by Fiona Riley
“Mm, hey.” Olivia nuzzled close, pressing her ear to Savannah’s chest. She felt herself warm at the rapid pace of Savannah’s heart.
“Hey, baby.”
Olivia scooted to the edge of the counter and wrapped her legs around Savannah again, her muscles trembling slightly as Savannah’s hands soothed up and down her back. Savannah touched her in such a soft and delicate way, particularly after their lovemaking, and her touch made Olivia feel precious. She let herself bask in the way Savannah held her close, a protective strength combined with a softness that she didn’t think she could explain to anyone with words alone. She’d tried and failed to explain it to Christine during their weekly gossip phone calls, which, of late, all seemed to end with Christine mocking her playfully about being a romantic and a sap. Olivia wasn’t bothered by Chris’s teasing, though. She was happy to have someone to share it with. She had never experienced feelings like these before in a relationship.
“You know what my favorite thing about you is?” Olivia breathed the words across Savannah’s collarbone, her lips lingering on Savannah’s smooth skin.
“What’s that?”
Olivia’s hand slipped from around Savannah’s back to press along the wet mark left by Olivia’s sex on the front of Savannah’s dress shirt. She toyed with the buttons briefly before she moved the offending fabric from Savannah’s stomach. “That I know without even touching you that you are just as wet from fucking me as I am from being fucked.”
“Maybe you should double-check, just to be sure.” Savannah’s head dropped back when Olivia’s teeth skimmed the base of her throat.
“Oh, I plan to do more than just check.” Olivia tugged down Savannah’s zipper with urgency as the sound of a key in the lock of Savannah’s front door behind them halted her movements.
“Hey! Sav? You home?” a male voice called out from behind a large laundry bag, blocking his face from view. The unmistakable giggle of a woman accompanied the sound of the door swinging open and hitting the wall in the foyer. “Crap! Amber, watch the door.”
“Oh fuck.” Savannah groaned as she whipped her head in the direction of the intruders. She gripped Olivia’s wrist and shuffled forward, quickly adjusting Olivia’s clothing as the thump of the laundry bag hitting the floor was followed by a—
“Whoa! Jesus! Sorry!”
Olivia felt her eyebrows shoot up to her hairline as she looked over Savannah’s shoulder at the athletically built flame-haired man who was desperately trying to cover his eyes as well as the eyes of the short blonde next to him. “Um, Savannah?”
“Shit, uh, sorry.” Savannah cleared her throat and nodded toward the fidgeting form behind her. “Olivia, this is my poorly timed and inconvenient little shit of a brother, Cooper.”
“Hey, it’s not my fault you didn’t answer any of my calls or texts warning you I was coming by.” He glared at her before glancing at Olivia and covering his eyes again. “Sorry, Olivia. Ah, it’s, uh, nice to meet you…God, this is awkward.”
“Why don’t you take that stuff to the laundry room and give us a sec. Okay, Coop?”
“Um, yeah. Okay. C’mon, Amber.” Cooper grabbed his laundry bag and Amber’s hand, and disappeared down the hall in the direction of Savannah’s guest room.
Olivia leaned back and took in their position: Savannah was pressed tightly between the legs Olivia still had wrapped around Savannah’s hips, and the top three buttons of Olivia’s shirt were undone and her cleavage exposed—there was no way Cooper had misinterpreted what they were doing. Olivia glanced back down the hallway at his retreating form. Her commentary came fast and hissed. “Seriously? That’s how I meet your brother? With my hand in your pants?”
Savannah’s normally calm, collected face was flushed as she stepped back and helped Olivia off the counter. “I know, I’m sorry…I’m going to kill him.”
The sudden lack of composure etched on Savannah’s face warmed Olivia a little. She placed her hands over Savannah’s frantic attempts to fix her clothes and added with a chuckle, “Baby, chill.” She tucked Savannah’s shirt back into her pants and gripped her hands as she ducked her head to make eye contact, biting back a laugh at the mortified expression on Savannah’s face. “I just meant that I was hoping to make a better first impression is all. It’s fine.”
