Chapter Text
Therese sets her mug down on the table, a little heavier than intended, startling herself. She blinks at the mug and draws a quick breath.
“Everything alright Darling?” Carol asks, glancing up from her catalogue.
Therese blinks again, wide eyes lifting to meet hers, lips slightly parted. It’s almost as if she’s surprised to see Carol sitting across from her.
She can’t help the warm smile and tilt of her head. Therese may be experiencing some sort of crisis, but the adorable doe-eye creature stirs something primal in her and the need to kiss that bottom lip, tug it gently between her teeth, is almost irresistible.
Therese hesitates, drops her gaze and busies herself with the previously abandoned crust of her toast. A pink hue appears high on soft cheekbones. Now Carol is curious.
“Sweetheart?”
Whatever it is Therese is mulling over causes her to look up again at Carol, glance down at her mouth, and nibble at her own lip. Just as Carol had been wanting to do moments before. She’s relieved it isn’t a serious life-or-death concern, but now she’s growing impatient.
Closing the catalogue, she stands and slides her chair alongside the table. Leaning over Therese and grabbing the edge of her chair, she angles it out slightly from under the table. Now they’re facing one another, much like their breakfast at the McKinley Motel, although their touching thighs make it more intimate.
Therese is sat rigid. Having essentially eviscerated the crust, she looks up through dark lashes to give Carol a nervous but knowing look.
“Talk Miss Belivet. I want to know what’s got you in such a flap.” She demands. Her tone stern but playful. She drums her immaculately manicured nails on the table.
There’s a stutter and a pause. Then a timid hand comes to rest on her thigh. Carol looks down at it and up into green eyes, she’s not sure they could be any wider. The drumming halts and she quirks an eyebrow at her beloved.
“Last night. When we were… when I was…you were…”
She frowns slightly, mentally running though their evening, skipping to their bedroom antics because Therese couldn’t possibly be this anxious to talk to her about pumpkin and sage soup.
It was wonderful, as usual. They know each other well enough to build up a delectable ebb and flow, what to do when, and exactly how much is required for the other to tip over into oblivion. Drawn-out, heated and divinely satisfying for them both. Or so she thought?
She feels a flash of anxiety herself, perhaps she’s not as in tune with her lover as she believed?
“Is there something wrong Darling? Did I do something?” The words come out with a tiny edge of panic.
Therese looks momentarily confused, but realises Carol’s concern and grabs her hand quickly, threading their fingers together.
“No! No Carol, it’s nothing like that. Not at all!’ Shaking her head quickly she lets out an exasperated sigh.
“Oh God, Im making such a mess of this.”
Looking up at the ceiling and drawing a deep breath, Therese steels herself and squeezes her fingers over Carol’s knuckles. Looking down at her with a new resolve, Therese’s eyes bore into hers.
“Last night. When I was inside you, with my fingers. It felt amazing. I love to see you like that for me. You’re absolutely breathtaking Carol.”
She feels heat rising in her cheeks. A lifetime of societal norms and suppression of one’s desires gives her the knee-jerk reaction of embarrassment. She pushes through her conditioned response, knowing Therese is attempting to calm the doubt she unintentionally ignited.
“When you were so close to… finishing. I had all of my fingers inside you. And… and I felt a sort of tug. Like your body was seeking…more.”
Carol remembered the intoxicating feeling of Therese’s delicate fingers, four of them massaging, filling her and stroking incessantly. They’d been pleasuring each other for at least two hours by then, with at least two climaxes apiece. She recalled teetering on the precipice, canting her hips into the mattress just as a slick thumb pressed over her most sensitive bundle of nerves. Things got a little fuzzy after that.
“I guess what I’m trying to ask is, next time… next time I feel that. Do you want me to…follow? Follow that tug and see how far it can go?”
Therese’s face is beet red now. She can’t keep her eyes in one spot for long, flicking from her eyes down to the hand on Carol’s thigh, then over her shoulder, only to come back to her eyes again.
Carol’s mind is whirling. A different kind of heat is blooming low in her belly. She can’t quite imagine exactly what Therese is suggesting. The physical practicalities seem to be the main barrier. It’s been eight months, and Lord knows how many gloriously naked encounters, since Therese returned to her. Surely if her body were able to accomodate more, they would have found out by now?
But she’s not able to ignore the smouldering desire nestled beneath her navel. It pulls sharply when Therese’s warm hand slides an inch higher on her slack-clad thigh, the material bunching and releasing as dainty fingers drive home their owner’s question.
She realises she hasn’t said anything for some time and refocuses her attention on Therese, who looks like she might be ill if the tension isn’t broken soon.
She slides her free hand to Therese’s waist, urging her up and into her own lap. Keeping their hands entwined, she rests them on Therese’s thighs and squeezes. She nuzzles her nose into Therese’s neck and places a kiss on her pulse point, feeling the young woman tense and relax at the ticklish but soothing gesture.
