Page 22 of Scorched Hearts

On the grounds next to the building, they began assessing the woman’s state. The situation was much better than anyone had expected, and provided she got to the hospital quickly enough, her chances of survival seemed great. Everyone let out a little sigh of relief while getting the woman into the car with her oxygen mask on.

“I’ll get back on my own,” Maya shouted to the paramedics, knowing it was well past the end of her shift, and she let the ambulance leave without her.

She craved rest, somewhere quiet and cool. Whatever gentle breeze blew her way, she felt her sweaty body shiver. There was something familiar about this neighborhood, something telling her she’d been here before. The cobblestone pathways and tree-lined alleys led somewhere she was certain she would recognize.

Suddenly, a hand grabbed her shoulder, startling her.

“What--?” she turned around, standing face to face with Elle. “Where’s your crew?” She raised her eyebrow.

“Oh, I asked them to leave me. I was finishing my shift anyway. Where is your crew?”

Elle was on her own in her navy blue fire department shirt and pants. The muscles of her arms glowed a beautful bronze. Her dark hair was in a messy bun.

Uncharacteristic silence crept up between them. Elle got a bit closer, her eyes steadily laid on Maya’s face, lowering a little to her lips. Maya didn’t know where to look or what to do with her body. She felt a sense of peace after an exhausting effort, the waves of cool evening breeze relaxing her following the hot, bustling day. For a moment, she wanted to forget what had happened between her and Elle. She wanted to relax into her like a stranger, someone containing all the mysteries of their personality, or mistakes, still untouched.

When Elle closed the space between them, Maya allowed herself to lean into her body. She looked up, surprised to find the same sensation she’d felt all those years ago. She felt her body fit into Elle’s perfectly, just like before, as if they’d never separated. Elle raised Maya’s chin, and their lips met – this time gently, as if they wanted to lick out a confession from one another. Elle’s lips felt soft and moist, like a pond of water against the day’s draught. Maya drove her fingers up her neck, reaching for her hair to weave her fingers into. Whenever their eyes would meet, they’d look away. As if in a dance of shadows, their bodies clung to each other but their minds stayed conflicted. Maya moved down to Elle’s neck. She laid a trail of kisses on her throat, then kissed her way back up again to Elle’s lips, slipping her tongue in and trailing the inside of her mouth, slowly, deliberately. Their hips clashed, and Maya was certain she wouldn’t walk away without having all of Elle. The need growing rapidly moist in between her thighs pushed any memory of their dispute into the furthest corners of her mind, bending its shape into that of physical desire. She wanted Elle, and the knowledge that she could have her made her drunk on the thought of it. She pulled Elle’s hips closer and rapidly pushed her tongue inside Elle’s mouth so as to make Elle quietly moan.

“We’re in public.” Elle pulled her away, flustered.

“So take me to yours,” Maya said in a seductive tone she hadn’t used in a long time. “You live nearby, no?”

The quiet satisfaction of placing this neighborhood in her memory made Maya grin to herself. Elle smiled, putting her hands in her pockets. She was still wearing her uniform pants and a simple navy blue fire department shirt she usually wore beneath her jacket. The sight of Elle’s toned arms and the outline of her breasts in that top made Maya want to carry her to the house.

“I do, I’m fifteen minutes away,” Elle pointed out the direction.

They held hands while walking, and Maya thought of nothing besides her fast beating heart. Kissing Elle felt like breaking the rules. It felt forbidden, and all the more delicious. It felt intoxicating, like the little sips of whiskey you had hidden in a cupboard, like sneaking out back when they were teenagers. She said she didn’t want to talk to Elle – but putting her tongue inside of her wasn’t exactly talking, was it? Making her moan wasn't a conversation, either. Maybe sex fitted within what she could permit herself. A familiar gravel path crunched beneath their feet, and Maya knew they were close.

She hoped Elle wouldn’t try to talk to her. Their words always came out tangled, creating complicated knots. No, Maya was craving something naked and raw, something she had felt hidden in Elle’s mouth and waiting to be tasted again.

“Here we are,” Elle smoothly opened the door.

“You live alone?”

“Mhmm.”

There were a million things going through Maya’s head as she stepped into the beautiful house, but she said none of them. She didn’t comment on the tastefully high ceilings, the size of the house, the collection of expensive paintings. This house stood as proof to her that time passes for everyone, that not only she, but Elle, had also undergone a string of changes and successes of which Maya would never know the full scope.

Unimportant, she thought, pinning Elle to the wall.

I’m just here for one thing.

She teased Elle’s lips with her tongue mercilessly, licking them gently then pulling away whenever Elle opened her mouth to pursue a kiss. Maya saw her gasp with blissful annoyance, saw her legs twitch, and her body, maybe even a part of her mind, felt at home.

She put her hands beneath the fabric of Elle’s shirt, climbing up the familiar, muscled stomach, up to the soft skin of her breasts in a crop top, so softly feminine and contrasting with the steel firmness of the rest of her body. She thought it a delicious privilege to be able to access such a sensitive part of Elle, hidden away and protected. Maya took her time to feel the hardening nipples beneath her fingers, making Elle quietly moan – a sound she’d learned to forget craving at night, but which now would surely come back to her each evening. She could smell the familiar scent of Elle’s sweat mingling with that sweet smokiness that lingered in her hair that Maya had always enjoyed.

“Should we see your bedroom?” she whispered directly into Elle’s ear, knowing how quickly the shivers would travel down her spine.

Elle nodded, flustered. Walking up the staircase, Maya wondered whether any other girl made her flustered this way, or whether it had stayed the same, whether the only person to really know this side of Elle remained Maya.

They entered the bedroom absorbed in their kiss, their limbs reaching for each other like drowning women looking for something to save them. They kept seeking each other’s faces as if they were sunflowers at the early hours of dawn, looking for something nourishing, looking for their source of life. Maya’s mind sat back in a momentary truce, crossed its arms and put a blindfold on, letting her body do what it had to do. Her senses took the reins, guiding her hands to pull the shirt and crop top off Elle’s body, to inhale the earthy scent of her skin and lick her way up from her abdomen back to her mouth.

“Did you miss me?” Elle asked, half sighing from anticipation. Her hand ran through Maya’s hair to finally rest on the back of her neck.

Maya froze for a second. “Don’t talk,” She looked up at Elle from between her breasts, her eyes sparkling.

“..All right.” Elle flashed a mischievous smile, one that said I know what you’re doing.

Elle knew what Maya needed and was prepared to go along with it.

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