by Harper Bliss
Ash’s talented tongue swept along Gloria’s heat, slid inside her, and lapped mercilessly along her clit.
Gloria fisted the sheet. Her toes curled. Ash had been right. There truly was nothing to worry about. Ash’s platinum-blonde hair moved ever so slightly between Gloria’s legs. By the sight of it, it was impossible to tell the tumult Ash’s actions were causing Gloria. The fire had spread—had taken over and pillaged her. It had imploded from within Gloria’s bones and left nothing but hot, raw desire in its wake. A need so deep, it caught Gloria by surprise. Then, there it was, not unannounced, but astonishing nonetheless. Her muscles spasmed. Her hips rose to push her sex against Ash’s mouth. Gloria came under Ash’s tongue. The fire turned into bone-deep satisfaction, into a gratitude that was impossible to articulate into words. All she could do was pull Ash into her arms and hold her so close there was not an inch of space left between their bodies.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Ash checked her alarm clock for the umpteenth time since Gloria had fallen asleep next to her. It was late when Gloria’s body had finally relented, when she’d pleaded with Ash to let her get some much-needed rest. Ash had been reluctant, because despite all the physical activity she and Gloria had engaged in, she knew she wouldn’t be able to sleep. Having Gloria awake in her bed was not a problem. Having her asleep next to her was.
Because now there was only darkness and Gloria’s soft, steady breath, reminding her—as if that was even still necessary—of the question growing ever bigger in her mind: what is this?
Walking away from Gloria would not be easy. Not from this. She couldn’t explain it. Nor could she excuse herself for inviting Gloria over. She should have ignored her text message. But it had been so easy, so seductive, to say yes. Especially after Lewis had planted the one-night thought into her head. Ash didn’t do one-night stands for the very simple reason that she wasn’t capable of them. She needed so much more than a few exchanged glances, some sultry looks and flirty banter. She had never understood any of that. So how had she put it in her head that sharing one night with Gloria would ever be enough? That notion had flown out the window as soon as Gloria had stepped inside her flat. It had been solidified when Ash hadn’t been able to stop herself from straddling Gloria and—for crying out loud!—coming when the woman had barely been inside her home for fifteen minutes. What was that all about? How had her body betrayed her like that? She was meant to be the one with all the swagger. She had already pre-excused herself that bout of arrogance. She needed it, to take away some of the tenderness that naturally seemed to exist between them.
And oh, to have Gloria come all over her tongue like that. To have her clasp Ash’s head between her strong thighs. How was she supposed to forget about that? And now, as she turned on her side and lay there, looking at Gloria and how she slept so soundly, so free of worries, so beautifully, she was certain that, unless Gloria fled her flat for some reason tomorrow morning, they would do it all over again—and again.
Gloria’s curly hair was strewn over the pillow. Ash had to stop herself from touching it, from reaching for the soothing softness of it. How had all of this even happened? Had there been a logical sequence of events that had made it possible or could this be attributed to some form of temporary madness, accidentally shared by two people both in need of something very particular at the same time? Had Gloria seen her need? Her pain? Because Ash had seen none of that in Gloria.
She focused on Gloria’s breath and tried to steady her heart rate by breathing in the same rhythm. It wasn’t working. Ash’s heart was beating inside her chest like a caged animal trying desperately to get out.
So she just kept looking at Gloria, at whatever features she could make out in the feeble light of the night. The upturned tip of her nose. The soft curve of her lips. One arm underneath the pillow, the other in front of her, as though still, even in her sleep, wanting to capture a piece of Ash.
Lewis’s words turned and tumbled in her head.
It’s highly unlikely you will fall for each other.
Yeah right. But Ash had believed him, because she’d needed an excuse, and any excuse would have been enough. Ash reckoned she’d fallen for Gloria on the night of her mother’s party, when she’d danced with her. Or maybe when she’d watched her go around the floor with Uncle Jim and she could have sworn that Gloria had looked at her in a way that conveyed something… It was impossible to tell what exactly now. But it had been the beginning of this. Like when, under the right circumstances, the tiniest seed can grow into the biggest tree.
