or, Salting Bird Tales


for Lainie Stone, although it's not even mostly her fault


Bodie swaggered into CI5 headquarters, a smirk announcing the previous night's probable occupation to anyone who cared to look. Doyle glanced up from a cup of coffee in the rest room and grimaced. "Well, you look uncommonly pleased with yourself. Pat, wasn't it?"

"Yeh," Bodie answered, and privately offered up thanks that the name "Pat" was sufficiently ambiguous to hide the sex of last night's companion. Doyle could never be allowed to learn the truth about the partner that God and Cowley had provided. A shrug of the shoulders served to resettle the leather jacket that was pulling uncomfortably about the chest and arms; Bodie smirked again, reflecting with some pride that it was, after all, hard to find a jacket to fit someone of Bodie's rather heroic proportions.

"The Cow's got a job for us," said Doyle, snagging the only biscuit on the rest room tray. Bodie watched its disappearance wistfully. "Wanted to see us as soon as you got in."

"Well, I'm here," pointed out the ex-merc. "Let's go, then."

"Right." Doyle swigged the last of the coffee and chucked the styrofoam cup at the trash bin. She headed for the door, and Bodie, adjusting her jacket again, followed.

The job was a boring one, for all that Cowley had saved it for them. They staked out an IRA cell, sitting in the car and watching, and incidentally giving Bodie plenty of time to surreptitiously eye the svelte figure of Rae Doyle in the car beside her.

'Oh, Rae. What would you do if you knew how I felt about you? Dyke, manhater, lesbo--that's what you'd call me. I'm afraid; I can't stand the thought of you turning away from me. But it's getting so hard to keep silent. Pat's a nice girl, but she's not what I want.'

As if the thought had triggered something in Doyle's mind as well, she turned to her partner. "So tell me about Pat."

Sometimes Doyle was like this, wanting to know all about her partner's amorous adventures. Bodie allowed herself to hope that it meant Rae was perhaps a little possessive, even if not in the way she wanted. And, of course, the necessary untruths made her squirm.

"Oh, he's great. Hung like a horse, of course--wouldn't take anything less."

"Like 'em big, do you?" Rae slanted a green-eyed grin at her partner.

"Yeh." 'Like 'em busty and with lots of soft curly hair, like you, sunshine.' The aching pain of impossible dreams returned again, and Bodie grimaced.

"Bet they like you too. All tits and big blue eyes." Bodie started, not used to hearing her partner comment on her appearance in such a forthright way.

"Huh? Oh, of course. But--" The opportunity of putting into words what she had thought for so long was irresistible. "But the blokes must really go for you, with your hair and those deep green eyes. Like emeralds, they are." Doyle had never said much about any boyfriends, although Bodie had always assumed she must have dozens.

"Yeh," Doyle said, sounding preoccupied. "Listen, Bodie--I, uh..."

Bodie was beginning to feel an incredible hope. "Yeh, sunshine?"

"Do you...like me?" Doyle asked in a rush.

"'Course I do. Best partner I ever hard," Bodie answered.

"No, I mean...oh, damn it..." and then Doyle leaned over and kissed her. Bodie gasped with surprise and happiness.

"Doyle--Rae..."

Doyle gripped her face with both hands, running her fingers through the short dark hair. "I can't keep quiet any longer, partner. Wilhelmina Andrea Philippa Bodie, I love you. Your partner's fallen in love with you. What are you going to do about it?"

Bodie was too stunned to answer. All this time, all her fear, and Rae had been feeling exactly the same. 'Well, it makes sense. We're so close, I should have guessed that she'd want what I did.' Quickly, she collected herself and looked her partner in the eyes. "I love you too, Rae. Always have."

"Always?"

"Since the day Cowley partnered us. I couldn't stop thinking about your eyes, and your legs, and your mouth."

Rae kissed her again.

"Yes," said Bodie some minutes later. "Oh, please, yes." She couldn't stop herself from weaving her hands into Rae's auburn curls and claiming a kiss of her own from the ex-copper's tempting mouth.

