CHAPTER 33

Aspen wanted to ask why Kendra had spent so much time telling her not to get her hopes up because she might not ever be able to take her shirt off around her, but now they were pressed together, and she’d done that very thing. Kendra had made one request of her, though, and that was not to ask any questions until later, so Aspen wouldn’t do anything to ruin this moment for either of them.

“God, Aspen,” Kendra let out when Aspen lowered her mouth to suck on her nipple. “No one’s… done that in… a long… time.”

Aspen looked up into Kendra’s tear-filled eyes.

“No?”

Kendra shook her head.

“I think I’ll spend a lot of time here, then,” Aspen said and licked Kendra’s nipple.

“Please,” Kendra replied in a near whisper.

Aspen cupped Kendra’s other breast and massaged it while she continued to lathe the nipple in front of her with her tongue before she sucked it to a peak and let go of it again.

“I…”

Aspen looked up.

“I’m glad it’s you.”

“So am I,” Aspen agreed before she moved her mouth to Kendra’s other breast, bathing it in the same attention.

She sucked and licked, nipped and blew cool air over them until she sucked on them again, and when Kendra’s hips started to rise and fall, Aspen moved her thigh between Kendra’s legs and pushed into her. She moved her center over Kendra’s thigh and lowered herself down.

“Jesus! Is that for me?” Kendra asked.

“Yes,” she confirmed.

“I want you, Aspen. Touch me.”

Aspen swallowed hard before she slid her hand between Kendra’s legs and found her wet.

“For so long,” she murmured more to herself than to Kendra.

She moved her fingers around aimlessly for a moment, listening to Kendra’s small moans and gasps before she began stroking her clit and rubbed her own over Kendra’s thigh as she kissed her. Kendra spread her legs for her, and Aspen gathered her wetness, letting it coat her fingers before she lowered them and found Kendra open for her. She slid one finger inside, pulled out, and went back in with two. Kendra bit her bottom lip, so Aspen moved her mouth to her neck, kissing Kendra there as she curled and flicked inside her, letting her thumb play with Kendra’s clit.

“Please…”

Aspen pushed in deeper and curled her fingers over and over. Kendra’s hands were on her back, fingers gripping her, keeping Aspen in place, so she decided to speed things up and began thrusting inside her.

“Yes!”

Aspen sucked on Kendra’s earlobe, listened to her sounds hitting her own ear, and they drove her to rub herself against Kendra harder.

“God, you sound so good. You’re going to make me come just from that,” Aspen told her.

“Please,” Kendra repeated.

“No, I want you to touch me. I want you to make me come.”

Kendra’s hand was suddenly between her legs, and all Aspen had to do was move against it.

“I’m touching you, baby. I’ll touch you more later. Please come with me. I want you to,” Kendra said.

It didn’t take long. Aspen had been waiting a while for this night with Kendra. The orgasm had been building slowly on its own, but once she had Kendra’s hand touching her, stroking her, it went from slow to fast really quickly.

“Fuck! I’m going to come,” Aspen said.

“Yes! Yes! Me–”

Aspen looked down at Kendra’s face. She had her head back, her cheeks were more than flushed, and her mouth was in the shape of an O. Kendra was coming, and that sent Aspen over the edge herself. She buried her face in Kendra’s neck, rocking her hips against Kendra’s very helpful hand. Then, gradually, she slowed her movements inside Kendra until Kendra’s free hand rested atop her own, getting her to stop entirely but still stay inside.

“Can you come again?” Aspen mumbled against Kendra’s neck before she kissed her there.

“Yes, but in a minute,” Kendra replied.

She sniffled, and Aspen lifted her head quickly to check on her.

“Are you okay? Did–”

Kendra had more tears in her eyes and some rolling down her cheeks. She used her hand not between Aspen’s legs to wipe at them and laughed a little. It was one of those laughs that told Aspen that she was okay physically but was processing something emotionally.

“Babe?” she asked again because she was a little worried that they’d just gone too far too soon.

“I’m okay,” Kendra replied and placed her hand on Aspen’s cheek. “I’m just really happy. Happy tears, Aspen. Lame, happy tears.”

“Not lame,” Aspen said and kissed her forehead. “Do you want to talk about it? Or not. We don’t have to, but we can, if you want.”

“You see me.”

