Window
Stiletto heels touched down on moss-ringed aggregate with impossible silence. Soft fabric settled against smooth skin.
After a triumphant night advancing the cause of good over evil, Sapphire had come home.
She wished she could stay out all night. She wished she never had to go back to being just Angela Barrett. But through her exhileration she felt something else. Even if she never needed rest, her sapphires did. And if she didn't take care of the sapphires, they couldn't take care of her.
Best not to push it. Best to cut the patrol short. Accept the victory she'd been afforded.
It was hard, but she knew it was the right thing to do. At least this first time. She could explore her limits more fully next time.
Right now there was something else she could explore...
Effortless silent hops took her from stone to stone across the Aquinos' back yard, each foot slowed to a gentle landing by sapphire energy, the superheroine looking not unlike a forest fairy. Her eyes picked out each stone of the decorative path. The faint blue glow of her sapphires added to the general yellow-orange pall of subrban streetlamps. It was dark, but only city-dark -- shadow-shapes and subtle reflections off smoother shapes were visible if you knew what to look for. Most city-dwellers thought they knew darkness, until the power went out. But Sapphire had been above the city, seeing the canvas of artificial light contrast with the blackness of empty sky and desolate hills and lonely sea. She certainly wasn't comfortable poking around without proper light, but she wasn't helpless.
Though sometimes a small part of her wanted to be.
Sometimes it wasn't a small part.
Stop thinking about that.
Sapphire had reached the walkway along the back of the house. There was a door to the garage around the side. She'd thought about using the sliding glass door to the patio, but the Aquinos had plastic vertical blinds instead of fabric curtains, and there was just no getting past them without a racket to raise the dead.
She used her sapphire energy to float just inches above the concrete walk. The hard soles and sharp heels of her shoes made too much noise -- especially behind a policeman's house. She could have just taken her shoes off and tiptoed barefoot, but what fun would that be? She'd come home early enough that she still had energy to burn. Indeed, part of her wanted to burn it off. Waning sapphire energy put her in a "better mood," and she could tell she wasn't quite there yet...
She was halfway around the house when she heard a noise. She straightened up, stopping to hover in place. There. A quiet scratching. Like clothing rustling. But there was no breeze, and she was still.
Sapphire turned slowly, her back to the wall, eyes scanning the whole yard. A prowler? A neighbor's cat?
There it was again. Behind her. Startled, Sapphire spun around and away from the house, rising almost a foot above the ground, her body adopting a more neutral-gravity position.
The bedroom window directly in front of her was open.
This was Ricky's window, wasn't it? Her mind struggled to map the house's interior to exterior windows.
Her skin prickled to sense the slightest breeze, but there was none. Her eyes strained to see curtains. No, they had blinds. And they weren't moving.
The rustling was rhythmic. And the tempo was increasing. Sapphire wafted closer, dropping back near touchdown as she did so for fear of being seen. She held her arms low to keep her gems' glow from lighting the room inside.
Her heart beat fast -- as fast as the movement inside. What was Ricky doing? Was he having a nightmare? Poor boy, tossing and turning...
No, too regular for that. So what...?
Her cheeks suddenly burned hot when she realized she knew that sound. She'd made it herself.
It was the sound of someone masturbating. Under the sheets in case someone caught you.
She thought she'd be embarassed. But Sapphire knew one of the reasons she'd come home early, and one of the reasons she now floated above the ground instead of standing on it, was so that she could do the same thing that was going on inside that window.
After all, she had... needs. The sapphires saw to that. And if Ricky couldn't satisfy them...
A whisper lofted out through the window. "Oh, Sapphire..."
Well, maybe he could.
Sapphire was all the way through the garage door and inside the house before she stopped herself.
Hold on, sweetie, you can't just walk in on a man while he was doing *that*. Especially not when you're all dressed up.
Why not? He called me by name.
Fantasizing about Sapphire and having Sapphire jump his bones are two very different things. Remember, you're not supposed to be doing what you just did.