Ash woke with a start. When had she fallen asleep? And how? The last thing she remembered was her heart pounding furiously, its relentless beat keeping her awake. Had her body surrendered and taken her mind with it when it drifted into sleep? Ash shook the thought from her. She knew from many nights of experience what the darkness of her bedroom did to her thoughts. They turned to a blackness that usually fled in the bright light of the morning. Especially on this glorious morning. Literally glorious, because Gloria was lying beside her, already awake, a wide smile on her gorgeous lips.
“Finally,” she whispered. “I’ve been awake for hours.”
Ash didn’t believe her. “Then why didn’t you get up?” Ash’s stomach growled. She hadn’t eaten anything all day yesterday. “Bring me breakfast in bed?” She scooted closer to Gloria, already so eager to bask in the warmth of her skin.
“I didn’t know that was allowed. You have some funny eating habits, Ash. I wasn’t even offered dinner last night.” Gloria looked as though she didn’t mind that all.
“I’ll take you out to brunch.” After all the calories they’d burnt last night, Ash could do with a large fry-up. “There’s a great place just around the corner.”
“Do you mean we have to leave your flat? This bed?” Gloria’s hand cupped Ash’s buttock.
“We don’t have to.” Ash suddenly didn’t feel like leaving the flat either. “I have food in the fridge. I can make you eggs and toast and whatever else you want.”
Gloria sucked her bottom lip between her teeth before she spoke again. “You looked so angelic when you were sleeping.” With a tenderness that would have floored Ash if she hadn’t been lying down, Gloria stroked her cheek with the back of her hand. “I kept wondering what you were dreaming of.”
“Last night was a bit of a dream.” Ash pushed her cheek into Gloria’s caress, like a cat would do.
“It was special all right.” Gloria huffed out something between a breath and a chuckle. “Fuck, Ash.” A slight lift of her eyebrows. “You did ask me if that was what I had come here for, and I said yes, but I had no idea it would be like that.”
Ash grabbed Gloria’s hand and brought it to her mouth. She turned it around and kissed Gloria’s palm.
“Ever since I’ve woken up…” Gloria sounded less confident. “I’ve been wondering if it was the same for you. I mean, this is very new for me. Maybe that’s why it was so mind-blowing. So utterly incredible to be with you. I don’t know. It has really shaken me, because… I somehow feel that was someone else last night, who did all those things with you. Yet, at the same time, I have strangely never felt more like myself.”
Ash kissed Gloria’s palm again. She pressed her nose into her hand and inhaled her scent. She smelled of sex, of the many orgasms they’d shared last night. “It was incredible for me as well.” Under the sheets, Ash hooked her ankle behind Gloria’s calf. “I don’t know what this is between us either, but it feels so good.”
“It’s not something you regret the morning after?” Gloria smiled at her now, as though she was already certain about Ash’s reply.
“Fuck no.” Ash kissed the inside of Gloria’s wrist.
“We should probably have some sort of conversation.” Gloria’s hand cupped Ash’s buttock with a bit more force. “And I really, really, really need to eat something now. Otherwise, I might start on you.” Ash felt Gloria’s body convulse against her as she laughed.
�
��Be my guest,” Ash said, before finding Gloria’s lips to kiss.
Chapter Twenty-Six
After Gloria had showered, and entered the kitchen fully dressed—thank goodness for that overnight bag—she found a plate of scrambled eggs and toast waiting for her on the kitchen island.
Just like in the bathroom, most of the kitchen countertops were made of marble.
“Oh my God. You’ve made my wildest dreams come true.” Gloria sat, piled some eggs on a slice of toast, and tried not to wolf down her breakfast. Missing dinner was one thing. Gloria worked in shifts and she was used to going long stretches without food. But it was as though sleeping with Ash had ignited a new kind of hunger in her. She couldn’t remember when she’d last been so ravenous. Then again, she couldn’t remember when she’d last had a night like last night. “Aren’t you starving?”
