Chapter Twelve

ELLIE’S STREET WAS a typical winter scene in Chicago—salt-crusted cars packed between petrified piles of snow, the occasional shoveled-out dibs gap like a missing tooth. She recognized Mr. Pham’s meticulously cleared spot. He always strung a ragged strip of caution tape from two stacked milk crates to an oversized garden gnome. Olivia had circled until she found a space a block away, but Ellie’s simmering anticipation staved off the worst of the cold as they walked. Their breath danced in the windless night, and she relished their curled fingers, the lazy arc of their swinging arms. When they reached her building, she led them up the stairs, still hand in hand. In the heat of the hallway, Olivia’s palm grew damp against her own.

“This is me.” Ellie pulled her keys from her purse.

“It’s a nice building.”

“Yeah, I like it.”

Olivia leaned a shoulder on the door frame. “How long have you lived here?”

“Four years. It’s a short ‘L’ ride to where I used to work.”

“Quiet neighbors?”

Ellie paused, the key halfway in the lock. Olivia’s eyes flickered with an unsettled quality she hadn’t seen before. “You don’t make small talk. What’s up?”

“What do you mean?”

“Don’t do this. Don’t go away. Tell me what you’re thinking.”

“I wasn’t—”

The key jerked from Ellie’s hand as the door swung inward. “Hola, ’manita. Did you—”

“Jesuchristo, ’Berto! What the fucking hell?”

Her brother’s abashed face hovered in the half-open door. “I thought you were having trouble with the lock! I was letting you in.”

“Why are you even here?” She wanted to strangle him for interrupting Olivia’s thought.

“To discuss Mamá’s birthday party?”

“Shit! I completely forgot.” They’d set this up earlier in the week, but her excitement about Olivia’s last-minute plans had driven everything else from her brain. “I’m so sorry.”

“No es nada.”

“It’s not nothing, ’Berto. I should have texted you.” She glanced at Olivia, who was drifting farther into the hallway. “Okay, hang on a second. Olivia, this is my brother, Alberto Vasquez. ’Berto, this is Olivia Northman, the woman I’m seeing.”

“Nice to meet you.” Olivia offered her hand, which Alberto took with his characteristic enthusiasm.

“You too, Ms.—”

“Alberto, I’m not much older than you. Call me Olivia. Please.”

“Perdóneme, Olivia.”

Ellie held her brother’s gaze, willing him to catch her hint. “Ben is staying at his aunt’s house tonight. It was last minute. I’m sorry about the mix-up.”

Olivia stuffed her hands in her pockets. “I can go if—”

“No!” Ellie interrupted her more urgently than she meant to. “’Berto comes over late sometimes after his shift. We can do this another time.”

“I hate to run you off,” Olivia said. “At least stay for a quick drink.”

A groan tried to escape. She wanted her brother gone and Olivia naked in her bed. Alberto sensed the trap, clearly reading her consternation but too polite to refuse Olivia. Plastering a smile on her face, Ellie pushed open the door. “Let’s have a drink.”

She shoved her brother in the shoulder as she passed through. “Una cerveza y te vas, hermano.”

Alberto flicked her ear. “Tan impaciente.”

“Tan cachonda. Keep it in mind, chatty pants.”

Despite her brother’s teasing, he kept to his one-drink promise, spinning funny childhood stories around carefully placed questions. Ellie had told him Olivia’s general history, and she appreciated how he managed to appear the curious big brother without actually prying.

When she walked him to the door, she placed a grateful kiss on his cheek and threw her arms around him. “You’re the best hermano I could ask for. Thanks. And sorry again.”

“Me gusta ésta. Es amable.” He winked. “Y caliente.”

“Gracias, Alberto,” Olivia called from the living room. “No estás tan mal, pero su hermana es más caliente.”

Alberto’s eyes widened in what must have been a perfect match for her own. “You didn’t tell me she spoke Spanish!”

Olivia poked her head around the corner and grinned.

“How do I not know this?” Ellie asked.

“Tonight is the most I’ve heard you use it. I got a Spanish minor in college because it made sense with the nursing job.”

