The line crackled, but finally a familiar voice picked up. “Hi, Dreama. It’s me, Mary Kate. Can I talk to Bobby?”
The school secretary put her on hold for a few seconds before coming back to the phone to ask excitedly if she was calling from Africa. “Yes, but this is costing me an arm and leg. Is he there?”
She watched the clock. Forty-five seconds.
“Hey, Bobby. It’s me. I was just calling to let you know that we’re all back down, and I made it all the way…Yeah, it was pretty tough…No, not everybody. Just half of us.”
That was it for his questions—was it as hard as she thought, and did everyone make it to the top. Nothing else about her experience. Then he started to tell her something about his softball team. She checked the clock again. Just under a minute.
“Listen, I’ve only got a few more seconds. This is costing me twenty bucks, but I wanted to let you know, like I said I would.” She rolled her eyes as he continued his story, only faster. “Bobby, I have to go. I’ll see you at the airport, okay? Don’t forget to call Mom and Dad and let them know that I made it to the top and I’m back down. And tell them to call Aunt Jean.”
Then he said the dreaded words.
“I love you too. Bye.”
Flooded with an array of emotions, she leaned across the counter to hang up the phone. She felt guilty for her last-second pretense, but the stronger feeling was relief to be done with it. It would feel even better once they finally talked about things being over and they could move on from being a couple, maybe even to being good friends. At least now she could spend the next few days not worrying about it.
She found her fellow hikers at a long table on the outdoor patio of the bar. An ice-cold Safari beer sat at an empty spot next to Addison, who was sharing stories with those around her.
As she approached, she noticed something different. Addison’s long hair, which had been tied back in a ponytail since the day she arrived, was now loose around her shoulders. Her casual pose— one arm across the back of the empty chair as she leaned across to talk to Ann—was the picture of relaxation. It was a wonderful contrast to the formality she had shown only last week when she first introduced herself to the group.
Mary Kate interrupted their conversation as she took the chair between them and picked up her beer. “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome. I wasn’t sure if you drank beer,” Addison said.
“Not often, but sometimes.” She took her first sip of the beer labeled Tanzania’s finest. “Oh…that’s different.”
“The second swallow’s better, and by the third, it’ll be your favorite,” Jim said. He sat directly across from his eighteen-year- old son, who was also enjoying a beer.
“How did your phone call go?” Addison whispered.
Mary Kate didn’t want to get mired in talk of Bobby tonight. It was a special night with new friends and she wanted to savor their triumph. She was saved by a flicker of the lights, then another, before the entire complex was thrown into total darkness.
“Hey, Drew. You just got better looking,” Brad said.
“Very funny, you little rat.”
In a few moments, the bar staff appeared with candles for their table. Jim ordered the next round, which Mary Kate quickly waved off. Two beers would have her singing the Dixie Chicks. Around eight o’clock, the restaurant manager appeared to announce that despite the power loss, the buffet was ready and their table was set.
No one ate the boiled potatoes.
Her plate piled high with seasoned fish, tomatoes and freshly- baked bread, Mary Kate commandeered the seat at the far end of the table. Addison joined her at the corner, brushing their knees together as she sat down.
Mary Kate leaned over and whispered, “It’s nice to see you so relaxed tonight.”
“Hey, I’m from Miami. I can’t relax unless I’m warm.”
“It looks good on you.”
“Thanks.” Addison reached under the table to squeeze her knee.
Mary Kate grasped her hand and held it as they waited for the others to join them at the table. She let go only when everyone began to eat.
A lively conversation recapping their trek accompanied dinner, covering every subject from the toilet paper shortage to their mass meltdown in the mud earlier that day. Mary Kate was glad to feel the exhilaration return, and she couldn’t wait to get another look at the mountain from the street the next day.
As they finished dinner and sipped tea, Addison’s hand wandered back into her lap and she took it. It made her smile to think that no one else at the table knew of their secret sparks.
The candlelight banquet would be the last meal together for the Summit group. Jim, Brad and Drew were heading out for home early in the morning. The others were staying for a wildlife safari, but tomorrow they would split into three groups—Neal and Mei, Ann and Nikki, and Mary Kate and Addison—and not meet again until Saturday at the airport.
Mary Kate wasn’t ready for her evening to end, but the others drifted off to their rooms until she and Addison were alone in the restaurant. “You want to walk me to my room?”
“Love to.”
It was funny after all their time together in a tent to be heading off to separate rooms, especially since it was only for one night. If she had thought about it sooner, they could have canceled one room and stayed together. And once they were alone in their room, who knows what might have happened?
When she started toward the exit, she reveled in the feel of Addison’s hand in the small of her back guiding her through the candlelit restaurant. They reached the lobby and were met by a young girl with a flashlight.
