Azura carefully touched the sensitive skin around her eye, wincing as pain shot through her face. Another day, another bruise. It was all too common in her life. She needed to escape, she knew, but how was another question entirely.
“I’m a fool,” Azura murmured to her reflection, her amber eyes filled with self-loathing. She couldn’t believe how big of an idiot she had been to stay with the bastard who supposedly loved her. She snorted, thinking about the beautiful words he whispered into hear ear night after night as she lay curled in a ball on the bed.
“Azura,” David would whisper in his soft, sensuous voice. “I’m sorry angel. It’s my temper. Please forgive me. I’ll never do it again. I promise baby. You’re my life. I couldn’t lose you.” He’d brush her hair back from her forehead, kiss her softly, run his hands down her sides lightly. He’d whisper promises into her ear as he use her body for his own purposes.
The thoughts that flooded her mind were reflected in her eyes, haunted orbs of golden amber that were too hard for her soft face. Life had made her hard, but hadn’t taken away the soft beauty that Azura didn’t think she deserved.
She pulled her eyes from the mirror, not wanting to face reality, scanning the small bathroom. She didn’t want to be here, didn’t want to live this life anymore. But escape was too hard for her to try alone. If only she hadn’t lost everyone, hadn’t pushed everyone away, hadn’t kept those who cared out. David was the only person she had now, the only person who cared. And it was evident he didn’t care all that much.
Her eye caught on the glint of light from a silver razor blade, shining sharp and fresh on the counter. Her breath caught in her throat as a slender hand reached out and touched the blade carefully, running the pad of her thumb over the sharp edge, a line of blood rising immediately. It would be so easy to slit her wrists and let her blood pour forth from her veins, washing her life away, erasing the memories of her and the life she lead from the minds of any who once knew her.
Her hand trembled as she lifted the blade, and a small whimper escaped her throat. She was going to do it. She was going to end her pathetic existence in a pathetic world. She was taking the cowards way out. How fitting, she thought bitterly. A cowards end for a coward. Still trembling, she brought the razor to wrist, and let the tip of it touch her skin.
Taking a deep breath, she glanced up once, looking into the mirror one last time. A strangled sob escaped her throat as she saw her reflection. Here she was, once a confident, self-assured woman, ready to take her own life. Because of a man, nonetheless.
She threw the razor blade down, and ran out of the bathroom, stopping in the bedroom long enough to hastily throw on some clothes and grab her wallet. She walked out of the apartment, nearly running, eager to escape the close confines of the place she came to hate more than anything. She hated it nearly as much as she hated David.
She emerged on the street, a bruised, battered woman, with no confidence and nothing left in the world to hold her to it.
She walked with her head held high.
***
Azura walked all day, not caring what direction she was going in, not noticing when she crossed from the decent part of town to the ones where no woman in her right mind would walk alone. She barely noticed when the clouds overhead opened and unleashed a torrent of rain upon her head. By the time night fell, she was drenched, shivering, and looking even worse than she had before.
The pain in her feet and starving body were the only reasons why she stopped. She stumbled through the door of the nearest building she could find; it was just her luck to stumble upon a dimly lit bar.
Azura slid onto a bar stool in the corner where bar met well, and stared at the hard, dark wood of the smooth bar beneath her. She desperately wanted to rest her head on it, but pride she thought once lost for good had resurfaced, and it refused to let her show any sign of weakness.
“Can I help you, honey?” a slow, soft voice drawled, as the sound of footsteps invaded Azura’s mind with it. “You look pretty down on your luck.”
Azura looked up, a scowl marking her pale, battered face, her amber eyes hard as the stone their color resembled. “Excuse me?”
“You look like shit.”
The scowl deepened as Azura surveyed the woman in front of her. Tall and lean, with crystalline eyes and black hair, she excluded confidence in her every gesture, her voice commanded respect, and her very posture drew your eyes. She was the woman Azura had once been. Azura hated her on sight.
“Leave me alone,” Azura said, pulling her eyes from the woman and staring at the bar again.
“Whatever you say, honey,” the woman said. “Want something to drink?”
“A beer,” Azura said automatically.
“What kind honey? We’ve got-”
“Just give me a god damn bottle of beer,” Azura snarled, not caring what the other woman thought of her anymore. She wasn’t here to talk, and she didn’t want a shoulder to cry on. The thought never occurred to her that this woman could possibly be someone who could help her.
The woman placed a cold bottle of beer in front of her. “You need anything else, you just holler honey.”
Azura didn’t reply to her comment, staring at the bottle like it was the only thing that could save her.
It probably was.
***
Calypso kept her eye on the woman who’d came in looking like something the hounds of hell would chase, but still walking with pride and determination in her step. Calypso had taken one good luck at her, and knew that she was no street-smart girl who’d gotten into a scuffle. She didn’t belong in this section of the city.
She’d taken one look in her eyes and knew that the woman was running from a past just as haunted as her own. Watching her drink her beer, Calypso decided the woman had been in an abusive relationship.
