The day Ashley attended her father’s funeral was almost the best day of her life. Almost, except for the fact that her father’s last wishes had stipulated very specifically that she be made to wear a suit and attend under a name she hadn’t used in years. The old man had made her life a living hell, but he had money, and a big house that she stood to inherit, so Ashley grit her teeth and put up with it.

The funeral was a quiet affair. Beneath the red maples that dotted the family graveyard, not a single eye was wet. Ashley shifted on a hard wooden chair in her—rented—suit and was surprised that even a dozen people had bothered to show up. Her father had made a name for himself in the grocery business, but where it had brought him riches it had never gained him friends.

Once the droning priest had finished his sermon—delivered while casting angry glances Ashley’s way—and the coffin was lowered, those few who had shown up were quick to leave. Their expensive cars left a trail of dust leading from the graveyard back to the highway. The priest gave a few words to the only two who remained, and then himself departed.

Ashley was left alone among the gravestones with her step-mother. She had kept quiet the entire funeral, and her face was kept pinched into a mask devoid of emotion. Ashley could have forgotten she was there, were it not for the pointed questions the others had asked about the “mother and daughter” where they had expected a son.

Where Ashley was lean and tall, her step-mother was short and curvy. While Ashley had trouble filling her b-cup bra, her step-mother gathered shameless stares wherever she. Her eyes were blue while Ashley’s were brown, blonde curly hair while Ashley’s was straight and black, and above all didn’t have a penis, which was really all that anyone cared about when comparing the two.

Ashley watched her step-mother glide across the graveyard silhouetted by the sun setting behind the maples. A feeling of dread gathered in her stomach. gave Ashley a feeling of dread. She stopped just short of Ashley, and looked up at her with wide eyes. Up close, her face was as smooth as porcelain and unmarked by age. It was a reminder of the most uncomfortable similarity the two of them shared, and just about the only one: they were very nearly the same age.

“Hey, mom,” Ashley said at last, tugging at the collar of her suit.

Her-step mother shook her head. “Your father’s not around anymore, you can just call me Emily,” she said. “Don’t worry, you’re still Ashley with me.”

“Thanks,” Ashley said, and felt her shoulders relax.

Emily looked around, and smoothed out her inky black dress. “I wanted to tell you that you’re free to stay at the house tonight. It’s cheaper than a hotel.”

Ashley opened her mouth to tell her she didn’t need the charity, but her stomach answered for her with a growl. Emily smiled and nodded. “Let’s get inside, I bet still know where all the cooking stuff is.” Emily sighed. “Your father never liked to cook, so I doubt he moved them since the last time I was here.”

Together, though not side by side, they walked across the uncut grass that led from the little family cemetery to her father’s house itself. It’d been built to be what her grandfather had imagined the home of a wealthy man should look like. The house was massive, with four floors that soared above the grass and as deep from its entrance as the caves a couple hours south. It was decorated with just about every material, from brick to wood to stone that had once been kept like new but begun to age with the death of their owner.

The house’s front yard was decorated with a lone bradford pear, awash in white spring blooms. Ashley’s nose wrinkled when she walked past; like everything to do with the house, it stank like rotten fish despite its looks. She hurried after Emily, up the front steps and into her father’s house.

Inside, Emily pushed aside boxes full of ad flyers and quarterly reports that had been piled around the entryway. Beneath the boxes the wooden floor had begun to warp, and her father had used the mess to hide the water-stained walls he’d never gotten around to repairing. The living room was even worse, with more boxes piled high with newspapers, trinkets, and old trash gathered around her father’s ancient recliner. Someone had put a sheet over it after the coroner had come to collect the body from its final resting place.

“Sorry about the mess,” Emily mumbled, taking care to step around the worst and smelliest piles. “Your father liked cleaning as much as cooking. I tried to get him to hire a maid, but you know how he is.” She swallowed. “Was.”

“Oh, I know.” Ashley cleared away a pile of manila folders and sat at the old kitchen table. It was a big wooden thing where her father had spent his mornings screaming at the people on his laptop. The rest of the kitchen looked almost untouched. The only sign he’d even used the room was a rusty latte machine covered in coffee stains.