“I take you upstairs to your room,” she said.
Carefully, they mounted the stairs and arrived first at Mary Kate’s room. Their escort waited until she had located the matches on the nightstand and lit the single deep candle by her bedside.
“I’m all set,” she said, resigned that their evening was over.
“Good night,” Addison said awkwardly. Then she disappeared in the darkness down the hall.
Mary Kate closed her door and slid the barrel bolt into place, disappointed at having her time with Addison end so abruptly. All evening, she had fantasized about them coming back to her room, talking into the night and finally exploring the feelings that were flickering between them.
She readied for bed in the dim light, relishing the feel of her cool silk pajamas. The soft cotton sheets would be a welcome change from putting on her clothes to climb inside a dirty sleeping bag.
A soft knock stopped her as she leaned to blow out the candle. Pressing against the door, she asked who was there. The answer made her smile, and she threw the bolt.
Addison leaned casually against the doorjamb, holding a candle. She was barefoot, dressed in baggy shorts and a T-shirt.
Mary Kate grasped her wrist and pulled her forcefully into the room. Then she closed the door again and locked them in. “I’m glad you came back.”
Addison set her candle on a small table at the foot of the bed. “I thought we should talk about”—she waved her finger between them—“what’s going on here, and what we want to do about it.”
Mary Kate swallowed hard, suddenly aware she was shaking. “What do you want to do?” She tossed out the question as though giving Addison authority to decide for both of them.
Addison stepped closer and raised her fingertips to brush the hair behind Mary Kate’s ear. “I want to make sure we both want the same thing. I don’t want to push this if you aren’t comfortable with the idea.”
Lots of emotions filled her—most were good—but comfort wasn’t one of them. “How can I be comfortable with something that’s happening for the first time?”
“What is happening?”
She took Addison’s hand and pressed it into her cheek. “I’ve finally met someone I really want to kiss.”
Addison’s other hand went around her waist and pulled them together. She leaned in, but stopped momentarily, as if asking permission one last time. Then she finally closed, brushing her mouth and tongue softly against Mary Kate’s lower lip.
The sensation was almost surreal, as excitement and want coursed through her. Kissing had never felt so personal, so intimate. There was no checklist in the back of her head telling her how far to part her lips or what to do with her tongue, nothing that asked her to try harder to concentrate on the emotions.
As if an afterthought, she became aware of her hands, which had slipped beneath Addison’s T-shirt to caress the warm skin of her back. It only made the kiss they shared deeper, more intense.
Breathing heavily, Addison finally left her mouth and moved to the soft skin of her neck.
Mary Kate tipped her head to the side, yielding to the gentle assault and surprising herself with a quiet moan. The heat seemed to rise between them, and she pulled their bodies closer.
Abruptly, Addison stopped and wrapped her in a tight hug, her lips only centimeters from Mary Kate’s ear. “I should have known kissing you would make me crazy. I need to go back to my room while I can still walk.”
“I don’t want you to go.” She had never felt a temptation like this, a desire so strong she couldn’t turn it off. It was already too late to turn back. “Stay with me.”
Even the panic that her invitation evoked felt good, like a congratulatory response to her show of courage. As if to demonstrate her resolve, she blew out Addison’s candle and led her to the opening in the mosquito net.
“And we thought we were through with tents,” Addison said, her voice shaking slightly as she ducked through the slit and stretched out on the far side of the bed.
Mary Kate followed and closed the gap behind her, lying back against her pillow in surrender. The bedside candle flickered with its yellow glow, casting their silhouettes onto the transparent white netting. Whatever happened next, she wanted to see it clearly.
Addison moved closer, draping her knee between Mary Kate’s so their bodies were entwined from head to toe. When she brought their lips together once again for a searing kiss, Mary Kate drove her hips upward with a physical yearning she had never felt before. She pushed her hands through Addison’s hair and synchronized her movements to the rocking rhythm of the thigh that pressed against her need.
Again, Addison stilled and buried her face into Mary Kate’s neck as if trying to rein in her impulse. “This is going to happen unless you stop it, Mary Kate.”
The whispered warning only fueled her hunger. She grasped the edges of Addison’s T-shirt and pulled it upward. “I want to feel you.”
Addison allowed her shirt to be removed and went to work loosening the buttons on Mary Kate’s top. Then she pushed it aside and lowered her body, bringing their warm skin together.
Mary Kate thought she might die from the softness against her. Her hands roamed across the smooth skin of Addison’s back, down the dip of her spine and back up the curved sides to start again. Craving the sensation throughout her body, she hooked her fingertips in the waistband of Addison’s shorts. “More.”
When Addison lifted her body to comply, Mary Kate pushed off her own pajamas. Then she held her breath in exquisite anticipation as their pubic mounds came together. “God, Addison,” she murmured, moaning with sheer bliss. Nothing had ever felt so right.