He doesn't have to know where I've been.
He sees you wearing the stones, he'll know. He's not stupid.
She diverted to her room to think. But her rising hormones weren't making it easy.
He wants you. He wants her. He wants all of you.
No he doesn't. We broke up.
Did you?
He said he couldn't love me.
Obviously he's not decided on the issue.
That doesn't mean anything.
Doesn't it?
No. I mean, I don't fantasize about him.
You're not thinking about him now?
Well...
Sex with Ricky hadn't been entirely fantastic. Her solo sapphire sessions, on the other hand, never failed to leave her breathless.
What the hell is wrong with you? You're going to choose a disturbed fantasy over real passion? You're going to choose your sapphires over Ricky?
It's not that. I'm afraid. I don't want to make things worse. I need to stick to the safe routine.
God, don't be so selfish. This is your chance. Maybe you can make things right after all.
By sleeping with him? That's so... manipulative. Dishonest.
The only thing dishonest is the way you're both telling yourselves you shouldn't be together. Go to him. Love him. Convince him. And if that doesn't work, fuck his little brains out. After all the misfires this week, he needs it. And so do you.
No. It was the sapphires talking. She wasn't thinking straight. They were pushing her to this. Making her crazy with lust.
Angela pulled the tiara off her head; the sapphire energy surged, then became a diffuse warmth. The change made her knees weak. But she steeled herself; the next step would be harder. Had she ever taken her sapphires off after a mission without... "finishing?" Well, yeah, but it was never easy. She always found herself missing their "warmth" -- she thought it might be like withdrawal from an addictive drug. Like? Wasn't the sapphire energy a drug? Wasn't it affecting her right now? With a deep angry breath, she pulled off both wristbands and kicked off both shoes at once. Going Cold Turkey, she thought. Physiology and psychology reinforcing in each other the notion that she just wasn't as important or desirable being Angela Barrett. It was normally like taking off rose-colored glasses -- the mundane annoying details of reality got louder, and she suddenly felt so... ordinary.
But not tonight. True, the room seemed to get suddenly cooler as the air siphoned away her body heat without impediment. She could feel herself tighten in slight recoil, hovering just short of the onset of goosebumps, frowning as her nipples crinkled beneath her gauzy top. But the frustrating reversal of arousal she normally felt hadn't happened yet. She sat at the edge of the bed for a moment, very still, bracing herself against a subtle depression that never came.
Instead, she felt a warm longing. It wasn't a sapphire rush. It was something else.
She needed Ricky. She needed to be with him.
Maybe if she was going to be Sapphire they couldn't be together. But he didn't have to know she'd already gone back. Anyway, if they couldn't be together, she was going to make him prove it.
Bare feet tiptoed down the hall toward the other bedroom. Through the cracked-open door, she could hear him breathing. Regular, measured, slowing. She pushed the door, cringing in anticipation of creaky hinges; it was mercifully silent. Still, the young man within sensed something and stirred.
She could feel his eyes on her, boring through the darkness to discern shape. "Angela?" he whispered.
She went to him. Without a word, she crawled under the covers' edge, wrapping her limbs around him, curling against his chest. She felt his body stiffen when her thigh rose against his, relaxing only when he realized she'd stopped short of his groin.
Soon, her breathing matched his, and she reveled in the warmth of his flesh, thrilled to the beat of his heart.
Ricky lay still for a long time. Angela smiled at the idea that he wasn't sure what to make of her, pressed up against him in his bed. Every sixteen-year-old boy's fantasy, and yet he was frozen. It spoke as much to his beautiful character as much as the tumultuous uncertainty of their relationship.
"Did you have another nightmare?" he whispered. She drew herself more tightly against him, prompting his arms to encircle her. She felt the strength of his bicep against her head as his fingers cautiously soothed at the small of her back. His other hand started at her hip, sliding up to her bare waist and pausing below her ribs.