Her step-mother opened the tall, stainless-steel fridge, wrinkled her nose, and closed it. “I guess no one bothered to clean up after they found him,” she said. “Nothing but rotten food.” She opened the freezer, frowned, then pulled out a box with a smiling Italian man. “You up for frozen pizza? If not, I can try seeing if there’s a local place that delivers. Even this far out from Louisville there’s got to be at least something…”

Ashley checked her phone, and frowned. Still barely a signal. “Frozen pizza is fine,” she said. “If that doesn’t work out I can get something on my way back in the morning.”

While the pizza cooked in the oven, Emily sat across from Ashley. Under the harsh white lights of the kitchen, Ashley saw the beginnings of middle age spreading across Emily’s face. Some small part of her wanted to feel triumph in that, but even in her early thirties her step-mother was a pretty woman. An ache Ashley told herself was just jealousy throbbed inside.

Emily fumbled with the wedding ring on her hand, twisting it back and forth. It was a big ugly thing covered in diamonds that Ashley’s father had crowed about for weeks. The wedding had been no less ostentatious, but that was back when her father had had money—and friends.

Emily checked her phone—covered with a bright pink case, of course—and tried her best to smile at Ashley. “So, how’ve you been?” Emily asked. “We, that is, your father and I, didn’t get to see you much since you graduated from UK. I know I should have texted you more…”

“Been fine,” Ashley replied, “just busy with work. Last job I had wanted me to move to California, but I like Chicago more. Now I’m working at a new place; working on a moving company’s app.”

“Oh, an app?” Emily cooed. “Now that’s exciting.”

“Not really. It’s tedious.”

A moment of silence passed between them. Emily, apparently not able to let the quiet win, got up and hurried over to one of the cupboards. “You thirsty?” she asked. “The freezer’s still making ice, and it looks like we’ve got bottles of soda and water in the pantry.”

The memory of spending a couple puking her guts out as a kid because her dad had neglected to get the water pipes fixed crossed Ashley’s mind. “Soda’s fine,” she said, and accepted a cold glass of it when Emily returned. She, like Ashley, had opted against testing the water.

“So, what’s Chicago like?” Emily said between sips. “I’ve been in Louisville the past couple years and it still feels too big to me sometimes. I can’t imagine what it’s like living somewhere that big....”

Ashley shrugged. “It’s alright.” She swirled her glass and watched the ice twinkle under the light. “Noisy, and rent’s always too high. Plus, it’s so cold every winter I think I’m going to freeze to death.” A smile began to rise across her face. “But it’s nice. I like it. The people are kind, and they treat me like…me. It’s the first place I’ve ever felt safe.”

Her step-mother grinned and clapped her hands together. “I’m glad to hear it,” she said. “I know things weren’t easy for you here, but it’s good you found yourself. You look better, too.”

“Better?” Ashley asked.

“Prettier,” Emily purred, “and happier.” She got up to get the pizza while the oven started beeping. “You seeing anyone?” she asked while putting on oven mitts. “A boy? Or girl? Or, well, other? I forgot what you call them these days.”

Ashley’s heart skipped a beat, and she looked away so Emily wouldn’t see her face. “Non-binary,” she said, “and no, not right now. I’ve just been trying to focus on work and keeping things together.” She rubbed her shoulder and looked away. The conversation was off, but she couldn’t figure out why. Something about the way Emily was talking to her made her ears burn, which only added to the discomfort. “There was a girl in college, but once she found out about me, she took it like dad.”

Emily sat down and slid a plate piled high with pizza in front of Ashley. “I’m sorry,” she said. “That’s not right, especially these days. I hope you know I feel that way.”

Ashley did her best to not respond, she really did. She munched on her pizza, downed her drink, and even tried to check her phone again. Unfortunately, her mouth had a mind of its own. “Even if you do, you sure didn’t say anything when dad drove to the college, threatened to kill me, and then cut me off.”

She had expected her step-mother to respond in defiance, to give her a speech about not being grateful, but instead the shorter woman wilted in her chair.

“You’re right,” Emily said. She bowed her head and her shoulders shook when she spoke. “I didn’t do enough. I thought I could fix him, but I ended up living in Louisville with my sister because he got sick of me.” She shoved her plate away and put her head in her hands. “Look at me, I thought sharing a frozen fucking pizza could help us reconnect.”

Ashley kept munching on her pizza and tried not to stare. “Did you really want to reconnect over a funeral?” she asked. “What’s the point? We’re step-family, and our only connection was a man who died hating us both. I’m only here to try to figure out how to get my inheritance and what you want from me in the process.”

“I don’t want your inheritance. I don’t want any of it,” her step-mother responded in a low voice. “I just, I don’t know, wanted some sort of closure. Something to make this all right.”

