After checking on things at Ernestine’s—complete with delighting over and devouring a pair of perfectly ripe peaches—they doubled back through the orchard in the direction of Rowan’s house and the cidery. “Thank you for coming with me.”
Audrey grinned. “I like it. I like even more that Dylan calls it your daily constitutional.”
She chuckled. “It is important to keep an eye on the apples, but Dylan knows I’m a lot less cranky with hours of bottling if I get to go outside a couple of times during the day.”
“To be fair, it’s practically the end of the day. And you two have been working like dogs this week.”
The disgorging was her least favorite task in the bottling process. While cool in principle, in reality it felt like the worst blend of fussy and chaotic. Which, of course, was exactly how Dylan would describe grafting. “I’m glad we’re in the home stretch.”
Audrey regarded her with curiosity. “What’s your favorite part? Besides walking the orchard, I mean.”
“I love the harvesting and pressing. It’s hard work and messy, but seeing that initial transformation from fruit to cider gets me every time. And I swear the aroma is better than anything on the planet.”
“Sounds incredible.”
When Audrey didn’t say more, Rowan debated asking the question that seemed to hang in the air. “Do you think you’ll be here in September?”
Audrey took a deep breath. “I think so. Even if she’s home, I can’t imagine Ernestine being ready to be on her own by then.”
“I’m not glad for that, but I’d love for you to experience it.” She gave Audrey’s shoulder a gentle bump. “Besides, we can always use an extra pair of hands for picking.”
The teasing seemed to chase the shadows from Audrey’s eyes. “I wouldn’t mind being put to work.”
“Is your job okay with that?”
Audrey nodded. “I’m approved to be on leave through the end of the year.”
“That’s great.” It was, for Audrey’s sake and for Ernestine’s. But even as she took comfort in knowing Audrey would likely be around a few more months, a small part of her was already sad to see her go. Silly, really. Audrey might be settling into life here with apparent ease, but it wasn’t really her life.
“I’m grateful, if not entirely sure what to do with myself.”
“I don’t know. Tending the farm, whipping our books into shape, learning to knit. You seem to be keeping busy.” She added a wink to make sure Audrey knew she was mostly teasing, but also not.
Audrey smirked. “I suppose you have a point.”
Because she was teetering on the edge of asking too many personal questions yet again, she cleared her throat. “I think the rain is coming in quicker than the forecast predicted. We should probably—”
As late summer storms often did, this one hit all at once. A faint rumble of thunder and the skies opened, releasing the kind of fat, pelting drops that could soak a person through almost instantly.
Audrey looked at the sky with something resembling alarm, then at Rowan. But the second she did, alarm faded and a grin spread across her face. Joyful, playful, exuberant. Without thinking, she grabbed Audrey’s hand and ran in the direction of her house. Audrey kept up and they made it to her porch in a matter of seconds, though it hardly mattered. They were drenched, probably even before starting the dash for cover.
Audrey’s clothes were plastered to her skin, revealing the tantalizing swell of her breasts and nipples that had gone hard even through her bra. Her hair was wet enough to give Rowan a hint of what she would look like coming out of a shower, and tiny droplets of water clung to her eyelashes. Just like the sensation of not wanting Audrey to leave crept up on her without warning, so did the urge to kiss her. Well, not entirely without warning. She’d been thinking about kissing Audrey and wanting to kiss Audrey for the better part of three weeks. Even during that stretch of time Audrey was livid with her.
But unlike those times, this one swept through her in a giant rush, all heat and longing. Combined with the storm and Audrey’s soaked clothes and dripping hair, not to mention her own drenched state, it was all too much. Her senses and her desire overrode any premise of sound judgement. She closed the distance between them, thrust her fingers into Audrey’s hair, and let her mouth take the lead.
Audrey tasted of peaches and rain—fresh, verdant, bright. The heat of her mouth contrasted sharply with the slight chill on her skin. Everything about her was soft and lush and perfect and Rowan realized with only a hint of passing concern that she could utterly lose herself in this kiss, this moment. Lose herself, but maybe, also, find something she hadn’t even known she was missing.
It was as though she’d been waiting her entire life to kiss Audrey Adams.
A clap of thunder brought her back to reality. To her front porch and the rain beating the roof and Jack’s tail thumping against the doorframe. To their rush to get somewhere dry out of expedience more than exuberance. To the fact that Audrey hadn’t technically invited a kiss.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that.”
Audrey blinked a couple of times, those slow sort of blinks that are never good.
