Annie let her finger dip down, underneath Jane’s waistband, just for a quick, irreverent touch of her still golden-colored hair down there. Perhaps that had been the greatest shock of all that first time. When Annie had tugged down Jane’s panties, the way she was about to now, and she had discovered a tangle of the most exquisitely blonde-red hair. And of course Annie should have seen it coming, yet it had taken her by surprise nonetheless because she had never seen such a thing before in her life. It had proceeded to arouse her to embarrassing levels and when, a decade later, it had become fashionable to shave or at the very least trim pubic hair to some silly standard a women’s magazine had set, Annie had begged Jane to not give in. Thank goodness Jane wasn’t much for following any trends at all. And every time Annie clasped eyes on Jane’s golden-hued bush, she thought of it as a present just for her.

Even after all these years she still relished the moment she would pull those panties down and the surge of arousal it would unleash in her. But it wasn’t Annie’s levels of arousal that posed a problem—not tonight and not any time before. Annie’s task was to drive Jane so wild, there was no other choice but to have it end with an obliterating climax. It wasn’t so much that Annie felt like she had something to prove. She could do all the stroking, caressing, and arousing she wanted. But none of it would allow her to get inside Jane’s head and open her mind to the possibility of many future orgasms. Not if Jane failed to see it that way.

Annie started pushing Jane’s jeans down. Jane gave her a hand and then stood in front of her in her underwear. Just as Annie wanted her, for now.

Annie proceeded to quickly strip down to her bra and panties as well. It was the only urgency she felt she could display tonight. In stripping for Jane. Letting her growing desire shine through. It was already beating in her blood, flushing her cheeks, pulsing underneath her skin. Annie needed this as much as Jane did.

A wedge had been driven between them the past few weeks, and they hadn’t come together like this for too long. They needed this to set things right. To blow off steam and equalize. To narrow the gap between them to nothing—to the nothingness of the space between their skin when they embraced.

They crawled onto the bed and faced each other.

“Hey,” Jane said.

“Hey,” Annie mirrored, as was their habit. A sort of solemn acknowledgment that this was going to happen. They’d cleared the first hurdle they often fell at. They were in bed together with only one thing on their minds.