Cat and Mouse: A Lesbian Romance Spanking Novella

College sophomore Cassidy Coleman’s stomach was abuzz with nervous excitement as she huffed and puffed her way up the two flights of pitted cement stairs that led to her brand new on-campus apartment. Wobbling a bit on unsteady feet, she attempted to negotiate her way around the as yet unfamiliar layout of her living room while her hands slipped and scrabbled desperately to cling to the bulging sides of the cardboard box stuffed near to bursting that was obscuring most of her view. Reaching her bedroom, or at least what she hoped was her bedroom, she gave an almighty shove to force the stubborn box through the narrow gap of the doorframe, and stumbled forward. She managed to make it across the threshold of the tiny room just as the box tumbled out of her hands to land with a heavy “thwump” at the foot of her bed, one of its sides splitting open and disgorging its contents across the faded carpet all around it.

“Eh, close enough,” she shrugged.

Heaving out an exhausted sigh and not caring at all where the wrinkled pile of panties, tops, and skirts landed, so long as it was somewhere within the general confines of her bedroom, Cassidy stumbled over the ruined mound of cardboard and flopped face first onto her bare mattress, bouncing lightly with the impact and smiling to herself as she did her best to try and get a grip on the butterflies scrambling around inside her stomach.

On the one hand she was ecstatic to finally be officially out on her own. Living with her parents had been okay enough at first after she’d graduated from high school, she’d paid them rent and they’d said she was free to come and go as she pleased while living with them, but it just wasn’t the same as really being independent in her eyes. Now she had her very own apartment to call her own, a place where she’d never have to worry about getting sidelong glances from her mother whenever she asked her how late she’d stayed up the night before, or have to put up with her father bursting into her bedroom at noon to fling back her covers and “suggest” she get out of bed. To say nothing of the way her parents seemed to routinely forget that she was a woman in her early twenties, not some bratty tween who needed a firm pat on the seat to get her moving whenever there were chores to be done. Nope, she was finally her own boss, living all by herself in a tiny on-campus apartment that was all her own.

Well, mostly all her own. The problem with moving out of her parents’ house as a basically penniless college student was that Cassidy couldn’t exactly afford to foot the bill for an apartment all by herself, which meant she either had to make herself beholden to her parents by letting them cover her rent, which was the last thing she felt like doing, or she needed to find some roommates. Unfortunately for her, all of her friends from high school, community college, and the few months she’d worked at the local movie theater by her parents’ house during the summer were either married and getting ready to pop out kids of their own, or were off at different schools out of state, which left her with no other choice than to throw herself on the mercy of the random roommate assignment program her school offered and hope for the best.

And that’s where Lauren Delaney came into the picture. She was an economics major one year ahead of Cassidy at their university who’d had a less than stellar time last semester splitting the rent on a dilapidated party house just off the edge of campus with a few of the friends she’d met freshman year. After one sleepless night trying to study while her other roommates blasted music as loud as they could too many, she’d finally gotten fed up with her situation and decided to try her luck with the roommate lottery for the fall semester so she could actually focus on her program and not have to live in an overcrowded house that constantly reeked of stale beer and moldy pizza. And so far, she had to admit to herself as she finished breaking down the last cardboard box of her stuff and stashed it away in the back of her bedroom closet in the cozy little apartment she’d been assigned, things were already starting to look up. Her new place was clean, especially compared to the pig sty she’d just come from, it was way closer to campus, it had nice thick walls that kept the noise from their next door neighbors to a minimum, and best of all it even came with a single adorable roommate.

From the moment the older girl had first introduced herself to her, Cassidy had been smitten. Lauren Delaney was easily half a foot taller than she was (which wasn’t really saying all that much given her diminutive five foot, one inch frame), with well-toned shoulders and arms, and a firm handshake that reminded Cassidy of one of her high school volleyball coaches and made her stomach flutter in a not-unpleasant way for some reason. Despite her rather impressive and somewhat imposing physique, it was the way Lauren carried herself that really drew in Cassidy like a moth to a flame. She had a strong, angular face with rich, full lips that always seemed to be bent upward into a perpetual half-smirk, like she’d just remembered the punch line to a joke she’d heard the night before. Her voice had a casual lilt to it as if she knew exactly what you were thinking whenever she spoke with you, and a wry sense of humor to go with it. And when she moved, it was with a natural and understated athletic grace that made Cassidy feel gangly and uncoordinated by comparison. In her eyes, Lauren Delaney was easily the most impressive and captivating person she’d ever met, and Cassidy had no idea how to handle that.

