I fell in love with Annie the first moment I saw her. I knew I shouldn't have since I had been raised that girls shouldn't love girls, but that had never stopped me before and she was so beautiful! And it mattered not at all to me that she was blind. She was tall and willowy with long strawberry blond hair that she kept brushed back from her face and clubbed in a pony tail most of the time. Her skin was translucent with just a dusting of angel kiss freckles across her nose and on her cheeks. It was hard to tell what colour her eyes were when I first saw her because she wore dark glasses most of the time, and the first few times I saw her eyes without her glasses they were so cloudy as to be more muddy grey than anything else.

I first met Annie when she applied for a job as a stenographer. She came in with the application already filled out and she moved so easily that I didn't notice at first that she was blind. She stretched the application across my desk and I took it from her and told her to go sit down. She smiled and my heart skipped; a taste like copper came into the back of my mouth and a flicker of imagination showed this beautiful woman standing before me unclothed .. and then it was gone.

`Can you tell me where the waiting area is?' She asked. That is when I noticed the folded white cane in her other hand.

`Oh, sorry,' I stood up. `Here, let me help you.'

`No need. Just tell me "back" or "front", "left" or "right."'

`Oh. OK. There is a couch back a couple of steps and to your right.'

She flashed that heart stopping smile again, stepped back and let her cane unfold. She made a ninety degree right turn with the cane extended then took a couple of short steps until the cane touched the base of the couch then she turned and sat primly, knees together, dark blue straight skirt perfectly to the bend of her knees.

###

The company didn't want to hire Annie, saying that she couldn't possibly do the job but she simply smiled and said, `Test me.' They did and her fingers flew over the keys of the steno-machine without missing as much as a comma. When they still stalled she said, `I will be a great asset to you, and if you don't hire me because I am blind I will take you to court for discrimination.'

She got the job. I felt like cheering.

Weeks passed and Annie fit in fine, though she kept mostly to herself. I watched and wished and dreamed I was holding her and petting her soft hair every night, but I knew that it would never happen and knowing that made me sad. I often cried with desire and then would go to bed and find myself thinking about her so much that I could not sleep. My centre would grow warm and wet and the coppery taste of desire would stay in the back of my mouth until I could not stop myself from caressing myself. As I touched my body I pictured her long fingered hands caressing me from hair to feet and imagined that I felt the satiny roughness of her tongue circling my nipples. But not only did I want her to touch me I wanted to touch her. I wanted to kiss her angel kissed face and trail those kisses down her throat between her breasts. I wanted to lance the point of my tongue into her navel and draw a line of sweetness down the canter of her tummy to bury my face in the soft nest of strawberry blond curls between her legs. As my fingers rolled the jewel in the canter of my flame and dipped and stroked the essence welling from within me I pictured my lovely Annie's face between my legs until the clenching of relief burst within me and let me sleep.

In a strange way a sort of connection developed between Annie and me. We were somehow alike and could talk easily, and I was about the only one she talked to. As I said, she rather kept to herself, but that may have been because not too many of the others in the office seemed willing to talk to the self-assured blind girl who had threatened to take the bosses to court, but I talked with her every chance I got. Just to be near her was wonderful. Her smile and her soft contralto voice were like honey and I was a bear cub drawn to the sweetness.

Despite the initial resistance, hostility, and threats, Annie quickly became a favourite among the executives. After all, she was beautiful and talented, so the executives, who were mostly men, flocked to her. A few times there were rumours that some of the men had made passes at her but that she had shut them down with the same efficiency she seemed to do everything else. That was only partly true. Most of the men who had hit on her had taken the hint when she made it clear she wasn't interested, but there was one who didn't.

David was the office Lothario and he had hit on every woman who worked there, even me, though I have been told I am rather dyke-ish, and have always been very plain. Clearly he only hit on me for the sake of his male ego, and to prove to the other guys that he could have any woman in the office. He wasn't really interested because when I agreed to meet him for a drink after work he didn't show. But when Annie made it clear that she wanted nothing to do with him he just could not let it go at that. He began to continually bother her, even putting his hands on her.

One day I went into the restroom and found Annie sitting on the couch. She was clearly shaken and had been crying because she tried to wipe her eyes when she heard the swish of the door and my steps. I sat down beside her and asked what was wrong. She leaned into me and I took her in my arms to comfort her. She was shaking and in a moment she began to sob again. I caressed her soft hair and held her tight while making comforting noises until she calmed down and told me, `David grabbed me in the hall and put his hand between my legs. I was so frightened! I almost peed in my pants.'

