Chapter 54.

“Is that all you’re bringing?” Anna asked, after she’d frowned and puzzled over Jess's luggage.

Jess put the modest suitcase on the floor of the flat and dumped the holdall from over her shoulder. Jess had stayed every night at Anna’s, moving over in dribs and drabs. Toothbrush, underwear, tablet for reading and music. But with the shooting schedule she hadn’t had time to pack and check out of her room. So, today was official moving-in day.

“There’s more than enough room for those,” Anna said, relieved. “Is that all you need to bring?”

“That’s all there is,” Jess said.

“In London?”

“Anywhere. I suppose there are a few boxes at Mom and Dad’s, but I never use them.”

“Really?” Anna looked bewildered, the crinkle in her brow and wrinkle of her nose bewitching Jess and making her want to swoop her up already. She looked divine. The spring sunshine had brought out the dusting of freckles across her nose and a light rusty tan on her arms more obvious against the loose white linen shirt she wore over comfy faded jeans.

“This?” Anna motioned to Jess and her luggage. “This is Jessica Lambert’s whole world?”

“Yeah.” Jess laughed.

“Well, OK,” Anna said, lifting her eyebrows. She smiled at last, then stepped forward and cupped Jess's cheeks in her hands and placed one of those delicious kisses on her lips. The one that made Jess float on air, close her eyes in submission and curl her toes in delight. The one where Anna’s lips caressed over Jess, and even when she pulled away, Jess was irresistibly drawn after her.

“Hello,” Anna murmured, and Jess sighed at the sound of that silky voice.

“Hi,” she moaned. “I don’t suppose we have time for more of those, do we?” Jess said, plaintively.

“Later,” Anna purred. “You have a busy day. Let’s get you unpacked.”

Anna sat on the armchair next to the bed and alongside the shelves that ran the length of the room from window to eaves.

“You sacrificed CD space!” Jess said.

Drawer-boxes now sat on the shelves where Anna’s CD collection had been previously.

“Well,” Anna replied. “I use the digital player more often anyway.”

“You moved,” Jess said with great gravitas and a hand over her heart, “antiquated music formats for me?”

“I had to make room somewhere and I never–” Anna whipped her head round and scowled at Jess, all the while her cheeks twitching with amusement. “Watch it,” she growled.

Jess leant down and kissed her lover who was having a hard time maintaining her chagrin. “I love you,” Jess said, her cheeks tight with a grin.

“Hmm,” Anna said, her mock indignation still present and Jess couldn’t resist softening her further, caressing across her cheek, nibbling her earlobe then trailing butterfly kisses all the way down her neck.

Anna gulped. “Stop it, or we’ll never get unpacked.”

Jess drew back, her grin ever bigger. “I like this, kissing whenever we like.”

Anna was unable to hold the pretence of irritation and her whole face lit up, her love and happiness shining out at Jess.

“Me too,” she said, and it made Jess giddy. “But,” Anna said raising her hand to indicate gravity. “I need to remind you to be tidy. Otherwise I’m going to be tripping over your shoes in this small flat and the new robo-vacuum is going to choke on your shirts.”

“I can do tidy,” Jess said, with a confidence that could take on the world today she was so high on Anna. She dragged over her bags and pulled out piles of folded T-shirts and jeans and placed them in drawers.

“I don’t have much to be untidy with,” Jess continued, “which is part of the point. When I had stuff at home I left it all over the place and forgot about it. So I gave up having any.”

“Seriously,” Anna said with a strict schoolmarm voice and twinkle in her eye. “Keep it tidy here.”

“Oh,” Jess purred. “I like strict Anna, one of my favourites,” and she threw Anna her best sultry smile. Anna’s eyes lingered on her lips, then she licked her own. Jess definitely caught that.

“Stop it,” Anna said, smiling. “Concentrate. We have to get you unpacked, practise your interview and see Penny before you leave for the studio tonight.”

