Page 79 of Bonds of Shame, Bonds of Lust

"Janice—" My voice was wrecked. "Please."

I'd never said the word please like that to anyone before. Not for sex. Not for anything.

The shame of having said it was almost too much to hold. I'd begged. I'd begged for my best friend to make me come.

Janice smiled against my breast. I felt it before I saw it.

"Perfect," she murmured.

She pressed her mouth to mine. Kissed me deep. Her tongue found mine and her finger drove back into me, faster now, curling against the place that had been waiting. Her thumb returned to my clit, harder than before.

The orgasm took me apart.

I came onto her hand. My whole body locked. My back arched off the mattress. The cry that came out of me was the cry of a woman who'd been kept from this forever and had finally been allowed it. My walls clenched on her finger again and again. The next surge of wetness ran down her hand and onto the towel. The pleasure didn't crest cleanly. It rolled in multiple waves, deeper each time, until I shook and gasped. Janice kissed me, slowly, and held me through it all.

When the last wave moved through me, I went boneless. Trembling. Wet. Wrecked in a way I couldn't describe.

Janice withdrew her finger. Slowly. Held it up between us. It was glistening. She looked at it, then licked it dry.

"I knew you'd be sweet," she laughed, and bent down to kiss me. I took it, loved it, and was utterly confused.

She stood up suddenly. "Get dressed!" she said, like she hadn't just shattered me. "Let's go to the pool! I have tons of people to introduce you to."

I lay there after she stood up. Her bottle of wine was still on the desk, mostly full. Mine was empty. I hadn't said yes. I hadn't said no. I'd let Janice do what Janice wanted to do, and I'd liked it, and I didn't know what that made me. The kit was still open on the bed beside me. Janice had brought the kit from Lexington. I was still trying not to look at what that meant.

"Lacey." She was still in her bikini. "Come on. Let’s go to the pool!”

I sat up. I got dressed. I followed her out of the cabin and into the corridor and toward the elevator that would take us to the pool. My legs were unsteady. The freshly waxed skin between them was tender. The place inside me that Janice had found was still humming.

33 - COME BUY

Janice

I was walking on fucking air. She was sweet, my Lacey. She even tasted sweet. I would never get tired of that taste, of feeling her under me. And she was soft, after all. So soft, compliant, obedient. Oh, Janice, you lucky bitch. My wildest fantasy. Not just my lover finally, but my sweet, gorgeous pet. And I would treat her like the precious gift she was. It was no less than we both deserved.

I couldn't wait to show her off. I'd been telling them about her for weeks. Wait till you meet her. By the time I walked her across that deck it felt like an unveiling.

I had her hand before we were halfway, laced our fingers, and worked my grip up to her arm and hooked it through mine, so we arrived as a pair.

"Ladies. This is Lacey."

Diane looked her over, slow. "Oh. She brought us new meat." They laughed, and Lacey laughed a half-beat late, that flustered laugh, and even her awkwardness was lovely to me.

"Be kind, Diane. She looks like she'll bolt."

"Sit down," Diane said. "Have something cold. Nobody here does anything you didn't ask for."

She sat. I settled on the arm of her lounger with a hand on her shoulder, and I liked how we looked. I'd wanted them to see her for a long time.

Then the Ramirez woman tilted her head. "Bonds. Wait—Lacey Bonds. Peds cardiology?"

"That's me."

"I know your name. The single-ventricle imaging work, the sedation protocols. We cited you last spring." To the others, pleased: "Half our fellows would fight to get on her service."

My hand closed on her shoulder. I'd known she was good but I'd never heard a stranger say her name like it carried weight.

The afternoon ran long. Two of the women had stopped listening to anyone, one's hand high on the other's thigh. Lacey kept her eyes on her drink. Soon you won't have to look away.