“What?” Linda raised her head.

Marissa shook her head. “Sorry, I was just thinking that the lifeboat was fun and it led to this and—oh!”

Linda moved firmly on top of Marissa, her hand pushing Marissa’s thighs farther apart. “This is what I want to talk about. What you need right now. How I can give you what you want.”

“Touch me.” Marissa drew in a sharp breath. Linda’s fingers were still not as direct as she wanted and yet she was responding to the light brushes into her wetness. It felt intensely good and she hadn’t realized she could get this excited this fast and this way. Yet, what was the surprise? She’d been fantasizing about Linda making love to her for days. Now that it was happening Marissa had never felt so aware of every muscle in her body.

Linda slipped one arm under her and arched Marissa into her. Marissa ran one hand over Linda’s back and resented that her T-shirt was in the way of skin.

She tugged the shirt upward. “Oh, please. It’s so dark and I want to feel you.”

Linda murmured something and sat up. For a brief moment they were no longer touching. Marissa yanked off her own T-shirt and tossed it to the floor, then Linda was there again, and this time they were all skin, yielding and taking.

The breasts Marissa had once upon a time resented finally seemed to make complete sense. Linda’s mouth was on them, her tongue and lips bringing tingles to the nerves. Her nipples hardened and they brushed against Linda’s in a spasm of awareness.

Linda moaned and this time Marissa could understand the words that followed. “No one has ever felt like you.”

“You’re making me crazy. Your hand . . . touch me.”

The drawl of pleasure in Linda’s voice was unmistakable. “I am touching you. You feel amazing. Wet and swollen.”

“I’ve been this way for a couple of days now. I want you so much. I don’t know if I’m enough for you—”

“You are. Something about you—I’ve thought about being wrapped inside you. And this . . .”

Fingers slipped inside Marissa, drawing out a series of shivers. “You’re so strong, oh Linda, so strong. I hope I can please—”

Linda shushed her with a kiss. The faint moonlight brought out sparkles in her eyes. “Everything about you pleases me. I love your spirit, that you’re willing to try and fail and try again. And I like women.”

“I noticed.” To her own ears, her voice had gone soft and adoring. It wasn’t at all the still-in-control-enough-to-laugh quality that would match the lightness in Linda’s voice.

“I like women and you are . . .” Linda made a little noise as her fingers began a tantalizing rhythm against parts of Marissa she’d not realized could be so responsive. “You are all woman.”

“I’m not—I’m not very—” Very what? Marissa felt as if she ought to confess to something, but she wasn’t sure what. She loved the way Linda was touching her and liked the words that she heard with her heart. I’m not very attractive, she wanted to say, and nobody has ever seemed to want to know what you are learning tonight. I’m not very experienced, she could have added, except in my own wild flights of fantasy. “You’re so very strong and I’m not.”