Title:  Underneath the Ashes

Fandom:  Criminal Minds

Pairing:  JJ/Emily

Rating:  PG-13, descriptions of bodily harm

Event:  Written for International Day of Femslash

Archiving:  P&P, WIK

A/N:  Not really one to give, just used to having this here.  I guess this is kind of a “what if” scenario story.

Emily slammed into the hard metal of her car door and lost her balance from the jolt of the explosion.  Scrambling to her knees, she could see the flames and already smelled the nauseating scent of burning rubber.  She knew the rest of the team’s cars were parked in the vicinity and with a sickening dread she took off in a wild sprint in the direction of the charred vehicle. 

When she rounded the corner, the flames were beginning to abate but the heat knocked her back on her heels.  Morgan tore around the other corner from the opposite direction in a frenzy.  He was followed close behind by Hotch, Reid, and Garcia.  Rossi brought up the rear.  They all looked frantically around.  Something was missing.  Something was terribly wrong.

“Oh god, JJ,” the brunette brought her hand up to her mouth, already heading in the direction of the burning SUV.  Tears sprang to her eyes, her hands visibly shaking, “No, no, no, no, no.”  Before Morgan could grab her to restrain her, Emily took off in a run for the SUV.

“Emily!!!”  Everyone followed the dark-haired profiler as she disappeared past the dying flames closest to the building.

All they heard as they approached was Emily’s tearful mantra, “Not JJ.  Not JJ.  Not JJ.”

When they got closer, choking on the acrid smell of gas, rubber, and the distinct stench of burning human flesh, they saw Emily hunched over, her arms wrapped around a body, and rocking gently.

“Oh god,” Garcia was the first to react when she saw the shock of bloody blonde hair.

“Jesus Christ,” Rossi muttered.  Reid stood silent his fingers wrapped in a death grip in his messy hair.

Morgan squatted down on the other side of Emily and JJ, quickly assessing the injuries.

“Emily,” the handsome agent coaxed.

“No!”  Emily pulled JJ tighter into her arms.  Both women were covered in blood.  It was everywhere, but there wasn’t one large wound.  Instead, JJ’s body had been pierced by thousands of shards of glass.  The flashing of the fire had lightly singed her skin and the ends of her hair.  The lack of a major wound only concerned Morgan more since the damage probably lurked unseen.

“Emily,” Morgan spoke more urgently, “let me check her.  We need to know the extent of her wounds…please.”

Emily’s dark eyes caught her friend’s, “I can’t lose her, Morgan.  I can’t…,” the brunette’s tears turned to full-blown sobs, “I never told her.”

“Emily, she’s going to be fine, you hear me?  She’s strong.  You’ll get your chance to tell her, but right now, we need to get her help.”  Sirens could be heard in the distance.  The profiler knew he was right, knew she had to let go, but she couldn’t.  She could still lose her and that fear ripped her up inside. 

Fire trucks and ambulances rounded the corner, “C’mon, Em.”  Morgan reached out his hand.  The EMT’s were running toward the scene.  Emily closed her eyes and kissed JJ’s forehead, feeling the rough glass embedded in the pale skin beneath her lips.

“In case I never get another chance, know I love you, Jennifer.  I’ve always loved you,” she gently laid JJ down on the ground and moved away to let the EMT’s through.  Morgan pulled the profiler to him, protectively placing an arm around her.  They watched until JJ was placed in the back of the ambulance.

Hotch stepped up to the pair, after giving a brief rundown of the events to the local police, and calling Quantico to let them know what had happened.

“Take me to the hospital.  I’ve got to be with her,” Hotch simply nodded and Morgan walked her to the car.  Seeing the dark SUV, she pulled back, shaking her head.

“No! I can’t get in there.”

“Emily, it’s five miles to the hospital.  You can’t walk it,” Hotch reasoned.

“Then get me a cab.  I’m not getting in there.”

“Alright.”

