Janie looked up, her eyes full of suppressed panic. “How? Did he tell you?!”

Bella laughed, “You’re not the only one who’s good at picking up on things.”

“I really did not want you to know.” Janie set her quill down. Her shoulders slumped. “I didn’t want you to be upset with me, and I didn’t want to have to explain myself. I don’t really know why I did it. The whole night was very strange.”

“Please don’t lie to me, Janie. I promise, I’m not upset. I think it’s wonderful,” Bella reached across the table and laid her hand on Janie’s.

“I am being completely honest. Candid, even.” Janie was quite affronted at being accused of deceit.

“Oh, we haven’t even begun to get candid,” Bella grinned. “You did it because you wanted to, and there is nothing wrong with that. You don’t owe me any kind of explanation. You do not have to tell me anything you do not wish to. You can though. If you want, you can tell me all about it, and I will not be mad. I promise. I’ll only be happy, unless something happened that hurt you.”

“No… it didn’t… It was…” Janie shook her head. “It was the best night of my life.”

Bella lit up. She leaned forward. “That’s wonderful!”

“How can you be so happy about this?” Janie asked, the worry still not gone from her eyes.

“Janie, we don’t know each other well yet, but I like you. I consider you a friend and I care about you. Why would I not be happy for your happiness?” Bella made it sound like it was self evident.

“I had… carnal relations with a man who you had prior claim to. I consider you a friend as well, but I still took Will to bed with me even though I knew you might be upset. That was not very friendly of me.” Janie felt ashamed. “I still cannot believe I am having this conversation. It’s everything I was trying to keep from happening.”

“I don’t have any claim over Will. I showed up two days ago after not having seen him in ages, and I had sex with him to power a spell. I’d have to be insane to think that meant I had some kind of rights over what Will feels about anyone.” Bella rolled her eyes. “If you knew me, you’d know that I don’t get jealous like that.”

“He said that’s what you’d say.” The corner of Janie’s mouth twitched up into a small, brief smile.

“Then you did know, and there’s no reason at all to be worried or ashamed.” Bella squeezed Janie’s hand.

“I didn’t really believe him. I thought he must be mistaken. No one thinks that way.” Janie looked at their hands, not sure what to do.

“I do,” Bella shrugged.

“Why?” Janie asked like she was looking for an explanation to some kind of universal mystery, full of frustration and need.

“My people think differently about sex and relationships and love. We have to. Anyone who learns sex magic has to change their expectations. They have think about sex differently than most people,” Bella said. “It’s an idea that is spreading, now that hex bags are legal and more common. Women can choose when they bear children now, so sex isn’t chained to motherhood anymore. We get to choose now. Why would we want to stay confined by the old ways of thinking with so many new options available to us?”

“Because the old ways are safe?” Janie suggested. She knew it was wrong the moment it left her lips.

Bella didn’t notice the falsehood. She wasn’t Magistrate trained. She had an answer anyway. “Safe is for people who are scared. What do you think you have to be scared of?”

“Apparently not you,” Janie smiled. It was a deflection. Not really an answer at all. Bella laughed, not noticing.

“Not me. Never me.” Bella gave Janie’s hand another squeeze, then let go and pushed the bread and cheese toward her.

“This is so utterly bizarre,” Janie said picking up the food and just looking at it for a moment.

“I’m going to be candid for a moment, because I want to ask you a question,” Bella said. “Will and I are leaving in less than a week. Between now and then, I expect Will and I will have sex once or twice. Does that thought upset you?”

“No, of course not,” Janie said. “You were with him first. You’re going on a grand adventure with him. You’re…” she gestured vaguely up and down Bella’s body, briefly at a loss for words. “...you’re beautiful. You’re a… a sex witch. Of course you are going to be with him again. I’m his office assistant, and I already stepped over an important boundary. I won’t be crossing it again, he is all yours.”

“That isn’t want I asked you,” Bella said. “I wasn’t staking a claim on him, Janie. I was asking if the thought of me having sex with Will upset you.”

“No,” Janie said.

“So you understand how I feel,” Bella shrugged.

Janie didn’t say anything for a few moments. She took a small bite of her lunch, thinking. Finally she nodded, and smiled. “You are the strangest woman I have ever met, but I am glad for you. Thank you. And I’m sorry. I know you don’t care, but I still feel like I wronged you, and I feel bad about it.”

“Well, I suppose you’ll just have to make it up to me then, if it will make you feel better,” Bella teased.

“How?” Janie knew she was being made fun of, but the suggestion sounded rather good to her.

“How many times did you orgasm last night?” Bella asked simply.

Janie turned bright red. “I… I don't think that is an appropriate question to ask,” she said quietly.

“I thought you owed me?” Bella pushed.

“I don’t see how it’s relevant, but fine… I don’t know. They kind of… blended together. Th...three I think. One was big.” Janie couldn’t meet Bella’s eyes. She spoke into her lump of bread and stared at the messy table.

