Shivering, she pressed herself against Linda’s fingers. “You make me feel wild.”

“That’s mutual, very mutual.” With an intense look, Linda quickly moved her hands back to Marissa’s nipples, tugging firmly to pull Marissa down to her. “Is this what you want, Marissa?”

“Yes.” The kiss was hot and deep and somewhere during it Marissa found herself on her back, squirming out of her skirt and pantyhose.

“You feel so good in my arms,” Linda said in her ear as one still denim-clad knee pushed Marissa’s legs apart. “So good against me. I could spend a whole day just holding you. But not today.”

“No,” Marissa said. “Some other day.” Her entire body felt alive now. Ears, lips, knees, toes—all were tingling. She stretched against Linda’s body. To her surprise, Linda abruptly rolled off the bed.

“I want to feel your skin,” she said as she stripped off the sweater, then stepped out of her jeans.

A square of fabric, too small to be a handkerchief, fluttered to the floor half under the bed and Marissa leaned over to pick it up. It was silk, in an unusual shade of blue. “Don’t lose this.”

“No, I keep that with me always.” Linda took the silk, then lightly touched it to Marissa’s face. “I was right. It’s the color of your eyes.”

Marissa was lightheaded and she didn’t know if it was because of Linda’s words or the sight of her slipping off the rest of her clothes. Dizzied with emotion and longing, all Marissa could think about was how much she had missed the feel of Linda’s skin against her.

She reached for Linda as she returned to the bed, groaning as breasts, stomach and hips pressed together, as her arms went around Linda and Linda’s legs pushed hers open.

Leaning back slightly, Linda looked down the length of Marissa’s naked body. “There’s a valley in Spain where I sometimes stayed for the late summer. Covered in gold, the hills roll.” Her fingertips traced Marissa’s shoulder, along her upper arm, then into the crook of her elbow. “They swoop, they yield.”

Marissa was panting and it was getting harder and harder not to moan every time she breathed out.

“I would watch the sunset most nights and to me it was as if the earth mother was right there before my eyes.” Her fingers moved to Marissa’s ribs, then slowly swept over her belly and hip. “I would think that I’d never seen anything so womanly in my life.”

Marissa closed her eyes and gave herself to the magic Linda was working on her body.

“And then that first morning in Tahiti I woke before you did and you’d kicked off your covers. Your T-shirt was rucked up and you were all golden, curving and yielding, like those perfect, entrancing hills.”

Marissa forced her eyes open. Linda was watching her face. She moaned, then, and felt the light scratch of nails on the inside of her thighs.

“The perfect woman, right there before my eyes, and I watched you sleep and wanted you. Holding you is like gathering up all that is female in my arms. It fills me up to touch you.” She kissed Marissa softly on the lips.