For the first few weeks after moving in, Cassidy and Lauren mostly just kept to themselves. Between the hectic start of a new semester and the usual awkward speed bumps of getting to know someone new and settling into a new home in unfamiliar surroundings, they usually only saw each other in passing, and when they did they usually exchanged little more than a casual “hello” or “did you have a good day?” before moving off to the privacy of their own bedrooms. Lauren for her part just assumed that her new roommate wasn’t the talkative sort, or that maybe she didn’t like her for some reason, whereas Cassidy very much liked her new roommate, but was way too intimidated to strike up more than a casual conversation with her lest she look like an idiot. There was just something about the older girl that set Cassidy’s heart fluttering and her stomach flip-flopping whenever she was around her, leaving her tongue tied and feeling like she had to do something, anything, to fill the awkward silence that seemed to bubble up between the two of them whenever they were in the same room. But rather than risk humiliating herself by doing or saying something stupid, Cassidy would routinely clam up after only a few half-hearted attempts at a conversation and then make up an excuse to rush off and hide in her room, promising herself that she’d try again some other time and that things would be different then.

The two of them continued on in their increasingly uncomfortably-tense status-quo for several long weeks until one fateful evening during Thanksgiving break when things suddenly changed. Cassidy had just returned home to their apartment after spending the day with her parents and extended family, gorging on turkey, mashed potatoes, and way too many types of pie, and she’d brought back with her a few more boxes of stuff that she hadn’t had room for in her car when she’d first moved in. Specifically, her Super Nintendo and the not-insubstantial library of games she’d managed to build up for it over the years since she was a child.

“Whoa, is that a Nintendo?”

The question startled Cassidy, making her jerk in surprise and bump the back of her head against the painted cinderblock wall behind her while she remained bent over half-stuck and half-wedged behind their small TV in their living room, balancing with one foot in the air and trying to feel out where she could plug her game console into. She’d been so excited to get her system set up that she hadn’t even realized Lauren was home, and hadn’t heard her come out of her bedroom either. How long had she been standing there watching her for? Oh god, she must look like such a doofus!

“Oh! Um, yeah it is,” she confirmed with a sudden flush of heat in her cheeks, blowing several strands of honey blonde hair out of her face and attempting to reach back with her free hand to try and smooth down the back of her short denim skirt where she could feel it riding up to show off the dancing turkeys stretched tautly across the seat of her panties. Several finger-fumbling moments later she finally managed to slip the ends of the game console’s AV cables into what were probably the correct spots on the back of the rickety, old TV, and with a sigh of relief and another puff of air to try and stop her hair from tickling her nose, she awkwardly levered herself out from behind their cinderblock and plywood media center.

“Awesome, I haven’t seen one of those in years.”

Lauren’s sharp eyes had indeed not missed the sight of the adorable turkeys cavorting across the back of her roommate’s panties, nor had she failed to notice just how cute of a caboose Cassidy had as she inadvertently waggled it back and forth at her while she fished her arm behind their TV. Part of her was sorely tempted to move in closer and help her roommate “stay balanced” by grabbing a handful of what was surely an exquisitely squishable set of cheeks, but she resisted that urge and instead settled down onto their threadbare, faux-suede sofa and turned her attention to running her fingertips along the gray plastic tops of the game cartridges stacked in neatly-packed rows in the cardboard box beside her.

“Oh hey, Super Mario World!” Lauren’s eyes lit up with excitement as she deftly plucked the game in question from between the others and gave its front a perfunctory dusting with the sleeve of her sweater. “My friends and I used to play this one all the time when we were kids.”

Cassidy, who loved her childhood video games dearly, was more than a little surprised to find her roommate showing so much interest in them. Even though Lauren was only a year older than her, in her mind’s eye Cassidy had somehow always pictured her as just being a tiny and just as mysterious version of who she was now when she was younger. It hadn’t occurred to her that Lauren was probably just like any other person when she was growing up, spending her afternoons after school at friends’ houses playing games and messing around getting into trouble.

“You want to play?” she asked tentatively, trying to sound casual and hoping against hope that her roommate’s seeming interest wasn’t actually just more idle small talk. “I’ve got two controllers.”