******

Ten hours later, the sun had come up but the mood in the waiting room was bleak.  Emily hadn’t moved.  She refused to leave until they had news on JJ’s condition.  Morgan and Hotch stood sentry on each side of the room, while the rest of the team was spread out around the room in various states of sleep or anticipation.

The room suddenly burst to life as the doctor came barreling through the doors making a sleeping Reid fall out of his chair in surprise.  Emily was the first in front of the doctor.

“Well?”  Her voice was rough from lack of use.

“It’s going to be touch and go for the next 24 hours.  Apparently, the force of the explosion threw her up against the concrete wall at a side angle so her back didn’t take the force of the blow.  Her shoulder is pretty much shattered.  Our ortho surgeon will be in today to check her x-rays.  If she stabilizes, we can get to work on fixing those injuries.  She’s a helluva lucky woman though.  Aside from that, a concussion, a broken ankle and too many small cuts to count, she seems fine.  Surprisingly, there was no internal bleeding.”

The team looked at each other, thinking of the question they were all afraid to ask, but Emily eventually spoke up, “And the baby?”

The doctor smiled, “That’s the biggest miracle of all.  The baby’s fine and looks like she’s on the way to having a perfectly healthy baby girl.”

Emily smiled for the first time since this all began, “A girl.  When can we see her?”

“When we get her settled into her room, I’ll have one of the nurses come and get you.”

“Thank you, doctor.”

******

A couple of hours later the team was huddled around JJ’s bed.  As if by mutual understanding, Emily was seated in the chair next to her bed, her hand resting gently in the blonde’s.

The doctor came into the room, checked her vitals and reviewed her chart.

“She’s holding steady and that’s a good sign, but we have no idea how long she’ll stay unconscious.  You all really should go home and try to get some rest.”

“We can’t rest,” Hotch spoke for his team matter-of-factly, “Whoever did this is still out there and still a threat to JJ and to this team.  She’d want us to get back to work.”

Morgan clenched his jaw but nodded determinedly, “Hotch is right.  We can’t lose our focus.”

“Let’s get to it then,” Garcia finally spoke in an uncharacteristically serious tone before heading to JJ’s bedside and giving her a soft kiss to her forehead, “We’ll get these bastards.  I swear to you, we will.”

As the team headed out the door, Hotch came to stand at Emily’s side.  She didn’t want to leave, and she really didn’t need to get a dressing down by her boss right now.

“Hotch…,” he put a hand on her shoulder before she could finish.

“Stay with her.  She’ll need you here when she wakes up,” she looked up at him with relief and in return he gave her a rare smile.

“Thanks Hotch.”

“Just take care of her, Emily.  Be good to her,” Emily simply nodded in response.

******

The soft, rhythmic rubbing of a thumb against the back of her hand woke her from the sound sleep she had fallen into.  Lifting her head from the side of the bed with a groan, Emily gazed into the most beautiful blue eyes she’d ever seen.

“Hi,” JJ’s voice was rough from having the breathing apparatus removed earlier.

“Hey, yourself.  Glad you’re back,” Emily sat up on the edge of the bed.

“How do you feel?”

“Like someone tried to rip my teeth out through my ass,” Emily grimaced at the description.

“Um, that’s what morphine’s for,” the brunette picked up the button for calling the nurse, “pressing this will get you more.”

The blonde smiled, “Later.  So, how long was I out?”  The brunette had to think because she had lost track of time while waiting beside JJ’s bed. 

“Actually, I think it’s only been a day and a half.  Seems longer,” she pushed her hair behind her ear, feeling the grime of two days unshowered in her hair.

JJ had yet to let go of Emily’s hand, “What happened?”

“What do you remember?”  Emily was bracing herself for the questions she knew was coming.  She had thought about how to explain Will but never really let the conversation in her head get past the point they were at now.

JJ looked down at their entwined hands, thinking, her brows knitting together, “A flash of light.  That’s all.”

Emily looked down as well, taking a deep breath, “Well, apparently, the unsubs targeted the team and rigged one of our vehicles with explosives…yours was the unfortunate one chosen.” 

