P A R T  S I X
*
BRAAMFONTEIN, 2020
*

Looking into Amanda's eyes felt like being smouldered by a lake of burning light wood. Her gaze alone, as those irises travelled up and down Paiten's naked form made something in her melt. Their bodies lay on top of the ocean blue comforter they'd huddled under last night, Amanda hovered over Paiten as she lay on her back.

"Watch me," she'd whispered against her lips after kissing her so intensely and so deeply that Paiten's head had swirled with patterns. And so, she kept her hooded gaze on her best friend, as those hands travelled down her chest, past her belly button, down to her pubic bone.

Her touch was slow and deliberate, making the contact of her fingers to her pubic hair spark a dry crackle of electricity. Paiten felt herself burn with anticipation.

Within a breath, she had inserted one of her gloriously long fingers inside of her and another soon followed.

A mewl slipped past Paiten's lips at the sensation and she had to snap her eyes open to keep her from rolling into the abyss so soon.

Amanda's strokes were slow and deep, each movement elicited an undulation of her hips until Paiten's entire pelvis keened into her hand. All the while they kept eye contact, Amanda's eyes burned with more intensity as her lips curved into the tiniest of smiles.

With each stroke, the sound of her wetness increasing as her pleasure mounted filled both of their ears and the air around them.

The moment leading up to her climax was something of a slow-motion long take. First, she felt the arch of her back, then the upward thrust of her hips, the soft, sweet cry that left her lips at the arrival of the sweet release and Amanda lowering her back onto the bed, holding her as she trembled.

She had yet to open her eyes before she felt Amanda shift downwards and before she could take her next breath, her warm mouth was on her, a slick pink tongue toyed with her clit the way kittens pawed at balls of yarn.

And with the way she played with different speeds, Paiten didn't really stand a chance against the assuage of sensations that overwhelmed her.

Her hands went for Amanda's head, and cradled it, holding her close – keeping her in the wet, sweet envelope of her vulva.

Amanda buried her head deeper, gripping her lover's thighs harder, pushing her nose against the silky exterior of her labia, as her tongue teased and dipped inside.

"Oh," Paiten gasped on the last pocket of air left in her lungs and her back arched again.

The tongue inside of her grew braver, invading her with confidence and technique. Her pants morphed into the most lascivious moans.

Paiten felt her body fill with warmth and her heartbeat in her clitoris, beating faster than the speed of sound.

The sound of her own heartbeat in her ears washed out the sounds of her cries that began to mount and gather the closer her second orgasm approached.

She could feel her entire body rising, lifting off of the bed, her muscles tensing as her centre loosened and she was sent back into heaven.

She felt a pair of strong arms pulling her into an embrace and soft lips peppering her face, until they settled on her mouth and she tasted herself. Amanda's hands gathered in her hair again and she held her close as they kissed languidly.

Paiten broke it when she needed air and with a satisfied sigh, she dropped her head onto Amanda's chest.

"You alright?" Amanda asked.

"Perfect," she replied and smiled as her eyes began to flutter closed.

Amanda let her enjoy the comfort of the sun bathing her skin and her chest cushioning her head for a little while until she shifted and got out of the bed.

"Where are you- where are you going?"

"I'll be right back," Amanda replied and disappeared into the bathroom.

She emerged a minute later and Paiten's mouth dropped in fascination at the toy she sported between her legs. It was strapped to her in a traditional black harness, the dildo was a light, translucent purple and the biggest she'd yet to see.

She held a bottle of lubricant and a condom in the other hand.

"Do you want to do this?" Amanda asked her.

Paiten nodded, "I just, I've never – not with anything this big. The one Anna and I had was... not like that."

"Okay, so you're familiar with sex toys?"

"Yeah, I bought Anna a 5-inch for our anniversary last year, we didn't use it much but yeah, I'm well versed in that department."

Amanda smiled, "I won't do anything that you don't want me to and we're in this together, I just want to pleasure you in every way possible."

"Come over here," Paiten said and Amanda smiled like a little kid told they could have dessert after dinner.

She jumped into bed and braced herself over Paiten and leaned down to kiss her. The kiss was slow and playful, both kept biting each other's lips with just enough pressure to make it pleasurably painful.

Amanda passed the condom to her best friend and sat on her hind legs. Paiten opened the plastic with her hands and rolled the water-based rubber over the silicon dildo.

As soon as she was done, she laid on her back again as Amanda lathered the thing in lubricant.

"Okay, I'm going to be slow and I'll insert it bit by bit and if you feel you've had enough, you tell me, okay?"

"Okay," Paiten said with a nod. The toy could've been an easy seven inches and although she knew the pleasure it could potentially bring her, looking at it made her nervous so she settled on looking at her best friend's face.

Amanda's eyes were fixed on the toy and her hand that gripped it. She adjusted her position and lined the dildo up to Paiten's entrance. She passed the lube over to her best friend, "put it on yourself, it'll feel better."

She didn't need to tell Paiten twice. The other girl put some on her palm and rubbed it between her legs, lining it at her slit and dipping two fingers in.

