"I can't help it," Stark confessed, rubbing her chin softly back and forth along the tip of Renee's shoulder. "I can't think of anything better than touching you. Well, you touching me, maybe, but you know what I mean."

Eyes closed, Renee drifted in the hazy aftermath of passion, her hand covering Stark's as Stark stroked her. "When I'm with you like this, it's as if nothing else exists. Nothing outside this room; this bed, your arms around me. It's so peaceful." What she didn't say, what she was afraid to even think, was how perfectly right it felt. These moments with Stark refreshed her spirit and replenished her soul, reminding her that it was possible to trust, and to love and be loved.

"Sometimes," Stark whispered with her lips against Renee's ear, "I think about you—about the way you touch me. No one else has ever made me feel what you do. And I think that I'll never want anyone else but you to touch me."

Renee's body tensed as her heart shuddered in her chest. "Paula." She felt warm breath against her neck, the sturdy body supporting hers, the strong arms holding her safe. Picturing the gentle woman who had taken her with such fierce passion only moments before, she trembled, fighting what she most desired; Quietly, she said, "I haven't been very lucky in love." She shifted until she could meet Stark's gaze. "Until now."

"Did someone hurt you?" Stark's dark eyes were soft with sympathy. "Someone you loved?"

"Hurt me? Oh," Renee said with a small laugh, "I suppose it was more a case of someone not sharing my vision of love."

"Which is?"

Renee sighed. "I grew up believing the things I'd read in books—that love would be a wondrous thing of endless intensity and deep connection. A grand passion to end all passions. When I fell in love for the first time, I thought I'd found that. Her idea of a relationship turned out to be...different." She forced a smile and tried for a lighter tone. "I chalked that failure up to us both being too young, but I've tried it a couple more times without much success."

"So you don't believe in that kind of love anymore?" Stark's question was gentle as she continued to trace her fingertips over the smooth skin of Renee's abdomen.

"I didn't think so." Renee reached back a hand and cupped the nape of Stark's neck, drawing her close for a kiss before murmuring against her mouth, "You're making me change my mind."

"Good." Hearing the sadness and longing in Renee's voice, Stark wanted to heal the hurt that had been none of her doing, just because she couldn't bear the thought of Renee in pain for any reason. She kissed the corner of Renee's mouth and embraced her more tightly, cradling one small, firm breast in her pahn as if holding a fragile objet d'art. When Renee moaned softly and wrapped both arms around Stark's neck, Stark unconsciously smoothed her palm down the tight plane of Renee's abdomen until her fingers brushed the down between Renee's thighs.

"Paula," Renee breathed, her hips lifting to the promise of her lover's touch.

Stark trailed the tip of her tongue over the inner surface of Renee's upper lip before pressing deeper into the warm welcome of her mouth. As her tongue caressed her lover's, she eased a finger along either side of Renee's clitoris, squeezing gently.

Renee's body jerked, and she gasped, fingers closing convulsively on Stark's shoulders. Her hips rocked between Stark's legs in time to the pulse that beat between her own thighs. "I'm still so sensitive..! don't know if I can take it..."

"I'll go easy," Stark promised, a note of desperation in her voice. "I want to touch you so much. Please." She slid her hand lower into the slick heat, and Renee whimpered quietly against her neck. Stark's heart pounded and her stomach clenched around the sweet ache of arousal deep inside. "Okay? Honey, okay?"

Shuddering, Renee pressed her lips to Stark's ear. "Do it harder. Do it harder, just like that..."

Scarcely breathing, Stark followed the rise and fall of her lover's questing hips as she stroked over swollen flesh and circled the stiffly prominent bundle of nerves. When she flicked the rigid shaft, Renee made a keening sound and Stark pulled away, afraid she had hurt her.

"No!" Renee cried. "Don't stop. You're...making me... come."

"Oh God," Stark choked, burying her face in Renee's neck as she fondled her to orgasm. I love you.

Renee came with a high thin wail, color bursting behind her eyes and heat blasting along her spine. Back arched, eyes tightly closed, she rode the edge of forever in her lover's arms.

"Ohh," Renee sighed, slumping limply against Stark's chest, her head dropping onto Stark's shoulder. "You have amazing hands."

Arms around her lover, Stark kissed Renee's forehead, the corner of her eye, the tip of her nose. "You're so beautiful when you come. I just want to keep doing it."