“Sure, sounds like fun,” agreed Lauren with a flip of her hair, passing the cartridge off to her roommate and settling back onto the couch with an eager expression to watch as Cassidy knelt down and slotted the game into the top of her Super Nintendo and then fished out two of the controllers from her box of wires and various other accessories.

And just like that, the two of them settled in for what would end up being an all-night session of nostalgic retro gaming. Huddling together on the couch for warmth against the late fall chill seeping in through their drafty windows, they battled their way through level after level, stopping only to gorge themselves on Pizza Hut in their pajamas when they eventually got hungry, and getting to know one another on a deeply personal level in between frantic and excited cries of “Oh, oh! Right there, jump!” and “Darn it! That was so close!” When the sun had finally risen the following morning, its warm rays pouring into their living room through slotted blinds only half-drawn, it found the two of them dozed off and cuddled up together on the couch beneath a thick blanket Lauren had brought out from her room. Without even realizing it had happened, Cassidy and Lauren had stumbled onto a bit of common ground that had managed to obliterate the weeks of awkward tension that had been building between the two of them in a single night, sweeping it aside and replacing it with an instant connection and a fondness that would only grow stronger as time went on.

―

After that fateful Thanksgiving night, Cassidy and Lauren had become fast friends, and by the time Christmas break had come and gone, the two of them were practically inseparable. School kept the two of them busy most nights and weekends, but even when one of them was caught up in research or homework, the other typically wasn’t too far behind, contenting themselves with idling away their time on something of their own in the same room while the other worked, simply enjoying being in each other’s company even if they weren’t “doing” anything together. Lauren still carried herself with the same understated grace and confident half-smirk that made Cassidy’s stomach flutter whenever she daydreamed about her when she was alone, but rather than be intimidated by her roommate as she had been for so long, Lauren’s demeanor now just made Cassidy smile fondly to herself. Well, usually. Ever since their impromptu slumber party, Lauren had come to understand just how it was she made her bubbly roommate feel, and how easily she could make her squirm and blush the most adorable shade of scarlet whenever she felt like it; which was something she rarely missed the opportunity to take advantage of.

All she had to do was point at a pile of dirty dishes in the sink Cassidy hadn’t gotten around to scrubbing yet, or raise an eyebrow at the mound of laundry she might have left sitting in their dryer for several days in a row, and Cassidy’s heart would skip a beat, the pit of her stomach would do several flip flops, and she’d find her mouth had gone suddenly dry like she’d just stepped into the lair of a hungry predator who planned on toying with her before moving in for the kill. Not that she minded. Those moments of friendly sharpness always left Cassidy’s knees wonderfully wobbly and gripped her lower abdomen with a heady tightness that could last all evening. A look or a point was all it would take, and then Cassidy would spring into action, squeak out an embarrassed excuse, and then scramble to take care of whatever it was she’d left undone while her roommate watched on with a wider smirk than usual. Lauren in turn would just laugh to herself in that sultry way of hers, maybe waggle an admonishing finger at her friend and tell her not to let it happen again, and that would be that. At least until the next time.

Opportunities for these lighthearted scolding sessions seemed to present themselves about once every other day, and sometimes twice in the same day on rare occasions. Without either of them even realizing it had happened, the two of them had spun it off into a little game. Cassidy would look for ways to try her friend’s patience or get a rise out of her, most of the time on purpose but more often than not it seemed she just had a natural talent for inadvertently pushing the older girl’s buttons, and Lauren would pounce, smirking in mock-disapproval and playfully lecturing her friend whenever she “caught” her being a brat. It was a simple game of cat and mouse, and one they both enjoyed thoroughly, though neither of them could pinpoint just when it was they’d started playing it.

Little did they realize that in just a few short weeks, on a cold winter night neither of them would ever forget, their game would take on an entirely new dimension.

