Macon's Heart, page 12
part #2 of San Francisco Series
“In reality or in my mind?”
“Both.” Joanna’s hand moved under her panties, but she held it there.
“I’m stroking my clit right now, slowly,” Macon replied. “But I’m thinking about doing that to you.”
“Touching me?”
“Yes.” It was a gasp.
“Will you, when you get back?”
“Yes.” Another gasp.
Joanna slid her hand down further and cupped her own sex.
“Make, you sound…” She couldn’t describe how good Macon sounded.
“Jo, I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m sorry I left. I should be there. I should be there with you, touching you like this.”
“Or, I could be touching you,” Joanna suggested.
“Yeah?” Macon asked.
“How do you like to be touched?”
Joanna bent her index finger to find her clit and start stroking it. She found it hard and swollen. She was wetter than she’d been in a very long time.
“Slow at first,” Macon replied.
“Like you’re doing now?”
“Yes.” Macon gasped again. “But I need to start going fast.”
“Where is my mouth, Make? Where do you want it on your body right now?”
“My nipple.”
Joanna’s eyes shot closed and then open as she slid her two fingers up and down hard while picturing Macon’s breasts in her mind, or at least what she thought they’d look like. She’d never touched another woman’s breasts, but when Macon said those words, she pictured her lips around a hard, erect nipple, sucking it into her mouth. Her strokes turned harder and faster in an instant.
“So, my fingers are stroking your clit, and my mouth is sucking on your nipple.”
“Yes.” Macon’s word was louder this time, and somehow, the one-syllable word sounded clipped. “Yes.”
“Are you–”
“Yes,” she repeated. “I’m almost…”
“Oh, my God.” Joanna stopped touching herself because she wanted to listen. She needed to listen. “Please… I want to hear you.”
“Jo,” Macon said her name right before she moaned, then cursed, and then breathed into the phone.
Joanna couldn’t believe what she’d just heard; what she’d participated in. She’d heard Macon come for her and while saying her name. Joanna’s hand was still unmoving. She no longer felt the need for her own orgasm. She wanted Macon to do that again, and again, and she wanted to hear it in person; to see it in person.
“Macon?” she checked after a long moment of silence.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have–”
“Stop,” Joanna interrupted her. “That was… God, that was hot, and it was beautiful at the same time.”
“It was?” Macon asked.
“I want to do that again,” she said.
“Me too. I want to hear you. Will you–” There was a sound Joanna couldn’t identify. “Shit. I just looked at the time. I’ve got to go, Jo. I’m sorry. I’m going to be late for rehearsal.”
“It’s okay.”
She heard Macon start moving around the room and suspected she was trying to find clothes for the day or grabbing a towel so she could go shower.
“No, it’s not. I don’t want to stop right now, but I have to go. The car will be here in twenty minutes,” Macon explained. “Can you tell me something though?”
“Yeah?”
“Did you start?”
“Yes.”
“Jesus Christ,” Macon exclaimed. “I hate myself right now.”
Joanna laughed out at that response.
“Because?”
“Because I’m not fucking there. Because I ran here. I miss you, Jo. I really fucking miss you.”
“I miss you, too.”
“I didn’t scare you with that, did I?”
“No, Make. I’m not scared. I’m not scared of you.”
“Can I call you tomorrow morning your time so we can talk?”
“Talk?” Joanna toyed and realized her hand was still between her legs.
“Talk, yes. If other stuff happens, so be it.” She laughed. “I want you to catch me up on what I’ve missed.”
“And I want you to tell me about your first tour.”
“You know what it felt like when we kissed, Jo?”
“What?”
“Like I’m yours,” Macon admitted. “It felt like I’m yours.”
CHAPTER 13
Greene checked her phone for about the fifth time since they’d wrapped up. It was four in the afternoon. She’d wrapped up the rehearsal and had used one of the music rooms to work on the new piece she’d need for Rome. She’d been mad at herself because she’d planned on wrapping up early enough to give Joanna a goodnight phone call, even though they’d agreed to a phone call in her morning. This whole time difference thing was confusing. This time of year, they were seventeen hours apart but on different days. All she knew for sure was that what they’d done this morning she’d also never done with anyone.
She hadn’t planned it. But talking to Joanna about that, turned her on in a way she’d never been turned on, and before she knew it, she was touching herself. She’d fallen asleep only in her underwear and a t-shirt the night before. After talking to Gail and thinking about Joanna more and more, she couldn’t resist calling her. She needed to hear her voice, even if Joanna was dating someone.
Greene made her way back to the hotel and checked the clock. It would be around midnight in San Francisco. She knew Joanna would be asleep, but she couldn’t resist calling. Even if she got her voicemail, she’d be able to hear her outgoing message.
“Hey there,” Joanna greeted in her sleepy voice.
“Hi.” Greene smiled as she laid back in bed. “Were you asleep?”
“I was, yeah. Someone told me she was calling me in the morning. I wanted to get a good night’s sleep,” she replied.
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be,” Joanna said. “Is everything okay?”
