I opened the front door with trepidation, but luckily Aunt Kate was gone when we got back to my place. She left a note to tell me that she and Jim were taking a walk in City Park and having lunch up there, and that I was welcome to join them. The quaintness of a handwritten note charmed me. Aunt Kate had owned a cell phone for years, and I’d recently convinced her to buy a smart phone, but she still didn’t like to text. Half the time, she left the phone plugged into the wall in the kitchen. I showed Amelia the note.
“So we have the place to ourselves?” she asked, grinning slyly. She took a step closer and pulled me into her arms. The faint smell of citrus from her lotion was in my nose, and I nestled into her, inhaling deeply.
“Yeeeess, but that doesn’t mean we can take advantage of it. We have places to go, people to see.”
She nuzzled her face into my neck, sending shooting currents of electricity throughout me. My reservations began to wane, and I made myself back up and away from her, even walking a couple of steps away.
She laughed. “Can I at least watch you change?”
“Of course, but only if that’s all you do. No touching!” I shook a finger at her, keeping my face stern.
She held up her hands in defeat. “Okay. No touching.”
We walked back into the living room and into my bedroom, which, I was embarrassed to note, was a disaster area. I’d been in such a hurry the last few days I hadn’t had time to straighten up. Clothes and half-empty suitcases were scattered everywhere, most of the surfaces covered with either underwear or dirty clothes. My bed was unmade, and boxes of shoes were spilling out of the closet.
“Well, this is embarrassing,” I said.
“It’s cute.” She walked over to the bed, sat down, and looked at me as if waiting for something.
“I know what you’re trying to do, missy, and I’ll have none of that,” I said, mock disapproval in my voice.
“Whatever do you mean?” She tried to look innocent.
“You can sit there, but you have to stay there.” I surveyed the room. “So what do you think I should wear? How fancy will this be?”
“Not at all. It’s a garden party, so a sundress or slacks and a nice shirt should be fine.”
“What are you going to wear?”
“A sundress.” She looked around the room at the various piles of clothes and pointed to one. “That lilac dress would work.”
I pulled it out, holding it up to me. It was terribly wrinkled and I made a face. “It needs to be ironed.”
“Do you have an ironing board?”
“Yes, in the laundry room behind the kitchen. There’s a little closet in the wall just for it. It’s an old house, and I guess they used to come standard. The iron’s in there too.”
She levered herself to her feet and walked over to take the dress from me. “I’ll go iron this while you take a shower.”
I handed her the dress and we stood there a long time, inches apart. The longer we looked at each other, the blacker her eyes seemed to grow. She was breathing heavily, and, seeing her excitement, I felt my heart rate pick up. She took a tentative step closer, and when I didn’t protest, she moved even closer until we stood chest to chest, only the dress separating us. I was breathing quickly now, and, staring into her eyes, I realized the rest of my resolve had suddenly vanished. As if sensing my permission, Amelia dropped the dress and pulled me into her arms, kissing me deeply. I kissed her back even harder, as if I could kiss away the pain of the last few days. Her hands slipped under my shirt, and finding no resistance, she slipped it off over my head. My breathing was labored, and my desire was a wild, burning ache between my legs. She grabbed my hand and led me over to the bed, clearing off the dirty clothes and blankets before forcing me down onto it. I lay back, closing my eyes for a moment, then helped her slide off my pants and underwear.
She stood there in front of the bed, eyes blazing as she looked down at me. I sat up and drew her closer, hugging her around the middle and then unbuttoned her shirt. Her eyes grew hard for a moment, and she stiffened as my hands grazed her breasts, but she let me finish, and I slid it off her shoulders and threw it on the ground. We both undid her skirt, and she stepped out of it and her shoes before climbing onto the bed with me.
She leant on one hand next to me, tracing her fingers up and down my body and massaging my breasts. This went on for what seemed like eons. She was clearly teasing me, refusing to go further. My breathing was ragged and hitching, and I squirmed under her fingers.
