The Night Carmen Wanted Another Woman

Renata stirred her coffee without looking up, as if in the bottom of the cup she might find the exact words. Carmen watched her from the other side of the table, arms crossed, wearing that older-sister grimace she always made whenever she sensed trouble.

—Spit it out already —said Carmen—. I know that face.

—I’ve been offered a photo shoot in Copenhagen. A big-name photographer. Pays very well.

—And where’s the catch?

Renata took her time answering. They had finished their shift at the hotel half an hour earlier and still had their uniforms on beneath their coats.

—It’s a bold-themed shoot. Nothing I haven’t done before.

Carmen narrowed her eyes. They had shared reception and the cloakroom for almost a year, and in that time she had gradually discovered that Renata’s life was nothing like her own. Models, trips, contracts signed on yachts and torn up in airports.

—Don’t look at me like that —laughed Renata—. It’s not what you’re imagining.

—It’s exactly what I’m imagining. And I’m worried.

—I need the money for the apartment. One more shoot and I’m almost there.

Carmen sighed. She knew arguing was pointless, but she also knew that behind that confidence was a woman dragging around more stories than she ever told.

—Tomorrow I’ll show you something —Renata said suddenly—. I want you to see that not everything I’ve done is dirty. Bring me a decent coffee and I’ll bring you my book.

***

The next day, Renata arrived with a black leather folder tucked under her arm. She set it on the table with a mix of pride and shyness and slid it toward her friend.

Carmen opened it slowly. The moment she saw the first photograph, her expression changed. Renata appeared among white houses and blue domes, her skin golden from the sun of a Greek island, the wind playing with her hair. In another she posed in a lavender field; in another, in front of a floor-to-ceiling window in a Milan loft. Gossamer dresses floating like a second skin.

—Holy shit —murmured Carmen, turning the pages—. You look like a different person.

—It’s me. Just with better lighting.

—No, it’s not the lighting. It’s the way you look at the camera. This is art.

Renata smiled with a shadow of sadness. She turned the pages herself until she stopped at a different woman: brunette, full lips, messy mane of hair, photographed in a studio stripped bare except for a black bodysuit.

—That’s Nadia —she said—. We worked together in Capri.

—She’s gorgeous.

—She was.

The silence between them grew heavy with something Carmen couldn’t name. She closed the book carefully.

—There are more photos, aren’t there? The ones you don’t show me.

Renata bit her lip.

—If you really want to see them, it’ll have to be at my place. They’re not the kind of photos you carry around.

***

They both had the Saturday off. Carmen went up to Renata’s small apartment under the excuse of having a drink, though they both knew what they were really there for. Renata made a couple of gin and tonics, put on low music, and took a cardboard box from a shelf.

The second book was larger and heavier. The very first image stole Carmen’s breath: Renata lying on a white sheet, completely naked except for a fine gold chain, her back barely arched, her firm breasts pointing at the ceiling, nipples hard, her shaved cunt just barely parting between her half-open thighs.

—Jesus… —Carmen whispered.

She turned the page. Renata standing in front of a window, wrapped in a transparent fabric the breeze threatened to tear away, revealing the perfect triangle of her pubis and the pink shadow of her sex. Another: sprawled on a dark velvet sofa, one leg bent, her shaved cunt on display, lips slightly parted as if they’d just been kissed. Not a single photo was vulgar. Everything was considered, composed, beautiful. And even so, Carmen felt her mouth go dry and her panties dampen.

—Now I get what you meant —she said, never taking her eyes off the paper.

—About what?

—That they’re not photos for just anyone.

Renata took the book back and replaced it with another, thinner one, almost hidden at the bottom of the box. She held it for a moment, as if letting go of it were difficult.

—This one’s different.

The first image left Carmen speechless. Renata and Nadia on a chaise longue beside an infinity pool overlooking the sea. Nadia topless, her big brown breasts exposed; Renata with the bottom of her bikini sliding down her hips, revealing the start of the crease of her ass. They weren’t touching, but the distance between their bodies was pure electricity.

—You’re not touching her —Carmen observed, her voice barely there.

—Not in that one, no.

Carmen turned the page. Nadia behind Renata, hands on her waist, lips brushing her neck, a thumb already grazing a hard nipple. And then another, and another: the caresses, the laughter a breath apart, Nadia’s tongue licking a nipple while Renata threw her head back, mouth open. Another: Nadia kneeling between Renata’s legs, face buried in her pussy, and Renata gripping her hair with both hands. Carmen stared at that photo longer than she cared to admit, feeling her pulse race between her legs.

—This isn’t a photo shoot —she said at last.

—No. It wasn’t.

Carmen looked up slowly.

—Did you sleep with her?

Renata held her gaze.

—Twice. In Capri. I ate her out whole and she ate me. We came until we had no saliva left.

Carmen downed her drink in one gulp. Her heart was racing, her nipples tugging at the fabric of her bra, and she didn’t fully understand why.

