Her Fencing-Girlfriend Came Back for Her That Night

The hospital had that smell nothing could get rid of. Chlorine, reheated coffee, antibiotics. And fear. Daniela had accumulated three shifts even though Friday wasn’t hers. She volunteered on her own. She preferred the beeping monitors and blue codes to the silence of her apartment.

Or, worse, to standing outside Valeria’s building for another night, waiting for her to appear at the fourth-floor window and come down to let her in this time.

Every step along the waxed corridor weighed twice as much. She didn’t eat. She slept badly. The white coat hung from her shoulders, and her lips had cracked from biting them so much. The only thing that truly hurt, however, was Valeria’s silence. She didn’t have her number. She had no way to write to her. She only knew where she lived and which café she went to with Camila on Saturday afternoons. Neither of them had shown up for a month.

“Dr. Vega”—the hospital director’s voice pulled her out of her trance.

Dr. Rivas appeared beside her in an immaculate coat, spotless loafers, and that sticky sweetness of his that always hid something behind it. He was the kind of man who said “dear” and made it sound like a warning.

“I’ve noticed you’re covering extra shifts,” he said, walking slowly so she would be forced to match his pace. “Some financial trouble you’d like to talk to me about? You know you can count on my support.”

Daniela clenched her jaw. Her world was collapsing inside her, but she wasn’t going to give him an inch.

“Everything’s fine, Doctor. I like keeping busy.”

“I find that admirable. And, honestly, surprising.” He lowered his voice a notch. “You’ve always been so reserved. Sometimes I get the feeling I don’t know you completely.”

They were walking together toward the break room. She swallowed. She knew the script. She had heard it in whispers among her coworkers, in the restrained tears of Mariana, the trauma resident he had “suggested” having dinner with the previous Monday. The women who said those who refused were left without a recommendation.

“I have a new project,” he went on. “A private pediatric unit. I think you’d be interested. If you’re willing to talk, of course. In a more personal way.”

Daniela stopped dead.

“Thank you, but I’m fine where I am.”

He tilted his head with a smile that never reached his eyes.

“I understand. Though a recommendation from me could take you very far. You know that.”

She lowered her gaze. Not from fear. From contained rage. And because beneath the rage there was something else: the memory of hands that did know how to touch her cunt.

***

Three months earlier, after the national tournament, Valeria had taken her to her apartment for the first time. She was a fencer on the national team and had won gold the night before. They arrived dizzy from cheap champagne and a conversation that wouldn’t end. In the elevator, Valeria placed her hand on the back of Daniela’s neck, slowly, as if asking permission, and drew her close until her mouth brushed Daniela’s without kissing her.

“If you get scared, tell me,” she murmured.

Daniela wasn’t scared. She bit her lower lip, let her bag fall, and grabbed Valeria’s hand, guiding it straight between her legs, over her skirt. Valeria laughed softly against her mouth and pressed there with her open palm until Daniela felt her own heat seeping through her underwear.

Inside, Valeria took off her jacket before turning on the light. Her hands were strong, calloused from gripping a sword, and yet they knew how to find the soft places. She opened Daniela’s blouse one button at a time while kissing her neck, with the calm of someone who knew she was in no hurry. She ran her teeth over Daniela’s collarbone. She yanked open her bra and pulled it down her arms.

“Look at me,” she asked when she saw Daniela’s tits for the first time. “I want you to watch me while I touch you.”

And Daniela looked. She watched Valeria’s dark eyes, her parted mouth, her shoulders defined by years of training. Valeria ran her tongue over the left nipple, slowly, took it into her mouth, and sucked it as if it were a ripe fruit, until it stood hard and pink. Then she did the same to the other, barely biting it, and stayed breathing over her until Daniela arched.

“Don’t rush,” she told her. “We have all night. I’m going to fuck you nice and slow.”

She led her to the bed, pushing her with her hip. She took off Daniela’s skirt, stockings, panties, everything, and took her time looking at her naked against the white sheets, legs still closed, dark pubic hair showing between her thighs. She stroked the inside of Daniela’s thigh with her knuckles until Daniela opened her legs without being asked, revealing her wet, glistening cunt, parted with pure desire.

“Look at you,” Valeria murmured. “You’re dripping.”

She ran two fingers over her, barely touching, and Daniela lifted her hips, seeking her. Valeria put them in her mouth, watching her, and sucked them slowly.