“Alright. Then that’s what you owe me,” Bella shrugged.

Janie choked on her bread. “What?”

“You owe me three orgasms, to make up for the ones you stole,” Bella smiled wickedly. “Seems like a fair trade, right?”

“You mean I… Me… with you?” Janie looked utterly dumbfounded and was still bright red.

“Sure. Or some other way if you don’t want to do that. I trust your creativity.” Bella winked at Janie. “One of them has to be big though.”

A shudder ran through Janie as her eyes met Bella’s. The woman was like desire incarnate. Against all of Janie’s upbringing, sense of propriety, and embarrassment she suddenly realized that she was uncomfortably aroused. Just like she’d been when she’d seen Bella splayed out on the table. Just like- she finally had to admit to herself- she’d been when Bella had hugged her after Jacqueline and her entourage had left.

She squeezed her thighs together and tried not to squirm. She couldn’t speak. What would she even say? She shouldn’t have been having these thoughts, they were so…

She knew women sometimes had relations with women. She didn’t have a problem with that in the abstract. She believed people should be allowed to love whomever they liked. She frowned on people who disapproved, in the same way she frowned on people who disapproved of people of different races having relations. That was one of the things that had driven her away from the Magistrate. She’d learned a childhood friend, a young man she had grown up with, had been excommunicated for carnal acts with another man. She knew he was a good person, and simply could not reconcile what the Magistrate said about him with what she knew in her heart.

This, though. With Bella. Now. It was something that had simply never crossed her mind. It wasn’t immoral. She knew that in her mind. Somehow though, she had never been able to shake free the feeling of judgement and disgust in her heart. It still felt wrong. She could ignore it in every other case. Pretend it wasn’t there. Say that what people chose to do with whom simply wasn’t her concern or her business because she knew that was the right answer, and ignore the discomfort that had always welled up when she really thought about the idea of two women together, but now there was no ignoring it. Bella had offered exactly that. Two women. Together. Her. And Bella. She had to think about it now, and she could not ignore the fact that it did not feel wrong in the slightest. Bella made everything feel… right.

The leftover judgemental conditioning was suddenly dragged out of the dark where she hid it. She felt it wither and die as it was forced into the light by Bella’s playful smile.

“It’s alright,” Bella said.

Janie’s eyes focused again. She had no idea how long she’d been lost in her thoughts. “What?” she asked.

“I’m just teasing you. I’d never ask you to do anything you didn’t want to,” Bella said gently.

“I know,” Janie said quietly, some of the redness starting to fade from her face.

“I didn’t push it too far, did I?” Bella asked, a bit concerned. “I just wanted you to see how ridiculous you were being. No one can owe anyone an orgasm.”

Janie swallowed. “No. You’re right. I was being ridiculous.”

“I’m glad you can see that. I just wanted you to see that if you want to sleep with Will again, you should,” Bella smiled.

Janie blinked. “Will?” They’d been talking about Will. She’d completely forgotten. She sighed and put her face in her hands, rubbing her temples. “This is so confusing.”

“It’s alright, really,” Bella said, coming around the desk to stand behind the chair Janie was slouched in. Bella’s soft fingers slid to the sides of Janie’s head and found her temples. She applied a little bit of pressure and began to massage. Janie tipped her head back, at a loss of what else to do. It did feel wonderful. “Now tell me what’s on your mind? All of it. I promise I can help. I want to.”

Janie was quiet for a few moments, then words just seemed to pour forth. “Yesterday was stressful and full of… confusion. It started with me catching you on the table, and got more insane from there!”

Bella couldn’t help but laugh. “Honestly, that was kinda fun. Sorry.”

“For you!” Janie huffed. She rolled her head further into Bella’s hands, enjoying the kneading fingers on her forehead and scalp. She hadn’t realized how much tension she carried there.

“Well, yes. For me.” Bella admitted.

“For me it was the start of the longest day of my life! We put three times as many clients as usual though, worked late, and then we were attacked!”

“What?” Bella said, her hands stopping. She moved and sat on the edge of the table so she could see Janie more clearly. “No one told me that! What happened?”

“Timmonds! The man who hassled Will when the two of you came out to go shopping yesterday. He came back with two thugs. They attacked us. They held me hostage and forced Will to make them a map.” She stretched her neck so Bella could see the faint red line where the knife had just barely cut her. “They held a knife to my throat. I thought we were going to die.”

All of Bella’s playful demeanor was gone. She took Janie’s hand and held it fiercely. “Tell me the rest.”

“I caught them with a Truthtelling,” Janie said. “The gun went off, but Will managed to get out of the way. I’m surprised you didn’t notice the bullet in the table.”

“That table has a lot of gouges in it. Some of them are from bullets already.” Bella shrugged, then shook her head. “Not important. Keep going.”

“Well, they were trapped after that. Locked in the power of the Telling,” Janie said. “We were safe by then. We waited for the Guard to show up, and that was it.”

