Regan crawled up Mel’s length without protest, straddling her face with one knee planted on either side of her broad shoulders.
“May I taste you?” Mel whispered
Regan shivered when Mel’s warm breath blew over her center. “Yes.” She groaned when Mel’s firm tongue swiped across her inner thigh.
“You want me to eat you?” Mel wrapped her arms around Regan’s thighs, pulling her close.
“Please.” Regan stared down into Mel’s eyes, allowing her own to plead. “I wasn’t that mean to you.”
“Are you wet for me?” Mel said. She grinned up at Regan from between her legs. “Show me how wet you are.”
A whisper of shyness invaded Regan’s consciousness for maybe a second before it was replaced by a powerful wave of confidence. I trust her. Regan spread herself open with her fingers, exposing her wetness to Mel’s lustful eyes. She watched Mel’s reaction, grinning at the desire she saw.
Mel’s breathing hitched. “Touch yourself.”
Regan moved one hand between her legs and began rubbing her clit with slow, firm strokes. She kept her touch light, unwilling to make herself come before Mel could do it for her.
Mel’s control snapped only seconds after Regan began pleasuring herself. With a small cry, she pulled down on Regan’s hips and lifted her head from the pillow, covering swollen folds and slick fingers with the wet heat of her mouth. Gasping, Regan removed her hand to give her better access.
Mel murmured into Regan’s center, letting her head fall back to the pillow and pulling Regan with her. Regan grabbed hold of the headboard with two hands and rode Mel’s face in the mindless pursuit of pleasure. Noises poured from her mouth in a stream of nonsense sound, increasing the speed of Mel’s lapping and the suction of her lips. Regan ground down as a tongue pressed deep inside her, then pulled out again to move up and circle her throbbing clit. “Just like that,” she hissed.
She could feel the wave of sensation building again, and knew that she was near the edge. Her fingers tightened on the headboard as Mel’s fingers tightened on her buttocks. Mel pulled back a fraction of an inch and for a moment Regan felt empty and distressed by the loss of contact.
“I want you to come on my face, Regan.” Another command, then Mel’s mouth was back on her, sucking at her, nibbling, lapping at her engorged flesh, and she was helpless to do anything but obey.
Chapter Fifteen
Mel laughed with joy and tightened her arms around Regan, who was still panting on top of her.
“What’s so funny?” Regan asked, wearing a satisfied smile that mirrored the one Mel knew was plastered on her own face.
“Sex is just so intense with all these emotions, you know?” Mel said, awed by the discovery. For all of her past experience, she’d never felt anything like that.
“I know.”
“And that was just…” Mel stopped, struggling for a way to verbalize the elation that pumped through her veins.
“Fun,” Regan supplied.
“Yeah. That was so much fun.” She gave Regan an adoring look. “You’re the most amazing lover I’ve ever had. Oh, God, I’ve never felt this way before in my life.”
A goofy grin briefly overtook Regan’s face, then she grew more serious. “Me, neither.”
Mel swallowed at the look Regan gave her, which conveyed things she never dreamed she’d see directed at her. At once sober, almost overcome, she whispered, “How is it that I feel like I’ve known you forever? It’s like I can’t remember ever not being with you, but at the same time—”
“At the same time, it’s all so new and exciting that it scares you? Like it just doesn’t seem real yet?”
Mel nodded. Her emotions swung wildly in the other direction and she was overwhelmed with a strange kind of melancholy and longing. “I want this to be real.” Her voice broke on the words. “I don’t want this to ever go away.”
“I’m not going anywhere. I promise.”
Mel managed a weak grin at the seriousness with which Regan treated her fears. Her spirits lifted when Regan leaned down and kissed her sweetly, which led to a number of sweet kisses, and eventually into a breathless mutual worship that ended when Regan pulled away with a small gasp.
Mel grinned up at the beautiful redhead who loved her, and who was again panting on top of her. “Pity we have to breathe.”
“Only momentarily.” Eyes sparkling, Regan asked, “So what we did, you liked it?”