“Any other languages in your secret stash?”

“I picked up some Tagalog. And there are a couple of Korean curse words I save for special occasions.”

“I think we’re busted, hermana.” Alberto gave Olivia a quick wave and slipped out the door. He grinned as she closed it. “Me gusta.”

“Yo también.”

“I like him, too,” Olivia said. “He’s corto, though, more than I expected. Where do you get your height?”

“My mother’s father was the tallest man in the village, and all of his height landed on me. I clear each of my brothers by a few inches. ’Berto’s the shortest.”

Olivia struck a relaxed pose, propped against a corner of the entryway, long legs crossed at the ankle, but her fists were buried in her pockets. The fabric rustled as she clenched and unclenched them.

“Why did you invite ’Berto for a drink?” Ellie asked.

“I was curious. You got to meet Arti already. Why? Should I not have?”

“It’s fine, but I thought maybe by inviting him, you were avoiding…this.” She pointed at herself, then Olivia. “Us.”

Olivia sighed, her shoulders collapsing with the sound. “Not avoid, exactly.”

“You’re nervous.” Ellie hooked a finger in a belt loop and tugged, placing a hand on Olivia’s chest. Her heart drummed beneath the skin. “But you were so confident at the restaurant.”

“I know, but with every step on the stairs—”

She’d never seen Olivia skittish, and a tender concern tamped the desire nipping at her heels. “If you’re not ready, we can wait.”

“I don’t want to wait. But what if I’m not what you’re expecting? What if—”

“I thought you were amazing from the moment I saw you. Nothing we do, or don’t do, tonight will change that.” She led Olivia to the bedroom. “We can stop anytime you want.”

“Okay.” Olivia’s whisper fell into the sliver of space between them.

Ellie lifted the shirt over Olivia’s head and kissed one wiry shoulder. The soft click of hooks releasing mingled with their uneven breaths, and then she peeled away the bra. Ellie had ached for this moment, when nothing separated her from the full expanse of Olivia’s skin. Touching her forehead to Olivia’s, she let her fingers trace twin lines across her collarbones to the sharp plane of her shoulders and down, ending at the knobs of bone at her wrist. She moved to Olivia’s waist, was about to run her palms up that long torso, when Olivia grabbed her wrists. Ellie tipped back a few inches to meet her eyes. They were guarded, but they didn’t break contact as Olivia lifted Ellie’s hands and rested them on her ribs. A sharp breath expanded against her palms before it registered.

Ellie dropped to the edge of the bed on nerveless legs. It was obvious now, the web of scars on Olivia’s left ribs, the biggest an angry serration marring the outer curve of her breast. The brutal tangle pulsed with each breath, and she looked up to find Olivia’s face with that same flat, careful expression.

“The accident?”

Olivia nodded. Her mouth opened, then closed into a thin line.

Tears pricked at Ellie. To see these marks on Olivia, a physical scrawl of an old pain—it stole the air from her lungs. Almost killed all three of them. It seemed impossible she might never have met this woman.

Olivia tried to retreat from the scrutiny, but Ellie cradled her between her knees. If she wanted all of Olivia, it felt right to start here, to face this wound as she would any other—head-on, unafraid. She placed a kiss in the center of the cluster, and Olivia gasped. Ellie traveled each scar, planting kisses as she went as if she could remove the pain, the heartache, with every touch. She’d almost finished when Olivia rested a hand on her cheek.

“Please, Ellie…” The words were ground glass in her throat.

Ellie stood and wrapped her in a tight hug. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.” She couldn’t tell if it was for the accident, the scars, or her attention to them. “This doesn’t have to happen now.”

Olivia drew back. Turbulent eyes pinned Ellie in place. “I want it to happen. I need this to happen.” Then Olivia kissed her with a desperate passion.

