by MJ Duncan
The left side of her mouth quirked up in a small smile as she lifted her free hand to lightly drag the back of her nails along the line of Maeve’s jaw.
Is this really happening?
She tilted her head to peer into Maeve’s eyes, searching for some sign, some hint that this was all a dream as she tenderly cupped Maeve’s face in her hand. Maeve’s cheek was so warm soft beneath her thumb as she caressed the smooth skin, and Joss swallowed a gasp at the way Maeve’s eyes fluttered shut as she turned her head into the touch, her lips parting with a quiet moan that was so raw and full of want that it nearly brought Joss to her knees.
Christ, she’s beautiful.
Though Maeve’s eyes were closed, Joss’ remained wide open as she slowly closed the distance between them, letting the anticipation build to a ragged, needy crescendo before she let out a soft sigh and captured Maeve’s lips in a sweet, chaste kiss.
“Oh God, yes,” Maeve whispered into the kiss, letting go of Joss’ wrist to loop both her arms around her waist.
That breathy plea destroyed the last vestiges of Joss’ restraint. She whispered Maeve’s name, the single syllable vibrating with all the tortured longing she had been repressing. She reached up with her left hand to frame Maeve’s face as she pulled her closer, smoothing her thumbs over Maeve’s cheeks as she kissed her again, letting herself become lost in the moment. Her stomach flipped at the feeling of Maeve’s breasts pressing against her own as Maeve lifted herself onto her toes, fusing their bodies together as the arms around her neck tightened, pulling her closer, and she moaned at the first slow swipe of Maeve’s tongue of against her own. Her right hand slid upward as the kiss deepened, tongues stroking together in languid exploration, and she groaned as she threaded her fingers through the thick, luscious strands of Maeve’s hair like she had been wanting to do from the first time she laid eyes on her.
Maeve whimpered at the more possessive hold, and Joss tightened her grip as she took control of the kiss, plunging her tongue into Maeve’s mouth with a tender recklessness that undoubtedly gave away every one of her most secret desires. And the way Maeve arched into her, head slanting further to the side as she opened her mouth wider, giving Joss everything she possibly could, said that she wanted it all too. The kiss was everything she had not allowed herself to dream it might be, and she squeezed her eyes shut even tighter as she broke the kiss and leaned her forehead against Maeve’s, needing a moment to just breathe as the enormity of what was happening overcame her.
Joss combed her fingers through Maeve’s hair as they clung to each other in the moonlit night beside the lake, their breaths tumbling together in ragged bursts between kiss-swollen lips. The taste of Maeve’s tongue lingered on her own, and Joss groaned as she gave in to the want still spreading like fire through her veins and captured Maeve’s lips in a passionate, awestruck kiss. She untangled her fingers from Maeve’s hair and dragged them over the hinge of Maeve’s jaw to the column of her throat, where the heavy beat of Maeve’s pulse pounded an irregular rhythm against her fingertips that seemed to perfectly match her own racing heart.
Every time she tried to pull away, Maeve chased after her, claiming her lips with a smile that Joss could not help but return as she allowed herself to be swept away by the heady taste of Maeve’s lips and the heavenly feeling of Maeve’s body curled against her. She would have gladly stayed right there for the rest of the night, but a hard bump against their thighs reminded them they were not alone.
“Fuck, George,” Maeve groaned as they broke apart, both looking down at George, who was grinning at them around the ball she held in her mouth, clearly proud of herself for succeeding in getting their attention.
“You have terrible timing, George,” Joss muttered as she smiled down at the dog.
Maeve laughed as she brushed a quick, chaste kiss across Joss’ lips. “I’m sorry about her.”
“It’s okay.”
Maeve smile was beatific as she kissed Joss again, and she nuzzled Joss’ cheek as she pulled back just far enough to whisper, “Should we go back inside?”
Joss nodded as she let her hand trail slowly from Maeve’s neck, over the curve of her shoulder, and down the length of her arm until she was able to lace their fingers together. She gave Maeve’s hand a gentle squeeze, and stole one last kiss before she agreed, “Sure.”
“Good.” Maeve squeezed Joss’ hand back and looked down at George. “Home?”