Another kiss followed, this one more urgent than the others, a signal they were past the point of no return. Addison’s hand covered and caressed her breast, teasing her nipple into a hardened tip. Then she dropped her head to suck it between her lips.
Mary Kate pushed her chest higher off the bed, willing it deeper into Addison’s mouth. She watched as if dreaming while Addison moved from one breast to the other, lavishing a tantalizing touch on the aching peaks.
Too soon, Addison left her breasts, but she didn’t stop. Instead, her warm, wet mouth drifted lower to the patch of curly hair.
Mary Kate covered the chill of her moistened breasts with her hands, kneading them in frenzy as her focus shifted to a stronger ache burning from her center. She could feel Addison’s warm breath against her thigh, and she instinctively opened her legs.
Addison’s tongue swirled through her folds, an intimacy beyond anything she had ever imagined. Every nerve in her body vacated its function to congregate in a single place, where a warm tingling grew more and more intense. When Addison closed her lips over that tiny spot, Mary Kate erupted, a million vibrations rushing like lasers to and from her core.
Nearly frantic with the powerful sensation, she jerked away uncontrollably.
“It’s okay. It’s okay,” Addison whispered, crawling up quickly to envelop her in a calming embrace. “Easy. I’ve got you.”
Mary Kate shuddered again as Addison’s thigh pressed against her hypersensitive center. It was too much, and she squirmed to break free.
“Mary Kate, what’s wrong?” Addison shifted her body to the side but did not release her grip.
Words could not express what she was feeling—the most extreme embarrassment she had ever known. How could she ever have convinced herself that what she had felt during sex with Bobby was all she needed? He had never given her anything so intense, a physical and emotional release so profound that it left her weak and pulsing in its wake.
“Please talk to me.”
Mary Kate squeezed her eyes tightly shut to hold back tears, her body still trembling from what they had done. She felt like a naïve teenager who’d had sex for the first time.
“Did I hurt you?”
She shook her head and resolved to speak. Addison needed reassurance as much as she did. “I wasn’t expecting that. It was…” She drew in a deep breath. “I felt it all over.”
As if sensing her vulnerability, Addison pulled the sheet up over them, and then planted feather-like kisses on her brow and eyelids. “It was beautiful.”
“I didn’t expect it to be so strong. Or to happen so fast.” Most of all, she was surprised at how it had rippled suddenly from beneath Addison’s lips and spread throughout her whole body. It embarrassed her to think Addison had known her body better than she knew it herself.
“Sometimes it’s like that. It can—”
“I never had an orgasm like that before,” she blurted, feeling her face heat up as she took in the surprise on Addison’s face. “Nobody ever did that to me…with their mouth, I mean.”
Addison smiled warmly and slid her body back into place, resting her leg again in its intimate place. “Then I’m glad I was your first. You have the most wonderful taste.”
Bobby had kissed her there once, but only for a second or two. She had returned the gesture with a similar lack of enthusiasm, but—
Her panic rose as it suddenly occurred to her that Addison might want the same from her. She didn’t think she could do that.
“Will you let me touch you again?” Addison’s hand was already caressing her hip. “Please trust me. I’d never do anything to hurt you.”
Mary Kate couldn’t have refused if she had wanted to. Her body was already rising in need, and when she felt Addison’s fingertips teasing her curls, she parted her thighs to grant access.
“This part of you, Mary Kate”—her hand slid through the wetness—“is the warmest”—her lips tugged gently at her earlobe—“and the softest thing I’ve ever touched.” Her finger gently entered the opening and began to stroke.
Though her hips wanted badly to thrust forward and take in more of the probing hand, Mary Kate didn’t want to make a fool of herself with another loss of control. Instead, she willed herself to remain still and concentrate on the sensations as Addison added another finger to her depths. Each time they withdrew, a thumb dragged gently across her clitoris, sending a tremor through her midsection.
“Do you want me to stop?”
“No,” she whispered as the warmth bubbled up and gathered at the precipice. Suddenly, the walls of her insides clenched and gripped the fingers that filled her. Hot waves spilled over in rapid succession, finally receding to leave her numb.
Addison withdrew her fingers and dropped her forehead on Mary Kate’s shoulder. “You have no idea how good it feels to be pulled inside like that. Thank you for trusting me.”
“I do trust you.” Mary Kate was almost overwhelmed at the rush of emotions over what they had just shared. It was more than just the physical intimacy. Addison had vanquished her fears and doubts with more understanding and tenderness than anyone had ever shown her. “It’s like you’re looking inside me.”
Addison smoothed her hair to the side and delivered another kiss to her brow. “I will if you’ll let me.”