Callie, Unwrapped

by Amy Jo Cousins

  He’d admitted his first love had been intense, but Gabe was the lowest-drama man she’d ever met. And since the horrible ex, he’d never let himself feel any kind of possessiveness toward a lover as far as she knew.

  No, Gabe didn’t do “in love” anymore.

  “But if he did?”

  “I’d probably be with him ’til I died.” She shrugged and Callie believed her when she lifted her hands in a what are you going to do? gesture. She’d felt the same way once. “He’s never been anything but straight with me. He’s not gonna be my happily ever after.”

  “So instead?”

  “Instead, sometimes we do this.”

  There it was again, that flash of heat that shot down her spine and settled between her legs, leaving her feeling like someone had scraped her lightly all over with their fingernails, every inch of her skin sensitized to the barest touch. Kate tugged on the waistband of Callie’s skirt, fingers pressed against her belly, until Callie stood between her spread knees.

  “And what is this, exactly?”

  “What this is, exactly, is the two of us trying to seduce you. Is it working?” Kate’s eyelids were lowered, a faint smile ghosting her mouth.

  She still held a glass in one hand, but dropped the other to rest her palm on Kate’s thigh, feeling the heat beneath the taut spread of denim over firm muscle. She flexed and curled her fingers, digging her fingertips into Kate’s flesh. Her eyes were locked on the other woman’s mouth.

  “Yes.”

  John had liked her to tell him stories of the women she’d fooled around with, of the one woman she’d slept with, but it was strictly fantasyland for her ex. Some sort of wild phase she’d gone through in her youth before meeting him and settling down to a normal sex life.

  Her stories had been like aural porn to him, and she’d used them to bring him off more quickly when the boredom of the same touch, delivered in the same way, the same angle of his dick inside her, grinding only a little against her clit when he pressed deep, threatened to send her to sleep while she waited for him to come.

  “She sucked on my tongue while she unbuttoned my shirt and then pulled me forward so I straddled her lap on the kitchen chair. Eventually I was naked and rubbing against her jeans while she told me she could smell my sex…”

  Words, words, words. But never once the suggestion that she could take it any further than just talking.

  Now she wondered what Kate would taste like. Wanted to know how Kate kissed and if she would like it, Kate’s tongue in her mouth, Kate’s teeth scraping gently across her lower lip then sucking on it. She knew Gabe was watching them.

  As soon as she remembered him, the moment turned on its edge. She wanted the audience, wanted him to be transfixed. It was the reason she had agreed to meet both of them together, curious to try something she’d never experienced before. And she got off on the idea of being sexual in front of a third person.

  She’d never crossed a single boundary line during the eleven years she’d been married. Eleven years of trying to arrange date nights so they’d have a reason to have sex, because they were both so bored that neither of them bothered to initiate a thing otherwise. Or at least that’s how she’d seen it until learning the truth at the end.

  John had always been able to make her come. Then again, that wasn’t really a challenge. Orgasms had always been easy for Callie. So she didn’t give him any credit for the fact that she generally got off whenever they had sex, no matter how rarely that happened. If you’d asked her before she got married, she’d have said there was no such thing as a boring orgasm.

  Who knew? Who knew you could turn an orgasm into a bodily function about as exciting to experience as blowing your nose?

  She wanted this, now, because she wanted to feel that rush again. The hairs on her arms standing on end with the shiver that came from pushing her own boundaries. Her ex had made her so unsure of her own appeal, uncertain where she’d once been confident. Damn John for making her doubt herself, when all she wanted right now was to kiss this woman and find out if she could still set herself on fire.

  But she didn’t want to kiss Kate for Gabe. Not this one time. Didn’t want their first contact to be a moment that happened more for the audience than the participants. Not only was this supposed to be for herself, she just wasn’t sure she could concentrate with that man in the room.