The profiler paused to let the blonde process the information, her blue eyes focused in concentration.

“Will,” she stated the name not as a question but as fact.

“I’m sorry, JJ.  I’m so sorry,” Emily expected the blonde to cry, but the tears never came.

“And the baby?”  JJ hadn’t made eye contact yet, but Emily squeezed her hand to get her to focus, a beaming smile coming to her face.

“The baby’s fine.  The doctor said it was basically a miracle,” JJ finally let out the breath she had been holding.

“I’m really sorry about Will,” JJ shook her head and closed her eyes.

“I’m not.”

“JayJ, don’t say that!  You’re just in shock.  It’s okay to be upset,” JJ actually started to laugh.

“I’m not upset, Em,” clear, blue eyes zeroed in on her own brown ones, locking them both in the moment, “I didn’t love Will.  I never loved him.”

“But I thought?”  Shaking her head, she tried to make sense of the last few weeks and months, “I don’t get it.  You were going to marry him.”

“But he’s not the one I wanted to marry.”

The brunette was looking at her truly confused, “So, there’s someone else?”

“Yeah, and if I have only learned one thing from all this is that time can’t be wasted.  Even in the ashes of a tragedy, a treasure can be found. Emily, if my life had taken a different kind of path or the last few months had gone a different way, you would have been the one killed in that explosion.  But you weren’t.  And you’re here…now…with me and with this baby,” JJ was becoming as animated as one could with wires and tubes hooked up to her.  Emily watched her in awe as the tears she had been waiting for at the news of Will, finally started to come to the surface.

“Jennifer, what are you saying?”  Emily nearly whispered.

The blonde quirked an eyebrow at the agent, a smile gracing her lips, “You’re the profiler.  Guess.”

Emily felt her heart beat faster at the teasing and flirting that had been sorely missing from their friendship in the last few months, “Hmmm, well, it seems to me that you’re insinuating that I’m your treasure beneath the ashes.”

“Close, but if you were to come closer, I could kiss you and clear up everything,” the brunette smiled and happily leaned down, gently kissing JJ.

“I love you too, Emily Prentiss,” the profiler creased her brows, wondering if JJ had heard her confession as she had cradled her after the explosion.

JJ giggled at the look on Emily’s face, “You talk in your sleep.”

“Oh, good to know!”  Resuming the kiss where they had left off.

Title:  Telling Tales

Fandom:  Xena

Pairing:  Xena/Gabrielle

Rating:  NC-17.  It was just going to be R, but I got carried away.  I think there’s some plot in here somewhere. *shrugs*

Archiving:  P&P, Xenafanfic

Event:  Written for the International Day of Femslash

A/N:  Thanks to androbard1364 for the prompt.  I took some liberties with it.  Hope you don’t mind.

The dark-haired warrior glanced out of the corner of her eye watching Gabrielle rummage around gathering together items so they could head out for the day.  Xena hadn’t been in this particular part of Greece but the increasing amount of horse and cart tracks helped her conclude that they were close to the next town.

The blonde bard had put all bedding and other unnecessary items away in the packs and was now settled down in front of the fire with a scroll watching a couple of fish fry.  The warrior watched her as she stared off into space.

“Something wrong, Gabrielle?”  The bard looked up in surprise at her partner then threw her hands up in the air.

“I’m stuck!”  Xena came to sit beside her, their thighs barely touching.  Xena pushed down the rush the touch of skin did to her.  Life on the road made intimate moments difficult so she had to remind herself that they would have a proper room in a proper inn probably by nightfall.

“Well, what are you writing about?”  The blonde blushed fiercely, bringing a smile to Xena’s lips, which she tried to hide quickly behind her hand when her younger partner looked up.

“Xena!!!  Don’t laugh at me!  I have writer’s block and it’s funny!”  She started rolling up the scroll.

“Gab, baby, I’m sorry,” Xena comforted her with a hand to her shoulder, “Please, tell me.  Maybe I can help.”