“Tasty,” she said.

Then she lowered her mouth.

Daniela remembered the first brush of Valeria’s tongue like an electric jolt rising from her clitoris to the nape of her neck. The way Valeria held her by the hips so she couldn’t move, both hands spread against her pelvis. The way she opened the lips of Daniela’s cunt with her thumbs and ran her whole long tongue from the entrance to the top, again and again, without hurrying. She sucked Daniela’s clitoris with her lips, bit it carefully, held it inside her mouth until Daniela began to shake. Then she pushed her tongue deep inside and worked it there, and Daniela clutched the sheets and Valeria’s head at once, no longer knowing where to put her hands.

“Come in my mouth,” Valeria told her against her cunt. “Ride my mouth.”

But when Daniela couldn’t take it anymore, Valeria rose and settled over her, skin against skin, and pushed two fingers inside her while biting her ear and telling her to come. She moved her fingers quickly, curling them upward, searching for the spot that made Daniela’s thighs cramp. She rubbed her thumb over her clitoris. She added a third finger when Daniela’s cunt was begging for more.

“That’s it,” she said in her ear. “That’s it, my love, fuck yourself on my fingers. Move.”

Daniela remembered coming in tears, Valeria’s three fingers buried inside her and her palm striking her pubic bone, not understanding why she was crying. She remembered the wet, obscene sound of her soaked cunt around that hand. And Valeria’s free hand in her hair afterward, stroking it like a little girl’s, while the other remained inside her, still, feeling her contractions.

“I’ve known you for three hours,” Valeria had told her, lips pressed to her temple and fingers still buried to the knuckles, “and I don’t want to sleep with anyone else anymore. Or fuck anyone else.”

That was three months ago. Before the silence.

***

“Dr. Vega.”

Rivas’s voice brought her back to the corridor. They were standing in front of his office. His hand was on the doorknob. The door was ajar.

“Don’t you want to come in? I’ll make you a coffee. You look tired.”

“No, Doctor,” she said, looking him in the eyes for the first time. “I’m not going in. Not today, not ever. And if you call me ‘dear’ in the corridor again, I’ll speak to Human Resources. Is that clear?”

The smile fell from his face. It took him two seconds to put it back on.

“You’re being very sensitive.”

“I’m wide awake.”

She turned and walked down the corridor, her legs trembling but without quickening her pace. When she turned the corner, she went into the staff bathroom, locked the latch, and leaned against the tiles until her breathing settled. Then she washed her face, tied her hair back again, and went out.

Her phone vibrated in her pocket. She took it out, expecting another shift, another call from the hospital. It was an unknown number.

“Hello?” she answered.

There was a long silence on the other end. Then a voice she knew better than her own.

“It’s me.”

Daniela closed her eyes.

“Where are you?”

“Downstairs at the hospital. Camila gave me your shift. Can you come out for a minute?”

She didn’t answer. She hung up. She took off her coat, tossed it over a chair, and ran down the service stairs three at a time. When she came out through the side door, rain was falling in fine needles, and Valeria stood across the street in a black jacket, wet hair stuck to her forehead.

Neither of them moved for a moment. Then Daniela crossed the street without looking and stopped thirty centimeters away, furious.

“A month,” she said. “A month without a word. Do you know what that’s like?”

“Yes.”

“No. You have no idea.”

Valeria reached out and touched her cheek. Daniela pushed her hand away.

“Let’s go upstairs,” Valeria said. “We’ll talk up there.”

“To your apartment?”

“Yours. If you’ll let me.”

Daniela clenched her teeth. She nodded.

***

Daniela’s building elevator smelled of damp. They rode in silence, watching each other in the mirror’s reflection. Valeria was thinner. A yellow bruise still lingered on her cheekbone.

Inside the apartment, Daniela closed the door and remained against it, without inviting her to sit.

“Talk.”

“I was offered a scholarship in Italy. Three years. To train with the Olympic team.”

“And?”

“And I turned it down two weeks ago. That’s why I disappeared. Because deciding was driving me crazy, and I didn’t want to drag you into it. The prosecutor was my lawyer, helping me break the contract.”

Daniela looked at her. It took a moment to understand. When she did, something in her chest that had been tight for thirty days loosened.

“Then why didn’t you call me?”

