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No, stop it! Alice chastised herself. There was a time and a place for such thoughts, and this sure as hell wasn’t the time. Though she could have thought of worse places than a hot bath and with that in mind, she decided there were better ways to comfort the lass, as well as keep her hands busy.
Rebecca instinctively stiffened as the older woman pulled her into a hug, but Alice did not pull back. Instead, she tried to draw her against her even tighter, rocking softly from side to side, desperate to give the girl all the feelings of closeness and security she knew she needed.
She softened slightly after a moment, then completely as inside, the walls began to crumble.
When she finally spoke, her voice was a whisper. “Really?”
Alice’s heart soared, yet she kept her voice even and neutral to not spook the girl. “Really what, honey?”
“Safe?” Her voice was a little stronger with that one syllable, the hope behind it almost tangible, but there was a tremble there too, as if she hung on a knife’s edge, about to fall through the ice at any moment. “You said I’m safe… did you mean it? Really?”
The desperate hope in that one question raked Alice and she could feel the tears burning at the corners of her eyes. God, what had that monster done to her? “Yes, of course I did, honey,” she promised, “I promise. You’ll always be safe with us.”
The words sounded hollow to her own ears and woefully inadequate, but Rebecca must have heard the sincerity in them because, slowly, she tilted her head up. Her big doe eyes glistening as they met the older woman’s. “Thank you.”
It was all she could muster before the last of her walls came down. Her tears flowed freely as she threw her arms around the older woman and buried her head into the crook of Alice’s neck, shaking with the sobs. Alice hugged her through it, doing her best to comfort her even as her face grew wet with her own silent sobs for the girl’s plight.
“It’s okay, I promise, it’s all going to be alright,” she soothed, lying as much as hoping, not really knowing what else to say. How could anything ever be alright again? Domestic abuse was an ugly thing, destroying even more lives than it took, and the effects could haunt the victims for years after. How was she ever going to live a ‘normal’ life?
Alice didn’t have any answers, so she did her best to just comfort the girl as all her grief and fear came pouring out of her. Then, as quickly as it had hit, the storm passed.
“I’m sorry, oh god, acting like that, I’m so embarrassed…” Rebecca said when the tears ceased, her reddening eyes downcast and uncertain as she pulled away and slid back into the bathwater. Full as it was, the soapy water came up to the tops of her breasts.
“Honey, it’s okay,” Alice said gently, retrieving the mug from the floor and handing it to her. “Do you want to talk about it?”
Rebecca didn’t respond. The question hung in the air between them. Alice waited patently. She didn’t want to push Rebecca too far, but she also wanted to give her the chance to speak before the memories took root inside her, like a rot.
Slowly, Rebecca took a long swig of the tea, stealing herself. It would have been half cold, but it was better than nothing.
“He thought I’d stolen something.” Rebecca spoke softly, but the venom with which she spat the word emphasised it more than if she had screamed it out. “Turns out he’d known all along I was saving up to move out. So, when he couldn’t find something on his desk, he realised I’d had someone round…” Alice felt a lump forming in her throat, remembering how she had half encouraged Richard to go help the girl. “I told him I didn’t know anything about it, but he didn’t believe me, just started shouting things. He’d already had a lot to drink by the time I got home. Normally he stops after he’s screamed himself out a bit, but this time he just kept getting worse, then when he started throwing things, I just panicked and ran.”
“Oh, honey…” There were so many other things Alice wanted to say, to tell her, to reassure her things could get better, but when Rebecca began sobbing again, they all caught in her throat. Instead, she just pulled her back into another close hug.
Rebecca carried on regardless, the words pouring out of her in the rush of fresh emotion. “He never used to be like this. When I was little, he was always so kind and would play with me and take me out for drives or trips to the park, and then the pool or the cinema. But after mum left… oh god, what am I going to do now? I can’t go back home, but all my stuff is up there, and I haven’t got nearly enough saved to find a place of my own yet… so I… but how can I…”
Alice didn’t have an answer. She didn’t have any answers. How could she? The girl’s world had just been turned upside down and inside out, then given her a prompt kick in the teeth for her trouble. It fucking sucked, but answers for things so large took time to be worked out. So, once again, she just held her, hugged her close, and let her get everything out. All the while enjoying the feeling of the girl’s warm body pressed so close against her own through the robe.
She was sure Richard had thought she was joking, or just playing a game when she’d remarked on how beautiful the girl was. He wasn’t completely wrong, but she wouldn’t deny either that she had more than once admired the girl’s long legs in those tight little jeans she always wore and wondered what it would feel like to have them wrapped around her head as she feasted on her sweet little pussy.
Such fantasies were her naughty little secret, and she’d never been ashamed of them, but she wasn’t about to let them ruin her marriage either. It wasn’t that she was in the closet, or that she’d ever officially claimed to be bisexual, but then, she’d never said she was straight, ether. Straight, Bi, Gay, they were all labels, and Alice hated labels. Why should she define herself, or for that matter, what made other people think they could brand her like a cow on the block?
She was just her. Alice Martin. Mother, wife and teacher, that was all and in that order. Everything else was no one else’s business.
Then again, she’d never told him that when they’d first hooked up, she’d been involved in an unofficial, on again off again fling with her roommate Samantha. Nor that it had continued after they’d started going steady, and that it had only stopped when they’d got married. Even then, while they had both moved on and settled down into actual relationships, occasionally, whenever she or Sam had felt the itch, they would arrange a girl’s night to relive old times.
Richard had never asked much about the nights, so she’d never lied to him about it.
It was foolish and reckless, she knew, and after, on the drive home, she always promised herself it would be the last. She loved her husband, but there was just something about sex with another woman that she craved as well. She just couldn’t help it.
It was so thrilling, feeling the graceful softness of another woman’s body on hers, the way they shuddered and writhed in the throes of ecstasy beneath her, and their sweet moans as they soared over the edge…
Not to mention their instinctive skill for knowing just how and when to touch. The old man’s adage was very apt and true. Only a woman knew what women wanted…
“You can stay with us,” she said without thinking. An idea spurred as much by the heat rising off the bath and the lush floral scent of the girl’s hair fogging her thoughts, as the devious ideas haunting her fantasies. “Stay as long as you need.”
It was a stupid idea, and Alice could have kicked herself for saying it. The flat was too small, there wasn’t room for them all. Where would she stay? There were only two bedrooms, and only one bed… where would she sleep, in bed with her and Richard- no no… don’t go there, don’t go there.
But it was too late. Her mind was already swimming with thoughts and ideas…
