The Art of Us

by KL Hughes

  “Just you,” Alex says. “Talking about your day. Your art.” Her gaze tracks the floor before flitting back up to Charlee’s face. “You used to lay your head on my chest.” Reaching up, she rests her hand over her heart. “Just here.” An easy sigh rolls across her lips. “Even when you hadn’t been painting, your hair always smelled like paint and whatever your shampoo of the month was.”

  Charlee grabs Alex’s arm to bring her closer.

  “And you’d tell me about your day,” Alex says, pulling her hand from her pocket to tuck a loose strand of hair behind Charlee’s ear. She slides her hand down Charlee’s arm and threads their fingers together. “About your classes and your projects, some new brand of pencils or paints you wanted to try. And I’d sit there, feeling the vibrations of your voice on my chest, and I’d think it couldn’t possibly get any better than that.” She clutches Charlee’s hand. “It was everything I always wanted and everything I never imagined I’d have.”

  “Alex.” The name is a breathy whisper. “You have me.” A soft hum vibrates in her throat as Alex curls a hand around the back of her neck, thumb rubbing along the side, and kisses her temple. She then eases back and smiles.

  “I was hoping you’d show me around your gallery,” she says. “The last time I was here—” The buttons of her coat snap loudly in the open space as she begins undoing them. “I’d just like to experience it in a new way, if that’s all right with you.” She hesitates, fingers poised over her remaining buttons. “And if you aren’t too tired.”

  “Of course I will.” Charlee’s stomach flips pleasantly when Alex smiles and removes her coat. When she holds out her hand, Charlee laces their fingers together and leads her to the nearest display.

  They wind their way through the gallery together, hands loosely linked, and Charlee talks about her various pieces and about the space. She tells Alex about the different ways Cam managed to transform the place for Charlee’s shows and how much time and effort had gone into making each one unique. She tells her about the pieces she struggled with, the ones that refused to come with any measure of ease, and about the ones that sprang from her fingertips like they were desperate to be released. She tells her about earlier years, about how she would sometimes go weeks without making any sales and would wonder if she was really cut out for this. Alex simply listens, taking in all of it in reverent silence but for bits of laughter here and there evoked by stories of Charlee and Cam’s more comical mishaps.

  When they pass by the centerpiece, Alex stops. She glances up at the empty glass case and says, “My ass is gone.”

  “It is.”

  “It must have been hard for you to part with it.”

  Charlee shakes her head at Alex’s teasing grin and leans into her. “It was, actually. That piece was special to me.”

  “That was a hard night,” Alex says, and Charlee agrees.

  “The woman who bought it paid a thousand dollars over the asking price, though, so I couldn’t bring myself to say no.”

  “My ass is apparently worth a lot of money.”

  “Eleven grand.”

  “Wow.”

  “I know. I told her the piece was only priced at ten thousand, but she insisted on paying eleven.”

  “I should take out an insurance policy.”

  Charlee bumps Alex’s shoulder. “On your ass?”

  “Well, if it’s that valuable.”

  “You could probably hunt the woman down,” Charlee says. “Rachel, I think her name was. Who knows? She might pay even more for the real deal.”

  “Or I could just let you paint it again and earn money for us that way.”

  “Good plan,” Charlee says. “Better plan, definitely. I say we go with that.”

  “It’s decided, then.”

  The buoyant sounds of their laughter meld into one familiar melody that fills up the room like light flooding through shadows. Charlee feels dizzy with it. Alex’s unrestrained smile sends a ripple down her spine, a knot of tension forming at the base when fingers brush under her hair and across her neck. She bites her lip as Alex nuzzles her nose against the space behind Charlee’s ear, and Charlee can’t help the small sound that escapes her.

  It’s only a bubble of noise in her throat, but it somehow manages to spike the temperature in the room, and suddenly Charlee’s boiling beneath her clothes. She steps out from under Alex’s arm, hand sliding down the limb, and grasps at her fingers. She tries not to think about how sweaty her palms are, how tense and tight her body suddenly feels. “Let me show you this piece over here.”