“I got caught up in the moment. It was your energy. I know that’s a weak—”
Audrey’s mouth crushed against hers, cutting off the half-baked explanation. It may have been less spontaneous, but it packed a hell of a lot more punch. Audrey’s hands moved up and around Rowan’s neck, her teeth nipped suggestively at Rowan’s bottom lip. Any internal lecture she may have started giving herself about being too impulsive vanished. She brought her hands to Audrey’s hips, pausing only a second before wrapping her arms around Audrey’s waist and pulling their bodies together.
A jumble of half-formed thoughts whizzed through her mind: that this was a mistake, that Audrey tasted even better than she imagined, that she’d always wanted to make out in the rain but never had. But above everything else, like the pulsing bass of a dance song whose lyrics and tune hardly mattered, was desire. She’d tried and tried to convince herself that wanting Audrey was some passing thing, an alchemy of her beauty and proximity and that trace of damsel in distress she had going on. Now, with Audrey’s tongue teasing, challenging hers, she knew better.
Audrey broke the kiss and pulled away, her eyes dark with what Rowan desperately hoped was desire. “Are you still sorry?”
She had no idea how to answer, and not just because Audrey had melted her brain. It seemed like the sort of trick question where anything she said would get her into trouble.
“Cat got your tongue?”
That was putting it mildly. “Something like that.”
“Let me rephrase.” Audrey lifted her chin in delicious challenge. “Do you want me?”
Okay, that definitely had to be a trick question. It was direct, though, and she couldn’t bring herself to say anything but the truth. “Yes.”
Audrey smiled. “That’s a start.”
Start to what? “Okay.”
“Here’s the thing. I want you.”
Those three words—without any added context or connotation—sent her already thudding pulse racing. And her libido, well, it was revving at a level she didn’t know existed until today.
Audrey angled her head. “Do you want to go to bed with me?”
She nodded. Words. She needed words. “Yes.”
Audrey let out a breath that made it clear she’d been holding it. “Good.”
“But…” She had a thousand reasons why it wasn’t a good idea but couldn’t bring herself to articulate any of them.
“I know. We’re working together, we’re barely in friend territory. I could go on.”
She really hoped it was Audrey’s turn to have a but.
“But I can’t stop thinking about you.” Audrey shrugged. “It’s driving me crazy and making it really difficult to get any work done. And things between us are already messy and complicated, so what’s one more layer piled on really?”
“Uh.”
“I know.” Audrey stuck both hands out in exasperation. “I know.”
It felt sort of like she’d stumbled into some alternate reality. Not only one where Audrey wanted her, but one where Audrey could admit it was dicey and didn’t care. A tiny, rational part of her mind screamed to slow things down, talk some sense into both of them. It was very easily and very quickly drowned out by the part that had been attracted to Audrey from the moment they met, that had been wanting her almost as long. “So?”
“So, I think you should take me inside and we see what we can do to get this out of our systems.”
If, deep down, she knew that one time with Audrey would do absolutely nothing to get anything out of her system, she also knew better than to say so. “Okay.”
Another nod. “Okay.”
The simple answer struck her, especially since Audrey had essentially carried the conversation. Command and consent all rolled into one. And Audrey would likely kick her ass if she used the word submission, but it felt like a little bit of that, too. It was sexy as fuck.
She opened the door and took Audrey’s hand. Despite the desire coursing through her veins, despite the edge of urgency that crackled in the air, she didn’t rush. Through the living room and up the stairs, down the short hall to her room. The overcast sky cast an almost eerie light through the windows. The rain continued to pelt the metal roof, the sound softer and yet somehow more pronounced than on the porch. When was the last time she’d made love to a woman in the middle of the afternoon?
“I like your space.”
It could have been a pleasantry, but she got the sense that Audrey meant it. It maybe shouldn’t have mattered, but it did. “Thanks.”
Audrey’s smile was coy as she came in for another kiss. Perhaps because she paired it with undoing the buttons of Rowan’s shirt in rapid succession. She didn’t waste time shoving it from Rowan’s shoulders. Or tugging Rowan’s undershirt free from the waistband of her pants. In fact, the only time Audrey broke the kiss was the two seconds it took her to tug the shirt over Rowan’s head.
She kicked off her shoes and Audrey did the same. Audrey’s mouth returned to hers—hot, hungry, and aggressive—and her fingers went to work on Rowan’s belt. Okay, maybe she’d been wrong about the submission part. There was nothing submissive about this. Not that she was complaining.
Not to be outdone—or to be the only naked one—she grasped at the waist of Audrey’s skirt. She found the zipper at the side, complete with one of those impossibly small hooks. Fortunately for her sex addled brain, it released with a pinch. Even wet, the fabric slinked down Audrey’s legs, tickling the tops of Rowan’s bare feet.
She had a passing thought of asking Audrey if she wanted a towel, if she wanted to get under the covers and warm up first, but Audrey nudged her onto the bed and that was the end of that.
