by E. J. Noyes
“I’d like that.” I stood and pushed the chair back under the table. “I’ll sneak you into the athlete’s village, or we can hit up the concession stands and have popcorn and ice cream or find ourselves a food truck somewhere.”
“You speak my language.”
“Good to know.” I allowed myself a quick squeeze of her hand, then left her to her work while I went to train my horse.
Despite the heat and humidity, Dew seemed settled and was eating and drinking as normal. More and more horses were arriving, turning the place into a seething mass of people and horses that somehow seemed organized in its chaos. I’d watched Dakota and Beau ride, then left to grab Dewey for our session. The team had decided to utilize the air-conditioned indoor arena, but it seemed everyone else had the same idea and after ten minutes of trying not to bump into other horses I decided it was just wasting time and indicated to Ian that I was going out to one of the eucalypt-lined outdoor arenas.
Within minutes I was dripping and Dew was a lather of sweat foam on his neck where the reins touched him. After twenty minutes I decided he’d had enough and brought him back to a walk. I desperately wanted to wipe the sweat trickling down my face but knew I’d just have more there immediately.
Ian’s voice through my earpiece sounded tinny. “He looked fine for what we’re trying to do today which is just suppleness and acclimation.”
Wren met me to open the arena gate after I’d given Dew a ten-minute cool-down walk. “He looked a little flat,” she said.
He’d felt more than a little flat. A niggle of worry took root. I knew we weren’t in a unique situation—all the horses had to acclimate—but what if we couldn’t get him comfortable in the heat? I dismounted and we led him straight to the hose-down area to strip off his tack and bandages. Wren wasted no time getting him hosed off then scraping the hot water from him and hosing him down again.
I collected three baggies of ice from one of the many dispensers beside the hose-down bays and after wrapping each baggie in a towel, placed one behind his ears and hoped he wouldn’t drop his head. After positioning myself against his chest I reached around to press a baggie into each of his armpits. Or…forelegpits. The added benefit was that Dewey’s third cold shower was also my cold shower. The looks he was giving us clearly said the tropics were not for him.
It didn’t seem like we were alone. Every horse seemed to be struggling with the heat, and the forecast until the end of the competition was for much the same with a few cooler days of respite. Addie arrived a few minutes after we’d settled Dew back into his stall, and she looked not unlike Dewey had after the ride—sweaty and puffing. I’d spotted her rushing around from one place to the next and being waylaid by people before zinging off again. She looked so utterly beat I wanted to hug her. She leaned over the lower half-door. “How was your ride?”
“Hot. Sunny.”
“Yeah, I’m hearing that from a lot of people.” She offered a weary smile and pulled her tablet from her satchel. “How’s the Dewmeister?”
“He definitely struggled a bit during the ride but he seems back to normal after a few cold showers, and some time with ice and the cooling fans by the arena.”
“Good. I’ll check his temperature, heart rate and breathing later. No point now because they could still be skewed by his workout. I’d like to increase the electrolytes in all the horses’ feeds to make sure they’re putting back what they’re sweating out and to ensure they’re hydrating.”
“Already done.”
“Of course you have.” She smiled as she typed something into the tablet. “Okay, I have to jet. I’ll be back later to check on you guys. Stay cool.”
“You too,” I called after her.
After feeding Dewey Wren had left to grab herself an early dinner with a few other grooms, and I’d stopped in to say goodnight to Dew before heading back to the athlete’s village to eat, shower, and sleep. When I hugged him around the neck and pressed my cheek into his bulk, he curled his neck around until his head was against my back in his version of a hug. And in true Dew fashion, I felt his nibble on my belt loops. “Hey!” I reached back to swat at him. “None of that.”
Addie appeared and slung her arms over the lower half-door. Though her fatigue was obvious in the lines and shadows of her face, her smile for us was still brilliant. “You all done for the day?”
“Sure am. You?”
“Mhmm. Just trying to figure out if I can be bothered eating dinner or if I’m just gonna go collapse into bed.”
“Same.”
Dewey submitted to another tight hug and me smooching his nose while murmuring, “Sleep tight, rest well, see you in the morning, love love love you. Wren will come see you before bedtime.” I gave him the last carrot and submitted to a body check to satisfy him that I wasn’t hiding treats before he moved back to his hay feeder in the corner.
Addie had clearly been watching us and when I faced her, her eyebrows slowly rose. “What about mine?”
I brushed hay from my breeches. “What about your what? You want a carrot?”
She leaned closer and spoke in a voice too low for anyone else to hear. “My kiss.”
I kept my voice equally low. “You want me to kiss you right here? In front of everyone?”
Her dimples made a brief appearance. “Well it’s not really everyone. Just Dewey. And he’s more interested in food than us.”
When I blew her a kiss, Addie’s hand shot out as if catching a fly and she pressed her fist against her mouth. It took me a moment to figure it out. “Did you just…eat my kiss? If you’re going to do that then I’m not going to blow you any more kisses.”
“What? No! I was putting it on my lips.” She mimed the same movement again. “See? Like your blown kiss onto my lips? Look, I’m sorry. I’ve never had such a great kiss blown at me before. I panicked.”