Savannah palmed her forehead and pinched her brow as she exhaled slowly, her head shaking. “I know, just, fuck, I—ugh. No, just let me kill him. I’ll make it quick.”
“Well, take care of the other witness while you’re at it, ’kay?” Olivia laughed and rolled her eyes.
“Oh, Amber? Nah, she’s cool—wait, you were hoping to make a good first impression on Cooper?”
“Savannah,” Olivia said, “of course I wanted to make a good first impression on your brother. He’s important to you. And you’re important to me.”
Savannah’s shoulders relaxed and she pulled Olivia into a hug, pressing their lips together. “I’m important to you, huh?”
Olivia was momentarily preoccupied by Savannah’s tongue in her mouth before she remembered they had company. She pulled back and playfully shoved Savannah’s shoulder. “Stop that.”
“Stop what?” Savannah’s eyes twinkled as she ducked down and captured Olivia’s lips with hers.
Olivia hummed and savored the moment just a bit longer. “Stop all of that.” She motioned toward Savannah’s mouth and lips. “It’s distracting.”
Savannah sucked her lips into her mouth and nodded.
“And yes, you are important to me,” Olivia supplied as she pressed a kiss to Savannah’s lips, her forehead resting on Savannah’s as they breathed each other in.
Savannah’s hands cupped Olivia’s cheeks as she kissed her once more. “You’re important to me, too.” She smiled and glanced toward the noise of Cooper’s footsteps pacing in the hallway. “I’m excited for you to meet Coop. I think you’ll like him.”
“You might as well put him out of his misery and call him in. I think he may be treading a hole into your beautiful wood floors.”
Savannah called over her shoulder, “Coop, it’s safe to stop scuffing up my floors now.”
Olivia laughed and shook her head as she stepped back from Savannah’s grasp and reached into the cabinet to grab some wineglasses. A drink was definitely called for in this moment. “Savannah, dear?”
“Yeah, Liv?” Savannah’s attention was directed toward the glare Cooper was giving her as he stuck out his tongue when he bent down to grab his backpack, abandoned by the door. Amber was toying with her phone and looking down as she strolled into the kitchen.
“Go change your shirt. There’s sex all over it,” Olivia whispered as she sipped the red wine currently occupying her glass. She laughed as Savannah’s hand flew to cover her abdomen before she darted out of the kitchen, leaving Olivia with her brother and Amber, whom she assumed was his girlfriend. “So, can I interest you two in a drink, or six?”
* * *
“So, anyway, that’s how Sav here almost ruined my senior prom,” Cooper said with an exaggerated eye roll.
“Until I saved it from being a total dud at the last second, so you’re welcome, you ungrateful creep.” Savannah threw a dinner roll at him.
He caught it without flinching and shoved it in his mouth before he added, “Whatever. You had to almost ruin it to save it, hence the now infamous phrase—”
“Nice save, Sav,” they said in unison with their glasses raised.
Olivia shook her head and cleared the dishes with Amber’s help while the siblings teased each other at the table.
“They get along really well.” Amber smiled as she handed the dirty dishes to Olivia. “I wish I got along with my little brother that well.”
Olivia took the dishes and loaded them into the dishwasher, rinsing them as she went. “Yeah, they do. Does he see her often?”
Amber leaned against the counter and cocked her head to the side, an amused look on her face. “Um, you know, when she’s around. S
avannah travels a lot for work, so he usually stops by here to do his laundry every few weeks and they make a dinner night of it. We weren’t expecting her to be home today.”
Olivia cleared her throat awkwardly and glanced back toward Amber. “Yeah, I gathered that much.”
Amber held Olivia’s eye contact for a moment before she said, “She must really like you.”
Olivia leaned against the kitchen island behind her and crossed her arms. “Why do you say that?”
Savannah’s cell phone rang and she excused herself from the table mouthing an apology as she walked out to the balcony for privacy. Cooper stretched in his seat and sauntered over, pecking his girlfriend on the lips as he hopped up to sit on the counter.
“What are we whispering about?” He wrapped Amber in a hug.
“I was just telling Olivia that Savannah must really like her.” Her attention was drawn to the buzzing noise of the dryer. “Be right back.”