"Nuh-uh," she cooed. The unexpected answer made Ricky pause; she could feel his whole body hold as his brain chewed on the accumulated data, unable to understand the result. Weren't her last words said to him, "I hate you?"
"Scoot over," she whispered. When he did, she turned away, backing up into his hip, nudging him further, until he understood; she wanted to spoon. He turned to face her, one arm trapped between them, the other placed back on her hip. She felt his chest against her back, the front of his thighs against the backs of hers. She noted with a smile the way he kept his pelvis pulled back away from her. Mustn't let the girl know we were already thinking of her, eh?
His hand moved slowly from her hip, up to her waist... down to her... stomach. Angela was disappointed. Ricky was trying to be comforting. She felt a tenseness in his touch as he moved, as if he was deathly afraid of making any move she might misinterpret as the least bit sexual.
Angela brought her arm down over his, her soft small hand cupping his. Feeling the taut knuckles and soft callouses of an artist's hand, feeling strength and precision and talent and passion.
Her fingers stretched to take his hand in hers, pulling it along her stomach, feeling him move willingly beneath her guidance as she drew it up into the space between her ribs. She stopped there when she felt him hesitate, relaxing and caressing his hand, fingers lightly sliding up his wrist and forearm and down again. Soothing, gentle motion, up and back, up and back. Gradually, she felt his body relax against hers, uncertainty giving way to blissful comfort.
She cradled his hand again, guiding it with certainty beneath her top to settle around her breast. She felt him tense up, but she held his hand there. And she sighed. "Hmmm..." Equal parts contentment and encouragement.
She felt his hand take its own shape, turning and tracing with a feathery touch. She let her own hand wander down and over to caress up and down his side, just on the edge of tickling. She felt his stomach muscles tense and relax with her teasing movements. She let her hand dip into the warm void between them -- the Penis Protection Zone, she thought with a silent giggle. She could tell by the way his hand froze on her breast that he was acutely aware of where her hand was, so she removed it, running back up his side and reaching around to the edge of his lower back, fingertips just grazing the spot where his waist ended and his buttocks began -- not a curve in his position, his lower body curled around hers with pelvis held at a safe distance, but a change in the feel of the skin. Softer, smoother. She thought of the phrase "smooth as a baby's butt" and smiled.
Ricky's hand had begun roaming over her chest, being careful to stay clear of her nipples, just brushing up and around and underneath and between, sliding all the way up to her neck and all the way down to her navel. Did he know what he was doing? By avoiding her hot buttons he was turning her on far more than if he'd simply homed right in on them.
But just as she was ready to curse his hesitation, she felt his palm graze her nipple. Suddenly her breathing was not entirely hers to control.
Lest her lover lose his nerve, her next signal was clear. She snuggled back against him more tightly. The space between them was now gone. She felt the heat of his loins against her backside -- and the press of his erection trapped between the tops of her cheeks.
"Mmmmm..."
His hand suddenly lost its hesitation, firmly palming and stroking her breast. She encouraged him further with subtle rhythmic shifts of her hips, pressing more and then less firmly against his stiff member.
His other arm worked its way free and snaked beneath her, a slight discomfort more than offset by the magical touch of two strong hands kneading her.
Overcome with need below, her hand slid down, only to be brushed off by his own.
His fingers deftly surrounded but never touched her vulva -- gawd, he was driving her crazy! -- exploring her lower curves like a blind man memorizing poetry.
Enough beating around the bush...
She reached around between them, her hand quickly grasping and squeezing his dick.
He got the message. His hand reciprocated, firmly cupping her sex through her panties, then shifting up and sliding underneath the waistband. His middle finger slipped between her lips, curling slowly upward... she froze up, anticipating with every millimeter the feel of his digit against her cli-Ngggh!
In the wake of her first shudder, she felt him shift lower, his penis pulling free of her tight grip -- she didn't hurt him when she came, did she? -- no, it felt almost insistent poking between her thighs. He fished the gusset of her panties to one side...