“Evidently,” I said dryly.
Before I could reach over to unlock the door, Addie had opened it for me. She took a small backward step but was still firmly within my bubble of personal space. Rather than ask her to move, I slipped past her, being sure to brush against her as I passed.
“Cruel,” she complained as she closed and locked the stall door.
She probably wouldn’t be saying that in a minute. “Come with me.”
Addie followed me through the laneways, bumping into my back when I stopped dead outside the ladies’ dressing room. A quick peek confirmed the space was empty and I dragged her inside. My intent had been to press her against the door because she made the hottest sound when I maneuvered her body how I wanted it, but also to provide a barrier in case anyone tried to interrupt us. But Addie gripped my hips and spun me around, doing exactly what I’d intended to do to her.
My breath whooshed out as my back hit the door, then Addie took what little I had left with a kiss that was almost frightening in its intensity. When I opened my mouth, her tongue met mine. A soft stroke. A gentle suck. The warm fullness of her mouth invited me deeper and when Addie bit my lower lip, my simmering excitement went to full boil. Nestled alongside was another sensation that was just as intense, and ten times as frightening.
Need.
Not the frantic kind that came with desire. But the softer, more in-tune kind of need where being near her immediately soothed and settled me. That kind of need was dangerous. Addie broke away from the kiss first, pulling back just enough so that we were no longer kissing, but our foreheads touched. She clutched the front of my polo. “I feel like kissing in bathrooms is kind of our thing.”
I was almost afraid to ask her to clarify. “And is our thing a good thing or bad thing?”
“A little of both. Kissing is always good. Bathrooms, not so much.” She pulled away, but not before kissing me again.
She made me so weak. Made me forget everything I kept telling myself I shouldn’t do. I could tell myself that I was just getting caught up in the Olympic moment, that all the hype and excitement permeating the air around me was filling m
y lungs. But I knew that wasn’t really it. I’d found something, someone who made me feel more in two months than I had in two years, and I was drunk with the sensation of finally being seen. I ran my palms up and down her arms. “How tired are you exactly?”
“You know, suddenly not so much. You wanna go?”
“Yes.” Tangling my fingers in Addie’s hair, I pushed her head back to expose the tantalizing skin of her neck. I kissed my way to her ear, sucked the lobe. “But I don’t want to put a sock on the doorknob. Your place.”
“Done. But first, my shower. I’m forty percent dirt and sweat right now.”
“Only if you let me join you.”
Her expression blanked for a moment before it turned serious and her voice turned softly intimate. “I would never say no to you joining me for anything, Caitlyn.”
There was none of the first-time awkwardness and no preamble. The moment her apartment door closed behind us we undressed each other as if we’d done it a hundred times before, only breaking from kisses when the necessity to free ourselves from a garment absolutely required it. We left clothing by the door, near the kitchen, outside the bathroom. Addie bent to bury her face in my breasts, light lips exploring skin before moving to claim first one nipple then the other.
She pulled me into her shower and pushed me against the wall, the cool tile against my skin contrasting with the heat of her pressed to my back. She sucked my neck, one hand reaching to stroke up and down my belly as she fumbled to start the water with the other. The arctic blast made us both jump and I took the opportunity to twist around to face her as she moved away to adjust the temperature. There. Better. I pulled her against me, tangled a hand in her hair and kissed her. She met me as she did every time we kissed—with passion, enthusiasm, and a hint of shyness.
Addie straddled my thigh, one hand hooked under my ass and the other cupping my breast. She drove her thigh against me every time she slid herself against my skin. Glorious, wet friction. Her face was pressed to my shoulder, teeth grazing my skin as we rocked against each other. The sensations built into a slow roll of pleasure that I knew was going to peak soon if she kept up that steady roll of her hips. Apparently I wasn’t the only one thinking that.
“Okay, time out,” Addie gasped. “Shower first, then sex.”
“What about sex in the shower?”
She offered a sheepish smile. “Tried it, love it, but I really can’t balance properly on a slippery surface and a concussion isn’t on my agenda tonight.”
I reached for the soap and quickly started lathering myself, trying to ignore the warning bells of arousal as I washed between my legs. “Then you’d better hurry up because I find myself a little short on patience right now.” Once I was done, Addie made no move to take the soap from me and her expression made it clear what she wanted. I obliged, running a hand down the center of her breasts. “Stand still.”
She tried valiantly, and almost managed but her ticklishness got the better of her when I washed under an arm and moved down over her breasts to her torso. “Uncle,” she begged and I complied with her request for mercy, moving my hand downward to linger against her pubic hair. Her expression was pure Are you kidding me, that’s not mercy.
“Spread your legs for me,” I murmured and when she leaned back against the wall and did as I asked, I washed her, lingered as long as I dared. Addie’s breathing hitched and I covered her moan with a kiss, kept kissing her as I played through her folds.
Her response was a shaky, “That doesn’t feel like soap.”
“It is definitely soap. It’s also my finger.” I slid my forefinger upward over her clit, then back down again.
