“Alice,” she gasped once she pulled away, her face red. “I—”
“Shh.” I grinned. “I know. There’s things to talk about. But for now… hotel room. You offered and I will take you up on it.”
She laughed. “God, yes. I thought you’d never get back to that. But…”
I raised an eyebrow. “But?”
“But this time, I’m going to be the one to make you scream.” She licked her lips. “It’s only fair.”
I shrugged. “I’ll, uh, I don’t foresee myself having a problem with that.”
∞∞∞
I sat on the side of the bed, slipping the coat down my arms, Lisette leaning back against the wall watching me, biting her lip.
I dropped my coat off, ran my finger along my collar. “Well?” I said. “Are you just going to stand there and watch?”
“Oh, don’t mind me. I just wanted to make sure you’re comfortable before I do anything.”
I stuck my tongue out. “I don’t think I’m getting comfortable any which way until you do something, woman.”
“Right. Silly of me to forget. You always like to snuggle in bed, don’t you?” She pushed off the wall, walked over to me, put a finger under my chin and lifted me up to look at her.
“I mean… yeah,” I said. “But—”
“Say my name.”
She said it with such force I blushed. “L-Lisette.”
She licked her lips, put a hand on my shoulder and pushed me down onto my back, crawling on top of me. “I love you so much, Alice.”
My heart was going wild. “I-I love you, too.”
She leaned in for a kiss, but stopped, hovering just over my lips, and she smirked as I felt her hand travel down my stomach. “Just so you know, the fact that we’re here means I expect us both to get extremely loud.”
I shuddered. She stopped moving her hand just above where I needed it. “If you want me to make noise, please… keep moving that hand where it was going.”
She licked her lips, slipped her hand down and ran it between my legs. I let out a low groan.
“Screw it, I don’t want to go slow as much as I thought I did,” she laughed, moved her hands up and ripped my shirt off over my head, planted kisses along the top of my breast while she unbuttoned my pants. I was naked before I knew it, and before long, so was the woman I was dangerously in love with, sitting on my waist, her bare upper body in full view, her wetness pressed onto me not far above mine.
“Lie right there,” she breathed, running her fingers along my jawline, down my neck, “and just let me do what I have to do.”
She slipped down, laid herself across my leg, rested her head against my thigh just short of the hottest part of my body, and looked up into my eyes as she ran her fingers along me. I shuddered, bucked my hips, and just like I knew she wanted, I let out a low moan I was sure the people in the next room over could deal with.
“You feel hotter than usual down here,” she breathed, her breath tickling me in weird ways I really didn’t mind. “You were really looking forward to this on the drive over here, huh?”
“Just—stop teasing me and—you know—”
She laughed. “God, you’re so incredibly sexy. I’m so glad I get to just do this kind of thing all the time.”
She ran her tongue once over me, quickly as anything, and I gasped. She didn’t waste any time from there, burying her face into me, sucking on me, and I didn’t hold back any of the sounds I wanted to make this time, throwing my head back and groaning, my hand buried in her hair. Pressing her in closer. Her tongue ran through my folds, sending pleasure riding up like waves higher and higher, and when she moved her hand down and rubbed my clit, I let out every cry as loud as I wanted.
She laced her other hand with mine and I squeezed her hand tight, feeling her drive me closer and closer, the pleasure building up in me as a fierce, tingling sensation, a desperate need in every part of me. Her fingers against my clit were too much to take.
I pressed my head back into the bed, arched my back as I felt myself flying towards the edge, pleasure pulsing through my body, and with the way I shouted her name as I reached my orgasm, I think the front desk staff might have heard it.
It was all-consuming. I don’t think I’d ever felt an orgasm so powerful. I squirmed as she kept driving me through it, my arms and legs shaking violently, thrusting my hips into her—and then I collapsed feeling like I’d just been born into a new world, gasping, my whole body still shuddering.