“Because I knew that if I called you, I would accept whatever you told me. And I needed to decide on my own. I needed to choose you without you choosing me first.”

Daniela bit her lip.

You’re such an idiot. She thought it before saying it.

“You’re such an idiot.”

“Yes.”

“A beautiful idiot.”

Valeria smiled for the first time in a month. She took a step. Daniela didn’t move from the door, but she lifted her face.

“Touch me,” she said. “But this time, don’t leave.”

Valeria cupped her face in both hands and kissed her. It wasn’t a soft kiss. It was a month of pent-up longing, teeth colliding and breath breaking. Daniela grabbed her wet jacket and threw it on the floor. She slipped her hands beneath Valeria’s shirt and dug her nails into her back until Valeria moaned against her mouth. She grabbed one breast over her bra and squeezed it hard, angrily, and Valeria bit her lip until she drew a little blood.

She pushed her against the hallway wall. She kissed her neck, her collarbone, the hollow where her vein pulsed. She bit her earlobe just as Daniela had bitten hers the first time, and Valeria laughed softly, hoarsely. She unbuttoned Valeria’s jeans right there against the wall, slipped her hand inside, over her panties, and found her soaked.

“You’ve learned,” Valeria murmured against her mouth, grinding her hips against her hand.

“I had time. I thought a lot about how I was going to fuck you when you came back.”

“And what did you think?”

“You’re about to find out.”

She led her to the bedroom, pushing her just as Valeria had pushed her three months earlier. She pulled Valeria’s shirt over her head, unfastened her bra, and left her standing in her panties in front of the bed. She bit her nipples, one and then the other, until they grew hard and dark. Valeria had small, firm athlete’s breasts, and Daniela had spent a month falling asleep thinking about sucking them again.

She sat her on the edge of the bed and knelt between her legs. She unbuttoned her jeans slowly, watching her, waiting for her nod. Valeria nodded, her eyes shining.

“Don’t rush,” Daniela told her, giving her words back. “We have all night. I’m going to eat your cunt until you beg me to stop.”

She yanked down Valeria’s jeans and panties in one motion. Valeria was left naked, legs spread on the edge of the bed, her cunt shaved and swollen, wetness glistening between the folds. Daniela took a few seconds to look at her. Then she kissed the insides of her knees, the insides of her thighs, barely biting her so that her skin prickled, moving slowly upward to make her want it. When she reached the crease, she ran her whole tongue over it, slowly, from the entrance to the clitoris, and Valeria let her head fall back against the mattress and released a long moan.

“Goddamn,” she said. “I missed your mouth so much.”

Daniela opened the lips of Valeria’s cunt with her thumbs, as Valeria had done to her, and latched onto her clitoris. She sucked it. She licked it in circles, slowly at first, faster afterward, until Valeria’s legs began to tremble. She pushed her tongue deep inside, savoring her, and worked it there. Then she drove two fingers inside and kept sucking her clitoris with her mouth at the same time, moving her fingers upward, searching for the spot.

She held Valeria by the hips just as she had that first night, but now she was the one who knew how to hold back and how to let go. She made her moan twice. She made her say her name. She made her grip the headboard with both hands and arch her back against the sheets. When Valeria was close, Daniela stopped sucking her, withdrew her fingers, and ran them over her lips as if trying on lipstick.

“No,” Valeria gasped. “Don’t do that. Keep going.”

“Beg me.”

“Please.”

“Again.”

“Please, Dani, make me come, I’m begging you.”

Daniela smiled and climbed onto her. She settled over her, skin against skin, and thrust three fingers inside in one movement, all the way in. Valeria let out a muffled cry that she buried in Daniela’s shoulder. Daniela began pumping her fingers quickly and hard, thumb against her clitoris, kissing her mouth to swallow her moans.

“Look at me,” she asked, just as Valeria had asked her. “I want you to look at me while you come. Look me in the eyes while you come on my hand.”

Valeria looked at her. Her pupils were dilated, her mouth parted, and two tears ran down her face without her crying. She came against Daniela’s hand, biting her shoulder to keep from screaming, hips lifting to meet her fingers, cunt squeezing them inside in waves. Daniela felt the wetness running down her wrist. She kept moving her fingers slowly as Valeria came down, drawing out the last tremor. Then she withdrew them, and Valeria caught her hand, brought it to her mouth, and sucked her fingers one by one, watching her.