Aspen tilted her head a bit as she slowly pulled out of Kendra and rolled onto her side because she wanted to use her other hand not to keep holding herself up but to wipe the new tears that had fallen on Kendra’s cheeks.

“I do,” she agreed.

“You see all of me, don’t you?” Kendra rolled on her side as well and faced Aspen. “I think I’ve been letting you see this part of me since the beginning because I knew you could see me and it would be okay.” She pointed to the scar in the middle of her chest. “I think that’s why I didn’t even think about it when I showed it to you on the beach after that interview.” She sniffled. “And in the car, why I unbuttoned my shirt that night. I think because… because we’ve been doing this from the moment I moved in next door, I know you.”

“You do.” Aspen ran her hand through Kendra’s hair.

“And I’ve known this whole time that it would be okay with you. I just needed to get here. I needed to get to this place where I could trust that; where I could look at my stupid scar and not think about the sport that I didn’t get to play but the life I have now, which isn’t bad at all.”

Aspen smiled softly at her.

“God, Aspen. My life is really good.” Kendra chuckled. “I don’t know that I want my job forever, and travel is starting to get to me, but that’s nothing I can’t handle or change, if I want to. And I have a house now that I really like and I’ve been working on, sometimes, with you. I have parents who love me and accept me for who I am. I have friends. I have…” She wiped a tear from her cheek. “I have a girlfriend whom I am crazy about. She makes me feel like I’m right where I’m supposed to be, and I’ve never had that before.”

“I’m glad it’s me. I want it to be me,” Aspen said. “But I also wish it didn’t have to be me. I wish you could’ve felt that all along.”

“I’m just glad I do now.”

Aspen kissed her on the nose and said, “So am I.”

“No one has seen my chest since my surgery, Aspen. That means that in ten years, no one has done what you just did to me, and it felt… so good.”

“I can do it again, if you want. Right now would be my choice, but if you–”

“Yes,” Kendra interjected.

“Yeah?” Aspen asked, letting her eagerness show.

She gave Kendra a gentle shove to get her on her back and returned to her position above her before she brought her mouth to Kendra’s to kiss her, tasting some salt from the tears but feeling like they were release tears and not sad ones. She lowered her mouth to Kendra’s breast next and kissed the top of one before moving to the other.

“Can I?” She hovered her lips over the scar between them. “You can say no.”

“I don’t know how it’ll feel, but… okay.”

Aspen looked back up at her and asked, “Are you sure?”

Kendra nodded, so Aspen lowered her lips and kissed the tip of the scar. When Kendra shuddered, though, Aspen looked up again. Kendra met her eyes and gave her a small smile, so Aspen did it again, lowering her lips slightly. She kissed her over and over all the way down that scar and kept going until she reached Kendra’s belly button.

“I was thinking that maybe I could put my lips somewhere else for a while, and my hands could be on your breasts, but I promise, I will have my mouth all over them again soon.” Her nose nuzzled at the curls between Kendra’s thighs. “What do you think about that plan?”

“Yes, please,” Kendra replied and spread her legs.

Aspen settled between them, taking her in and licking her lips at the sight of her.

“Aspen…”

“What?”

“Are you going to do anything down there, or…”

Aspen laughed a little and said, “Impatient much?”

“Babe, I want you.”

Aspen kissed Kendra’s inner thigh and said, “Then, I better get started, huh?”

“Yes.”

She didn’t waste any more time and licked Kendra hard.

“Oh, God,” Kendra said.

“Like that?”

“Yes. More. Just stay down there forever.”

Aspen smiled and placed her tongue on Kendra’s clit. She settled into a rhythm and moved her hands up to cup Kendra’s breasts. When Kendra’s hands topped her own and remained there, Aspen nearly teared up herself at the thought of Kendra denying herself something that she’d clearly wanted and maybe had even needed for a decade. She nearly teared up at the idea that Kendra had chosen her to be the one to give it to her, and when Kendra came in her mouth minutes later, Aspen did wipe a tear off her own cheek before she rested her head against Kendra’s thigh as she stared up at the woman who still had her eyes closed and her mouth half-open from pleasure.

“Come up here,” Kendra requested a few moments later.

Aspen obliged and moved back on top of her.

“You’re just good at everything, aren’t you?” Kendra teased as she wrapped her arms around Aspen’s neck.

Aspen laughed, and before she knew it, Kendra was on top of her, and Aspen had her head on the other pillow.