Lisette pulled away from me, laughing softly, wiping her lips. “Not bad. You can be pretty loud after all.”
“Shit,” I gasped. “Holy fuck.”
Lisette put her hand to her chest, an expression of mock horror on her face. “Alice. Watch your language. We’re good Christian girls.”
I snorted. “Shut the fuck up and sit on my face.”
Chapter 20
Lisette
Maybe things were all right after all. Alice loved me, too. And the only price she’d asked for forgiveness was to take her to a hotel and make her scream, which wasn’t exactly an issue.
She lay naked next to me after we’d finished, long into the night, when I didn’t think my body could handle one more orgasm and she insisted hers couldn’t, either. And lying face-to-face, I got to see the way the soft smile spread over her face, exhausted but satisfied, and that was the whole world.
“You’re so pretty,” she said. “How are you so pretty?”
“I think you’re just as pretty,” I said. “And so is your pussy.”
She snorted. “Yeah, I could tell you were a fan. Shit, I don’t think I’ll be able to move again for a week. That was good.”
I hoped she’d be able to move again in less than a week. I was still hoping for a round in the morning. “So…” I started, and she sighed, laying her arm over me.
“Look, let’s just let it be. I don’t think Seth is actually going to do anything, and even if he tries telling everyone that I’m intimately familiar with your vulva, it’s not like he has any proof. Anyone he tells would probably be too afraid of rocking the boat to actually do anything about it or tell anyone else about it. And… you know, even if people do find out?” She sighed. “I have to come out at some point or another. I can’t pretend to be a good straight Christian girl forever. And if my coming out is in the form of being in love with you, that’s not too bad.”
“But… your education,” I said. “Your life.”
“Oh, big worrywart words. I can take out student loans to finish if I have to, just like everyone else out there. I’d rather live a rough life as who I am than being pampered for someone I’m not.” She shifted, and her expression turned more serious. “What about you? If people find out you’re a lesbian…”
“I’ll be fine. I mean… worst-case scenario, I can always take out student loans to finish, just like everyone else out there.”
She looked down. “I didn’t mean to insinuate it was nothing. Sorry. But if you’re willing to risk this… I mean, I am, too. I love you.”
I kissed her, still just basking in the glow. “I love you, too, Alice. I mean it. I’ll take the risk for you.”
“Guess it’s settled! Ride or die girlfriends. And Seth can go suck on it.”
“Has he always been this bad?”
Her face fell. “Yeah. Once my mom told me he couldn’t make it to one of our Christmas parties and I cheered without meaning to. My mom got mad, and I said sorry, but I wasn’t really sorry.”
“So what if I marry you one day and then he’s my cousin, too?”
She giggled. “Then I’d have a beautiful wife and he could die mad about it. God knows he won’t have a wife who loves him.”
“Looks like you have this all figured out.”
“Oh, don’t I always, sweetheart?” She kissed me. “Except when I don’t, which is, like, always. Okay, hold on, I’m going to go rinse my mouth because I can take one guess what my breath smells like right now.”
She got up and pulle
d her coat over her naked body as she headed to the bathroom, and I sprawled out on my back, just thinking.
Ride or die girlfriends, huh?
That was a new concept for me. And on further inspection, maybe I wasn’t scared about falling in love so much as I was so excited I couldn’t bear it.
∞∞∞
When Alice and I showed up just before dance practice, the kids cheered. Of course, we brought cookies, because, in Alice’s words, “how else are we going to apologize for their moms bickering?”
Rhys just gave me that look that said finally, thank you, and I had a feeling that it wasn’t about the cookies. I had the most fun dancing with all of them I’d had the whole time—the kids were all getting it now, almost all of them pulling off the dance every time. I swelled with pride looking over all of them, but it was usually when I was looking at my incredibly beautiful dance partner I swelled with pride.