The world narrowed to the urgent exchange of their open, hungry mouths, and the desire Ellie had, this terrible ache for Olivia, burst free. Spinning Olivia to the bed, she poured herself into the kiss. Ellie had never wanted to consume someone like this. Her teeth nipped that long neck and grazed angular shoulders. She licked the crook of an elbow, curled a tongue into the shell of an ear. Pressing her lips to a wrist, she absorbed its pounding pulse. When she sucked a pale pink nipple into her mouth, she moaned along with Olivia.

“Harder,” Olivia rasped.

She bit with more force, and Olivia shuddered, grabbing her hair to drag her closer. No woman had ever let her attack her breasts with such aggression, and she grew wetter with each scrape of teeth across screwed-tight nipples. Breath pinched short by eagerness, she unbuttoned Olivia’s pants and drew everything down her endless legs in one motion. She nuzzled her patch of curls—blonde mixed with gray—and inhaled her sharp, sweet scent. The urge to bury her face there nearly overwhelmed her, but she needed to be close this first time, face-to-face, so she kissed the soft dip of Olivia’s navel and continued up.

Olivia’s head was thrown back, eyes closed, fingers snarled in the comforter. Ellie was even with her now, and she spread Olivia’s right leg open, pinning it gently to the bed with the weight of her hip.

“Olivia,” she whispered.

Those beautiful eyes opened, filled with every color of wheat and gold and green and gray, and Ellie sank her fingers into that soft, wet heat. Olivia sucked in a breath as her eyes closed again. Exploring the length of her in long, slick passes, Ellie luxuriated in the sticky rhythm of their bodies, the clit swelling beneath her touch. Mumbled pleas and choppy gasps spilled from Olivia’s mouth, and she opened herself wider, begging with her body as much as her words. Ellie skimmed her cheek along Olivia’s, their breath hot and close, and quickened her strokes. Olivia came without warning, crying out and arching against her. Ellie captured her open mouth, swallowing the sounds surging from her throat. As they began to subside, she broke off the kiss but stayed close, Olivia’s warm pants filling her mouth.

Without waiting, Ellie eased two fingers deep into her. Olivia buried her face in Ellie’s neck, her growled yes stretching into a hiss. She started slow, but as Olivia’s breath grew ragged, she increased the pace. Olivia bent her other knee higher, trying to take in more, and when Ellie added a third finger, a low, guttural groan rolled through her. The sound deepened when she came again, clutching Ellie, digging her right heel into her calf. As the orgasm finally quieted, Ellie started to pull out, but Olivia grabbed her wrist.

“Stay there.”

She lingered in the velvet-sleek space. Small spasms still pulsed, but fleetingly. The lush folds began to soften, and through the thin skin, a distant heartbeat throbbed. When Olivia shifted, she eased out of her, bringing her hand up to run it through her long waves of hair. Olivia opened her eyes at the touch. When they met Ellie’s, so close, a quiet sob tore itself from her chest. It startled Ellie, but she enclosed Olivia with her arms and legs to keep her from flying apart. Sobs wracking her body, Olivia tucked her forearms around her ribs as if she could do nothing to protect herself but curl into a ball. Ellie waited, running her palm along her spine until a muffled voice emanated from under her chin.

“I’m sorry.” Olivia lifted her face, mapped with tears and wonder. “The way you kissed me when I came, when I saw you right there…”

“But Jen—”

“It wasn’t…so intimate. I didn’t think I could be this open again.”

“I want to always make you feel this way.”

Olivia hiccupped a laugh and rested her forehead on Ellie’s cheek. “Oh God, if I come like this every time, I may not survive.”

“I suppose you can have too much of a good thing.” She lifted Olivia’s chin. “I am grateful though. For all of this.”

“Me too.” Olivia placed a damp kiss on her lips, then tried to deepen it.

“Hold on,” Ellie said. Olivia was a jumble of raw edges right now. She needed time.

“But what about—”

“You’ll get your chance. Take a minute.” Ellie tucked the comforter around Olivia and went into the bathroom. Humming to herself, she started a bath and lit candles, then returned to Olivia, who lay where she had left her, naked and spent. “Get ready for the best bath of your life.”

“You’re overdressed for a bath. In fact, you’re overdressed, period.”

