In the Midst of Tribulation (15 page)

"Don't worry. I want to stay up until Jay comes back," answered Piper. "Are you sure you shouldn't go after Susan?"
Martha smiled. "No. She'll talk when she's ready. I've learned not to push her. She can be quite the terror when roused."
"I bet. Just try to keep your efforts at détente down."
Trying to look innocent and failing miserably, Martha grabbed her book. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Whatever." Piper flipped her a salute. "Good luck on dealing with your sister tomorrow."
"Thanks, I think I'll need all the luck I can get to make it so we can have a little peace around here."
"You always were a good negotiator. I figure you'll find a way to make us all get along eventually."
"From your tongue to God's ears," Martha answered as she headed into her room. "Goodnight, everyone."
The chorus of goodbyes followed her into the room. She closed the door and leaned her back against it. Trying a few deep breathing exercises to calm herself down, Martha wondered just how she was going use her many skills to resolve the Gordian knot that the household relationships had become.
She shook herself all over and decided to forget about everything until tomorrow. Martha was sure that something would come to her overnight.
Chapter Twelve - My Soul, There is a Country
If thou canst get but thither,
There grows the flower of peace,
The rose that cannot wither,
Thy fortress, and thy ease.
Words: Henry Vaughan, 1650. Music: "Vulpius," 1609
As the rains started coming down harder, Susan sank deeper into the warm water of the hot tub. With only her nose and eyes above the surface, she allowed her mind to drift and her body to relax. She let her arms ride to the surface. The feeling of the raindrops making contact with her skin was almost ticklish.
"Having a good time?"
Susan threw herself backwards as she startled from the voice. "Who? What?"
"Sorry," Jay stepped out of the darkness and closer to the tub. "I didn't think before I spoke."
"Damn you. I think you've taken off ten years from my life." She looked critically at the other woman. In the dark, she could only see that the other woman was completely soaked. "You need to get into some dry clothes before you catch your death."
"I should be so lucky."
"What do you mean?" Susan eased her way across the hot tub and rested her chin on the side.
Jay couldn't meet the eyes of her friend.
"Tell me, Jay."
"I'm tired of the fighting."
"Martha will read her the riot act." Susan splashed her hands in the water. She forced herself to ask, "Do you want us to go?"
"God, no." Jay held her hands up. "Not at all. Things just got close."
"I'm sorry about that."
"Don't be. She's a bitch. I just have to stop letting her get to me."
"Well, once you figure out how, tell me. I've been trying since she showed up."
"Was she like this before?"
"Before the bombs?" Susan clarified. At Jay's nod, she shrugged. "I don't know. She wouldn't give Martha the time of day before the world ended. I had never met her."
"She's quite a piece of work." Jay sent the dogs back to their houses and turned back to Susan. "What's the rest of her family like?"
"They disinherited her after she came out to them. Except for novena cards on her saints day, we had no contact with them."
"Martha is an amazing woman to escape that indoctrination."
"Don't I know it."
"Just make sure that you don't forget to show her." With a flash of white teeth, Jay headed into the dark house. She nodded gravely to Piper before climbing the spiral staircase. She stripped in the bedroom and quickly warmed up in a hot shower before heading up directly to bed. Not even bothering to stoke up the fire, she climbed between the sheets and waited for the shivering to stop and sleep to claim her.
Susan didn't spend too much more time outside. Quietly, she came into the bedroom and clicked the lock on the door behind her. In the dim light, she stood for a moment just looking at her lover. The fight between the two sisters had been long in coming and she had been worried that Martha was still upset. To her lover's eye, though, she looked peaceful.
Martha had gone to bed early, with a copy of Foxfire 3. She read the volume intently, trying to glean as much information as possible. Being out here in the wilderness was opening her eyes to everything she didn't know. She was finding that she didn't much like not being the one with all the answers. If she had to read every book in the house, she would do so.
Glancing up, she watched Susan watch her. "Was that Jay I heard?"
"Mmmhmm. She made it back safely."
"I'm glad."
"Me too, darling," Susan drawled. "I was not looking forward to getting a search party out to look for her. I wouldn't even know where to begin to look."
"She can take care of herself."
"Yeah but what about accidents?"
"Jay knows this area like the back of her hand. She knows well enough to avoid the danger areas."