Anna’s pretence of command and voice of authority really did reach places in Jess.

“Correction,” Jess said. “I love strict Anna.” Her eyes dipped into Anna’s shirt, open to the top of her cleavage and the skin pale where the sun hadn’t reached yet. “Especially when she isn’t wearing a bra.”

Anna’s face flushed and her lips twitched. “We really don’t have time.”

“But,” Jess said. “I’m done. That’s me unpacked.”

“Already?”

“Yup. I’ve been living out of hotels for years. I have it down to a fine art. So,” Jess drew it out suggestively. “Perhaps we have time…?”

“No.” And before Jess could seduce her with a kiss Anna had leapt from the chair and was crossing to the kitchen corner.

“I’m going to get us a drink,” Anna said over her shoulder. “Then we’ll practise some likely interview questions for tonight on the show, to stop you fretting or seizing in front of the audience.”

Jess grumbled a note of acquiescence.

“Tea?”

“Yes, please.” Jess loved that Anna knew what she preferred to drink this time of day.

“Then get comfortable and ready for your questions.”

Jess sat on the floor and crossed her legs. She watched Anna make two cups of tea and wander towards her, frowning a little in concentration, a cup in each hand. Jess tilted her head, appreciating the sway of Anna’s hips as she curved past the kitchen island, around the end of the shelves demarking the sitting area and leant down to offer Jess a cup, her shirt opening as she leant and offering a peek of curving white breasts within.

“Mmm,” Jess said, without even pretending she meant the tea. She put the cup down and peered some more. “Do we really have to practise?”

Anna stroked her index finger under Jess's chin and tilted her face up. Jess blinked lazily at the soft sensation of Anna’s touch and her humid breath on her mouth. It was like being bathed in pheromones.

“I’m only thinking of you,” Anna said, her eyes dark and her lips full.

“I’m thinking of you too,” Jess moaned.

Anna arched an eyebrow. “Plenty of time for whatever consumes your thoughts, but after your interview tonight.”

That was far too long to wait.

“So,” Anna snapped, but with a smile. She sat back on the chair, shuffled between the cushions, crossed her legs and assumed a serious demeanour. “Jessica Lambert, star of the Atlassia blockbusters, Bond girl and in-demand fashion model,” Anna continued, “what’s been keeping you in London these past few months?”

“Seeing a wonderful woman,” Jess sighed.

“Be serious.” Anna threw one of the cushions.

The cushion sailed past. “Wonderful, but who’s rubbish at throwing.”

Anna threw the other and it made its mark, pummelling Jess in the face and wafting the curls of her fringe. “Who’s actually pretty accurate.”

“Be serious!” Anna said. “What’s keeping you in London?”

Jess knelt forward. “Honestly, how can I concentrate?”

“What is wrong with you?”

Jess shook her head slowly and deliberately from side to side. “Well it’s just this woman. I don’t know what it is about her.”

Anna sighed with exasperation. “So you’re working with Anna Mayhew?” she said in a desperate attempt to keep the interview on track.

“That’s the one,” Jess said, her voice drugged with glee and desire.

“Well, what’s she like?” Anna smiled with a knowing pinch in the corner of her mouth.

“Oh, well,” Jess murmured, coming closer, “I can talk about her for hours.”

Anna licked her lips. Jess doubted she was even aware she had.

“Go on,” Anna said.

Was that a tremble of anticipation in her voice? Jess needed little more encouragement.

“She has a face like a goddess,” Jess said and she reached out and touched Anna’s cheek that ever so slightly flushed rose. She trailed her finger down her neck, around her collar and down to the shallow beginnings of her cleavage.

“She wears these classic-cut clothes. Very proper,” Jess grinned. “So that when you peek beneath,” and here she hesitated and with a barely perceptible movement slipped open the top button of Anna’s shirt, “it’s an insanely sexy surprise to find these bare breasts.”