“Everything’s fine. I just wanted to hear your voice.”
“Oh, if your friends could hear you now.” She laughed.
“What’s that mean?”
“You are a smooth talker, Macon Greene, but you are also very romantic and sweet.”
“I am?”
“Yes, you are. It’s one of my favorite things about you.”
“You know what one of my favorite things about you is?” Greene asked.
“No, what?”
“How forgiving you are, especially where I’m concerned.”
“And you’re cute, too? I have got to tell Keira.”
Greene laughed and said, “I’m serious.”
“I know you are. Where were all these words when we were in the same room, Macon? It would have been nice to look at you while you said them.”
Greene had to agree with that. It would be nice to look at Joanna while they talked. That was something she could fix, though. She hit a button on the screen of her phone and waited.
“Okay,” she said.
“Are you trying to FaceTime?”
“Yes. If you want to see me while I say these things, you should probably accept.”
“Macon, I was asleep. I look–”
“Accept the FaceTime, Jo,” she ordered gently. A moment later, she saw Joanna’s face appear on the screen; she had turned on the lamp next to her bed to illuminate herself for the call. “God, you’re gorgeous.”
“Stop.”
“No, you are, Jo,” she told her. “Remember when we watched that movie, you got drunk and slept over?”
“Of course, I remember.”
“I watched you sleep. Technically, I woke up before you, and I saw your early morning bed head and your eyes as they opened. You’re beautiful, and that doesn’t change when you wake up.”
“I miss you,” Joanna said.
“I miss you, too.”
“No chance I can convince you to come back, now that we’re doing whatever it is that we’re doing?”
“I wish. I’m contractually obligated to be here now. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have accepted the tour. I should have just talked to you about what I was scared of and how I felt.”
“I’m glad you’re there, Macon. You should be on tour. You’re so good at what you do. Everyone should see you play.”
“I want to be there with you, though.”
“Then, finish the tour and come home to me.” She said with a smile.
“Home?”
“Yes, Macon. Come home to me, here, in San Francisco.”
She smiled as she watched Joanna’s mock frustration unfold on the screen.
“I’m not going to date anyone else, Jo.”
“Oh,” she replied, confused. “Was that an option or a possibility?”
“No, that’s not what I meant. I don’t mean that I was, but I’m not now. I mean that I never was; I was never going to date someone or do anything with any woman even before this morning when we talked.”
“So, why are you telling me now then?”
“Because I don’t know if you will.” Macon hesitated. “I mean, will you date a guy or another woman, or would you be open to–”
“Macon Sage Greene, are you kidding me right now?”
“What? No.” Greene stared at her curiously.
“I’m not going to date anyone. You’re crazy if you think I’d do what we did this morning and then go find someone else to date until you get back.”
“Okay, okay.” Greene laughed. “I’m sorry. I just wanted to be clear about my intentions and find out yours.”
“What are your intentions then?” Joanna lifted an eyebrow.
“To make you my girlfriend when I get home,” she answered honestly.
Joanna didn’t say anything at first. She just smiled back.
“Why not now?”
“Because when I ask that question, I want to be able to kiss you after you say yes.”
“Why are you assuming I’d say yes?”
“You’d totally say yes,” Greene replied.
“Maybe I wouldn’t. I like to keep you guessing.”
Greene laughed at her again, and then her laughter subsided into a smile.
“You should get some sleep. I still want to talk to you in the morning, you know?”
“Is this what we’re going to do while you’re gone? Talk twice a day?”
“Is that okay?”
“It’s kind of the best we can do right now, I guess.”
“We can FaceTime like this, too, so I can see your face.”
“And I can see yours.” Joanna smiled.
“Yeah.”
“It’s like five there. What are you doing for dinner?”
“I’ll order room service or something when I get hungry.”
“And then after that?”
“Take a long bath to wind down.”
“Wind down?” Joanna’s eyebrow was lifted.
“Yeah, I’ve been a little keyed up all day. I wonder why.” Greene laughed lightly at her.
“No idea. I should get some sleep, though. I kind of had an eventful afternoon.” She wiggled her eyebrows.
“How eventful?” Greene glared.
“Pretty eventful. Like two times kind of eventful.” Joanna must have noticed Greene’s eyes get really big because she started laughing. “Goodnight, Macon.”
“You’re kidding, right? You’re going to sleep after you tell me that?”
“Yup. Call me tomorrow.”
“I will.” Greene was still laughing when Joanna’s face froze for a second and then disappeared as she hung up. “Fuck!” She tossed the phone on the bed, knowing she’d have to do something other than take a long bath to calm herself down now.
◆◆◆
“So, you are dating?” Emma asked Joanna as they sat at the bar.
“I guess. I don’t really know.” Joanna took a drink of her rum and Coke.
“You guess?” Emma laughed.
“Yeah, I guess.” Joanna laughed back, because it did sound funny. “We’re not exactly in the same place. The time differences have made things complicated, but I guess we’re long-distance dating. Macon said she wants me to be her girlfriend, though. She just wants to ask in person.”