The soft sound of rapid breathing filled the car's front seat, broken from time to time by tender murmurs. "Forty-two inches?" questioned Doyle, exploring with zest.

"Yeh." Bodie's pride in the fact was, surely, pardonable. "Bet you're so slim from that veggie diet you insist 's so good."

"Your eyes really are something. 'Specially up close..."

"Mmm, you're just soft enough and just tough enough. Nobody else has ever felt just right..."

"I'm getting wet." Rae giggled. "Now, why should that happen?"

"So'm I, but--" Bodie's answering giggle cut off sharply. "Who's that knocking on the door of our stakeout house? Does he look Irish to you?"

"Not very," said Doyle, surveying a West Indian with a salesman's sample case. No one answered the knock, and he eventually strode to the next door, and the next. "Right now we have a job to do. But--"

"My place tonight," said Bodie firmly.

"Oh, yes. Can't wait."

---

When they reached the garden flat, Bodie unlocked the double locks and closed them again behind herself and Rae. "Dinner, sunshine?"

"Are you kidding?" Rae cupped Bodie's jaw in a delicate, long-fingered hand. Bodie marveled that such dainty fingers could be so strong and accurate on the shooting range. Then she wondered what they would feel like on her clit. She gulped as she heard Rae say, "I'm hungry--but only for you."

Bodie gulped again. "Okay, Uh, have you done this before? With a woman, I mean?"

Doyle caught Bodie's head and looked into her eyes. "Never, doll. I've never wanted any woman but you," she whispered, gruff with passion. "You'll have to show me everything."

Bodie smiled wickedly. "Everything? It's a deal."

Two leather jackets, two shoulder holsters (one barely sufficient to snuggle around Bodie's ample breasts), two stylish flat pumps and two black leather boots later, Bodie could restrain herself no longer. "Let ME undress you, sunshine."

Rae's green-eyed grin blazed forth. "D'you really want to?"

"I really want to, Rae. I've wanted to undress you for years."

Rae grinned even more widely and stalked over to Bodie. "Now, Bodie. Now." Bodie lost no time in complying.

Naked, they embraced and kissed again. 'My lips are going to catch fire,' thought Bodie. 'No, my cunt is.' "Oh, Rae," she moaned.

"Oh, Bodie, I didn't know how good it could feel!" whispered Rae.

Bodie gathered her scattered wits. "You haven't felt anything yet, doll." She guided a willing Rae Doyle onto her flat's double bed and stretched out beside her. "Don't think about men at all. Just forget all about them." Bodie's hand slipped between Rae's slim thighs. "Here, just here. Feel that?"

Rae shuddered and gasped. "Ye... eh...essss. Oh, yes!"

Slippery, sweet, musky wetness welled up around Bodie's fingers. Rae panted and her hips began moving in an age-old rhythm of passion, the same passion with which the love between Hippolyta and Penthesilea, between Therese and Isabelle, between Patience and Sarah, had been sealed. She wriggled, moaning, and waves of sympathetic pleasure echoed through Bodie in time with the wet, sweet caresses she was bestowing on Rae's labia and clit.

'I'm going to come,' she thought in amazement. 'I'm going to come when she does!' Rae's soft moans only heightened Bodie's arousal, and Bodie, too, began to moan in the same rhythm, thrusting her pelvis and the curl-covered mound that led to her own deliciously-sensitive cunt against Rae's thigh. Rae spread her legs wider, giving Bodie more pressure just where she wanted it, and the duet of panting moans rose half an octave in pitch.

Bodie opened her eyes for a moment, savoring the pleasure of the woman beside her as well as her own. Rae's breasts were firm upthrust mounds, each tipped with a pink, erect nipple, each quivering slightly as Rae squirmed around Bodie's stroking and circling fingers. Bodie let two fingertips bracket Rae's clit and squeezed gently, and watched Rae's nipples tighten and flush even further. A hot circle of pleasure squeezed each of Bodie's nipples and echoed in her clitoris; she pushed harder against Rae's thigh and repeated the two-fingered touch over Rae's clit.

