by Fiona Zedde
Nuria licked a few lingering rice grains from the corner of her mouth. “If that’s true, you’re an even bigger asshole than I thought.” She snorted with disgust and looked away, her gaze wandering past the railing and downstairs.
Then she blinked.
“What?” Sage followed Nuria’s gaze to see what had made her friend do that double take.
Her mouth dropped open. The fork she held between her fingers fell and clattered against the plate. What the actual fuck?
This time, she didn’t make the same mistake. Yes, the long hair was thick and fell around slender shoulders, but the Adam’s apple was obvious from this angle. This was Zachary Baxter, the man Phil had lusted after at the movie premiere. And right at that very moment, he was sitting at a table with Phil herself.
They were laughing. Their hands rested close on the table. They were drinking wine.
The rum and coke Sage drank earlier threatened to come right back up. She swallowed.
Downstairs, Phil and Zachary Baxter went on having a damn good time. It looked like they’d been sitting there for a little while. An empty plate with remnants of food sat in the middle of the small table between them and their drinks looked at least half-finished.
Without thinking, Sage pushed back from the table and jumped to her feet.
“Sit down, honey.” Nuria put down her fork. “What Phil is doing here is none of your business. Not anymore.”
But Sage couldn’t accept that. A swimming red rage took her thudding down the stairs and up to the sun-lit table by the window. They didn’t notice her at first. Baxter and Phil kept talking, their voices low and intimate.
The real burn of it was that they looked good together. Phil in her clinging black dress—like she was in mourning—with her hair straightened and curled under in sleek bob. Her face was so beautiful that it actually hurt to look at her dead on.
The guy wore black too. A dress shirt, slacks, and matte black Italian loafers. His hair was loose down his back and he was obviously taller than Phil, even though she was wearing stilettos.
“Did you fuck him yet?” Sage growled.
Two pairs of eyes jerked up to look at her. It gave her a kind of savage joy to see the smiles disappear from their faces.
“If I did, it’s none of your business,” Phil said evenly. But she drew her hand away from his on the table.
“You must really hate her right now.” The guy had the nerve to talk to Sage. His voice was deep and pretty enough if you were into that sort of thing, which obviously Phil was now. “You can’t love someone and run up to embarrass them in public like this,” he continued, his brown eyes hard and challenging. But he was smart enough to stay in this seat.
“Fuck off,” Sage snarled at him.
“What do you want, Sage?” Phil asked, her voice infuriatingly calm.
“I want you to not be here with this asshole.”
“Again, what I do isn’t your business anymore,” Phil said. “You made that very clear to me the other day.”
Impotent anger ran rampant through Sage’s veins, flushing her entire body with heat. “Phil, you can’t do this!”
People were starting to stare, but she didn’t give a damn.
Phil’s chair abruptly scraped back from the table just as a server approached them.
“Is everything okay here?” the server asked looking from Sage to Phil with concern and bass in his voice.
“We’re fine.” Phil said from between clenched teeth. Standing up, she grabbed Sage’s arm hard enough to hurt. “Even though it’s not necessary, thanks for checking on us. My friend is just a little upset.” She turned to Baxter with a tight smile of apology. “I’m sorry about this, Zachary.” Then without waiting for a response from her date, she yanked Sage toward a narrow hallway and the sign that said “restrooms.”
At least a dozen eyes watched them march quickly past.
As soon as the bathroom door swung shut behind them, Phil let go of Sage’s arm like she had the plague. “I don’t know what your problem is, but you better get over it fast,” Phil hissed.
“My problem is you and this guy!” Sage shouted back. “What the fuck are you doing here with him?”
Phil eyes slitted with hurt and malice. “Living my life apart from you. That’s what people do when they break up, even lesbians.”
“No!” Sage’s chest heaved. It felt like she had a locomotive rumbling through her breast, heading for a derailment. She stalked to the other side of the bathroom, her heavy footsteps taking her back and forth past each of the four empty bathroom stalls. “You can’t…you just can’t…”
The runaway train inside her rolled faster. She started to shake.