"But with this rain, the ground is soaked. What if she slipped and fell in a ravine?"
"She made it back. Don't dwell on worse case scenarios."
Susan sighed and finished drying her hair. "All right, I'll let it go." Her voice muffled under the towel, she added, "Although she did look a bit like a drowned rat when she came back."
"You should know. I can't believe you were out in the hot tub in that weather."
Susan pushed away from the door and stepped close to the bed. "It wasn't bad at all. You should have been there." Slowly, she dropped the towel. "I would have been less lonely with you in there with me."
"Sorry. I sort of thought that you were mad at me and I wanted to do some reading."
"I wasn't angry at you, dear. I was just frustrated." Running a hand down her naked body, Susan licked her lips. "I considered doing something while I was there."
Martha stared at her. "You wouldn't."
"If I thought that was the only way to go." She pouted. "Are you planning on doing any more reading tonight?"
Sighing dramatically, Martha tossed the book onto the nightstand. "Well, I suppose, with sufficient inducement, I could be finished for tonight."
"That sounds like a challenge." Susan crawled into bed and curled her body around Martha's larger frame and rested her head on Martha's chest. She felt the pulse speed up under her ear. "I get the feeling that you can easily be induced," she said. Tugging on her partner's sleep shirt, Susan told her to take it off.
Martha quickly complied and fell back onto the bed. She felt like a mouse before a particularly hungry cat as Susan settled herself on top of her. Leaning forward, she shivered as Susan deliberately exhaled over her bare left breast.
"My, what have we here?"
"I've wanted you all day," she admitted.
Smiling faintly, Susan moved the hand that was resting on Martha's stomach to the other woman's warm hand. Grasping it gently, she guided it up over her head and closed the fingers over the spindles in the headboard. She kissed Martha and moved so that she could reach Martha's other arm. Lifting it, she lightly stroked the muscles that quivered under her touch.
"Susan?" the other woman gasped, only to fall silent as graceful fingers shifted to brush her lips.
"Trust me, baby," Susan whispered.
Martha's arm shifted ever so slightly and a strong hand closed over her wrists. Not to restrain her in any way but as a gentle reminder to keep her right where she was. Susan squeezed and released before trailing her hand down the taut frame.
"But…" Martha began.
"Shh. No talking," Susan breathed, her voice a gentle rebuff. Then, there was no more talking as she started kissing Martha with all of the passion in her heart. Hot lips converged. With uncommon skill, she incited and teased relentlessly.
Her heart pounded in her chest and it took all of Martha's willpower not to yank her arms down and take back control. She wanted to show her lover what her kisses were doing to her. Even after all their time together and the week of fishing, Martha couldn't get enough of her sexy partner. But she stopped herself, knowing that letting go now would be rewarded beyond her wildest imagination.
Continuing the butterfly kisses, Susan trailed her hands over Martha's upper body. First stroking lightly and then scraping with her nails, she alternated her touches with no particular rhythm. She continued the delicious torment until Martha was writhing helplessly. Susan trailed her lips down her lover's throat, randomly placing kisses and bites along the sensitive flesh.
"Please," Martha moaned low in her throat when she couldn't take it any longer. Her body was on fire, almost aching from the pleasure of being teased.
"I said no talking," Susan warned softly. She lifted her fingers to brush her lover's mouth. "If you wake the others, I'll be forced to stop." She kissed Martha again and inhaled her lover's soft whimper into her mouth.
"You don't want that, do you?"
Martha nearly answered before enough brain cells worked out that shaking her head would be a better answer.
"Very good, sweetheart." Flattening her palm over Martha's sternum, Susan marveled at the strong, steady beat of her heart. Wanting more contact, she pulled Martha's panties off, exposing Martha to her appreciative gaze.
"You're so beautiful," she stated in awe. She continued her fingers rambling journey and traced her way to the curve of a firm breast. "Here is so soft," she breathed as her mouth slid lower to press kisses onto flesh that goose pimpled in their wake.
Martha released her grip on the headboard and brought her hands down to her sides. She knew better than to seize what she really wanted. As her lover explored and teased, Martha thrashed in pleasurable agony and gripped her hands on the sheets. When Susan's lips wrapped around a taut nipple, she gasped in surprise and need.
