Popcorn Love

That aching knot of tension at the base of Elena’s spine exploded at the first gentle touch of Allison’s lips. It burst open, sending ripples of pleasure in every direction. Rolling waves billowed up her spine, causing her back to bow and lurch forward. She released a deep moan, the sound vibrating its way up her throat, as those waves then crept down her legs. Prickling tingles tickled across the backs of her thighs and in-between, so that she clamped the flesh together almost unconsciously to assuage the sudden assault of sensation between her legs.

The softest of whimpers echoed just behind Allison’s teeth as she sucked in a sharp breath through her nose and pressed further into Elena’s heated form. Her palm was hot and slick, sliding over Elena’s curves. She splayed her fingers over Elena’s hip before slipping them down into the dip of Elena’s side and around to her back, pulling her even closer.

Allison’s exploration encouraged Elena, and she shot her own hands forward, eager to feel more. One hand wove its way into pillow-mussed curls and the other grazed over a defined bicep and a pounding pulse beneath a heaving chest. They touched one another tentatively, brushing so lightly that their touches were but fleshy whispers over shoulders and elbows, over hips and ribcages, over thin material covering quivering stomachs and twitching vertebrae in bowing backs.

Breath hitching roughly in her throat, Elena felt the tip of Allison’s tongue flick gently at her bottom lip before sliding across its full length. She pulled back just a breath, her hand coming up to cup around the back of Allison’s neck. Elena smiled as she slipped her lips over Allison’s again and Allison’s grip dug into her hip. She didn’t hesitate another second as she claimed Allison’s lips once more, letting her own tongue slip out and into Allison’s mouth.

Both women moaned deeply as their tongues touched once and pulled back before tangling together. They explored one another with an achingly slow yet building hunger, their grip on each other soft but growing tighter by the second. Their gentle kisses deepened and turned faster and harder. Elena nearly came undone, her fingernails digging into Allison’s back when Allison darted her tongue slow and deep across the roof of Elena’s mouth—in and out, over and over, in a way that made Elena instantly imagine Allison’s mouth travelling elsewhere.

Allison chuckled, low and raspy, against Elena’s mouth as she took in a sharp gasp at the motion and tightened her grip to the point of pain. Their fingertips were lit candlewicks against taut, waxen flesh, searing, scorching, and melting their bodies further together.

Allison sucked on Elena’s bottom lip before releasing it with a wet pop and whispering, “Elena.”

Just that tiny introduction of voice into the space between them seemed to jolt both women out of the haze of their heady and overwhelming connection. They broke apart, just enough to look into one another’s eyes in the dark.

“Elena,” Allison panted. Her fingers ghosted over Elena’s side, up the exposed flesh of her arm and neck, and then grazed across a heated cheek. “What are we doing?”

Elena breathed deeply through her nose and out through her mouth. Everything seemed cloudy, and she felt like she might burn alive at any moment, especially with the heat of Allison’s body still pressed against her. “I,” she said, a soft laugh bubbling up from low in her stomach, “I think that much is fairly obvious.”

Fingers running through silken strands of hair and over flushed cheeks, Allison whispered, “Well, yeah, but I mean, what are we doing? What is this?”

Elena smiled against Allison’s lips as she planted another tender kiss there. “I don’t know,” she answered. “Does this require a label?”

Shoulders shrugged under Elena’s hands. “No, I guess not, but, like, you do realize that this is me you’re kissing right now, right?”

“Allison, of course.” Elena jerked back so that she could search the younger woman’s eyes. “What is that supposed to mean?”

Sighing, Allison bowed her head forward and rested it gently against Elena’s. “I don’t know. I guess I just mean that you’re you, you know? You’re rich and powerful and, God, so gorgeous, and I’m just me.”

She looked up and grinned at Elena through the dark. “Not that I’m not totally awesome, because duh.” She laughed as she poked at Elena’s sides, making her squirm. “It’s just that even still, I’m nowhere near your league.”

“I’m not a team sport, dear. I have no league.”

“You know what I mean.”

“I do,” Elena conceded. She rubbed her thumb over Allison’s bottom lip and cupped her cheek. “Allison, please don’t put me on a pedestal. I am only a person.”

A soft breath slipped through Allison’s lips. “You really like me?”

Those familiar flutters returned to Elena’s stomach as a slow smile slipped across her lips and she nodded against the pillow. “I really do.”

Allison mimicked Elena’s nod. “Okay. So then, I guess maybe I should go sleep in a guest room or something.”

“What?” Elena asked. “Why?”

“Because I feel like if I stay, I might maul you or something.”

One of Elena’s eyebrows shot up as another wave of heat curled through her abdomen and pulsed between her legs. She blew out a slow breath as she laughed. “I never knew a mauling could sound so thoroughly appealing.”

“Oh God, could you not?” Allison groaned. “My whole body already feels like it might explode, and I’m trying to be respectful here, woman—take it slow and all that.”

