The Rom-Com Collection: The Plus One, Something for the Weekend, A Marriage of Connivance

by Natasha West

  Charlie was stunned.

  ‘You? Nervous? Are you sure you know what that word means?’

  ‘You think I don’t get nervous?’

  Charlie laughed in amazement.

  ‘I’ve been watching you flit around this wedding, charming the pants off everyone. You have more confidence in your little finger than I have in my whole body.’

  Amy shook her head glancing around to see if anyone was listening. But everyone was very food focused. They were safe.

  ‘That’s my job. It’s a performance. I’m still human, Charlie.’

  Charlie wasn’t buying it.

  ‘But you-’

  ‘Look’ Amy interrupted ’I came here to do a job and that’s why it looks easy. I have no emotional attachment. Or, I should say, I had no emotional attachment. And now, I’m on a date. Not a Rent-a-Date, a real date. With you. And I’m…’

  Amy threw her hands up.

  ‘I’m nervous. I don’t know why. I just am…’

  Charlie’s hands slipped quickly around Amy’s face and Amy found her words drift away, Charlie’s lips making the need for words irrelevant.

  But they didn’t want to kill any grandmas so both of them broke it off relatively quickly. Although neither wanted to.

  Charlie had a sudden thought. It was a dangerous one, but she was prepared to take a chance on it. She hoped that Amy would understand.

  ‘Look, I don’t know about you, but I feel like we could get rid of some of this tension pretty easily.’

  Amy was intrigued.

  ‘How?’

  ‘Well…’ said Charlie, looking at Amy with the devil in her eyes, ‘You know this is a hotel, right?’

  Amy gave Charlie a very serious look and for a second, Charlie couldn’t read it. Had she just offended her?

  But Amy’s mouth turned up at the corners.

  ‘I guess if you think it might help, it’s worth a go.’

  They both stood quickly, headed for the check in desk.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Charlie was trying to swipe a key card through the hotel room’s door lock, but after four attempts, she was having no success. She turned to Amy with a nervous smile.

  ‘Technology hates me’ she said, trying a fifth time. But a beep told her it was yet another failure.

  Amy took the key gently from Charlie’s hand, sliding it through the slot a little slower. The light turned green and the door clicked open.

  ‘Just needs a little finesse’ Amy said with a cheeky grin.

  Charlie shook her head at herself.

  ‘Auspicious start.’

  Amy pushed the door open, placing her hand on Charlie’s lower back, shunting her gently into the room. It was plush, with a king sized Egyptian cotton sheeted bed. And so it should be for the exorbitant fee Amy had just dropped on her credit card. But she thought there was no better use of the money than some time alone with Charlie right now.

  ‘If I remember correctly, you didn’t seem to have any trouble with finesse in that tent’ Amy said as she shut the door behind her, leaning back against it.

  Charlie felt herself blush. She found she was petrified again. And this had been her idea, she thought with astonishment. She’d suggested this to get past the first hurdle, to feel connected somehow, not like two people who were essentially strangers. She thought this could make them feel like the people they’d been, the two teenagers who’d spent a few weeks joined at the hip, and then joined at the lip for a few brief golden hours. She was suddenly transformed back into her seventeen-year-old body. Here she was again, with Amy Sinclair, scared witless. It was everything she could do not to run to the mini bar. But then she remembered the mark-ups on those tiny bottles of vodka and that put paid to the thought pretty quickly.

  Amy walked over to her, taking both her hands. Charlie was struggling with eye contact again. She got through it by staring down at Amy’s beautifully manicured, deep red nails. Charlie was pleased to note that she kept them relatively short.

  ‘How long do you think we can disappear from the reception before we’re missed?’

  Charlie looked up in surprise. She’d completely forgotten where she was. Or where she was supposed to be.

  ‘Oh, right. The wedding.’

  Amy gave a small laugh.

  ‘It feels like a million years has passed since I met you around the corner from here this morning.’

  Charlie smiled at Amy, suddenly finding it easier to look into her bright blue-green eyes.

  ‘Feels like a lifetime.’

  They stood there for a second, holding each other’s hands and gazing nervously at each other, preparing themselves for what came next.