It was nearing the end of February, and the frigid grip of the icy winds that had been holding the grounds of Cassidy and Lauren’s college campus hostage for the last few weeks was finally starting to ease up as the sun started to shine more and more each day. Even better, the two of them had just finished their last midterms for the semester that afternoon and they had a three day weekend ahead of them to look forward to. To celebrate, Cassidy had managed to talk her roommate into “breaking into” her aunt and uncle’s house so that they could use their hot tub while they were away on vacation. Truth be told, her relatives had actually given her a spare key to their house so she could pop in every week or so to check the mail and look after the place while they were gone, and while they hadn’t actually given her permission to make use of their rather impressive (and very expensive) outdoor kitchen and swimming pool setup, Cassidy was pretty sure that they wouldn’t mind so long as she and Lauren cleaned up after themselves. Well, probably. Either way it was much more fun to pretend that the whole thing was some sort of clandestine adventure they had to stealth their way through, rather than just taking advantage of her extended family’s hospitality. In any case, other than flashing her best friend a dubious look when she’d reassured her a little too quickly that her aunt and uncle wouldn’t mind them coming over, really, honestly, they totally wouldn’t, Lauren had agreed. And so later that night the two of them slipped through the big house’s back door under the cover of darkness, save for the myriad strings of hanging bulb-lights strewn all around the deck that Cassidy had flipped on while raiding her aunt and uncle’s refrigerator for a few hard ciders, giddily anticipating the chance to spoil themselves for a couple of hours.

Shivering as the occasional chilly gust stirred up around them and complaining animatedly about how cold the paving stones felt beneath their bare feet, they stripped off their lightweight exercise shorts and zip-up hoodies and all but sprinted for the steamy embrace of the luxury Jacuzzi that was the crown jewel of Cassidy’s uncle’s backyard oasis. The two of them laughed and gasped with the shock of the sudden shift in temperature as they sat down along its contoured edge and slipped their feet into the foamy, frothing water right in front of them, easing themselves forward until the bubbles lapped happily at them from just below their knees. The contrast in temperature between the hot tub and the crisp night air felt absolutely wonderful, and with long sighs and the occasional groan of pleasure, Lauren and Cassidy wriggled their bikini-clad butts further forward, until with a sudden splash, they were submerged beneath the water, settling down onto the stone bench under the roiling surface with a soft “thump”. Neither of them said much of anything for several long minutes, instead just basking in the gently insistent massage of the air jets blowing firm streams of bubbles against their backs, gradually easing away the tension in their tired muscles as their eyes studied the backs of their eyelids and their thoughts drifted away across the surface of the bubbling cauldron they sat in.

“Oh my god, this is the best,” moaned Lauren, twisting in her seat to reach back behind her and pop the caps off of a pair of hard apple ciders.

“No, kidding,” nodded Cassidy, drawing the words out with a mellow sigh before taking a long pull from the bottle her friend had just passed her. “I love soaking in a hot tub when it’s all chilly like this. The cold air and the hot water mixing together makes it all feel so magical.”

She made a broad, sweeping gesture with her bottle, taking in the rising columns of steam coiling up all around them as they sat nice and warm amid the patchy blanket of hard-packed snow still covering some areas of the grass along the outer edges of the back yard, accidentally splashing more than a little bit of her drink onto her friend’s shoulder with the motion.

“Hey, watch it!” protested Lauren, wiping away the sticky cider from her shoulder with her free hand before sinking lower into the water to let the tub rinse away what was left. There was no heat in her voice however, and she and Cassidy just laughed it off as they eased back into another companionable silence.

After a while though they started to get bored of just sitting around stewing in their own private thoughts, and with a small splash from Cassidy that earned her a satisfyingly annoyed look from her best friend, their conversation picked up again. For the better part of the next forty-five minutes the two of them laughed and gossiped their way through chatting about how they’d done on their respective midterms, ideas for things to do during their upcoming spring break, stories of the time Cassidy and her cousin had thrown a huge party in this very back yard while her aunt and uncle had supposedly been away on a night out, and a handful of random other things that just so happened to come up as their conversation meandered from one topic to the next.

As they soaked, their bodies gradually grew accustomed to the heat of the tub, and to counter this they would periodically push themselves back up to sit on the stone edge by the water, letting the frosty night air chill them all over again before slipping back into the hot water’s embrace as if they’d never left. It was during one of these re-acclimating periods, that it happened. Lauren had been standing near the edge of the large swimming pool, admiring its dark, rippling surface in the warm glow of the bulb-lights as she stretched her arms over her head and yawned, when without warning, Cassidy sprang into action behind her.

“Surprise!” she cried, shoving her friend from behind and catching her completely off-guard, sending her stumbling forward and into the pool with a mighty splash that managed to soak the paving stones she’d just been standing on.

Lauren surfaced a moment later, spluttering and gasping in counterpoint to Cassidy’s side-splitting laughter from where she stood only a few feet away from her, hugging herself and wiping away a tear from her eye. With a low growl, Lauren flew toward the edge of the pool just as fast as her freezing limbs would allow, her strong arms and legs making short work of the wintry water before levering herself up and out back onto the cement just a few feet from her traitorous roommate.