***

Renata poured another round and sat closer, her legs tucked up on the sofa.

—I’ve shocked you —she said.

—No. —Carmen shook her head—. You’ve made me think.

—About what?

Carmen turned the glass in her hands, watching the ice melt.

—I’ve only ever slept with my husband —she confessed suddenly—. In my whole life. I haven’t even kissed another man since I got married. I got pregnant at twenty, did what was expected of me, and since then everything has been… proper. Comfortable. Dead.

—Dead how?

—Dead as in he fucks me on Saturdays with the light off, comes inside me in two minutes, and rolls over to snore. He doesn’t even remember I’ve got a cunt too, and sometimes I’d like him to touch it.

Renata listened without interrupting, eyes fixed on her.

—I love him —Carmen went on—. Truly. But I’ve spent years sleeping beside a man who eats dinner watching TV and touches me on Saturdays like he’s ticking off a chore. And now I’m over forty and it terrifies me to think I’m never going to know what it’s like to be mad with desire for someone. That nobody’s ever going to lick my cunt the way they do in movies. That I’m going to die without ever knowing what it feels like to really come, because of another person.

—You’ve never come with him?

—Alone, with my fingers, when he’s asleep. With him, almost never.

—You’re not old —Renata said softly—. And you’re very beautiful, Carmen. You’ve got gorgeous tits, an ass that makes men turn their heads in the street, and you don’t know it.

—I’m not young either.

—And what does age have to do with this?

Carmen looked at her. Renata was very close now, their knees almost touching, her eyes shining with something that made Carmen nervous.

—Those photos —Carmen said, swallowing—. Yours with Nadia. They made me feel things I didn’t expect.

—What kind of things?

—Don’t make me say it.

—Say it.

Carmen closed her eyes for a second.

—They got me horny —she admitted—. I’d never even thought about what it would be like to be with a woman. And now I can’t stop thinking about the photo where she’s eating your pussy. About the look on your face. About the way you were gripping her hair. I’ve got soaked panties, Renata.

Renata smiled slowly, without mockery.

—You don’t need to be ashamed. What you feel is real.

—I’ve had too much to drink for this.

—It’s not the gin, and you know it.

***

Renata leaned in until her lips almost brushed Carmen’s. She waited a beat, giving her room to pull away. Carmen didn’t.

The kiss was soft at first, more a question than an answer. Carmen held her breath, rigid, and then, little by little, felt something give inside her. Renata cupped the back of her neck with one hand and deepened the kiss, sliding her tongue between Carmen’s lips with calm ease, searching for hers, sucking it slowly. This time it was Carmen who went looking for more, who let out a muffled moan into Renata’s mouth and bit her lower lip without thinking.

—Shhh —Renata murmured when she felt her trembling—. Let go. Surrender. I’m going to eat you whole, Carmen.

She kissed her neck slowly while unbuttoning her blouse button by button. Carmen kept her eyes closed, hands still in her lap, as if moving would break the spell. Renata slid one hand down her back and unclasped her bra with an ease that made her shiver. She parted the cups and saw her breasts for the first time: white, larger than they looked under clothes, pink nipples already hard and prickling with desire.

—Fuck, what tits you’ve got —Renata whispered—. And you’ve spent years showing them to a man who doesn’t know what he has.

She lowered her mouth and bit one nipple gently, sucking it fully into her mouth, tugging it with her lips. Carmen arched and let out a long gasp, gripping the sofa back with both hands. Renata moved to the other breast and worked it the same way, sucking, licking the nipple, tracing circles with the tip of her tongue until Carmen had both nipples shiny with saliva and so hard they hurt.

—Look at me —she asked.

Carmen opened her eyes. Renata had stood up and was unbuttoning her shirt with deliberate calm. She removed it, slipped off her black lace bra, and let it fall to the floor beside her heels. Carmen took in her naked breasts, the dark erect nipples, the narrow waist, the flat stomach, and felt a thick heat rise from her belly to her cunt.

Renata swayed her hips to the music and slowly pulled off her stockings, as if she had all the time in the world. Then she hooked her thumbs in her black panties and slid them down her legs until they fell to the floor. Carmen lost her breath. Renata’s cunt was completely shaved, her pink lips glossy, swollen with arousal, parted just enough to reveal the darker pink inside. When she finished undressing, she sat in front of Carmen on the edge of the table, legs slightly apart, saying nothing. The invitation needed no words.

—I don’t know what to do —Carmen whispered.

—You don’t have to do anything. Just feel. Then it’ll be my turn.

Renata returned to the sofa and finished taking Carmen’s blouse off her shoulders. She kissed the tops of her breasts, sucked on the nipples again one after the other, and Carmen let out a moan that sounded more like surprise than pleasure. It was different. A woman’s mouth was softer, more patient, it knew exactly when to stop and when to insist, how to suck a nipple until your legs went weak all on their own.

