Mindy snorted, and then they were both laughing, their bodies jiggling against each other—what little jiggle Mindy had to work with, anyway. Shayna slid her hands up the back of Mindy’s neck and into her thick hair, pulling her face down.
They were still laughing when their lips met, but Mindy’s laughter faded quickly. This was too intense, too important, to be funny. Shayna’s lips were hot and wet on her own, and her mouth tasted slightly of chocolate cookie. The little nips she was making, sucking Mindy’s lips between her own, were like electricity down Mindy’s spine.
She gave into temptation and slid her hands downward as they continued to sway together, digging her fingers into Shayna’s ass. The soft flesh gave way just enough to satisfy her before she encountered the hard muscle of roller derby. That reminded her of the way she’d seen Shayna’s legs move during tryouts for the all-star team, and she kissed Shayna harder.
The song changed, and Shayna broke the kiss. She stared into Mindy’s eyes for a moment. Mindy couldn’t look away—Shayna’s brown eyes were so dilated that barely a ring of light brown encircled the pupil, and her face was flushed, her lips swollen.
She let go of Mindy’s head and grabbed her arm instead. “Come on. This way. I’m done dancing.”
Mindy, half in a daze, didn’t question the fact that Shayna was dragging her in the opposite direction from where they’d entered the club. She just figured wherever Shayna wanted to take her was somewhere she wanted to go.
And where Shayna led her was a women’s bathroom at the back of the club. It smelled like stale cigarette smoke and cheap soap, but it was clean, and for the moment, empty. Mindy swallowed. “You seem to know this place better than you let on.”
“They have theme nights,” Shayna explained as she pulled Mindy into a stall. “I like cheesy stuff like that.” She locked the stall door behind them. “But I’ve never actually taken a date to a club. I wasn’t sure how it would go.”
“So that’s the part that was pushing yourself out of your comfort zone?” Mindy asked, her heart racing as Shayna locked the door.
“Yeah.” Shayna pushed Mindy against the wall. “And this is more.”
Shayna was shorter, and Mindy probably had more muscle on her—but she couldn’t have resisted if she wanted to.
And she didn’t want to.
Shayna kissed Mindy again, hands gripping her waist, and Mindy gave back as good as she got. Now that they were in private, she had absolutely no qualms about sliding her hands over those gorgeous breasts that pressed against her, stroking the firm, round curves. She could feel Shayna’s nipples hardening under her hands—she wore a sturdy bra, but it wasn’t enough to disguise that—and ran her palms over the spot again and again until Shayna moaned against her mouth.
Mindy was more turned on than she could ever remember being in her life, even though her ears were anxiously straining for any sound of someone else entering the bathroom. Maybe that was part of it, or maybe it was just Shayna.
Shayna moved her hands to the front of Mindy’s pants and undid the button, letting them fall in a wrinkled heap to the floor, all without taking her mouth off of Mindy’s. Then she slipped one hand down the front of Mindy’s briefs, plunging her fingers into the wet heat there.
Mindy moaned out loud, pulling her mouth away from Shayna’s so she could get a breath. She couldn’t believe this was happening. But the last thing she could possibly want to do was to remove Shayna’s hand from between her thighs.
And then, incredibly, Shayna went down on her knees, pulling Mindy’s underwear with her as she went. “Mm,” she said, a wordless sound of pleasure that sent shivers all through Mindy’s body. “Tattoos.”
Mindy sucked in a breath and looked down at Shayna, grinning. “You like them?”
Shayna reached out with one finger and lightly touched the fountain pen on Mindy’s right hip. The touch just enflamed Mindy more, and she felt her hips twitch, but Shayna ignored it. “That’s right, you said you’re a graphic designer.”
Mindy nodded, but before she could speak, Shayna was lightly tracing the roller skate on Mindy’s left hip. “Just in case I forget where I met you. These are nice.” She looked up, her eyes nearly swallowed now by the darkness of her pupils.
Mindy took in a shaky breath. She was throbbing inside, and all she wanted was for Shayna to touch her some more, but she didn’t dare demand it. “My friend Kristine did them. She’s in Monstrous Regiment with me.”