Amber wiggled out of Cooper’s grasp and trotted toward the laundry room as Olivia took the wineglass from his hand and put it in the top rack of the dishwasher.
“She’s right, you know,” he supplied quietly, his gaze following his sister’s pacing on the balcony.
“Mm? About what?” Olivia closed the dishwasher and yawned.
“Savannah doesn’t introduce us to anyone she’s dating. Ever. Not since the whole Gwen debacle.” His brow furrowed as he watched his sister’s pacing form. “Savannah went quiet for a long time after that. We’ve been working on our relationship for a while now, but I can’t remember her being this happy in forever. So Amber’s right—she must really like you.” He shrugged and grabbed an apple out of the bowl next to him, biting into it loudly as Savannah reentered the living room from the balcony with a look of annoyance on her face.
Savannah rubbed her temple for a moment before she shot a playful glare at her brother. “Coop, off the counter.”
“Oh, what? Now there are rules as to who can be on the counter? Because I distinctly remember seeing Olivia sit here without any complaints from you in the not too distant past,” he mumbled around the apple chunk still in his mouth.
Savannah strode over to her brother, taking the apple from his hand and biting it before shoving it back into his mouth and silencing his attempt at a complaint. “And aren’t you lucky that’s all you saw?”
Cooper winced and hopped off the counter, shoving Savannah’s shoulder as he shuddered. “Gross, Sav. Fucking gross.”
Savannah laughed and shoved her brother toward Amber, who was waddling into the room with a precariously stacked pile of clothes in her arms.
Olivia stepped close to Savannah and wrapped her arm around Savannah’s hip as she rested her head on Savannah’s shoulder. She stifled another yawn. “You’re no better than he is.”
Savannah scoffed and feigned mock offense. “He started it.”
Olivia shook her head and pressed a soft kiss to the underside of Savannah’s jaw, nuzzling close.
Cooper and Amber shuffled their now clean clothes into the laundry bag and walked to the front door, hugging them both and thanking them for the impromptu dinner night. “It was nice to meet you, Olivia.” Cooper gave her a genuine smile as he grabbed Amber’s hand and pulled her toward the door.
“You guys, too.”
“Bye.” Savannah waved and let out a quiet sigh as the door closed.
“He’s hilarious. And she’s really cute. I’m glad I got a chance to meet them.” Olivia yawned again.
“Yeah, me, too.” Savannah pressed a kiss to Olivia’s temple. “Let’s get you to bed.”
Olivia nodded without resisting and laced her fingers with Savannah’s as they walked down the familiar hallway toward Savannah’s bedroom, shutting off lights as they went. She smiled at the domesticity of the whole night: dinner with family, dishes washed, laundry done, and now walking hand in hand with her girlfriend to her bedroom. It was nothing that she was expecting, but she was pleasantly surprised nonetheless.
After washing up, Savannah slipped under the covers and held the blankets back for Olivia to join her. Olivia cuddled close as strong arms wrapped possessively around her shoulders. She lay there for a moment soaking up Savannah’s warmth before she remembered the annoyed look on Savannah’s face from earlier. “Hey, who called you earlier?”
Savannah’s fingertips paused before continuing their gentle circles along Olivia’s arm. She sighed. “It was a work call. I have an early meeting tomorrow morning with Ken.”
“Do they usually call you after hours?”
“More often than I’d like, unfortunately.”
Olivia nodded and frowned at the sad tone in Savannah’s response. She lifted her head and looked at her while she gestured playfully between them. “You know, taking a little work home with you sometimes isn’t so bad.”
Savannah smiled and pressed her lips to Olivia’s. “This kinda work after hours is never a bother, trust me.”
Olivia opened her mouth to deepen the kiss when a yawn interrupted her again, for the third time tonight. Savannah pulled back and cast Olivia an amused look. “Tuckered out, Liv?”
Olivia nodded sheepishly. “As much as I want to return the favor from earlier, I think I need to sleep.”
“Rain check?”
“Definitely.” Olivia kissed Savannah before closing her eyes and drifting off to sleep.