`Are you sure it was David?'

`I could smell that nasty cologne he wears.'

`Then let's have him arrested. That is sexual assault! He could go to prison for it. At least you need to tell the boss about it and threaten to sue for sexual harassment.'

`No! I don't want to do that. I had such a hard time getting this job and if I start making waves like that now I will lose it sure as anything.'

`But Honey! You can't let him get away with this. And they wouldn't dare fire you!'

`I just want to have it done with.'

I was puzzled by why this self confident lady who had fought to get the job and to keep the job was suddenly unwilling to fight a battle that she could easily win so I began to probe gently. `If you have him arrested he'd go to jail for sure Annie. Why not at least threaten him with it?'

`I have my reasons.'

`I don't understand.'

She pulled away from me and, after a moment's hesitation, said, `Karen, can you keep a secret?'

`Any thing, Honey. If you want to kill that bastard I'll help you and no one will ever know.'

She smiled for the first time. `No, that isn't it, though it isn't a bad idea. I just...Karen, I don't like men.'

`I don't wonder, after the way that asshole acted.'

`No, I mean I don't "like" men. I "like" women.'

My heart fluttered and a bolt of electricity went through me from my head to my middle. `You mean.. I mean, you.. you're a lesbian?'

She turned her beautiful face away from me and said, `Please don't hate me Karen. I just... I've always. I tried letting a boy... you know, but it was just so disgusting!'

`Annie, I don't hate you! I love you!' I turned her face back to me, lifted her chin and gently kissed her. She seemed shocked at first but after a second she returned the kiss with enthusiasm. `I've loved you from the first second I saw you...' I told her when our kiss finished. `... but what does your being a lesbian have to do with not reporting David?'

`There might be a trial and I would have to testify and lawyers would go digging through my life and tell everybody that I'm a queer and it would kill my Mom and Dad. They are very religious and...'

`OK, OK, OK. I think you're worrying about nothing but I understand.'

We sat in silence for a few moments, then I said, `Annie, let me see what I can do about this mess. Will you trust me?'

`No police or sexual harassment reports or anything like that?'

`No, I promise.'

`All right. I already told you my secret so I guess I'll trust you.'

I smiled. `You know my secret too. Do you want to share more? Like dinner? Tonight?'

She hesitated only a moment then said, `We can go right after work.'

###

I began my campaign against David a few moments after Annie and I left the Ladies Room. I went to my friend Ronnie, who was openly, flagrantly, gay, and asked if I could use his name.

`What have you got cooking, Karen?' He asked.

I told him what David had done to Annie omitting Annie's reasons for not wanting to go to the police, and told him what I had in mind. `And you don't really have to do anything but deny the story.'

Ronnie grinned crookedly. `It would be my pleasure. I hate that homo-phobic prick.'

The major reason most men feel the need to hit on every woman they see is because they have secret doubts about their own masculinity so I took dead aim at David's. I whispered in the ear of one of the secretaries who I knew to be a gossip that I had seen David holding hands with Ronnie; then I swore her to secrecy. That was all it took. By the time Annie and I left at five there were already whispers and glances going toward David.

###

Annie and I sat toying with our wine glasses and talking after dinner. "I've known since I was a little girl," I said. "Never had a doubt. When all my girlfriends were gushing about this boy or that boy, it was Sarah that made me tingle. Trouble was that Sarah was hetero to a fault. She wound up pregnant before she finished high-school. Broke my heart."

`Have you ever... you know... had a lover?' Annie asked and blushed.

`A few, but nothing permanent. You?'

`No. I mean a little when I was away at camp but it wasn't, you know?'

Since Annie and I had sat down across the table from one another I had been feeling the tingle of wanton desire just below the elastic of my panties; now hearing that she was so inexperienced the tingling grew and I could feel the warm sex-liquor begin to flow between my legs. I took a sip of wine and plunged ahead. `Annie, I want to make love to you.'

`Really?' She asked, as though she could not believe it.

`Yes, really.'

After a moment she said, `Please make love to me Karen.'

I called for the dinner check.

###

I took her to my apartment and held her close as we rode up in the elevator. She seemed nervous but receptive. I didn't want to rush or alarm her so I was being very careful. I kissed her neck and then brushed my lips against hers. A tiny shiver passed through her and into my hand as the elevator door opened.

Inside my door I carefully took her coat and laid it upon the couch. `Would you like another glass of wine, Annie?'

`No,' she answered, her voice deep, soft, and breathy.