“Like the hells it was,” Bella exclaimed. “You had three people contained by incredible power, which, by the way, I had no idea you were capable of, or that you’d set up a Telling circle in this stupid old lighthouse! That is some serious spellbinding! I thought you were only an Acolyte?”

“I am. Well, was. Not many Acolytes can do it, but there are a few of us. And it was only two,” Janie said, frustrated.

“Two what?” Bella asked, not following.

“Two people caught. Timmonds got away. He had some kind of spellbreaker talisman.” Janie put the last bite of her lunch in her mouth and chewed slowly, not really tasting it.

“Timmonds? How? I’ve seen him before down at Merry Mary’s. Word is he’s some kind of second rate smuggler. Where would he get that kind of magical backup? That talisman would be worth more than his ship.”

“He’s working with a powerful spellbinder. His thugs said he smuggles Ashana’s Tears.” Janie looked a little sick at the thought.

“Rahat,” Bella cursed, shaking her head in disbelief. “That would be upsetting to find out even on a normal day.”

Janie was starting to feel better. Bella was right. Talking was helping. “Yes. By then I was not at my best.”

“Understandable,” Bella nodded.

“So the Guard came and took them away and it was over but I was… I just kept thinking how close we’d come to dying, and about how Will was leaving and might not come back, and…” She trailed off for a moment. “So I kissed him.”

Bella grinned. “Excellent seduction technique. The aftermath of danger is a powerful aphrodisiac.”

Janie started to go red again. “That was not my intent!”

“Sure it was,” Bella teased. “It might have been spontaneous, but that doesn’t mean you didn’t know exactly what you wanted.”

Janie looked torn. “Seduction doesn’t seem like the right term.”

“Who initiated?” Bella asked.

“I did,” Janie admitted.

“Who was calling the shots along the way?” Bella continued.

“Well, I was. At least at first. It changed a bit once we... finally made it to bed.” Janie felt like she was being grilled by the Grand Inquisitor in the Circle of Truths.

“Oh, turned the tables on you a bit, did he?” Bella snickered.

“Well, yes…” Janie blushed again, then huffed, frustrated at Bella’s gift for breaking her composure.

“That sounds like a perfectly executed seduction to me,” Bella gave Janie’s shoulder a squeeze. “Congratulations.”

Janie scowled, “You make it sound so insidious.”

“That’s only because you think seductions are bad. They aren’t.” Bella tucked a stray strand of hair behind Janie’s ear. “Seduction is a kind of game, where you’re trying to get someone to give into you. You try to draw them out. You push them in the direction you want them to go. You nudge and see how they respond. You awaken things in them that they didn’t realize, or didn’t want to admit were there. Control is important to all of that. The trick is, what all seductions are really about, is wanting the person you are seducing to seduce you back. To get them to take that control from you so you can give in to them.”

Janie squeezed her thighs together. A tremble ran through her. She didn’t say anything. She couldn't even look up.

“Does that sound like what happened?” Bella asked.

“Yes,” Janie said, “Exactly that.”

“Good job,” Bella grinned, her dark eyebrows bouncing.

A small smile crept up onto Janie’s face. “It was wonderful. And I really did want it.’

“Sounds like you really got your world rocked,” Bella nudged Janie’s thigh with her knee playfully.

Janie looked up shyly and nodded, “That is a very good way of putting it.”

“You’re welcome,” Bella winked.

Janie’s brows knitted. “I… don’t understand.”

“Will learned everything he knows about pleasuring a woman from Jack,” Bella shrugged, then she leaned in conspiratorially near Janie’s ear. “Jack learned everything she knows from me.”

The blush crept back into Janie’s cheeks and her mind rebelliously considered the implications of that. She tried not to think about it, but the image of Bella on the table was burned into her mind. Only now, it was herself on the table, and instead of Will between her legs, it was Bella.

“Oh. I see,” Janie could barely get the words out. She had no idea what to say anymore. “...thank you.” She was rambling.

“I’ll just add it to your debt,” Bella said with a predatory smirk.

“How can you… why do you always talk… so… lewdly!?” Janie exploded.

“Because it’s fun,” Bella shrugged. “There’s nothing wrong with sex, or with talking about sex. Most people do it. Most people like it. Why shouldn’t we talk about it?”

“Because it just isn’t proper! Some things should stay private!” Janie was practically pleading, trying to hang onto some sense that her views and thoughts were sane in the endless onslaught of sensuality that was Bella.

The dark haired witch looked around. “This is private. We’re the only ones here, right? I’ll stop though. I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.” She got up from where she was leaning on the table, her leg breaking contact with Janie’s thigh. Janie’s heart dropped. She hadn’t wanted to drive Bella away, she just wanted to make sense out of any of this. She could feel the moment slipping away.

“It’s about time to wake Will anyway,” Bella said, smoothing her skirts. “Thank you for talking with me.”