George dropped the ball she had been holding in her mouth and took off for the house.
Joss chuckled as she and Maeve turned to follow. “That dog…”
“I know,” Maeve agreed with a laugh as she leaned into Joss’ side. “Believe me, I know.”
Seventeen
As soon as they got back to the house, George let out a mighty yawn as she claimed her spot on the couch in the great room, and Maeve shook her head as she gave Joss’ hand a light tug. “Whattaya say we leave her here and go somewhere she can’t bother us?”
Joss’ stomach fluttered at the idea, and she nodded. “Sure.”
“Excellent.” Maeve smiled. “Follow me.”
Joss allowed herself to be led past George—who watched them go through half-lidded eyes, as if she were contemplating following—and down the hall toward a section of the house she had never been in before. The hallway was long, with large windows along the left side that overlooked the home’s impressive property, and a few doors along the right that opened onto a couple of guest rooms and a laundry room. The only door that was not open was the one at the end of the hall, and Joss looked around interestedly when Maeve pushed it open and led her inside.
The room was not overly large, and the windows from the hallway continued all the way to the far wall, providing a breathtaking view of the woods and the lake. A low-pile blue and cream patterned rug covered the majority of the wood floor, giving the room a cozy feel. Pushed up against the glass was a six-foot long, table-style desk that had a mahogany work surface and white painted legs, which provided ample workspace without blocking the view. The edges of the desk were cluttered with stacks of books and papers, though the area surrounding Maeve’s open laptop in the center was pristine, and the high-backed leather swivel chair pushed up to it looked like it was one of those ergonomically designed chairs that cost a fortune but were ridiculously comfortable. A navy blue upholstered loveseat anchored the far wall, which was filled with framed photographs Joss was eager to inspect, and the remaining two walls were taken up by built-in bookshelves overflowing with books.
“So this is where the magic happens, huh?” Joss murmured when she returned her attention to Maeve, who was watching her inspect the office with an interested smile.
Maeve lifted her right shoulder a small shrug as she closed the door behind them. “Something like that.”
Joss smirked and turned toward the bookshelves, inspecting the titles on display much in the same way Maeve had done at her house. “I wonder what books a famous author has on her shelves. Maybe I’ll finally figure out what your guilty reading pleasure is,” she teased as her made her way to the nearest shelf. “Let’s see…we have books about serial killers, police procedure, what looks like a few criminal law textbooks.” She closed her eyes as Maeve moved came up behind her. “You’re into the real page-turners, huh?”
Maeve chuckled and wrapped her left arm around Joss’ waist as she lifted her right hand to sweep Joss’ hair away from her neck. She leaned closer, so that her breasts pressed lightly into Joss’ back, and kissed her ear. “Well, you know,” she whispered huskily, “I do write crime-fiction.”
“Oh, I know,” Joss replied as she turned around and took Maeve into her arms. What she did not know was how in the hell they had ended up at this point. Happiness fluttered in her chest as Maeve sank into her, their lips fitting so easily together that it was hard to believe they had not kissed like this a thousand times before. And though she did not want to look a gift horse in the mouth, this dramatic shift in their relations
hip was almost too good to be true, and she could not help but wonder what had brought it on.
She wanted this—God, how she wanted this—but she also needed to know that, whatever this was, that it had a chance to become something lasting. Her feelings for Maeve were too strong for her to risk her heart on anything less.
Joss sighed as she pulled away, and bit her lip as she considered how to even begin broaching what she knew would be an awkward conversation
“That sigh sounds serious.”
“Kinda…” Joss swallowed back the nerves that were making her throat feel impossibly tight, and tugged Maeve toward the sofa with her. “Can I ask you a question?”
Maeve perched herself on the edge of the cushion beside Joss and nodded as she folded her hands on her lap. “Of course.”