Ashley stuffed her hands in her pockets to hide the way they were shaking at the news. She rose from her seat while Emily sat with her head resting against the tabletop. “Not everything has a happy ending,” she said. “If you need me, I’m going to go figure out if my room is still habitable.” Ashley stretched and looked out the kitchen window towards her car on the front lawn. “I’ll be gone in the morning and we can just forget this whole conversation, okay?”

Emily didn’t answer. Ashley left her there and ascended two flights of stairs to the room she’d last seen in her nightmares.

---

Her step-mother found her an hour later, leaning against the railing of the upstairs deck. It was a pointless addition to the house, a little balcony set between her parents’ room and her own that looked out over nothing but trees, but she was thankful for a place to get some air away from the front yard.

The suit was still wrapped around her like a straightjacket, but she’d at least managed to get the tie off and toss it from the balcony. She heard her step-mother step out onto the balcony behind her, but didn’t turn to greet her.

“I remember you used to come out here a lot before you went to college,” Emily said. The sunset lit up the wide Kentucky sky with brilliant oranges and violets. “I thought you were just…lonely. I didn’t understand back then.”

A cool wind blew over the trees, the last dying breath of winter. Ashley shivered and gripped the balcony’s railing with both hands until her knuckles turned white. Then, she let out a breath. “It’s fine,” she said.

Emily stepped beside her and leaned against the railing. In its dying breath the setting sun wrapped her in a soft glow like its favored child. “You don’t have to say that, I understand. I overstepped.”

“No, no, I get it.” Ashley rubbed the bridge of her nose. “I get it. To you, I was the mopey son of a rich guy who had just given you what you’d always wanted. If I’d been happy, it would’ve been perfect. Anyone would be unhappy in that situation.”

Her step-mother frowned. “I was young,” she said. “Younger than you are now. Your father…when he and I were dating, he was everything I could have dreamed of: smart, sophisticated, handsome, and rich. I was looking at working a register for the rest of my life because I failed out of college, and he saved me from that while promising the world.” She joined Ashley in looking out over the rolling forest bursting with spring. “I thought I could be the mother he said you needed, and that we could have a real family together. I was naïve.”

Ashley sighed and turned away from the view to look straight at Emily. “My dad took advantage of you. He did that to a lot of people, especially pretty young women.”

There was quiet for a moment. Emily dabbed at her eyes, then broke the silence with a sigh. “Yes. I see that now.” She shook her head. “I didn’t want to. I thought that it was because no one could see him like I did. Even when he yelled, even when he told me to get out until I fixed myself, I couldn’t see it.” She swallowed and blinked rapidly. “Even when he put his hands on me. I couldn’t see what everyone else did.”

She began to cry, but when Ashley reached for her Emily turned away. “No, no, I still fucked up,” Emily said. “I failed you, when you needed a mother the most, and I can’t make up for that. I just wish I could have seen it before all of…this.” She gestured to the silent house beneath them, and the even quieter forest that lay in every direction.

Ashley rubbed her own eyes and groaned. “I meant what I said in the kitchen,” she said. “The only thing that united us as family was a man who hurt us both. It only brings us pain.” Emily started to speak up again, to apologize Ashley figured, so she held up a hand to stop her. “So why don’t we just…try this again? Not as step-mother and step-daughter, but just… friends. People. Something.”

She shook her head. “You get what I mean,” Ashley continued. “So, why don’t we just try to be two women sharing an old asshole’s house for the night?”

Emily sniffed, but eventually nodded while wiping her nose on the sleeve of her dress. “Okay, I can try that. New start, right?”

“Yeah, new start,” Ashley said.

The sun disappeared behind the horizon while Ashley led Emily away from the balcony. They stepped into the room she’d shared with her father, which was thankfully almost clean. “Your father must have just slept in his chair,” Emily said, which sounded just like him.

His bedroom was the same Ashley’s grandfather had used, and hadn’t changed much since that time. There was a crappy analog tv on a stand in one corner, and a massive dresser in the other. Its windows were covered up by sheet and closet door lay open with random clothes strewn around inside. In the center, though, lay the one good thing her father had owned: a massive bed covered in sheets made of real silk and pillows stuffed with goose feathers.

Ashley sat on the edge of the bed and looked down at herself. “I have never so badly wanted to rip off my clothes in my whole life,” she said. “I don’t know if he made do this because he thought it’d make me a man, or because he just wanted to hurt me one last time.”

