Chapter 4

“I need the ladies,” said the woman on the man’s left.

“I’ll join you,” said the other.

Layla wondered if there would be a scene like the one with the waitress, but it was getting awkward to move around, so she stayed where she was.

The women returned too soon to have had a quickie, and neither had mussed hair or smudged lipstick. The new woman walked up to the man. “There’s a store Sal wants to show me. We’re going to head out. Thanks for the drink.”

Though the man offered to accompany them, they tag-teamed him into staying. When they left the bar, the new woman’s hand was tucked into Sal’s arm. Layla suspected that they would support each other against the predator.

Layla found Carmen’s apartment just after seven. Her new friend – frenemy? – had already changed out of her chiton, and was now wearing a crop top and jeans. Her dark hair, tamed with combs and clips, was surprisingly fetching. She was close to Layla’s own Lebanese coloring. Dark Italian or other Mediterranean, perhaps.

She was standing in the doorway, looking around. Her sight trick wouldn’t be available without her uniform. “Is there anyone here?” she hissed.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Layla whispered back to her, amused to see the girl jump, her eyes flicking around but still completely missing her location. “Did you do it?” she asked as she followed a visibly uncomfortable Carmen back into the house.

“I did. Five couples, at least for an hour or two. One or two might hit the big V. I really don’t like not seeing you.”

“What, doesn’t the girl who was rooting for my punishment trust me?”

“Of course I don’t,” Carmen replied, uneasily. She was still glancing around the room, trying to figure out where Layla would be, while Layla had plenty of experience avoiding others.

“Does that mean sex is off the table?” said Carmen.

“The table’s too small,” said Layla, “but I don’t need to like you to make you come, and I did commit to getting naked.”

“You don’t need to like me to want to make me come?”

“Jesus, no,” said Layla. She decided to sneak around Carmen’s left side to get behind her, so she moved to the girl’s right before speaking, to further confuse her. “Getting a hot girl off is a pleasure in itself. Even if she is a jerkface. You know that.”

“Nice,” said Carmen. “I’m sure there was a sideways compliment among the insults.”

Layla stepped silently right up to Carmen’s back, then grabbed her waist on both sides. The girl squeaked and leaped into the air, as she’d expected. When she came down, Layla’s lips were over her neck. She felt Carmen shudder as she suckled, then again as she grazed her teeth over Carmen’s neck.

Her fingertips circled the girl’s body, then drifted higher. Carmen tried to prevent them from reaching her chest, but it’s hard to grasp invisible limbs. She squirmed against Layla as she struggled, until Layla moved her hands away, avoiding Carmen’s defending hands trying to protect from the next invisible attack.

Layla’s fingers landed on her navel, making Carmen jump again. “You were going to find me some clothes?” she whispered, directly into Carmen’s ear.

“OMG, you are evil,” Carmen said. “Let me go and I’ll get you something.”

“Okay,” Layla whispered again. She bit Carmen’s earlobe for good measure before releasing her.

Carmen headed into the bedroom, returning in a minute with a tee shirt, zip-front sweater and a full track suit. “I don’t think I have any other pants that would be comfortable around the hips,” she said, “and there’s no point in you trying on one of my bras. The briefs are perfectly clean, but I understand if you don’t want them.”

“Did you just call me fat?”

Carmen sighed. “You know I didn’t. Your body is fine. I just wish your personality was half as attractive.”

Smirking to herself, Layla took the clothes from Carmen’s hands, noticing her slight flinch, then set them on the back of the couch. She took the briefs first, stepping into them before taking off her chiton. Carmen would see them float to shape around her hips. Sure enough, Carmen was scowling at her.

She whipped the chiton off, her back to the other girl, which would drop the magic, but she shrugged into the tee in record time, before Carmen would have had the chance to ogle.

Not that the tee was in any way demure. Its deep U-neck and tight fit squeezed her boobs together. She turned to face Carmen, cupped the undersides of her breasts and jiggled them. “And this looks like a highly random tee.”