“Amelia,” I begged her, grabbing her hand. I tried to push it between my legs and she tugged it away, laughing.
“Not so fast,” she whispered. She glanced around the room before scooting off my bed, then walked over to a pile of clothes. She picked out a pair of stockings, holding them up to show what she’d found. She came closer and I held my hands above my head. My tiny bed had a wooden headboard, and I prayed it would be strong enough for what it was about to endure. She tied my hands, seeming satisfied with my obedience, then glanced around the room again. She spotted what she wanted and returned a moment later with a scarf. This she tied around my eyes. She let me sit there, blindfolded, for a long, indescribably sensual moment. Desire welled up inside me, my skin growing hot, my sex getting wet. Then, finally, as if she’d been waiting until I couldn’t stand it anymore, I felt her fingers again, lightly tracing up and down my calf. She kept them there for a long time, and I began to get impatient again as I grew more and more agitated with desire. I attempted to grab her arm with my legs, and she moved away.
“If you keep doing that, I’ll have to tie up your legs, too,” she said.
“Is that a promise?” I flushed with embarrassment at my own daring.
Amelia was on the bed in seconds, as if my boldness had broken her resolve. She kissed me, almost painfully, then settled her lips on my neck, biting and sucking hard. Her hands were on my breasts, squeezing painfully and twisting my nipples. I heard a strange, high-pitched sound and realized it was coming out of my own mouth.
“Amelia!” I begged again. “Please! I can’t wait anymore.”
She only chuckled and kept her lips and hands where they were. I wrapped my legs around her, trying to pull her closer so I could rub my furiously throbbing center on her, but she kept shoving me down and away from her.
“Not yet,” she said, firmly. I let out a groan of frustration, and she laughed at me. She stopped kissing my neck and put her lips to my ear. “I want to make you come so hard you’ll beg me to stop,” she whispered.
The words nearly undid me. Had she touched me anywhere between my legs, no matter how briefly, I would have come almost instantly. Just her harsh ministrations to my breasts might make it happen anyway. The sensual blindfold, the stockings, and my limited movement added to the taboo. Evidently the fantasies I’d harbored about being tied up and blindfolded had been correct: this was exactly what I’d wanted her to do.
She moved her mouth down to one nipple and then the other, gripping my ass and massaging it as well. Her fingers were closer to my center than they’d been, but still too far away, and despite how wonderful her mouth felt on my breasts, I desperately wanted it somewhere else. Finally, as if sensing I couldn’t wait anymore, she moved one of her hands between my legs. I rose to meet her fingers and she slammed into me, hard. I choked down a scream and threw my head back, using the momentum of my entire body to meet her fingers inside me. She used the pinky of the hand inside me to teasingly play with the outside of my ass, and I began to slip over the edge.
When I came, waves of tortuous pleasure rolled through me. I saw bright flashes of white behind my eyelids, pulsing in rhythm with the undulations of my body. I was too overwhelmed to even scream for several long moments, but as I began to crest, I screamed incoherently, rocking my head backward and forward in a desperate effort to make the pleasure last forever.
Finally, just as she’d predicted, I heard myself gasp out, “Stop, please stop.”
Despite the blindfold, I could sense her triumph.
*
In the afterglow of the best sex of my life, I took stock of what had happened. Amelia was cradled in my arms, her head on my shoulder, eyes closed in a light doze. While she hadn’t taken off all her clothes, I was satisfied with how far she’d gone to please me. I knew I could try to get used to her situation. Moreover, she’d suggested that, however slim the hope, it might not be a permanent problem. She used to like being touched. Perhaps with time and patience, she could like it again. I decided to hold on to the hope that it would happen for us and keep trying. I would be gentle and loving, and maybe with time, things would change. I ran my hand up and down her arm, raising goose bumps, and she snuggled into me, sighing softly.
We might have stayed there all afternoon, but I made the mistake of glancing over at my alarm clock. I jerked upright. “Christ, Amelia, look at the time!”
