Outcome

'You’re so smart,' Haley said as she flopped into one of the chairs, moaning.

'I try.' I sat next to her, watching the movie with my eyes, but my mind wasn’t into it. I had only one thing on my mind, and Meg Ryan and Tom Hands had nothing to do with it. I wanted so badly to touch Haley. She sat not six inches away from me, but I felt like we were miles apart. God, how to get back what had been stolen when Chris had come home.

My brows drew once I realized the background noise was gone, and the room had gotten darker. I looked to see that Haley had turned the TV off, and when I turned to look at her, to ask why, I saw her eyes boring into me. I swallowed hard. For some reason the old adage ‘watch what you wish for,’ was roaming around in my brain.

She said nothing, just reached her hand out, and I put mine in it. She squeezed my fingers gently, rubbing her thumb over the back of my hand.

'So soft,' she said, barely a whisper. I watched our hands, the dancing flames of the fire bouncing shadows around our fingers, throwing a golden hue on everything. My eyes trailed up to Haley’s, not surprised to find I was meeting her gaze. Her eyes were turned nearly transparent in the firelight, the shadows clinging to all the curves of her facial structure, broadening her brow just a bit, turning her hair a deep red color.

She scooted closer to me, wisps of her hair tickling my nose. She smiled as she ran a hand through her hair, pushing it all behind her shoulders. There was a silent communication between us, almost as if our eyes, bodies and senses could say it all. I felt absolutely no need to speak.

Haley’s face came closer, her eyes closing as it did. I followed suit, bringing my hand up to touch the fire- warmed skin of her neck, the underside of her jaw. I felt her lips brush against mine, then trail lightly down the side of my cheek to my ear where she kissed the top, then whispered,

'You’re so soft, Andi. I could touch you all night.' I shivered, my eyes closing, mouth opening as I felt her lips finding their way back to mine, tenderly taking my bottom lip between hers, tugging playfully.

I fell back against the beanbag, Haley falling with me until she settled against me, scooting her body even closer until every inch of her touched me. My fingers traced her ear, running a fingertip along the edge of it, feeling the soft, delicate skin, then running along her throat, feeling the texture of her face, and finally finding our mouths that played, teased each other. I took a deep breath as I felt Haley kiss each fingertip individually, then taking my hand and kissing my palm before returning to my mouth.

My hand went on the move again as Haley’s tongue began to trace my lips before dipping inside. I flattened my hand out on her back, the thin material of the tank not able to hide the immense body heat that radiated from her. I felt her spine, the muscles in her back moving as her body settled even closer to me, and further down.

I sucked in a breath as I felt Haley’s hand on the move, too. She ran her fingers through my hair, brushing my hair up and away from my scalp, sending a whole new set of shivers down my spine. She sighed, content, into my mouth, her tongue tracing the bottom of my top teeth, and searching for my own tongue, which eagerly met hers, caressing, rubbing. Her hand slid out of my hair, and found my neck. She began to massage the muscle where my shoulder meets my neck, causing me to moan for the first time.

The hand continued to move, squeezing my arm through the thickness of my sweatshirt. Of all days for me not to wear a tank. I wanted to feel her hands on my skin, craved what I knew the sensation would be.

I reached down, took her hand, and guided it to the hem of my sweatshirt, rubbing my hand up and down her arm to encourage her. She got the point, and her fingers gently dug their way under the heavy material, and I couldn’t help it as I pushed even further into Haley’s body when I felt her fingers touch the bare skin of my side. I slid my hand down her arm, and found my way to the bottom of her tank, the fire within calling to my hands. I swear I heard a sizzle as I touched her skin.

I felt the smooth, flatness of her belly, the muscles underneath moving and seizing with my every touch. I flattened my hand, allowing my palm to feel everything, sliding my hand up a bit, feeling just the bottom edge of Haley’s bra. My hand stopped when I felt soft pressure on my hand from above the tank. My hand lay where it was.

God, never in a million years did I think it would be like this to kiss a woman, have them kiss me and touch me. Never had it been like this with Rick, regardless of how bad an experience it had been. I had still been turned on with him, turned on enough to go through with it. But this, this was a whole new ball game.

My lips left Haley’s as I wanted to taste her skin. I kissed around her face, her eyelids, nose, forehead, and made my way down to her neck, unbelievably warm and soft. I buried my lips in it, opening my mouth and ran my tongue over the softness, tasting the saltiness. She pushed her head back, exposing her long neck to me, giving me permission. I brought up a hand, running my fingers all up and down her skin, trailing my nails down her throat, making her moan, and her breath quicken.

Part of me wanted so much to go on, to see what Haley had to offer, but the more logical part of me, the frightened part of me, knew that this would go no further this night, and I was glad for it. I started to feel real fear for the first time in all this, fear what we were doing, and lack of confidence in my own ability.

With one final kiss to Haley’s neck, I pulled away. Her eyes slowly opened, and she looked at me.

'Are you okay?' she asked, her voice throaty and deep. I nodded, laying my head down on her chest.

'I think maybe we should get some sleep.' I lifted myself up to look in her eyes. 'What do you think?' She looked at me for a moment, running her fingers through my hair, then nodded.

'I think so, too.' She leaned up, giving me the softest, sweetest kiss on my mouth, then hugged me to her.

We both stood, and I switched off the fireplace. Haley grabbed my hand, and without a word, we made our way through the dark and up the stairs to my room. Quietly we got ready for bed, and I slid between the covers, moving over as far as I could to the edge. I wasn’t sure what to think, and so figured giving Haley her space would be the right thing to do.

I guess I was right.

Haley got into bed, and immediately turned on her side, her back to me. I stayed where I was, staring up into the dark. Then I felt soft skin touch my arm, and a hand grab mine. She tugged, and I turned on my side, scooting up behind her, my arm around her side. With one final sigh, I fell asleep.

* * *

With a deep breath and a sigh, I opened my eyes. All the way from darkness to the light of reality, I could feel the warmth next to me, all along my entire body. Haley laid on her back, her head turned away from me, breathing slow and even. I was on my side, so I lifted myself up to my elbow, started at her profile. So beautiful.

I brought my hand up, reached over and touched her cheek with my fingertips, feeling the soft, smooth skin. I could not get enough of touching her, knowing she was really here.

Running my fingers over, I traced the lines of her face, down the bridge of her nose, over her lips, and down her chin to her throat. She moaned, snuggling in closer to me. Her head turned so I was looking into her face. She puckered her lips. Smiling, I brought my fingers around her mouth, then brushed them across them. She scooted closer to me, her lips still puckered. Getting the picture, I bent down and gently brushed my lips against hers.

'Mm, what a nice way to wake up,' she mumbled. I smiled.

'I aim to please.' Her eyes slowly opened, focusing on me. 'Morning.'

'Morning. How did you sleep?'

I had noticed where Haley’s tank had ridden up in the night, exposing half of her stomach. I took my hand from her neck, and began to run my nails back and forth over the bare skin.

'Not bad. How about you?' I watched my own hand, almost mesmerized by the movement.

'Andi?'

'Hmm?'

'What are you doing?' I looked up into half-lidded eyes, a lazy smile on her lips.

'Nothing.'

'Uh huh, so I see. And I slept well. I had some pretty comfy pillows.' Her eyes fell to my breasts, then back to my eyes. I smiled, still playing with the skin of her stomach, reveling in the reaction of tightening muscle.

'Well, I’m sure you did. Were they better than a Koosh ball? Too bad I didn’t have the same comforts.'

'They were much better than my Koosh, and luckily I had to foresight to sleep a little further down.'

'Not far enough.' I looked at her, challenging her with my eyes.