Rae gasped and gave a breathy scream, then another, her legs thrashing convulsively and pulling closed around Rae's hand. Bodie wriggled her fingers gently there in the tight wetness, causing further gasps and groans from her partner, but almost immediately Bodie was overwhelmed by a warm, cresting pleasure that made her labia tingle in afterglow. She gasped, "Rae!" and clutched her partner in ecstasy, feeling sweat on both their bodies.

Rae opened her eyes, cloudy jade with bewilderment. "Was that...what was that?"

"Haven't you ever come before?"

"Well, yes... it's not so hard, even if men are no good at doing for me... but it wasn't like that."

"Of course not, doll." Bodie faked a smirk, though she felt only joy. "You've never had the best before."

Rae smirked back, tremulously. "Was that the best? Just because it's more exciting than anything I've ever done and the Earth moved out of its orbit?" She moved her thighs carefully apart to release Bodie's trapped hand. "Although I think a couple of ComSat stations spun out as well."

"There's lots more, Rae. You wanted everything, didn't you?"

Rae grinned, lascivious glee returning. "Yeh, I want everything. Now. Can we do it again?"

"That and more. I've got all kinds of interesting things right here..." Bodie leaned sideways and opened a drawer of her nightstand.

Rae's eyes widened. "Do you use that often?"

"Now and then," said Bodie. "Is it too big for you?"

Rae thoughtfully contemplated the 7" life-like soft-plastic sculpture. "I've known bigger pricks, but most of them had a penis attached."

Bodie snickered. "It's not a prick, sweetheart. It's something to make you feel good inside and out, as fast or as slow or as long as you like." She licked her lips. "With my help. Want to?"

Rae nodded, eyes still wide and green as a forest faun's. "I want to."

Bodie settled the harness around her hips. "Here we go, sweetheart..."

---

Bodie lay curled in her lover's arms. 'I've never been so happy. Rae loves me. It's never been this good with anyone else--certainly no man could ever make me feel this way.' The evidence of their love decorated her thigh and she smiled, feeling the stickiness.

Then a thought entered her mind and she frowned. "Rae? What are we going to tell the Cow?"

Doyle spluttered in surprise. "Tell the Cow? Why on earth would you want to do that?"

Bodie picked at the sheet. She'd always had something of a special relationship with the Controller of CI5, to the extent that other agents sometimes called her "Cowley's blue-eyed girl." Now she felt a sort of responsibility.

"Well, y'know. We're a blackmail risk if we keep it secret. But coming out with it right away, that would show we can be trusted."

"Okay." Doyle sighed. "I know you're right. But I don't look forward to it. We could lose our jobs, you know."

"I know. But if we have to go, we'll go. I'm not giving you up."

Bodie looked anxiously into the curly-headed woman's eyes. "You do feel the same way, don't you?"

"'Course I do. But I don't look forward to telling Cowley."

"Me neither," Bodie assured her. "But we'll do it together." She tightened her arms around her partner. 'What we have is so perfect, I want to keep it forever. Just you and me, doll.'

The next morning, Bodie told Betty that they wanted to see the boss on a personal matter. "Go on in," she told them.

The sandy-haired Controller looked at them expectantly. "Well, what is it? I've other things to do today."

"Yeh. Um...well, Doyle and I--" Bodie shuffled her feet. 'This is harder than I thought.'

"We're lovers, Major Cowley," said Doyle calmly. "We thought you should know."

"Och." To their mutual surprise, Cowley grinned. "I've been expecting this."

"Then you don't mind?"

Cowley reached into the cabinet, bringing out a bottle of single malt scotch. "As long as y'love each other, and dinna make a spectacle of y'rselves, no." She poured them each a drink, and smiled at the expression on their faces.

-- THE END --

Originally published in Other Times and Places 3, OTP Press, 1992