She slipped her hand inside, a smooth breast filling her palm. Anna gulped and began to writhe a little in her seat.

“It’s so very,” Jess breathed, “very, distracting.”

She leant in and placed a kiss on Anna’s breast, one that took a little of her inside Jess's mouth so that she could taste her skin and lick over Anna’s nipple, enticing a moan from her lover.

“And what I really want to do,” Jess murmured with husky nonchalance, as she kissed further down Anna’s belly slipping open her shirt as she went, “is cover every inch of her skin in kisses, so that her whole body tingles.”

Anna was writhing now.

“…Until she’s gasping with anticipation.” Jess unzipped Anna’s jeans. “Almost begging.”

Jess slipped down the trousers and underwear, Anna eagerly lifting her hips to rid herself of them.

“…When I ever so,” Jess teased Anna’s thighs apart with her fingers tips and slipped her arms beneath her buttocks, “…ever so gently…”

She breathed over where Anna trembled with desire. Jess couldn’t speak any more and had to pause to stop herself succumbing to dizzy arousal. Then she tipped down her chin and, with the very tip of her tongue, lapped at her clitoris.

“Oh!” Anna’s body seized.

Jess hugged Anna’s naked thighs not wanting her to move away with the convulsion. She pushed her tongue inside while Anna’s body moved to meet her. Jess closed her eyes and moaned, enjoying the taste of the woman she adored and the ecstasy that every stroke of her tongue elicited in her lover.

She could have stayed there all day, savouring Anna’s flavour and luxuriating in the abandoned rapture of her lover. Jess groaned again, her lips against Anna’s slick tenderness and feeling her building excitement pert beneath her tongue.

Jess relented a little but didn’t pull far away. “Sorry.” It took great effort to sound at all serious. “I got distracted. Should I get back to the interview?”

“Don’t you dare,” Anna moaned, gently cupping Jess's head and encouraging her to stay exactly where she was.

Jess didn’t hold back and dipped her face into Anna’s desire until Anna tensed into her silent thrall of oblivion and collapsed gasping into convulsions of delicious aftershocks.

Jess rolled away to sit on her feet, licking her lips and stroking gently where Anna was most sensitive. Anna looked divine, elegantly lounging on the chair, shirt undone and breasts bare, one leg hooked over the arm so that Jess's view of her glistening satiated thighs was unhindered. Jess sighed. She wished she had a painting of this view.

“So?” she grinned. “How’s my interview technique?”

“I don’t think Graham Norton would be impressed.”

But the ravaged and blushing Anna clearly was.

 

–

 

A shower and a seduction later where Anna turned the tables spectacularly on Jess, they left the flat and walked towards the coffee shop. They didn’t seem to be able to keep apart or their hands from touching for more than a second. Jess wore one of the beanie hats she’d got into the habit of wearing around town and she grinned with the sunshine on her face and Anna’s hand swinging in hers at her side. She was filled with elation and high on love and happiness, so much that she decided to bring up a prospect she’d been delaying.

“It’s the TV awards soon,” she said.

Anna murmured a response, a satisfied beam on her face lingering from their erotic shower.

“I wondered,” Jess said, “I mean, I know you’re a guest already, and you’re definitely going, and that you have a dress organised for you.”

“Uh huh,” Anna said nonchalantly.

“But. Well I hardly ever do this. And I suppose we’d look like co-stars arriving together anyway, but…” She took a deep breath. “Would you like to come with me? Like be with me? As in, each other’s dates?”

There, she’d said it.

Anna slowed their pace and they came to a stop. Jess's heart pounded in her chest. She knew Anna still worried about stepping back into the limelight as an actor herself and her exposure would be tenfold at Jess's side.

Anna turned to her, gaze fondly casting around Jess's face. “Is this our coming out to the world as a couple?”