“Fuck, yes,” Ash said, but she didn’t start eating yet. Instead, she addressed a tiny speaker that stood in the corner of the kitchen island, and said, “Alexa,” making Gloria briefly wonder if there was someone else in the flat. “Play ‘It’s All Coming Back to Me Now’ by Celine Dion.”
The speaker repeated what Ash had just said, then started playing the familiar, dramatic notes.
A smile broke on Gloria’s face. “Aw, that’s so sweet of you.”
Ash winked at her, then started eating as the long song played.
Gloria swayed to the rhythm as she ate. It was a perfect couple of minutes, because it allowed her to bask in last night’s afterglow without having to think about any of the consequences. Every time her mind wandered, she focused on the music and the lyrics and Ash sitting next to her.
“She’s very candid in this song,” Ash said after the music had died down.
“What do you mean?”
“When she says ‘there were things I’d never do again, but then they’d always seemed right’, just before she reminisces about ‘the nights of anal pleasure, it was more than any laws allowed.’” Ash sat there grinning.
“You’ve clearly misunderstood the lyrics.” Gloria reached for Ash’s naked knee sticking out of her robe. “Or you have a one-track mind.”
“Hey, I analyse things for a living and I’m not easily fooled,” Ash said drily. “I’m pretty sure that’s what she really means. It makes perfect sense in the context of the song.”
“No, Ash, it really doesn’t.” Gloria stared at Ash, at her perfect face. Her hair was tousled the way it had been when Gloria had arrived at the Coopers’ last weekend, but it only made Ash look more friendly. She had a little bit of egg stuck to the side of her lip and it only made her look more endearing.
Ash shrugged. “I bet you, though, that next time you listen to that song, you’ll think of it differently.”
I’ll think of you, Gloria wanted to say. But it felt like too much somehow, although she was already planning to play the song on repeat on the train journey back.
“What are your plans for today?” she asked, instead.
Ash gave her the kind of once-over that conveyed exactly what she had in mind as her most important activity of the day. “Depends on you. Are you staying?”
“I—I could.” Gloria had packed two changes of underwear. She hadn’t given it too much thought as she had put them into her bag. It could have just been a spare one. It didn’t have to mean anything. Yet, it did mean something. Everything even remotely Ash-related meant something.
“You mean stay another night? Spend the weekend?” Heat seemed to be shooting off the skin of Ash’s knee.
Gloria nodded as she squeezed Ash’s knee a little tighter. She guessed there was a small chance that Ash wanted Gloria out of her hair, so she could do her normal weekend things, but it was unlikely after the night they’d shared.
“It’s entirely up to you.” Ash turned to her. “But I won’t say no to that. I can’t say no to that.” Her robe fell all the way open. Maybe Ash had already been so certain that Gloria would stay and that was why she hadn’t bothered to put on any clothes. Maybe she wasn’t planning on getting dressed all day. Gloria could most certainly live with that.
Gloria raked her gaze over Ash’s body. Her skin looked a shade paler in the morning light that flooded the flat, despite it being overcast outside. “I can’t say no to this.” Gloria slipped her hand further up Ash’s thigh. What she’d said to Ash earlier, about not recognising herself, was true. She wasn’t the kind of woman who did this sort of thing. She’d had no clue how much pleasure the touch of another woman could give her. But she knew now. And she wanted more. She didn’t just want to receive pleasure, but give it back as well.
“Then stay.” Ash’s breath hitched in her throat.