Janie stood up abruptly and reached out, grabbing Bella’s hand. She looked at it, not able to look anywhere else. Words tumbled from her lips. “With Will, last night, I just took his hand and dragged him to the bed. The day was so awful, and I just knew that I needed something to make me feel alive and in control and not scared. I am not one who is prone to hysterics or lack of composure. I made a choice, and I do not regret it. It was easy, and fun. I’ve known what he wanted for a long time, even if he thought he was being careful not to show it, so I knew exactly what to do. I knew what to say. I knew how to tell him.”

Janie’s gaze rose up the beautiful witch’s lush body and fell into the dark pools of her eyes. “I don’t know how to tell you...”

Bella leaned in slowly, gently and pressed her plump, soft lips to Janie’s. Their hands slid around each other’s bodies. Janie shook like she was frost bitten, and a tiny helpless moan escaped her right into Bella’s mouth. Her head swam. She forgot to breathe.

Bella broke the kiss and smiled at her. “Sometimes, you don’t need words.”

________________

Paperwork and clothes were everywhere. Bella’s multicolored skirts were draped over a curio cabinet. Janie’s sensible high collared blouse hung on the back of Will’s big office chair. Her bustier was carefully and gently folded and set on a shelf out of harm’s way (Bella had been delighted when she’d first seen it, immediately asking where Janie had gotten such a treasure). One of Janie’s stockings was ruined, covered in patches of black, hanging precariously from the ship’s wheel mounted on the wall of Will’s office. Bella’s petticoat was also ruined, but Janie was holding that.

They’d knocked over an ink pot. Thankfully, they had already been naked by then, stretched out full length on Will’s big desk, but by the time they’d realized, it was far too late. Somehow, they’d managed to knock the pot over towards them. It had spilled all along Bella’s left side, down her hip and slipped under her arched back, creating a substantial puddle. It had also gotten all over Janie’s knee and shin, and a bit on her foot. Also the palm of her hand and underside of her forearm. She’d been partially straddling Bella, her other hand cupping a prodigious breast, her other leg slid up between Bella’s thighs feeling the heat and wetness pressed against her skin. One of Bella’s hands held tight to the back of Janie’s neck. The other was between Janie’s legs, fingers churning. They’d both been far too engaged to notice the slow wetness spreading over them. Between the two of them, there was already plenty of that. Janie had been the one to knock the ink over. In the throws of her orgasm, she hadn’t even noticed.

By the time they did notice, ink was everywhere. They were both covered in smears, dabs, blotches. Janie had leapt up when she saw, practically dumping Bella on the floor, apologizing profusely as she looked frantically around the room for something to clean up the ink with. Bella had taken one look at Janie’s pale skin blotted everywhere with smears of black and started laughing like a woman possessed. She had gotten up slowly, looking at the dark rivulets running down her leg, coating her hand. Janie had grabbed a stocking and started trying to clean up the ink. Bella hadn’t helped at all. Instead she had slid her arms around Janie’s waist and pulled the smaller woman back against her, kissing Janie’s neck and sliding an ink stained hand up to her pale breast, leaving a stark black handprint. Janie had been aghast. Bella had kissed her, cutting off the shocked words that had been about to come forth.

Janie had managed to push Bella off and keep trying to clean up. Bella had given up, and sacrificed her petticoat to the clean up effort. Eventually they’d both given up and resorted to playfully marking each other even more. Janie had thrown her stocking at Bella but missed. It had hit the ship’s wheel on the wall and hung there. After that they were simply tickling each other. Janie had snatched Bella’s petticoat and was using it to try to ward off Bella’s fingers.

That was how Will found them. His brows slowly rose as he took in the scene.

Both of them. Covered in blotches of ink. Standing on paperwork. Smiling from ear to ear. Naked.

Janie noticed him. Her smile vanished and she quickly clutched the petticoat to her chest, making a feeble attempt at modesty. Bella didn’t bother. She sat down on the desk with her hands wide, holding the edge. She crossed her ankles in languid relaxation.

“What… happened?” Will asked, taking in the room.

“We spilled some ink,” Bella smirked

Janie snorted with the effort of trying to hold back her laughter, then composed herself. “I’ll clean it up.”

“Mmm hmm,” Will said. He looked slowly from one of them to the other. “So, how’d the ink get spilled?”

“Janie and I were having sex on your desk,” Bella said. Janie made a strangled noise. “I seduced her. She makes a mess when she cums.” Bella’s grin was full of lust and mischief.  

Will cleared his throat, “I… see.”

“You seduced me?” Janie sounded a bit horrified. She gave up on the petticoat and just covered her breasts with one arm.

“Sure did,” Bella winked. “I even told you what I was doing while I did it.”

Janie’s mind suddenly felt like it was getting bigger and smaller at the same time. She thought back on the whole conversation. Every touch. Every gesture. Had it all been calculated? Janie was a master of reading people’s intentions, and she hadn’t seen what was happening to her even when it was being explained to her step by step. If she’d been watching it happen to someone else it would have been painfully obvious, but she’d been too distracted, too overwhelmed. Things like that just didn’t happen to her. The magnitude of her blind spot was staggering. All she could do was stare at Bella like she had just revealed herself to be an actual succubus.

