Chapter 20
They slept late on the Saturday, but then they’d earned the lie-in by the time that they’d finally given in to sleep.
Helena woke to a hand snaking its way across her naked middle, a warm body pressing up against her, and soft lips that insisted on waking her up.
“Mmm… morning,” she muttered.
She felt a kiss on her shoulder. “Morning.” Another kiss, slow and sensual. “Did you sleep well?”
“Wonderfully.” Helena forced her eyes open to see Caitlin had propped herself up on an elbow, looking down at her. “You?”
“Same.” Caitlin smiled, her fingertips trailing across Helena’s skin. She glanced over at the curtains, sunlight streaming through them. “I’m normally awake much earlier.”
Helena grinned up at her, taking Caitlin’s hand in hers. “We must have worn you out.”
“That must be it.” Caitlin sat up. The sheet fell off her, and she wasn’t wearing a stitch of clothing, save for the necklace. Although neither was Helena, now that she came to think about it. “Would you like coffee?”
“Aren’t I supposed to be asking you that?”
Caitlin shrugged. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to make it for you.”
“I’d like that.”
“Good.” Caitlin stood. Her hair was loose and messy around her shoulders.
Helena tried not to give away that she was staring at Caitlin’s stunning body, but she knew that Caitlin knew…
which was fine, because Caitlin very obviously didn’t mind.
“Just one little thing… where do I find the coffee? And the coffee machine? And the mugs?” She laughed.
“But then when you tell me that I’ll make you an amazing coffee. ”
Helena laughed too. “Cupboard near the sink for the mugs. The machine has beans in it, and I think I filled the water. Honestly, though, I can make… you don’t know how to use the machine.”
“No chance. I’ll work it out. And you,” she leaned over to kiss Helena, “are going to stay in bed and let me do something for you.”
***
“Is there anything you want to do today?” Helena asked a little while later as they sat on her balcony eating the breakfast that she’d ordered in.
“Anything you want,” Caitlin replied. “You must have had some plans this weekend?”
“Nothing I couldn’t cancel.” She stopped to take a sip of her juice. “But I feel bad, you were supposed to be on a beach or in a swimming pool or reading a book in Barbados… we can do whatever you want.”
“Helena, there is nothing I’d rather be doing right now more than literally anything with you.” She thought for a second. “Although… one question first. I just called you Helena. Are we Helena and Caitlin right now, or Dona and Gatinha?”
“An interesting question… what would you think to today being a day as equals? Just Helena and Caitlin, two women getting to know each other.”
Caitlin’s eyebrows rose. “All day?”
Helena nodded. “All day. I can show you my city, and we can enjoy it.”
Caitlin seemed surprised. “I’d… I’d like that,” she said after a moment.
“But…?” There was something behind it, something that Helena couldn’t read, but she let Caitlin take her time.
“But… we’d still have the Dona and Gatinha thing? If we wanted it later?”
“Oh, of course. We can see how we go.”
“I’d really like that. It’s… I suppose with Zoe, we never had time as equals. It was always, well, you know.”
Helena nodded in understanding. “I do. And some people like that, always on, always in their roles. But I think it’s important to space it out.
We could spend the whole next week with you naked on your knees obeying me, but…
much as I hate to say it, I think we’d get bored.
And I want to get to know you better… the real you. Is that ok?”
Caitlin reached out and took Helena’s hand in hers across the table. “Better than ok… it sounds perfect. You know what I’d really like?”
“What?”
“Show me your Saturday, just a normal Saturday.”
“A normal Saturday?”
Caitlin nodded. “Nothing special. Just normal, and I’ll tag along.”
“Ok.” Helena found herself nodding too. “You’re sure? A normal Saturday?” It wasn’t that she was sceptical as such, but S?o Paulo had a lot of things to do on a weekend that weren’t her normal Saturday.
“Absolutely.”
“Ok. Let’s do it.”
***
The local park was nothing special, not in the way that would attract people from across the city to it, but Helena loved it. A stretch of green surrounded by trees with a small cafe and some tables and chairs in one corner, it was a sanctuary from the craziness all around.
Helena watched as Caitlin brought their two coffees over, trying not to stare and again failing…
because Caitlin in her gym kit, the tight yoga leggings and vest top, well, there was a genuine part of Helena that wanted to take Caitlin over her knee and spank her right there and then, her body was too tempting.
