Cuddles
Part 1

Inspiration struck me one evening when I was out with my partner, Sasha, and a mix of our friends, including Lily. After a few drinks we began trying to one up each other with sexual misadventures. Lily began her tale by describing the hardpoint hooks she had installed in her bedroom ceiling for the purposes of rope suspension. This caught my attention and I zoned out, distracted and inspired by ideas for how I could use them  in my bedroom. Design ideas spun through my head, and only caught the end of her story when, Lily, after having been secured to her brand new hard points, feet off the ground, she had to be untied, quickly, because she had to pee.

After jeers and jokes along the lines of “rookie mistake” and “you’re not into golden showers?” died down, I asked her for help installing my own. See, my house is really old, and my room in particular gets cold in the winter. I wanted to use those hardpoints to build a blanket fort! Turn it into a cozy nest with strings of light, pillows, and soft - make it a place to be cozy and warm with a book on the worst winter night. That was the plan... You know what they say about plans.

Over the next week I found the studs around my bed and bought the hardware. I asked Lily if she would help me put everything together. I'm not great with housework like that, and she is. Plus it's always easier to actually do something like this if another person is involved.

When she showed up on Saturday, her short black hair was already tucked away in a bandana and she had a canvas bag with her. I was barefoot and she was in boots, so she was just a smidge taller than me. She pulled me into a hug as soon as she came through the door. Pressed into the curve of her neck, scents of leather and shampoo fill me up. Lily’s strong, she looks it, she knows it, and she does not hold back when giving a hug. This was hard enough to make me squeak and leave me a little weak kneed. It was a really good hug.

After hanging up her jacket, she picked up her canvas bag that clinked as the tools in it resettled. "C'mon, show me what we're working with," she said with a smile, "this is going to be the best blanket fort ever!"

"I'm kinda surprised you are not teasing me about this. Based on your stories, this is meant to be soft, not sexy at all." I followed her through my house, as if I were the guest.

"Listen, I'm not one to yuck another person's yum," she said while I put shoes on. "Just because I really like being bound to the ceiling while I'm forced to hold a vibrator between my legs, or beaten..."

"Or eaten until you're jelly, or fucked like an object," I filled in.

"You get it!" she quipped back. 

"It doesn't mean the thing that brings you pleasure is less valid.” Lily continued earnestly. “If a nest of soft is what you want then I'm here for it! Besides, anyone who says soft can't be kinky is wrong, and ignorant, or boring." She put a hand on my shoulder, I could feel the warmth from her hand in that gentle squeeze. "C'mon, let's see what we are working with."

Lily winked as she walked by. I felt myself start to blush. I’d always thought she was cute, but this was new. She was in her element, in project mode before she had entered my house, and I was feeling like her bumbling apprentice. Fuck.

Lily had been a guest often enough that she knew my house and led the way to my bedroom. I impressed her by having the studs marked and all the mounts we'd be using set out. We were clearing things out of the way when the drawer in the bedside table she was moving slid open.

"Look at all this!" She exclaimed like she’d found buried treasure and held up a little leather pocket. "What's in here?" Out came a little wheel, covered in spikes attached to a metal handle. I started to blush, again.

"I knew you had it in you!" she leered at me as she held up the Wartenberg wheel. "And I didn't know you'd had this in you!" She'd put down the wheel and picked up a silken opera glove with metal fingertips. 

"That's my claw glove," I mumbled.

"I've never seen something like this before! It looks amazing! Can I put it on?" She was sliding it across her hand so the pieces of sewn on metal, which looked like rings turned into broad claws, clinked and tickled her palm.

"C-can we do the mounts first?" I could feel the blush spreading out from my face and down my neck.

"Oh, god, yes, I'm sorry." Lily put everything back where it had been in the drawer and finished moving the table out of the way. She sat down on the drawer and looked at me earnestly. “I hope I didn't make you uncomfortable!”

"It's okay, it's not a thing I share with a lot of folks. Just my partner or people I'm dating that I'm comfortable sharing it with." I went to grab one end of the bed and motioned with my head for her to get the other. 