“Once I got you naked, there was no stopping. Told you I can be impatient.” Tossing her black sweater to the floor, Ellie stood in front of Olivia in her black bra and jeans. Although she’d been wearing exactly this in the supply closet, now, in her own bedroom, painted by the gentle glow of a lamp, she felt newly exposed. She fumbled with the button of her jeans.

“Wait.” Olivia crawled off the bed and stood up.

Ellie’s pulse hammered in her ears. Olivia had flirted with her these past months, but she’d only seen that fierce desire once before, at the fundraiser. Gentle fingers eased the straps of her bra down her shoulders.

“You’re so sexy. I haven’t stopped thinking about you since our night at the bar.” Olivia buried her face in Ellie’s cleavage. “I love the way you smell.”

A shiver tickled her neck as Olivia unhooked the bra and cast it to the floor. She cupped each breast, piling the flesh in her palms and brushing circles around the nipples with her thumbs. Bending to nestle her face under a breast, Olivia laved the soft skin with her tongue. “And you taste even better.” Ellie’s whole body sang with need.

Olivia’s left hand skimmed her spine and slid under the waist of her jeans. “Here,” she murmured against Ellie’s neck. “I was here when that damn knock interrupted us.” She plunged lower, palming one cheek, and Ellie groaned. Circling her hand around Ellie’s hip, Olivia undid the button, then followed a faint trail of hair from her navel. “But I wanted to be here.” Fingertips grazed the curls they found. “I wanted to know what you sounded like when you came.”

Ellie’s knees nearly buckled when Olivia stripped off everything to the floor. She fought the impulse to push Olivia to the bed, to straddle her face and show her exactly how she sounded, but the chatter of water reminded her of a slower pace, a different plan. “Now that I’m naked—” She rasped the last word and had to clear her throat. “—maybe we should get in the bath. Because I don’t know what’s going to overflow first, it, or me.” She took Olivia’s hand and led her to the bathroom.

“You have the biggest tub I’ve ever seen.”

Ellie laughed and turned off the tap. “I love baths. When I bought this place, I had to move a wall to accommodate the tub. There’s even extra joists in the floor for the weight.”

“You must have a water heater the size of Canada.”

“Close.”

They lowered themselves into the steaming water, Olivia running her legs along the walls of the tub. Ellie settled hers in the middle before pinching her nose and sinking below the surface. She emerged in a rush, water streaming through her hair.

“I’m going to enjoy baths if they always come with your own personal mermaid.” Olivia radiated desire, and it made Ellie breathless to be the focus of it. She smiled and pushed sopping curls back from her face. The gesture raised her nipples above the waterline.

Olivia bit her lower lip. “Your breasts are amazing.”

Ellie pulled her arms down to cover them, hesitated, then rested a forearm on each edge of the tub instead.

“I didn’t mean to make you self-conscious. Am I…? I can’t be the first woman to compliment them.” Olivia’s consternation would have made her laugh if she weren’t so irritated with herself.

“They’re bigger than they— Never mind.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I was being insecure. I hate when I do that.”

Olivia clasped her feet and shook them. “Tell me.”

Ellie ground her fist into her forehead. This wasn’t a story she’d expected to share. “I met my most recent ex, Angie, at the gym. I was in a dedicated exercise phase, trying to shake this depressive slump post-Jill, and Angie had started training to be a triathlete. She loved the workouts, the discipline. But it started to feel all-consuming. If we weren’t there together, she was there on her own.

“As we got serious—as I thought we were getting serious anyway—I wanted more time for us. I cut back, focused on other stuff. I got heavier, and everything got bigger.” She gestured toward her breasts. “I felt sexier actually. But Angie… I can see now, she probably resented the change in our dynamic, her shifting up a gear as I shifted down, but it came out as passive-aggressive comments. Covering myself, it’s an old reflex. One I thought I’d left behind.”

“You’re a Renaissance painting. You’re stunning. What could she possibly say?”