  She leaned forward and reached over Kate’s shoulder to set her glass on the rail behind her. Her breasts brushed against Kate’s. She’d worn one of her few bras that didn’t have a lining thick enough to keep her nipples from being visible at the office, no matter what the temperature. Now she could feel body heat through the thin layers of fabric separating them, and her gaze fell until it was caught by the holly-red vee of Kate’s blouse. How easy it would be to slip that button through the hole and spread the placket open, baring the inner curves of her breasts.

  Callie could feel her nipples getting hard, harder, as Kate’s hands slid to her hips to steady her. Warm breath hit her clavicle, the side of her neck.

  She plucked Kate’s pint from her hand and placed it on the rail, too.

  “C’mon.”

  She laced their fingers together and pulled Kate off her bar stool.

  Gabe lifted one eyebrow as she strode around the end of the pool table, with his…what? girlfriend, lover, partner in kink?…trailing behind her. Callie knew what he was asking with that look—where you off to?—and felt the rush of hot joy through her veins as she spun on her heels and took the two steps over to where he waited.

  Curving her hand around the back of his neck, fingers tangling in his hair, she tugged his face down toward hers until their cheeks slid together and her lips grazed the edge of his ear. She whispered to him, conscious of Kate still behind her. The girl was trailing the fingers of her free hand down Callie’s spine, not stopping until she’d followed the curve of her ass and lower. The backs of her thighs tingled, her body humming like a live wire as Kate drew a line straight down.

  The music changed and Shane McGowan’s raspy voice scratched out the first lines of the Pogues’ Fairytale in New York. The banjos and accordion surged, the drums picked up the pace, and Callie tipped her head back and laughed as she gave Gabe a playful shove and pulled Kate from the room.

  At the doorway she paused and turned back, catching Kate’s gaze and then looking up to the top of the door frame.

  “What did you say to him?” The other woman’s voice was husky as she kept her fingers tangled with Callie’s and tilted her head back to follow her gaze up. Fir garland was draped across the top of the door frame, a strand of sparkling white fairy lights twisted through and around it. A small bunch of stems with smoky blue green leaves and tiny white berries hung from the middle nail on a skinny red ribbon.

  Mistletoe.

  How appropriate.

  She pulled Kate closer, her hands a manacle around the strong bones and tendons of Kate’s wrist, until their hips were almost pressed together. Over Kate’s shoulder, Gabe watched them, his dark eyes hot and steady. With her free hand, she pushed Kate’s hair back from her cheek. Cupped her jaw. Traced one fingertip under the curve of her lower lip, then pressed it against the seam of her lips until Kate’s mouth opened just a little, the tip of her tongue reaching out to scrape against Callie’s skin.

  “I told him we were going to go find out if we liked each other.” She watched the tip of her finger disappear into Kate’s mouth. The edge of sharp teeth pressed lightly against her. She pulled her damp fingertip back and brought it to her own mouth, sucking on it thoughtfully while looking at the other woman. “What do you think? Are we gonna like each other, Kate?”

  Kate’s thumb dragged back and forth across the back of Callie’s hand.

  “Wanna find out?”

  A sudden cheer echoed from the front room, pulling Callie’s attention to the tables of people she could see at the end of the hall. Who could see them, if anyone looked back.

  It’s 2014.
No one gives a shit if you make out with a girl in a bar.

  She leaned a fraction closer to Kate.

  Exhaled.

  Nope. She couldn’t do it, couldn’t kiss this girl in the unlit hallway, wondering who might notice, bracing herself for the sudden shouts of “Hey, two chicks are making out!” Once upon a time, years and years ago, she wouldn’t have hesitated. Would have pressed her mouth to Kate’s and waited to see if heat sparked between them, wanting to be burned by that fire, and she wouldn’t have given a damn who watched.

  Kate was the one watching her now.

  Too exposed here. And the bathroom was too far away, all the way at the front of the bar, then up a flight of stairs and down another hall. She wanted her hands on Kate now. Her mouth on Kate.

  They’d just have to walk fast.