The woman- and damn, but she had a hard time calling the petite woman seated at her bar a woman, even though she was easily 25, finished her beer, and Calypso grabbed another one, setting it in front of her before she could ask.
“Thanks,” she murmured, the hardness and edge gone from her voice.
“No problem, honey,” Calypso replied, leaning against the bar. “I’m Calypso.”
“Azura,” she mumbled into her beer, not prying her eyes away from the bar.
Calypso smiled a little. Finally, she was getting somewhere with this one. “What’s a girl like you doing in a bar, looking like something straight out of hell?”
Azura lifted her head and smiled grimly. “I look that bad?”
Calypso shook her head. “You look worse.”
Azura laughed a little, bitter and dry. “Worse than something straight out of hell. Must be bad.”
“Honey, I wouldn’t lie to you. You look horrible.” Calypso patted her hand, looking at her. “Tell Calypso why you look so horrible. And why you’re in this section of town. Good girls like you don’t belong here.”
“Who says I’m a good girl?”
Calypso leaned over and picked at the sleeveless top Azura had on. “Your clothes, the way you walk, the look in your eyes.”
“But-”
Calypso cut her off. “Your clothes might have been drenched, but it’s obvious you’ve taken good care of them. You walked in here like you owned the place, even if you did slink to a corner and hide, despite all of the bruises on your face. And your eyes are hard, but that’s just a cover, to hide everything from the world.”
Azura stared at Calypso in shock. She wouldn’t have thought anyone would be able to see past the front she put up. Her boyfriend couldn’t even see past it. How the hell did a complete and utter stranger see past it?
Calypso raised her hand, gently tracing the bruise around Azura’s eye. “Boyfriend?” she asked softly, her sultry Southern accented voice caring and concerned.
Azura nodded, staring into Calypso’s crystalline eyes. She could see so many different colors in her eyes. Pale blue and violet and gold and grey… she could lose herself in Calypso’s eyes.
Calypso leaned forward, her mouth close to Azura’s ear. “Lose the man, honey. You don’t need him. You can do so much better.” Her tongue snaked out, lightly tracing Azura’s ear.
Azura shivered. She could feel the heat radiating from the woman, warming her to her very core. She could lose herself in that heat, just like she could lose herself in Calypso’s eyes.
Calypso pulled away, a small smile on her face. “Let me know if you want to talk. The bar closes in an hour.”
“Do you have anything I could snack on?” Azura asked, remembering that it had been quite some time since she’d last eaten.
Calypso grinned and handed her a bag of peanuts. “Sorry we don’t have more, honey, but there’s a liquor store open 24 hours a day just around the block if you want to go get something there.”
Azura looked around, noticing for the first time she was in an unfamiliar part of town. “These are fine,” she said, grabbing the bag of peanuts and opening them.
Calypso smiled and walked away, feeling Azura’s eyes on her back.
***
Calypso walked over to Azura as the last customer disappeared out the back door. “Still here, honey?”
“You said to let you know if I ever wanted to talk.” Azura smiled. “But you were busy, and I figured I’d wait until you were free.”
“We should sit down somewhere more comfortable,” Calypso commented, tugging Azura off the barstool. “These things get might uncomfortable after a while.”
Azura allowed herself to be tugged towards the middle of the bar, where Calypso paused for a moment, looking around, then walking towards one of the two pool tables in the bar. Calypso sat on the edge of one, patting the spot next to her.
“These things aren’t the most comfortable things in the world, but they’re better than the barstools.”
Azura sat down next to her, wiggling back until she was sitting on the green felt, pulling her knees to her chest.
“What did you want to talk about, honey?” Calypso turned toward her, placing one hand on her knee, the other running down her arm.
Azura laughed bitterly. “Where do I begin? I can’t believe I let someone beat me. Why did I?”
“I can’t answer that. Only you can.”
“I was such a fool.”
“Yes, you were.”
“Thanks for agreeing.”
Calypso smiled a little. “But you can change that. As a matter of fact, you did. You’re not there, are you?”
Azura buried her face in her knees, feeling the tears rise in her eyes. “You’re right, I’m not there. But I should have done it a long time ago.”
“But you finally did, and that’s all that matters.” Calypso ran her slender, long-fingered hand through the tangled mess that was Azura’s blonde hair. She tugged gently, causing Azura to lift her head in question.
Calypso smiled softly, leaning over, pressing her lips to Azura’s in comfort, one hand still tangled in her hair, the other coming up to cup her cheek. Her tongue traced Azura’s lips, pleading for entrance, swiftly entering her mouth and rubbing against the other woman’s tongue when the pale red lips finally parted.
Azura moaned softly into the kiss. It had been too long since she’d been kissed with passion. Her hands wrapped around Calypso’s waist, drawing her closer.
Calypso pushed her down to the green felt of the pool table, covering the tiny body with her own, her tongue rubbing the roof of Azura’s mouth. She felt Azura’s tiny, but perfectly formed, body arch beneath hers, pressing closer, and Calypso moaned. She’d never been so aroused by a mere kiss before.
