Chapter 2
“How was the party?”
Etta stood in the bathroom doorway, brushing her teeth while Jamie sat cross-legged on their bed.
I don’t get the point of beds this big. I can’t find her to cuddle half the night.
Queen-sized was good. Ample room for people their size, plus her girlfriend didn’t feel a million miles away when Jamie woke up in the middle of the night and found her hanging off the side because she was a weird sleeper.
She turned off her phone. “It was sufficiently boring and stuffy, which I’m told means it was a great success.”
“Who told you that?”
Etta disappeared into the bathroom to spit out her toothpaste, so Jamie raised her voice.
“Monique! She’s the authority, isn’t she?”
It was a few seconds before Etta wandered back into the bedroom. “Last I heard. Before you moved in, I was calling her all the time to ask how to survive social functions. You’d never guess she grew up with barely more money than we did.”
It’s because she’s the most observant person on Earth. Anyone who spent her days watching and learning from others was bound to absorb the greatest social graces… or the worst, Jamie supposed. “Before I moved in, huh?”
Etta climbed on the bed but did not pull back the covers.
She must not be too tired yet. When she was ready to sleep, there wasn’t much Jamie could do to stop the tide of Etta Coleman slipping beneath the covers and dozing herself into slumbering bliss.
Jealous. Half the time, Jamie took more than an hour to sleep, and this was the most comfortable bed she ever had.
“Yes. Before you moved in, I had to brave everything by myself.”
“What about all those girlfriends you had before me?” Jamie referred to the previous personal assistants.
The ones Etta paid to serve her in the office…
and the bedroom. I come from humble, hooking means.
She had to laugh at herself once in a while.
Not many women could say they got millions of dollars in their checking account for taking notes and then taking it between the legs for six months.
“They didn’t go to functions with me. They weren’t real girlfriends. You know that.”
“Of course I do. I was in that position once.”
Etta wrapped her arm around Jamie’s midsection and kissed the small of her back. “A long time ago.”
“Uh-huh.”
Etta rolled away, hands behind her head as she stared up at the ceiling. “Well, if she says it was a success, then it was. Don’t take the other stuff personally.”
Jamie wasn’t going to respond to that. How do I not take it personally?
Except she didn’t want to say anything because Etta had been through her fair share of growing pains when it came to being accepted in big business.
She may have been one of the richest women anyone had ever met, but that didn’t stop other multi-millionaires and billionaires from turning their noses at her crass upbringing.
“The bachelorette party is going to be next weekend. Eve Warner is hosting it.”
“Is that the one who…”
“Yup.”
“You didn’t let me finish.”
“Because I know you’re thinking of the right person.” Eve sort of stood out. Whether from the closet or…
“Who’s going to the party?” Etta snorted. “Forget that… where are you going? And how many strippers will there be?”
“Ha! We are flying to Miami Friday night, but I can’t imagine strippers. For Monique.”
“You might be surprised. She loves a good show if you know what I mean. She’s also not shy around a stranger’s parts.”
“You would know,” Jamie said for the second time that day.
Usually, she forgot that Monique was technically Etta’s ex-girlfriend, back when she was in a ménage with Jacqueline Love.
Etta always said that she saw Monique more as a friend with benefits than a romantic partner, so they remained good friends after she walked away from the arrangement.
Even so, Jamie often found herself comparing her bedroom skills to a woman who made half her life learning every art form there was…
and turning it into a business. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to keep saying that.”
“It doesn’t bother me. You’re not wrong, are you?”
Sighing, Jamie unfolded her legs and joined her girlfriend.
Her baggy T-shirt barely covered her sleep shorts.
She did not miss Etta glancing at her bare thighs before looking her in the eye again.
Oh, good, she’s feeling frisky. They hadn’t had sex in a few days.
In previous relationships, Jamie wouldn’t have cared.
With Etta, though… the woman was a powerhouse.
“I get so exhausted around you people.”
“You people?”
“You know… you rich type people.”
“Ah.”
“You have no idea what I’m talking about, do you?”