"One, two, three!" With the workspace now clear of obstacles we took a second, sitting on the bed we'd just moved. I was hyper-aware of Lily's arm resting against mine. Watching movies together or sharing a booth in a restaurant with her had never caused goosebumps before. It felt full of promise, like the anticipation of the first sip of tea.

"Gods," she laughed, "it is so dusty under your bed. Good thing we are making more of a mess or I'd suggest we clean it up first. Let's get to it."

Setting the mounts took little time. Putting up the rope, with all the requisite kinky jokes from my friend, then hanging and securing the fuzzy sheets to make the fort, took enough effort that Lily demanded a break when they were finally hung.

"Why didn't you just get curtains?" She took my proffered cup of water. Her fingers warm on mine. I wanted them to linger there.

"Not comfy enough. Nest. All the comfy and soft, that's the goal." I couldn’t help bouncing with excitement. A little water spilled out of my cup. 

"That's it? No tying up your partner or a lover?" Her look, over the rim of her cup, was almost mocking, but I could see curiosity as well. Her eyes never left mine the entire time. 

"That's going to be down to the date space, since we've got the room. Up there is going to be a fort of soft, and comfy, and” I paused to get the right word, “indolence. Most of those toys you saw in that drawer," I could feel a blush starting again, "are Sasha’s and will be downstairs. That will be where people can get as sweaty and sticky as they want."

"Does that include the wheel and the glove? I'm curious about those." Lily was leaning against the counter, her hands resting on the edge, her head cocked. She was grinning at me, knowing it was making my blush worse! It must have been creeping down my chest at this point.

I finished my water in a gulp. "Let's finish the rest up, yeah?" Then rushed up the stairs.

Stringing the fairy lights, getting the floor swept and all the furniture back in place took next to no time. Inside we layered pillows, a couple soft stuffed animals, and a comforter. The light was soft and warm, and if more was needed for reading I could move aside the blanket blocking my nightstand and use the lamp there. I flung myself into my new nest before even kicking shoes off. 

"Oh my god, it's perfect! Come on, check it out!" I had to kick my feet, which were still hanging off the bed, to release some of the energy.

"Okay," Lily said, sitting in the stuffed chair on the other side of the room, "but maybe take your shoes off before you make a mess?" She was already untying her own.

"Right!" I scrunched up, feet in the air to untie them. "Come cuddle! And make sure you close the side when you get in."

Lily crawled into my nest and, still on hands and knees, looked around. "Hold on, one thing's not quite right."

She climbed back out and flicked off the overhead lights in the room. My nest was aglow from the fairy lights, and it was perfect! I was laying in the middle of my bed and it was like being in the center of my own warm, soft, cozy campfire. Lily crawled in next to me and laid her head next to my shoulder.

"This really is perfect for you, isn't it?" I knew she was staring at me, but I was so enraptured with the how perfect my space was, layered in blankets and pillows, the lights' pattern on the ceiling I looking like clouds. Lily lifted my arm up so she could scooch in and lay her head in the crook of my shoulder. I was suddenly aware of her body pressed against mine.

"It really is cozy in here," she murmured, her voice low, only for me. Her smile wasn’t the mischievous grin from the kitchen, it was more sincere. From the crook of my shoulder she had to look up, through her eyelashes. I still felt like I was following her around, not sure what to do next. 

"Um..." I really couldn't think of anything else to say. I was very aware of her thigh resting against my knee, her stomach curved to my hip, and her chest pressed to my side. Every breath added light pressure against my ribs, then receded. I had no idea what to do with my body. Trying to force my muscles to relax didn't work, I could feel my muscles getting tense. 

"You said cuddle, do you still want to? Maybe as little spoon?" She said. 

I could feel her pulling back just a little, making space. I rolled only my side and pressed back into her. That felt better and I started to relax. My body molded into hers, still hyper-aware of her there with me, but the stress of being perceived was gone. Her arm rested across my stomach, the front of her thighs against the back of mine. I adjusted my hips and back to fit more snuggly into the curve of her body. Our breathing began to sync.

