Best Lesbian Romance 2014 by Radclyffe

build it again from in here like a big Lego set. I’m Kim, by the way. I’m a Craven Caver.”
    â€œHan,” I said. “Short for Hannah. I’m an aging raver.”
    She burst out laughing, a rich sound that filled that huge cave easily. “I don’t believe that for a minute! You don’t look a day over twenty-five.”
    I’m thirty. Oops—clean slipped my mind to tell her, though. Funny, that. “In this light, I could be a hundred and twenty-five and you’d be none the wiser.”
    â€œMaybe, but you’d be amazed how many centenarians we don’t get coming down here.”
    â€œYou’re not marketing it right. Tell ’em it’s half-price on Tuesdays, and you’ll be snowed under with grannies. Course, they’ll all be wanting cups of tea and bourbon biscuits.”
    â€œWe could set up a café in the main chamber, perhaps,” she mused, cocking her head to one side. “The Gaping Gill Gourmet.”
    â€œOr the Pothole Parlor. You’re not from round here, are you?” I nearly bit my tongue off after I’d said it, in case she’d think I was making a dig about the color of her skin. In the shadows, it was ebony, but when the light hit her face I could see warmer tones shine through.
    Me all over, that. Opening my mouth and bunging my size sevens straight in. Not even pausing to wipe them first.
    Her smile didn’t waver for a second, though, and I breathed again. “No, I’m a soft Southern Jessie from Hampshire,” she said.
    â€œYou don’t look that soft to me,” I said, lying through my teeth. She was all curves, hips swelling below a trim little waist cinched in with a utility belt, and her breasts firm and neat above. She looked soft as velvet. No iron beneath, neither. Least, I didn’t think so. And her voice was satin cushions on a four-poster bed. “I went down to Hampshire once. We had a holiday in the New Forest. Camping, we were. Couldn’t move for bloody ponies.”
    She laughed again. “Most people like ponies, you know.”
    â€œThat’s because most people don’t have them sticking their noses in the tent at four o’clock in the morning. Or leaving bloody big piles of you-know-what right where they’re about to put their bare feet.”
    â€œOkay, I can understand why they might not be your favorite animals after that.” She chewed on her bottom lip for a moment. “Are you here on your own?”
    I opened my mouth to answer, but then Nicole came barging in and answered for me. “It’s grand here, isn’t it? Are we going off exploring?” She clapped an arm around my shoulder.
    Flummoxed, I gazed around at the huge open space. Folk were milling around, and another bod was coming down on the chair. “Can see it all from here, can’t we? Niccie, this is—”
    â€œOh, there’s more than this. I was talking to this bloke over there, and he said there’s all kinds of passages off to the sides. Said it’s the best bit. You don’t want to miss that, do you?”
    â€œWhat do you think, Kim?” I asked desperately. I could see she was about to wander off and find some other bugger to talk to.
    â€œI could show you and your friend around, if you like,” she said, her gaze flickering between us.
    Nicole finally noticed I’d been talking to someone. “Oh, right—are you one of the cavers, then?”
    â€œThis is Kim, and yeah, she’s a Craven Caver.” I couldn’t say it without smiling. “Kim, this is my mate Niccie.” I hoped she noticed the stress I’d put on the word mate. Niccie had, from the look she sent me, so I guessed she’d be ripping the shit out of me later about it all.
    â€œOkay, then,” Kim said, her smile brighter than the lamp on her helmet. “Let’s go caving!”
    Right then, I reckon if she’d said, “Know