Shakily, Renee laughed. "Okay. Sure. Why not. Only... give me a minute to catch my breath." She snuggled closer, then gradually became aware of the staccato rhythm of Stark's heart beating beneath her cheek. "You okay, sweetie?"

"Mmm-hmm."

Renee raised her head and searched Stark's face. She rocked her hips slowly between Stark's thighs. "Sure?"

Pupils dilating with the unexpected pressure, Stark caught her breath at the shaft of pleasure that shot through her. "Uh...that's really nice."

"You know," Renee said quietly, resting her cheek in the curve between Stark's neck and shoulder, "I love to hear you come."

"Yeah?" Stark grew very still.

"Uh-huh. A lot." Renee found Stark's fingers and clasped them in her own, drawing their joined hands between Stark's thighs. She guided their intertwined fingertips over the prominence of Stark's clitoris, her pulse racing as Stark moaned quietly. "Yes," she breathed, "like that."

Eyes closed, Stark nestled her face in Renee's hair, one arm holding her close as the excitement of their twin touches brought her rapidly to a peak. "Feels good...so good. Stay there..."

"You're beautiful," Renee whispered through a throat tight with expectation. Their hands moved in rapid synchrony, and she heard Stark groan again. "Tell me. Tell me what you feel."

"Aches...nice...I want to come." Stark's thighs jumped with the first whisper of release. "It's starting..." Her stomach twitched and jerked and thunder roared through her head.

Renee stopped breathing, her senses completely focused on the hard heat beneath her ringers and the tight stillness of Stark's body. Afraid to break the moment, she remained silent while her mind screamed for Stark to surrender. Her own heart pounded as if she were about to explode. When Stark gave a startled shout and threw her head back with the first shock of orgasm, a cry tore from Renee's throat "Oh, Paula, yes"

"Oh God, oh God," Stark murmured over and over as she clung, shuddering, to Renee.

"Ahh," Renee said on a long breath when Stark collapsed against the pillows. "It's even better when I can hear you and feel you." She scooted around to stretch out beside Stark and then drew her lover into her arms. "I missed you, too."

Pillowing her face against Renee's breast, Stark mumbled, "How long does this last?"

"Does what last, sweetie?" Softly, Renee stroked Stark's face.

"This...incredible happiness."

Renee bit her lip and held Stark's face more closely to her breasts. When she could trust her voice not to quaver, she whispered, "Just as long as we remember how precious these moments are."

Cam leaned a shoulder against the partition that separated Blair's bedroom from the rest of the loft, watching her lover unpack. "Are you sure you're going to be all right?"

"Yes," Blair said without looking around.

"What about changing the dressings? Can I help you do that?"

"I'm going to wait until bedtime when I take a shower. The doctor said I could get it wet tonight." Blair reached for the last of the clothes. "It shouldn't be that difficult."

"Will you call me, if you need something?"

"I'll be fine, darling." Suddenly, Blair stopped in midmotion and sat down on the side of her bed, a stack of T-shirts in her hand. "No, I won't. Hell. I miss you already."

"I can stay." Cam pushed away from the wall, her voice low and intense. I want to stay. Especially now—it's so hard to be away from you,

"The only good thing about the last few days was that we could be together all the time." Blair shook her head, her voice a monotone. "But it's harder here—I don't know why, but it feels like we'd be compromising you professionally."

"That's not what matters." Quickly, Cam closed the distance between them, sat on the bed beside her lover, and encircled her waist with an arm. "I love being with you. I love going to bed with you, waking up with you, just knowing that you're somewhere nearby. I love being able to look up and see you sitting across the room, absorbed in a sketch."

"I love all those things, too." Blair rested her cheek against Cam's shoulder, her fingers curled on the inside of Cam's thigh. "My breast is fine, and there's nothing I can do to hurt it since I don't really even have time to go to the gym. I need to finish two or three canvases by the middle of next week so Diane can get them to the gallery and hung for the show. I've got a ton of things to do around here before we get ready to leave for Camp David."

"And there are probably six piles of paperwork waiting on my desk for me to wade through," Cam agreed. She kissed the corner of Blair's mouth. "But that doesn't mean I'm not going to miss you when it's time to go to bed."

"I know," Blair said with a rare note of discouragement in her voice. "Still, with the entire team downstairs and the occasional reporter wandering in and out, I don't think we should start cohabitating up here."