“I can’t what? Get over you? Have a life?” Phil cursed and backed away from Sage, her high heels rapping loudly against the tile. “It doesn’t work that way. You may not believe this, but there are actually people out there who like me just as I am. All of me. These are people I don’t have to beg to be with me.”
That wasn’t right. Not just because of that man out there who’d probably had his dick and balls and hands all over Phil. It wasn’t right that there was somebody out there who cherished and cared for Phil more than she did.
Is this the way you treat someone you love? A small voice whispered at the back of her mind.
The thought made her stumble back. Even if she didn’t want to be with Phil like that, she still loved her. Right?
“Baby…” She reached out her hand.
Phil jerked back. “No!” For the first time, she lost her calm and her face crumpled like tissue paper. “No, Sage.” She backed away. “You don’t get to do this to me!”
But Sage kept reaching, kept moving forward.
Part of her knew Phil didn’t deserve this, but she was a mess of want and craving and an unexplained jealousy that had no end. This man shouldn’t have Phil. He wasn’t worthy of her.
Sage dropped her hand but continued inching closer. “You haven’t fucked him yet. I can see it on your face.”
“Whether I have or haven’t is none of your business.” Phil’s voice strengthened. But she kept backing away.
“You are my business.” Moving snake-quick, Sage cupped Phil’s her crotch through the thin black dress. “This is my business.”
Phil’s back hit the last stall and the door slammed open, pitching her into the bathroom. Sage followed, breathless, senseless, the locomotive in her chest rattling at a hundred miles an hour.
The stall door banged shut behind them and Sage just had the presence of mind to fumble for the flimsy little latch and lock them in.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Phil demanded, her voice rough.
Sage dropped to her knees. “I don’t know.”
And honest to God, she didn’t. Even though she should’ve expected it, seeing Phil with that guy just about broke her down. Her heart had lurched inside her chest then burst wide open, completely pulverized by the sight of them together.
“Get up,” Phil snapped. “You’re being ridiculous.” But her voice was a little breathless.
They’d been in places like this before. And the sketchiness of it, the very idea of fucking in a handicapped stall while separated from other people by a flimsy excuse for a door that didn’t even go all the way to the floor, made Sage’s pussy flood with arousal.
Sage’s breath shivered in her chest. Her clit felt suddenly too big in her shorts, fat and thick and aching for stimulation. Still on her knees, she clasped Phil’s hips.
“Are you sure that’s what you want me to do?” She dragged up the soft cotton of Phil’s dress, over her knees, up her thighs. Phil wasn’t wearing any panties.
Firm hands clamped down on Sage’s shoulders. “Sage…”
“Yes?” If Phil told her no, she would let her go. Yes, she would shatter into a million pieces but she would get off her knees, and she would go back to her lunch and pretend none of this ever happened. Sage tried to show all that on her face.
A slow sigh leaked from Phil’s open mouth. “Yes.”
Thank God! Before Phil could change her mind, Sage shoved the soft thighs open and nuzzled gently between them.
Fingers gripped her hair and tightened. Dragged her head back so she had no choice but to look at Phil. “No,” Phil said. She licked her lips, looking down at her with heavy-lidded eyes. The sleek mink of her hair swept down to frame her face in lustrous darkness. “Do it hard. Don’t pretend this is more than it is.”
Reaction clenched hard in Sage’s belly.
The sensible thing for her to do was get up and walk out of the stall. Just walk away.
Phil’s stare challenged her. What do you want to do?
With a deep groan, she yanked Phil’s thighs wider and her woman’s back thudded against the wall with an oddly erotic sound. Phil gasped. She was already dripping wet. The slick damp of her pussy greeted Sage’s mouth. Slippery. Swollen. Hungry.
The heated smell of it pulled a long moan from Sage’s very core.
Sage dove in, licking the loamy and soft flesh until juices dripped down her chin. Her fingers dug hard into Phil’s thighs, feeding Phil the roughness she said she wanted. But the ravenous pussy under her tongue didn’t want it hard. Didn’t want it rough. Sage had been making love to it long enough to know. The pink opened for her, wanting but with a hint of reluctance. It begged to be coaxed and tended to.