The obvious astonishment blunted the rough edge of memory. “It was never direct. Just toss offs about missing me at the gym or picking apart the health benefits of meals I’d cooked. All the faux health crap people throw at fat women. At the end it was hard, especially in bed, seeing myself through her eyes. I wanted her to be happy, and she obviously wasn’t.”

Before Olivia could protest, Ellie lifted a hand. “I knew it was her deal, not mine. And honestly, the weight issue was a symptom of other problems, but sometimes it still bothers me, even though it shouldn’t. And then I’m mad at myself for letting it bother me.” She grimaced and pinched the bridge of her nose.

“Ellie.” Olivia tapped her knee. “Isabella.”

She didn’t like her given name. It was stuffy, formal. But when Olivia said it, low and sensual, it didn’t sound stuffy at all.

Olivia lifted Ellie’s foot and kissed the pad of her big toe. “There isn’t a part of you I’d change.” A tongue laved her arch. “There isn’t a piece of you that doesn’t take my breath away.” Teeth nipped her heel. “And I will prove it by licking every square inch of your luscious skin.”

The lump was back in her throat, but for an entirely different reason.

“Is it okay that I called you Isabella?”

“How you say it is really sexy, in moments like this.”

“I’ll save it for special occasions.” Olivia winked and put her face close to the water. “Isabella, tell me about your first time.”

The words skimmed the surface, sounding louder to her ears. “You mean having sex?”

“Focus on a happier memory. Lean back, close your eyes, and describe the whole thing.”

“Okay.” Curious, she settled against the tub, closing her eyes. Candlelight trembled faintly through her lids. “My sophomore year of college, I met a girl at a party. Well, I knew her from a class—” Strong thumbs dug into her arch, and a moan burst loose. “That feels incredible, but it makes it hard to talk.”

“Focus. You can do it.”

“Okay, focuuussssss.” Thumbs pressed a line from her heel up to the ball of her foot.

“What was her name?”

“Shannon. Her name was Shannon. She had amazing red hair.”

“Everywhere?”

“Yes, everywhere.” She poked Olivia in the ribs with her other toe.

Olivia grabbed that wayward foot, following the same path of delicious pressure. “Keep going.”

“Ohhhhhkay. She started talking about class, and I thought she was fliiirrrting.” Ellie fought for a deep breath as Olivia stroked her calves. “It was hard to tell…oh God…but then she kissed me.”

“A good sign.”

“We made out at the party but left when it broke up. I lived at home, so we went to her place, some crappy apartment— Jesus, what are you doing?”

Olivia’s hands slid to her thighs, spreading them. Water sloshed against her sensitive nipples, sending desire arcing to her clit.

“Who made the first move?”

“I don’t remember.” She could barely recall her own name at the moment. “We were kissing, rolling around on her bed—uhhhhh.” Thumbs swept her inner thighs, brushed her labia, and slipped away. “I couldn’t get her bra unhooked!”

Olivia’s laughed bounced off the tiles.

Ellie cracked an eye open. “It’s not funny. I’m a woman, for christ’s sake, and I can’t unhook a bra.”

“Close your eyes. No cheating,” Olivia said mock-seriously, and Ellie grinned and put her head back. “It happens. Doing it in reverse can be tricky.”

The water slapped the tub as Olivia knelt between her legs. Her palms blazed a path along her ribs, under the water.

“What are you—”

“Shhh. What happened next?”

“She straddled me and removed the bra herself. She was busty—oh God.” Warm hands slid under Ellie’s breasts. “So they fell toward my face when she leaned over meeeee.” Fingers rolled her hard nipples, and her pulse pounded a drumbeat straight to her clit. “I thought I might pass out from excitement.”

“I know exactly what you mean.” The tip of Olivia’s tongue traced slow circles around her areola.

“Uhhhh…I could have—” Ellie’s breath snagged in her lungs. Her skin crawled with electricity.

Olivia lifted her other breast from the water, letting it cool and pucker in air. “You could have what?”

Ellie expected Olivia’s tongue again, its slick, muscular attention. When teeth bit down, firm but careful, she yelped. “Icouldhavesuckedonherbreastsallnight!”