Janie threw the petticoat at her.

Bella laughed and flinched as it hit her and fell into her lap. She set it aside looking overly proud of herself. “We’re going to go upstairs and clean up in your washroom. I’d invite you to join us Will, but you’ll have customers any minute.” Bella hopped off the desk, took Janie’s hand and started pulling her to the door. Will stepped out of the way. “Besides,” she added, “You had your turn.”

Bella planted a kiss on Will’s lips full of tease and heat, then was gone leaving Will to watch her naked, ink stained, swinging butt start to disappear up the stairs. Then Janie slid past him as well. “Sorry about your desk,” she cringed. It was all she could think to say. Will watched her shapely rear follow Bella’s up the stairs. He licked his lips. Bella’s kiss tasted like Janie.

There was a knock at the door, and Bella’s unmistakable laugh echoed down the stairwell. He glared in the direction of the steps for a moment, and then went to work.

____________________

Upstairs, Janie was being washed by someone else, again. This time didn’t quite have the sensual joy of the first. Ink was hard to get off.

“All his towels are silk?!” Bella said, baffled. “These are useless!”

“At least he has good soap,” Janie said, lathering up her hands and spreading them up her arms and over her chest, trying to wash free the handprint on her breast.

“It’s granular soap! It practically peels the skin off.” Bella huffed.

“Well, yes. It’s rough, but that is what we need right now,” Janie said. “Can you do my back?”

Bella moved to the edge of the shallow tub and took the soap bar, lathering up her own hands. “Does he have any way of heating this water?”

“No. It’s been something he’s had planned, but it hasn’t happened yet,” Janie said. “Just getting the pump working to draw water up the the second story was hard enough.”

“Why’d he do that, anyway?” Bella rubbed her hands in small circles across a particularly stubborn black spot turning the lather grey.

“His room is upstairs?” Janie shrugged. “Seemed like a good idea to me.”

“I guess it wouldn’t be very practical to have the washroom in his office,” Bella conceded. “Who would want to live in a lighthouse anyway? He could just work here, and live somewhere else like most people.”

“It suits him,” Janie laughed.

“Inconvenient? Not doing what it’s built for? Badly kept up? Disorganized?” Bella said. “Yeah, it suits him.”

“Unique. Full of history,” Janie countered, “Charming.”

Bella handed Janie the soap back. They were getting suds and water everywhere. “He is that.”

“I thought you liked him,” Janie said, a bit taken aback by Bella’s barbed tongue.

“Oh, I do,” Bella poured a bucket of water over Janie washing the suds away. There were still a few greyish blotches. “I have more affection for Will Stirling than is probably healthy for me. I have for a long time. Just because I like him doesn’t mean I’m blind to his faults. Being stuck here and forced to make a more honest living really has mellowed him. You didn’t know him when he was younger. He was impossible.”

“I think you’re right. He’s said so himself.  It isn’t him though. Being stuck here, giving up on all the adventure? I think he’s lost something. I didn’t know him before. He hired me a while after he decided to try to make his living as an absentee navigator. It upsets him. I’ve spent a lot of time learning to read people. It isn’t as bad as it used to be, but he’s still holding in a lot of frustration and anger. He does not like what his life has become now. Until you showed up the other night, he’d been spending more and more time at that awful bar on the docks. I hadn’t seen him really smile in weeks. Now, there’s a spark I’ve never seen in him.” Janie kept scrubbing at her shin while she talked.

“I’ve seen it,” Bella said. She’d moved to the window and was letting the sun stream down on her chest, not caring or even considering who might see below. “That’s the old Will, more or less. He’s infectiously excited and far too clever. It always starts that way. He really is cursed though. Everything will go horribly wrong sooner or later. The thing Will won’t tell you is that it was like that for him even before the curse. The curse just makes it all worse. Jack was the same way. They’re so alike sometimes it’s scary.”

“And you were… involved with Jaqueline too?” Janie asked.

Bella shrugged and turned around to let the sun hit her back. “I have a type.”

Janie poured water over herself. Her faint ink spots were about as good as they were going to get. “Your turn,” she said, stepping out of the tub.

Bella pulled off her headscarf, wound her hair up into a messy bun and used the scarf to secure it. Then she stepped into the tub and took the soap from Janie. “What do we do with all the water when we are done?” she asked.

“There is a sluice drain right here under the window. Under this brass plate. We just lift it and the water dumps out the tower and down the back of the cliff side,” Janie said touching the metal disk set into the floor with one dainty foot.

“And how does he get the water up here?” Bella asked while she scrubbed.