Joss took a deep breath and looked down, hoping to find the words she needed. Her eyes landed on Maeve’s hands, which were twisting subtly against each other in a show of nerves, and she shook her head as she reached out and covered them with her own. “It’s not bad,” she assured Maeve softly. “Or, I mean, I hope it isn’t, I just…” She blew out a loud breath. “I thought you were straight,” she blurted, and then groaned. Smooth, Perrault. Surely there was a better way to lead into this whole thing…
“Oh. I see.” Maeve stopped fidgeting as a small, sad smile curled her lips. She straightened a little in her seat, like she was preparing herself to reveal something particularly damning, but did not pull her hands from under Joss’.
“I’m sorry,” Joss apologized. “That was completely inelegant and far too blunt. Please don’t get the wrong idea, I really, really want this…” She bit her lip as she cradled Maeve’s face in her hand. “I just don’t understand why…”
“I get it,” Maeve murmured. She pulled her left hand free and laid it atop Joss’ in a light hold that only served to make Joss’ pulse race faster. “Yes, I have dated, and was even at one point engaged to a man, but I have not identified as straight since my junior year of undergrad. I’m bisexual, Joss.”
“Oh.” The tension in Joss’ shoulders relaxed as she nodded.
Maeve gave Joss’ hand a quick squeeze. “So, since we’re being honest, I guess it’s my turn to ask you a question: are you okay with that?”
Joss blinked, her brow furrowing in confusion. Am I okay with it? “Why wouldn’t I be?”
“You’d be surprised.” Maeve countered with a wry chuckle. “I’ve had a few women break up with me after they found out.”
“Then they’re idiots.” Joss smoothed her thumb over Maeve’s cheek and smiled at the way Maeve’s eyelids fluttered at the gentle caress. “I’m sorry I was so tactless.”
“Don’t be,” Maeve breathed. “It’s good that we got all that out of the way.”
Even though she knew that she should have handled things better, Joss nodded. “You are so beautiful.” Her smile softened at the way Maeve’s cheeks colored at the compliment. “I’ve wanted to kiss you from the moment I watched you come running out of the woods that first day when you were yelling at George,” she confessed in a warm whisper.
Maeve’s blush deepened, but playfulness sparked in her gaze as she looked up at Joss through her lashes. “So what’s stopping you now?”
Joss laughed and nuzzled the tip of her nose along the side of Maeve’s. “We’re talking.”
“Talking is overrated.” Maeve grinned as she tilted her head and leaned in closer, her lips hovering just above Joss’ as she purred, “Don’t you think so?”
“Well, there’s something to be said for flirty banter…”
Maeve ducked away from the kiss Joss tried to give her and arched a brow in playful challenge. “Speaking of flirty banter…”
“Hmm?” Joss smirked as she brushed a quick kiss over Maeve’s lips.
“Did you honestly not notice me flirting with you every time I saw you over the last month?”
Joss rolled her eyes. “I just thought I was misreading the situation.”
“Yes, because bringing a woman flowers in a completely platonic gesture.”
“You know what?” Joss grumbled in mock exasperation.
Maeve grinned and flicked the tip of her tongue over Joss’ lips. “What?”
“I honestly don’t know,” Joss admitted, unable to form a coherent thought with Maeve’s lips so close to her own. There was nothing stopping her from taking the initiative and stopping this beautiful torture by capturing Maeve’s lips with her own, but after what felt like years of wishing and hoping and wanting, she was enjoying the way her pulse raced and her stomach fluttered in anticipation. “God, Maeve…”
Maeve drew a shaky breath at the sound of her name falling so desperately from Joss’ lips, and brushed the softest ghost of a kiss across her lips. “Joss?”
“Hmm?” Joss hummed, frozen in place as she waited for Maeve’s lips to finally, finally claim her own.
“I’ve wanted to do this since that first day we met too,” Maeve confessed in a husky whisper.
The kiss started slow and sweet—being with each other like this was too new for it to begin any other way—but it did not take long for it to become something more. Joss smiled against Maeve’s lips as she obliged the hand on her shoulder and leaned back against the back of the sofa, and could not contain the soft moan that escaped her when Maeve moved with her, straddling her lap.
“Okay?” Maeve asked softly between kisses.
“Fuck, yes.” Joss grabbed onto Maeve’s hips and pulled her closer, loving the feeling of Maeve’s body atop her own.