  They only manage a few steps, hovering near another blank half wall, when Alex tugs on Charlee’s hand to turn her around. She focuses intently on Charlee’s face, her lips slightly parted. Her gaze flits from Charlee’s eyes to her mouth and back, and it is enough to make the heat on Charlee’s skin sink between her legs. The sensation only intensifies when Alex lowers her voice to a whisper. “Can I kiss you?”

  Charlee licks her lips, caught in Alex’s gaze and her quiet request. She buries her hand in the front of Alex’s shirt and pulls her in. “Please.”

  The first touch is light, almost hesitant, and Charlee’s eyes flutter closed as she feels Alex’s fingertips at the line of her jaw, tracing over the skin of her neck. The second touch is harder. Fuller and deeper. It’s the kind of kiss that requires a breath, sharp and fast, as her head dips back and her arms brace around the body melting against hers. It’s the kind of kiss that knows only one direction—in, in, in. The kind that knows only one demand—more.

  Charlee’s back hits the wall with the third kiss, and her hands find their way from Alex’s hair to the hem of her shirt, to the warm skin underneath. It’s the kind of kiss that is more body than breath. More ache than pleasure. More need than want. It’s the kind of kiss that draws sound from Alex’s throat and motion from her hips, the kind that makes Charlee think the universe might crumble around them if they ever, ever stop.

  “Take this off,” Charlee says, breathless and tugging at Alex’s shirt. “Take this off.”

  The words seem to jolt Alex from the moment. She steps back with kiss-swollen lips and eyes heavy with desire. She blinks rapidly. “I, I didn’t mean for that kiss to turn into, well, anything more than a kiss,” she says. Charlee smiles.

  “I don’t mind.”

  Alex brushes her hair out of her face and reaches for Charlee once more. Her hands tremble everywhere they touch. “But you must be exhausted.”

  Charlee closes her eyes at every slight bit of pressure, at every drag of Alex’s fingertips over the thin material of her shirt, at Alex’s apparent inability to stop touching her. “I am.”

  “Do you want to go home?”

  Charlee opens her eyes again and looks at Alex. “Are you coming with me?”

  “Only if that’s what you want.”

  “Is that what you want?”

  “I want to be wherever you are.”

  The air in the back of the cab feels thick and offers no relief. Every shaky drag through her lips sticks in Alex’s throat as Charlee’s hand toys with the hem of her shirt under her coat. Fingertips graze over the warm flesh of her stomach, and Alex shudders.

  “Charlee,” she says, but Charlee keeps her gaze fixed ahead. She draws lazy circles around Alex’s belly button. A finger dips briefly in and then drags down to the top of Alex’s pants.

  Alex has to bite her tongue to keep from audibly groaning. She grabs Charlee’s wrist and pulls her hand away, unable to endure the teasing touches any longer. Every inch of her feels wired and hot, so tense she could break with the slightest pressure.

  Charlee knots their fingers together and leans into Alex’s chest. Her face is warm against Alex’s neck as she leaves a whisper of a kiss there. “I’m ready for bed,” she says, and Alex grips the seat so hard she is surprised it doesn’t tear.

 
The cab drops them at their old building, and they make their way inside. They step into the elevator, and when the doors close, the tension from the cab ride returns. Alex’s stomach coils tighter and tighter as she and Charlee stand side by side. They watch the floor numbers tick by while Charlee runs her middle finger up and down the length of Alex’s palm. A barely-there touch, it tickles and tingles, but Alex feels it everywhere.

  “Alex.” Charlee stops her ministrations to grip Alex’s hand. “Breathe.”

  Alex takes one long, deep breath in through her nose. She forgets to let it out again as the doors open and Charlee steps out, leading her along behind. The door unlocks with a click, and Alex’s heart feels like it is going to pound its way out of her chest.

  Inside, Charlee shrugs off her coat, kicks her shoes to the side, and reaches for Alex’s buttons. One by one, she pops them open, kissing Alex’s chest over her shirt as the coat comes undone. She slides the garment from Alex’s shoulders and hangs it on a hook by the door.

  “Shoes?”

  Alex blinks, then quickly toes off her shoes. When Charlee grabs her hand and starts to lead her toward the bedroom, her stomach coils up again and her throat goes painfully dry. She slips her hand from Charlee’s before she even realizes what she’s doing and half walks, half stumbles toward the kitchen.