  Charlie found some of her fear begin to dissipate, rapidly replaced by another emotion. Lust. She wanted Amy and she could actually have her. And, she reminded herself, Amy wanted her too. She didn’t know if it was as much as she wanted Amy, but she didn’t care. This might be her only shot to win her over and if she didn’t stop acting like a scared adolescent, she was going to fuck it up. There and then, she committed to giving Amy the best she had to give. And like at seventeen, she just hoped it was enough.

  Amy’s thoughts were a lot simpler. She’d been over thinking everything all day and she was just about ready to switch her brain off. She thought that Charlie’s idea was just the thing. The best way to release sexual tension was having actual sex. It could only ease this transition into whatever came next.

  She grazed her fingers across the strap of Charlie’s dress, letting her fingers run along her shoulder, all the way down to her wrist. Charlie felt herself melt inside at the simple action. She wondered how the hell she was going to cope when Amy took her clothes off.

  Charlie didn’t want to delay kissing Amy any longer. She wanted to feel that full sensuous mouth again, a mouth that dreams are made of. She leant in, softly brushing her lips against Amy’s. Amy moaned softly and intensified the kiss. Charlie pushed her body up against Amy, delighting in the feel of that luscious form against her own. Charlie’s hands slid onto Amy’s bottom and she dug her nails into it a little.

  Amy’s moan became louder. The feel of Charlie’s hands on her body were driving her crazy. Mostly because she was still in her clothes. She wanted Charlie’s hands on her bare skin. She decided to begin the undressing stage by starting with Charlie, slipping her hands up the hem of Charlie’s dress. Charlie got the hint and began to pull it up, before she realised that pulling the dress up over her head was probably the most unsexy way to do this. She pictured getting stuck halfway, dress wrapped around her face, stumbling like a clown. She tried to reach to her back for the zipper but she couldn’t get to it. But Amy was on hand.

  ‘Turn around’ Amy whispered urgently.

  Charlie spun and Amy’s hand grabbed the zipper. But she yanked too hard, breaking it off.

  ‘Shit’ she gasped.

  Charlie tried to look over her shoulder.

  ‘What?!’

  ‘I broke your dress’ Amy confessed.

  Charlie shrugged and said ‘It was on sale, don’t worry about it. Just get it off me.’

  Amy didn’t need to be told twice. She managed to get hold of the remaining shard of the broken zipper and she tugged it down, asking ‘What about later? Back at the wedding.’

  ‘There could be a nuclear war before then. We could both be dead in about ten minutes’ Charlie quipped, slipping the dress down and turning around. She was now in her underwear. She thanked god she’d bought new for the occasion.

  Amy drank the sight in, making Charlie feel a little self-conscious.

  ‘We should live now, while we still can. Before the bombs drop’ Charlie continued, trying to cover her bashfulness.

  Amy rolled her eyes, grabbing hold of Charlie’s waist.

  ‘Shut up and kiss me’ Amy said and Charlie did as she was asked. She suddenly realised that Amy was still dressed. She pulled back briefly from the kiss.

  ‘Hey, if I’m half naked, there�
�s no way you get to keep your clothes on.’

  Amy was no more able to believe she was still fully dressed than Charlie could. She slipped her dress down to her waist, her side zipper dealt with a lot more easily. Charlie didn’t need to help, but she did anyway, pulling the dress the final few centimetres till it dropped to Amy’s feet.

  Charlie would have liked a moment to have a good look at Amy in her underwear, to take in that infamous chest (held in a pure white balcony bra, a fantastic compliment to Amy’s blonde hair, which was no accident) but she couldn’t wait another second to get her into the bed. She began to push Amy gently toward the bed, kissing her so deeply she couldn’t have gotten closer to her without climbing into her mouth.

  Before either of them knew what was happening, Amy was on top of Charlie, underwear now gone, writhing beneath the sheets. And Charlie was finally able to see what she’d wanted to see since she was seventeen. Amy’s breasts. As far as Charlie was concerned, they ranked easily with the seven natural wonders of the world. Just ahead of the Great Barrier Reef.

