Chapter Nine

RILEY

“I…I’m painfully aware, Piper.”

Riley struggled to breathe, intoxicated not just by the moment, or the slow dance, or the music, or the intimacy, but by Piper’s confession, so much like her own. They were close enough now, Piper’s long fingers warm in the small of her bare back, their breasts gently rasping against each other’s as they swayed together in the dark, for Riley to hear her dance partner’s heart pounding against her chest.

“And wearing pretty much the same things we wore back then, huh?”

Riley blushed anew, hardly believing there was any blood left to spare to fill her cheeks when, after all, it was so busy rushing past both ears. “I’m aware of that too, Piper.”

“I mean, hell, if we wanted to undress each other, right here, right now, there’d be no one to stop us, now would there?”

“Right here?” Riley slid away, peering up into Piper’s eyes to see if she was bluffing or not. “Right…now?”

“We’ve waited four years,” Piper insisted, tousling the same lock of stray hair as she had earlier behind one blushing ear. “Do you really want to wait any longer?”

“I just…”

“You just what, Riles?” Piper’s voice was curious, not insistent. “I don’t want to rush you into anything…”

“Rush me? I’ve been waiting for you to say those words forever!”

Piper chuckled almost breathlessly. “So, what’s the problem, Riles?”

“I guess, I just imagined it differently?”

“Funny,” Piper recalled, releasing her hand but placing it on Riley’s bare shoulder instead. “This is almost just exactly how I pictured it.”

“Really?” Riley shivered when Piper’s other hand squeezed her second shoulder as well. More than just the physical contact, Riley’s body was responding to the clear message Piper was sending with the subtle, but firm grip: I’m taking the reins now, just sit back and let it happen. After so much time spent pining for her long-legged, strawberry blonde femme crush, Riley was more than eager to do just that.

Piper grinned so widely Riley could only believe her flattering words, to say nothing of her sensuous caress. “Sure, Riles. You, me, after a run, sweaty, half-naked…alone.”

“Jesus,” Riley muttered, as if to herself. “Jesus.”

Piper smiled. “What if we try this?” She trilled her right hand, just the fingertips, down Riley’s bicep, then back up. Riley’s teeth almost chattered with the aftershocks. “I’ll start undressing you and, when you feel uncomfortable, or shy, or want to change your mind, or think things are going too far, or aren’t romantic enough for your fancy little heart, I’ll stop, okay?”

Riley shivered at the prospect. “Why…why do you get to undress me first?”

Piper squeezed her shoulders again, harder this time, forcing another involuntary shiver through Riley’s clearly helpless body. “Seriously? I’m the one baring my soul here, Riles. I’m the one confessing things you’re too chickenshit to say out loud. Obviously, I get to see those thick, ripe nips first!”

Riley’s eyes widened before she snorted, then chuckled, then giggled with delight. Piper was breathing heavily as if she’d just tried to jog again. “Well, I mean, when you put it like that, whatever was I thinking?”

Piper doubled down, slithering her whole hands down each of Riley’s arms until, at last, her thumbs lingered near the top of her sports bra. “Remember, Riles,” she reminded her, breath awash across Riley’s forehead as she pressed a single, butterfly kiss to her forehead, leaving a fiery trace of her lips against Riley’s grateful skin. “You can stop me at any time, okay?”

Riley merely nodded, too eager to be unpeeled to think straight. “How can I tell you to stop if you never even start?”

Piper snorted, then did just that. She began by gently pressing Riley against the marble counter, wickedly cool and delightfully hard against the small of her sweaty back. That sensation alone was enough to cause her knees to buckle and her petals to weep, as if they weren’t already dripping by now. But the withering kiss that followed, leisurely and lingering, nearly brought Riley to climax itself.

Falling just short, it nonetheless found her breathless and panting when, at last, Piper drew her warm, full lips away, sticky and damp with desire. “Fuck.” Piper wasted little time in dragging her knuckles alongside Riley’s breasts as if beating her to a one-two punch of quivering breathlessness. “I’ve wanted to do that for too damn long.”

“Same here.” Riley shivered as she luxuriated in the delicate teasing of her passionate partner. “I’ve wanted to do all of this, and so much more, for so, so long, Piper.”