“Not really. Sorry.”
Jamie tugged at the collar of her shirt, inciting Etta to kiss her.
The instant lips hit hers, she forgot what she was so worried about.
That was the power of a girlfriend who knew how to make her feel like the queen of the universe.
Even when she was collaring Jamie and tying her up… and making her say things… and…
None of that tonight. Etta made her vanilla intentions clear when she slipped Jamie’s shorts down and sucked on her throat.
A quickie before bed. Sounded like Jamie’s sort of fun if she was too tired to do anything else.
Especially on a late Sunday night, mere hours before she had to get up to go to her downtown office.
“Are you staying in the penthouse this week?” Jamie asked as she worked her way down to her breasts, now freed from her obnoxious T-shirt.
“I’ll come join you.” She didn’t like staying in the main house up in the hills without Etta.
Felt too empty, even with Beatrice and Harris around.
She much preferred Etta’s downtown penthouse she kept for late nights at work.
And for her fake girlfriends, whom she didn’t want to bring to her real home.
Plus, one of the perks of having her own car, let alone a driver, was that she could run downtown and do some shopping before joining Etta for dinner and a night at the penthouse, just the two of them… like a real, down-to-Earth couple. Who only had a few million instead of…
Etta stopped kissing her long enough to answer, although her voice was strained. “I might. Dunno yet. It’s a busy week.”
“Every week is busy…” It was one of the reasons they hadn’t had sex lately.
Etta deciding at the last minute to stay downtown when it was too late for Jamie to join her.
Etta falling asleep the moment she got home or her head hit the pillow.
Etta foregoing dinner because she was too tired to eat.
I wish I knew what to do to help. Well, there was one thing Jamie knew how to do… when she was up to it.
“I’ll let you know.”
Jamie didn’t get a chance to respond. Etta pinned her onto their bed, her body crushing Jamie’s as she attempted to claim her girlfriend for another night.
Jamie gave herself over to the motions and emotions taking over the room, her legs wrapping around Etta’s waist as they rode each other with the same rhythm they always loved.
This never gets old. Jamie had lost count of the months, maybe years they had been together, but making love in all its forms was still one of the best parts of her relationship.
Etta looked into her eyes as they climaxed, one after the other. Jamie whimpered. She was submissive, but not conquered. Loved, but not put on a fabricated pedestal. That was all that mattered. Just the two of them. In love. Connecting as two lovers often did.
“That was pretty damn fantastic.” Etta pulled back the covers. “I need to sleep.”
Jamie wanted to crawl in and huddle in her arms, but she had to go to the bathroom to decompress first. Women. More like Etta. She loved to come in hard and fast for their quickies. If Jamie was lucky, she got a few tender kisses before Etta knocked herself out.
Keeping her eye on Etta as she fell asleep, Jamie went into the bathroom.
She almost looked cute. If a powerful businesswoman slightly over thirty could look cute.
Jamie figured she had the right to think her girlfriend was cute.
I wonder what she looked like as a child.
She saw so few pictures of Etta’s childhood.
Mostly because there weren’t any. She would’ve either been the most adorable, chubby-cheeked girl or a holy monster. Jamie decided on the former.
What would our kids look like? That was a strange thing to think as she lingered in the bathroom.
Yet she thought it anyway because Jamie waffled back and forth on whether she wanted kids.
Not right now. Definitely not right now.
First, she wanted to be married. Monique was doing it the right way.
She had talked about wanting to have a child someday.
“It’s best course to be married first, naturally,” she had said.
“Yet that doesn’t stop an unmarried woman from thinking about it, especially if she’s in love with the future co-parent.
And it’s a good idea to get a jump on the whole donor business now in case it takes a while to, you know, take. ”
Jamie looked back at Etta. She had one arm cast over her face to block out the light still on by the bed.
Jamie did her best not to disturb her when she finally curled up against Etta’s chest. Our kids would look good.
She went to sleep that night not thinking about the impossibility of their mixed genes and instead of how, in some perfect world, any kid she had would somehow look exactly like Etta.