  Callie moved, never letting go of Kate’s wrist. She jerked to a halt as a server popped out of a recessed door to their left in the narrow hall that connected the pool room to the front bar. Kate’s fingers, still linked with hers, squeezed tight, knuckles pressing painfully against hers. Callie was breathing hard, like they’d been walking fast for a while.

  The server cut in front of them, shoving a laminated card into his apron pocket and calling out to someone up front that Michigan was on three screens now. The door he’d stepped out of swung most of the way shut behind him, leaving an inch of dim light between the door and the jamb.

  She slapped her palm against the black paint of the door and pushed it open. Tugged Kate in after her. Racks of satellite TV receivers lined the walls. The tiny room smelled like warm plastic. She pushed the door shut behind her and leaned against it.

  The door was hard against Callie’s shoulder blades. When Kate took a step toward her, she reached up to curve her hands around Kate’s hips and tug her closer, the heat given off by Kate’s body glowing against her skin. She tugged again, until their hips pressed together. Kate’s shoulders still leaned back.

  “Someone could walk in,” Kate said, smiling a little.

  “Do you care?”

  “No.”

  She lifted a hand and curved it around Kate’s neck. The short fuzz there was pettable as she pulled Kate’s mouth the last few inches to her own.

  Soft. She’d forgotten how much softer a woman’s mouth was. Callie opened her mouth enough to suck lightly at the plump curve of Kate’s lower lip before tracing the tip of her tongue against the seam. Kate’s thigh was pressing between her own. She spread her legs a little and tried to resist rubbing herself against the taut muscle and bone. She didn’t know how far she wanted to take this first contact in a bar closet, but kissing Kate was obviously an excellent idea. She leaned in again.

  Callie smiled against Kate’s mouth, a slow-building burn kindling between them. Kate’s hand skimmed down the outside of her thigh until it hit the hem of her skirt, touching the bare skin of her knee.

  She inhaled sharply and Kate’s lips opened against hers. Desire exploded. She licked her way into Kate’s mouth, wet heat and the press of teeth. Pulled back for a moment and nipped at that full bottom lip, in love with it already. Kate’s other hand snuck behind her and pressed into the small of her back, forcing their hips together harder, and Callie gave up any pretense that she wasn’t trying to rub her pussy against the thigh between her legs. A low moan ripped out of her throat.

  She couldn’t keep track of all the sensations flooding her system. Kate’s tongue tangled with hers, Kate’s hand now sliding up her thigh under the wrap skirt, Kate’s breasts, small and soft, pressing against her own. Heat raced like prairie fire through her veins, leaving her flushed and ready, her cunt wet, aching. She wanted.

  “Jesus, this is so hot,” she muttered, lifting the thigh Kate was exploring, reflexively opening up. The scrape of fingernails curving back from her hip to her ass had her back arching. “God. I want—”

  Her words cut off with a gasp as those dancing fingers slid between her legs from behind, scratching lightly down the wet crotch of her panties.

  “What? What do you want?” Kate’s voice was a low murmur drowned out by the thunder of Callie’s pulse racing, the ragged edge of her breath. She didn’t wait for an answer, just slid her cheek along Callie’s and whispered in her ear. “I know what you want.”

  Callie felt like she was breathing underwater. When had she lost control of this moment? She had taken the lead with both hands and dragged Kate here to kiss her, but now she was drowning, sinking under this liquid onslaught of need. Her skin craved the touch of someone who desired her after years of drought. And Kate’s hands were all over her.

  Fingertips skimming just inside the edge of her panties, brushing the super-sensitive skin on the sides of her pussy lips. Stroking the slick heat between her legs. Trailing deliberately up the crack of her ass. Callie caught herself humping against Kate’s hand, mouth open a bare inch from Kate’s, breathing hard.

  Holy shit. Focus. You are hiding in a bar closet. She jerked her head back against the door. Ow. She could knock some sense into herself at least.

