Page 183 of Nocere

"We have each other now, too. Am I allowed to love you?" She grinned when she said it and I laughed softly.

"Yes. Am I allowed to love you back?"

"Until the end of time, for sure." She wrapped her arm around my shoulders. "I'm looking forward to getting to know my sister."

"Me too." The breath that left me rattled in my chest as if some sort of expulsion ran with it.

Juni's arrival signaled something greater for us—a full-circle effect that I couldn't quite understand at that moment. She felt like a dream, a sister who was good, and honest, and kind. She wasn't like our mother, of that much I could tell, and neither was I.

"You know something?" I said and Juni shook her head. "The day you came and found me, it was Grandma's birthday."

"Maybe she sent me. Maybe she thought we were ready," she said, as we both gazed down at the album in our laps. "Do you believe in things like that?"

"Not very much, but today I might." I fingered the edges of the album that once belonged to the woman who showed me how to love and be loved. "I think I will."

"Me too." Juni's smile, laden with happiness and fringes of sadness, mirrored how I felt inside. I knew my truth hurt her, but sharing ourselves just might bring us closer. Taking risks and letting people in is how I found my real mother and how I found the woman I love. Juniper, with her hippie name and cloney hair, might be worth the very same risk.

"Would you like to have dinner at my house on Sunday? We have family dinner every week," she said, her gaze on mine.

"We do too." My cheeks lifted with my smile. "I'd like to meet your family."

"And I'd really like to meet the rest of yours."

***

"What are you thinking about, my sweet Rosie?" asked Sam as she crawled over me while I lay sprawled out naked in her bed. Her breasts grazed mine, and her overheated skin from her recent shower sent quivers up my spine.

"That everything feels like a dream. Everything that's happened in the last few months. Meeting and falling in love with you. My mom out of prison. Juni. Our families. It's a lot and yet…"

"So much introspection from you." She drew circles around my navel and bit her bottom lip before she said, "And here I am spending my whole shower fantasizing about your dripping pink pussy."

"Sam!" I cracked up and she tickled my sides which only made me cackle more. "Samirah!"

"You know you love it." She nibbled my ear while laughing, then urged both of my hands above my head. "I have a surprise for you."

"What?" My face nearly exploded from my laughter and burned with leftover heat.

"Something you asked for…" She reached under the pillow and pulled out a long crimson ribbon. It dangled in the air above me while she pinched it between her fingers, and the very end feathered over my skin. "Red for my Rose."

I gnawed on my bottom lip as the ache between my thighs made itself known. My feet writhed against the sheets and I couldn't form a coherent word as I gazed up at her.

"Like that, do you?" She grinned and nipped at my lips.

"Yes." I leaned in to kiss her, and she straddled my thigh while winding the silk ribbon around my wrist.

"What's our safe word?" she ended the kiss to ask.

"S-snowman," I croaked, gulping down my excitement.

"Tell me how you want me to restrain you, baby. Above your head? Behind your back?" Sam kissed down my body, her tongue lashing over my excited flesh. My nipples hardened and the pressure in my pussy throbbed with desire.

"Um…" My breathing picked up and Sam squeezed one of my thighs with her knees, and parted my legs to gaze down at me.

"My God, baby. You're soaked."

"I-I think I'm gonna come." I sucked in my breath and fought the moan that threatened to accompany the rolling of my hips.

"Did I give you permission to come yet?" She popped my hip with a light slap and I cried out, my toes curling as I fought the release that nearly forced its way to the surface.

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