Southern girl?”

“Not so nice.” Carla plastered Jamie to the wall and proved her point with a kiss so passionate Jamie’s legs gave out. Carla’s arm around her waist kept her up as they stumbled down the hallway, bumping against the wall as they kissed their way to the bedroom.

Jamie opened her eyes when Carla’s lips left hers. “Wow.” The space was so intimate it took Jamie’s breath away.

“You like it?”

“It’s beautiful.” Jamie walked arm in arm with Carla to the canopy bed they’d looked at. A bedspread embroidered like a sunset in shades of peach, lavender, and pink lay over ivory sheets. Pillows were piled against the headboard, and Jamie rubbed her palm over one. “Guess we can’t toss these on the floor like in that hotel.” She wasn’t teasing. The room and what was going to happen in it made her tremble.

Carla took Jamie’s hand. “Nervous?”

Jamie nodded. Carla’s accent was more pronounced, and it slowed her down as if she were back in the heat and heaviness of that long-ago trip to the South. She’d never been back to Atlanta, had never gone to another women’s music festival. She felt disoriented as missing pieces of her past searched for their counterparts in this moment.

“Me, too,” Carla said, squeezing her hand.

Jamie swallowed hard as she wrapped her arm around Carla’s waist. “We’re really going to do this, aren’t we?” She knew she would remember this night as clearly as she had that night in Atlanta.

“Well, I guess we could wait another—”

“No. If we wait much longer something’s going to explode.” Jamie’s body was consumed with a need she hadn’t felt in twenty years.

*

Carla led Jamie to the bathroom. She lit white candles along the edge of the Jacuzzi tub as it filled and then sat on the edge, holding out her hand. Jamie was rooted in the doorway, hands in her pockets, staring at the tub, a sweet smile softening her face. “Come here, honey.” Her heart was bursting with joy, and the tingly feeling was having its way with her. She felt young and vibrant—a woman free to love and be loved in the only way that had ever fulfilled her yearnings for passion.

Carla slipped off Jamie’s shirt and bra with trembling fingers. Candlelight flickered across Jamie’s face. Carla traced her finger around the edge of her areola and the flesh puckered. With a last look at Jamie’s flushed face she took her breast into her mouth and circled her nipple with her tongue. She wrapped her arms around Jamie’s waist, holding her up as she feasted on her breast, sucking on it, then tracing her tongue around her nipple, then sucking on it again.

Carla wanted to laugh and cry and sing as she released Jamie’s breast. She hadn’t had a woman’s flesh in her mouth since that night, but the softness was etched in her memory. With Jamie’s eyes locked on hers, dark and steamy, she stood and slid her blouse off her shoulders and then her bra. Her breasts felt mercifully free and painfully full. Her nipples ached for contact, and she stepped forward until they met Jamie’s. She closed her eyes at the sensuality of the contact. Shivers went through. She had no more experience making love to a woman now than she had twenty years ago, but she’d made love to Jamie a hundred times in her mind. She reached for a clip to pull her hair back.

“Leave it loose.” Jamie sifted her fingers through it, her eyes full of the love Carla had ached to see for so long.

Carla turned off the faucet, and they watched each other as the rest of their clothing was discarded in a pile at their feet. She held out her hand and they stepped into the tub together, moving into the positions they’d taken that night. “Tell me what you remember.” She wrapped Jamie’s arms across her stomach and leaned her head back on her shoulder.

They shared stories of that night and played much as they had—scooping soap bubbles over each other, washing each other. By unspoken consent they let passion swirl around them but not consume them. When the memories settled, Carla stood up and stepped out of the tub, then extended her hand to Jamie.

Water dripped from Jamie’s body as she wrapped the towel around herself, and Carla wanted to lick each drop. She ran a brush through her hair, lifting it away from her shoulders. In the mirror she saw Jamie’s eyes fastened on her, tears sliding down her cheeks.

“What’s wrong?”

Jamie stepped into her arms. She was trembling. “I haven’t been this happy since that night. I wish…” Jamie’s voice broke.

“It’s the same for me, but it’s never too late to find our happy-ever-after.”

Jamie kissed the angle of her neck, then trailed her tongue up to Carla’s jaw and across to her mouth. The kiss was so heartbreakingly tender Carla’s eyes filled with tears.

“Thank you for rescuing me,” Jamie said, her lips against Carla’s.

“Just returning the favor.” Carla took Jamie’s hand and led her to the bed. She was going to share it with the right woman. Sliding between the sheets they snuggled against each other, Jamie’s cheek above her breast and her palm on Carla’s stomach. They sighed at the same time.

“So what happens next, Ms. romantic-comedy expert?”

“Well, Ms. I-want-a-little-action-with-my-kissing,” Carla said, stroking her fingers through Jamie’s hair, “the lovers look longingly at each other and dissolve into a heated kiss as the music swells. Speaking of which.”

“I’m not sure if I want to do this next part with anyone else in the room, but that first part sounds worth exploring.” Jamie slid on top of Carla and fit their centers together as Carla spread her legs.

“That night I learned what blind need was, what I’d only read about in romance novels. Remind me,” Carla said, exaggerating her Southern accent. Jamie’s eyes darkened and her chest moved in quick, shallow, breaths as she rocked against Carla.

Carla cupped the back of Jamie’s head and pulled her face down until their lips grazed each other. Sliding her tongue along Jamie’s lips, teasing her, she let passion escalate the kiss to a prolonged caress of tongues.

“Move with me, my beautiful Southern girl,” Jamie whispered, as she rocked her pelvis, matching her rhythm to Carla’s.

Carla slid her heels up Jamie’s calves, opening herself. Wetness coated her thighs, whether hers or Jamie’s she didn’t know. Jamie stopped rocking, her face tight and flushed. Carla held Jamie’s butt and pushed herself up into the heat of Jamie’s center, responding to the depth of need in Jamie’s eyes. “Don’t hold back. Let me see you come.”

Jamie moaned as they ground against each other. Bracing herself on her elbows, Jamie lifted her center. “Inside. I want you inside me when I come. Hurry.”

Carla found Jamie’s opening and slid into her. Her heart opened in a flurry of desire at the rightness of being inside the woman she’d never stopped wanting. She needed this connection in her soul. Stroking deeply, she watched Jamie’s face change with the first flicker of her orgasm. Her jaw tightened and then relaxed as Carla felt the warm flesh tighten around her fingers.

“Oh, God…yes…yes.” Jamie arched her back as she came, crying out Carla’s name. She rode Carla’s fingers, driving them deeper. With one final thrust she collapsed onto Carla, trapping her fingers inside.

“Guess you had a little pent up—” An urgent mouth on hers, a demanding tongue, teeth that gently nibbled her lips, cut her off. Jamie straddled her thigh, leaving a trail of wetness. Carla groaned when familiar fingers stroked her clit. She lifted into the touch, her belly full with demanding need. She wrapped her arms around Jamie’s back and found Jamie’s mouth as fingers entered her, gentle but demanding.

Jamie traced a path with her tongue across Carla’s cheek, then sucked on her ear lobe. “I want to take you in my mouth.”

“Yes…please,” Carla croaked. Jamie slid down her body, stopping to take a breast into her mouth and tease her nipple to a painful peak. She arched into Jamie’s touch as anticipation of what Jamie would do sent desire, hot and demanding, through her body. Heat flared in her center as she waited for Jamie’s mouth to give her release. She moaned when Jamie’s tongue traced delicately around her clit and again as the teasing tongue refused to give her what she needed. She held the back of Jamie’s head and pulled her mouth against her. She felt Jamie smile against her flesh, and then her hand covered Carla’s breast and played with her nipple.