 It had gotten warmer in the nest, the kind of warmth that sucks the energy out of a persona and makes them want to nap. I could smell the fresh sweat from both of us. It wasn’t smelly, yet, but tickled the inside of my nose. Between that, the cozy warmth building in my nest, and the pressure of her body against mine I started to relax.

Have you ever had a conversation with someone, or maybe a dance, where everything was so perfectly in tune? Every phrase matched with a "yes and,” building upon each other? Maybe it is strange to describe a cuddle like that, but every little adjustment I made she matched. Each part of our bodies sought to create more connection. My feet and hers twined together. My calves against her shins in a sandwich. Our knees bent like they had been formed together by a craftsman, perfectly shaped so our thighs melted against each other. Her chest rising and falling against my back, guiding our breaths to the same rhythm.

But it's the hips that make a good spoon, big or little. They need to fit just right. I always feel safe when I'm the little spoon, my butt pressed into another person's hips. Like I belong, there, to them, warm and safe. Being the big spoon is just as good, I can tell how comfortable and safe a person is by how much they try to match their contours with mine. And it all starts with the hips. Ours fit perfectly.

I melted into this cuddle, all blushing and stammering gone. As Lily held me, I could feel her strength without her having to squeeze a muscle. As cozy as my nest was, it was blissful with Lily there. I wasn't about to fall asleep but I didn't want to move.

I don't know how long we were like that, time is weird, but I could feel her starting to get antsy. Her feet fidgeting, fingers looking for something to do. 

"Roll onto your back, I want to be a koala!" I sat up and stared at her. Cuddling in my new nest had calmed my nerves. "And would you feel comfortable without a shirt? I want to feel my skin against yours"

"What, koala? And yes!" Lily sat up and pulled her shirt over her head. Her sports bra was purple. Amazing. "You want to be a koala?"

"I want to keep cuddling, but you need to be the tree.” I lifted my shirt up, but I got a bit stuck putting my arms into a string of lights. The neck of the shirt caught around my chin. Lily snickered, but helped me get my shirt off. “Thanks. Okay, you lay on your back arm out, like how we started, and I cuddle up to your side, like a koala in a tree. You're the tree. Plus now there's skin contact!" 

After she lay back I scooched up against her, my head in the crook of her shoulder, my top leg flung across her thighs. It didn't matter that we were basically the same height, I felt small and cozy again. She was warm, that special warmth of skin pressed to skin when it's any time of year except the middle of summer. It felt like sunshine in the late afternoon of an autumn day. And she smelled really good, sweet shampoo and a bit of exercise. It made me want to sink even more into her skin, just be completely enveloped. This was one of the great things about being the koala, another way to feel secure against another person.

The other was that I could also touch her. If being still was too passive, I could fidget and keep her engaged. I traced my fingers up her side, softly touching her skin. Up the hip on her other side, then touching her ribs as softly as a breath. I went around the outside of her shoulder to avoid tickling her, then down the inside of her arm. I wanted to find a spot where a muscle would twitch, a nerve reacting to this light touch, seeking more. 

"What are you doing?" She looked down at me, our faces close enough that we could kiss if one of us tried, just a little.

"I want to see if I can find spots on your body that are... responsive." Holding eye contact I brought my finger up her arm, making contact light as a whisper. Nothing happened until I crossed the bottom of her neck. Her eyes grew wider and her pupils dilated.

"Did I tickle?"

"No? Like almost, but good?" She shivered as I traced my hand back over the spot again. Whispers of fingers traced across her neck and down her chest, like I was drawing a tie. I added a touch of nail across her collarbone and made her shiver again. 

"Almost like your nerves are reaching out for more," I whispered, moving closer to her ear.

"Are you doing ASMR on my skin?" She laughed a little as she said it.

"Hold on." I sat up and leaned over her body to open my bedside table. A leg across her hips and a hand on her chest kept me from falling off the bed, and kept Lily where I’d left her. 

"Are you getting out your date toys?" Her voice grew lower with excitement. It felt like a challenge and I could feel the blush starting.

"Not in my cozy cave! No, I'm getting some other things." I hummed tunelessly and took out the claw glove and Wartenberg wheel.