Gloria’s thumb skated along her inner thigh. “Whatever will we do all weekend?” A nervous laugh escaped her. Because this was as far removed from a normal Saturday Gloria had ever had. Her fingers touching Ash intimately. Her mind on one thing only. Even though they’d done this for hours last night, Gloria wanted more. Maybe this weekend, during which they could do whatever they wanted, was all they would ever have. If that was the case, then Gloria would make the most of every single second.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“Charlotte and I stopped talking,” Ash said. She’d pulled up two armchairs to the window and now they both sat where Ash often sat on her own, gazing out at the lights across the river. “We used to tell each other everything. We were always chatting away. Always over-sharing the biggest intimacies.” She managed a small chuckle. “You know, processing everything excessively like lesbians tend to do.” Gloria would perhaps not know, because as far as Ash was aware, Gloria wasn’t a lesbian. “Once we stopped talking… Once I found myself self-censoring before I said something to her, that was the beginning of the end.” She hadn’t talked about this in a while, but Gloria had asked. “It’s like we drifted away from each other, onto different wavelengths, where it became harder and harder to understand each other, until it turned into sheer unwillingness to even try.” She heaved a sigh. “I wish I had a clear-cut explanation like that she cheated on me. Or even that I cheated on her. That one of us met someone else. But it wasn’t like that. It was just a very sad, excruciating example of two people growing apart.” She took a deep breath. “Now, as to who’s fault that was… that’s a debate that will never be resolved, but I’m certainly willing to shoulder my part.” At least she could talk about this without tears pricking behind her eyes now. That was something. And she was telling Gloria. That was a lot.
“Do you still see her?” Gloria asked before taking a sip of water. She had insisted that Ash open the bottle of wine she’d spotted in the fridge, but Ash had not relented. She wouldn’t be drinking in Gloria’s presence. Her liver could do with the break.
“No. Haven’t seen her since that last time at the solicitor’s office. After we’d successfully ‘divided our assets’ and the divorce was final.” What an awful day that had been. Their time together reduced to a couple of autographs on a form.
“Would you have liked to have remained friends?” Gloria held out her hand.
Ash captured it in hers. She’d put the chairs close enough together. She didn’t want Gloria further than an inch away from her for the rest of the weekend. They still had to talk about what would happen tomorrow night, when Gloria would be taking the train back to Murraywood.
“I think that was the issue. Near the end, we’d worn each other down so much, we weren’t even friends anymore.”
“Does she live in London? You must still mix in the same circles sometimes?”
“We don’t. I make sure that I don’t run into her. Not yet, anyway. London’s big enough. She stayed in Hackney, where we lived together. I moved here.”
“I’m sorry you had to go through that, Ash.” Gloria’s voice was so soft.
“In the end, it’s all right. We weren’t meant to be together. It was hard to find out and accept that, but now we can move on.” Ash traced an invisible line from Gloria’s wrist
all the way to the tip of her index finger. “Besides, you haven’t been without hardship in your life.”
Gloria gave an unexpected deep belly laugh. “It’s funny,” she said. “But I think I’m finally doing what George made me promise I should do after he died. I’m finally having the fun he ordered me to have.”
“In that case, I’m glad to be of service.”
“Oh gosh, you have been of excellent service. Is there anywhere I can leave a review? Ten stars for the orgasms.” Gloria’s laugh was infectious, but there was a nervousness about it as well.
There was tension in the air because neither one of them knew what this was. They could enjoy it, they could revel in it, and repeat their sensual actions as much as their bodies allowed. But after that, Ash had no clue what would happen.
“Seriously, though…” Gloria’s voice was almost solemn now. Maybe she was thinking of her late husband—a man Ash could scarcely remember. “Maybe…” Her tone was hesitant now. “Maybe, after George, a new man was never on the cards for me.” Ash could feel Gloria looking at her. “Maybe the new man for me is a woman.”
Ash knew how easily she was baited by statements like that. Because it was Gloria, she waited a beat before turning to her to speak. When she looked at Gloria, with all that hope and easy laughter on her face, Ash swallowed her words completely. Whatever she had been going to say next wasn’t called for in the moment. It could wait or it could also just never be said. If there was one thing Ash had learnt from going through a divorce, it was that sometimes it really was better to hold your tongue, even though it took all the willpower you had.
“Can I ask you the million-dollar question?” Ash still held Gloria’s hand in hers.