  And nowhere had it been more apparent that they weren’t teenagers anymore. This time, both of them had much larger expectations. And this time, Amy had no intention of taking more than she was prepared to give. Her lips slipped from Charlie’s mouth, to her neck, down to her breasts, to her stomach, and beyond.

  Charlie was in heaven as she felt Amy’s sweet mouth on her. She tried to suppress how good it felt, hoping to make the feeling last, but it took her like a tornado. She heard a moan travel from her throat, hitting the air far louder than she meant it to.

  She flopped back on the bed with a ‘Jesus Christ’ but before she could relax, she felt Amy begin to deliver round two. She slipped her hand underneath Amy’s chin, gently lifting her face to look at her.

  ‘Hey, we don’t have long, I don’t want to be selfish.’

  ‘That’s OK, I don’t mind.’

  Charlie shook her head, smiling.

  ‘You don’t have to prove anything. It’s not like when we were young, I get that.’

  Amy climbed reluctantly from beneath the covers. She sighed and leant her chin on one elbow next to Charlie.

  ‘Am I that transparent?’

  Charlie gave a surprised splutter of laughter.

  ‘Trust me, that’s the last thing you are.’

  Charlie pulled Amy toward her and the kiss resumed, a little slower, less urgently. Charlie began to reach down between Amy’s legs, slipping deep, moving slowly at first, but gathering pace as she felt Amy’s body beginning to tremble beneath her touch. Amy began to pant but her lips never left Charlie’s. And when the moment came that the sounds of orgasmic pleasure fell from Amy’s lips, they were delivered directly into Charlie’s mouth. Charlie thought it was possibly the most erotic moment of her life. She thanked god that this time, she’d remember it in the morning.

  They both felt the heat between them. It was an old heat but apparently, it still burned strong.

  A little while later, Charlie was still in the bed. Her underwear was back on, but she had the sheets wrapped around herself for modesty as she fiddled with the broken zip on her dress. She had half an eye on the open bathroom door, watching Amy retouching her makeup, tidying herself up from what had just occurred between them. Charlie was feeling pretty good about what they’d done. It had felt natural. And it had done what she’d hoped to her butterflies too. Her nausea was gone.

  However, the post orgasmic bliss couldn’t last forever. There was the bloody zip to be contended with. Charlie sighed as she wrestled with it. It was stuck firmly down at the bottom of the row of teeth.

  Amy walked back out, looking immaculate. Charlie couldn’t believe it. She knew she was going to have to see out the rest of the evening with sex hair and Amy looked like she’d just stepped out of a salon. Typical.

  ‘Won’t it go?’ Amy asked.

  ‘Nope. Little fucker’s jammed.’

  Amy turned and went back into the bathroom, coming out with a complimentary sachet of moisturiser.

  ‘Let me try this, might ease it up’ she said, tearing the edge. Charlie handed her the dress, watching as Amy began to dribble the contents onto the zip. Charlie watched interestedly.

  ‘Is there anything you can’t do?’

  Amy raised a brief, lascivious eyebrow at the question and Charlie gave a rueful smile.

  ‘Forget I asked.’

  Amy went back to the zip. As Charlie continued to watch the delicate operation she was performing, her own question began to echo in her ears. Something new occurred to her.

  ‘Hey, I was just…’

  Amy looked up from the zip, waiting as Charlie’s mouth opened and closed a few times.

  ‘What?’

  ‘I was just thinking about…’ she nodded at the bed they were sitting on, thinking of the things they’d been doing in it a few short minutes ago. ‘It didn’t seem like the first time you’d done that.’

  Amy raised an eyebrow.

  ‘I’m sorry to break it to you, but I haven’t been a nun since I was seventeen.’

  ‘No, I meant, with, you know… I guess I wondered about…’

  Charlie sighed. She couldn’t seem to think of a way to ask what she wanted tactfully. Untactfully was going to have to do.

  ‘Have you had sex with a lot of women?’

  Amy was a bit surprised by this sudden line of questioning. Where was Charlie going with this?

  ‘What would you consider to be a lot?’ she asked, bemused.

  ‘No, I just meant… So, I wasn’t the last girl you were with? There’s been others?’

  Amy got it.

  ‘Are you asking about my sexuality?’

  ‘I guess that’s what I’m asking, yes.’

