UNIQUE LOVE (G X G) Completed

CHAPTER: 8

The staff area of the hotel was emptier than Zeenia had yet to see it. Without even so much as a bell-boy pushing his way through the back hallways, Zeenia felt like she was walking through an abandoned building as opposed to a bustling hotel on a weekend. At least this means it will be a quiet night, she thought. A full night's sleep was what she really needed.

She had her keycard out already as she turned the corner and skipped up the staircase to her room. The shadows on the top landing stirred, but she paid no attention to them. No one else was ever up there, she knew that.

Until that night.

Zeenia nearly had a heart attack as she stepped off the stairs and saw a figure lingering in the far corner.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, hand clasped over her chest. Shanaya glided across the floor, face illuminated by the shallow lights. Zeenia only recognized her from her stature and black jacket. "How did you get here?"

"Does it matter?" Shanaya's voice was gentler than Zeenia anticipated.

"Yes!" 

A grin graced that young face. "No, it doesn't."

"I beg to..." 

Before Zeenia could finish her sentence, a finger pressed against her lips, silencing her. Zeenia went cross-eyed staring at Shanaya's hand touching her in an intimate way...again. Who is she? Even for someone her age, Shanaya was more brazen than the average person. Zeenia wondered what does she want? Money? This was a bizarre way to get it. Zeenia was one phone call away from summoning the security.

And yet...

Between that touch and that look searing into her, she couldn't bring herself to demand that Shanaya leave her alone. Zeenia knew that look. She had seen it a hundred times before, on women who knew what they wanted. It was the universal expression of suggestive desire.

Shanaya plucked the card key out of Zeenia's hand and turned to the door. Zeenia watched as the young woman unlocked and opened the door. Her body was halfway through it when she glanced over her shoulder and raised her eyebrows.

Chills flurried inside Zeenia's chest. What is going on? That was the answer her brain wanted to know. Her intuition, however? It knew. It had known from the moment Shanaya came to her at the restaurant.

Shanaya let her hand linger on the doorknob before disappearing. Zeenia shook her head and grabbed the edge of the open door. "Wait a minute," she said. "This is a private room."

The door latched shut behind her. A single light was on in the main room of the 'Mascarenhas suite, but it was dim, glowing. Shanaya stood at the end of the bed, fingers caressing the cream-colored comforter. The key card lay on the dressing table.

Shanaya waited for Zeenia to come near her before spinning around, chin up and eyes narrow. She gave an intense stare into Zeenia's face, making her tremble without touching her. It reminded her of the type of look she liked from a certain friend in California, who dominated her better than anyone she knew. She liked that. Otherwise, women usually wanted to be submissive in Zeenia's bed.

Silently, Shanaya picked the front edges of Zeenia's blazer and pulled her closer, until their bodies were as close as they had been in the hotel lobby earlier that afternoon. But this was different. Back then Zeenia reacted on instinct, adrenaline-pumping, and increasing her strength. Now she functioned on uncertainty, although her heart raced for a different reason though. One of Shanaya's hands followed it's course down Zeenia's hip and interlocked with her fingers. The more Shanaya touched her, the more she...

It took Zeenia into a trance, the kind that sucked her down further, further into the floor, where she was a slave to the woman gazing upon her with serene desire. Zeenia couldn't move unless Shanaya touched her. Then she could only move away from her, afraid to be too caught up in those hypnotic eyes. But the only way to go was to the bed, and so Zeenia sat on its edge, hand still in Shanaya's. Her feet were anchored to the floor for as long as the trance lasted.

Although she said not a word, Shanaya's behavior spoke volumes. She looked upon Zeenia with knowledge, so assured of herself, she moved her limbs with the elegance of a graceful dancer. Shanaya slipped her leg between Zeenia's, leaning forward as she wrapped her arms around the back of a hot, shivering head. Zeenia had picked up many one nightstands before in bars, clubs, even conferences, but she had never done something like this...whatever this was.

Shanaya was rasping and breathing heavily. She took Zeenia's hand and placed it on her stomach, fingers instinctively curling around her thick belt. 

Zeenia could not stop staring at the inward navel poking out from beneath a T-shirt. She is so thin, Zeenia thought. The trance inside her intensified. Her hand was guided beneath the soft cotton of Shanaya's shirt, cruising up her abdomen and stopping beneath her breasts. Oh, God.

Though Zeenia didn't believe in any deities, she could not help but call upon them when on the brink of madness.

Shanaya pushed her over the edge when she bent down and kissed Zeenia on the forehead.

Gentle, so gentle. Zeenia could not believe it was the same woman who thrashed about and screamed injustice earlier. Now she was the pinnacle of demure. Shanaya cupped her free hand around Zeenia's cheek and caressed her skin, lulling her to close her eyes.

Even gentler, Shanaya kissed Zeenia between the eyes, and then slowly went down the bridge of her nose, past her cleft, and then...

Those lips were as full and as warm as life itself.

Out of all the first kisses that Zeenia had experienced over the years, this was near the top. Shanaya directed her chin upward, forcing Zeenia to feel like she was falling backward into her bed. She was caught with another peck to the lips, and then another until they subsequently devoured the last of her rationalization.

She didn't know who this woman was, how she had found her, or what she ultimately wanted. But she knew the warmth washing over her was unlike anything she felt in years.

Shanaya kissed her again, lips parting and tongue skimming the surface of Zeenia's mouth.

There was a thin line between careful attention and displaying passion, and Zeenia was always one who trod it with fear and anxiety. But when this woman covered her face with tender kisses and folded their tongues together, hands roaming into her hair, Zeenia saw that line and broke it in half. With one push of her head, she kissed Shanaya back, pulling her into her lap and relishing in the oncoming storm that was brewing inside her.

Zeenia felt as if she had always known Shanaya. Nothing about the way Shanayas body curved beneath Zeenia's hands surprised her, and yet she explored her, as they kissed and rocked together on the edge of the bed.

Although Zeenia was the anchor, the way Shanaya enveloped her in this embrace reminded her of how she best liked to make love; together with no clear roles or dues. It was as if Shanaya had been knowing her. Absurd. If Zeenia recalled correctly, she never shared her name.

Zeenia's hand was everywhere beneath Shanaya's T-shirt by now, but not high enough to feel her breasts. As her fingertips touched the edge of a lacy bra, Shanaya sighed into her mouth and pulled away. Zeenia could only stare in utter disbelief as Shanaya stood at the foot of the bed again, the mischief disappearing from her flushed demeanor.

For a moment they exchanged looks as heavy as the heat in the room. Apparently Shanaya felt it for herself, for she slowly, so slowly that Zeenia knew it was done on purpose, shed her jacket and let it fall to the floor. Zeenia's eyes went straight to the well-toned muscles lining Shanaya's arms. She is a dancer, Zeenia thought. She is as refined as a dancer, in the way she lifted her shirt above her head and tossed it onto her jacket. Looking at her in her bra made Zeenia catch her breath. She averted her eyes to Shanaya's face and then to her hands, as they unzipped her jeans.

Zeenia felt like she was watching a movie, so detached was she from reality that she could only gaze at Shanaya as if this were a scintillating recording. The jeans came down to Shanaya's feet, revealing her lean, muscular legs. Was she an athlete? Zeenia wondered.

The next thought Zeenia had was that she wanted nothing more than to touch Shanaya's bare skin.