Jess stuttered and checked her shoes, “Well, people might not assume, and like I say we’re co-stars anyway, and I have attended awards and premieres with other co-stars, and…” she peered up at Anna’s face, her eyes sparkling, her mouth curled in amusement and what Jess recognised as adoration – something so miraculous to see on the face of the woman she was besotted by.

“I want to go with you,” Jess said. “I love you and I don’t want anyone to think I’m with anyone else.” She looked Anna directly in the eye. “I don’t want rumours to start about me and other co-stars. They always do. But most of all I want to be with you.”

Anna reached up and lightly stroked her cheek.

“I’m not one to announce things like this,” Jess continued. “I don’t like the attention really. But I like things to be honest.”

“Are you sure you want to appear with a lesser-known actor?” Anna replied. “Would Femi approve? Will it detract from your hot-young thing and available status?”

Jess could see she wasn’t being serious.

“Actually, Femi approves of you no end. You keep me happy and sane.”

Anna leant forward and placed a delicate kiss on her lips that conveyed a deep sense of regard.

“I would love to,” Anna whispered.

Jess grinned, but was jittery with nerves. “It might mean you start to get more attention from the media.”

“I know,” Anna sighed.

Jess held Anna’s hands and squeezed them, unable to hide her concern and empathy for Anna’s anxieties.

“You might need to be more careful about how you travel,” Jess said.

Anna nodded, a frown crinkling her forehead.

“We don’t have to if you’re not ready.” Jess wondered if she was pushing too quickly, but Anna looked up with a face full of beguiled wonder again.

“I want to and especially for what it means to you. But,” Anna hesitated with a frown, “I think it’s time I told my mother a few things.”

“Oh?” Jess tried to keep it light. She’d heard a little about Anna’s family, most of it neutral and polite, and it was obvious there was discord.

“I haven’t seen her for a while,” Anna clarified, and she stroked Jess's cheek perhaps to reassure her. “I had to cancel the last couple of lunches because of shooting schedules.” Anna pursed her lips together. “I haven’t told her about putting the coaching on hold and taking this role for a start.”

“Oh.” Jess nodded.

“But I will,” Anna said softly. She took Jess's arm and faced down the hill. “Let’s get back to living,” Anna said, as they walked to the café. And Jess couldn’t take her eyes from her, hair flowing in the breeze, cheeks flushed from their love making and face euphoric.

They ducked into the café, blinking with the change of light. A couple of customers did a double take, but with her ordinary clothes and hat guarding against most second looks and regulars now accustomed to seeing the young star in their café, Jess's presence went unremarked.

Penny and Bibs were in their habitual booth by the window. Penny glanced up then rolled her eyes and did nothing to suppress her smirk. She scuttled out of the booth and enveloped them both with a hug, her head buried in their bosoms.

“You two,” she said pulling back, “look appallingly loved up. No need to ask why you’re running late.”

“Actually,” Jess said. She couldn’t help the stutter, “It was my fault. I needed to chat, to Anna, about something.”

Penny sniggered. “You’re such a shit liar.”

“It’s true,” Jess squealed.

“Whatever it was,” Penny said, pointing at Anna, “it didn’t put that smile on my best friend’s face,” and she spun on her heel and shot a grin over her shoulder.

Anna shook her head and they both slid into the booth seat.

“Jess!” Bibs exclaimed. The little toddler’s arms shot in the air when she saw her. “Knee!”

Jess was something of a favourite with Bibs at the moment. After Anna and Pen had claimed she was getting too big to carry all the way from the playground in the park, Jess's young fit physique had come to the rescue, and perched upon Jess's shoulders was now Bibs’s favourite mode of transport.

“Hey kiddo,” Jess said. She extracted the child from the high chair and plonked her on her lap. She was rewarded with sticky hands holding her cheeks and a slobbery nuzzle that smelled of strawberries.

Anna gave her a smile and squeezed her hand and Zehra came over promptly, clucking around her favourite customers like a mother hen. And Jess sat back in the warmth of the sunshine through the window and this bubble of affection.

This was the life.