“Very cool.” Shayna grinned. “I have one like this, too.” She stroked the roller skate again. “Maybe if things go well next time you’ll get to see it.”
“Next time?” Mindy started to ask, but Shayna was already moving her fingers, losing interest in the tattoos and spreading Mindy’s lips instead, finding the wetness there.
Mindy moaned and leaned back against the bathroom wall, her fingers scrabbling for purchase and finding nothing to cling to. She shifted her legs apart to give Shayna better access.
Shayna brought her lips to Mindy’s folds, nuzzling and nipping, burrowing inside. It was all Mindy could do to breathe and hold herself still as Shayna explored her.
Then, the dreaded sound came—the bathroom door creaking open. Mindy froze, but Shayna didn’t. She slipped one finger into Mindy’s opening, wriggling it into the tight, slick space. Mindy let out a high, involuntary cry, unable to hold it back as hard as she tried.
“Oh my god,” someone giggled. The door swung shut again, but not before the voice said, “Let’s find another—”
Shayna didn’t seem bothered at all. Mindy thought she was, tried to be, but Shayna was pushing another finger into her, and she couldn’t think about anything else.
Then Shayna’s tongue was on her clit, pushing and pulling, massaging the flesh and sending sparks through Mindy’s brain. Mindy had opened up enough that she was thrusting her two fingers in and out with ease, building too much pressure for Mindy to handle.
Her orgasm came with such force that she couldn’t stand on her own anymore. Her arms flailed about, looking for something, anything, to hold onto. They found the coat hook on the inside of the door, and she clung to it, letting it take most of her body weight as she ground helplessly onto Shayna’s face, the pulse-pounding climax going on and on.
Finally spent, she managed to push herself to a normal standing posture again and held her hand out to Shayna. Shayna accepted it and stood, her face shiny with Mindy’s juices.
“Fuck,” Mindy told her, unable to come up with any better compliment.
Shayna licked her lips and smiled. “Yeah, that was fun.”
Mindy tried to grab for Shayna, to pull her closer and return the favor, but Shayna unlocked the door and slipped out. Mindy had no choice but to pull up her pants and follow.
She found Shayna at the sink, washing her hands and using a wet paper towel to clean up her face. Mindy washed her hands as well, watching Shayna the whole time. “So that was out of your comfort zone, huh?”
“Yeah.” Shayna grinned at her. “Wasn’t it out of yours?”
“Absolutely.”
“But it can be fun and healthy to leave your comfort zone once in a while.”
“You’re telling me. So where exactly is your comfort zone?”
Shayna leaned her back against the sink. “I’m giving you a chance to figure that out.”
Mindy stepped into her, pressing against those cushiony breasts, and bent her head to kiss Shayna. Shayna allowed one deep kiss, then pushed Mindy away with a finger on her breastbone. “Not now.”
“Friday night?” Mindy said, picking the closest possible date night that was used by normal humans. She couldn’t go out during roller derby practice, and Wednesday probably didn’t seem like a good time for a date.
And she didn’t really want to sound desperate.
“Okay,” Shayna said.
“Five o’clock? I’ll pick you up from work?”
“No, I work in the mornings. We can meet somewhere accessibl
e by public transportation.”
“Perfect,” Mindy said, but her mind was a complete blank. “I’ll text you when I figure out where we’re going, if I’m allowed to text you.”
Shayna grinned. “Fair enough.” She pulled out her phone, and Mindy managed to untangle her purse from her shoulder so they could swap numbers.
Mindy looked around in paranoia as they left the bathroom, but no one was hanging around waiting to use it, and as they walked past the dance floor, no one stared at them or even seemed to notice them. The loud music was pounding in her head. She was exhausted.
But she wouldn’t have traded a moment of it.
She and Shayna walked back to the subway station together and kissed again before going their separate ways. Mindy promised to text Shayna soon. Shayna promised to be pleasantly surprised.
Mindy got on a subway going north, where she quickly found a seat. She still felt wet, and she thought about Shayna the whole way home.