Janie tapped a simple lever on the wall and pointed to a copper pipe above the water barrel. “There’s another large barrel outside. The lever pumps the water up. Will pays a fellow to keep the outside barrel stocked with fresh water a few times a week. He says it’s basically just a bilge pump. I don’t really know what that means.” Janie finished trying to dry herself with the awful silk towel and tried to help Bella get clean. “Are you excited for your adventure?” she asked, soaping up the big ink blot running down Bella’s side.

“A bit,” Bella said. “Last time I was on a ship I was seasick.”

“Oh no,” Janie laughed. “Well, I’m sure it will pass. You’ll have to get used to it eventually.”

“That’s what I’m telling myself,” Bella shrugged. “I am worried, though. I haven’t seen Jack in years, and now I’m going to be stuck on a tiny boat with her.”

“I’m sure it will be alright. You seem to be have a gift for getting through to stubborn people,” Janie said, running her soapy hand up Bella’s back in a way that was more sensual than needed for cleaning.

“Jack isn’t just stubborn. She’s a lot of other things too. Reactionary. Impulsive. Quick to anger.” Bella leaned into Janie’s hand, enjoying the sensation, but a bit lost in thought. “When I found out what she’d done to Will, I told her off something fierce.”

“But wasn’t Jack your… girlfriend? And you and Will weren’t involved, right? Why side with Will?” Janie was a bit confused.

“Will was still my friend, and what Jack did was wrong. She left him for dead. When she got back she was depressed and irritable for months before I finally dragged the truth out of her,” Bella shook her head. “I wish I’d known you then. You’d have seen right through her and gotten to the truth right away.”

Janie’s smile had a hint of sadness. ”I’m not sure that would have made things easier for you. The truth doesn’t always set you free.”

“It would have certainly made things faster,” Bella said tersely. “I didn’t really catch on until Will didn’t return at all. Jack had been deflecting every time I asked about him. We used to be thick as thieves, so I was looking forward to seeing him again. I’d said some pretty harsh things to him before he and Jack had left, and I wanted to make amends. Months went by, and he didn’t come back. When the truth finally came out, I was furious. At the time, I thought he was dead, but Jack swore he wasn’t. She turned out to be right, but by then she’d left the island. When Will came back I thought about coming to see him, but I started hearing things about how angry he was, and all the drinking and the fights, so I figured it was best to leave him be. I… have a hard time with people when they’re like that. Especially men. I figured he’d come find me when he was ready, and before I knew it two years had passed.”

“Will never really told me what happened. Only that Jack had gotten him cursed and left him behind,” Janie said. She was still stroking Bella’s back with her hand, but but it was more comforting than sensual now.

“That’s the gist of it. Jack swears she knew he was going to be alright, but she couldn’t explain why she thought that. It doesn’t excuse the fact that she abandoned him in a ruin with no way home,” Bella shook her head angrily. “Who does something like that?”

Janie didn’t have an answer. She wanted to be comforting, and she preferred to give people the benefit of the doubt, but she found herself agreeing with Bella. She couldn’t think of anything that would justify or excuse leaving someone you care about behind in a dangerous place. “I can see why you were upset.”

“And now I’m going to be on a boat with her,” Bella shook her head. “And with Will. And it will be up to me to try to keep the peace between them.”

“That isn’t your job. You’re upset with her also. You should be allowed to be upset. The two of them can just sort out their own business like adults, or avoid each other.” Janie rested a hand gently on Bella’s shoulder.

Bella shook her head. “I know Jack, and I know Will. No matter how upset they are with each other, they’re drawn to each other like moths to flame. They’ll try to keep it together, but eventually one of them will make the wrong snide comment, and the other will explode. Then it will all come out, probably right in front of everyone. When they get upset, neither of them care much about consequences. They’ve both been bottling things up for years. It isn’t going to be pretty.”

“Maybe they should have a talk before they get on the ship,” Janie suggested.

Bella looked over her shoulder and stared, looking off balance and confused for the first time that Janie had ever seen. “Why didn’t that occur to me?”

“You’re too close to it. Sometimes it takes an outside perspective,” Janie tucked a loose hair back behind Bella’s ear.

Bella smiled, and caught Janie’s hand, kissing her wrist. “That’s true,” she looked at Janie’s breasts. The handprint was still faintly visible. “You missed a spot.”

Janie looked down. “That’s as much as I could get off. I think I like it, so it’s fine.”

Bella pulled Janie into her lap and put her fingers right over the faint handprint. Janie’s breast was exactly the right size to be held by Bella’s hand. “Perfect fit,” she said.

Janie put her hand beneath one of Bella’s much larger breasts and lifted. Then she added the other hand. Bella’s breast was still larger. “Apparently I need bigger hands.”

“Or more,” Bella grinned.

“As useful as that might be, I don’t think I would look very appealing with extra arms…” Janie trailed off as she caught on to Bella’s actual meaning. “Oh! Oh my. You mean… Will? With both of us? How would that even...?” she trailed off again.

“Oh, it works wonderfully,” Bella smirked, lost in a memory for a moment.