“Y-You little brat!” she gasped around trembling lips, fuming with indignation while also starting to laugh despite herself. Cassidy always seemed to have that effect on her.

“What was that?” taunted Cassidy, leaning forward with a self-satisfied smirk plastered across her face and one hand cupped around an ear. “I couldn’t hear you over all that shivering.”

“Why you,” growled Lauren, still grinning as she pushed back her sopping wet hair from her narrowed eyes and straightened up to her full height. Spurred on by the sudden burst of adrenaline still coursing through her veins, her initial indignation had rapidly melted away to be replaced by a sudden and devious plan as an idle daydream that had bouncing around in the back of her mind for weeks now suddenly snapped into focus. “I ought to put you over my knee right here and now for that little stunt!”

Those words hit Cassidy like a lightning bolt, cutting her laughter short as the familiar wobbly knees and flood of heat in her lower abdomen suddenly gripped her tighter than ever, rooting her to the spot where she stood as a full-body flush signaled just what she thought about that particular idea. Part of her knew she could just laugh the whole thing off as a joke, ignore her roommate’s threat and slip back into the hot tub like nothing had ever happened, and that would be the end of it. But instead she found herself taking a tentative step back and whining. “Oh come on, Lauren, it was just a joke! You can’t be serious.”

She hoped to god she was though.

Sensing she’d struck a nerve, Lauren’s usual half-smirk widened into a full on grin as she took one confident step forward and then another, cocking an eyebrow and fixing her friend with her best intimidating stare.

“You think I won’t?”

Cassidy swallowed hard at that, sensing that things were suddenly moving very fast in a direction that up until just a moment ago had been exclusively the stuff of her nighttime fantasies as she lay curled up under her sheets with her magic wand. Her mouth had gone dry, and as her roommate and best friend advanced on her, she understood that Lauren was waiting for her to give her the go ahead. Without it needing to be said, she knew that this was her last chance to back out, to say “Nope, I’m fine, thanks!” and move on. Resisting that urge however, she instead decided to throw caution to the wind and see what would happen next. And so, putting as much sass and contempt as she could muster into her voice, she spat out her reply with a challenging grin of her own.

“I’d like to see you try.”

Rather than say anything, Lauren just barked out an amused laugh at that, and far quicker than Cassidy had been expecting, closed the distance between the two of them and snatched up her wrist in an iron grip. Moving without a moment’s hesitation, she dragged her now frantically protesting best friend over to the nearest poolside lounger she could find, settling down onto its webbed seat with a graceful plop, before yanking Cassidy across her lap with casual ease. The girl landed with a heavy “oomph!” across Lauren’s strong thighs, her warm weight settling pleasantly across her lap with her adorable bubble-butt perched perfectly to offer up its generous curves, practically begging to be spanked as a fresh round of half-hearted whining started up once again from its owner, going totally ignored.

Cassidy’s nervous stream of babbling excuses and attempts to stall quickly devolved into a series of disconnected squeaks and yelps as Lauren wasted no time in starting to pepper her still-wet backside with hard, full-strength, open-palmed slaps aimed at the meatiest parts of each cheek and the delicate undercurves peeking out just below her white bikini. She watched with mounting excitement and more than a little hunger as her best friend’s ample hips began to squirm and wriggle in a mesmerizing pattern, bouncing and wobbling as they flattened and sprang back for more under the relentless fury of her right palm. Lauren didn’t bother with lecturing her friend while she worked, they both knew she wasn’t actually mad at her for pushing her into the pool, and instead focused her efforts on spreading as much sharp heat and relentless sting as she could across Cassidy’s rapidly shifting bottom, pouring all of her considerable strength into each swat, spurred on by the ever increasing yelps of surprise and squeals of pain that were her reward with each new spank. It was an intoxicating experience, more exhilarating than even beating Cassidy at Mario Kart, and Lauren found that she couldn’t get enough.