"This is for later," I said, setting the glove to the side, the metal claws clinking together. I moved some pillows to support me against the wall, sat back, and opened my legs.

"Head,” I directed her, tapping my leg, “back on my thigh." 

"Don't people face the other way for this?" Lily smiled up at me as she arranged her body. Resting her head on my right thigh, she snaked her left arm under my left leg, and curved that hand round to my shin. Her right arm reached over her head and took hold of my hip. She looked up at me, and the warmth of her had me wanting more, wishing we could fill the same space.

"What now?" she asked.

"Give me your right arm," I said and took the wheel out of its leather sleeve.

I held her right  arm and guided it to bend over her head, palm up. It rested in my palm, her wrist cradled between my thumb and fingers. Lily gasped when the Wartenberg wheel graced her palm, tracing from heart line to life line. 

Then she giggled, "That's the wheel? How is it doing that?"

With as much patience and dexterity as I could muster, I rolled the wheel down her forearm, one spike at a time, barely dimpling her skin.

"This was originally used for testing nerve reactions. I have no idea if doctors still use it, but it does the job." I walked the wheel back up her arm still trying to move slow as honey.

"I wasn't kidding when I asked if you were doing ASMR on my nerves." In my hand her right arm lay still, but her left hand was starting to squeeze my calf. The calluses on her fingers a juxtaposition with the light touch off the wheel. “I wasn’t wrong, either.”

"Are you enjoying yourself?" I lifted my eyes from her forearm to look at her face. As we made eye contact, she started to turn red and her pupils had grown larger. Her hips wiggles against my legs.

"I'm great. This is great! Can you push harder?"  The grin she passed me looked like the one I imagined she gave her partner while suspended from a hard point, a challenge.

"I could... But that's not the point of this." I lifted the wheel from her arm and let her hand go. Lily adjusted so that arm reached over my thigh and her hand rested on my right hip.  I cupped my fingers under Lily’s chin and rolled her head to the left, exposing her neck.

"Remember that spot on your neck? Imagine how the wheel would feel, gently kissing it. Give those nerve endings just enough that they want more, but not enough to satisfy." I put the first spike of the wheel on top of her right breast and walked it along the top of her sports bra. Spike by spike it rolled to the center of her chest and began a trip up her body. I could feel her back muscles engaging and releasing as she tried to stay still.

Point by point I rolled the wheel up her sternum. I could feel her tension building, the anticipation of the feeling was as much a part of this as having singular areas of skin engaged. The fear of a needle about to break skin, but never doing so. The pressure built and dimpled her skin, then moved on, building pressure but never passing the breaking point, tracing nerve reactions across her chest and towards her neck. 

Lily had not breathed out in at least ten seconds. I imagine the pressure in her brain as the wheel eked precise responses through its trip across her skin. One hand was tight on my calf, the other gripped my hip, and her long held breath, waiting for the wheel to continue towards her neck.

And then I make a right turn at her clavicle.

The breath Lily had been holding exploded out of her.  Frustration and amusement flared from her eyes. "That was so rude! ugh!" 

There were pin prick dots appearing on her skin now. I could trace the wheel’s path across her chest. Instead of letting the wheel continue on its journey, I took it away.

"You didn't like what I was doing?" I pitched my voice higher than even a question required. "It seemed like you were. But I could be wrong. I'll stop if you want."

My left ring finger lightly traced the path marked by the wheel and I grinned down at her. More goosebumps rose in its wake. Lily flushed again, deeper this time. 

"You know... that's not what I.... Meant!" Even without the pins of the wheel poking her she was responding to my touch. I gently traced a fingernail along the dots the wheel had left and Lily wiggled as if it were retracing its steps. 

"I do," I said, and in a flash zippered the wheel up her shoulder to the base of her neck. Slowly, I rolled it up her neck and under her jawline. Her body tensed at first, then melted as it continued to trace her neck. She bent her head over further, making more room for the wheel. A few more trips along her neck and her wiggles stopped. She’d become a puddle in my lap. 