Gabrielle plopped back down on the log, “It’s kind of embarrassing.  See, I haven’t written anything like this before and I’m trying something new and … gods, I don’t know!”

“What is it, Gabrielle?”

“It’s about our first time,” she mumbled the last two words and braced herself waiting for Xena to explode.  Instead,…

“Maybe you should try talking it out first.”

“Huh?”  Damn, Xena’s superior hearing!

“Yeah, treat it like a play and talk it out,” the bard was already shaking her head.

“NO!  I can’t!”

“Why not?”

“It’s embarrassing!”

“Oh, it is, is it?”  Xena gave her patented death glare.

“Xena, that’s not what I meant and you know it!  Doing it is one thing,” the images that provoked made the blonde blush head-to-toe, “but talking about it is totally different.”

Xena smirked at her lover, “Oh, I don’t know.  Sometimes talking about sex is almost as good as the sex itself.”

Gabrielle snorted, “I doubt that!”

Xena leaned over, close to Gabrielle’s ear, her voice dropping an octave, “Remember our first time, baby?  That time when we were in the stables and the day kept repeating over and over again.”

Gabrielle leaned her head a little closer to the dark-haired warrior, “We thought Joxer had been killed and we had just had his funeral.  You were holding me by the fire and kissed the top of my head.”

“Suddenly, you sat up and looked at me with a fire in your eyes that I’d never seen before,” Xena let her fingers rest lightly on Gabrielle’s leg as she brushed a tongue along her pulse point in her neck.

“I told you to stop treating me like a child.  That I was a woman and I wanted you to treat me like one.”

“And how’s that, I asked.”

“Like this,” Gabrielle leaned away to look into Xena’s darkening blue eyes before cupping her face and leaning in for a kiss.  The kiss quickly turned heated, heads angled for better access and Xena’s fingers creeping under Gabrielle’s skirt.  When Xena’s long fingers touched wet heat, Gabrielle pulled away with a gasp.

“Gods, it was so good.  You were so good.”

“What did I do?”  Xena latched back onto Gabrielle’s neck, slowly working her way down along the collarbone and heading lower.

“You did treat me like a woman.  You took your time.  Slowly undressing me, kissing me everywhere.”

“What was your favorite place to be kissed?”

“Mmmm, my breasts,” Xena’s mouth followed the path to the aforementioned body part, making Gabrielle push into her.

“Oh Xena!”

“Did I do something like this?”  Xena sucked a pert nipple into her mouth, letting it scrap lightly along her teeth.

“Gods, yes!”

“And how did that make you feel?”

“Umm,” the bard was finding it hard to form words as the warrior mimicked their conversation with her body.

“Gabrielle, baby, tell me how it made you feel for me to suck your breasts.”

The blonde licked her lips, trying to focus, “Oh Xena, I…I felt sensations I’d never felt before.  It was like you were already touching me, already inside me.  Like you were loving me from the inside out.”

“And when you couldn’t stand the torture anymore, what did you do?”

“I told you to take me, make me yours,” Gabrielle guided Xena’s fingers underneath her skirt, where she needed her most, just like she did that first night.  The sensation of being penetrated completely, in her heart and in her body, overwhelmed her.

Smaller hands disappeared into dark hair as Gabrielle held Xena to her and her hips, agonizingly slow, rode the fingers inside of her.

“Gabrielle,” Xena rested her forehead against Gabrielle’s chest, getting lost in the sensations and sounds, her own desire flaring bright inside of her.  Deceptively strong hands pulled Xena up to kiss her.

“Xena, I am yours.  Forever.”  The warrior watched her bard as her green eyes closed, her head fell back, and her body jerked hard…once, twice, three times.  Xena cradled Gabrielle until the spasms around her fingers let up and she slowly withdrew from the bard.

She brushed the damp blonde hair out of Gabrielle’s eyes, waiting for her lover to come down, “Are you okay?”

“Mmmmm,” the blonde head nodded and smirked, “I think I found my inspiration to finish that story now.”