Emily disappeared into the closet and came back holding a baby blue nightgown. She offered it to Ashley with a small, sad smile. “When I left here, I was in enough of a hurry that I forgot some of my stuff. I hope it fits.”

“Thanks.” Ashley shuffled in place until Emily got the idea.

“Right, I’ll go take a bath and leave you alone,” Emily said quickly. “I need to wash today off.”

Once the door to the master bath was shut, Ashley’s whole body sagged in relief. Nothing had felt better in her life than ripping off the last suit her father made her wear. In her rush she managed to just about strangle herself with the tie and ripped the fabric all over. She balled what was left in her hands and threw it in the corner with a triumphant cry. Once it was all off, she lay back on the bed for a minute and let the silk touch her skin. She shivered. No more suit, no more deadname, and no more dad reminding her he could end her life with a phone call.

After a while she forced herself to get off the bed. She had allowed herself to wear her own underwear to the funeral, and for once had an excuse not to tuck. Though given how tight the lacy black panties were, they practically did the tucking for her. She sat up and looked at the nightgown Emily had given her. It was girly with a little collar and lace all over. She sighed and began to slip it on, hoping it would let her sleep with some measure of peace.

Before she could get it on, however, a loud cry came from the bathroom. Ashley stumbled up, halfway in and out of the nightgown, and rushed through the door to find Emily struggling in the bath, sputtering and coughing while water ran down her face and through her hair.

Ashley tried to shout something reassuring, but it came out like a scream. She tore open wooden cabinets beneath the sink in search of a towel, but Emily kept squealing and splashing around so she did the only thing she could and grabbed her step-mother in a bear hug until she calmed down.

“Hey, hey, it’s okay, nothing here is going to hurt you,” Ashley said, the words escaping her lips before she knew she had said them. “You’ll be okay. I promise.”

After a couple minutes of shaking, Emily finally lay still in Ashley’s arms, gasping for breath. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” she kept repeating like a prayer, until Ashley had to shush her and brush her hair back. Finally, Emily slowed her breath and tucked her knees to her chest.

“What happened?” Ashley asked. She sat on the bathroom tile with her bare back against the door to give Emily some room.

At first, Emily didn’t look her in the eye. “Bad memories.” She talked with her eyes closed. “A lot of them. I thought I could handle being back here, even if just for a day.” Her head lifted and she looked at Ashley with eyes so pale they could have been ice. “I put off coming back until the day of the funeral because I thought I could handle it, but I was wrong. I’m sorry.” She began to laugh and wiped away wet strands of hair that had plastered to her forehead. “You’re the one who was forced to be here and to go through so much, but I’m the one exploding on you. It’s embarrassing.”

Ashley found herself laughing along with her. “It’s not embarrassing to show you’re hurt. We just have different ways of doing that.”

“I’m shivering, naked, and cold in front of my step-…in front of you,” Emily bemoaned. “I don’t think it gets more embarrassing than that.”

“Then let’s get you up.” Ashley rose and offered Emily a hand. For a moment she thought Emily would refuse, she relented and stood up. She used one arm to cover her chest, while the other grabbed a towel and managed to hold it over her crotch.

They walked out of the bathroom together and headed for the waiting bed. When Ashley tried to let go of her hand, Emily almost fell. Ashley caught her mid-fall and tried to get her a reassuring smile. “It’s okay, you just need to lay down.”

Emily didn’t object.

Once she had lowered her step-mother onto the bed, Ashley pulled a blanket over her and got up to leave. She picked up the nightgown from where she’d left it on the floor, but before she could open the door Emily groaned.

“Don’t go on my account,” Emily called out. “I know…your bedroom hurts. Don’t go back because of me.”

“I’ll be fine,” Ashley shot back.

“You stood on that balcony for an hour in a suit so you wouldn’t have to go in,” Emily said. “Please, stay. I promise, we’ll be okay. We can just rest.” She sat up in the bed and held a hand out. “I don’t understand why you don’t want to, but I want to make things right.”

Ashley leaned against the door frame, unable to look back. “I didn’t come back here to be nice, just to make money,” she told her. “Now I’m realizing you’re a good person. I don’t know what to do about that.”

“Is that so bad?”

Her hand fell from the doorknob and Ashley sighed. “No,” she admitted. She walked back to the bed and sat on its edge. The air was cool on her naked skin, and suddenly the gown felt stiff and rough in her hands. “Alright, what now?” she asked.