"Ready?" Amanda asked.

"Yes," Paiten replied.

"Okay, here goes," she said with a little self-conscious giggle. She began to push it in, bit by bit.

Paiten grunted at the insertion of the tip, filled with discomfort for only a moment until Amanda started thrusting slowly, gently, until her own canal adjusted to the intrusion.

It widened naturally, allowing Amanda to sink into her in one swift motion, with most of the toy inside of her.

Paiten moaned at the sensation of being filled. It was so much different to being fingered or eaten out because of the girth and hardness that swam within her.

Amanda was a master with the strap – she seemed to know exactly how to thrust – slow, sensual, gentle, deep – with a level of self-control she knew must've taken a lot of practice.

Paiten couldn't think straight as the dildo filled and emptied her over and over again and she resorted to soft cries of her best friend and lover's name.

Once she was completely comfortable, Amanda was able to push Paiten's legs upwards until they pressed against her breasts. Amanda's arms were in the push-up position, braced over Paiten.

They made eye contact and something came alive within Paiten at the wild look of lust in the other girl's eyes. Her strokes became frantic because she had started trembling and it made Paiten lose all control.

"Do you like that?" Amanda asked.

Paiten couldn't even answer in words but from her cries, Amanda deduced that yes, she liked it a lot.

"Are you going to come for me?"

"God," she gasped, as though she was choking, "don't stop, I'm almost-"

She cut herself off with another moan and she sighed, giving up on language altogether and surrendered for the third time that morning, to the sensations within her.

Everything felt good, even the constant contact her legs made with her nipples and the sensation of Amanda trembling on top of her. Amanda's breathing morphed from heavy releases into pants.

"Come for me, Paiten, come undone for me," she whispered as Paiten finally began to shake intensely, her legs dropping to land on Amanda's lower back.

Paiten gripped on Amanda's arms and tensed for the most glorious moments of her life, forgetting who she was, where she was, what day it was, what the name of the planet she existed in was and let out a long, pleasure-filled cry.

"I love you, I love you, Amanda," she whined and at that, Amanda's body relaxed on top of hers completely, losing her balance – and allowed Paiten to catch her.

They lay chest to chest for a long time, allowing air to fill both of their lungs until Amanda got enough strength to pull out of her. She shimmied the harness off of her and placed it on the floor below her and rolled over to rest in her lover's arms.

"I love you Paiten," she murmured.

Paiten smiled at her with her half-lidded eyes.

"I know," she said.

*

They fell asleep and spent the rest of the morning in each other's arms. It was late afternoon when they woke up to have their first real meal of the day. Amanda ordered breakfast specials from Wimpy and ate them in bed naked.

The late afternoon was spent watching series on Amanda's laptop, the both of them huddled under the covers naked.

As the sun set that Saturday evening, they lay cuddling on the bed, enjoying each other's warmth.

"When did you know you loved me?" Paiten asked. Everything still felt so surreal to her, she couldn't believe that the girl of her dreams had even an inkling of reciprocation for her.

"I think I've always loved you," Amanda answered, searching for words, "but I took it for a given. I never had to categorise what my feelings for you meant because we were best friends and it seemed like we'd be in each other's lives forever. But then that night in Durban..."

"Our first time?" Paiten interrupted.

"Yeah, our first time," Amanda said with a nod, "it opened a channel of these new feelings – sexual feelings and I had never felt that for a girl before, nevermind my best friend – so I panicked. That time when I came out in First Year? I had freaked out on you and iced you out in grade 11 because I was running away from my bisexuality, but the bigger reason was that I was hopelessly in love with you and I didn't know what to do. And when I was finally ready to come to terms with that, you were already with Anna. And Anna was perfect. I had no right to mess up the most wholesome relationship of all time, especially since I threw my chance away."

"Is that why you never really dated other girls?"

"Yes. I fucked, a lot – trust me, but I didn't see myself committing to anyone because the only person I wanted was you."

"What if Anna and I had gotten married?"

"I would've stayed single forever."

"That's depressing."

"But at least that didn't have to happen. I loved you and Anna together, I did, but I'm so happy I'm getting another chance with you."

"I was with Anna yesterday," Paiten said, "when I left in the morning. We talked about you. Do you know that the day we broke up, she told me that I deserved to be with you? She didn't say someone like you – she named you, Amanda. She saw it more clearly than I ever allowed myself to. After I lost you in grade 11 because we'd had sex, I hated myself so much for it, so I threw away the idea of loving you in that way, in fact, I threw away the idea of us ever being friends. And then Anna came along and she loved me the way I needed to be loved. I would've spent forever with her you know? I had switched off my feelings for anyone that wasn't her. Firstly because she's the perfect person to marry, but secondly, because the only other person I ever wanted to love was you, Amanda, and if we couldn't be lovers then I was content with being your best friend."

"We're so stupid aren't we?" Amanda said with a giggle.

"A little bit."

"But we're here now."

"We are."

"Paiten, I don't want to be with anyone else, ever, I want you."

Paiten smiled, "you have me, for life"

"And an eternity."