Title:  It was Always You, Part 2

Fandom:  Criminal Minds

Pairing:  JJ/Emily

Archive:  P&P, WIK

Rating:  NC-17

Disclaimer:  Not mine.  If they were, Captain Crawfish wouldn’t exist.

Spoilers:  Lo-Fi

Summary:  JJ realizes her mistake.

A/N:  This was started out as pure smut and ended up as romantic sap.  Blame the smutty parts on sofia_lindsay and cmbfs.  They’ve been writing JJ/Emily smut for weeks now and my muse likes to hang out with bad company, so…there you go!

Emily rolled over, feeling the welcome ache in her muscles, as she wrapped her arm around a slender waist.  A wicked smile spread across her face.  Never opening her eyes, she let her hand rediscover the soft skin underneath, sliding down over a bare hip then back to tickle the skin where thigh meets buttocks.  The profiler’s smile spread wider when she felt JJ chuckle.

“My goodness, Agent Prentiss, you’re insatiable!”  The brunette let the laughter overtake her as she nuzzled into the blonde hair in front of her.

“Well, you are kind of tasty and I’m kind of hungry.  It’s a good thing.”

JJ rolled over to look into Emily’s dark eyes and felt a shiver run through her at the sight of her feisty and quite disheveled looking lover, “Are you always this,” she struggled for the right word, “perky in the morning?”

Emily shook her head, “I don’t do perky.  You, however…” JJ jumped and giggled when the brunette tweaked an already hard nipple.  Both women rolled and laughed, kissed and touched, getting lost in the moment.  Eventually, JJ pulled back, breathless.  She looked up at Emily’s smiling face, tucking the dark tresses behind one ear.

“What, baby?”  Emily whispered.

JJ felt tears spring unbidden to her eyes.  She came so close to messing everything up and losing the one person who got her, who understood and accepted her just the way she was.

“You’re so beautiful, Em,” she leaned up to press a solid kiss to the already reddened lips above her.  The kiss was slow and deep as if they were trying to savor every moment.  Emily felt the familiar stirring of arousal as her hips slid between JJ’s legs.

The blonde moaned before pulling away, “God, Em, you’ve gotta stop that!”

“What?” The profiler put on her best innocent expression as she pushed her hips into JJ.

“That!”  The press liaison ran her nails down the cress of Emily’s spine, making her thrust harder.

“You’re one to talk, woman,” Emily leaned down to nip at the sensitive spot below JJ’s ear, “You’re encouraging me.”

JJ leaned her head to the side to give Emily better access, her legs wrapping instinctively around Emily’s waist.  It took a moment for JJ to realize that the buzzing sound she heard wasn’t coming from her or Emily, but from the pile of clothes on the floor.

“Em, baby,” the brunette shook her head and continued nibbling at JJ’s collarbone, “Baby, I gotta get my phone.”  Emily reached down into the jean’s pocket, flipped open the phone, and handed it to JJ without ever stopping.  JJ stared at the phone, not sure if she could manage this type of multi-tasking, but feeling Emily’s tongue lick a sensitive spot near her pulse point, she realized she didn’t have a lot of choice.

“Jareau,” the blonde bit her lip to stop a moan from escaping, and then after a few seconds, “Yes, sir.”

“Hotch?”  Emily brushed her tongue down the outside of JJ’s breast.  JJ ran both her hands into the profiler’s hair and gave a gentle tug.

“Yeah, we’re meeting downstairs in 15.”

Emily flopped her head down on JJ’s chest, “Damn, just when it was getting good.”

“Well, there’s always the shower,” Emily jumped from the bed at lightening speed.  Standing naked in the bathroom doorway, she gave her best come hither look and crooked a finger at JJ.  Seeing a very naked and very willing Emily sent a shiver of anticipation through JJ’s body, and she narrowed her eyes at the vision in the doorway.

“You better not make us late, Emily Prentiss.”