With every word from Allison’s mouth, Elena’s confidence only grew, despite her lack of experience with women. She slipped her hand around the back of Allison’s neck again before tilting forward and pressing her lips to the slender column. Allison sucked in a shuddering breath at the sensation.

“Or you could just make it so much worse,” Allison said through gritted teeth. Elena’s hot breath scorched up the length of Allison’s neck, and when Elena’s tongue dipped into the hollow of Allison’s ear, her entire body jolted and she moaned.

“Oh my God, Elena. That is so unfair. Seriously?”

Allison grabbed Elena by the shoulders and pushed back, looking into the other woman’s eyes. “What did I just say?” she teased, poking at Elena’s stomach. “You’re making it worse.”

Elena smiled mischievously at her before moving to close the distance between them once more, but Allison quickly stopped her. “Wait, is that supposed to be a hint?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, is this your way of saying you don’t want to take this slow?” Allison asked her. “Because I mean, I don’t mind sex early on, except when I’m really invested, and I really am, so I’d like to take this slow, unless…Well, did you just want this to be about sex?”

“Oh,” Elena whispered, her heart clenching at the tremble in Allison’s voice. She cupped her cheek once more as she inched her body closer and shook her head slowly. She kissed Allison’s lips. “No.”

Allison let out an obvious sigh of relief that had a smile blooming across both of their faces. She leaned forward and kissed the tip of Elena’s nose. “Well okay then. I need to go.”

“Really?” Elena asked. “You are really going to leave me here alone?”

Gentle hands ran down Elena’s body once more, then pulled back. “Yup, yup. Have to. I guess I’m just old-fashioned like that.”

“Allison, we are both adults. I’m sure we can behave ourselves.”

Allison narrowed her eyes in the dark. “Nah.” She clucked her tongue. “I don’t think you can control that devil mouth of yours.”

“Devil mouth?” Elena gasped, arching a brow.

“Mhm. Devil mouth, as in hot as the fires of hell.” Allison crawled off the bed and ducked down to feel around on the floor. When she found her clothes, she balled them up in her hands and held them against her chest. “So, I’m going, because—”

“Because my mouth is the devil.” Elena was still laying on her side and peering up at Allison through the dark.

Allison shook her head and groaned. She shuffled a little farther from the bed, her eyes never leaving Elena. “Yup,” she said, “and I gotta go because goddamn if it doesn’t make me wanna be a sinner.”

Another wave of heat rippled through Elena’s body and burned between her legs. She clenched her thighs tightly to alleviate the throb as she watched Allison walk toward the door. “Are you sure?”

“Stop talking!” Allison hissed from across the room. “Your voice is the devil too. Right now, pretty much all of you is the devil. So, shh, and just let me go in aching, throbbing peace, woman!”

“Do you know where the guest ro—”

“There’s gotta be like fifteen in this house,” Allison grumbled. “I’ll find one.” She slipped out of Elena’s bedroom, clicking the door closed behind her.

Elena rolled over and stuffed her face in her pillow. The butterflies in her stomach had grown and transformed into excited birds, crashing wildly around inside of her. She sighed into her pillow, the sound bordering on a soft squeal, before groaning and rolling her eyes behind her eyelids.

“I am behaving like a lovesick teenager.” She rolled over and laid an arm across her eyes. Her entire body was thrumming with an excitement that simultaneously thrilled and embarrassed her. Flipping restlessly onto her side and bunching her pillow up, she wrapped one arm around it. “I feel like a lovesick teenager. This is ridiculous.”

Still, the smile on her face never faded.

* * *

Elena jolted awake with a yelp as music blasted through her house. Jerking herself into a sitting position, she blinked rapidly through the lingering haze of sleep and glanced around her room. She could tell her hair stuck wildly out on one side, and her lips were swollen and sore.

As her sense of awareness slowly kicked in, Elena frowned in confusion. Lyrics spilled through the air and assaulted her ears. Why was The Jackson Five’s “I Want You Back” echoing through her house like there was a live concert in progress?

Her blurry eyes widened as the events of the previous night came rushing back. She gasped as her body flooded with heat and she whispered, “Allison.” Her fingers came up and touched gently at her lips. They were puffy and a bit chapped. Her cheeks flushed a deep crimson as she shook her head and smiled against her fingertips.

She glanced over at the clock on her bedside table and was shocked to see that it was barely six a.m. Typically, it would be another thirty minutes before she would be up and around on weekdays. The same was true for Lucas, who usually woke around the same time as his mother.

Slipping out of her bed, Elena grabbed her robe from where it hung just inside the closet door. She checked herself in the mirror and scoffed at her predictably wild hair. It was incredibly frizzy on the top. She grabbed her hairbrush and ran several fast strokes through it, taming it as best she could before returning the brush to the vanity. She ran her hands down the front of her robe, smoothing it out as if it were an elegant gown, before sucking in a steadying breath.