Mel ran her fingertips down a smooth back, damp with sweat, and settled her hands on Regan’s bottom. “More than I ever imagined I would. You couldn’t tell?”
“Well, I thought so.” Regan wiggled her hips. “I was just making sure. I thought it was amazing.”
Mel suppressed a groan at Regan’s wanton movements, but a whisper of doubt invaded her afterglow. “You sure it’s not ruining that whole tough cop image that attracted you in the first place?”
“Do you think being submissive sexually is being weak, Mel?” Regan’s green eyes narrowed in concern.
“Maybe not weak, but—”
“Did you feel weak just now?”
Mel’s lip twitched at the question. “Actually, no. I felt kind of…powerful.” She traced her fingers up Regan’s back until she reached her shoulder blades, then down again to her hips. After some consideration, she murmured, “I thought I had to be in control to feel powerful, but I didn’t.”
Empathy shining in her gaze, Regan asked, “What made you feel powerful?”
“Well, like seeing what it was doing to you. How my giving up control was turning you on.” Mel felt a twinge of surprise when she reflected on how it had been to give herself to Regan. She wasn’t sure she’d ever been so excited by something in her entire life. “I felt in control of your pleasure.”
“Oh, trust me, baby. You were.”
Emboldened, Mel went on. “And, uh, it was my choice to give myself to you. I had that power.”
“You did,” Regan said, and bent to whisper against Mel’s mouth. “And I’m glad you understand.”
“Trusting you, knowing you trust me, is the most amazing high I’ve ever felt.” Mel stared up at Regan, aware of how much she was revealing, but strangely untroubled. “It’s really cool, you know.”
“What is?” Regan wiggled her hips again to grind her sweaty lower body against Mel’s. “This?”
Mel lifted her head to give Regan’s nose a playful nip. “That, too. But I meant that it’s really cool that I feel like I can talk with you about anything. I feel so comfortable with you, and I’ve never felt that way before. Not once in my life.” Never had she imagined that someone would care about her like Regan did. It brought her a peace unlike anything she’d ever known before.
“Thank you.” Regan laid her head down on Mel’s chest, releasing her from their intense shared gaze. “Your trust, it means everything to me.”
Mel wrapped her arms around Regan and gave her a full hug, squeezing as tight as she dared. Then she turned and deposited Regan on the mattress beside her. Never breaking their embrace, she pulled Regan close and threw one leg over her hip.
She wondered if Hansen knew the best way to give a woman a ring. She really should have asked him. Stroking lazy fingers over Regan’s back, she pondered that, and idly wondered if this all was as mind-blowing for Regan as it was for her.
“What are you thinking about?” Regan whispered.
Busted. Mel smiled at her lover’s easy perception. “I was wondering if it was like this for you with Sarah.”
Regan snorted softly. “Sarah and I had a nice relationship, but that was all. We had fun together. We liked having sex. But she never got inside of me like you have.”
“So—”
“To speak.” Regan chuckled. “I know.” Warm breath blew across Mel’s neck when Regan sighed, then, “No, it’s never been like this before.”
Mel rested her cheek against Regan’s, grinning over at the wall. A framed vintage photograph of a woman in some kind o
f military uniform stared back at her. “I hope you understand what I mean when I say this—”
“What?”
Mel gripped Regan’s bottom and pulled her even closer. “I hate knowing that you’ve been lonely, but I love that I’m the first one to make you feel this way.”
“I completely understand,” Regan said. She pulled back to beam at Mel. “I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
Regan hummed in pleasure, then groaned with feigned despair. “We should really go shower.”
Mel wrinkled up her nose, sniffing the air, and picked up Regan’s arm to sniff underneath. “You’re right.” She didn’t even attempt to dodge the playful swat she received. “We worked up a nice sweat, I think.”
“That was your fault.” Regan rolled out of bed, and Mel was instantly cold from her absence.
“My fault? I was sleeping when I was attacked by this crazed—”
“Crazed?” Regan interrupted with a bark of laughter. “Hey, you didn’t put up much of a protest.”