Piper held her in place with her fluttering belly, pressed damply against her own. “You mean that?” she teased between longer, more playful kisses that left their lips sticky and ripe. “You’re not just saying that to get in my pants?”

Riley’s chuckle was pure chocolate drizzle. “Pants? Jesus, you tease! I’d settle for your top, my top, one of our tops, damn!”

Piper leaned back, sending a shiver of pressure as their bellies slithered and snaked along each other, firm and soft in equal measure. “Oh, you want to rush this now? When we’ve waited so long?”

Before Riley could answer, Piper tugged her sports bra left, then right, the soft, clingy material rasping against her aching breasts and stiff nipples like a second skin. “God no,” Riley sputtered, shaking her head before nodding. “I mean, I want it all, right away, then never, again, and…and…”

Piper chuckled as she began to gently, patiently, achingly tug the tube top down, forcing an audible moan from deep inside Riley’s seemingly endless reserves of white-hot passion. “No one’s ever wanted me this bad before,” she whispered, making Riley’s eyes flutter open in shock and dismay.

“How…how could they not?” Riley knew she sounded as flummoxed, as absolutely baffled, as she felt.

The look on Piper’s face was pure gratitude, as if Riley truly was the only one on earth who saw her staggering beauty. “Maybe they don’t have the history we do, Riles.”

“I’d want you if we were total strangers, Piper. If we’d never met before. If I was standing in the grocery store line and saw you walk in from three lanes over, dowdy in your laundry dress and curlers in your hair. I’ve never—never—not wanted you.”

Riley moaned for emphasis as, at last, Piper peeled off her cloying top. The warm breath of appreciation washed over her bare breasts, heaving with her confession, with desire, with anticipation and a thousand other emotions, all too powerful to convey without at least a few hundred squeals of delight.

“Jesus,” Piper purred, absently forgetting about the top as it rested midway down Riley’s panting belly. “I’ve forgotten how good those look naked.”

Riley bit down on her tongue, afraid to say anymore. Instead, she let Piper do the talking with her hands, shivering uncontrollably as she cupped each breast from the bottom, gently holding them in the warmth of her soft palms.

“They fit perfectly!” Piper beamed, squeezing them one at a time for emphasis.

“Sure, they’re tiny enough…”

This time Piper squeezed them warningly, making Riley wonder which she preferred more: gentle or forceful. “That’s enough of that talk, Riles. They’re absolutely, utterly perfect!” As if to prove it, Piper cupped and caressed each breast in turn, narrating her passionate foreplay as Riley squirmed insatiably in her tender, loving grip. “So pale and round,” she commented, as if she was alone in the room with just Riley’s breasts. “Look at these tan lines, Jesus. I’ve missed these and here, watch your nipples stiffen as I run my fingers along the top…”

Riley shivered, moaned, then gasped, unable to control her reactions—physical, verbal, or emotional—any longer. Piper noticed, nodding with a devilish grin. “Ooh, you like that, huh? What if I press my thumb down on them, just like that? Mm, I can almost feel them humming. And this one, here? What if I just…pinch it…just a little?”

Riley gasped anew, bucking with the sheer delight and surprise of it all. She wasn’t a virgin, although she was far from experienced. But none of the other women she’d been with had ever teased and taunted, pleased and peppered her like this. Piper took encouragement with each naked shiver and moan of delight, moving her left hand away until it returned to Riley’s shoulder, slithery now with a fresh coat of sweat.

She pressed with her palm, firmly, nodding as their eyes met in the dim kitchen light. “Lean back for me, baby,” Piper said, voice a heady tone of request and demand. “Lean back a little so I can taste those perfect tits of yours.”

“Oh my…” Riley had never indulged in dirty talk before, but found it was the ideal soundtrack to the way Piper’s hands had made her feel thus far. Riley did as she was told, leaning back as Piper held her firmly in place, bending her head to press firm, wet lips against her left breast. Riley squeezed her eyes shut, her hands fumbling on the countertop as she gripped the edges with slippery, desperate fingers. “That… Jesus, Piper, that’s…so…good.”