She sat up lazily and looked over, her eyes widening. “Shit.”
“We need to get moving.”
She sighed and scooted over to the edge of the bed, helping me stand up. She reached down and then pulled on her clothes, buttoning her shirt reluctantly.
I pointed at the dress. “Iron that. I’ll take a quick shower and do my hair and makeup.”
“Yes ma’am,” she said, snapping a salute. “Anyway, don’t worry about being late too much.” She bent down to pick up the dress. “It’s just my family. You don’t have to impress anyone.”
I laughed and patted her arm. “You keep telling yourself that the next time you run into my Aunt Kate.”
She nodded and raised her eyebrows, apparently recognizing the futility of her reassurances.
I showered quickly and raced back to my bedroom. After drying my hair as well as I could, I arranged it in a simple French twist. My makeup, like all of my clothes, was in complete disarray, and it took me longer than usual to find everything I needed. I was going for a clean look, but by the time I finished, I looked overly made up. I sighed and removed it all before reapplying, this time just darkening my lashes and putting on lipstick. I put a little concealer under my eyes to lighten up the dark circles and took a look at myself. While I still appeared overly tired and worn, I looked better than I had. Satisfied, I stood up and grabbed my bathrobe.
I walked out of my bedroom and called, “Amelia?”
I found her sitting at the kitchen table with Aunt Kate and Jim. Jim looked incredibly uncomfortable, and Aunt Kate and Amelia looked a little grim. They both glanced over at me when I came in, and I pulled the robe around me a little tighter in embarrassment.
“I thought you were going to be out all day,” I said to Aunt Kate.
“The restaurant we planned to go to was packed, so we decided to head back. Amelia and I were just having a nice conversation.”
Amelia got to her feet and handed me the dress. “Here you go.” Her expression didn’t reveal anything, but she widened her eyes at me slightly, a hint of panic there.
“I’ll just go slip this on,” I said, and hurried back to my room.
While I knew Aunt Kate wasn’t likely to say anything overly critical, she could be very blunt. I could only imagine the kind of grilling Amelia was getting. I took one last look in the mirror, slipped on some ballet flats, and rejoined them as quickly as I could. Amelia almost jumped up when she saw me.
“Are you ready?” she asked, her voice nearly pleading.
“Yep. All set.”
“I called the car since we’re running a little behind. It should be here any minute.”
“Well, have a nice afternoon, ladies,” Aunt Kate said cheerfully.
“Thank you, Katherine,” Amelia said. “You and Jim do the same.”
“See you later, Aunt Kate.” I grabbed Amelia’s arm, and we walked to the front door to wait outside.
Once there, she breathed a long sigh of relief. Seeing my concerned expression, she laughed. “It wasn’t that bad.”
“That’s good. I’m sorry you had to go through that. Did she say anything mean?”
She shook her head. “Nothing like that. It was more about how much she cares for you, how much she just wants you to be happy, and how upset she would be if someone hurt you. It was all very vague, but the implication was clear: if I hurt you, she’ll hunt me down and strangle me.”
I hugged her. “Don’t worry about it. Once she understands how happy I am with you, she’ll come around.”
She nodded, but I could see her skepticism.
“Now you know why I’m so nervous about today.”
Amelia laughed. “Don’t be. No one will corner you like that. I promise.”
“That’s good,” I said, but I was still incredibly anxious. I suddenly wished I’d thought to get a drink of something in the house to help me relax, but it was too late now.
The car pulled up a moment later, and we climbed inside before George could get out to open the door.
“We’re in a terrible rush,” Amelia told him.
“Yes, Miss Winters,” George said, and we were moving seconds later.
“I need to go to my place first, George. We can walk over from there.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
She looked back at me. “I’m going to keep you close to me today, Chloé. Family functions make me a little nervous, too. I’m just so happy you agreed to come.”
I laughed. “If you’re this nervous, you can only imagine how I’ll feel when we get there.”