But she wanted them off. She lifted her hips slightly, snaking the waistband down. He understood and helped them all the way down her legs. She kicked them free.
It took a moment of shifting pelvises to find the right angle; she finally reached down and found his tip, waiting for him to settle before she guided it up and in...
Ohhhh...
Curled on her side, her man beside and behind and inside her, the heat of his chest on her back, the feel of his breath on her neck...
Angela had never felt so aroused, so full, so... happy.
Angela basked in the warmth of the morning sun.
And the warmth of the man next to her.
"What's going on here?"
The voice boomed into the bedroom. Noel's voice.
But Angela was too happy to let anything disturb her.
"I had a bad dream," she said in a dreamy, little-girl voice.
Ricky pulled her closer. He was so strong, but so gentle... he bent his head down to kiss the top of her head.
"The nightmare is over now," he said.
Finally.
Angela sighed deeply.
Ricky pulled his arm out from around her.
"I've gotta go."
"Where? It's Saturday."
"No. I mean I gotta *go*."
"Oh!" Angela unwrapped herself from her young lover.
Ricky leaned over the edge of the bed. Angela idly traced a finger down his exposed spine, noting the subtle cuts and grooves of his back muscles. Her hand went all the way down underneath the blankets to grab a handful of the boy's cute little butt. Solid.
"Hey! Careful..."
"I thought you had to go."
"I do. I'm trying to find my shorts. They're down here somewhere. Ahh!" He pulled something under the covers and began wiggling into them.
"Hey, no fair! You've seen me. I should get to see you."
"You have seen me."
"Yeah, in the dark!" With that, she grabbed the covers and playfully yanked them off him.
Ricky was a frantic jumble of limbs as he went from trying to cover up, to trying to get his shorts pulled up, to trying to roll off the bed away from Angela, eventually winding up in a clumsy heap on the floor. "Ow!"
Angela looked down at him, both disappointed and pleased. Disappointed because she still hadn't gotten a really good look at everything. Pleased because she now saw *almost* everything -- in his haste, Ricky had grabbed *her* underwear!
"Cute," she said.
Ricky looked down, then let out a broken squawk as he spun around, yanking the feminine nothings down as quickly as he could. "Careful!" she scolded -- she really liked that pair!
Of course, now she had a great view of his naked butt. "Even cuter." She reached out to give him a pinch as he turned back around, one hand covering up front, to find the errant underwear.
"There they are." He did his best to cover as he pulled them up.
"Aww, my baby's shy," Angela giggled.
"Shut up," Ricky pouted before dashing out of the room.
Angela took advantage of the moment alone to hunt down her own clothes -- even if he had seen her mostly-naked before, that didn't mean she wasn't still a little shy herself. Of course, what she'd worn to bed didn't cover much -- a used Sapphire outfit.
Better not let Ricky see these in the light of day, or he'd know she was up to no good last night. And she didn't need to have *that* conversation.
She jumped into her panties and beelined Ricky's dresser for a T-shirt. A big one this time...
She'd just gotten it over her head when Ricky returned. "Hey, no fair." He reached for the hem of the shirt as he reached her...
"Ricky!" she squeaked. "Your dad!"
"Relax. He's making breakfast."
With that, Noel appeared in the doorway. "Coffee cake's in the oven, it'll be ready in about a half-hour."
The two teens suddenly straightened up. "Thanks, dad." "Thanks, Mr. Aquino."
The elder Aquino retreated. Angela took advantage of Ricky's distraction to make a break for the bathroom herself.
She checked her bed-head in the mirror.
I'm a mess.
Last night's heavy Sapphire makeup wasn't smeared too badly -- for a hung-over clown. Well, Ricky had spent who-knows-how-long kissing all over her after the first time last night... *all* over, until she was ready to go again. They'd finally clicked, *really* clicked. And yet, in the back of her mind, a little voice said there was something missing...
No. She wasn't going to do that. She was done doing that. That's not what they were for.