"Ugh! I would be such a slut for a vampire." Sighing, Lily looked up at me, "I think I'm done. I need a rest, then maybe I can try that glove out on you?"

"That sounds lovely. Do you want to cuddle like this?" I set the Wartenberg wheel down on the side table, being careful to move my legs as little as possible. 

Lily rolled over onto her right side, still using my leg as a pillow. I brushed fingers though her hair and  rested my left leg against her back. "You are so comfy. And really good at that, cuddling and using that wheel. It's your turn next.”

She was so nice and warm against me, a big lazy cat laying in a sunbeam. It made my blanket fort even cozier. When she started to breathe deeply I knew I wasn't going anywhere for a while, and settled myself back against my pillows for a nap.

I woke up to something chewing on my forearm, the teeth felt too big to be my cat. Looking down I saw Lily using me as a chew toy. She was gnawing on the side of my arm with little

deliberate bites. Each time she did this she made an "omn" sound. When she felt me stir, Lily tilted her head back to make eye contact with me, winked, and kept biting up and down my arm. All her focus seemed to be on doing this and making that cute little sound.

I watched her bite me like for as long as I could stand it. None of the bites hurt, but I was filled with energy that had nowhere to go, and the need to leap on top of Lily bubbled up in me. I wanted to push her over and squeeze her as hard as I could. Lying there in her purple sports bra and pants, biting me in such an adorable way created a feeling that was usually reserved for cats, dogs, and pictures of fat bears about to hibernate.

When the cute aggression boiled over, I rolled us over and sat on her. It was a bit awkward disentangling the leg she was lying on, it got stuck between her hips and the sheet. Lily – strong, tall, intimidating – squeaked in surprise as she was suddenly rolled onto her stomach. This only made the cute aggression fiercer. I straddled her butt, and leaned forward to slip my arms around her chest and squeeze with my whole body. Giggles shook Lily and vibrated against my body. Trying to release this energy with aggressive cuddling wasn't enough. Every response from her made the need to squish her stronger. I needed another outlet for this energy. 

So I bit her. 

Right on her bare shoulder, where I had used the Wartenberg wheel just a little while before. It was not as hard as I could bite, I wasn't trying to hurt her, but I was over-stimulated. That energy needed a way to flow out of my system, and this worked like a charm.

"Hey!" Lily protested, "not fair!" She tried to push herself up. “It's your turn! you are supposed to be on the bottom!" I squeezed harder with my legs and bit her on the other shoulder. With another squawk, Lily tried to escape, but I held on tight, like a carnivorous jetpack. When Lily rolled over, I could feel my entire ass hanging out of the curtains.

It was my turn to squawk. "Okay, I can be in control! And on the bottom! Truce! Truce!"  Panic filled me. Falling out of my nest into the outer abyss sucked away the cute aggression.  I was still holding on tight, only now it was for dear life. Lily moved into the nest, dragging me with her. and she was chortling! The nerve! But she pulled herself further on the bed and saved me from facing a humiliating fall.

"Now, if you are ready to behave..." she said, looking over her shoulder at me. 

"It wasn't my fault. You were biting me and it was so cute I had to tackle you!" With my butt back on the bed, I could let her sit up.

"That makes an absurd kind of sense," she side-eyed me. "Now, where is that claw glove? I want to try it out."

"It's called cute aggression," I said as I crawled across the bed to my side table. "Like when you see a kitten or chinchilla and it's so cute you want to squeeze it to pieces!”

“Like puppies," she said as she slid the fake silk opera glove up her arm. "Ooh this is cool!" The metal claws at the end of each finger clinked as she brought her fingers together. "How should we do this?"

"Remember what you said about skin ASMR? Same idea, but these are sharp so go light. Try it on yourself first." Watching her run the gloves across her skin for the first time delighted me. I bounced on the bed in anticipation. Goosebumps broke out across her arm and her eyes grew wide with surprise. 

"This is amazing! You are going to have to try this on me at some point!" She said and kept dragging the tips of her clawed fingers up her arm. When she was done scratching her arm she spider-walked her fingers across her legs. "I could just ignore you and keep this all for myself,” she said and flashed a wicked grin.