“This is a big bed,” Emily said. “There’s plenty of room for us both.”

“The floor is fine,” Ashley replied.

Emily reached again for Ashley’s hand, but Ashley pulled away. “If this is your last night here, at least spend it in a nice bed,” Emily pleaded. “After everything, you deserve that. Please, don’t deny yourself nice things over me.”

“Fine.” She ran a weary hand through her hair and took up the side of the bed next to Emily. After everything that day, Ashley’s body was heavy. She settled back and pulled the covers over her. “Satisfied?” she asked.

“As much as I can be,” Emily said. “Goodnight, Ashley.”

Hearing that name, in spite of everything, made Ashley’s heart stir. “Goodnight,” she replied.

---

As much as Ashley wished, sleep did not come. She tossed and turned, but the aches of the day did not leave. She gripped her arms around herself. Her arms felt too skinny, and she could feel the way her hands were too large and bony; the kind she kept hidden whenever she could. Ashley’s chest swelled with two oddly-shaped lumps, and her stomach managed to somehow be too thin and too round at the same time, above hips that were straight as an arrow.

The house creaked in the night and each noise brought a new memory of terrors. The first time her father had found her girls’ clothes, the first time she had tried to tell a friend the truth, and the first time she had looked at herself, really looked at herself, and sobbed.

“Hey,” a voice whispered from the darkness. When Ashley didn’t respond it called out again, “Ashley, you’re shaking.”

It was only when warm arms wrapped around her that Ashley let out a small cry. She turned her head away even as Emily pulled her close. “I don’t need help,” she told the darkness. “I’ll be fine.”

The other woman let out a low “hmmm” and then ran one of her soft hands through Ashley’s hair. “You helped me earlier, it wouldn’t be right if I didn’t pay you back,” she said.

“That was different,” Ashley said.

“How?”

“It just is.” Ashley grumbled, but didn’t move to untangle Emily’s arms from being wrapped around her. “You’re…different. Soft. Pretty. Girls like me don’t get that.”

Another “hmmm” and more brushing of her hair. What annoyed Ashley the most is feeling another woman’s hand in her hair did make her calm down. Her shoulders lowered and her jaw unclenched. She kept her eyes turned away, though, in a last futile attempt to refuse to accept that Emily was comforting her.

“I understand that you mean because you’re a trans woman,” Emily said at last, “and I know I played a part in that.”

“Yeah,” Ashley said, which was a terrible response but she was afraid what would happen if more than one word escaped her mouth.

Emily cleared her throat and pulled Ashley’s head onto her chest. “I couldn’t sleep, either. All I could think of is where I went wrong, and what I can try to do to improve things.” Her heartbeat pounded in Ashley’s ear. “I guess what I’m saying is, I really want to make things better between us. As two women. Two pretty women, at that.” She chuckled. “Christ, we’re only five years apart. You’re as old as my sister, and I’m only just in my thirties. It shouldn’t be this weird between us.”

Ashley finally looked up at the other woman, with her chin on Emily’s chest squarely in the middle of her tits, and gave her a knowing look. “I’m resting mostly naked on your chest, step-mom. I think we are past weird.”

From the look on her face, Emily hadn’t considered their situation carefully until that moment. Her face lit up red, though she didn’t pull back. “I thought you said that the step-mom stuff didn’t matter!” she cried.

Ashley pulled back, but only just a little. “It doesn’t, I’m just joking. It’s just how I cope with things lately.” She nuzzled her cheek against the soft spot between Emily’s tits and gave a little “hmmm” of her own. “Maybe it’s because I’m gay, but this is the first thing that hasn’t made me feel like shit in years.”

After a moment to revel in the teasing, Ashley looked into Emily’s eyes and tilted her head to one side. “Seriously, though, what are we doing? It feels like we’ve been having trauma ping-pong all night, and I’d like to have something, anything else. So, are we just going to sleep or keep doing…whatever this is?”

“I don’t know what this is,” Emily confessed. “I just, I don’t know, sort of grabbed you. I wasn’t thinking. I just saw a beautiful woman in need of help and the first thing I could think of was to hold you. If I’d thought about it more, I don’t know what I would have done.”

