She looked into Carmen’s eyes and kissed her hard on the mouth.

“I’m so sorry Carmen. I’m so sorry I kissed her back, even if just for a second. You’re the only one I want to kiss, please believe me.”

She kissed her lover’s tear-stained face and rubbed her hands through her dark curls. As Carmen’s sobs subsided, Shane let her hands roam the familiar territory of her body. She looked into her lover’s eyes.

“Do you believe me?”

Carmen stared at her and nodded. “Show me, Shane.”

Shane stared right back before she sweetly, painfully kissed down every inch of her lover’s body, whispering ‘I love you’ after each one. She rubbed Carmen’s back and trailed a finger up and down her stomach. She gently flipped the Latina onto her back and pulled her shirt off revealing the two full, tan breasts clad by a pink bra. She kissed between them as she slowly removed all of the clothing from her lover’s body. Carmen felt so exposed—it almost hurt to let Shane do this–to let her make such slow, sweet love to her while she was still so upset and worried over the whole Cherie thing. She was terrified it wouldn’t be enough, that Shane would in the end still leave her and she would be left all alone. She started to cry again.

Shane noticed and her head shot up from kissing Carmen’s stomach to hold her and wipe away the tears. Carmen let herself be held, let herself inhale Shane’s scent—a mix of musk body wash with the faint scent of the shampoo she used on her clients—and told Shane to continue. Shane was hesitant; she didn’t want to hurt Carmen anymore than she already had but Carmen had asked her so she continued.

She kissed her way back down her body and let head rest between her lover’s full, curvy thighs. She inhaled she sweet scent of Carmen’s flowery soap and began to lap up her wetness. She licked her way up from the bottom of her slit so incredibly, painfully slow.

“I love you so much, Carmen,” She continued to lick and suck. Carmen’s body started to slowly buck and she moved her hand down to feel Shane’s messy hair between her legs. The thin, pale woman wrapped her arms around her thighs and pulled her up closer to her while still making sweet love. Carmen began to pant and grew closer to cumming—Shane could sense this and began using her hand to please her while she brought her body up and pressed into her curves while Carmen arched her back and leaned her head back, mouth open. She began to whisper Shane’s name as the waves of painful pleasure washed over her. Shane sweetly kissed her girlfriend’s forehead and held her close until the waves subsided.

“I’m not leaving Carmen. I know I messed up. I shouldn’t have even let her inside the salon, I know, but I’m not leaving you. I don’t want to hurt you, you mean too much to me. Please—”

Carmen grabbed Shane’s face and looked straight into her eyes. “I know. I know Shane. I believe you, just please—you mean so much to me. I need you.”

They lay there and held each other—their bodies intertwined—until the sun went down. Then they walked over to pick Shay up, who had been a bundle of nerves that they would forget, and went out for dinner. Shane tried to pay special attention to Carmen—she really wanted her to know that she meant everything she said. Shay even noticed this and during dinner when Carmen was in the restroom, he leaned over and crawled onto Shane’s lap.

“Shane, can’t you just marry her already? You obviously love her, don’t you?”

Shane smiled and was a little taken back by his questions. She wrapped her arms around him.

“Yeah, I do love her, bud. I don’t know—I—have you said any of this to her?” He shook his head no.

“Well let’s keep it that way for a bit, ok?” He nodded his head as Carmen came back and smiled at seeing him curled up on Shane’s lap. They left the restaurant and went home. Carmen put Shay to bed and then fell into her lover’s arms and fell asleep herself—feeling much more confident that Shane really meant everything that she had said.