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  Jameson pulled his son back into his embrace. “Now you’re being silly.”

  Buddy Bud snuggled into Jameson’s chest. “You’re the bestest dad ever!”

  Jameson’s heart swelled. “I hope so, Bud. I hope so.” He found himself once again glancing at the picture of Lily. This time it was to thank her. For giving me this beautiful boy.

  “Hey!” Buddy Bud said, twisting around in a panic. “Where’s the card?”

  Jameson whipped the card from beneath Buddy Bud’s leg. “Ta-dah!”

  Buddy Bud studied the drawing on the front. “I’m glad they’re in love.”

  “You sure?”

  “Yup. ’Cuz I have you to love—and you’re a handful!”

  Laughing, Jameson gave his son a bear hug.

  “Not so tight!” Buddy Bud squealed.

  Jameson released him and straightened out the now skewed thick-framed glasses. “You can still love them, you know.”

  Buddy Bud rolled his eyes. “No duh, Dad.” With that, he slid from the couch to check on Mrs. Spider.

  MJ Williamz is the author of over twenty-five published short stories, mostly lesbian erotica with a few horror and a couple of romances thrown in for good measure. Most recently she had a short erotic story, “Guard Duty,” in the Women in Uniform anthology, which was released earlier this year. Her first novel, Shots Fired, was released in 2008. Kyla and Echo from “Making New Memories” first appeared in that novel. Visit MJ’s website-in-progress at www.mjwilliamz.com.

  Making New Memories

  MJ Williamz

  “I think now would be a good time to open this.”

  Echo handed the rectangular package to Kyla, who was sitting next to her on the bearskin rug. Kyla smiled and shook it.

  “Don’t worry. It won’t break,” Echo said.

  Kyla reached under the tree and pulled out a long, narrow package. “And this is your special present from me.”

  “Open yours first,” Echo urged.

  Kyla started to untie the ribbon, then paused. “Can you believe it’s been a year?”

  “Some days, it seems forever ago, and some days, it feels like it just happened. I’m so thankful you came out of it all unscathed in the long run.”

  “Overall.”

  Echo remembered the horrible day the prior January when a deranged child molester had shot Kyla in the head and caused her to roll her car, resulting in short-term amnesia, broken ribs, and a broken leg. She gestured to the package. “Open.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” Kyla took off the ribbon and carefully unwrapped the present that Echo had obviously had someone else wrap for her. Echo’s skills did not include gift-wrapping. When she removed the top, she smiled broadly at the red satin teddy with black lace trim that lay in wait for her.

  “Go try it on,” Echo encouraged.

  She didn’t have to ask twice. Kyla disappeared into the downstairs half-bath and quickly changed. She swept her dark blond hair into a clip and walked out of the bathroom to the appreciative look in her lover’s dark blue eyes.

  “Dear God, you’re beautiful.”

  Kyla stepped into Echo’s waiting arms and welcomed a soft, tender kiss. The kiss soon grew more passionate as their tongues tangled, dancing in a rhythm perfected during years of practice.

  “Thank you for putting your hair up,” Echo murmured as she kissed Kyla’s exposed neck.

  “I know how much you like it.” Kyla tilted her head to the side to allow Echo easier access to the spot at the base of her neck.

  “And I know what this does to you.”

  “Remember last Valentine’s Day?” Echo kissed the smooth slope of Kyla’s shoulder. “You didn’t even want to have dinner with me.”

  Kyla pulled Echo on top of her on the bearskin rug. “We’ve come a long way since then.”

  “Mmm-hmm.” Echo moved the black lace strap down Kyla’s arm and kissed the area left bare. Despite having been together almost twenty years, after the attack they’d had to go back to the beginning and relearn each other’s bodies. It hadn’t always been easy with Kyla’s ribs and leg to consider, but finally, they knew each other’s desires and weaknesses again like they knew their own.

  “God, I hope Colton doesn’t come home,” Kyla said.

  “Babe, we have nothing to worry about. He’s fifteen and has spent the last three Christmas Eves at his cousin’s. We’re the last thing on his mind. Now relax.”

