Выбрать главу

She gasped. When she opened her eyes, the vision was gone. She cried out again as one orgasm blended into another. She felt Baylor’s tongue replace her fingers and slide deep into her. Just when Hobie thought she could take no more, Baylor pulled away and once more entered her with two fingers, causing more waves of pleasure. Slowly, she came back to reality. She felt the gentle touches of Baylor’s tongue as she lapped up the juices Hobie’s excitement had created.

Baylor slid her fingers from her lover’s satiny warmth and felt Hobie tremble with aftershocks of desire. She licked at Hobie’s sweet juices, taking care to avoid the too sensitive area at the top of her cleft.

It was gentle and relaxed, and Hobie couldn’t help becoming aroused again. Almost unconsciously, and with the vision of the stars still floating before her, she gently rolled her hips in an easy rhythm against the strokes from Baylor’s tongue.

“Oh, yes,” she soon murmured as Baylor feasted again on her willing flesh. Hobie felt Baylor’s strong arms wrap around her parted thighs, and Baylor’s tongue replaced her fingers. There was less of a rush for Hobie this time; instead of racing toward her climax, she waited for it to come to her. It was slow, almost luxurious, and she cried out as another release engulfed her.

Baylor moved up and wrapped her arms around her still-trembling lover. She whispered her love as Hobie cried. Baylor understood the tears, as well as Hobie’s inability to articulate the reason behind them. She couldn’t explain them any better than Hobie could.

“Okay.” Hobie wiped the tears away. “It’s official. We’re both pathetic.”

Baylor laughed and held Hobie tighter. “You okay?” She didn’t know quite how to phrase it. How did one ask if one’s partner just had the most mind-numbing sex of her life or if it was just a “that was very nice” on the sex-o-meter?

As with most of Baylor’s abbreviated language, Hobie understood exactly what she meant. “It and you were and are incredible.”

“Really?” Baylor brightened considerably.

“I wouldn’t have thought you, of all people, would have doubts about your abilities in that area.”

“Well,” Baylor’s cheeks showed an uncharacteristic flush, “we’re going to be doing this for the next fifty or sixty years. It would really suck if we’d waited till now to find out that we’re no good together in bed.”

Hobie laughed and shook her head, then pulled away from Baylor and leaned on one elbow. “The things you find to worry about scare me. And what do you mean fifty or sixty years? You sure do plan to be an active old broad, don’t you?” She laughed again. “That will put us pushing a hundred.”

“Funny you say that,” Baylor said as she settled comfortably on her back.

“Say what?” Hobie sat up and reached for the picnic basket, having worked up an appetite. She grinned in embarrassment when she saw Baylor smiling at her.

“Can I get you any more?”

“No. These are fine.” Hobie popped a piece of cheese into her mouth. “So what was so funny?”

“Actually, it was something Jules mentioned today. Then you just made the comment about how old we’ll be in fifty years.” “And?”

“Did you know that Tanti and Aimee were the last—well, I don’t know what to call it, but the supposed saviors of Ana Lia? Like we did tonight. They had their ceremony fifty years ago.”

“I had no idea. Is it significant in some way?”

“That part isn’t, but I found out about it before we left Rebecca’s and forgot to tell you. No, what Jules pointed out was the average age of the members of the Ladies Guild. I know Tanti’s ninety-two, and I think JoJo said Rebecca was, what? A hundred?”

“Ninety-five.”

Together they came up with a half-dozen names of women in their nineties.

“Now let me ask you the same question Jules hit me with,” Baylor continued. “Do any of these chicks look over seventy or even eighty to you?”

“I’m not sure, but once you’re that age, I guess it gets harder to tell, right?”

“You’re the doc. You tell me. Do any of these gals get sick much? Aside from Tanti’s hip, has she ever had anything wrong with her?”

Hobie stopped eating to seriously think about Baylor’s question. With the possible exception of childbirth, she could hardly recall any of the local women being ill. Doc Elston had spent more days in his fishing boat than in his office. There was the usual kid stuff and accidents, but the women of the island were a surprisingly healthy bunch.

Hobie sobered until she realized that she was acting as paranoid as Baylor. She laughed and shook her head to dispel the niggling doubts. “Oh, please. I’m sure there’s some rational explanation for it.”

“Weirder things have happened.”

“Oh, come on. You don’t seriously think that the women of this island have some special power that keeps them young or from ever getting sick, do you?”

“All I’m doing is bringing up the possibility that there are, I don’t know, forces on this island. Look at you and me. I drank like a fish before I got here. I think I’ve had a few beers and two margaritas all summer. That’s not counting the champagne I had tonight. Didn’t you have the same problem before you came back home? I’ve never even wanted a drink since I’ve been here. Okay, there was the party at the library, but I consider that an extreme time. How about you?”

“Oh, Baylor, that’s just—” It was too crazy a scenario to consider. Wasn’t it? “What? You think we have the fountain of youth on Ana Lia? That Ponce de León was right all along?”

“I was thinking more along the lines of, you know...spells and...stuff.”

“Excuse me?” Hobie asked with laughter in her eyes. “Oh, you heard what I said, Miss Smarty-pants.”

“I heard it, I just don’t believe you said it.” Hobie chuckled. “Look, whatever they’re doing, it’s working, and I, for one, am not about to question how they do it. Besides, we’re a part it now. What with our ceremony and the stars coming together, I expect that if they live to be five hundred, so will we.”

“Oh, my God,” Baylor cried out. “We’re witches, too!” “Baylor!”

“Sorry. Wiccans.”

“Being politically correct wasn’t why I was yelling at you.” Hobie laughed harder. She didn’t mean to make light of her lover’s worries, but Baylor’s paranoia exceeded anything Hobie had known. “I’m yelling at you because it doesn’t work that way. It’s like any other religion, so to speak. You have to make a conscious decision to follow it. You can’t just become one of them without knowing it. I’m pretty positive there are no such things as Wiccan pods that they slip under your bed at night.”

“Right. Okay, I know that.” Baylor pouted, embarrassed at having the thought in the first place.

“Can we move on to something else that will probably freak you out?”

“I’m glad you’re so amused with your own wit.” Baylor stole a piece of cheese from Hobie. She popped it into her mouth and lay back down, munching contentedly.

“I am, thanks and—hey, that was mine!” “Ya snooze, ya lose.”

“Okay, can I be serious for a second?” “I don’t know, can you?”

Hobie arched an eyebrow. “Sorry. Go ahead.”

Hobie pushed the basket away, lay beside Baylor, and leaned her head in the palm of one hand.

“Something...well, odd happened to me while we were making love. Not so much during, but right when...you know. The moment when I...”

Baylor appeared amused. “Climaxed.”

“Yeah. Geez, talking about it and doing it are really different, huh?”