“That all depends on how creative I get,” she peeked her head further into the bathroom before turning back to the blonde, “after all, the shower does have one of those unhooking shower massage thingies for getting the hard to reach spots, lots of different speeds too.”

It was JJ’s turn to fly out of the bed, pushing Emily backwards toward the shower, “We better hurry then.”

*******

Exactly 15 minutes later, they were ready to head out the door.  JJ stopped dead in her tracks causing Emily to crash into her.

“Baby, watch where ya going?”  Emily looked up to see the object of JJ’s distraction. 

“Will,” JJ stated the obvious.  He stood there directly across from them, leaning against the wall, his arms crossed.  He pushed away from the wall but didn’t uncross his arms.  Emily felt the hairs stand up on the back of her neck.  Will was pissed and she had a bad feeling about this. 

Immediately, she dropped her bag and felt her body tense, waiting.  She brushed a hand across JJ’s back letting her know she was there.  She could feel the tension in the blonde’s body.  JJ may not be a practicing profiler, but she knew danger when she sensed it.  Right now, fear was emanating from her even if she didn’t let it show.

“I see...and heard what you had to do last night,” JJ visibly winced at that.  Both of them realizing the big mistake they made – forgetting that JJ and Will’s room was next door to Emily’s, the same room where JJ and Emily had been making love, occasionally noisy love too, all night.

“Fuck!”  Emily swore under her breath but still audible to the other two.

“That is another way to say it,” Will sneered at Emily.  She called on her years of compartmentalization to push down her anger.  Instead, she took it out on the palms of her hands as her nails dug into the skin.

“We’re not doing this right now, Will.”

“Oh, yes, we are,” he grabbed JJ’s arm, “right now.”  The blonde hissed at the pain in her arm, but before she could react, she saw a blur out of the corner of her eye and heard the sickening crack of bone on bone.  In a flash, Emily had Will picked up by the shirt and pushed up hard against the wall.  He could only struggle futilely as his feet dangled a couple of inches from the floor. 

“You put a hand on her again, you little fucker, and I’ll pull your shriveled balls out through your throat,” Emily delivered a knee to his groin to drive her point home.

JJ finally snapped out of her shock, “Emily!”

The dark-haired woman spun around, “Come on, let’s go.”

JJ stared at her in amazement as she took the other woman’s hand.  When they reached the elevator, she still couldn’t get over what she just saw.  Emily broke down under the persistent stare, “JJ, I’m really so…”  Her words were cut short as JJ kissed her senseless.  Neither let go until the elevator dinged their arrival.

The blonde smiled at the suddenly shy and somewhat embarrassed look on Emily’s face, “Nobody ever told me that my knight in shining armor could really be a princess.”

“Princess!!  Baby, I’m a fuckin’ queen!” JJ laughed in spite of the scary situation.  They saw their team across the lobby and slowly headed toward them.

“I love you, Emily,” the blonde whispered.

“I adore you," JJ shoke a little at the look of emotion on Emily's elegant face, a look that went far deeper than morning-after sexual bliss.  It was adoration, pure and simple.

Title:  Itty, Bitty Polka Dot Bikini

Fandom:  The Sarah Connor Chronicles

Pairing:  Sarah/Cameron

Rating:  NC-17

Archiving:  Please do.

Challenge:  Ralst's 48 hour summer challenge

Prompt:  Cameron gets her first bikini

A/N:  Is one really necessary?  I think it’s fairly self-explanatory.

A/N2:  I don’t know what it is about these two, but I put them together and smut always happens.  Ye have been forewarned!

“What’s Spring Break?”  Cameron looked across the kitchen table at Sarah, her head tilted slightly to the side.

“A teenage social ritual where boys and girls get stinking drunk and half naked, usually near a beach, and have unprotected sex,” Sarah paused and was caught off guard by the slight curve of Cameron’s lips, “And no, you’re not going to participate.”

Sarah shoved her chair from the table, roughly picking up Cameron’s uneaten plate of pancakes.  She still wondered why she bothered cooking for the girl at all.  Cameron followed her to the sink.