Calypso trailed her hand down Azura’s neck, lightly brushing over the cloth-covered breasts, and pressing firmer on her taut stomach, tugging her shirt up a little to reveal pale skin that gleamed in the harsh light from the lamp above the pool table.
Azura’s eyes widened slightly, as she felt Calypso’s hands on her body. She’d never had sex with a woman before, had never so much as had another woman kiss or touch as Calypso was doing. It felt like kissing a guy did, but so different, at the same time. Calypso was softer, her hands more gentle, lips more tender, than any of the guys she’d ever had sex with.
Calypso pulled away from her mouth and pressed a soft kiss to her chin, then trailed her lips to her neck, sucking on her pulse point. Her hands slid up, pulling the damp material of Azura’s shirt with them, revealing even more of her pale skin, fingers tracing a pattern over the revealed skin. Azura moaned again, and shifted beneath her, feeling more alive than she had in years.
Calypso smiled against her neck, kissing the spot she’d been sucking on, then pulling away so she could remove Azura’s shirt, leaving her in a lacy black bra, her nipples standing up against the soft material. Calypso held the shirt for a moment, staring down at the woman beneath her.
Azura blushed a little. She was confident in her looks, but she’d never had someone stare at her so intently, as though memorizing everything about her body. It was unnerving and thrilling at the same time. In that moment, she knew why people did the things they did for love. If love was anything like Calypso staring at her as though she couldn’t breath if she didn’t, then Azura would do anything for love.
Calypso smiled again, and leaned down, kissing Azura again, deeper, more hungrily this time. She could feel the passion flowing through her blood, passion ignited by this beautiful woman who had been dropped at her feet to help. If this was how she was meant to help her, then so be it. Help she would.
Calypso’s hands cupped her breasts, her fingers plying over the material of her bra, finding her nipples, rolling them between her fingers. Her hands slid under the material of Azura’s bra, grazing her puckered nipples. Azura moaned, arching her back even more. Calypso laughed softly into the kiss, then pushed the bra down, cupping the rosy-tipped globes, pushing them up.
“You’re beautiful,” Calypso breathed against her mouth, trailing her tongue down Azura’s neck, to the valley between her breasts.
“Thank you,” Azura managed to choke out, her eyes closing as Calypso ran her tongue around the base of one breast, then the other, and over the mounds, teasingly avoiding the nipples.
Tiring of teasing quickly, Calypso ran her tongue across one of her nipples, loving the feel of the puckered skin beneath her mouth. Her hands caressed the taut skin of Azura’s stomach, slipping beneath the waist of her jeans.
Azura’s eyes fluttered open for a moment, closing quickly as she felt Calypso’s tongue run across her nipple, one of her hands tangling in the flowing black hair that tumbled down Calypso’s back.
Calypso rolled the nipple with her tongue, nipping slightly, suckling on it, then switching to the other and treating it to more of the same. Her hands unzipped Azura’s jeans, pushing them down a little, fingers tracing a pattern to the top of the black thong Azura wore.
Azura lifted her hips, allowing Calypso to pull her jeans down further, wiggling as the long, slender fingers of her lover teased her skin.
Calypso pulled her thong down with the jeans, not wanting to be hampered by any clothes. Her hand neared the top of Azura’s slit, pressing down a little firmer, sliding between already wet lips. Her fingers brushed over her clitoris, eliciting a small whimper from the woman beneath her, causing her to writhe even more.
Calypso leaned up and kissed her again as a finger slid into the wet warmth of her lover, pressing deep inside of her. Another whimper escaped Azura’s lips, captured by Calypso. She slowly pulled her finger out, pushing it back in even slower than before. Azura moaned and continued to writhe beneath Calypso’s hand, arousing the other woman even more than before. She pulled her finer out again, this time adding a second finger when she thrust back in. Her thumb plied the swollen clitoris, causing the moans emerging from Azura’s throat to turn to small whimpers.
As Calypso’s fingers kept plying her willing body, Azura’s eyes rolled back in her head. She could feel an orgasm coming on. It had been a long time since she’d reached the peak at the hands of another. Calypso would make some man- or woman, more than likely- a happy person one day. She knew what she was doing when it came to sex.
Calypso leaned down and sucked on her neck again, biting softly, fingers working Azura’s body faster, feeling her walls clench around her fingers and knowing that she’d reach orgasm in any moment.
Azura’s body stiffened, her walls clenching around Calypso’s fingers, a scream emerging from her throat.
Calypso pulled her fingers from the limp body beneath her when Azura’s orgasm had passed, and licked her fingers clean, then wrapping her arms tightly around the naked woman, pulling her close to her chest.
"But-” Azura protested softly.
"Hush, honey. Don’t worry about me right now. You have all of the time in the world to pay back the favor.”
Azura smiled slightly. “Yeah, I do.”