Chapter 3
Mindy talked to her friends at ArriveSpace about where she should take Shayna for their second date. She got almost more ideas than she knew what to do with, and ended up deciding to take her to one of the fancy vegan restaurants in the same area where they’d been on Halloween. She figured Shayna needed to be surprised, and considering neither of them appeared to be vegan, fancy vegan food would definitely be a surprise.
She texted Shayna, telling her to meet at the same subway station at around five on Friday. Shayna texted back an acknowledgement after a couple of hours, but didn’t continue the conversation. Mindy was disappointed and considered sending a few more texts, but maybe talking that way wouldn’t be as fun. They had plenty of chemistry when they met in real life—why mess with it?
This time she didn’t forget to leave on time, mostly because she’d told all of her friends about her plans and they knew when she needed to leave. Plus, she’d picked out a nice outfit ahead of time. She’d had her dress pants dry-cleaned, and this time she wore them with a button-down, a blazer, and a pair of nice dress shoes with square heels. Other than the heels, it was a pretty masculine outfit, but she liked how she looked in it.
More important, she felt very dressed up. It was very different from her usual T-shirt or the button-down and vest she wore for roller derby. Surely Shayna would be impressed.
She arrived at the subway station with ten minutes to spare, which had been her plan; since Shayna had found her for their first date, she felt it was her obligation to find Shayna this time.
Thankfully, it wasn’t nearly as crowded this afternoon; a fair number of commuters were traveling in both directions, but Mindy could actually see and move easily from place to place. It helped that the sun had not quite set yet.
She had just enough time to start getting nervous before she spotted Shayna’s perfectly coiffed victory rolls appearing from behind a man in a business suit. She dashed over and held out her arm in what she hoped was a chivalrous manner.
Shayna looked at her and grinned, taking her arm, her eyes sparkling. “Oh, you look dressed up. Should I have worn something nicer?”
“You look amazing,” Mindy said honestly. Shayna was wearing high-waisted jeans and a cropped white sweater that just met the jeans at her waist, showing off her delicious curves. Over that, she had a pink trench coat, its belt untied.
“Flatterer.” They took a few steps away from the subway entrance.
“Are you ready for dinner? We have a little bit to walk to the restaurant.”
“Oh, are we eating? You should have told me.” Shayna put her hand to her chest in mock surprise. “I thought this was a run-a-marathon date, so I carbo loaded.”
Mindy snorted and steered her east. “Please, if I wanted an athletic date, I’d just have us visit each other’s derby practices.”
“I don’t think our captains would approve.”
Mindy tried to imagine how Shelly would respond to her bringing a date to a derby practice. She’d probably just work Shayna twice as hard. Though she’d been fine with letting another team visit their practice a few weeks ago. “What, you think sloppy makeouts would distract our teammates?”
Shayna raised her eyebrows. “Sweetie, nothing I do is sloppy.”
Mindy looked her up and down. It was true—despite the subway ride, Shayna had not a hair out of place. “So where do you live?”
“Somewhere not sloppy at all,” Shayna said, glancing out at traffic as they crossed a street.
“Is that a dig at my apartment? Have you been stalking me?”
Shayna looked back up at her and grinned. “Wouldn’t you like to know.”
Mindy stopped at the door of the restaurant and opened it, gesturing Shayna in. “We have arrived.”
“Oh, I’ve been wanting to check this place out,” Shayna said enthusiastically as they walked in.
“I have a reservation for five-thirty,” Mindy told the hostess. “Mindy Wyatt.”
“Certainly! We can seat you right now. Right this way.”
Shayna stared unabashedly around the lovely old building as they followed the hostess. Mindy tried to pretend that she wasn’t staring, too, but she couldn’t help admiring the place.
“Have you been here much before?” Shayna asked as they sat down.
Mindy shook her head. “Never. But you like to be adventurous, right?”
“Well, I can be certain they don’t serve eyeballs and brains here,” Shayna said, opening her menu.
Mindy looked down at her own menu. She had no idea what some of the menu items were. Even the drinks sounded too fancy for her.