We all sat down for a movie again after, but the first ten minutes we spent giving non-answers to the kids asking what happened yesterday, just getting them off our case. And then, once the movie was underway, I got to link hands with Alice under the blanket, gaze into her eyes, and under the blanket, give her fingertips little squeezes.
Henry came in towards the tail end of the movie and sat nearby, and when the movie ended and the kids scrambled, he sat a little closer.
“Everything okay now?” he said.
Alice nodded. “Yeah. We used the magic word.”
He raised an eyebrow. “The magic word?”
Looking out of the corner of my eye, I barely caught Alice mouthing the word love at him. I felt my heart miss a beat. Alice saying she loved me was one thing, but Alice telling other people she loved me left me a little short on breath.
Henry went wide-eyed for a second, and then he beamed. “Of course you did. I’d figured as much. I’m happy for you two.”
“But Seth is a dick,” Alice said. “Hang on, let me just text you.”
“I’m literally sitting right in front of you.”
She put a shushing finger to her lips and texted, and he looked down at his phone. I felt left out, but I knew full well what she was texting him and I didn’t want to read that. I’d already had to live it.
Eventually, Henry’s face fell. “I’m sorry. I should have figured it was something like that.”
“We’re willing to take the risk,” I said. “Since, you know…”
I mouthed the word at him too. He covered up a laugh.
“God, you two are adorable. Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help. I can’t arrange for a mysterious accident to happen to Seth, even though I wish I could, but I’ll do what I can. I’m glad you ironed things out.”
“Thank Rhys,” Alice said.
“Thank my mom,” I said.
Alice turned to me, her eyes wide. “Your mom?”
Henry squinted. “Her?”
I shrugged. “She gave me a stern talking-to about not leaving my best friend.”
Alice snorted. “Oh. Yeah. Really good friends.”
During supper, when people gushed about Alice and she had to just laugh it off and talk about having a crazy dream and going on a long walk thinking about God, which of course they all ate up, we had to sit across from Seth again. And he scowled looking between me and Alice.
“Well,” he said eventually, “I’m glad you’re okay, dear cousin. And I’m sure my dear Lisette is glad for you, too.”
I looked him right in the eye and smirked. “Absolutely. She’s my best friend.”
“That is so positively wonderful!” Gina chimed in. “Even though the pairings, the marriages are the ground of sacred covenant… sometimes the friendships between men and between women we make here are just as valuable. I knew as soon as I saw the two of you, back then, you two would get along so well.”
Somehow I doubted she foresaw the developments between us, but I wasn’t about to bring that up.
Seth cornered us after the meal, after we’d cleaned up and almost slipped away. He stood out in the foyer just before the stairs, leaning against the wall, a sour look on his face.
“So,” he started.
“I thought about what you said, Seth,” I said. “Don’t worry. We’ve decided to make sure we’re just friends.”
“Oh, absolutely,” Alice said. “I can’t believe the kinds of things we were doing.”
“Maybe we can talk about another date now,” I said. “You and me. I wouldn’t dream of standing you up for it.”
Alice giggled. Seth curled his lip.
“Alice, you can be so nasty. Do you really want to try pushing your luck like this?”
“You try pulling something like that with her,” I snapped, “You sure as hell aren’t going anywhere with me.”
He rolled his eyes. “Like I am now? At least if I do—”
“Then what? Because sure as hell if she gets kicked out, I’m going right with her.”
“Lisette,” Alice said, her voice gentle before she put a hand on my arm. “Sweetheart. It’s okay.”
“I mean it. If you try outing her, I’m outing myself too. And then all you’ve succeeded in doing is tearing both families in half over your stupid ego.”
“Lisette, it’s okay,” Alice whispered.
Seth shook his head. “She really has driven you off the deep end, hasn’t she? I thought you’d be better than this, Lisette. But I guess that’s what happens when you let yourself get suckered in by sex with a… a sycophant.”
Alice squeezed my arm. “Lisette. Don’t give him the dignity of a response. C’mon.” She dropped her voice. “I love you.”