Addie shuddered. “Screw this. That’s clean enough.” She snatched the showerhead from its cradle and rinsed herself at lighting speed. Dammit. I hadn’t realized it was a detachable showerhead. Next time…
The moment she’d finished, her mouth was on mine, tongue demanding entry. She managed to shut off the water, open the shower door and pull me toward her bedroom without our lips breaking contact. Still wet, we fell onto the bed in a tangle of slippery limbs and furious kisses. Addie straddled me, pinning my hands with a loose grip to the bed as she sat up.
Her eyes roamed over my body for such long, silent moments that I started to squirm. “What?”
“You,” she said simply. “You’re gorgeous.” A flush started at her cheeks and worked its way to her ears and down her neck. “Sorry. I just made things weird, didn’t I?”
“You made things the opposite of weird.”
She’d made it intimate, intensely so. I’d known desire from other women. Lust. Need. Want. All of those things. But the way she looked at me made me feel as if she wanted me on more than just a superficial sexual level. And that want made me feel stripped bare. Addie lowered herself onto me, twisting us to lie side by side and we kissed slowly as our hands roamed and rediscovered.
A silent, mutual understanding seemed to move between us and our hands slid between thighs. She parted me as I slid my fingers through her folds, and when I felt her familiar slippery heat, fresh arousal flooded me. We moved together, slow…fast…frantic…soft, and the whole time our mouths remained within a whisper of each other.
Addie’s unerring fingers slid against me, drove softly inside me, brought me closer and closer to the edge until I felt the unmistakable heat spread through my body. I tried to keep up, tried not to be selfish and leave her behind, but as I felt myself move closer and closer to climax I lost all my control. She rocked her hips against my still and selfish hand, and with her teasing fingers, her kisses, her sweat-slick body, brought me to the brink. I fought it, tried to hold it until I could focus again on her pleasure, but Addie was having none of that. As if she knew exactly what I felt, she murmured, “Let go.”
Those knowing fingers stroked my walls as her thumb worked lightly at my clit until I couldn’t hold back anymore. My climax started as a slow roll of warmth then burst into a bonfire of heat as I came. She exhaled a grunt when I unconsciously bit her lip, then inhaled as I sucked the pain I’d just created.
Addie kept kissing me as soft, sensual arousal suffused me. It took me a while to move out of dumbstruck orgasm brain so I could get right on the very important issue of her climax. I rolled her onto her back and pressed myself to her side, and when my fingers slipped over her wetness, she gasped and let out a helpless, “Please.” She cupped the back of my neck, pulling me in for a kiss. I stroked her, loving the way she shuddered against me, loving how she begged me to not stop, to keep doing that, until she cried out her pleasure. Her climax was glorious and her vocalization loud and unashamed. Addie buried her face into my neck and I could feel the air moving across my skin as she tried to catch her breath.
I ran my fingers over the sweat-slick skin of her back. “Sorry,” I mumbled. “I just couldn’t wait.”
She grinned lazily. “Lesson number seventeen in Caitlyn and Addie go to bed? Never apologize for enjoying yourself, for wanting more.” Addie’s kiss was long and slow. “Listening to the sound of you coming is enough to set me off.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Laughing, she flicked my hip. “Nooo, not ma’am. Do you remember how Mrs. Spicer made us call her that during lessons at Pony Club?” Her mock shudder was elaborate.
“Then what should I call you?” I could think of a few things but the fear of verbalizing those deep dark desires kept my words inside.
Her response took almost a minute to emerge and when it did, it was barely above a whisper. “One day, maybe, whenever I mean, in the future I…think I’d like you to call me your partner.”
Though I’d been thinking something along those exact lines, I couldn’t think of what to say. “Addie, I—”
She pulled the sheet over herself as if desperate to cover up, to smother what she’d just said. “Forget about it, it was…never mind.” She kissed me as if afraid of what I might say. But she didn’t know that if given the chance, I would tell her I wanted that to
o. I wanted it even as I feared it, even as I knew we couldn’t make it work. Not with the way our lives were now.
This thing we were doing ran contrary to everything I’d been telling myself. All the constant justification of my denial, all that I’d worked so hard for, all that being with her could jeopardize, fell away the moment she touched me. When she kissed me, I forgot my self-righteous speeches about not losing sight of the big picture. When she looked at me with that intense, knowing gaze, the part of me that longed for someone to see me rejoiced.
In the past few months I’d thought more about my life than I ever had. And it boiled down to one notion. What was all this ass busting for without someone to share it with, really? What was success if I went home to an empty house? But now was the worst time to find all those feelings. Now was the time to concentrate on the thing I’d worked nearly my whole life for.
But Wren was absolutely right—not that I needed her to confirm what I felt so clearly myself—having Addie with me soothed my anxieties, made me relaxed, made me feel normal in a time that was abnormal. So I just needed to find the balance. I had to.
Chapter Twenty
Addie
Caitlyn had taken a car back to the athlete’s village just before eleven p.m. and after hours of patchy insomnia I decided there was no point in hanging around my apartment thinking about her and waiting until it was time to get to work, so I showered and dressed to head over to Deodoro early. Earlier than everyone else including the grooms who were usually there first for six a.m. feeding, stall cleaning and taking their charges for a walk to let them stretch their legs.