  Echo kissed along the edge of the teddy, slowing when she reached the area just above Kyla’s half-exposed breasts. She licked and nibbled the pert tops, reveling in the softness of her woman.

  Kyla guided Echo’s head to the valley created there, but Echo gave her one last kiss before biting her way down Kyla’s satin-clad stomach. When she got below Kyla’s belly button, Kyla was mewing in anticipation. She spread her legs and gently pressed the top of Echo’s head, urging her onward.

  Echo licked long and hard over the satin that covered Kyla’s mons, occasionally teasing lower. When neither woman could take it any longer, Echo rested her head on Kyla’s inner thigh and undid the snaps that separated her from where she wanted to be. She took a moment to admire the glistening pussy that called to her, already so wet with need. She separated the swollen lips and lazily ran her tongue between them, eliciting a low moan from her partner. She traced Kyla’s shaft and circled the head of her clit with her tongue, causing Kyla to raise her hips and move against her.

  Echo laughed, her warm breath caressing Kyla’s clit.

  “Easy, baby. We’ve got all night.”

  She pushed the teddy over Kyla’s soft belly, trailing kisses as she did, knowing how tiny kisses right there aroused her. She moved the teddy up and over Kyla’s waiting breasts and bent to take one erect nipple in her mouth while twisting and tugging on the other with her finger and thumb.

  Kyla’s fingers were laced through Echo’s hair, her grip holding her mouth firmly in place. Echo had no intention of moving as her teeth gently held the upright nub and her tongue flicked across its tip. She sucked the nipple deeper, taking the tip of Kyla’s breast in her mouth and running her tongue over it.

  “You’re going to leave a mark,” Kyla whispered.

  “Who’s going to see?” Echo released her grip and sat up, pulling Kyla with her. “Help me with this.” Together they got the teddy over Kyla’s head, and Echo kissed Kyla hard on the mouth. She didn’t bother to remove her sweatshirt or jeans, but laid Kyla back down and covered her body with her own. She pressed her knee between Kyla’s legs, and wetness soaked through her jeans as they moved together, never breaking the kiss.

  Echo propped herself up and caressed Kyla’s body. “I can never get enough of you,” she whispered.

  “I hope you always feel that way.” Kyla frantically pulled at Echo’s sweatshirt. Once she had it off, she kneaded and fondled Echo’s breasts as they kissed.

  Kyla writhed against Echo’s leg, her frantic movements signaling she was getting close. Echo nibbled and kissed back down Kyla’s neck and chest until she reached a hardened nipple once again. She closed her lips around it and circled the tip with her tongue, causing Kyla to move faster against her knee.

  She slid her hand lower, over Kyla’s belly and down to her smoothly shaved pubis. Tantalizingly slowly, she dragged her hand back up to Kyla’s belly button and back down again, stopping just above her clit.

  As her hand began another upward path, Kyla said hoarsely, “I swear to God, Echo, if you don’t touch me soon, I’m going to do this on my own.”

  “As much as I’d like to watch that…” Echo gave in and slipped her hand between her leg and Kyla. She stroked her clit as Kyla closed her eyes and let out a moan. Echo found Kyla covered in juices and couldn’t resist dipping her fingers inside. Two fingers slid in easily, and she moved them in and out quickly several times before adding another.

  “Yes. God, Echo. Please.”

  Echo moved between Kyla’s legs. “Put your legs over my shoulders.”
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br />   Kyla happily obliged, and Echo bent to lick her while she thrust her fingers deeper. She squeezed them together as she drove them in, then separated them as she pulled them out, all the while sucking Kayla’s clit and glancing over it with her teeth.

  Kyla writhed on the floor, pressing into Echo.

  “God, I’m so close.”

  Echo began lapping at Kyla’s hardened clit in the same rhythm as her fingers moved in and out. Kyla bucked her hips against Echo, keeping time, each buck harder than the one before.

  It wasn’t long before Kyla shook from head to toe, screaming Echo’s name.

  When Kyla’s orgasm subsided, Echo held her and whispered, “Merry Christmas, baby.”