—God… —Carmen panted, gripping the sofa back—. No one’s ever sucked my tits like that.

Renata bit her neck, kissed her way down her sternum inch by inch, and knelt on the rug between her legs. She hiked Carmen’s skirt up to her waist and saw her cotton panties, darkened with wetness in the center.

—You’re soaked, Carmen —she murmured—. Your pussy lips are showing through your panties.

Carmen almost closed her legs by instinct, but Renata stroked the inside of her thighs with her fingertips until she relaxed them again. She kissed over the fabric, blew slowly over the wet cunt, and Carmen felt a jolt that made her hair stand on end.

—Do you want me to stop? —she asked.

—No —Carmen said, almost voiceless—. Don’t stop. Please, don’t stop.

Renata hooked the panties with her teeth and pulled them down slowly, biting the skin of Carmen’s thigh along the way. When she finally saw her cunt, she paused a moment to look: pink lips, with trimmed brown hair but not shaved, shining with wetness, the clitoris already peeking out, swollen.

—What a beautiful cunt you’ve got, Carmen. What a waste.

Before Carmen could answer, Renata lowered her mouth and gave her one long, slow lick from the entrance to the clitoris. Carmen threw her head back and let out a long moan, stunned by what she was feeling. Renata’s tongue traced slow circles over the clitoral hood, then slipped between the lips, sucking, rising again. She read every reaction, only increasing the intensity when she felt Carmen lifting her hips to meet her.

—I didn’t know… —Carmen babbled— I didn’t know it could be like this. Fuck, fuck, fuck…

Renata answered not with words. She spread Carmen’s pussy lips with two fingers and sucked her clitoris in fully, tugging it with her lips, flicking it with soft lashes from the tip of her tongue. She slid one finger inside her, curling it upward, searching for that spot Carmen didn’t even know she had. When she found it, Carmen let out a choked cry and bucked all over.

—There, there, don’t move from there, God…

Renata slid in a second finger and started fucking her slowly, while her tongue never stopped working her clitoris. Carmen felt the whole floor tilt. She clutched Renata’s hair, no longer ashamed, moving against her face, pushing her cunt against Renata’s mouth, chasing something she’d been giving up on for far too long.

—I’m going to come —she gasped—, I’m going to come, I’m going to…

Renata moaned against her cunt and quickened her fingers, tongue pressed hard to the clitoris. The orgasm took her by surprise like a wave breaking before you see it coming. Carmen arched on the sofa, squeezed her thighs around Renata’s head, and stayed there trembling, breath ragged and eyes wet, while waves of pleasure surged up from her cunt to the nape of her neck. She felt herself come in a gush against Renata’s mouth, soaking her chin, unable to control it.

Renata didn’t pull away. She kept licking gently, drinking everything Carmen gave her, stretching the orgasm out until Carmen had to push her head away because she couldn’t take any more.

***

Renata climbed up beside her and held her while the tremors faded. Her lips and chin were shiny with Carmen’s juices, and she didn’t bother wiping them off. Carmen’s face was flushed, and she wore a smile she couldn’t contain.

—I can’t believe what I just did —she said, laughing and covering her eyes with her forearm—. Or what I just felt.

—Do you regret it?

Carmen lowered her arm and looked at her. Renata, naked, hair tousled, nipples still hard and her cunt glistening with wetness between her thighs, seemed to Carmen like the most alive thing she had touched in years.

—No —she said—. And that’s what scares me most.

Renata brushed a strand of hair off her forehead and ran her thumb over her lips. Carmen sucked it without thinking, tasting herself on her friend’s skin.

—Then don’t think about what comes after. Tonight is only ours. And you still haven’t touched me yet.

Carmen turned toward her, still learning, still trembling, and slid an uncertain hand over her friend’s belly until she reached the shaved cunt. She could feel it burning, dripping, the swollen lips waiting for her. Renata closed her eyes and spread her legs a little wider, letting herself be opened.

—Put them in —she whispered—. Two fingers. Slowly.

Carmen obeyed, trembling. She sank two fingers into Renata’s cunt and felt the hot flesh close around them, felt the juice run down her wrist. Renata moaned and took her hand, showing her the rhythm, teaching her how to curl her fingers, how to rub her thumb over the clitoris at the same time.

—Like that, like that, don’t stop…

Carmen grew bolder. She lowered her head and, without thinking too much, sucked on one of Renata’s dark nipples while continuing to finger her. Renata let out a hoarse cry, clutched the sofa back, and started moving against Carmen’s hand. Within minutes she was coming too, clamping her thighs around her friend’s wrist, gasping Carmen’s name into her hair.

When they finally calmed down, they remained entwined on the sofa, naked, sweaty, legs tangled together. Renata kissed her shoulder tenderly and Carmen kept looking at her face, still disbelieving. For the first time in a long while, she didn’t feel like she was fulfilling anyone’s expectation. She felt that, at last, it was her turn.