“I was unconscious,” Mel said, and folded her arms over her bare chest. Despite her best efforts, she was having a hell of a time not staring at Regan’s pink nipples. “Innocent and defenseless.”
Regan laughed harder, and gave Mel a pointed look. “You can’t even stop leering at me for a second.” Lustful eyes watched Mel as she stood up and stretched. “And besides, if you weren’t so fucking gorgeous and sexy, you wouldn’t have to worry about me.”
“I’m allowed to leer at you.” Mel grabbed Regan’s hand and led her to the bathroom. “It’s my job.” With her free hand, she gave Regan’s bottom a light pinch.
Giggling, Regan jumped and looked over her shoulder.
“Sorry,” Mel said with a shrug. “If you weren’t so fucking gorgeous and sexy…”
“Touché.”
*
“Freak that, come here, baby, grab me from the back. Baby, you the mack, and you know that.”
Steering wheel in her hand, Regan sang along with the fast hip-hop song that pounded through the truck’s speakers and danced in her seat with carefree abandon. She saw Mel’s amused grin, but she was beyond caring, feeling entirely comfortable around her lover now. I love this song, goddamn it. She launched into rapid-fire rapping, raunchy lyrics and obscenities spilling from her lips. And I feel too good not to sing along. “Put the needle on the track. Skip that, flip that, bring the beat back.”
Mel reached out and turned down the stereo after the thumping bass faded away at the end of the song. “So, I’ve got a question.”
Regan glanced over, warming at the crooked smile on Mel’s face. “Yeah?”
“How many people get to see you like this?”
Regan fought an instinctive blush. “This?”
“So unbelievably freaking adorable it makes my hair hurt,” Mel elaborated.
Laughing, Regan said, “I guess I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“Damn right, it’s a compliment. You know, when we started this trip you’d barely tap your foot along with the music. Then you started humming, and then that quiet singing. And now you’re singing and rapping like nobody’s business.” Mel took hold of a lock of her hair and gave it an affectionate tug. “You’ve got a lot of layers, baby, and I have a feeling not many people see past the first few.”
“Adam,” Regan said. At Mel’s questioning look, she said, “My friend Adam is the only other one, right now, that I’m really comfortable around. And Dan, a little, but not quite as much. I show you more than I show Adam, though.”
“Well, I certainly hope so,” Mel said with a suggestive leer.
Regan opened her mouth to respond, then stopped, looking out the window past Mel at the landscape she was just noticing for the first time. “My God, Mel, look,” she breathed. Her mouth hung stubbornly open at the sight for a few moments until she had to turn her eyes back to the road.
During their brief conversation and the singing jag before that, the scenery had undergone a dramatic change. What had been impressive mountains and arid brown-red desert in New Mexico was now bright red dirt and rolling hills layered in color. Enhancing the magnificence of the scene was the brilliance of clear blue sky littered with fluffy white clouds, in total contrast to the red and purple desert below.
“Holy shit.” There was an audible wince, and Mel said, “I mean—”
“No.” Regan shook her head, eyes scanning the surreal rock and earth around them. “Holy shit is right.”
Mel’s hand crept over and found Regan’s thigh. “I mean…just…I had no idea.”
“Neither did I,” Regan whispered. She dragged her eyes away from the beauty around them to glance at the beauty sitting beside her. “I’ve seen pictures, but I guess I never realized how real,” she turned her attention back to the road, “and how unreal this would all look.”
“So this is the Painted Desert?” Mel’s voice was quiet, as if speaking out loud would shatter the absolute serenity of the scene around them.
“Yeah,” Regan said, equally as hushed and reverent. “We’re going to take 190 North through the Navajo Reservation, then catch 163 West shortly after we hit the Utah border. That takes us through the Painted Desert and then on to Monument Valley.” She exhaled, overwhelmed. “I’ve gotta tell you, I thought I was most looking forward to Monument Valley, but I’m not sure that anything is going to be as breathtaking as this.”
“I’ve never felt so affected by nature in my entire life,” Mel murmured. “How perfect that I’m sharing this with you.”