Audrey stood over Rowan, who lay sprawled across the bed in sexy invitation. She took a moment to appreciate Rowan’s muscular body. Not angular, exactly, but so different from the softness of her own lines and curves. When her brain started to process what was about to happen—what she’d initiated—she shut it off and climbed in. Into bed. On top of Rowan.
Rowan’s skin against hers managed to turn off every thought, leaving only sensation. She straddled Rowan’s thighs and sat up, delighting in the feel of Rowan’s skin and the patch of hair against hers. She gyrated a couple of times for her pleasure as much as Rowan’s, then looked into Rowan’s eyes. “Yes?”
“Yes.”
She’d been seeking consent, but Rowan’s expression conveyed a hell of a lot more. Between that look and the subtle thrust of Rowan’s hips, it wouldn’t take much for her to come. She willed her body to slow, to wait.
Rowan’s hands settled on the curves below her waist, where hip met ass. She managed to guide Audrey’s movements without dictating them, setting a rhythm that brought them into sync. Audrey’s head fell back. “Fuck.”
“Oh, I’m planning on it. But I’m enjoying this an awful lot.”
The hint of cockiness should have bugged her, but it didn’t. It made her want to see exactly what Rowan had in mind. What Rowan had to offer. She couldn’t remember the last time she wanted someone that much and knew deep in her core she wouldn’t be disappointed. “In that case…”
She planted a hand on either side of Rowan’s head, leaning forward just enough to brush her nipples up Rowan’s chest, grazing hers in the process. She rocked back and forth, creating just the right amount of friction along her clit.
Rowan’s expressions intensified, her blue eyes darkening to a shade Audrey hadn’t seen before. “But I can only take being teased for so long.”
“What are you going—”
The rest of the question vanished when Rowan took hold of her wrists. With what seemed like little more than a twist of her body, she managed to reverse their positions, pinning Audrey’s hands over her head in the process. Audrey gasped.
“Too much?”
Too much, perhaps, for her poor short-circuited brain to process. But somehow just the right amount and also not nearly enough. “No.”
Rowan smiled that slightly smug smile again. “Good.”
It was Rowan’s turn to move against her. But instead of straddling her thighs, Rowan settled between them. She released Audrey’s wrists and braced herself over Audrey. She used the new leverage to press her pelvis to Audrey’s.
Audrey let out a moan before she could think about what sounds she should make, what sounds would sound the sexiest. She spread her legs wider. The quiver in her abdomen grew. And just like with the sounds, the orgasm flashed through her before she could stop it. Hot and fast, like steam erupting from a kettle hitting the boil.
Rowan stilled and searched her face. “Was that—did you?”
It struck her suddenly that maybe coming so quickly was rude. Or selfish. Or desperate. The flush of coming gave way to embarrassment. She bit her lip and nodded.
Rowan grinned. “That’s hot.”
Something resembling a giggle escaped her. Rowan didn’t seem to notice. She was already kissing her way down Audrey’s torso.
“I’ll go easy, but tell me if it’s too much.”
Realization dawned a fraction of a second before Rowan’s tongue pressed into her. Just like before, it was at once too much and not enough. Unlike the thrust of her hips, though, Rowan kept her mouth slow—not quite soft but light enough to tease her back to arousal. “I—”
Rowan sucked her clit gently and the half-formed words gave way to a groan. The sound seemed to encourage Rowan, who gripped her thighs and interspersed the sucking with laps of her tongue. Like she knew Audrey’s body better than Audrey knew herself.
Her pulse thudded and her vision blurred. She fisted her hands in the sheets, grasping for purchase, for something to keep her tethered to this moment. Seeking release again but also trying to keep it at bay.
The second orgasm bore little resemblance to the first. There was no flash and there was nothing fast about it. The sensation started in her center but radiated to every finger and toe, every muscle and hair follicle. But unlike ripples in water, it didn’t dissipate. Her body arched and it reverberated back through her, over and over until she collapsed onto the mattress too limp to move. “Fuck.”
Rowan crawled up her body and kissed her. “Good fuck, I hope.”
“Uh-huh. I’d use more words but you melted my brain.”
“Hmm. I guess I’ll let it cool off a bit before asking if I can do that again.”
Audrey shook her head, in response to Rowan’s question but also in a state of wonder at how easy, how playful sex could be. “Not before I get a turn with you.”
“Well, that sounds amazing, too, so I won’t argue.”
“Good. Because I want you. And then I’m going to need to have you inside me.”
Rowan kissed her again. “I can get behind this plan.”
If playfulness had been a surprise, discovering she could be brazen was a revelation. She wasn’t sure what to do with it, but it hardly seemed to matter. Because Rowan—magically, wondrously—did.