Above her, Phil bit her lip. She grabbed and squeezed her own breast through the thin dress, tugged a nipple. Squeezed it. Panting quietly, she rocked her pussy against Sage’s mouth.
Good. So good.
Phil never took her eyes off Sage. The challenge was there in the swirling depths of her gaze. So was her pleasure.
Damn, she missed this…
Groaning and hungry, she distracted Phil with the pain of her fingers, gripping her soft skin hard enough to bruise while she licked into the familiar and salty flesh she’d called a home for twelve years. Hungry for every flavor, she sucked the pretty and tiny clit into her mouth, tonguing the underside with firm and sure movements. Wetness gushed into her open mouth and she groaned, drinking it all up. Her own pussy tightened in arousal and dripped its own pleasure. The clit piercing only heightened the sensation.
A soft breath of sound. The fingers in her hair tightened. Phil leaned back even more into the wall and lifted her thighs, one after the other, to drape them over Sage’s shoulders.
Sage kept her eyes open, watching every shift and movement in her face.
With each stroke of her tongue, Phil’s breath roughened. Her lashes fluttered down, fighting to stay open and watch Sage eat her out.
So damn beautiful.
Phil circled her pussy against her mouth, frantic and hard. But Sage made her touches gentle. Firm but soft. One moment passed, and then two. Phil’s breath stuttered and she slowed down the wild bucking of her hips and surrendered to Sage’s gentleness.
Just what Sage was waiting for.
She drew her mouth back. “Do you want this, baby?”
Phil’s eyes snapped open and her lips parted, an obviously pissed off answer about to jump off on her tongue. Sage shoved two fingers deep into her slippery cunt and curled them, aiming for that spot she knew so well. Phil’s back jerked off the wall just as her hands gripped Sage’s shoulders. Her mouth flew open wider, her eyes. Pleasure twisted her face.
“Oh…”
That first thrust was just the beginning.
The next pushed another, softer noise from Phil. So soft, so delicious that if Sage hadn’t been listening for it, she wouldn’t have heard it.
A low bang sounded outside the bathroom. The sound of the door opening and someone coming in.
Sage kept licking.
“If you bitches are in here fucking, you better hurry up.” Nuria’s voice rang with amusement. “There’s only so much small talk I can have with Zachary. He may be creaming his shorts imagining what you two are up to, but even he’s not going to wait out there forever.” Then the door banged open again. She was gone.
All through Nuria’s brief visit, Sage never once stopped fucking Phil. She sucked that sweet clit to the rhythm of her finger’s pounding thrusts, getting more and more into it with every uncontrolled glide of Phil’s wetness against her face.
“Oh…” Phil’s pussy quivered against her mouth.
Sage kept at it, stroking that spot inside Phil while sucking and licking her clit. That sweet sound came again and that perfect pussy clenched hard around her fingers, rippling, rippling…
A shudder of triumph kicked through Sage’s belly.
That’s it, baby. Come for me.
With a near-silent groan, Phil collapsed against the bathroom wall. Her breasts heaved under the black dress. Gently, Sage removed the trembling thighs from her shoulders and settled Phil on her feet. Inside her slacks, her pussy was raging to come. With trembling hands, she stroked the stiff peak of a nipple poking against Phil’s dress, touching herself through the warm cotton of her slacks at the same time. Her pussy clenched hard and shudders of electric pleasure licked down her spine. She was so close. Just a little bit more…
“No.” Phil batted Sage’s hand away from her breast. She straightened her dress. Some of her lipstick was gone, bitten off while Sage had been snacking on her sweet cunt. “You don’t get to come,” she rasped, stepping around Sage. “Not with me.”
Huh? Sage felt stupid with lust.
Her clit throbbed like an insistent heartbeat and the taste of Phil’s pussy was like the sweetest of spices on her tongue. She ached.
But Phil wasn’t about to give her any relief.
