Page 32 of Leather and Lace
Mary’s hands tightened on Alex’s soaked jacket. “What did you say?”
Alex raised an eyebrow but repeated herself all the same. “Fear is no--”
“Not that part.”
“Then what part would you have me repeat?”
“The part where you say you love me.”
Chapter 13
“Ilove you.”
Three simple words had never changed Mary’s world quite so succinctly. They were only words, and words, Mary had learned in the form of broken promises uttered by lovers, or her mother’s compulsion for lies, could and did mean very little.
But these words--Alex’s words meant everything to Mary.
“I love you,” Mary had said in return. They had stared at one another then, the deafening sound of the storm the only sound save for their breathing but even that was now lost to the storm’s fury. She wrapped her arms around Alex’s shoulders and pulled the other woman to her in a kiss that was neither gentle nor unsure. It was hungry and needy, and as powerful as the tempest raging around them.
“I love you,” she said again when they parted. The kiss had left them breathless and staring as if they had never clapped eyes on the other until this moment. And perhaps they never had, not truly. There was nothing between them but the truth now and with it came love and passion, and most of all need.
Alex’s lips pulled into a slow smile and she rose to her feet, bringing Mary with her. “Come with me, Minnie.” She turned, leading Mary in the direction of the bedroom, though they only made it to the hallway before Mary was once more reaching for Alex. She smoothed her hands over her muscular shoulders and, raising herself up on her tiptoes, slanted her mouth to Alex’s in another eager kiss.
Alex moaned, her mouth opening to Mary’s questing tongue and she swept the smaller woman up against her. “Minnie. My beautiful Minnie. I love you,” She whispered against Mary’s lips. “I love you.”
A heat swept through Mary’s body and she swore there wasn't a part of her that did not crave Alex’s strong hands and fingers. She arched her back seeking to be closer and laughed when they bumped awkwardly into the wall and then once more off the doorframe. She supposed it may have been easier to make their way to her bed if they had thought to separate but there wasn’t a less appealing action to her than letting go of Alex. Although she did so reluctantly as the other woman insisted on lighting a fire.
“I need to see you,” Alex told her once the fireplace was coaxed to life. She crossed the room and dropped to her knees in front of Mary and reached for her foot. She undid the laces of her boots with a patience and focus Mary admired. She, on the other hand, was anything but focused and leaned forward yanking the still dripping coat from Alex’s body with a fumbling jerk of her hands. It landed in a sopping mess on the floor and she knew their impassioned journey to her bed would be a nightmare to clean up... but it would also be entirely worth it. She would relish every second they spent cleaning mud and water from their home. Each and every drop of it would remind her of this night and of the fulfillment she found in it.
“May I undress you?” Alex asked. She was still kneeling in front of Mary, and the effect of it was nearly too much for her sensibilities to handle. Her wife cut a very fine image.
“Yes, you may. I insist, actually. Pleasedo,” she said, the last word lingering and heavy with the yearning Mary felt for the other woman’s touch. “I need your hands on me.”
“Do you?” Alex asked as she rose to her feet, her hands trailing slowly up Mary’s legs, thighs, and then finally her sides.
“Yes,yes.”
“And how much do you need my hands on you, my Minnie?”
“If you were to stop touching me I would stop breathing, I would-I would,” Mary threw her hands up and shook her head, very nearly stamping her foot as she placed her hands on Alex’s and pressed them close to her. “I feel as if I might die if you were to take your hands from me.”
Alex’s eyes darkened, the rain droplets glistening on her lush lashes as her golden hair glittered in the firelight. The warmth of the fire softened her wife’s normally sharp features into something entrancing, intoxicating even, and Mary shook her head in disbelief at the raw beauty in front of her, touching her.
“Then I shall never stop touching you.” Alex’s fingers flexed. The weight of her touch on Mary’s waist made her shiver with anticipation and when her wife carefully turned her to face away, she found she was nearly trembling.
“I’m going to undress you now,” Alex told her, the other woman’s voice was low and gravely, hoarse in all the very best manner of ways. The tone of it filled Mary’s mind with images of early morning fog on a lake, of the way the mountains broke through the mist at the first sunlight, it was base in need—powerful in its existence because it demanded Mary as she craved to be needed, desired.
Mary nodded her permission and stood with shaking hands, back to her wife, her eyes fixed on the fire that was still coming to life. It had come quite a long way in such little time, from the embers and first sparks. Now long flames licked at the fire grate, the wood inside popping and crackling as it continued to grow. Before long it would consume the logs in a blaze Mary was sure could take them, house and all, were it not safely contained in its proper place. She felt much like that fire, slowly coming to life beneath Alex’s skilled hands. Until she was capable of taking them both, if it were not that she too, like the fire, were precisely where she belonged.
Alex’s fingers worked on the buttons of her dress as surely as if she were not attempting to do so after a hard ride and dripping from the downpour. Mary’s mind drifted to what she would be capable of when her fingers weren’t in danger of freezing, but that was not now and now...now Mary had Alex, freezing hands and all, at her back and working her dress free. She swallowed, the pulse at the base of her throat jumping when her dress loosened and slid down to her ankles. She stepped forward and out of the dress at the gentle press of Alex’s hands at the small of her back. Goose flesh rose on her skin despite the warmth of the room. She was standing in only her underthings and Mary was under no illusion that anything other than the woman behind her was responsible for the pebbling of her skin. Alex stepped in close, hands once more coming to rest lightly on the curves of her sides and the woman inhaled sharply when she surveyed the state of the corset Mary wore.
“Oh Minnie, why have you been hiding this from me?”
“Hiding? Hiding what?” She looked over her shoulder at Alex to see an expression of sorrow and consternation painting her beautiful features.
“This,” Alex said, pressing lightly on the corset she wore. She ran a finger up the length of one seam, her touch ginger on the boning that dug painfully into Mary’s side. “This is constricting, Minnie. Why are you wearing it so tightly? Can you breathe?”
She bit her lip and looked down at the garment. Alex’s fingers were stark against the cream material, the material that was laced as tightly as Mary was able to manage. Morning after morning she had done it under the careful watch and direction of her mother but now...why had she kept doing it?
