No Air

Tina came down off one the most intense orgasms she had in recent weeks.
Its giver held Tina securely against her chest as she let out a needed
breath. Silent minutes followed as each woman once again adjusted to the
new electric charge between them. They both admitted that they still
loved each other.

Step one.

****

‘Why did I agree to come on this ride?’ Tina thought to herself.

She sat across from the person she loved more than herself and just
second to her daughter. Truly their daughter. And she had never seen a
more breathtaking sight. Bette dressed in jeans, always her favorite,
and a new addition… flannel. She didn’t know Bette owned any. She knew
that her former lover didn’t even own a pair of flannel pyjamas.

‘Must have been Jodi’s doing,’ Tina thought for more than the first
time.

Jodi had Bette performing a lot of first. Jodi had Bette camping in a
god honest tent in sleeping bags. She had Bette being more vulnerable
than Tina could ever have had Bette be with her. Jodi had Bette cooking.
She even tasted her first meal. That thought made Tina jealous. She
huffed out a sigh of disappointment.

"Everything okay T?" Alice asked across the campfire.
"Yeah. Just….. nothing. Thought you were going tell us a ghost story
or something."
"Yeah, yeah, sure," Alice turned her attention to the group fo women
gathered around her, "Okay ladies and Tom," Alice acknowledged earning a
smile from the only male companion.
"Time for a story."

*****

She wasn’t really listening to the story her friend was telling but
instead focused on how beautiful by the campfire light the woman she
loved looked. She watched as the flames danced across  her light caramel
skin. She always loved her skin. The many facets of it drove her wild.
The velvety feel of it underneath her fingertips made it nearly
impossible for her not to reach out and touch it whenever they were in
close proximity. Being a mere feet away made it very difficult for her.
The ache becoming stronger and stronger. The fact that Jodi easily
interwined their fingers as they held hands made her jealous. She had
never been jealous of Bette’s relationship with other women, be it
professional or as friends. But this relationship was different. Jodi
had touch Bette in places that she had touched her for years and very
recently. She turned her head away in disgust.

”People can lick too,” Alice ended her story with a smile.
"Oh Al," sighed Bette.

The sound of her voice brought Tina’s attention back to her. To busy
focused on her again, Tina hadn’t heard the rustling in the nearby
woods.

"Arrr!"

Bette and Jodi jumped up screaming.

‘She even beautiful when she terrified,’ Tina thought to herself.

"That was so not funny," she heard Bette mutter as the rest of the group
collapsed into a brief fit of giggles.

*****

"Kissing is cheating," Tasha declared.

A lot of the group yeahed in agreeance. A few denied that to be true.

"Kissing is not cheating," Bette equally stocially declared like Tasha
had seconds earlier.

Bette’s comment started a conversation that Tina clearly didn’t want to
participate in. She sunk further into, if at all possible,  the log
seat. She watched as Alice became more animated about Bette’s cheating
ways.

"Did you cheat on me?" Tina heard Jodi question in a joking matter.

She sat across at the couple wanting to hear Bette’s answer. Would she
lie or would she come clean about their affair?

Nothing. Nothing but that scared little girl look that Bette had
perfected over the years. Tina couldn’t take it anymore. She ran.

Mistaken step two.

*****

She was cried out. Drained of all that she was. Even as she heard Bette
pause outside of her tent before dawn, Tina held her breathe and prayed
that she would not attempt to come to her. Not at that hour. Not at a
time when her quilt was eating her alive. About an hour earlier she
heard Jodi pack up and tell Tom that she was leaving. That she wanted to
ride back home by alone. She peeked out of her tent and saw Tom sign
that he didn’t like the idea and Jodi argue back that "I’m a grown
woman. I could take care of myself. Besides I wouldn’t be alone. I’ll be
surrounded by other riders."

"She’s leaving," Tina said out loud.

She was leaving and wasn’t waiting for Bette.  What did that mean?