It was like balm on my spiraling anger, and I felt calmer than I could believe until Seth scoffed, wrinkled his nose.
“Is that what you’re calling this? Love?”
I took a long, deep breath, closed my eyes, and turned to Alice. “I love you, too,” I whispered. “Let’s go.”
“That’s it?” Seth laughed as we walked past him. “You know where this is going now, Alice.”
“I do,” Alice said. And we headed up the stairs, and into our room.
I closed the door behind us, and Alice fell into my arms, resting her head on my chest and breathing in deep. I held her in close and felt the beating of her heart, slow and contented.
“I do,” she repeated. “I know exactly where this is going. A new life after this… I’m so excited to see what life is like with you in it.”
“You always have the sweetest things to say.”
She laughed. “I swear I’m not normally like that. I think you bring out the best in me.”
Chapter 21
Alice
December 22nd, and Christmas was right around the corner. We’d finished wrapping all our presents—well, not the ones we’d gotten each other, since those always went right to each other, no matter how badly I wanted to give Lisette a strap-on, all wrapped up in a box under the tree for her to open while everyone was watching. I’d managed to contain that urge.
The snow was coming down hard that morning, the kind of snowfall where I could barely even see the woods out back as I lay curled up in the blankets, my legs tangled with Lisette’s, as we sat side-by-side looking at her iPad.
“I swear they do this on purpose,” she grumbled. She swiped through the university class schedule, fumbling with yet another set of degree requirements taught at the same time.
“They just know you’re too good and they need to give you an extra challenge.”
She rolled her eyes. “I don’t want an extra challenge.”
It was funny how quickly we’d progressed not only to love, but to the comfortable stage of sitting together talking about the mundane details of life. We’d already met most of each other’s friends through chat clients, too, when we’d swap messages with people like hey, how’s your winter break been? Oh, that’s cool, so I fell in love with a woman, do you want to talk to her?
Lisette’s friends were fun. For the most p
art, they treated me like I was a pixie, some kind of impossible fantasy being who had gotten Lisette to fall in love. I was looking forward to meeting them in person and proving I existed, anyway.
After a little bit of struggling with time conflicts in bed, I kissed her on the forehead and stood up. “I’m going to go grab some coffee. I’ll be back.”
“Love you,” she said, and it made my heart flutter as if I didn’t bloody well know. I kissed her cheek, giving her a tight hug.
“Love you too,” I said, pulled my robe tight and skipped, hopped and danced out of the room.
It was stupidly cold—the big manor was always drafty—and I hugged the robe close around myself as I headed downstairs, the big windows completely swathed by snowfall. I got into the kitchen without encountering anyone else, and I was halfway through making the coffee when I heard the door squeak open behind me.
I glanced over my shoulder and felt my heart plummet at the sight of Aunt Gina. She gave me a weak smile, looked down at the coffee, and said, “Making coffee, huh?”
That wasn’t a good start. I nodded. “Yeah, uh… coffee.”
I mean, obviously. The coffee machine was dripping black fluid into a coffee pot. It wasn’t motor oil.
“For you and Lisette?”
I nodded. “Yeah. Hard for her to get up without some, you know? Milk and chocolate syrup. She always has it the same way. She looks like a mature adult, but she has the taste of a little kid.”
“Right, yes.” She looked me over with wide eyes, like I’d started speaking Chinese. Backwards. I got an awful, sinking feeling I knew what was wrong.
“Want any?”
She shook her head. “Oh, no. I think I’m all right.”
“All right,” I said, shuffling awkwardly by the coffee pot. She stood nearby, just standing there, which was ten times as awkward.
“So… I wanted to talk to you about something, Alice,” she said.
Great. Here it was. I swallowed. “Yeah? What’s up, Aunt Gina?”
“Do you… have a boyfriend?”
I squinted. “We’ve been over this. I don’t have a boyfriend.”
The Christmas Ball Page 14