"Oh sure!" I said, "Keep all the fun sensory feels for yourself! Rude!" I paused, feeling the blush coming back. "So I really like it when those are used on my back. I could lay on my stomach while you straddle my butt or," and here I really felt myself blush, "you could be on your back and I could lie on top of you. Both would let you scratch my back, one might just let me bite you too.” 

Lily scooched into the spot I had occupied minutes before. She settled herself into a supine position: with the clawed arm extended out to the side, she made the bed look like hers! 

That wicked grin came back and she was in charge again! "You don't have to limit yourself to just biting. You could kiss me, if the urge struck you."

I froze. Despite how intimate we had already been, kissing her had not occurred to me, not in any serious way. The blush was spreading to my chest and I felt trapped by her smile.

“Well? Are you going to come cuddle?" The way Lily was looking at me,I felt like prey, and liked it! This was her trap, but I was walking into it deliberately. She held her un-clawed hand out to me, an invitation fraught with excitement- and just a little trepidation.

Refusing to acknowledge the blush, I threw a pillow at her face. Even though she caught it, I had enough time to crawl up her body and get nose to nose before she could respond. 

"You want a kiss?” I asked, looking into her eyes. ”What makes you think that's something I want? Full of ourselves, are we?" Braced on one arm, I used the other to trace the marks left by the wheel. A small gasp escaped her barely parted lips. They did look very kissable, but she had been so smug in making her suggestion. I left the lightest of pecks on the very corner of her mouth.

Now, I was straddling her, our chests pressed together, my head resting along her shoulder, nose at her hairline.  Oh god this was a good cuddle position. Fuck, she also smelled really good! Like sweet shampoo, sweat, and something sharp that was inescapably her.

"No bites in places I can't hide." She said. I got a preemptive poke on my hip- from the ungloved hand - as emphasis.

"Who said I wanted to bite you!” I said, and I bit her on the shoulder to make my point. 

"These are sharp, right?" Lily asked and, light as a breeze, dragged the claws across my back. An electric wave swept through me. Whatever I was about to say was replaced by a gasp. 

My head relaxed into her shoulder, and then she did it again. The glove moved slower this time, ensuring that every nerve it crossed was activated, and I was melting into her. Each caress was almost painful, almost tickling, and caused my back to undulate with pleasure. I knew I was gasping and moaning into her ear, but she didn't seem to mind. Like a strong wind, each pass of the glove blew across my back, making me shake like a tree. It made me shiver and roll against her body. Each pass with the gloves built into a gale of sensation that crumbled away when she lifted her hand.

Until, instead of skating across my back, the claws marched down my spine. Each point rested in place while its companion stepped forward. I pressed my hips onto hers. My arms, along her side, taking some of my weight, pressed into her, my hands kneaded the bed behind her shoulders. Fireworks were going off in my brain. 

I was not going to bite her, not after what she had said. There was no way I was going to give her the satisfaction. And, I was definitely not going to kiss her! She would be endlessly smug.

Still, the explosions of pleasure each pin made as it stepped across my back made me moan and wiggle. Truthfully, my gyrations couldn’t be read as anything but dry humps, and I think she laughed a little at that.

My hands gripped her shoulders, they needed an anchor and the sheets were not enough. With Lily's gloved hand engaged on my back - and her other pressing our hips together -  it was easy to hold her shoulders from underneath. Pressing them into my cheek, filling my nose with her scent, helped relieve the need to do something with my mouth. I mean, I wanted to bite her, and the kissing comment was fully rooted in my brain - I really wanted to kiss her, now. Squishing her shoulders between my hands and cheek, while my hip pressed into hers, helped a bit.

Reasonably, there is only so much a person can do while their back is scintillating with sensation. Lily had found my Spots. Having the claws used on the base of my scalp, right under my hairline, made me groan into her neck. If she were a werewolf, I would be the most willing snack ever. Each caress across my neck felt like every kiss I'd ever had there, sharpened to a knife's edge! 