  “Alex?”

  “Um, c-coffee.” Alex puts her back to Charlee and runs a hand over her hair. “Do you want—”

  “Alex,” Charlee says again, and Alex stops. She braces her hands on the counter, lets her head fall between her shoulders, and takes another deep breath. It shakes back through her lips in a wet laugh, and Alex says, “We’ve done this so many times. We’ve—” She laughs at herself again. “I don’t know why I’m suddenly so nervous.”

  “I’m nervous too.”

  She doesn’t turn to face Charlee, but she lifts her head at the words. “You are?”

  “It’s been a long time. And we’ve—well, I’ve dreamed about it so many times. I’ve thought about being with you, about what it would be like to touch you again. To be touched by you again.”

  Alex closes her eyes, tears building and stinging behind her lids. “Me too.”

  “I played memories over and over in my head, because I thought I’d never have that with you again. I thought we’d never… So to think I could, that we could, that we can—it’s a little terrifying.” A breathy laugh shakes free. “Not in a bad way. Just in that roller-coaster kind of way.”

  “Yeah,” Alex says, knowing exactly what Charlee means. It’s the kind of terrifying that happens when something is too thrilling, when you’re right on the edge of a rush and every inch of your body is drawn tight. Every nerve is sparking, and you don’t know why, but you want to cry as much as you want to laugh.

  “Alex.”

  Alex turns her head just enough to look at her. Her hands clutch the counter with crushing force when their eyes lock, when Charlee looks at her like she can see through every inch. She can. She always has.

  With her voice quiet and raspy, Charlee says, “Sleep with me.”

  The room seems to quake around Alex as the words vibrate against her ears, beneath her ribs, between her thighs. The floor falls away, her stomach bottoms out, and for just a moment, she’s in free fall. Charlee’s eyes are so earnest, and Alex feels like they are tipping over, cresting a peak they’ve been rocking on the edge of for so achingly long. Down, down, down they go.

  She takes one shallow breath, swipes through a track of tears on her cheek, and pushes off the counter. She crosses the room in two long strides and grabs Charlee in a heated kiss.

  It’s a hard, heavy press that ends with Alex sucking at her full bottom lip. A guttural sound rips up from Charlee’s throat, vibrates between Alex’s teeth, and oh. This is the best kind of falling.

  Charlee’s tongue teases at her, just a timid, testing touch to the seam of her lips. When Alex opens for her, Charlee licks into her mouth, sliding along the length of her tongue, and Alex feels it between her legs. Tension builds at the base of her spine, coiled so tightly that it hurts, and Alex can’t help the way she bows and bends against Charlee.

  Hands claw at clothing, Charlee tugs at the front of Alex’s pants, and Alex is yanking Charlee’s sweater over her head. It hits the floor a breath before Charlee pops open the button on Alex’s black skinny jeans. They stumble backward as they strip, Charlee pulling and Alex pushing. Alex is down to her bra and halfway out of her jeans when Charlee backs them into the coffee table by accident and sends them crashing to the floor.

  Charlee’s bare back hits the ground with a hard thud, and Alex tumbles after. Catching herself with her hands, one on each side of Charlee’s head, she hovers over her as Charlee groans and covers her face with one arm.

  “Charlee.” Alex pulls the arm away. “Are you okay?”

  When Charlee pouts at her, obviously fine but for a hint of embarrassment, laughter soars up Alex’s throat. It spills out of her, rich and echoing, before she can stop it, and Charlee rolls her eyes and yanks her down with her. She swallows Alex’s laugh with a kiss, and the sound fills them both up from the inside.

  Alex kisses her way down from Charlee’s lips to her neck, from her neck to her naked chest. The tip of her nose slides down the valley between Charlee’s breasts, and Alex takes in the familiar scent of her. “God, I missed this.”

  She plants wet, openmouthed kisses to the swells of Charlee’s breasts, tasting the salt on her skin before drawing one taut nipple into her mouth. Charlee cries out with the hard pull, and Alex’s hips jerk involuntarily at the sound, driving her into the heat between Charlee’s thighs.