Ashley pulled her up until she was kneeling over Emily, her knees on both sides of the other woman’s waist. “I think too much,” Ashley said. “I keep wanting to be a bitch to you, to say shit that makes you yell at me so I can abandon this part of my life entirely.” The words tumbled out like a dam had finally broke. “I want you to scream at me and call me a tranny and tell me you’ll never love me, but you keep refusing to and instead you’re nice and fucked up like me, and really hot, so it’s got me all messed up inside.” She swallowed hard. “I don’t know what to do.”

“And what do your instincts tell you to do?” Emily asked.

“I want to feel you against me again, and to kiss you, and to try not to throw away the one fucking good thing I’ve had since I moved out with the one person who treats me like I am who I want to be.”

Emily pressed a hand up to Ashley’s cheek and wiped a thumb over her lips. “I think you should listen to your instincts.”

The lump in Ashley’s stomach threatened to rise out of her throat, so she kept swallowing between words. “But that’s wrong, isn’t it? The two of us, this whole situation, the bed we’re in…”

“Ashley?”

“Yeah?”

“Just kiss me.”

So, she did. Ashley leaned down over Emily and kissed her while their chests touched. Ashley’s small tits were swallowed up by Emily’s, and the older woman’s breath was hot on Ashley’s tongue. She kissed Emily without opening her eyes, afraid that if she stopped the dream would end.

Emily’s hands snaked around her and pressed against Ashley’s back. They roamed around, rubbing her shoulders, before moving down to the small of her back while threatening to go lower.

“Is this okay?” Emily asked between kisses.

Gasping for breath, Ashley could only nod and squeal when Emily’s soft, warm hands grabbed her ass. Estrogen had, thankfully, been kinder to her there than the rest of her, and she had a bit of heft for Emily to tease, pinch, and slap. Emily patted Ashley’s ass and giggled at the sounds the younger woman made. “I suppose we’re not just stopping at kissing, are we?” she asked.

Ashley’s face flushed as she could feel the outline of her cock strain hard against her panties, and even in her shame couldn’t help but lean down to desperately rub the bulge against Emily’s naked crotch. “I’m sorry,” she whined, but Emily silenced her with another kiss.

“If we’re going to go this far, I want to at least have fun,” Emily said in Ashley’s ear. “You’re a woman, I’m a woman, we’re just fucking, right?” When Ashley nodded, Emily smiled and went back to spreading her legs so Ashley could grind on her wet cunt like an eager dog.

In the dark, Ashley could barely see Emily. She had to use her hands to feel around, to grasp at Emily’s hips, and raise her own while the shorter woman tugged Ashley’s panties off. Her cock sprung forth dripping and leaking. It throbbed so hard it felt like it was caught in a vice, and Ashley whimpered in response.

Emily ran her fingers along the veiny shaft; in the dark Ashley could hear her smile. “It’s okay, you’re a gorgeous woman no matter what you have. If you don’t want to use this, I swear I left one of my vibes around here…”

“No, no, it’s fine,” Ashley gasped. “I don’t mind using it, just guide me okay?”

“Because you can’t see or because you want me to take charge?”

Her face burning, Ashley whimpered again. “Please don’t make me answer that.”

“Alright sweetheart.” Emily kissed her cheek and took a firmer grasp of Ashley’s cock, her thumb rubbing softly over the head, and guided it closer. Ashley’s hips were eager, and she gently gasped and humped the air as soon as she felt the hair around Emily’s crotch brush over her. Her cunt was so wet it matted the hair down and its smell thickened the air.

Ashley squealed when her head finally met Emily’s cunt. The older woman’s lips parted and welcomed Ashley inside, squeezing her tight and meeting her cock’s throbbing with a beating heat. Emily made small gasps and groans of her own as Ashley’s full length eased into her. The hand not on her cock snaked up Ashley’s back and rubbed over her cheek.

“Forgive me if I’m rusty,” Emily said between gasps, “you’re the first woman I’ve been with since college.”

A ripple of heat and light slid its way up towards Ashley’s brain and she moaned while her toes curled. “Same here, but I think we’re doing okay,” she groaned in Emily’s ear, her hips sliding deep into Emily as her length would allow, until she ground her hips into Emily’s. Her body moved as if it were possessed, Ashley only able to cling to Emily so hard her fingernails made marks in Emily’s shoulders.

She began thrusting inside Emily like a woman possessed, a bitch in heat, until the older woman took her close in both hands and guided her into a steady rhythm. Emily pressed one hand to Ashley’s chest, groping her tits, and gently slowed her speed until it was enough to manage. Her other hand slipped a finger between Ashley’s cheeks to toy with and finger her asshole. Emily probed inside with just the tip of her pointer, but when Ashley responded with whiny moans she pushed the whole digit in.