Elena crept down the hallway as quietly as possible. She peeked into Lucas’s bedroom and was unsurprised to see that his bed was empty. There was no way her child, who was both a light sleeper and an early riser, would be able to snooze through the blaring tunes spilling through the house. No, he was assuredly with Allison, wherever the two were.

She found them soon enough, and Elena remained tucked partially behind the corner as a smile blasted across her face at the scene playing out in her kitchen. She quickly brought a hand up and cupped it over her mouth, containing the laughter that threatened to spill forth as she watched Allison, clad in her jeans and tank top from the previous day, dance all around the kitchen with a spatula held to her lips like a microphone. Lucas sat in his chair, bopping excitedly up and down and giggling and clapping as Allison danced around him and sang into her spatula.

Even though Allison was singing several octaves higher than what Elena would guess was her natural register, it was still startlingly beautiful. God, Elena thought, how was it that literally everything about this woman seemed so incredibly attractive to her?

Elena felt her insides turn to mush as she watched Allison hold the spatula out toward Lucas and let him babble senselessly before turning back toward the stove and grabbing the skillet. With a flick of her wrist, a pancake soared high into the air. Elena snorted with laughter as Allison barely caught the pancake again, nearly letting it tumble to the floor.

Lucas clapped happily as Allison then returned the skillet to the stove and resumed her dancing. Elena watched every second of it, completely absorbed in this precious moment. Thought after thought spiraled through her mind, too rapid to pinpoint any particulars, except for one. Elena was quite certain that she wouldn’t mind waking up more often to find Allison Sawyer dancing around her kitchen.

It was in that moment that Elena’s darling son happened to glance over and see her. He threw his hands into the air and squealed. “Momma!”

Elena’s breath hitched in her throat and Allison, red-faced, whirled around at Lucas’s cry and nearly dropped the spatula in the process. Her heart jumped into her throat and stuck there as Allison’s eyes glittered in the sunlight streaming through the kitchen window and her lips parted just slightly.

“Good morning,” Allison whispered so quietly that Elena had to read her lips to understand her over the loud music.

“Hi.” She mouthed the words with a smile as she leaned her head gently against the wall.

“Hi!” Lucas screamed at his mother, waving his arms dramatically.

Allison’s eyes widened, and then she shook her head and shot over to the stove to check on her now-burning pancakes. “Crap,” she muttered as she threw one in the garbage and poured another dollop of batter onto the skillet to start anew.

Elena laughed as she finally tore her gaze away from Allison.

“Good morning, munchkin!” She crossed the kitchen and bent to kiss Lucas’s forehead. “You are up bright and early.”

“Can’t hear you!” Lucas shouted.

“Oh!” Allison exclaimed, shooting past them. “I got it. Just a sec.” She ran into the living room, and the volume of the music went down. She then shot back to the kitchen to finish cooking the pancakes.

“Sorry,” she said when she returned. “Lucas said that it was time for you to wake up, so we figured music would be a good replacement alarm.”

Lucas beamed up at Elena as she ran her fingers through his soft and wild hair. “What you say, Momma?”

“I said you are up bright and early.”

Lucas nodded. “Momma, did you know Alson had a sleepover?”

Moving to grab a glass from the cabinet to the left of the sink, Elena chuckled. “Yes I did.” She crossed to the refrigerator to retrieve the apple juice.

“Yeah,” Lucas sighed. “She didn’t sleep with me.”

“No?” Elena asked, biting her lip as she stood in the open door of the refrigerator and poured her apple juice. Elena’s breath caught in her throat when Allison placed a hand on her hip before leaning slowly around her to grab the butter from the side door. Turning to put the juice container back just as Allison straightened from the door, their chests brushed gently, and they both breathed sharply at the contact, their eyes locking again.

“No,” Lucas said, snapping Elena and Allison back to attention. He let out a dramatic huff as he popped the straw of his juice box into his mouth.

Elena smiled teasingly at the woman in front of her. “She didn’t sleep with me either, dear.”

Allison turned a playful glare onto Elena before returning to the stove so that she could transfer the final finished pancake onto a plate. “Ha. Ha.” She shook her head.

“You’re sposta sleep with someone when you have a sleepover, Alson,” Lucas said. “Like when Gram sleeps with me.”

“Yes, Allison.” Elena smirked. “You are supposed to sleep with someone.”

Allison’s cheeks burned a lovely shade of pink as she carried Lucas’s plate over to him. “Sorry, little man,” she said. “I didn’t know the rules.”

A bright smile greeted her as she set two small silver-dollar pancakes in front of him. “Thank you!” He then jumped right back to the topic of sleepovers. “Next time you gotta sleep with me or Momma, okay?” Lucas looked over to his mother as he picked up his syrup-less pancake and bit off a piece. “Right, Momma?”

Elena pinned Allison with a smoldering look. “Absolutely, darling.” She tilted her head and added, “Whichever you prefer, Allison.”

Placing a plate of pancakes in front of Elena, Allison shook her head. She lowered her voice to a whisper as she said, “Just eat your pancakes, woman.”