Next to the flickering candle, the two women lay topless beside one another: Jessica on her stomach, eyes closed, and Barclay on her side, leaning on her elbow. She picked up a vial of bamboo extract and drizzled the grassy, lightly-scented oil from Jessica’s neck downward her back. She rubbed it in with even circular motions, folds of Jessica’s skin moving, rising, then falling. Barclay then rose to sit on her knees and laid the necklace across Jessica’s shoulders. She placed her open palm on the beads and slid her to and fro, rolling the beads back and forth, until she’d massaged Jessica’s entire upper body.
Afterwards, she pinched a rose petal between her fingertips and grazed it along Jessica’s spine — her body flinched, and she giggled. Barclay smiled and laid the petal, meticulously, on Jessica’s shoulder blade. The next petal was placed beside the first and slightly lower. Barclay continued until she’d created a solid valentine of rose petals.
(c) 2005 A.E.H. Veenman, All Rights Reserved