She didn’t, of course. Getting arrested for public indecency on Caitlin’s first morning really wasn’t part of the plan. But the thought was there… she still had to pinch herself to believe that Caitlin really was here, in her neighbourhood, having coffee with her at one of her favourite cafes.
“You go hard on the running machine,” Helena said once Caitlin had sat down. “I knew you must be competitive to get where you’ve got at work, but that was something else.”
Caitlin smiled, taking the compliment without any embarrassment. “I run a lot.”
“On the machine at home?” Helena couldn’t help grinning as she said it, and saw that Caitlin blushed. The running machine, all those months ago in Houston… they’d used it for an entirely different form of exertion.
“Not so much since… then.” Caitlin thought for a moment. “I joined a gym as I realised that it wasn’t healthy locking myself away from the world to exercise. It’s been good. And I figured it might be somewhere to meet someone. You know, as part of exploring myself.”
Helena watched Caitlin as she talked while Saturday morning went on around them, blue sky above, warm sunshine, birds singing in the trees. There was an honesty to Caitlin that she respected, and that she’d respected ever since that first night together.
“Did it work?”
Caitlin laughed. “I don’t kiss and tell.”
“That’s a yes then,” Helena teased.
“It’s a maybe I had to change personal trainer after an ill-conceived offer of a lift home that ended up with my leaving her place sometime the next morning… today though,” she added, swiftly changing the subject. “What’s next?”
“Home. Shower. Lunch.” Helena grinned. “Then shopping…”
Caitlin nodded. “Perfect.”
***
That night Helena had booked a table for the two of them at one of her favourite restaurants, a rooftop place that turned into a club later on… although there were already people dancing when they sat down to eat. The place was buzzing, everyone dressed glamorously. It was that kind of place.
“This is part of a normal Saturday for you?” Caitlin asked, looking sceptical.
Helena grinned. “A good normal Saturday. Me and my friends like to party. And… I figured having you sit and watch me do a couple of hours of work wouldn’t quite be the experience you were after…”
“You’re right about that.”
Helena had decided to wear a dress that she knew she looked good in, a long-sleeved mini dress with silver sequins, very in keeping with the atmosphere.
Caitlin for her part had bought a dress that afternoon, black, halter-neck, figure-hugging and knee-length.
Sat opposite Helena in the glow from the light on their table she looked stunning, the necklace as ever around her neck.
“Can I tell you something?” Helena asked.
Caitlin glanced up from her menu. “Of course.” She gave Helena her full attention, waiting patiently.
Helena smiled. “Your necklace. I just… I wanted you to know that you wearing it, it means something to me.”
“I’m glad. It means something to me too.” She looked at Helena for a long few moments. “Tell me what it means to you. I’d love to hear.”
Helena looked into her eyes and reached out to take her hand. “It means that you think about me, about what we did back in Houston. I like that. I’m glad about it. When I saw you wore it in your official photos I didn’t even dare to hope, but I knew… thank you for wearing it.”
“You don’t need to thank me.” Caitlin smiled kindly.
“You’re right about all of that, but it’s more.
When I wear it, I think about being owned.
It’s my collar, and it tells everyone that I meet in a language that only you and I know that I’m yours.
” She squeezed Helena’s hand. “I like thinking that. In Miami, fifty partners must have seen my necklace after that first night, but none of them understood what it meant.”
Helena watched Caitlin as she spoke, the passion behind her words, the depth of feeling. This is my absolute perfect sub… I could never ask for more. So strong, so powerful that she has the strength and the power to surrender so completely to me in every way. She is magnificent.
“I very much want to come around the table and kiss you,” Helena said.
“We’d have a problem then,” Caitlin laughed, “because right now I’m having some very bad thoughts about you, and if you did that then I’m not entirely sure I could stop myself going down on you right here, right now.”
Helena felt her cheeks redden at the thought, which made Caitlin’s laugh turn into a mischievous grin. “The night is still young…”
“It is indeed.”
They ordered food and drinks, and settled into the mood of the place, a light breeze blowing across the rooftop stirring the warm nighttime air.
“Do you think you’ll stay in S?o Paulo your whole career?” Caitlin asked once their drinks had arrived.