  Kyla smiled back. “And now it’s time for you to open your present.”

  Originally from Cuba, Ali Vali has retained much of her family’s traditions and language and uses them frequently in her stories. Having her father read her stories and poetry before bed every night as a child infused her with a love of reading, which carries till today. She has discovered that living in Louisiana provides plenty of material to draw from in creating her novels and short stories. Ali currently lives outside New Orleans, Louisiana.

  A Ghost of Christmas Past

  Ali Vali

  “Are you free later?” Julia Johnson watched her lover Poppy Valente put on socks. After six months of seeing Poppy dressed casually with bare feet, she still wasn’t used to this corporate side of her.

  Poppy slipped her feet into her loafers and stood brushing off her dark navy pinstripe pants. “I’ll be happy to reschedule anything for you, so give me a time and location, and I’ll be there.”

  Going to work was easy now since they’d moved into the penthouse suite in the Piquant after returning to New Orleans from Carly’s Sound. For Julia, the move had been a whirlwind that had separated her from her brother Rayford, who was thriving in his job on Carly’s Sound, and from her grandmother Tallulah, who’d returned to Texas. Arriving back at the Piquant made her think of the first stay there, when her future had appeared so limited and bleak. Of course, a trip for coffee with a colicky baby had changed her entire landscape.

  “If you’re busy, don’t worry about it,” Julia said, smiling when her daughter Tallulah came crawling in and pulled herself up when she reached Poppy, who immediately picked her up. Of all the changes in her life, the most welcome was how much she loved seeing Poppy with Tallulah.

  “I’ll never be too busy for you,” Poppy kissed Tallulah’s hand, “or for this beautiful girl.”

  “It can keep. I just remembered Elizabeth said you two were finalizing the contracts on the Nice property.”

  Tallulah squealed when Poppy tickled her stomach. “You okay?” Poppy asked as she put Tallulah back on the floor.

  “I’m fine.” She slid her arms around Poppy’s waist under her jacket. “Your mom’s coming over later so I can help the crew finish up the Christmas decorations in the lobby and outside.”

  “Are you bucking for a management job?”

  “More like I’m trying to wrap up that girlfriend job.” She smiled as she said it and felt the weight of the ring Poppy had given her, but the wonderful cocoon of Carly’s Sound was gone. Now she was living in the city where Poppy’s great love affair with her deceased partner Carly had started, and everyone in Poppy’s life remembered the “golden couple.”

  “That one you can forget about.” Poppy framed her face before kissing her. “You’ve been put under long-term contract.” She took her time on the next kiss and Julia’s concerns melted away—at least until their lips parted and Poppy left for her office on the third floor of the hotel.

  “I know you love us,” she said to the empty room as she picked Tallulah up, “but Carly has left a long shadow.” One she figured she’d live in if she spent her life with Poppy. “But a life without sunlight is better than one without her. Right, baby girl?”

  She spun Tallulah around, getting her to smile, and wished she could chase her own sadness away as easily.

  *

  “Are you sure about this?” Elizabeth Johnson, Carly’s daughter and the CEO of Valente Resorts, placed a stack of papers in front of Poppy.

  “Not really, but I can’t ask Julia to live in the house I shared with your mother.” Poppy stared at the address at the top of the page, her mind reeling through the memories she and Carly had made in that home. Carly’s presence, Carly’s incredible love, had made it home. “I’d rather it go to you than put it on the market.”

  “I want you to be happy.” Elizabeth hugged Poppy from behind. “And I don’t want to take something you love away from you.”

  “I’ll visit when I miss our furniture, and remember that I’m giving it to you, so stop feeling guilty. Who knows,” she took a deep breath and signed in all the required places, “maybe with a bigger place, you’ll have room for Susanna and all your shoes.”

  “We’re not to that point yet,” Elizabeth said softly. “I don’t want to rush anything since we work together as well.”