By the time she got it together and realized what was going on, Phil had unlocked the stall door and stood washing her hands at the sink. Water splashed all over the counter. The bright lights of the bathroom burned brightly over her dark head and bitten red lips, over the stiff nipples still trying to punch holes through her dress.
“Phil?”
Phil activated the paper towel dispenser with a wave of her hand and ripped off the brown paper it spat out. “We’re done here, right?” After roughly wiping her hands, she dumped the piece of paper in the trash. “You already proved to yourself you can still pull my strings.”
“That’s not what this is about,” Sage rushed to say. She squeezed her thighs together to get her pussy under control.
“Then what is it?” Phil crossed her arms, her lips tight as she waited. When Sage couldn’t find anything else to say, she drew in a long breath. “That’s what I thought. Because you found out I like dick every once in a while, you want to take me apart and play with the pieces you approve of then dump the rest.”
“I’m not playing with you,” Sage insisted, although she didn’t have a clue what she was doing.
“Then what do you call this?” Phil made a rough noise and shook her head. The thick, black hair swung around her face. “You know what? Don’t answer that question. I’m pretty sure I don’t want to hear whatever it is you have to say.”
Then she walked out of the bathroom without a second glance at what she was leaving behind.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Sage couldn’t shake off the last conversation she’d had with Phil. Or the sex.
By the time she’d washed up in the bathroom and made it back into the restaurant, Phil and her date were gone. Nuria was still there, though. Her friend had finished off most of the food and sat at the table with a second mojito, exchanging nudes with some girl she’d met out in L.A. She was supremely unbothered by all the drama.
After Nuria finished laughing her ass off at what happened in the bathroom, Sage went home ready to apologize to Phil. But even though the yellow Corvette sat cold in their two-car garage, Phil was nowhere in sight.
In fact, she didn’t come home for two days. On the third day, Sage got back from a long evening in the recording studio to see Phil’s sleek shape stretched out on the sofa like nothing strange had happened between them.
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br /> “Where have you been?” she asked.
Phil looked up from the journal she was reading, thick-framed black glasses perched on her nose. “Sleeping with every hot man in Miami, you?”
Sage cursed under her breath and walked away.
In the guest bedroom where she’d been sleeping since her parents’ visit, she put her phone to charge. Just as she plugged it in, the phone chirped with its monthly reminder about the plans she had that night with Phil, Rémi, and Dez.
Was that why Phil came back from wherever she’d run off to?
Cursing again, she yanked off her button-down shirt and tossed it in the laundry basket. With half an ear tuned to Phil and half her attentions occupied with potential excuses for not going out to Shadow and Vine, she almost missed the sound of her phone ringing.
But she caught it on the last ring. “Hi, mother.”
“Sage, how are things at home with you and Phillida?” her mother asked as soon as she was done with the usual pleasantries.
“Uh…she’s fine.” Sage rubbed her temples and wished she had a more truthful answer. Already a headache was throbbing behind her eyes and threatening to ruin her entire night.
“Is she really fine?” her mother asked.
“Yes. She’s in the living room, probably reading one of the articles Daddy told her about.”
Her mother made a disapproving noise. “Sounds like you didn’t fix what’s wrong between the two of you.”
It was weird as hell to be talking to her mother about Phil after years of avoiding her as a topic of conversation.
“It’s not so easy of a thing to fix, mother.”
Another noise came at her through the phone, this one of doubt. Quickly, she changed the subject. By the time Sage got off the phone (she’d been passed from her mother, to her dad then to Miss Opal) she was convinced her family was ready to adopt Phil despite the fact that they weren’t together anymore.
What a difference a month made.
From out in the living room, she heard the faint sound of pages being turned.
She nudged herself to go wash her ass instead of listening for Phil’s every movement like a creep. In the shower, she tried to keep her mind empty and her thoughts away from Phil and…anything else that mattered. Still, with the peaceful rhythm of water hitting the tile and splashing on her skin, the sadness rolled back and forth through her like sea-sickness.