“How did you–”

“Distraction,” Kendra interrupted. “Also, it’s my turn now.”

“But I wanted my mouth around those nipples.” Aspen wrapped her arms around Kendra’s back.

Kendra squinted as if she was considering and leaned back to straddle Aspen’s thighs. Aspen took that as her cue and sat up. She moved her lips to Kendra’s right nipple and sucked hard, remaining there as Kendra’s hips began moving against her. Then, Aspen moved her mouth to the left breast and cupped Kendra’s right one.

“Fuck. I love your boobs,” she said. “They fit in my hands so well.” She massaged Kendra’s breast. “And my mouth.” She returned to suck hard on Kendra’s nipple.

“I’ll come if you don’t stop.”

“Wait. Really?”

“God, I…” Kendra continued to rub herself against Aspen’s body. “I can come from this. Please.”

“Not a problem.”

Aspen leaned back just a little to give more space for Kendra to work with, and as Kendra rubbed her clit against Aspen’s body, Aspen sucked and licked.

“Yes! Yes! Yes!” Kendra twitched, so Aspen held on to her and let her come and then come down. “I didn’t… plan that. It was… supposed to be about… you.”

“Oh, that was definitely about me. Trust me.”

Kendra laughed and grabbed Aspen’s face in both hands, pulling Aspen’s mouth to her own. She kissed her hard, pushing her tongue into Aspen’s mouth and moaning. Then, before Aspen knew it, she was on her back again, and Kendra had her hand between Aspen’s legs, silently requesting entry. When she pushed inside her, Aspen moaned into Kendra’s mouth. She came still kissing her girlfriend minutes later.

After Kendra settled into Aspen’s side, with Aspen’s arm around her shoulders and Kendra’s arm around Aspen’s middle, Aspen realized that she’d never felt that thing that Kendra had described earlier about a person; that she was right where she was supposed to be. She’d felt it with volleyball and maybe even with Los Angeles, which was her favorite place, but never with a person until now. Realizing that she’d probably felt that all along, ever since Kendra had entered her life as more than merely a sideline reporter, almost brought those tears back to her eyes, but she smiled instead and pushed them away.

“You leave for Berlin soon.”

“Hmm…” Aspen mumbled.

“Berlin. You leave soon,” Kendra pointed out as she drew shapes on Aspen’s stomach.

“Yeah, I do.”

“Big tournament. You could win and automatically qualify.”

“Yeah, a lot is riding on this one.” She kissed the top of Kendra’s head. “I think we’ll be okay either way, but I know DJ and I would like to lock this in and be done worrying about it already.”

“I’m not covering it for work.”

“I know. And I wish you were. I’d love it if you were there with me.”

Kendra shifted to look up at her and said, “What if I could be?”

“What do you mean?”

“I can get the time off work and go personally. I wanted to go to Italy and Rio. I just couldn’t do it all. But I have enough miles and hotel points for this one, and I think I can get at least a few days off work. Even if I can’t make the first couple of matches, I can time it to be there for the last few. You’d have six if you make it to the final. I can be there for three of the six easily, but maybe more.”

“You just took time off for the house stuff. Are you sure?”

“I’m sure. I never take vacation time.” Kendra laughed and kissed Aspen between her breasts. “I have a lot of it saved up. And I also covered for another reporter when she took a vacation unexpectedly because her in-laws got them a cruise for her husband’s birthday and didn’t tell them about it in advance. She can cover for me, if needed. I want to be there for you, Aspen.”

“I’d love that,” she said with a wide smile. “If you’re sure, I’d really love that. I love looking over at the sidelines or down the tunnel and seeing you there.”

“You do?”

Aspen nodded and said, “Yes. And don’t worry about the hotel room. Just stay with me.”

“And DJ? I don’t think she’ll like that very much.”

“No, I’ll get a room for you and me. DJ will stay in her own or maybe with Mark. He and Chase are playing, and Chase prefers his own room anyway. It doesn’t matter. You’ll stay with me.”

“I will, huh?” Kendra chuckled and climbed back on top of Aspen.

“Yes. Done deal. If you can get away from work, you’ll stay with me.” Aspen wrapped her arms around Kendra. “I want to fall asleep next to you.”

“In Berlin?” Kendra asked.

“No. Everywhere,” she stated, leaned up, and captured Kendra’s lips.