“Now it’s your turn,” she said, Daniela’s fingers still in her mouth.

But first she stayed still, breathing against Daniela’s neck, until Daniela realized she was crying again.

“Hey,” Daniela said, stroking her hair with her fingers. “Hey.”

“I thought you weren’t going to open the door for me.”

“I thought you wouldn’t open it for me again either.”

Valeria turned her over slowly without separating from her. She laid her on her back and tore off the clothes she had left on: the hospital shirt, pants, panties, everything thrown onto the floor. She kissed her sternum, her navel, her hip, barely biting the skin, marking her. She opened Daniela’s legs with both hands and settled between them.

“Now you,” she murmured. “Now I’m going to fuck you.”

Daniela closed her eyes. She felt Valeria move down to her breasts, barely bite her right nipple, suck the whole thing into her mouth until it grew hard and sensitive, then travel down her belly with her mouth open. When Valeria reached between her legs, Daniela gripped the sheet with her fingers. No one had touched her for a month. For a month she hadn’t even dared touch herself while thinking of anything other than the silence, and now her cunt throbbed so hard it hurt.

“Look at you,” Valeria said from below, running a finger over the lips of her cunt. “All mine.”

“All yours.”

“You look at me, too.”

Daniela lowered her gaze and found those dark eyes looking at her from above her pubic mound. The image broke her. Valeria ran her tongue slowly, flat against her, from the entrance of her cunt to her clitoris, and Daniela let out a moan she had kept locked away for thirty days. She ran her tongue over her again. And again. She sucked Daniela’s clitoris with her lips, held it inside her mouth, worked it with the tip of her tongue until Daniela began to shake.

Then she pushed her tongue deep inside, fucking her with her mouth, and drove one finger into her at the same time. Then two. Then three, curling them upward, searching for the exact spot that made Daniela lose her mind. Daniela heard the wet, obscene, forceful sound of the fingers entering and leaving her cunt, and she didn’t care about anything. Valeria’s mouth remained latched onto her clitoris, sucking and licking, leaving her unable to breathe.

“Don’t rush,” Valeria returned against her cunt, a smile audible in her voice. “Hold on a little longer.”

“I can’t.”

“Yes, you can.”

But she rushed. Daniela’s body began to tremble in stages, in little waves rising through her legs, and then in one huge wave that split her in half. She came with her head thrown back and both hands tangled in Valeria’s hair, pressing it against her cunt, not caring that the apartment walls were so thin the neighbor would know. She screamed. She screamed Valeria’s name loudly, and felt her own juices running between her buttocks onto the sheet. And when she came, she cried too, helplessly, the orgasm still shaking her.

Valeria didn’t stop. She kept licking her slowly, more gently, catching each tremor as it ebbed, sucking her clitoris with barely closed lips until she made Daniela come a second time, almost without a transition, smaller but longer, leaving her truly crying, covering her face with her arm.

“Enough,” she gasped. “Enough, I can’t take any more.”

“One more.”

“No.”

“One more and I’ll stop.”

She pushed two fingers inside her again and moved her thumb over Daniela’s clitoris in circles, watching her face. Daniela came a third time almost silently, her body already spent, and stayed there trembling, legs open and Valeria’s fingers still inside her, feeling the throbbing of her own cunt around that hand.

Valeria rose slowly, carefully withdrawing her fingers. She kissed away Daniela’s tears one by one, then kissed her mouth and chin, and lay down beside her. She pulled Daniela against her chest, sweaty, still breathing hard. She wrapped an arm around her waist and placed her free hand between her legs, resting it there without moving, covering her cunt as if protecting it.

“I’m not going anywhere,” she told her ear. “Do you hear me? I’m never leaving again. No one’s taking me away from here.”

Daniela nodded against her collarbone. She breathed in the scent of rain on Valeria’s skin, mixed with sex, mixed with the taste of herself in Valeria’s mouth.

“Tomorrow I’m going to quit the hospital,” she murmured.

“Tomorrow we’ll talk about tomorrow. Go to sleep now. And in a little while I’ll suck you again.”

Daniela laughed softly, tired, and barely bit her collarbone. Outside, water continued falling on the corrugated metal roofs. Inside, for the first time in a month, Daniela closed her eyes without being afraid of waking up alone.