Besides, the longer she could keep her two worlds separated, the more time she had to figure out how to keep living in both of them.
There was a knock on the bathroom door. "Hey, you're not taking a shower in there, are you?" Ricky. "I have to get ready, I've got a signing to set up for. I don't want to be late." His new job, working for a new independent comic book publisher. Ostensibly as an inker, but his duties apparently included being a personal assistant to the company founder and star artist on local weekend appearances.
Angela frowned. She needed a shower.
And she needed company. Ricky would be gone all day, and Noel no doubt had man stuff to do in the yard. Ordinarily, she might volunteer to help, but after yesterday's "discussion" at work, the further away she was from him the better. Maybe if she was lucky he'd start with a trip to Garden Warehouse. She could be gone before he got back. Maybe hang out at the mall...
"Hey. You fall in?"
"No. Just let me wash my face."
"You can do that later."
"No! I look like a raccoon."
A raccoon looking for some action.
Face washed, she toweled off, then gave the T-shirt a final tug for modesty. The logo on the shirt was one she didn't recognize.
Fluffy Puff Marshmallows?
"Come on." Ricky was getting antsy.
"All right." They slipped past each other in the doorway, Ricky goosing her before she could defend herself and closing the door before she could retaliate.
Angela headed for her room, but paused in Ricky's doorway. The sheets were almost completely off the bed, mostly because of her expose-Ricky ploy a few minutes ago. But not entirely. Anyway, the disarray said "sex happened here," and she didn't need to be rubbing Noel's face in it. She set about stripping the sheets.
As she pulled Ricky's pillow out of its pillowcase, she felt the sun on her skin. The room seemed awfully warm.
The sun streamed in, illuminating the hail of dust raised by her activity.
She looked up to the window.
It was closed.
That was odd. When did it get closed? She thought back. She didn't remember Ricky ever reaching up to close it. Come to think of it, his room had been warm last night -- even before they'd heated it up...
But it was definitely open last night when she'd gotten home from patrol. She'd heard "activity." Poor boy -- they had been having the worst luck when it came to making love, even when they *could* find time alone together -- Ricky's bad timing (after church!), her freaking out, then being totally zoned out still adjusting to the stronger dose of Xanax... She couldn't blame him for "taking matters into his own hands," especially after the way she'd stormed out of the house last night.
Standing outside, sapphires well into their, um, "warm" phase, hearing that rhythmic shifting through the open window... to say he'd had her attention was an understatement.
But it was the whispering as he "finished" that had gotten her too hot and bothered to get to sleep.
The fantasy unwittingly shared that had pushed her to eventually sneak-attack him -- even if Ricky's dad *was* sleeping in the next room, she'd just been too charged up to wait any longer... and gems or no gems, "helping herself" had seemed suddenly unappealing. Not when there was a virile man down the hall. Her boyfriend. Who in the throes of his own frustrated passion had whispered her name:
Oh, Sapphire...
Angela's skin warmed just thinking about it now.
When she went to the linen closet to get a fresh set of sheets, Noel was there, just closing up with a set of his own in his hand.
Neither made eye contact as he quickly retreated to the master bedroom.
Once Ricky's bed was made, Angela went to her room to pull on a pair of cutoffs. She heard a thump against the wall. It sounded like a mattress thumping.
Changing sheets on a King by yourself isn't easy, she thought. I should see if he wants help.
Wouldn't hurt to extend an olive branch...
"Need help?"
Noel spun around, wild-eyed. "No!"
His sharp response startled her.
Noel rushed to correct his faux pas. "I mean, I can manage. Thank you."
Angela raised an eyebrow. What was that about? He stood there, watching her. He had a... guilty look on his face.
A spooky feeling came over her, like a cold wet wind.
She saw the sheets in his hand.
Her eyes broke free of his guilty stare. Slowly looking up to his bedroom window.
His *open* bedroom window.
Oh god. No.
Angela backed down the hallway as the world started to spin...