Chapter Twenty-two
Olivia looked down at their linked hands on the center console of Savannah’s car as they pulled up to the hotel. They had gotten into the routine of having breakfast together and carpooling to work these past few weeks. Except instead of actually going to the work site, Savannah would drop Olivia off at the hotel before work started on some days just so she could meet up with her team and keep up appearances. Olivia had been surprised when Savannah had sheepishly admitted that she had still booked a hotel room for her. When she questioned it, Savannah had been almost nervous in her explanation: she wanted Olivia to still have freedom to come and go as she pleased from Savannah’s place, but also wanted her to be able to spend time with her team without having to lie about where she was staying.
They had agreed to keep the relationship a secret until the final project was complete since Savannah was concerned that her involvement with Olivia might look like favoritism during the New Horizons deliberation phase regarding a long-term future contract. At first, Olivia had felt the concern unwarranted. The work her team had done was exceptional and didn’t need favoritism to earn a positive evaluation. But she could appreciate Savannah’s perspective. And she would be lying if she didn’t admit that part of her was glad that no one knew about their relationship either. The fewer people that knew, the less complicated it was. Right now, it was just her and Savannah and amazing sex and sweet, tender moments and living in the present. She would ignore the future for as long as possible.
“Sorry this is so early.” Savannah interrupted Olivia’s daze.
“Don’t worry about it,” Olivia replied. “I should probably make some attempt to appear like I’m staying here.”
“Maybe we should stay here one night, you know, to make sure the bed is comfortable.” Savannah expression was mischievous.
“Why? You plan on having me stay here when I come to visit after the project is over?” Whoops. So much for ignoring the future.
Savannah held her gaze. “I hadn’t thought much about life after the project was completed, to be honest.” She frowned and glanced at the clock on the dash.
Olivia felt her shoulders sag at the thought. She had only been joking when she had initially replied to Savannah, but this was a reality for them, one she hadn’t considered.
Savannah’s frown deepened the longer she looked at the clock. “I have to get to the office, but I think we should probably talk about this more. I’ll call you when the meeting gets out and maybe we can go out to dinner somewhere tonight. What do you think?”
“Yeah, that sounds nice. Hey, we’ll figure i
t out.” Olivia said it more for herself than for Savannah.
Savannah’s smile didn’t quite reach her eyes as she nodded. She leaned across the console and cupped Olivia’s jaw, pressing her lips to Olivia’s. “I’m going to miss you today.”
“I know what you mean.” Olivia abandoned their hand hold and pressed one hand over Savannah’s heart, the rapid beat against her palm mirrored by her own. “Call me later.”
Savannah nodded and rested her forehead against Olivia’s before she pulled back. “Have a good day, Liv.”
Olivia exited the car with a small wave and watched Savannah drive off in the direction of her office. She adjusted the purse on her shoulder and rummaged for the room key as she walked toward the entrance of the hotel and right into a surprised looking Farrah.
“Good morning, Olivia.”
“Farrah. Uh, hi.”
“Having trouble breathing?” Farrah arched her eyebrow and waited.
“Hmm? Why would you say that?” Olivia asked, suddenly feeling a little short of breath.
“Well I imagine that Savannah was just giving you lifesaving maneuvers because you aren’t feeling a hundred percent, right? I mean, why else would she be giving you mouth-to-mouth if you weren’t short of breath?”
“Shit. Uh, fuck.” Olivia mumbled, “How much did you see?”
Farrah’s amused expression softened. “Not much. Just two people sharing what appeared to be a very familiar and intimate exchange outside a hotel at”—she glanced at her watch—“seven in the morning.”
Olivia sighed but made no attempt to lie. Farrah was no fool. “Yeah.”
Farrah smiled and stretched her neck before she adjusted her workout shirt. “As much as I’d love to get all the details out of you now”—she looked back at Olivia with a genuine smile—“I have to get my power walk in before the team meets back here in an hour. That gives you plenty of time to wipe her lipstick off your mouth.”
Olivia’s hand reflexively went to her lips as Farrah laughed and turned to go, pausing to add, “You two make a beautiful couple, Olivia. Good for you.”