After an initial blitz of some thirty or forty world-class spanks, Lauren took a moment to let her palm rest against the back of Cassidy’s swimsuit, drinking in the warmth radiating up from beneath the damp material as her best friend lay across her lap, panting. She watched on with wry amusement as Cassidy tried to catch her breath, feeling her cheeks shifting with each exhalation as her twin orbs clenched and unclenched beneath the thin layer of taut nylon that had been their only protection as they’d reddened under Lauren’s efforts. Though for now her cheeks only showed the faintest hint of pink beneath the uniform white material clinging to them like a second skin, more vivid traces of color could be seen peeking out from where her swimsuit had ridden up between them, and the sight of it made Lauren’s mouth water as she tried to imagine just how red she could make her best friend’s bottom be before she’d had enough. After a few more moments of casual groping and rubbing, she decided that she’d given her errant roommate enough of a break, she didn’t want her to think she was getting off lightly after all, and with a predatory grin stretched wide across her lips, she slipped her fingers into the stretchy waistband of the bikini bottoms in front of her.

“I’ve been dying for a chance to get my hands on this adorable little ass of yours for a while now, so thanks for the opportunity,” she teased, pulling her waistband up and back to expose the very tops of Cassidy’s cheeks, her grin widening even more as she watched them break out in goose bumps.

Cassidy for her part sputtered out an incomprehensible squawk of indignation as her face flushed nearly as hot as her bottom felt. She started to squirm again, though not very hard in case her wriggling inadvertently worked her swimsuit even further down her hips, when it suddenly dawned on her just where it was they were just then. Humiliating visions of her aunt and uncle’s neighbors poking a head out their windows or leaning over fences to see what all the noise was about suddenly danced across her mind’s eye, setting off a fresh round of butterflies in her lower abdomen as her thighs moved on autopilot to squeeze and rub together. With a squeak, she clamped her two fists tight over her mouth, sucking on her knuckles and moaning with impotent frustration as the utter humiliation of it all washed over her, loving every second of it despite herself.

“That’s right,” cooed Lauren, her voice carrying a cruel smile as she ever so slowly peeled away Cassidy’s clinging swimsuit an inch at a time until she’d exposed the whole of her best friend’s silky smooth buttocks to the chilly night air around them, along with any unseen watchers her nerve-addled imagination might have conjured up. She then compounded her embarrassment tenfold with a sharp tug that snapped the wet garment down her thighs where it came to a sudden stop, bunching loosely around her slightly bent knees, still dripping. “You just hush and take your medicine like a good girl. Okay, cutie pie?”

“Eep! Yes ma’am!”

Cassidy felt a low chuckle reverberate through her side from where she lay snuggled up against her best friend’s surprisingly strong midriff, which in turn coaxed out even more whining from her as she scissored her ankles back and forth with a pout. Her heart was racing now and she gasped at the feel of Lauren’s comparatively cold hands as they sought out every curve of the skin they’d just exposed, heedless of her moaning as they quested and probed, squeezed and parted her now bare cheeks; testing their elasticity and admiring what lay hidden between them, before suddenly unleashing an avalanche of spanks that sent her reeling.

Without a swimsuit to hold it in place, Cassidy’s bottom bounced and wobbled freely with each and every smack of Lauren’s palm, rippling with the force of its impact before immediately springing back for more as if it’d been made for just such a purpose all along. A fact that did not go unnoticed by either of them as they each tucked it away for later reflection when they were alone again in their respective beds. Lauren was relentless, encouraged ever onward to swat harder and faster by Cassidy’s hissed squeals of pain through gritted teeth in between her murmured cries of “Holy cow!” and “Owieowieowie!”. She squirmed ineffectually in the steel vice that was her best friend’s left arm wrapped firmly around her waist, pinning her in place as she flailed her legs to and fro as if she could somehow swim off of her lap and escape the fury that was rapidly spreading across her buttocks and thighs. The two of them let themselves be carried away by the hypnotic rhythm of Cassidy’s bouncing, burning buns, and Lauren’s steady, methodical swatting. Each of them lost in their own little world as the steady SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! of Lauren’s right palm filled the spaces between their heartbeats.

Without either of them even realizing it was happening, several long minutes had come and gone, and by the time the last two swats found their marks dead center across the meatiest parts of each of Cassidy’s cheeks, they were both left panting and exhausted. Covered in a fine sheen of sweat and feeling as if they’d just ran a marathon, the two of them spent several moments catching their breath and gathering their thoughts while Lauren amused herself with rubbing and occasionally pinching her best friend’s roasted rear end. Cassidy’s backside was now painted a brilliant shade of stop sign red from the crowns of her cheeks, to nearly halfway down her still squirming thighs. Part of Lauren wanted nothing more than to soothe the poor girl, to rub away the sting and kiss her all better, but the way she squeaked and gasped, squirmed and wriggled, whenever she dug her nails into her swollen flesh or traced a fingertip between the two scalded moons upturned over her lap was just too much of a temptation to resist. To say nothing of the glistening moisture that had nothing to do with their sweating or the hot tub they’d been soaking in that she caught glimpses of whenever Cassidy’s thighs shifted or parted. That in and of itself was proving to be a very tempting target that Lauren had to exercise all of her willpower not to go after right there and then. Despite all that had just happened between the two of them, it was better to take some things a bit slower when it came to that particular part of their budding relationship she suspected.