  “Lizzie,” she said, putting her pen down and opening her arms to hold her. “You’re brilliant at what you do, but you need to separate the different parts of your life.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You can structure the business so it eliminates problems before they arise, but you can’t do that in your personal life.” She led Elizabeth to the leather sofa in the corner of the office and sat with her arm around her. “The only things you can do to avoid total catastrophe is to be faithful and love with total abandon.”

  “Is that why Mom always looked so happy?” Elizabeth’s eyes shimmered with unshed tears. “She never looked happy until you came into her life.”

  “Your mama was a unique woman who loved your father, but eventually her trust in him was broken, and sometimes, no matter the time and effort, that can’t be repaired.” She combed Elizabeth’s hair from her face. “When she lost that trust, she found her happiness in you and your siblings. Carly Valente was a magnificent partner, but her legacy is you. The happiness you saw was always there even before I came into her life. She always told me motherhood nurtured her soul.”

  “You can admit you had a lot to do with what brought her joy.”

  “I’m not a genius, but I was smart enough to know what a gift she was.” Poppy stared at the picture on her credenza next to the one of Julia and Tallulah—Carly sat on a bar stool in the bar she regularly played in. The expression on Carly’s face was to her the definition of love. “She filled my life so completely that I couldn’t imagine my life without her in it.”

  “I never could figure out Daddy’s behavior, but Mom got what she deserved before she died.”

  “Thanks for saying that. I want you to feel that way about yourself. You deserve someone who’ll make you happy and fill all those empty places in your heart, but to get that you have to be willing to take a chance.” She kissed Elizabeth’s forehead and hugged her. “Take your mom’s example in that. Even if it doesn’t work out, fate gives you more than once chance. If Susanna is it for you, we’ll figure out something so work doesn’t become an issue. And if she hurts you, I’ll find some place in Siberia for her to transfer to.”

  “Sus hates the cold,” Elizabeth said, laughing.

  “She’ll be fine as long as she’s sure about what she’s doing, and what the consequences of hurting you are.”

  “Don’t threaten her.” Elizabeth pointed at her. “Promise me she’s not going to make this decision based on fear.”

  “If she’s smart, she’ll work hard to get this right because of the girl, and how lucky she is you’re interested. Just remember to set your heart free and it’ll make all this worthwhile. The job, the real estate…all of it is better enjoyed when you share it with someone you love.”

  “Thanks for the pep talk,” Elizabeth said, giving Poppy a squeeze. “I love you.”

  “I love you, too, and your mom was right.”

  “About what?”
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  “She left behind a beautiful legacy who now brings me joy. And if you want my advice, I think Susanna is a good choice.”

  “Remember your promise, though. No threats.”

  “As long as she behaves, I swear,” Poppy said, tapping over her heart.

  *

  Julia hurried to the elevator, needing to get away after unintentionally overhearing Poppy discussing Carly with Elizabeth.

  She filled my life so completely that I couldn’t imagine my life without her in it.

  She couldn’t pretend to be surprised. She’d said yes without hesitation when Poppy had proposed, with full knowledge of Poppy’s past. Hearing Poppy describe Carly like that didn’t change her mind about staying, but Poppy’s feelings cemented her fear of always being the runner-up. She thanked the doorman when he opened the door that led out to the valet car entrance.

  “Julia.”

  Julia stopped and regarded the elegant older woman standing next to the open door of a Town Car with a smile that made her smile back.

  “I’m sorry,” she said when she didn’t recognize the woman right off.

  “Nothing to be sorry for, sugar, since it’s me who should apologize for taking so long to come and introduce myself. I’m Emily St. Claire, and your Poppy did a wonderful job of describing you. She’s right, you are beautiful.”

  Emily St. Claire, the grande dame of New Orleans society. The story of Poppy and Carly’s tango and the start of Poppy’s long and close relationship with Emily popped into Julia’s head. One too many memories of Poppy and Carly, and in the next instant, she was crying.

  “I think lunch is in order.” Emily slid her arm around Julia as if she wasn’t sobbing and guided her into the car.

  Fortunately, Emily’s driver headed uptown past the mansions of St. Charles Avenue at a pace that allowed her to try to get over her embarrassment while focusing on the great craftsmanship most new construction didn’t have.