“That’s it, you feel so good honey,” Emily squealed between moans. “It’s just us, just focus on being inside me, okay sweetie? I’ll guide you, just let it feel good. I’ll show you where to go…”

Her words dripped heavily over Ashley’s brain. She shivered and let Emily guide her. Another finger slid inside Ashley and it made her whimper like a puppy. She could feel Emily’s smile and felt the warm hand on her chest slip down to her side. It rested on Ashley’s boney hip and kept Ashley moving in firm, hard thrusts that slid her cock in deep, shivering thrusts.

“Now, lean down,” Emily ordered, and Ashley complied. Emily offered her tit, her nipple hard and bright pink even in the dark. “Just put your mouth here, you know what to do.”

She was right. Ashley’s lips locked around Emily’s nipple, her eyes closed, and she suckled in time with her thrusts. Emily groaned and pressed her hips up to meet Ashley’s with renewed fervor. The fingers in Ashley’s ass begin to pump in and out, and Ashley felt Emily’s cunt squeeze her like she was being milked.

Ashley opened her eyes and looked into Emily’s, her question as pressing as it was silent. Emily nodded hurriedly and groaned. “Inside, it’s safe.” She pressed Ashley down into her as far as she go, and her legs locked around Ashley’s waist.

She didn’t last much longer from that. Ashley’s hips finally stopped moving for one last thrust, and her balls clenched. She let out a wholly inhuman sound as she emptied into Emily, years’ worth of frustration and need exploding into Emily’s cunt that clenched around her like a vice. Emily squealed and held Ashley inside until her cock finally stopped throbbing and began to soften, releasing squirts and streams of cum out of Emily’s cunt.

Once she had slid out of Emily, Ashley began to roll over, but Emily’s hands clung to her back and pulled her down. “No,” she said. “I…don’t leave. Stay with me, here, for the night. Please?”

In the barest light, Ashley saw Emily’s eyes shimmer, so she nodded and slid down to once more rest and snuggle her head on Ashley’s warm chest. “I can do that,” she said.

“Thank you,” Emily said, and then, a moment later, offered, “I liked that, Ashley.”

Ashley smiled. “I liked it too, Emily.”

---

In the end, there wasn’t much left to get from the house after the morning came. Ashley grabbed what she could from her father’s office, and called to get assurances from the bank and lawyer that they could handle selling the house and property. Emily made no objections, and instead packed her own car.

The blanket of the night lifted from their shoulders, they stayed quiet and kept out of each other’s way. It was only when Ashley had finished packing her car that Emily carefully edged up towards her.

“Going back to Chicago?” she asked.

Ashley nodded. “Someone else can sell the house and get me whatever dad had left. I don’t want to deal with it here.” She softened her gaze. “Where are you headed?”

Emily fiddled with the blonde curls that spilled down her shoulders. In just a t-shirt and shorts, she was a far cry from the dolled up widow she’d performed the day before. “I could go back to my sister’s,” she offered quietly, “but Debbie is always busy. I saved up enough to be comfortable for a while, but I’m not sure what I’ll do after that.”

Birds called to each other over the trees, and insects buzzed in the warm spring air. Whatever anger or bitterness that had once filled the air around the house was gone. The breeze smelled like a new world, and covered the stench from the rest of the house. Ashley looked towards the where the dirt road disappeared into the trees and snaked a path out towards the highway.

“My place in Chicago is small,” Ashley began. “It’s cramped, my neighbors are way too loud, and the water smells weird.” She leaned against her car and crossed her arms over her chest. In just a tank top in jeans, she felt like a weight had lifted from her shoulders. “Still, it’s home. The thing is, though, I don’t know if it’d have room for a step-mother.”

The older woman nodded and bit her lip. “I understand,” she said, and turned to go.

Ashley stepped in front of her. “But, maybe, it’d have enough room for a roommate,” she continued. “It wouldn’t be much, but it’d be a start.”

“Could I tell my roommate I love her?” Emily asked. “For real, this time.”

“I think I could include that in the roommate agreement.” Ashley tilted her head and smiled. “Does that work?”

Emily pushed passed the hand Ashley offered her to agree with a hug. “I’ll take it,” she said, and Ashley hugged her back.