“Do you want to do that Darling? See how far you can take things?” Her voice is low, purring quietly just below Therese’s ear.
Of course she knows it’s what she wants. Therese wouldn’t have squirmed her way through breakfast and dared to ask, if it hadn’t been something she wanted to try. But Carol loves the vulnerability Therese is giving her, in asking for her to be so physically vulnerable herself.
Therese sucks in a breath and swallows. Carol smirks as she sees her throat bob and her jaw clench.
“Yes.”
Leaning up to make eye contact, Carol is taken back by the dark look in Therese’s eyes. Desire emanating like a raging fire, the heat of it radiating out. Therese dips her head and meets her lips.
It’s heated, and a little dirty for eight o’clock in the morning. Not usually their style. She hears her own surprised whine when she feels Therese’s hand on the back of her neck, beneath her curls, pulling her impossibly closer and tongue slipping inside her mouth to devour further.
This reaction is all Carol needs to know she wants this. Wants to give herself over to the slight brunette perched on her lap. She didn’t even know she had more to give, having offered her heart and soul to her over tea in the Ritz Tower all those months ago. But knowing Therese wants this is enough to surrender her body too, hand it over without another moments hesitation.
They part for air and Therese huffs a small laugh, a sheepish grin on her face.
Carol wonders if she looks as strung out as her love does. Sitting in their kitchen, previously ready for work, but now requiring a trip to the vanity mirror to compose themselves and reset lipstick before leaving their little sanctuary.
Therese feels it too and rises slowly from Carol’s lap. She follows suit, catching Therese around the waist and drawing her in just as she makes to step away.
“Alright. Let’s see what we can do.” She whispers and presses a kiss to her flushed cheek.
~~~
She’s only five minutes late to meet Abby. Quite prompt for her really. She’d never admit aloud exactly how eager she is for this particular lunch date.
Their previous meeting three days earlier had her almost as flustered as Therese was that morning. She’d known Abby would have the answers she needed. As to the possibility and practicality of her and Therese’s newest venture.
And Abby had tried her hardest to maintain her composure and decorum. Which of course in reality meant she didn’t try very hard at all. Carol had pursed her lips and given her a very haughty look after the third round of giggles.
But then Abby had sat back in her seat, lit a cigarette and set down to business.
“Trust me, once you’ve tried it, everything changes.”
Carol managed to relax a little after that, comforted by the two martinis and fact that someone she knew, and apparently a number of other women in the local area, had been here before her. Abby, bless her, had broken down the process and explained what to do.
Now, with the knowledge that Abby has secured the required supplies, she sets her stride and heads to the back corner table her best friend is currently occupying.
~~~
Carol shuts the bedroom door quietly and catches her dressing gown as it drops off her shoulders to drape it over the vanity chair.
It’s been a long day. Therese is already curled up in bed, turned away from her, but her breathing suggests she’s still awake. Carol switches off the bedside lamp and draws back the duvet to slide in under it. She shuffles a bit to get comfortable, kisses Therese’s hair and settles on her back to drift off to sleep.
It takes Therese a moment to register Carol’s goodnight kiss, floating somewhere between awake and sleep, but when she does she reaches her arm back and gropes for Carol.
In an effort to avoid being poked in the eye, Carol chuckles and catches the flailing hand in hers. Therese precedes to tug her hand until Carol turns and tucks herself in behind her, knees fitting behind knees, chest pressed to her back. She wraps her arm over her body and Therese makes sure to bring Carol’s hand over to cradle her breast closest to the mattress. She lets out a small grunt as she does, always forgetting how cold Carol’s hands are, but doesn’t let Carol move her hand away.
“I’m tired. But not that tired. You can’t get away from me that easy.” She mumbles as she wiggles back into Carol, earning a huff of laughter and a cold nose nuzzling in behind her ear.
Therese loves to fall asleep like this, held tight and safe in Carol’s embrace. Carol runs cold, so Therese is a furnace in comparison, and they never wake up in this position. But Therese doesn’t mind and insists on it most nights.
It’s not until they’re both approaching slumber, breaths becoming deeper and slower, that Therese starts them both back to consciousness. Carol lets out a small groan and draws Therese in tighter to her chest.
“What it is Darling?”
“You met with Abby today, didn’t you? So she could give you the…um”
“Mmhmm. Yes I’ve got it.” Carol keeps her eyes closed, trying to hold on to the tendrils of sleep she can feel slipping away.
There’s a pause as Therese waits for more information. Carol just wants to sleep, but it’s the wrong kind of silence for that.
“So?”
“So what?” She asks with a sigh.
“Carol” Therese practically whines and wiggles in her arms.
“Hush my Angel, we can talk about it tomorrow, I promise.” Carol purrs the last words, earning an exaggerated but resigned huff as she feels Therese relax into her hold.