"And here you're hard," Susan drawled, continuing her thought while her lover lost all rational ability. She swirled her tongue around the erect tip as her fingers followed her tongue's movement on Martha's stomach. "You want more, don't you, love?"
"God, yes." Martha's body was clamoring for the anticipated orgasm.
"Good," Susan said, with a smirk. "I'd hate to think that you were bored."
"Never bored," gasped Martha. "You enthrall me."
"I'll have to reward that answer," promised Susan. She slid her hand down and brushed Martha's inner thigh. She was pleased to hear the gasp Martha couldn't contain. The soft hair of Martha's inner thighs contrasted to the wiry hairs hiding her throbbing clit. She grinned to herself at the tangle of dark curls under her hands.
Muscles quivered under her light touch and she guided Martha's legs farther apart. Raising herself, she settled her hips between her lover's and applied gentle pressure. Martha bucked beneath her, trying to grind against her thigh.
Susan stroked a thumb against her lover's mouth. "Shh, my love... I'll take care of you." Lips worked against her thumb and teeth scraped, drawing it inside. "Trust me," she promised, pulling the digit free with an audible pop.
Swirling her tongue against Martha's nipples, she smiled as Martha's entire body seem to ripple with tension. "Do you know what I'm going to do?" she murmured.
"I'm hoping," Martha confessed. Susan could be unpredictable when she turned aggressive.
Admitting her uncertainty earned a soft kiss a few inches lower on her body. The sensation of warm tongue on soft skin made Susan moan. Her tongue darted out to brush along the heaving ribs. Her eyes lifted to pierce into Martha's. "Well, I think you're going to enjoy what I have planned," she promised.
Martha whimpered her fingers digging into the sheets. At the sharp contact of teeth against her belly, she bucked again, in desperate need for more contact. The tenderness of Susan's tongue soothed the area almost as soon as she had registered the pain. "Please," she begged as her heart tried to pound out of her chest.
"Soon," Susan promised. She knew that the climax hovering just out of reach would be all the more intense for having been delayed. Sharp teeth bit again; just hard enough to leave a mark, then Susan washed her tongue over the faint injury. Riding the slow rise and fall of Martha's hips, she dipped her tongue into the faint depression of her lover's bellybutton.
Martha looked down as Susan looked up, staring into eyes that seemed to almost black with hunger. Her fingers ached to stroke and caress her beautiful partner.
"Don't let go yet," Susan requested. "I promise you it'll be worth it."
Martha was trembling as muscles flexed along the length of her body. Fighting the urge to take hold of Susan, she tangled her hands into the sheets. "Oh, my god," she gasped.
Susan slid lower and let her lips play along her lover's hipbones. She nudged her lover's knees farther apart, then tasted Martha's inner thigh. She nipped at the tender skin hard enough to leave a mark. Sometimes she felt compelled to make these small signs of possession. Leaving the reasons to be pondered another time, she continued mapping the geography of her lover's body with her mouth.
Martha's jerked her hips in an attempt to meet the lips that were now zeroing in on her aching need. "Please," she whispered, the words a supplication.
Strong hands stroked Martha's inner thighs, purposely drawing things out. Susan reveled in the power of forcing her lover to wait for her touch on her throbbing flesh. Martha was so ready that when that gentle contact finally came she was close to exploding. She was so sensitive that the warm breath against her intimate flesh made her arch and cry out loud.
"I love you," Susan breathed, knowing what the passage of air was doing to the sensitive flesh before her. Gentle fingers caressed lightly before she flicked once with her fingernail. Martha bucked and lifted her head. Their gazes met for a searing instant before Susan relented.
Martha held her breath, afraid that her lover was going to make her wait even longer. With the first, direct touch of Susan's tongue, she arched off the bed. Panting unsteadily, she cried out, "Don't stop. Please don't stop."
Fluttering her tongue, Susan concentrated all her attention on the small bundle of nerves in Martha's clit. With a rough scream, her lover's entire body froze as she climaxed. Shuddering, Martha cried out, "I love you."
Susan quickly climbed up the bed to enfold her lover in her arms. "God, how I love you," she murmured into the dark hair as she gentled her through the aftershocks.
Martha's face wet with tears, she returned Susan's embrace. She kissed her essence off Susan's lips and face. "Thank you, darling."
"You're so very welcome." She licked salt off her lips. "Why are you crying?"