“Did you?” Olivia asked the question around the nipple in her teeth, breath tickling Ellie’s skin. She tugged on it, a slow, erotic withdrawal, her teeth scraping with exquisite pressure until it finally popped free.

Ellie’s shudder rippled the water. “It…felt like it. But we did a lot of things.”

“Did she touch you here?” When Olivia drew a finger along her slick lips, Ellie almost levitated.

“Jesussssssss.”

“How about here?” Olivia’s thumb circled her clit.

She arched into the contact, air leaking between her teeth.

“And here?” Olivia stroked each fold and tender lip while Ellie writhed. “And did she do this?” Two gentle fingers slipped inside her.

After the delicious, agonizing build, Ellie had expected release, but this tender penetration only wound her tighter. Olivia froze. A swinging strand of hair tickled Ellie’s chest. Her own shallow pants grew louder in her ears. She was seconds away from begging. Or screaming. Or both.

“Uhhhnnn.” Ellie arched again as Olivia began to fuck her in earnest. Those fingers now thrust with relentless intensity, curling to brush one spot over and over. She pulled her knees up to open herself, rocking against Olivia’s hand, willing her deeper, harder, and Olivia responded, driving into her with pounding strokes that spurred her to the edge of climax.

“And did you come hard?” The words hovered in her ear.

Her groan exploded into a shout, and she plunged over the edge, the thrusting hand drawing out wave after endless wave. Olivia’s thumb slid along her clit, strengthening the orgasm, prolonging it until a final crest crashed through her in a hot, pulsing rush. She had never heard the sounds bursting from her own throat.

Finally, Ellie’s heart began to slow, and she lowered her knees. She peeled open her eyes when Olivia’s head came to rest between her breasts. She hadn’t had an orgasm like that…ever. Another minute passed as she sorted through her sputtering brain and found the power of speech. “Jesus, Olivia. I mean…I just…that was…without a doubt, the sexiest thing someone has ever done to me.”

Olivia’s low, throaty chuckle chased a shiver down her spine.

“Tell me about your first time, while I recover.”

Olivia went still. Unsure about the shift, Ellie wrapped her arms around her shoulders.

“I was a freshman in college. I met this girl, a senior. She was the RA in my dorm. Cute, dark hair, great tits. Totally my type.”

Ellie snorted and pinched Olivia’s ear.

“Short though. Five feet at best. So funny. So smart. Just…brilliant.” Olivia’s wistful sigh flowed across her chest. “She was out, and she was the most spectacular woman I’d ever seen. I don’t know what she saw in me, but she let me tag along when she made her rounds at night, up one stairwell and down the other. We talked about everything as we walked.

“After a month, she slipped her hand into mine on the first floor. It was perfect, like we’d done it a thousand times before. That went on for a few days until, one night, she stood on the first step and kissed me. I could taste the apple pie she stole from the cafeteria.” A smile curled against Ellie’s skin.

“I thought I might faint. She acted like nothing happened, and we started up the stairs. On each floor, she’d kiss me even longer until we finished her rounds back at her room. She took me to bed, as the stories say, and I was never the same.”

“What was her name?” Ellie asked, entranced by the romance and Olivia’s obvious warmth in telling it.

“Sophia.”

Ellie’s voice evaporated.

Olivia shifted to rest her chin on her chest. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought it up right after we—”

“It’s okay.”

“It felt wrong to say nothing when you’d been so open, but I couldn’t explain without…explaining.”

“I’m the one who asked. Don’t hide anything from me because you think I’ll be upset. Especially about Sophia.” She cupped Olivia’s cheeks. “It just surprised me. I didn’t know she was your first. You’ve mentioned several college relationships.”

“There’s more to the story, but we don’t have to do this now.”

“Give me the short version. I’m curious.” Olivia hadn’t hidden Sophia, exactly, but their history always felt curated, as if Olivia had stripped away the details to shield her. Ellie wouldn’t lose this chance to learn more.