“I thought you were only teasing him when you said you’d invite him to join us,” Janie shook her head.

“Oh, I was teasing. I was serious too,” She shrugged with one shoulder.

“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t curious,” Janie admitted. Her mind was starting to go all kinds of salacious places.

“We’ll save that for later. I have to work tonight anyway, and you and Will are going to be busy,” Bella gave Janie a kiss on the cheek.

Janie turned to straddle Bella’s thighs and gave her a deeper kiss. “Are we going to talk about… what we did… in the office?” Janie asked tentatively.

“Oh no,” Bella said. “We’re going to continue it.”

Janie blushed a bit, but smiled. “Oh good.”

A few buckets of cool water and a few passes with the terrible towels and Janie was pulling Bella to Will’s bed, practically skipping. She stopped at the edge though, not sure what to do. With men, she at least had some experience, and years of Magistrate training in how people think helped a great deal. She found men to be far more straightforward though. Women were complicated and new. Now that she was here she had no idea what to do next.

Bella giggled at Janie’s sudden hesitation and turned her around. “Slow down. Just think about what you would want done to you, and then do that to me.”

Janie kissed her, gently at first, but the passion built up. “Mmmm. I love your lips,” she said breathlessly. “They’re like pillows.”

“I love your neck,” Bella said, bringing her lips to Janie’s throat. Janie squirmed. Bella laughed “It’s so graceful and sensitive.”

“So I should just do to you want I want done to me?” Janie asked shyly.

“Mmmhmm,” Bella said, biting gently.

Suddenly Bella was whirled around and dropped onto the bed, hard. “Ooof!” It took her a moment to get her bearings. Her legs were being held apart and Janie was on her knees, looking at Bella’s smooth womanhood with an expression of excitement and trepidation. Bella relaxed and let her legs open even wider. “Go ahead,” she said.

Janie’s hands found Bella’s intimate folds and traced along them, exploring. Bella’s hips rolled encouragingly. Janie was fascinated. Bella was so different than she was. Her skin was a bit darker, with an olive shade to it. She was utterly smooth, all trace of hair removed. It was a bit strange to Janie, but she decided it seemed right. There was something… exotic and forward about completely baring herself like that, which suited Bella perfectly. Her inner lips were a dark, deep red, like a ripe cherry. Janie’s fingers parted them, feeling Bella’s wetness spread. She couldn’t help but think of a blooming flower. She thought of Will last night, with his tongue between her legs. She brought her finger to her lips. The taste was faint. A bit musky, but not unpleasant at all. Clean. Her finger went back to work on Bella’s beautiful, glistening lower lips. Bella’s hips rolled and her hands rose and cupped her massive breasts, squeezing. She let out a small squeak. Arousal blossomed in Janie, even stronger than before. She felt herself getting wet. She wanted to feel Bella’s amazing lips between her legs. So, she did what she wanted done to her.

Janie’s nervous, excited mouth kissed Bella’s bare, wet woomanhood and sent a jolt through both of them. For Bella it was pleasure. For Janie it was sheer excitement and thrill. She licked. Bella moaned. Janie licked more, longer strokes, trying to think of what had felt the best for her the night before. Her hands came up and spread Bella open wider so her tongue could reach deeper, making circles around her opening. Bella’s hands squeezed her own breasts hard. “That feels so good,” Bella groaned.

“What should I do?” Janie asked, desperate to learn.

“Higher. Right where the folds join. Find it… with your tongue,” Bella said between breaths.

Janie did as she was told. Her tongue traced slowly upward until she found a small nub of flesh that was firmer than the rest. Bella reacted instantly. She squeaked again and her back arched. “Oh! Yeah, you found it. Not too hard yet! There. Just make slow circles right there.”

Janie did. She realized this must have been that amazing spot Will had found. She started to realize her upbringing had left her woefully ignorant in certain areas. Bella’s hips were rolling nonstop and she was squeezing her breasts like she was going to pull them off. “

“What is that?” Janie asked. “Does every woman have one of those?”

Bella’s brows rose, looking down at Janie’s earnest eyes. The slender brunette seemed so wise about some things, and with others it was painfully clear that her Magistrate education had deliberately left her ignorant.

“You never… oh no. You poor dear,” Bella was genuinely sad. Janie had grown to adulthood without ever learning intimate power of her own body. “It’s called a clitoris. Barring unfortunate circumstance, yes. All women have them.”

“What should I do with it?” Janie looked anxious, but excited.

“Suck a little… Suck it in and... keep going with your tongue,” Bella said. The full anatomy lesson could wait until later.

Janie did. A little suction drew the little nub out further, and made it easier for her tongue to roll around it. “Oh fu…. uu… ck…” Bella shuddered.

Janie laughed. “Language!” she admonished with her lips still against Bella’s most intimate skin. The words sent small vibrations straight from between her legs, up her spine and shuddered in her brain.

