Page 42 of The Headmistress

When she took the naked nipple in her mouth seconds later, Magdalene had to slap both of her hands over her mouth in order to muffle a scream that almost broke free. Undeterred, Sam sucked harder, and when she felt her lover’s knees give out, she simply pulled her further into the room and toppled her onto the bed before following herself, never once giving up her prize.

Still, this was not how Sam wanted this encounter to go. She’d had months to imagine it, to fantasize about it, and she had a plan, though she suspected some of it would require a round two or even three, since Magdalene was as taut as a string under her, writhing and moaning with Sam’s every lick at her breasts.

But Sam wanted more, wanted everything, and as she moved downward, periodically kissing and nipping at the hip bones or the line between hip and pelvis, she could feel Magdalene holding her breath, no longer moving. As she glanced up, their eyes met and the connection, the sheer raw feeling, and emotion in one look robbed Sam of breath. She lowered her head and tasted then, totally, fully, and she felt more than heard the sigh of surrender that Magdalene let out when Sam’s mouth descended.

15

Of Freckles, Love & Truths

Ahand was running up and down her back in rather circuitous patterns that Sam—in her post-orgasmic haze—couldn’t quite decipher. She drifted placidly, between dreams of long fingers and the reality of having those very fingers on her skin.

When a quiet whisper became more pronounced, she raised her head from the pillow to find her lover looking intently at her, laying on her side, head on her left hand, the right continuing its exploration of Sam’s back and shoulders. The beautiful face was adorably scrunched up in concentration.

“Wha…”

“Shhh… You’re going to make me lose count. Seventeen, eighteen, wait, was it seventeen? Dammit, look what you’ve done, you made me lose track indeed.” Magdalene smiled then, showing a very confused Sam that she wasn’t really upset about whatever it was she was so intent on counting. Sam’s bewilderment must’ve still shown on her face because Magdalene leaned in and kissed her on the nose before settling back on her side.

“I was counting your freckles.”

And just like that, whatever inches of her heart Sam had still been holding back from sliding thoroughly and completely in love with this woman were immediately surrendered. Many, many years later, at the end of her time, Sam realized she would be blessed to be able to say exactly when, to the second, she’d fallen in love, and the words and the extraordinarily sweet gesture that had caused it.

She knew she had been walking the unsteady path towards love for months now, perhaps ever since their night in Manhattan—because she was just that much of a romantic stereotype to begin to slide into deep feelings after just one night of amazing sex. But what had transpired between them ever since Magdalene had walked into the Mess Hall of Dragons two months ago, all those events, the late-night conversations, the serendipitous meetings on Amber Dragon, the morning coffees together, they’d all lead to this exact moment. The moment when Magdalene looked relaxed and happy, and so achingly gorgeous that Sam’s chest simply expanded to absorb all this beauty and finally gave up on trying to hold back the tide of feelings.

The silence stretched between them, but far from being uncomfortable, it was filled with the enormity of Sam’s realization and Magdalene’s continuous gentle caresses. After a while Sam turned on her back and caught the wandering hand, kissing and nipping at each fingertip, making Magdalene throw her head back and giggle like a schoolgirl. The faint lines around her eyes and mouth seemed to disappear as she turned back time with the genuine expression of happiness. She looked youthful, carefree, joyful, and unencumbered by the cares of the world that would intrude soon enough. The wall clock showed 4 AM, and their time together was slowly dwindling.

Still holding the warm fingertips that smelled faintly like her own essence, Sam tucked Magdalene’s hand between her breasts and turned on her side. They lay like that for a few moments, facing each other, holding hands in the middle of a totally wrecked bed, with pillows strewn god-knows-where and the fitted sheet torn from its confines.

With joy gradually ebbing from her face, and her expressive eyes giving her away once again, Magdalene cleared her throat.

“Must you?” Sam couldn’t help but interrupt whatever unhappy utterance was on its way.