“I thought a high neck would squeeze too tightly, because of…” She nodded to Layla’s chest, with a smirk.

Layla liked the girl’s sense of humor. This bickering was fun, and judging from Carmen’s expression, she felt the same. “To learn so much about me through the fuzzy sight, you must have spent a lot of time studying my body.”

“And?” Carmen was completely unrepentant.

Layla kicked off her slippers. “Oh, shit,” she said. “Shoes?”

“Ah, yeah. I can’t imagine any of my closed shoes would work. How about flip-flops and a pair of heavy socks?”

“Flip-flops in February? I guess it would be better than my slippers,” Layla said. She pulled on the track pants, which were a little snug in the hips, but comfortable enough, then zipped up the sweater, adding the socks and flip-flops when Carmen returned with them.

“So, pizza?” she asked, slipping into the track top, and collecting her wallet and phone from the quiver.

Carmen picked up her car keys. “Follow me.”

Chicago pizza is the best in the world. This is acknowledged by all but a small handful of reprobates on the East Coast, and Layla considered what she was reluctantly pushing aside to be one of the best of that lofty group. “If pizza is as good as this around here, I might just have to move in with you.”

“Oh, dear God, no,” Carmen retorted. “I feed you the best pizza you’ve ever had, and you threaten me for it?”

“It might not be the very best,” countered Layla, “but it’s pretty damn close.” She eyed the remainder that neither of them could eat. “Breakfast?”

Carmen gave her an incredulous look. If she had opened her mouth, it would have been to say, “Well, duh.” It was a look that invited no question.

They took the pizza back to Carmen’s, stopping once on the way to pick up a couple of bottles of red wine. Carmen hung her coat, while Layla unzipped her top layer, the track jacket. She held the jacket up with a questioning look at the girl, who shrugged and nodded at the couch, so she folded it down the center and tossed it onto the back of the couch.

After closing the fridge door on the food, Carmen opened the wine to pour two glasses, handing one to Layla, taking the other and the bottle through to the bedroom.

Layla followed, sipping her wine, looking around at the room. The queen bed was pristine in the layout of duvet, pillows and decorative cushions. That won’t last long. The girl had a sense of style. It looked comfortable, too, and sharing it with Carmen was becoming increasingly appealing. Still, the forms had to be followed. “Huh.” she said. “Presumptuous much?”

“You said you’d make me come,” said Carmen. “Surely this is better than the couch?”

“I said I could,” Layla objected. “I didn’t say I would.” She thought that was true, though the precise words eluded her, a couple of hours later.

“You did promise to get naked,” Carmen said. “We were in agreement on that.”

Layla grinned as the girl set down her glass, then reached out to slowly unzip Layla’s sweater. She caught herself, hid the grin, turning it into a scowl, and took another sip of her wine. “Don’t expect me to help.”

“I don’t.” Carmen sang the words like a cuckoo. Her slow focus on Layla’s body made Layla wet within the borrowed briefs. She continued to outwardly ignore the other girl’s actions, standing upright, sipping wine.

When the sweater was completely unzipped, Carmen unlaced the loaner track pants without taking them off, then made Layla put down her wine so she could support herself on Carmen’s shoulders while she pulled off the socks and pushed the flip-flops aside. Layla didn’t release her shoulders when she stood, instead drawing the girl close as she lowered her mouth to her neck. She licked the length of her carotid, then lightly bit at the base.

“God, woman, you’re so distracting,” Carmen said. Layla could hear arousal in her voice.

As Layla continued to nibble at Carmen’s neck, she felt fingers running over the base of her breasts, and thumbs lightly circling her nipples. Carmen had a real talent at this slow progression, and Layla’s lust was reaching unexpected highs. She would have to attend to washing the briefs herself. She wouldn’t want Carmen to know just how wet she was making her.

Carmen’s thumbs continued to rub her now engorged nipples in a circular motion. She wanted more. When Carmen nuzzled her head to push it from her neck, she let the girl’s face push her own back, until their parted lips were only a half inch apart. Carmen didn’t kiss her. Layla could feel Carmen’s breath against her lips, but Carmen dragged out approaching, until she finally felt lips brush her own, a tongue lightly questing into her mouth.