“Seriously?” Emma’s eyebrows lifted. “That’s kind of remarkable and adorable.”
“Remarkable?”
“I’ve only known her as long as you, but according to Keira and Hillary, Greene was never one to settle down; not that you two are settling down or anything.”
“You guys crack me up sometimes.”
“How so?” Emma asked.
“What do you think she does every night?”
“Huh?”
“With women? What do you all think? She goes out to the bar and takes a different girl home each night?”
“Not each night, no.”
“But often?”
“I guess, yeah.” Emma took a sip of her wine.
“So, let me run this by you,” Joanna requested. “We all come here and have some drinks, she talks to a girl, and then what? She comes back to our table, right?”
“Yeah.”
“And then she and I leave together, or I leave, and she follows pretty closely behind, right?”
“Are you trying to tell me you two have been–”
“No, we haven’t.” Joanna laughed again. “She has one show night every week, at least; she rehearses for hours a day and, sometimes, completely loses track of time and misses a dinner or drinks, right?”
“Yeah.”
“And the rest of the time, she’s usually with me or with all of us. I spend nearly every night with her. Not like that,” she added at the end. “I have lunch or dinner with her almost daily. We watch TV or talk until it’s time for me to go home or for her to leave. I know she goes home because she texts and sometimes even calls me because I insist on her letting me know she’s gotten home safe. She makes me do the same. Sometimes we talk for another hour or so before we both go to bed.”
“And you guess you’re dating?”
“My point isn’t that we’ve been dancing around this for a while now. My point is that you guys must think she has more hours in the day than the rest of us. When exactly is she supposed to be hooking up with all these women?” Joanna asked and took another drink.
“I guess I never thought about it like that.”
“None of you have. I think someone said something years ago in their little group of friends about her hitting on a lot of women or having sex with some of them and it somehow turned into this thing that she’s hooking up with every woman in the city.”
“But she’s not? Or at least she hasn’t since meeting you?”
“Since before that even. I’m not going to tell you anything I think she should probably be the one to explain, but Macon isn’t this Lothario you all make her out to be. She’s nice to women, yes. She might flirt back. She might even kiss a few of them. But she’s not taking them home with her. In fact, she told me she’d never had a woman in her apartment: a woman she wanted to sleep with or has slept with.”
“You’ve been in her apartment. She wants to sleep with you,” Emma posited.
“Well, that’s a recent occurrence.”
Emma nearly cackled at that and said, “If by recent you mean since the moment Greene laid eyes on you...”
“She did not–”
“Oh, yeah, she did.” Emma turned her entire body on her stool to face Joanna. “Keira doesn’t know this, because Greene asked me not to say anything. She knows how my girlfriend is: she’s like a dog with a bone, sometimes. Back then, neither of them knew you well. Keira might have tried to test the waters with you; see if you’d be into the idea of converting our wayward flirt of a friend into having a serious relationship. Once she knew you were straight for sure, though, she would have tried to intervene, to prevent Greene from getting too involved, because she wouldn’t want her to end up getting hurt.” Emma smiled at the accurate description of her girlfriend.
“What did Macon say?”
“She told me she thought you were hot,” Emma offered. “Then, she said you weren’t hot.”
“Wait. What?”
“She said you were hot again, and then corrected herself and said you’re somehow both hot and beautiful and, normally, she only notices the hot part.”
“That sounds like her,” Joanna said.
“She wanted to ask you out, but she’d overheard you talking about an ex-boyfriend one night. Then, you were off limits.”
“She wanted to ask me out?”
“From the beginning. I think she kind of turned it off. It seemed like she wanted to, but she couldn’t. She tried to put it behind her and see you as just a friend. As time went on, I wondered if she’d been successful at that, because from where I was sitting, it didn’t seem like that.”
Joanna smiled. The smile faltered when she thought about how she must have caused Macon pain over the past year.
“I didn’t know.”
“How could you? Greene is good at hiding when she needs to. It’s not like you’re the first straight woman she’s been into,” Emma revealed. “That came out wrong. Sorry.”
“No, what do you mean? The girls she’s flirted with?”
“No, I mean Liv.”
“Liv?”
“You don’t know?”
“About someone named Liv? No.”
“Oh, maybe she should be the one to tell you. I thought you knew. I only know because Keira told me.”
“Tell me.”
“You should talk to her, I think. It’s not my place.”
“You brought it up, Emma,” Joanna persisted.
“Because I thought you two had discussed it.”
“Well, we haven’t, obviously. She told me about Daniella, but not much about her other relationships other than they were short.”
“Just ask her about it the next time you talk. I’m sure she’ll fill you in.”
“I’m kind of wondering why she hasn’t already,” Joanna said.
◆◆◆
“Hey there, world traveler,” she greeted Macon.
“Hey,” Macon replied. “How are you?”
“I’m okay,” she answered. “You?”
“I’m good. We have an early rehearsal. I wanted to give you a quick goodnight call before I have to head in.”