“I must, Sam. I must.” But she stayed silent and instead just cuddled closer, right into Sam’s ready embrace, putting her head on Sam’s shoulder and squeezing her tight. Whatever was about to be said, would be a doozie, and Sam knew it. But what followed from Magdalene, still came as an utter surprise.

“Whatever they may have put in my file as their reason for ending my probationary period as a student at Dragons was a lie, Sam. They threw me out for kissing a girl.”

Well, Sam had pretty much called that the revelation would be explosive since Magdalene had been gearing up to something big, but it still took her aback, no matter how much she’d tried to prepare herself just seconds before. It made her think that she had been wrong, and turns out Dragons had had another gay student and they’d found ways to rid themselves of her, after all. Before Sam’s time, but still. And it made her think that staying in her stifling, uncomfortable, yet safe closet was the right thing to do if this is what happened when the truth came out. Still, she remained silent and just held her lover tighter, the tears evident in her voice tearing at Sam’s heart.

“Of all people, it was Alden who caught me. How unlucky do you have to be, to not only be caught kissing your first girlfriend for the very first time, but to get caught by a trustee who only visits the school maybe once a year?”

Magdalene burrowed deeper into Sam’s arms, and her voice steadied a bit.

“A week after the incident, they dismissed me. I was sixteen and shipped from one boarding school to the next, over and over and over again, Sam. And yet, it was at Dragons where I had my epiphany about who I really was, even if it took me a while to accept it. So you see, the school meant the world to me. I felt at home, I felt like I was given a chance, a chance of a lifetime for me, to fit in, to belong. My mother was mostly absent from my life by then. And this school? It was such a strange conundrum. It was everything good and decent and fun and interesting and yet backward to the point of absurdity. Thirty years ago they could still pass being illegitimate as unacceptable. Considering how religious Dragons was, and how fanatical Reverend Sanderson was in his preaching, someone with the circumstances of my birth had no place there. So they chose to run with that instead of with the fact that they had caught two students in a liplock.”

Magdalene absently trailed gentle fingertips on Sam’s skin, lost in her memories.

“Deep down, or maybe not even that deep, what they still did not tolerate was for anyone to be gay. Plus, if they’d have documented the real reason for my dismissal in my files, my chances of getting into another prestigious academy would’ve been fairly nonexistent. Back then, most of them were religious and rather intent on maintaining appearances. In the end, I was referred to a school that was struggling financially and couldn’t afford to be as selective about their students as Dragons chose to be. And my mother had tons of money to throw at them. So they decided to overlook my so-called pedigree.”

She sighed, and Sam could feel her skin growing colder despite the closeness of their embrace.

“I always assumed Alden didn’t want a scandal on his hands. Hilda, the girl I kissed, was from a very influential family. My mother wouldn’t have cared one way or the other, but Hilda’s parents would have been certain to cause a ruckus. It would have been like disturbing a veritable wasps’ nest, pun intended. Dragons always had this highly conservative reputation—that it was a school exclusively for good Protestant girls. Prudish, repressed parents liked to send their girls there and believed they were praying three times a day and learned psalms or whatnot.”

Sam could feel the anger in Magdalene’s voice, like a gust of wind, building towards a storm. But then derision took over, and Magdalene seemed to rein in her stronger emotions.

“I confess I wasn’t a very good student when it came to religious studies. And I wasn’t the only one. Goddess knows, again pun intended, even thirty years ago Dragons rebelled against those structures and strictures. It was quietly moving away from all that. Reverend Sanderson was holding on to the vestiges of that order, but the students were making their opposition known more and more. Maybe that’s why I felt like I belonged at Dragons.”

The voice warmed, and Sam could feel Magdalene smiling against her chest.

“I was born among the glitz of the Boston elite, an ‘unfortunate accident’ or whatever my mother called it. From the age of five, she shipped me off to various schools—out of sight and out of mind—as she went on with her socialite life. I think the only times she would remember I existed was when she was forced to look for a new school for me since I inevitably caused some kind of chaos no matter where I went. I was restless, abrasive. So by sixteen, I’d seen it all.”

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