  Her jeans nearly topple her off Charlee’s body as she kicks them the rest of the way off, then leans back on her knees. The cold floor shocks against the heat of her skin. She locks eyes with Charlee and hooks her fingers on the waistband of Charlee’s pants, drags them down her legs. One leg is freed and then the other, and then the tart scent of Charlee’s arousal strikes Alex dizzy.

  Charlee parts her legs, and Alex slides between them again, closing her eyes at the feeling of being tucked into that tight, warm space again after so long. Sliding her hands up Charlee’s arms, she locks their fingers together and sucks at Charlee’s other nipple. Her hips rock forward with every breathy gasp from beneath her until she has sparked up a steady rhythm—thrusting against the soaked material of Charlee’s underwear while Charlee rocks up to meet her.

  “Alex.”

  It’s a plea. The breathless quality of Charlee’s voice makes Alex’s stomach clench and her clit throb. Charlee lets go of her hands to latch on to Alex’s hips. She jerks them forward, harder and faster, and Alex knows Charlee is close to getting off on the friction alone.

  Charlee trembles like she’s about to fall apart, and Alex lets her. She kisses her through every tremor, hips still rocking steadily forward, and when Charlee collapses, loose and liquid, Alex feels like all her pieces are falling into place. She smiles against Charlee’s lips.

  “I told you it’s been a while,” Charlee says, breathless and groaning.

  “You’re beautiful.”

  Charlee tangles a hand in Alex’s hair, gives it a gentle tug. “Take me to bed.”

  Alex feels sticky between her thighs as she stands, her legs a little wobbly, and helps Charlee to her feet. Their fingers lock together as they walk side by side to the bedroom and crawl onto their old mattress. Alex’s back barely hits the sheets before Charlee’s mouth is on her.

  Breath catching, Alex grips the sheets, intent on shredding them, when Charlee presses the tip of her nose to the heat between her legs. She rubs up and down Alex’s slit, then kisses her, closemouthed, over her underwear.

  “Fuck, Alex,” Charlee says, the words hot against her sex, and Alex’s entire body shudders.

  Her back bows upward, straining with the tensi
on in her lower back and stomach. She clamps her thighs around Charlee’s ears, unable to stop herself, and Charlee’s response is a raspy laugh that vibrates into Alex’s cunt and nearly makes her scream.

  “Please, Charlee,” she says, hands twisting further in the sheets. “Please.”

  Charlee has her bare in seconds, bra and soaked underwear tossed to the side, then she’s back between Alex’s legs. Wrapping an arm around a thigh to brace her. Charlee uses her fingers to part Alex’s lips and blows slowly over her slit.

  “Oh God.” Alex jerks under Charlee’s tight hold.

  When Charlee licks up the length of her a second later, that knot of tension at the base of her spine explodes, and Alex cries out. Charlee teases her gently at first: Small flicks of her tongue at her entrance. More openmouthed kisses over every drenched inch of her. Then she sucks Alex’s clit fully into her mouth. One hard, pressured pull and Alex’s vision blurs, becomes spotted.

  It’s overwhelming. Alex wants to wriggle away from Charlee’s mouth at the same time that she wants to press more fully into it. She threads one hand through Charlee’s hair and braces the other on her shoulder as she thrusts against Charlee’s tongue. When Charlee sucks her in again, Alex flies over the edge. She thrusts herself hard against Charlee’s mouth, holding her firmly in place, and clamps her thighs around her ears again. Everything goes hazy and dark for a moment as she quakes with her orgasm, then slowly, slowly, she comes trembling back down.

  Charlee kisses her way up Alex’s stomach, stops to nuzzle each taut nipple, then sucks at her neck. Using one hand to brace herself, she pushes at her own underwear until it is low enough that she can use her legs to kick it off. She plants another kiss on Alex’s chin. “Still with me?”

  Still breathless, Alex nods. Her hands shake as she slides them up Charlee’s sweat-slicked back, and when Charlee straddles Alex’s thigh and touches her soaked slit to the flesh there, they both moan.

  Their heads dip forward, foreheads resting together, and Charlee rocks herself back and forth along Alex’s thigh. Once. Twice. Then she reaches for Alex’s hand. Lifting herself up, she guides Alex’s hand into the slim space between their bodies, then settles down again, trapping Alex’s hand between her throbbing sex and Alex’s own thigh.