Regan’s face almost hurt from the grin that stretched her lips. “I was just thinking the same thing.”
“Thank you for being here with me,” Mel said. Emotion rang clear in her husky voice.
“There’s nobody I’d rather share this with,” Regan said. “So thank you. For coming along on this crazy trip, and for being as excited about this as I am.”
“I am,” Mel said. “I wish I had the words to even describe—”
“It’s clarifying.” Regan steered the truck along the winding road, awed by the red rock that jutted out from the cliffs they drove between. “It just makes so many things seem so—”
“Insignificant,” Mel said, and met Regan’s sidelong gaze. “It is clarifying, just like meeting you. It feels like a turning point, like you did. It’s like I’ve finally reached an impasse in my life, the way things were, and I can see so clearly that there’s more out there than I thought there was.”
“Well, that’s what this trip was supposed to be all about, right? Reexamining. Reevaluating. Exploring life’s possibilities.”
“Who knew it would work?” Mel sighed deeply. “I was so unhappy before. I used to feel so old. Nothing makes you feel older than knowing that nothing will ever change—nothing important, I mean.”
That was something Regan understood intimately. “Talk to me, baby.”
“I was lonely,” Mel said. “I went through my life with my eyes closed, you know? Get up, work out, do my job, come home, go out to the bar. I was so numb I couldn’t even put a name on it. Until I met you.” She paused. “I never want to feel that way again.”
“You won’t,” Regan reached for Mel’s hand and pressed a gentle kiss on her lover’s knuckles. “Not if I have anything to do with it.”
“Somehow, I don’t think it’s going to be a problem. Being with you makes me feel so alive that I can’t ignore how dead I used to feel inside. And I’m never going back.”
“I’m proud of you,” Regan said. It was the honest truth.
Mel chuckled. “You know, you’re the second person this week to say that to me, and mean it. I’m still trying to get used to it.”
“Hansen?”
“Yeah.” Mel’s voice was full of embarrassed pleasure. “I talked to him the other day.”
“Well, I’m glad there’s someone else who’s telling you they’re proud of you. You deserve to hear it.” Regan smiled at the road ahead. “I like Hansen.”<
br />
“So do I,” Mel said. “And somehow, I think he likes you, too. He wants me to bring you to meet him when we get home.”
Regan whistled under her breath, low and nervous. “Sure.” That doesn’t sound terrifying or anything.
“I don’t want you to feel freaked out about it—”
“No, it’s just—” Mel’s sensitivity helped ground her, and allowed her to focus. “It’s a lot like meeting your parents, you know? Meeting someone so important to you.”
“Like I said, he already likes you. And so do I,” Mel said. “In fact, I love you.”
“That’s all that matters, then,” Regan said, and managed a confident smile. “And for the record, you’re incredibly sweet. I thought you weren’t any good at this talking stuff. And feelings stuff.”
“Yeah, well.” Mel shifted in her seat, then fiddled with a bottle of water that sat in the center console. “Whatever. Just drive.”
Regan snickered and put both hands on the steering wheel. The road was becoming increasingly curvy, winding in and out of mountains and along the edges of cliffs. Regan raised an amused eyebrow without taking her eyes away from the challenging landscape. “Tough guy, right?”
“Bad-ass and aloof,” Mel confirmed with a nod. With a growl, she added, “And don’t you never say nothing to the contrary.”
“Or what?”
“You’re not the only one who can reveal dirty little secrets, my darling.” Mel sounded smug. “For example, who would guess that you’re an animal in bed? I don’t think anybody knows that from looking at you.”
Regan blushed at the very idea. “All right, already. I give. Your secret’s safe with me, and you can just keep the fact that I’m insatiable to yourself.”
“Yes, I think I’ll definitely be keeping your insatiability to myself, thanks.” Mel’s throaty laugh sent shivers down Regan’s spine.
“Trust me, baby, there is nobody with whom I’d rather be insatiable.”
“And there you have it, ladies and gentlemen. From zero to monogamy in five seconds.”
Infinite Loop Page 23
