It was agony keeping their hands apart as the two nuns left the office and strode side by side along the corridors and up the winding stairs that led eventually to Sister Divine's room. She was terrified that other sisters would see them together and ask why they were not still in the office. Perhaps they would see the hot flush of passion that burned across Sister Divine's cheeks, forehead and breast. She half-formed the lie that they were going to see Sister Litany in her cell. But then what if their bluff was called?

Mercifully, the only nuns they passed were far too preoccupied in their own duties to spare the time to ask the girls such idle questions, and soon enough Sister Divine pushed open the door to her cell where the empty mattress had rarely seemed so welcoming. The door was barely closed behind Sister Lover, and the two nuns were on the mattress, clasped and pressed to each other, clumsily following the motions dictated by their lust. There was urgency in their passion. A drive to go further. But to where? To what end? Just to be together?

Their legs entwined the other's legs, their arms pulled the other's bare breasts and hard nipples against their own, their mouths locked onto the other. Sweat and the strangest, richest odours emanated from their skin. What was that smell? So strong. So raw. So right. And the sloshy liquid oozing wetness from between the legs, coming not only from Sister Divine's crotch but pressing damply against a moist passionate outflowing from Sister Love. Their hands and fingers trailed down each other's back and along the back of each other's the thighs, and then sought in the other the heat and yearning that ached from within. So urgent. So demanding. So much in need. Was this how love was? Why had she saved herself for so long?

As her fingers eased open the sticky black folds of her lover's vulva, it was Sister Love who expressed her concern. "Is this right? Should we go so far? Are we not sworn to Jesus Christ Almighty and Him alone?"

Sister Divine almost let loose a profanity and cursed herself for her godlessness. Don't mention it now. Not now! Not while it was so perfect. But idle sophistry saved her passion. "It is men we have forsworn. Not each other."

Sister Love nodded, clearly unconvinced, but Sister Divine could feel her fingers slide so smoothly along the length of her vulva, slide down almost inside, touching the tender burning folds of her inward desire, brushing against the hardness of her clitoris, sending her into a fervent torrent of greater desire. Their mouths met again, their tongues deeper inside the other: brushing over the molars, perhaps almost to the tonsils, two hot fleshy probes sloshing against each other. And Sister Divine couldn't resist bringing her forefinger and thumb together on one of her black lover's nipples and squeezing it. So hard and firm! And such delightful crenulations!

She bent her head down, arching her whole body, while her fingers and Sister Love's continued to stroke and pinch and squeeze the other's crotch, and took the hard, fleshy dark nipple in between her lips. Such a perfect match. Lips and nipples together. Her tongue circled its lumpy aureole and eased into the deep indentation at the peak. Such a salty sweet taste! Why had no one told her that a body could taste so good?

And all the while, she could feel her buttocks tremble, and her hips press backwards and forwards against her lover's flesh. Hot slippery sweat lubricated their bodies, letting them slide so easily together. Their fingers, tongues, lips explored the crevices of each other's ears, the distinct moles on their stomachs, the short hairs of each other's eyebrows, the long sinuous smoothness of the other's neck. And sometimes Sister Divine, and sometimes Sister Love, would take one or other of her lover's breasts and lick and fondle and nibble and tease those nipples, those round contours, those perfect details, admired so often from a distance and now enjoyed more closely than either had ever thought possible.

"There are other places your tongues can go, you know."

Where did that familiar voice come from? Sister Divine started and looked over her shoulder to see Sister Admonition standing above them: a wicked smile flashing across her face.

"What did you say?" Sister Divine asked, less out of curiosity than from a need to gather her wits about her.

" I said: there are other places your tongues can go," her cellmate repeated. She knelt down on the mattress, her arms spread on either side of the two girls' entangled legs. "Places so sweet and gorgeous, you wouldn't believe! Here, let me show you."

"What do you mean, sister?" asked Sister Divine.

"Between the legs. Don't you want to taste the very cradle of your desire?"

Sister Admonition stretched out her hand and placed it softly on Sister Divine's thigh dangerously close to her streaming vagina. She opened her mouth and let her tongue drop out. Sister Divine blushed, and in her shame at being discovered she absurdly grasped the sheet and pulled it over her breast while retracting her legs towards her stomach.

"Sister Admonition. You can't. It's not right. It's not how it should be."

"Are you saying that what you two are doing is right? Come on, my dear, my love, my sweetest. You know you'd enjoy it. You've loved me from a distance for so long. As I have you. And now, together with your beautiful lover, we can learn from each other."

"Is this what you do with your friends?"

"That and more. Three, four of us. Bodies together. The ecstasy. The pleasure. The passion. You just can't believe."

It was Sister Love who spoke for the two of us. "I'm sorry, sister. But what you do and what you want to do is not for us. Love is too precious to squander. The Lord sanctions love but He does not sanction perversity."

"If what two women do together when they make love is not perverse, what is?"

"It may not be the holy state of matrimony, but I am sure the Lord in His mercy respects love when it is sincerely felt. What you desire is not love but something else. Be gone and pray to your Maker that He may forgive you for your sins of the heart. Sister Divine and I are as one in our love for each other. And we want nothing more than that."

Sister Admonition stayed on her knees but she bent back. "Come on, Sister Divine. Do you agree with your black lover? Surely once one has strayed a little, it is a but a small matter to stray yet further."

Sister Divine sighed. "Sister Admonition. It is true. I have often loved you too much with my heart. And too often I have prayed for forgiveness. But I know that what Sister Love and I feel for each other is not bestial love, but something purer. Something that I am sure the Lord God understands."

Sister Admonition stood up, with a pitiable expression of disappointment. "So that is how it is to be. It will be difficult now for us to share our cell together, I have not told you before but it was lust for you that drove me into the arms of other women. And now our truths are exposed, we cannot continue to share the same cell. However, I have an excellent understanding with your lover's cellmate, Sister Devotion, and I am quite happy to exchange cells with Sister Love."

Sister Divine clung to Sister Love, tears sliding through her eyelids and onto her lover's breast. "I didn't know that you loved me. I wish it were different. But I am happy now. Please may the Lord be with you."

Her cellmate frowned. "And may He be with you. You may think me 'perverse', but I still love the Lord and will continue to do Him service. But please understand me when I say that I believe that the Lord sanctions more in His creation that just the love of one person for another."

Sister Divine could see that her cellmate's disappointment and regret was genuine. There was dampness in the eyes that she recognised in her own. But she was nonetheless relieved when Sister Admonition picked up her few things and left her to her own love. The door closed behind her erstwhile cellmate, and the two nuns lay together, their bodies cooler, and the sweat oppressive on their chest and backs.

Sister Love took her lover's shaven head in her hands and pressed it onto her breast where she could feel their softness and also the hard thump thump of her heart. Sister Divine trailed her arms around her black lover's waist and softly wept.

"I do love you so much!" Sister Divine said more towards her lover's proud nipples than to her full and dark lips or sensuous sparkling eyes.

"And I you," Sister Love replied. She ran her fingers slowly, but purposefully down her lover's stomach, brushed her navel and stroked the dark stubble above her crotch. Sister Divine gasped as a strange tremor of pleasure sprang from just below.

"I want only you. No one else."

Sister Love smiled. "My love for you is at least as great. But come now, sister, shall we see just what this pleasure is that Sister Admonition recommended for us."

With that she eased herself out of Sister Divine's grasp and slowly but decisively moved her body around so that her face was just above her lover's crotch. She grinned as she looked up at her fellow nun over the mounds of her breasts and the long valley of her slim stomach. "For what we are about to receive may the Lord make us truly grateful."