Eventually enough time passed that it became clear to them both that it was time to move on, and with much reluctance, Lauren helped her friend slide off her thighs and clamber awkwardly back to her feet to stand in front of her, only wobbling a little bit with the effort. Being released from her best friend’s lap seemed to have broken the spell that they’d both been under for the last few minutes, and Cassidy found herself staring into the eyes of her roommate. She was shocked to find that instead of its usual confidence, Lauren’s gaze held uncertainty and doubt as she looked up at her from her spot still sitting on the pool lounger. Cassidy knew that her eyes too probably held much the same look, but in that moment something in the back of her mind that had been brewing for months finally clicked into place and she decided to throw caution to the wind once more. It had served her well so far, so why not keep it going?

With her best approximation of Lauren’s usual half-grin, she stooped forward and shuffled out of the swimsuit still clinging to her ankles, before popping back up again and facing her with her hands on her hips. Then, before her courage could fail her, she closed the distance between the two of them, and with a slight hiss through clenched teeth, plopped herself down onto the older girl’s lap, deliberately straddling her legs to either side of her and wrapping them around her waist. Feeling herself blushing both from her own sudden boldness, and embarrassment at the little gasps that kept escaping her lips whenever she shifted her weight around on Lauren’s lap, Cassidy leaned in close and planted her lips on her best friend’s for the most passionate kiss she could muster.

“Thanks for that,” she finally managed to say sometime later when she pulled away from Lauren, flashing her a bashful grin.

“You’re very welcome,” purred Lauren, letting the hands that had wrapped themselves around her best friend’s shoulders slide casually down her back to take up two handfuls of still-sizzling cheek. “It looks like I finally found your love language, cutie pie.”

Blushing all over again and smiling from ear to ear, her heart fluttering with more delight than she would have thought possible at hearing her best friend use the pet name again, Cassidy squirmed in Lauren’s grip and nodded. Letting out a squeak of surprise as her nails dug into a particularly tender spot, Cassidy leaned in closer and wrapped her arms around the older girl’s shoulders with a sigh.

“Yeah, well, um… maybe just a little…”

“Hah, don’t even try to pretend you didn’t love every second of that just now,” growled Lauren, triumphantly digging her fingernails even harder into Cassidy’s fleshy cheeks and being rewarded with a fresh round of very satisfying squirming from her. She then pitched her voice into a low conspiratorial whisper and brought her lips right beside the girl’s ear to murmur. “I saw what you were watching the other night when you thought I was asleep, you know.”

Cassidy in turn pulled back at this revelation, her face going rigid with embarrassment as she spluttered incoherently to try and deny it, leaving her vulnerable for Lauren to move in and plant a kiss of her own onto her pouting lips.

“I hope we get to do this again soon,” she said, her face adopting the softest, most genuine smile that Cassidy had ever seen on it. With that confession out in the open, Lauren felt her confidence starting to slip again and hastened to add. “I mean, if that’s okay with you and all…”

In response, Cassidy just squeezed her friend nice and tight, beaming.

“Oh yes, please!” she gushed, feeling herself growing bolder by the second. “I’m sure you’ll be able to find plenty of excuses to get your hands on my caboose before too long. That is… if you think you can handle it.”

Still giddy from all that had just happened, she gave said caboose a meaningful little wriggle that just so happened to grind her wet sex up against her best friend, and now possibly more’s waist, and giggled. She then, with much reluctance, awkwardly disentangled herself from around her and climbed back to her feet, before leaning in for one last quick peck on the lips.

“But first, I think you and I ought to finish off those ciders in the hot tub. I’m freezing!”

And with that, she spun on her heel and dashed off to canon ball right into the center of the Jacuzzi spa, splashing water everywhere and giggling up a storm. Heedless of the white bikini bottoms she’d left abandoned at Lauren’s feet.

It was a very good night for them both.