Any restraint either of them might have been exercising up to now disappeared as they came together with a desperation that made Joss’ stomach clench. She had always loved being at the mercy of another woman’s desire, and Maeve’s was particularly intoxicating because she wanted her so desperately. Joss let her hands slide back to grab Maeve’s ass as their kisses grew even deeper, encouraging the gentle rocking motion of Maeve’s hips as she opened her mouth wider, meeting Maeve’s questing tongue thrust for thrust as a lustful fog clouded her brain. She tightened her grip and pulled Maeve’s hips harder against her own, increasing the pressure with a deliberate grind, and the low, throaty moan that rumbled in Maeve’s throat in response made Joss’ eyes roll back in her head.
Oh, fuck me.
It was as if Maeve could read her mind as not a second later she began trailing hot, wet kisses along Joss’ jaw before she ducked her head to nip at the sensitive hollow beneath her ear. Joss squeezed her eyes shut as the feeling of Maeve’s teeth against her skin sent a rush of desire crashing between her thighs, and she groaned as she summoned the strength to gasp, “Wait.”
Maeve pulled back to look at her with dark eyes and deliciously kiss-swollen lips that were pulled tight in a frown. “Did I do something wrong?”
“No. God no,” Joss rasped, shaking her head. “I just…” She sighed and smiled sheepishly. “If you kept kissing me like that, there is very little I wouldn’t have agreed to, and I don’t want our first time to be some lust-fueled fuckfest on the couch in your office.”
“Oh…”
“Exactly.” Joss slid her hands back to Maeve’s hips. Keeping them on her ass was just too much temptation to resist for long with the way her pulse was pounding against the seam of her jeans. “I mean, later on…I’m all for it, but not tonight.”
A gentle smile curled Maeve’s lips as she nodded. “Okay.”
Joss blew out a loud breath, relieved that Maeve understood where she was coming from, and let her head drop back onto the couch so she was looking up at her. “You are an incredible woman, Maeve Dylan. Do you know that?”
“No I’m not,” Maeve protested with a shake of her head.
The move sent a few random tendrils of hair tumbling over Maeve’s cheek, and Joss felt her heart trip over itself as she stared at her. “You are.” She reached up to tenderly tuck Maeve’s hair back behind her ears, and then pressed a gentle finger to Maeve’s lips to sile
nce any further protest. “You are,” she repeated as she pulled her hand away.
Maeve’s gaze softened, and she leaned forward to capture Joss’ lips in a sweet kiss. “You are.”
Joss smiled into the kiss as George whined and scratched at the closed office door. “I think our chaperone has come to break this up.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be.” Joss nuzzled Maeve’s cheek, just happy to hold her close. The force of their reactions to each other were so strong that she had no doubt they would end up in bed together sooner, rather than later, but she was perfectly content to spend the rest of the night cuddled up on the couch in the living room just like this. “What are you doing tomorrow night?”
“Nothing. Why?”
Joss smiled and kissed Maeve softly. “Scott’s scheduled to close up the store, and I was thinking that I could maybe take you out to dinner?”
A small, shy smile lit Maeve’s face as she nodded. “I would like that.”
“Good. Then it’s a date,” Joss murmured, sealing her words with a slow, deep kiss that ended with them both laughing as George started barking her irritation as she clawed more insistently at the door that had not yet been opened for her.
Eighteen
The smile Joss had worn when she finally crawled into bed around midnight was still firmly in place when her alarm went off at six, and she rolled out of bed with far too much zeal for such an early hour of the day. She pulled on her running clothes and skipped down the stairs to the bathroom, where she hurried through her pre-run routine in her eagerness to hit the trail.
She took a deep breath as she closed her front door behind herself, and let it go in a whoosh as she jumped off the patio and took off at a pace that was much closer to a flat-out run than her usual jog. Her gaze drifted down the curve of blacktop that led to Maeve’s front door as she passed, and her smile widened as she remembered the way they had lingered on the porch hours before, each of them taking turns extending their incredible evening by insisting upon “one last” goodbye kiss. They had stood out there for so long that even George had given up trying to break them apart, abandoning her post just on the other side of the doors with a distinctly disgruntled bark before she took off in search of her couch.