“Oh, that’s a good question.” Helena thought for a moment. “There’s two versions of the answer to that… do you want the one I’d tell my mother, or the true one I tell myself.”
“The one you tell yourself.”
“Good. Short version, no, I don’t.” Helena shook her head.
“Not that you can’t make a full career here, of course you can, and I think if I want to make partner by the time I’m thirty and break your record,” she grinned at Caitlin, “the most I could do is some secondments. But once I’m partner I want to see the world properly, live somewhere different for a while.
It seems narrow-minded to want to stay in one place, even if your family and friends are here. ”
“Where do you think you’d go?”
Helena thought about that for a few moments. “Europe again, maybe. I did my MBA in Paris, I could live there very happily. London maybe? Though the weather…”
Caitlin laughed, and Helena remembered that she’d done her own MBA in London. “That resonates…”
“It has a lot going for it though. One of the US offices could be good.” She nearly said that she’d really enjoyed Houston but held her tongue on that one…
not the time to be hinting that one day she could show up in Caitlin’s home city, particularly so many years in the future.
“It would be hard though… I’ve got my life here, my friends and family.
So I might well end up staying. We’ll see.
” She took a sip of her wine. “A lot can change. How about you?”
“I’ve thought about it a lot since I made partner.
In fact, let me tell you something funny.
Partner. We’re all conditioned to want to be one, and we all think that once you get there you’ve made it.
But I’ve realised, and apparently this happens a lot, that partner isn’t the destination, instead it is more like the start of the journey.
There’s a lot of layers to partnership, and a lot to do.
” Caitlin shrugged. “I’m not sure exactly what that means with your question. ”
“That makes sense. Let me ask my question differently… do you want to stay in Houston?”
“Not necessarily. Houston is home but it doesn’t have to be home forever.
The firm has offices everywhere. I could transfer, I could take international assignments.
One of the partners mentioned a possible role in the London office next year…
nothing concrete, but the conversation happened.
” She smiled. “I’m a Texan who’s never really left Texas, save for business school in London, client visits, and the occasional holiday…
I feel like I need to live a little, and if I can do that as part of my career then even better.
If a managing partner role came up for an office somewhere, anywhere, it would be hard to turn it down. ”
“What about the personal stuff?” Helena asked, keeping her voice casual even though the conversation was heading into territory that they’d never been in before, the kind of topics that could make or break them. “Do you want kids?”
Caitlin was quiet for a moment. “No,” she said.
“I’ve thought about it a lot, particularly since my friends all seem to either have kids or be about to have them at the moment.
Lots of them have been asking since I made partner, which is ridiculous…
as if I’ve fulfilled myself professionally so now it’s time to start reproducing.
” She smiled wryly. “I like kids. My cousins have got kids, and I like spending time with them. But I also like giving them back… I guess I want to be the cool aunt who spoils them. But my own? No, I don’t think I’m built for it.
I value my independence and my career too much…
” She gestured between them. “Not to mention my life that I’m learning to live.
I’m not sure what I’ve been discovering about myself since we worked together in Houston is compatible with motherhood, nor do I want it to be. ”
“I feel the same,” Helena replied. “It’s not something you can say easily in a Brazilian family where your mother is already planning her grandchildren’s baptisms.”
Caitlin laughed. “She’s not really, is she?”
Helena laughed too and nodded. “She is. She’s given up on me for now, ever since my last boyfriend and I split up, but Mariana has Lucas who she’s kind-of-seeing and if my mother had her choice then they’d be married next month and she’d have grandchildren within the year.
But they’re on-again-off-again all the time.
They were on a couple of weeks ago. Now, they’re not even speaking to each other.
And Beatriz, I think she’s pinning a lot of hopes on her even though she’s younger than both of us and nowhere near settling down.
” She paused and grinned. “I’ll be favourite aunt.
Mariana will probably be the one to settle down first, she’s more traditional beneath it all, and I’ll spoil them rotten then hand them back. ”
“The cool aunt.”
“It’s a very important role.”
Caitlin nodded and took another sip of her drink. Helena watched her and thought, this is almost too good to be true… we both want the same things. I mustn’t get carried away though, it is early still. Promising though.
Helena raised her glass. “To cool aunts who want to see the world.”
She thought that she could see recognition in Caitlin’s eyes as she raised her glass too. “To cool aunts and spoiled nieces and nephews.”