Page 102 of Magdalene Nox

“You are my hero, teach. Absolute legend! Way to go! Happy for you. From a nerd to a heroic romantic lead who melts the Ice Queen. That’s such a trip.”

Sam and Magdalene exchanged amused glances before Magdalene chuckled out loud.

“With Sam as your mentor, is it a surprise you, too, are a fan of lesbian romance?”

Lily was no longer easily cowed, no matter how haughty a look Magdalene sent her way. There was no need for any such glare, but Magdalene wanted it to be known that this was the new reality and that she was not only unashamed, but she was proud and she would do as she pleased when it came to her personal life.

Lily kept glancing from the headmistress to her math teacher in something akin to awe until she had finally made whatever decision that had been preoccupying her mind and offered her fist to Magdalene for a bump.

“Congratulations, ma’am. You got yourself a real one. Maybe a bit dim, all things considered, cause it took me years to let her know that skinny jeans, Converses and flannel are a huge waving flag of queerdom.”

Both Magdalene and Lily laughed, distracting Sam from whatever thoughts she was lost in.

“Wha…”

“Ha, eloquent as always, teach. Which makes this whole thing an even bigger character development arc. ‘Cause you obviously have to have some moves and some mad skills to get the Ice Queen, but she still falls for a total geek like this. My point was that I confess to being a lesfic reader, but for anyone to know a classic trope like Ice Queen, they have to be familiar with the genre themselves. So Headmistress, admit it!”

Magdalene just chuckled at the girl’s antics.

“I plead the fifth.”

Magdalene slowly made her way towards the bed where Sam was lying, stroking Willoughby’s fur, and looking at her closely. Something in those eyes was so warm, so full of love, yet so sad, and Magdalene wanted to erase the sorrow forever and fill that gaze only with the same joy she herself was feeling. She knew Sam was processing the events at Dragons—the fire and its aftermath, including the revelations about her father—at her own pace, and she would catch up to Magdalene’s happiness in due time. She’d wait for her for as long as Sam needed for the melancholy to bleed itself out.

From the doorway, Lily’s voice sounded rather wicked with suggestion.

“Yeah, I think under the circumstances my offer to sleep in the corner armchair is not such a good idea. You seem to have it under control, Headmistress, even if this one doesn’t.”

Sam feigned outrage, but she didn’t quite pull it off.

“Skedaddle, pipsqueak.”

“And there she goes, the romantic hero, in a bout of sexual frustration resorting to insults!” Lily theatrically clutched at her shirt, and with one final peal of laughter and a quick hug for the convalescent Sam, made her exit.

Magdalene gave Willoughby a deliberate scratch, and he understood her without the need for her to snap her fingers, simply bumping his head into Sam’s chest in a gesture Magdalene had come to recognize as either hello or goodbye and trotted towards his pillow at the foot of the bed.

“Are you sexually frustrated, darling?”

Magdalene knew she was playing rather dirty, pouring bourbon over gravel in her tone, but Sam’s sadness needed to at least be eased temporarily.

“That should be illegal, Headmistress.”

“What should, Professor?” Her fingers still covered in bandages, she made slow but steady work of the many buttons on the front of her Oxford shirt. When she undid the cuff on her left wrist and revealed the strips of gauze there, she sent a silent thank you to her mother and to the craftsmanship of the Vacheron-Constantin watchmakers, because she owed them her left hand and therefore a debt of gratitude. Instead of dealing with a crushed appendage, all she had to show for her brush with a granite slab were a few deeper cuts from the watch’s metal, which had ensured her limb remained largely intact.

To distract herself from painful thoughts and to keep her lover on edge, since that seemed to do the trick in regards to that melancholy of hers, she continued her game with Sam.

“My voice?” Magdalene moved closer, placing a knee on the bed. As she leaned forward, the sides of her shirt hung limply, revealing the only lacy ivory bra she had left in her currently meager wardrobe. Sam’s throat worked up and down in such a clear display of lust, Magdalene’s mouth went dry. Yet there was more of this to play out.

“My lingerie?” She knew that the pencil skirt, with its little slits that showed nothing. Yet she was also aware it drove Sam to distraction. And as it was riding up right now, revealing dark gray thigh highs, Sam tried to moisten her lips with no notable success. Seeing the effect she had on her beloved was entirely too much.

Belatedly, Magdalene realized she had been trying to entice Sam, and she’d ended up fully enraptured herself.

“My kisses?” She allowed herself a moment of simple pleasure, of letting her lips capture Sam’s, of getting lost in the already familiar yet so new sensations of skin sliding on skin, on tongues touching and retreating, of seduction and surrender all in one long sensuous kiss.

“You make me weak.” It was obvious that Sam wasn’t aware she’d spoken out loud as the kiss ended, because she blinked and whimpered. Magdalene just looked at her, raising an eyebrow in challenge and took off her unbuttoned shirt, then wiggled out of her skirt. Sam watched as if mesmerized as the thigh highs were revealed, then choked and coughed. Magdalene smirked.

This being what it was, she half turned away from Sam and began to roll the stockings off her legs, one after the other, then pulled on a rather large, misshapen hoodie. She tried to be as inconspicuous as possible, not wanting Sam to recognize the garment. It was, after all, her Boston College sweatshirt, worn and rather ratty, but without a doubt beloved, since Sam had been searching for it high and low after it mysteriously had gone missing after their Connecticut trip.

“Not to sound particularly like an idiot right now, but what’s happening?” Sam’s facial expression mirrored her earlier, uncomprehending one, and Magdalene couldn’t help but smile. She had teased her lover too much tonight.

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