“Fuck fuck fuck!” Bella squirmed. Her hands found Janie’s head and pulled it harder against her clit. “Fuck me with your fucking tongue!”

Janie would normally have been appalled, but in this moment, the profanity seemed hilarious. She kept working, sucking, kissing, swirling, and now laughing, her head held tightly against Bella’s needy womanhood. Each laugh sent a pulse through Bella that combined with the sensations from Janie’s tongue and caused the growing swell of heat and pressure to finally burst. The dark haired beauty shook and convulsed with the power of her orgasm, finally having to push Janie’s head away. “Fuck. That was glorious.”

Janie crawled up Bella’s trembling body and kissed her. “Thank you for the lesson.”

Bella held Janie’s head again and said her thank yous directly against Janie’s mouth. “Want me to return the favor?” she asked.

“Oh, yes,” Janie breathed.

Bella rolled them over so she was on top and started sensuously sliding down Janie’s lithe body. Bella’s mountainous breasts dragged slowly across Janie’s and down to her stomach. They were warm, and impossibly soft. Bella’s kissed her way down Janie’s neck and collarbone, then her chest and found one of Janie’s nipples. A sudden jolt of pleasure spiked through Janie, seeming to briefly connect directly from her nipple to that little nub of wonderful nerves between her legs.

Bella’s teeth gently bit Janie’s nipple and she rolled her tongue around it in quick flicking strokes. Janie’s hands clenched into the blankets. Then Bella was sinking lower, leaving a trail of soft kisses and nibbles down  Janie’s soft stomach and over her right hip bone. It was electric, bordering on too much. Like the best feeling of being tickled she’d ever known,.

And then, suddenly, Bella’s lips jumped from Janie’s hip straight to her wet entrance, latching on with a hungry growl. Janie gasped, and then laughed. Her breath was stolen a moment later when Bella’s tongue made a full swipe from bottom to top and then plunged deep inside.

Last night, Will had been enthusiastic, and he’d clearly had a pretty good idea of what he was doing. Bella was an expert. Janie didn’t have enough experience yet to be able to accurately describe what felt the best, but even if she had, she wouldn’t have needed to. Bella knew exactly what to do. She read every twitch and gasp and shudder and moan the same way Janie read posture and speech patterns and eye movement. Bella played Janie like an instrument, bringing her pleasure up, and then letting it lull for a bit. She would concentrate fiercely on Janie’s clit, and then backing off to tease just below it while she swept through the inner lips. She slid two fingers inside and curled them upward, hooking the inside of Janie’s pelvic wall and giving a strong, steady pull while pulsing her arm gently. Janie felt like she was going to thrash so hard she would throw herself off the bed, btu every time it started to become more than she could bear, Bella eased off and gave her a bit of respite. Janie kept trying to reach for Bella’s silky curls, to stroke her face, to speak, but every time a jolt of pleasure would rock through her body and she’d find herself clutching spasmodically at the blankets again. It took her awhile to realize that Bella was doing it on purpose.

“What-” she gasped out, then arched her back uncontrollably, “-are-” she shuddered, “-you-” her breath was caught in her chest as the heat and sparks swelled within her, “-doing-” Bella’s fingers pulsed hard inside her and her legs shot straight out as the waves of bliss rocked her body, “-to-” her toes curled, “-me-eeeeee-eeee!” She bit the pillow to keep from screaming.

“Just… this,” Bella snickered. Her hand started moving, her fingers pulling and thrusting inside Janie with a steady, firm rhythm that quickly built up to a pounding pace. Her mouth anchored down on that little nub of heaven that Janie still didn’t have words to describe. Bella sucked, and bit just a little, and flicked back and forth with her tongue as hard as she could make it.

Janie’s mind shattered. An explosion of wonder and pleasure rocked though her. She clenched her eyes so tight she saw colors and started hearing a keening wail that took her ages to realize was her. Wave after wave hit her. She’d start to gather her wits and another crash would knock her back into wordless overwhelming bliss. It all blurred together, but she felt each wave separately, like a series of overlapping notes that became a chorus of indescribable joy.

Bella finally slowed after Janie had simply become a twitching, whimpering puddle on the bed. Janie’s eyes slowly focused. Bella slowly pulled her fingers free and gave Janie one last long, wet, loving lick followed a kiss on that little nub that sent another small shock through Janie’s body. Bella was soaked. She looked like she’d just gotten out of the washroom and hadn’t bothered to dry off. “What…?” Janie muttered, hardly able to form the words.

Bella laughed loud and hard, wiping her face and chest with Will’s blanket. Then she dried her eyes. “You’re a squirter.”

“I… what?” Janie’s mind was full of happy fog. Nothing made sense anymore.

Bella crawled up onto the bed and curled herself around Janie’s limp body, petting her hair and kissing her forehead. “I’ll explain later. That was wonderful.”

“Mmmhmm,” Janie breathed. She stared at the ceiling, somehow feeling lost and found at the same time.

The bedroom door opened. Will walked in.