Oh god, when she moved to my shoulder blades, I tried to press up, into the claws, to get more feeling. I hungered for more contact. How could she manage to go even lighter there than the rest of my body? It was like drinking sea water. The more I got, the more I thirsted for it. My nerves wanted to reach out of my skin and force her to rake the claws across my body! Each time I arched my back, my hips were forced down onto her. Each whisper of a touch made me quiver and tremble above her. I held hard to Lily's shoulder because breaking any contact with her body would be worse than biting or kissing her; I'd lose skin contact, and she might think I was done. This internal struggle made me giggle a bit, a mad counterpoint to the moans already escaping me.

My mind felt like it wasn’t inside my head anymore. Most of my awareness was in my back. Those gloved touches trapped my reality in the nerve endings there, chasing each clawed stroke. The rest, a minute piece of consciousness, rested on top of my head like a hat, and it wanted to fly loose. I was both deeply grounded in my body and felt like I was floating away.

It wasn't until she returned her attention to the small of my back that I lost control of myself. 

All my gyrating and dry humping, had pushed my pants as low as they would go while I straddled her. They were low enough to blur the boundary between the small of my back and the top of my butt. Lily's touch had reduced me from gasps to guttural moans made in the back of my throat. To keep from biting her, despite my lips pressing hard into her shoulder, I had locked my jaws. There was enough sapience left in me to do that. 

I was not going to give in.

Lily knew what she was reducing me to. My nerves were singing from her caresses and spider walks across my back. My conscious mind was floating away, leaving my body a puddle of pleasure. 

Lily took all five claws and poked them into my skin, simultaneously, right where my spine, hips and butt met, I saw stars. It wasn't mean, or cruel, but this five-fingered jab was everything my body had been craving: intense, direct, forceful input. The feeling cascaded up my back. A full breath was forced out and I gasped with my whole chest and bit, hard, into her shoulder. 

All the tension that had built inside me flowed out through my teeth and into her shoulder. When I came down all the strength left my body, it had become flaccid jello, blobbing on top of Lily. I still shook and shuddered as she strummed her claws over that same spot. Jolts of nerve responses still filled me, but I was done, undone. Instead of writhing in pleasure, I just shook.

"Yellow" I mumbled, my mouth, still slack as the rest of me, and still around her shoulder.

"Yellow?" The claws immediately stopped. "Was that a safe word? We didn't pick something before, and I could tell that was intense.”

"Uh-huh,” was all I could mumble around her shoulder. A bit of drool slid from my mouth. There was probably a puddle under her.

"Okay, one sec," she said and did something above me. A clink on my bedside table anounced she had taken off the glove. I still jumped when she touched me with bare hands. They rubbed my back with warm, dull and soothing weight, bringing me down. As soon as I was able, I sat up, still straddling her. A filament of drool stretched from her shoulder to my mouth then snapped, tracing the marks I had left much earlier with the wheel.

After smacking my lips a couple of times, I said, "That was amazing! You are so good at that." 

The only word for what I did next was flop: I flopped off Lily onto my side, like a drunk seal on a beach. Lily moved up next to me, one leg over mine, her hand on my hip, forehead to forehead.

"That looked amazing!” she whispered to me. "Will you do that to me sometime?"

"Not right now. When I can move, the next thing I'm doing is getting water. Another time? Sounds like a date," I whispered back.

"A date? What will Sasha think?" Lily gasped in mock surprise.

"My partner? Who has been teasing me about my crush on you for weeks? They are going to laugh and say, ‘About damn time!’ Besides, I won, I didn't kiss you."

Lily stared deep into my eyes, a slow smile spread across her face and she tilted her head so our noses touched, too. "I didn't know that was a bet. What happens if I kiss you?"

Her eyes did that thing that happens when a face is too close to yours and your eyes can't focus so everything squashes together and the other person becomes a Cyclops. Her mouth was so close to mine I could lick her lips. I didn’t know if she was going to kiss me, and I wanted her to.

"I'll get you some water," she said as she rolled away. “You are too broken to move. Then we can plan an actual date!" I watched as she slipped out of the perfect nest she’d helped me make. 

And now we were planning a date. 

Oh yeah, Lily was right, Sasha was going to have a field day with this.