  Kate smiled at her and slid a hand behind her head. “Careful. I can’t take advantage of you if you’re unconscious.” Her fingers combed through Callie’s hair. “Ethics.”

  “Is that the plan?” She felt unmoored, out of control. The idea that someone had a plan sounded like a good idea. She dropped her hands and pressed her palms flat against the painted door behind her.

  “I don’t know about Gabe, but that’s my plan.” Kate smiled for a moment. Callie felt herself stiffening up as the moment drew long and she couldn’t think of anything to say. Kate’s hands let go of her as the younger woman shifted back a few inches. “Hey, you okay?”

  Callie blushed. Stop being an idiot. This was your idea, remember?

  “Yeah. I’m good.”

  She must have sounded less than convincing. Maybe Kate could hear the tremble in her voice. This young woman who had stepped up against her body like she owned it. Kate reached out and grabbed her hand. Loosely, like a friend. Nothing like the tight grip they’d shared a few minutes before.

  “Listen, Callie. Nothing’s going to happen tonight unless you want it to.” She gave Callie’s hand a light shake. Her eyes were dark, intense but friendly. “Just remember that, okay? I think you’re sexy as hell.” She pulled Callie’s hand up to her mouth and kissed her knuckles, eyes locked on Callie the entire time. “And if you want to come home with us, I will strip you naked and lick every inch of your body. But you need to know that anytime you say stop, we will. Immediately.”

  Words spilled out of Callie’s mouth before she thought them through.

  “This sounds like a BDSM negotiation.”

  Kate lifted her eyebrows.

  “Really? Why, do you want us to tie you up before we fuck you?”

  A sharp bark of laughter exploded from Callie. She didn’t know where to look. The paint on the floor was chipped beneath their feet, bare concrete showing through in patches.

  “Holy shit. I don’t know?”

  “We can put that on the maybe list for now. Mostly it’s just things that should be said between people who don’t know each other very well, but we are about to go to bed together, yeah?” She grinned. “It’s a lot easier to have fun if no one’s confused about the basics.”

  Kate let go of her hand and raised her arms above her head in a stretch that arched her back and pushed her small breasts out.

  “Man, the sexual tension in here is killing me. Why don’t you go reassure Gabe we haven’t abandoned him? I’m gonna go pee.”

  Callie nodded and turned to put her hand on the door handle to pull it open. She felt Kate move up behind her. Without looking back over her shoulder, she said, “Kate?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Thanks.”

  Kate’s breasts pressed against her back. Fingers pulled Callie’s hair to the side, exposing the back of her neck. She felt teeth close gently on the join between her neck and shoulder, and the wet heat and s
ting of a mouth sucking on her skin. After a moment, the suction eased and Kate’s tongue skimmed over that same spot, soothing it.

  “Tell him we’re going to play cutthroat. And the winner gets to decide who fucks who first.”

  Chapter Two

  ‡

  Pull yourself together, girl.

  Two of the other pool tables had become occupied while Kate was blowing her mind and Callie was losing her nerve in the closet. Half the tables were still empty, but an older couple and four college boys played at opposite corners of the room. The increased noise level was almost soothing. She’d wondered what she would say to break the silence of an otherwise empty room when she returned to Gabe. She walked up to where Gabe leaned on his pool cue.

  “Looks like we have an audience now,” she commented.

  Her pleasure at the noise in the room vanished so fast she could almost hear it. Between Gabe and Kate, she had all the audience she could handle. No pun intended. She tried to imagine who would be more scandalized, the couple who probably got married when Carter was president, or the four kids who probably thought buying a girl a Long Island Ice Tea was seductive.

  Gabe picked up on her tension from ten feet away.

  “Get over here, girl.”

  He leaned the cue against the rail and patted the bar stool where Kate had sat. She eyed him for a moment and then hopped up. He spun her around until her back was to him, tipped her head forward and down with fingers at the base of her skull, draped his large hands over her shoulders, and pushed a groan out of her when he flexed and dug in to her trapezius.