She ended up ordering water and a beer and telling the server to bring her something really delicious to eat. Shayna ordered something with mushrooms and a glass of sparkling wine. “You know,” she said as the server left with their menus, “if you’re trying to impress me with your lavish spending, it’s not going to work.”
“No?” Mindy wrinkled her brows. “What if I turn into a prince out of a romance novel? Take you on a jet to go shopping in Paris and buy all the Hermès scarves and, uh, Galloo shoes you could ever want?”
Shayna snorted with laughter. “Are you going for Gucci or Jimmy Choo with that?”
“Whichever.”
“I guess I’m relieved that you at least got Hermès right. But no, that wouldn’t impress me.” She looked down, fiddling with her napkin.
Mindy gave an exaggerated sigh and threw her arms up in the air. “Then what’s a girl to do?”
“Didn’t you say you were a graphic designer?” Shayna smirked. “I’ve never heard of that career choice paying well enough for even one Hermès scarf.”
Mindy grinned and leaned back in her seat. “I could save for one, if that’s what I really wanted. I’m careful with my money and I’ve been putting five dollars a month into my ‘date’ budget. But this place is going to devour the whole thing, so next time it might be the deli after all.”
Shayna gave a delicate shudder. “Anything but that.”
The server came by with their drinks and Mindy took a sip of her beer. It tasted fancy. She liked it, but she wasn’t sure it was worth one beer for the price she’d pay for a six-pack. Watching Shayna smile and wrinkle her nose as she sipped her sparkling wine, though… that was worth all the money she could spend.
She put down her beer. “Why did you say I’m trying to impress you with my lavish spending? There are fancier restaurants in the city.”
“Asking the server to just bring you something? They’ll bring you the most expensive thing on the menu, or concoct something that’s twice that much.”
“You think so?” Mindy thought about the prices she’d already seen on the menu. She was being truthful about her budget, but she thought she could stretch it to spend another twenty or thirty dollars on this meal, including tip. “Well, I’ll be a little hungry this month.”
“You never worry about money?” Shayna leaned forward, resting her chin on the backs of her hands and pursing her lips. Mindy
wanted to lean forward and kiss them, but there was a table in the way.
“I wouldn’t say that.” Mindy shrugged. “But I’m not a worrier in general, and I know how my budget is doing. If I didn’t keep careful track, I probably would have dug myself into deeper debt trying to get my business set up.”
“Deeper?”
“Well, to be honest with you, I borrowed money from my parents and my sister Tamar to get started. I mean, it was their idea, and it obviously worked out, but I’m still trying to pay them back. First I need an emergency fund, though.”
“I appreciate your honesty,” Shayna said, looking down to fiddle with her napkin. Maybe Mindy shouldn’t have said anything. “No student loans?”
“No, I scraped through with a combination of parental savings, scholarships, and work. I actually worked in a Jewish bakery for three years.” Mindy wrinkled her nose at the memory. Spending three years smelling fresh-baked bread every single morning would have been heaven for most people, but not Mindy. Everything about the job had been great except for the actual baking. “It was the worst. I couldn’t eat bagels for years—I kept thinking they smelled like sweat. My hair probably still frizzes up spontaneously at the smell of yeast.”
Shayna burst out laughing, looking up at Mindy again. Mindy wasn’t sure that her description of her job had been that hilarious, but she grinned anyway, pleased to have amused Shayna.
“I work at a bakery,” Shayna finally said, taking a sip of her sparkling wine.
“Oh!” Mindy laughed. “How do you keep your hair so sleek?”
“Your bakery was probably more humid than mine. I work at Buttercup Cakery.”
“Ooh, that fancy cupcake bakery by Rittenhouse Square? Totally posh. So why haven’t you made me a cupcake yet?”
“Well, I don’t actually get to bake. Or decorate. I just work the counter.”
The server came with their food, and Mindy thanked her. “Do you like it there?” she asked Shayna, uncertain. Shayna didn’t look too thrilled about working at the city’s cutest, trendiest cupcake bakery.
Head Over Wheels Page 3
