"Or maybe you do, but won't admit it to yourself."

Her head snapped up, her eyes glaring at Rachel.

“I want her," she snarled. "ALL right? Is that enough for you? I want her so bad I hurt.

I want to take her clothes off and spread her legs and lick her until she comes in my mouth. I want to kiss her tits and feel her legs and taste her mouth. And I want her to do things to me I can't even say out loud."

If she expected Rachel to be shocked, she was in for a surprise. The small, dark-haired woman merely raised an eyebrow. "Good. At least you're able to define what you want. So why haven't you acted on it?"

“Allah, can you even ask? How can I compete with the rest of you?"

“By realizing this isn't a competition, for starters." She got up and sat down beside her, settling an arm around her shoulders. Yasna leaned into the touch, so like her mother's, but unlike at the same time. A spasm of frustrated desire stabbed at her. I can't go on like this.

“I think I should try to explain some things about Althea to you,”

Rachel said quietly, “since I doubt she has taken the time to do so herself. The most important thing is that she is, by and Large, a creature of emotion. Of feeling. Think about what she has told us about herself. She gets her power from the joy brought by sexual pleasure. By orgasms. She is very simple that way. Not stupid,” she emphasized.

“Never stupid. Merely uncomplicated. But she will respect your choices.

“So when she asks someone to share her bed, and that person turns her down, it will be some time before she asks again.”

"I wasn't ready," Yasna protested.

“And besides. She doesn't seem to have much of a problem asking Sarah again. And again." Indeed, it had become something of a running joke, the golden-haired succubus making more and more outrageous suggestions to Rachel's teenage daughter, who had blushed and laughed in reply, gradually growing accustomed to

Althea's ways.

“No one is blaming you, Yasna. I know you've been hurt. Badly hurt. And

I know you are confused by what you want. And whether you actually, truly want it. But you can hardly blame Althea for giving you the space you say you need.

“Wait. Watch. Rest. Heal. She will be there, waiting for you, when you are ready. But don't pine away waiting for her to ask you. You must ask her." She felt a gentle hand on her chin, turning her head up until she was forced to meet Rachel's eyes. Dark blue, filled with a wisdom that was not ordinarily given to mortals, they searched hers intently. "Oh,

Yasna," she sighed, and pulled her lips down to her mouth. Slowly, gently, she kissed her, sweetly and inexpressibly tender.

After a moment, she pulled away, her eyes gleaming. Yasna's heart was pounding, her pulse racing in her throat and at the junction of her thighs. She blinked, confused. Why did this wonderful woman not continue?

“Because,” Rachel said, reading her thoughts, “you are not ready yet.

But," she continued, trailing a hand down her cheek as she shuddered,

“you will be.

“Soon.”

Josh had barely closed the bedroom door behind them when Althea was in his arms, her mouth hungrily devouring his. The golden-skinned succubus clung to him as a drowning sailor did to a spar on a storm-tossed ocean.

“Lilith's Tits," she panted when they finally parted. "It's been so long since I've had a man. Three weeks. I haven't gone that long since