“Why not?”  She sounded every bit the whinny teenager, causing Sarah to grip the edge of the counter tightly.  The image of Cameron frolicking on the beach with a bunch of drunken, horny boys made her gut churn.  Not that Cameron frolics but that wouldn’t stop a teenage boy.

“Because I said so, Cameron,” the older woman looked at her incredulously, “And why would you even want to go?”

“To learn more about human teenage interaction, of course.  It’s only logical if I’m trying to fit in and be inconspicuous that I learn as much as possible from observation,” Sarah narrowed her eyes at the oblivious terminator.  As hard as she tried, she couldn’t argue with that logic.

Turning fully to Cameron, leaning her hip against the counter as she nonchalantly dried her hands on a dish towel, Sarah called her bluff, “Well, girlie, I guess that only means one thing then,” Cameron raised an eyebrow slightly, a new human gesture she had learned, “you need to get a swimsuit.”

******

This one would make the tenth store they had stopped at, and it wasn’t even lunch yet.  Sarah was regretting her acquiescence to Cameron and feeling every bit her age.  She’d rather fight a terminator any day than shop…in mall.  If Cameron picked up on Sarah’s sour mood, it didn’t faze her.  She was actually…giddy.  It didn’t take much for Sarah to forget she was in the presence of a killing machine and not a young girl on a shopping spree.

Sarah rummaged through one piece suits, usually in black or some other muted color, until she felt a tap on her shoulder.

Spinning around, she got an eyeful, literally because Cameron was excitedly dangling a piece of cloth mere inches from her face, of the smallest piece of material known to humanity.  G-strings had more material than this did!

“This is the one.  I love it!”  The pink suit with brown polka dots danced in front of Sarah’s eyes, which if she was stoned, might have been fun.  Right now, it was just annoying.

“You want me to spend,” she grabbed the tag which seemed bigger than the suit itself, “$75 on dental floss.”

“No, on a swimsuit,” Cameron deadpanned.

“No way, Tin Miss.  Pick something else.”

“Come on, Sarah.  At least let me try it on.  It may look better than you think,” she took Sarah’s hand and tugged her toward the fitting rooms.

“Fine, but I still say no,” Cameron spun around still holding onto Sarah’s hand, looking her teasingly up and down.

“We’ll see about that.”

Sarah jerked to a stop when she realized that Cameron was dragging her into a changing room.

“I’ll just wait out here.”

Cameron stepped a bit closer until she was just inside Sarah’s personal space, this time calling Sarah’s bluff, “Unless you want me to come out here and parade around in public in this, I suggest you come on.”

Something in Sarah’s gut told her this was a big mistake, but she weighed it against having some guy see Cameron half naked, then took a deep breath and stepped into the tiny room.

With hardly enough room to move, Sarah unceremoniously slumped down onto the bench.  Cameron propped her foot on the bench next to Sarah and reached down to undo the laces of her boots.  Being so close, Sarah couldn’t help but watch the deceptively slender fingers work the laces apart then slipping under the edge of the leather to slip it off.  Sarah didn’t realize that she continued to watch as these fingers slid up the thigh still propped on the bench.

Sarah’s heart was beating triple time when the hands finally reached the button of the dark cargo pants.  It seemed like an eternity before the button slipped through the eyelet and the sound of a zipper being lowered filled the air. 

“Sarah?”  Cameron had noticed the increased heart rate as soon as she took her hand outside the changing room, a steady staccato that was becoming more erratic the more she undressed.  This knowledge, the fact that she undid Sarah so completely, brought a small smile to her lips.  Gently she tipped the older woman’s head up, “Sarah.”

The deeper, huskier sound of Cameron’s voice brought Sarah out of her mesmerized state.  Two sets of eyes locked on each other, one spooked and ready to run, the other darkening with an unknown desire.

Cameron somehow knew they were in a delicate balance.  She could read the fear and uncertainty in Sarah’s eyes.