Layla extended her own tongue, caressing the tongue at her lips. Again, Carmen held back, while Layla’s heart raced. No one had ever turned her into such a tight little tangle of need. When Carmen closed her lips over Layla’s tongue and began to suckle, she lost her composure. Her hands wrapped around Carmen’s neck, and she forced her lips to her own, her kiss merciless.

That seemed to be what Carmen had been waiting for. Layla felt a sharp twinge in each nipple as warm fingers grasped and twisted them. She moaned at the inundation of arousal. Then Carmen’s hands were under the tee, wrapping around her breasts and squeezing, before tugging the shirt off.

Carmen dropped to her knees and began to suckle Layla’s breasts alternately. She pulled Layla’s track pants and underwear down in one motion, parted her legs and slid a finger into her. Layla heard herself whimper. The finger explored, finding the sensitive place on the front wall of her sex, then withdrew, two fingers taking its place.

Soon, Carmen was slamming her fingers into her, her thumb pressed to Layla’s clit, shifting against it as she pumped her hand.

Layla grasped Carmen’s shoulders. She knew she couldn’t postpone the inevitable for long. The girl’s lips stretching her nipple was amplifying the effect of her hand shoving against her G-spot. She couldn’t even prevent herself from making an excited cry with each breath, getting louder as the intensity built.

When she came, she felt herself clamp hard around Carmen’s fingers. Her thighs spasmed, and she’d have collapsed except for her grip on Carmen’s shoulders, and the hand within her supporting some of her weight. Every tight pulse of climax shook her, setting up a series of tremors in her breasts that had barely faded when the next struck.

Carmen released the breast she was suckling and looked up into her face. Layla tried to glare at her, but didn’t think she’d succeeded. Aftershocks were still spiking into her, but she managed to release the other girl’s shoulders without losing her balance, and a moment later she drew Carmen back to her feet to kiss her again.

“That was… hh… quite good,” she managed to say. “You almost made me come.”

“Your mouth says one thing, but your body says another. And your eyes say so much more,” said Carmen.

“My eyes lie,” Layla retorted.

“Admit it, I rocked your world,” said Carmen.

“I admit no such thing,” Layla replied, beginning to catch her breath. “You already have an inflated opinion of yourself. I won’t bloat it more.”

“At least you know how to kiss,” Carmen said.

“One of us has to,” said Layla.

“Asswipe,” said Carmen.

“Asshole,” returned Layla.

“Oh, come on, that’s hardly original,” groused Carmen. “You can’t turn my own insult back on me.”

“Listen, after coming as hard as I just did, I’m surprised my brain is even braining. Cut me some slack.”

“Hah! So you do admit it.”

“I admit nothing,” Layla said. “But I’m naked now. Commitment met. Unless you want me to show you how it’s really done?”

“O, wise mentor, show me how to come,” Carmen begged, the fake puppy dog pleading in her eyes making Layla laugh.

“Very well, my young padawan. While I’m catching my breath, you can begin taking all those clothes off.”

Layla finished her glass of wine while Carmen was stripping, then topped up both glasses.

Getting a hot girl off truly was one of life’s greatest pleasures. Layla hadn’t lied about that. And there was no denying Carmen was hot, wayward hair and all. In addition to being gorgeous, her sharp mind and sharper tongue made flirting with her a delight. She felt as drawn to Carmen as she would if they’d been shot with the damn arrows.

Which couldn’t happen. The uniform protected its wearer from the effects of the magic. What was between them was all their own.

Carmen gulped some of her wine. She’d gotten behind. As she held her glass, Layla let her gaze roam. She’d studied Carmen earlier, through the obscuring of the magic and the translucent chiton. Observing her in the flesh was far better. Her dark, high breasts weren’t huge, but perfectly shaped, with dull red nipples and narrow areolae. Her hips were narrow but feminine. Her eyes were a gray-green.