Page 46 of Minha Dona

“If it needs to be,” Helena grinned back. “Gatinha,” she added for good measure.

***

They talked for a long time after that, planning as ideas came to them. Packing was easy… Caitlin could adapt her Barbados wardrobe to São Paulo, particularly with an evening at home before the second leg of her flight. A few more city clothes, keep the swimwear in. Simple.

Caitlin was full of questions: would Helena’s parents be at the beach house? (No) How long was the drive there? (a couple of hours) Did Helena have a pool at her apartment? (Yes) And so on.

It was somewhere in the middle of talking about what would happen when Mariana and her friends arrived at the beach house for the Friday night that Helena dropped, as subtly as she could, the subject of who else would be there into the conversation.

“Juliana will be at the beach house.”

She watched Caitlin hear it, process it, and then the flicker of her understanding what Helena meant.

“Juliana as in that Juliana?”

“Yeah.”

“Ok.”

“She’s Mariana’s closest friend. She’s been coming for years, long before she and I started anything. It would be stranger if she wasn’t there with their other friends.” Helena held her gaze. “You and I have talked about what she and I are. Me and her agreed we both need to date other people. I’ll talk to her before you and her meet and make sure she knows, so there’s no awkwardness. We both know that if one of us meets someone it stops, we’re both cool with that.”

Caitlin was quiet for a moment. “I know,” she said. “I trust you. The… I suppose there’s jealousy, even if I have no right to be jealous, but also… I’m curious to meet a woman who could make you want to be her submissive.”

“You and her will get on great. She’s the least likely person I know to get socially awkward.”

Caitlin smiled. “It’s going to be fun. All of it.” She reached across to take Helena’s hand. “I’m really excited to see your life. Much, much better than Barbados.”

After a few moments, Helena said, “I suppose we should both get packed. Your flight isn’t long away, is it?”

“Long enough. But yeah.”

“Shower first?” Helena said.

Caitlin broke into a smile. “Shower. Very important we’re both clean…”

The bathroom was marble with serious water pressure, and it filled with steam almost the moment that Helena turned the shower on. She let Caitlin take the bathrobe from her shoulders, and they stepped under the spray together, standing there for a few minutes letting the hot water cascade over them.

After a while Caitlin took the body wash and washed Helena’s back, slowly, her hands moving across her skin, caressing, touching, along her back, across her shoulders, down her arms. Helena closed her eyes and let herself be taken care of. When the soap was rinsed away and there was nothing left between them but hot water and wet skin, Caitlin kissed her, deep and slow, her tongue flicking languidly against Helena’s, and then she pulled back with a mischievous smile.

“Stand there,” she whispered, positioning Helena with her back against the wall, still under the hot falling water.

Caitlin began to lower herself, deliberately, to her knees on the wet marble floor and looked up at Helena through the steam.

“Minha Dona.”

Helena reached a hand down and stroked Caitlin’s wet hair. “Gatinha.”

She pulled Caitlin’s head towards her, parting her legs, and gasped as Caitlin’s tongue found her.

São Paulo

Chapter 18

Helena had been home since seven that morning and had spent the day in a state of unproductive anxiety.

Technically, she had been productive, because she’d cleaned the apartment twice, stocked the fridge with enough food for a week, changed the sheets, bought flowers, and rearranged her bookshelf for no reason she could articulate. The trouble was that she was supposed to be working, finalising a client pitch deck, and she managed to do none of it… she was too nervous about Caitlin coming here, to her life, barely daring to believe how whatever they were had transformed so completely in the last few days.

Now it was just past three and she was standing in her living room, looking at her apartment through Caitlin’s eyes.