  Amy shrugged.

  ‘I’m bi.’

  Charlie pursed her lips and said ‘Oh.’

  Amy’s eyes narrowed.

  ‘Is that a problem for you? Are you one of those lesbians who doesn’t like to go out with bisexual women?’

  ‘Who said I was a lesbian?’

  Charlie and Amy looked at each other for a second of pure confusion. Charlie realised her joke was a bit poorly timed.

  ‘Stupid joke. Of course I’m gay. Gay as Christmas. And not at all biphobic, either. I guess I was trying to find out… I don’t know, I think I had assumed all these years that maybe I was an aberration for you. I didn’t think I was just one of the pack.’

  Amy grinned and reached out a hand to run it delicately down Charlie’s wrist. She was tickled by Charlie’s vulnerability.

  ‘You think the fact that I’ve been with other women makes you less special?’

  Charlie groaned loudly and flopped onto the bed, face down into the pillow.

  ‘Now I feel stupid’ Charlie’s muffled voice spoke from the pillow.

  Amy watched her pressing her shame into the six hundred thread count pillow case. It was too endearing to bare.

  ‘You were still my first, Charlie. You were the girl that made me realise I liked girls. It doesn’t get much more special than that.’

  Charlie’s left eye turned out from the pillow.

  ‘Really?’

  ‘Are you kidding? You sexually awakened me’ she said in a breathy, comically dramatic voice. Charlie couldn’t help but laugh and her fears about being common in Amy’s eyes seemed to slip away. She got up from the pillow just as Amy got the zip unstuck.

  ‘There!’ she cried, triumphantly.

  Amy stood with the dress and offered it for Charlie to get back into. Charlie stepped into it and Amy pulled it up. Once it was over the shoulders, she turned Charlie around to finish zipping her. The action was comforting to them both, making them feel like some long married couple. But as Amy slid the sticky zipper up in clunky increments, Amy had a thought about Charlie’s own sexual history.

  ‘So, this Lucy…’

  Charlie turned to look at Amy over her shoulder, already worried.

  ‘Yeah?’


  ‘You guys weren’t together very long. What happened there?’

  ‘Well, I thought it might go somewhere at the time. But now I realise, she was really just a rebound thing that went on too long.’

  ‘But you didn’t realise that till…?’

  ‘…Till today’ Charlie finished. ‘I don’t know, being around you, it cleared some stuff up for me’ she said with a shy smile over her shoulder.

  Amy wanted to accept the compliment but she was stuck on something.

  ‘But didn’t you think the same thing when you met her? I mean, you were coming off the back of a relationship then too.’

  ‘What are you getting at?’

  ‘You didn’t know she was a rebound from your previous girlfriend. How do I know I’m not a rebound from the real Lucy?’

  The zip was now finished and Charlie turned, sure she’d have the perfect thing to say when she looked into Amy’s aquamarine eyes. However, when she went to speak an assurance, nothing came out.

  ‘I’m not finding your silence very comforting’ Amy said.

  ‘I’m sorry, I’m not sure what to say. I think it is different, if that helps.’

  ‘Why?’ asked Amy.

  ‘Maybe because you were the first girl I ever loved?’ Charlie said without thinking.

  Amy’s eyes widened.

  ‘Loved?’

  Charlie immediately wanted to travel back in time ten seconds so she could rip out her own tongue.

  ‘Not, well, you know…’

  Amy didn’t hate watching Charlie struggle with her own mortification but there was a limit to her sadism.

  ‘I think I loved you too’ Amy said.

  Charlie was thunder struck. God, but she wanted to believe that. She knew maybe there’d been something there, some level of feeling. Amy’s earlier fairy tale had said as much. But the big L? Amy had walked away from her like it was nothing. If she’d been feeling what Charlie had felt, how on earth could she have done that?

  ‘You don’t have to say that’ she said, trying to affect a casual laugh. She began to walk away from Amy, headed for the door. But Amy grabbed her by the wrist, pulling her gently back to face her. Charlie let herself be pulled.

  ‘I didn’t know it then. I didn’t even know it this morning. I was awful to you. I needed to believe it was because it didn’t matter. But now I know that it did.’