“We were together her whole senior year, but she went to law school at UCLA. The long-distance thing was a lot—I was only nineteen—so we decided to break up. Arti calls the rest of college my ‘tepidly promiscuous’ era.”

“What does that mean?”

“I stank at getting laid on the first date. I wanted to know the women, so I had four girlfriends in three years, one at a time.”

“Does it count as promiscuous if you’re always monogamous?”

“It was the best I could do.” Olivia’s grin mixed the sweet and abashed in the most adorable way. “Anyway, Sophia returned to Chicago after law school. I was finishing college, getting ready to be a nurse. We were both invited to the same party and started talking. Turns out she’d also been tepidly promiscuous, with no success. We got together that night, and from then on, we were never apart.”

“It’s great you found each other again.” She kissed Olivia’s forehead to dissolve any stray tension. “Is it me, or is this water getting tepid?”

Olivia tickled her thigh. “Let’s get dried off. We’re not done yet.” When she arched an eyebrow, Ellie melted into her, stealing a fierce kiss before she could slip away.

 

ELLIE SPRAWLED ON her back, eyes unfocused, and let the sensations roll over her. In the bath, Olivia had promised to explore every square inch of skin, but Ellie hadn’t realized how serious she was. She’d recalled Olivia’s musings about the female form so many times, aching to be one of those women. Reality blotted out any whim of her imagination.

The singular attention made her newly aware of her own body—the backs of her knees, the crease where her thigh met her ass, the sensitive flesh under her bicep. Olivia had buried her face in the soft skin where leg met hip, murmuring about her smell, her taste. Now she straddled Ellie, and her tangled curls cascaded around them.

“Your body is amazing.” Olivia nuzzled her cheek before capturing her mouth, lips parted, breath hot. When she broke away to look at her, Ellie sank into that intimate, desirous gaze. “You’re perfect.”

Tears leaked from her eyes, and Olivia kissed them dry. Lips skimmed her cheeks, her chin, before coasting down her neck and across her chest. Olivia kissed the side of her breast, then raked her tongue across an aching nipple. Ellie closed her eyes as Olivia worshipped her breasts. It was the only word that fit. Olivia made her feel worshipped. Tender but insistent, she moved from one breast to the other until something between a sigh and a sob burst out of Ellie.

The bed creaked. The sheets shifted. Then Olivia’s lips closed over her clit and sucked, hard. Ellie’s cry was so loud she was sure she’d woken her neighbors, but she was beyond caring. The orgasm ripped through her like fire. Gone was the slow, reverential Olivia. She devoured her now, drinking in her wet heat. When Olivia thrust her tongue inside her, Ellie lifted her hips from the bed and grabbed fistfuls of blonde hair, pulling her deeper. She wanted more. She wanted everything. She wanted this woman to climb inside her and never leave.

When the last spasms faded, she released Olivia’s hair, and Olivia crawled up to settle on her shoulder, resting a hand between her breasts. The weight on her sternum was all that kept Ellie’s heart from beating its way out of her chest.

“What have you done?” She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

“I couldn’t go to sleep without tasting you.” Olivia’s husky voice rumbled near her ear.

“You have ruined me, Olivia. Ruined me.”

“Oh, we’re just getting started. I have more where that came from.”

“You mean now?”

“No, no. In the future.”

She flushed at the word—future. “Good, because right now I can’t feel anything below my neck.”

“Thanks for letting me explore. I’ve wanted to do that since I saw you in the mirror.”

“You are thanking me?”

There was a high, light quality to Olivia’s laugh, one Ellie hadn’t heard before.

“You don’t understand how much I love it,” Olivia said.

“Oh, I have some idea. Give me a sec, and then it’s your turn.”

“What if I can’t wait?”

“Now who’s impatient?”

Olivia lifted herself to a kneeling position. “I have an idea, if you’re willing.”

“Show me.”

Olivia shifted to straddle her face, grabbing the headboard for support. As Olivia lowered herself, Ellie gazed up her long torso, the underside of her breasts, the sharp cut of her jaw. Her own words echoed. You have ruined me, Olivia. Ruined me.