“I mislead you, Sarah,” the older woman’s eyebrows came together in a frown, her fight or flight response ready to kick in at the first hint of deception, “I didn’t want the swimsuit so I could go to Spring Break.” She brushed her fingers along Sarah’s jaw, before grazing her pounding pulse point lightly then dipping into the hollow of her throat. “I wanted to get you alone.  I just wanted to be with you.”

Sarah swallowed hard, trying to find her voice, “You have no idea what you’re asking.”

“Yes, I do.  And I think you do too,” she leaned down, brushing Sarah’s hair aside, until her mouth rested just below Sarah’s ear, “Don’t you?”

Sarah felt the chills run down her spine when a warm tongue caressed the space where Cameron had spoken.  Not sure whether to run, fight, or scream, Sarah jumped from the bench, pushing Cameron roughly against the wall.  She had imagined this moment, doing exactly this same thing to Cameron a million times.  It had started the night Cameron had walked down the hallway in her underwear and the feelings hadn’t stopped.  With time, she thought the feelings would go away, but now, as she looked into the wild eyes dissecting and processing all the emotions coursing through her, until there was nothing left but raw desire, Sarah understood that she was either going to kill Cameron or fuck her.  There was no other option.

Now, here they were, dancing on this unknown precipice, as Sarah fought within herself to make a decision, until Cameron’s words pushed her over, “I want you, Sarah.”

Sarah pulled Cameron into a fierce kiss, both women angling for dominance in a war that neither could win.  With lightening speed, Cameron undid Sarah’s jeans, but she wasn’t fast enough before Sarah grabbed her wrist and pinned it to the wall.  She knew Cameron could easily overpower her but at the moment, the knowledge that this machine was letting her take control was enough to make Sarah’s head dizzy with need.

Keeping Cameron’s wrist held in place with one hand, Sarah dipped her other hand into Cameron’s open pants until she felt dampness on her fingers.

“Do you want this?” 

Cameron nodded her head, “Say it, Cameron.”

“Yes,” came the harsh reply.

“Yes, what?” Sarah demanded.  She dipped her fingers a further, feeling the hard nub.  She closed her eyes at the sensation, astonished how real and feminine Cameron really was.  The awareness made Sarah lean back to look in Cameron’s eyes.  Staring back at her were the eyes of a woman on the edge.  Sarah watched amazed at Cameron as she fell over the cliff.

“Yes, I want this.  I want you,” Sarah watched, as if outside her own body, as she slipped two fingers inside Cameron.  The younger woman’s head fell back, her mouth open but unable to make sound.  Sarah looked down the lithe body until she saw her own hand, moving in a quickening rhythm, feeling the moist heat pulsing around her fingers, when something primal broke inside Sarah.

She clasped onto Cameron’s exposed neck, biting hard, causing a hiss to finally escape the terminators lips.  Letting go of the bound wrist, she wrapped her fingers in Cameron’s dark mane, pulling her mouth down into a kiss, swallowing Cameron’s strangled moan.  Cameron lifted one leg to wrap around the older woman’s waist, making more room for Sarah’s hand to move.  The gasps and moans freely falling from Cameron’s lips and the increased bucking of her hips let Sarah know she had Cameron close to orgasm, and with a renewed drive, she began pushing harder and deeper into Cameron. 

“Sarah,” Cameron’s eyes, darkened with passion, need, and fear of the unknown, captured Sarah’s as Sarah felt the tightening contractions around her fingers.  The young woman’s eyes closed briefly, a gasp falling from her lips, as the sensation rocked her body.

Sarah waited until the pulsing slowed before removing her fingers.  Both women looked at each other unsure what to do.  Until Cameron’s lips curved into a smirk and she took Sarah’s face in her hands, kissing her slowly and deeply.  Sarah lifted the skimpy suit with her finger, “So, you still want this?”

“Why?  I’m not going on Spring Break.”

Sarah shrugged her shoulders, smiling, “I thought I’d introduce you to another summer ritual…sunbathing.”