My heart was pounding so harshly in my ear, I was certain that was what had awakened me. I reached out, instinctively, for my lover, only to find an empty space in the bed, beside me. The room began to spin and I had trouble breathing deeply enough to fill my burning lungs. Untangling the damp sheets from around my naked, trembling form, I looked for my robe.

"Damn," I cursed the darkness. "The hell with it," I swore again, wrapping myself back into the recently discarded sheet.

Moving toward the open door, I looked for light. Thinking Max may have headed down to the kitchen, I started for the stairs. That was when the sound of soft sobbing reached my ears. She was in the bathroom, only a few feet down the hall from where I stood. There was only the light from the moon coming through the small skylight, above the stairwell, and the door was nearly closed, but it was Max. I felt my stomach clench into a tight fist as I neared the half-closed door.

"Max, how could you be so stupid? She isn’t even gay! Damn, woman, even your unconscious mind is screaming at you. You did it again you dumbass. You must LIKE being someone’s sexual experiment. Come on, Maxi, ol’ girl. You didn’t really think someone as incredible as Gillian could love you, did you? Oh god. Oh god."

I froze in my tracks, just outside the door. Her heaving sobs nearly shook the walls.

"Get a grip, Max," she continued to berate herself. "The woman is drop dead gorgeous and straight as a solid iron cro-bar. So what if you’re so in love with her you can’t draw breath without thinking of her? Okay, so she’s the most awesome lover you’ve ever had. So what? She’ll dump you the first time a decent man comes along..."

Now, I was pissed.

"A decent man? Isn’t that an oxymoron, Max?"

Startled blue met angry green. "Huh?"

"Don’t huh, me, Max Murray! And a cro-bar has a pronounced bend in it, for your information."

"Huh?" She seemed almost dazed.

"Max, what the hell is wrong with you? Please tell me you don’t really believe that shit about me dumping you. Or you being a, what did you call yourself, a sexual experiment?"

Kneeling in front of her, I took her hands in mine. "You listen to me, Maxine Deborah Murray."

Tear-soaked, swollen, crystal blue eyes looked up from the floor, hesitant to meet my gaze. Leaning in closely, I touched my lips gently to her eyelids, still puffy from crying. "I love you, Max." A soft kiss graced her nose. "I loved you even before I knew you were real." Just the very tip of my tongue reached out and tapped her upper lip. She smiled. "I may not have had the good sense to know I was gay as quickly as you did, my love. But," my tongue dragged back and forth across her full lips, "I am every bit as much a lesbian as you are."

"You?....But..." Max was having a hard time verbalizing and my tongue slipping in and out of her mouth wasn’t helping the cause.

I chuckled, softly. "Let me make this real simple for ya, hon."

"OooooKaaayyy." My tall lover had pulled me in so close I could feel her curls against my tummy, the sheet having long since hit the floor.

"I am not straight." Kiss. "I am not involved in a sexual experiment." Kiss. "And this," smack, "is for thinking I would be."

"Ow. Gillian, honey.."

"I’m not done yet." Tongue play in right ear. "I am not going to dump you." Tongue play in left ear. "You are not stupid." Lips and tongue introduce themselves to pulse point near collarbone. "You are the love of my life. Maybe many lives, if that weird dream just now means anything." Tongue finds right breast. "Mmmm."

"Oh god."

"Oh yeah," I mumbled into the full breast. "I am never, ever, gonna let you go." Hungry mouth pulls swollen nipple in and suckles.

"Jesus, Gillian. God, that feels good."

"Mmmm. Tastes good too."

"I love you, Gill."

"I love you, Max. With all my heart and soul." Hot lips kissed their way back, toward the mouth of my dreams. "Can I persuade you to come back to bed with me?"

"Oh, yeah." Max’s open mouth met mine and our swollen tongues began the familiar dance of love.

After several minutes of heated, passionately dancing and sliding tongues, we came up for air.

"Max?"

"Yes, sweetheart?"

"Don’t go back home."

"I’m right here, honey. I’m not going anywhere." She scooted nearer the edge of her throne and pulled me tightly against her moist body.

"Mmm. Oh god, that feels nice." Shaking my head as if to clear my thoughts, I spoke again. "No, baby. I mean ...DON’T go back home...ever.." I held my breath, praying I wasn’t rushing things too much, too soon.

Max’s strong hands found my face and pulled me back just enough to look closely into my deep green eyes. She held me there for a moment, searching as if the secrets of the universe lay within. I watched as the most beautiful, sky blue eyes I had ever seen, filled with unshed tears.

"Did you just ask me..."

"To live with me? Yes, I did."

"You’re sure?" A tear slipped down tanned cheeks.

My lips brushed hers. "Never been more sure of anything in my life. Will you?"

Silver glimmered across her cheeks in the moonlight. Her smile lit the room and my entire being caught fire.

"Yes," she whispered. "Oh yes. I love you, Gillian."

"I love you, Max. This is forever, then. You’re not going home again, right?"

The most beautiful woman in the world stood, lifting me into her strong arms, and walked steadily toward the bedroom.

"Gillian, my love?"

"Yes?"

"So long as you are here in my arms, I AM home."

*********

"Finally," came the hushed, almost magical voice from the darkness.

"Huh?" We wondered in unison. "Mysti?"

Only the fading sound of tinkling laughter answered our query.

Mysti continues