I kissed her again, this time more firmly and she answered with a kiss of her own. I touched the tip of my tongue to her lips and they opened to me. Our tongues touched and caressed and wound `round one another. Her mouth was sweet with the taste of wine and warm as May.

Annie was wearing a simple white blouse with pearl buttons and a dark magenta skirt and as we kissed I reached behind her to undo the button and unzip her skirt. She let it fall around her feet, as I ran my fingers across the small of her back then down and beneath the elastic of her panties. Her skin was more silken than the nylon of her panties and the swell of her bottom was alive with the feeling of strong muscle beneath the skin when I squeezed.

After a few seconds more of caressing her back and bottom I moved my hands, still inside her panties, to the sides and began pushing them down, kneeling in front of her as I did so. Just as I had seen in my fantasies her pubic hair was fluffy and a slightly darker ginger than the hair of her head. Clearly this wonderful nest of curls had never been shaved or even trimmed for the flesh beneath was smooth with no razor marks or stubble. `God that is beautiful,' I breathed as I placed a kiss upon the mark the elastic of her panties had left on her skin.

Annie shivered with the touch of my lips and brought her hands around to caress the back of my head, as though holding me to her. I began trailing kisses down the canter of her mons de Venus and ended by stabbing the point of my tongue into the fold of her. A sigh of breath escaped her and she moved her feet a little wider apart so that my tongue could reach deeper, and the rich sea smell of her excitement rolled forth like an incoming tide.

`Karen I want to touch you,' she said. `I want to kiss you like you are kissing me.'

I stood and kissed her on the mouth again, once more swirling my tongue around hers. `Come,' I said and lead her to the bed room.

We undressed and lay on the bed kissing and caressing. Her breasts were smaller than mine and the nipples were rose pink. They crinkled and stood like baby finger-tips with her excitement as I ran my tongue around them, and after a moment she moaned and pushed my mouth away.

`Let me taste yours now,' she begged, and moved down to lick and suck my nipples without waiting for my permission.

As her pixie tongue sent flickers of electricity through me I lifted my knee between her legs and pressed it against her. When she felt the pressure of it her hips jumped, stroking her opened sex along my thigh. I could feel the warm wetness of it like oil on the skin of my leg, and my own tide of excitement trickled out to coat the inside of my thighs.

Annie began to trail kisses down my stomach as I had earlier done to her and in a few moments I turned onto my back and opened my legs to her. The first touch of her tongue against my jewel was like an explosion of warmth behind my navel that fountained up to my breasts and cascaded down to my canter I found that I had been holding my breath and when Annie's kitten-rough tongue stroked down and speared into me the air rushed from my lungs with a moan and my hips jumped forward to open myself more to her. I wanted her to never stop, but after a moment I pulled myself away and said, "Annie, lie on your back like I was. I want to taste you as you taste me."

`Oh Yes...' she said. `Oh Yes...' She took my place with knees opened wide and I placed my knees on each side of her head, lowering myself until I began to feel her kisses once again before I drove my tongue into her. Her inner lips were the colour of coral beads and swollen with desire pushing the outer lips open. The ginger curls that fringed the orchid of her sex were soaked and darkened with her nectar. Some of the curls were clumped together and plastered to her skin like spit curls and the aroma that rose from her was a rich musk such as I had never smelled before. It filled my whole body with each breath as though it were a drug. I began kissing and stroking and tonguing and sucking and as I lost myself in Annie I felt her greedy mouth doing the same as she lost herself in me.

I do not know which of us climaxed first. I like to think that we were so in tune that we exploded in the same instant, but I found myself gasping for breath as my whole body clenched over and over in a symphonic orgasm that stole all my strength and made me collapse with my face still buried between Annie's legs.

###

Annie stayed the night. We spent the hours alternately making love and quietly whispering and petting until it was time to go to work.

`Karen, I'm scared,' She said. `David --`

`Is not going to be a problem much longer, I promise. He may try to hit on you again but I will keep an eye on him. I figure he will last a couple more weeks at most.'

And it was true. The whispers about David and Ronnie grew louder and louder and every time Ronnie denied that there was anything between them the sniggering around the office got a little more pronounced. David did indeed hit on Annie again but I was around when it began and when I lifted an eyebrow at him and smiled I could see him deflate like a balloon. At last some one else complained to the boss that David was sexually harassing them. I made sure the whispers said it was Ronnie and that was the end. David found work elsewhere and Annie I still laugh about it all these years later.

© Copyright 2007 Geoff Chaucer

chaucer48@earthlink.net