“Oh, my god, she is such an asshole,” Cade said.
Selena laughed.
“Yeah.”
“And you didn’t know these were here?” Cade asked.
Selena took a deep breath. All her friends knew that she’d tried to burn her paintings. It was a crazy, stupid, impulsive thing to do, but they didn’t judge her. Cade’s strong arms around her told Selena Cade wouldn’t judge her either.
“I tried to burn my paintings.”
Cade held her tighter.
“I was standing at the firepit in Ruth’s backyard. I lit it. I was going to put the first one in, and Ruth stopped me. She said I shouldn’t have to see them burn. She’d do it for me. I should have known she wouldn’t.” There was something missing from the collection though. “I think she burned the ones of Alex.”
“Alex didn’t deserve you or your portraits.” Cade kissed Selena on the forehead. “Sometimes my family does the right thing.”
“Ruth was so kind,” Selena said.
“And if she hadn’t been kind,” Cade said, “she would have kept these for the money.”
“To sell?”
“If Josiah finds out about these, he’ll never leave you alone.”
Cade turned Selena around and put her hands on Selena’s shoulders, looking deep into her eyes. “You know it doesn’t matter to me how well you paint. If you shot paint balls at a canvas, I’d—”
Love you.
“I’d like you just as much.”
The appraiser came and went. Afterward, they returned to the room with Selena’s paintings. Cade asked her about each one. Who was it? Which had been the most challenging to paint? Which ones did Selena like best? Looking at her work was like reuniting with old friends, and as she told Cade about her process, she thought I could do that again.
The whole time they found reasons to touch. Selena took Cade’s hand to lead her to a painting. Cade rested her hand on Selena’s shoulder when Selena knelt down. Their hips touched when they stood side by side. In between studying the paintings, they kissed.
When they had looked at each painting, Cade said, “We’ll have to get a van to get these into climate-controlled storage. The temperature and humidity are going to be all over the place in the cabin.”
This was real work. Real art. And Cadence Elgin—of the Elgin Gallery—cared about how it was stored. It was a thrilling thought. But more wonderful was the fact that funny, sweet, sexy, hardworking Cade cared about something Selena had made, not because it had to be good, but because Selena had made it.
Cade surveyed the mess they’d made of the cabin floor. The futon was a tangle of blankets and pillows. Their clothes were strewn everywhere.
“I can’t believe we didn’t clean up for the appraiser,” Cade said. “You’re supposed to stage your house with beige furniture and fake baking-cookie smell.”
“I’d buy this house,” Selena said.
“Me too.” Cade picked up a red velvet pillow and squeezed it. “Do you think your friends would cover the store if we stayed another night?”
Selena beamed.
“I already asked Beck and Adrien if they’d cover for a few days.”
“You were planning on seducing me.”
“Yes, and I wanted to make sure I had enough time.”
“I don’t know how you thought I’d be hard to get.” Cade dropped the pillow and gave Selena a playful kiss. “Good,” Cade said. “I don’t want to go back to reality yet.”
They walked through the snow to the Market, ordered coffee and hot sandwiches, and ate them at little bistro tables in the back of the store. The walk back took longer, as they stopped to kiss and toss snow at each other. When they got back to the cabin, the winter light was fading. Selena added more wood to the fire. They lay down again. Desire pulsed between them. Selena needed Cade again, and she knew one orgasm would only stoke Cade’s hunger. But there was no need to rush. They had all night. Selena reached over for a bottle of wine and poured a glass for them to share, and they talked.
But eventually, talk became kissing, and kissing became touching. Their clothes came off piece by piece until they were naked. Selena ran her hands over Cade’s small breasts and tight belly. Her own breasts tingled as she felt Cade’s nipples stiffen between her fingers.
“You look like a Greek statue.” Selena lay down and stretched her arms over her head. “Kiss me more.”
Cade stretched out next to her and kissed her deeply, sucking on Selena’s upper lip, then her lower, then biting her lightly, then sweeping her tongue around Selena’s. And Selena savored Cade’s lips. For a while nothing else existed. Then languid pleasure gave way to need.
Cade rested the heel of her hand on Selena’s mons, rubbing a slow circle. Selena was so wet, swollen, ready to explode and melt at the same time.
“Can I kiss you more?” Cade asked.
Selena wanted it so much.
Cade lowered herself between Selena’s thighs, parted her legs. She kissed Selena’s hair.
“You smell good,” she said.
“I smell like sex.”
“I like it,” Cade said.
“Is Artemisia beautiful?” Selena asked.
Her whole body shuddered as Cade parted her labia with her fingers.
Please. God. Now. Yes.
“She’s lovely,” Cade said.
Cade kissed all around the outside of Selena’s labia. She breathed on Selena’s clit. Sparks of desire shot through Selena’s body. Cade settled into a teasing rhythm that made Selena sing with pleasure, lapping up and down Selena’s vulva, catching her clitoris every few strokes. Selena pushed her hips greedily toward Cade’s lips.
There. There. There! And there too!
Selena tried to delay her orgasm. She even tried thinking about Tristess high school football to slow down and make it last. But then she pictured herself lying in a sea of pillows, desperate to come and thinking about football, and that image turned her on even more, and she startled them both with a sudden orgasm that left her shaking.
She put her hand on the back of Cade’s head. “Just a little more,” she gasped. The first orgasm had turned her inside out with pleasure, but she still felt like she was seconds away from climax. She needed that second orgasm like she needed air. “Really soft like you’re starting over from the beginning.”
Cade obliged. Selena was so sensitive. After a few light strokes, Selena’s second orgasm washed over her in a warm wave, and she was certain her life had never been more perfect.
Chapter 28
Cade sat at the dining room table after work, her laptop open to the draft of their presentation to the Gentrification Abatement Coalition. She wanted to be in bed with Selena and, if not in bed, sitting on the floor of her bedroom, leaning against the bed, talking about their childhood dreams and what they thought about the Great British Baking Show and everything in between. But more than that, she wanted to save Satisfaction Guaranteed, not because she needed a fifty-percent share in a sex toy store. She wanted it for Selena. Desperately. She couldn’t fail. She couldn’t watch Selena pack her things and leave Ruth’s place forever. Even if they never saw each other after this, even if Selena said, You’re fun but not long-distance fun, she wanted Selena to be happy.
Cade closed her eyes. Amy had once dragged her to a meditation retreat. The teacher had told them to imagine a spark of light in their chests. With each breath the light expanded until it filled the whole body. Cade hadn’t felt that sitting on her mat. She felt it now.
“Whatcha doing?”
Cade’s eyes flew open. Selena leaned in the doorway, Cade’s second laptop tucked under her arm. Cade’s heart leaped. Selena was so beautiful standing there in a long T-shirt and leggings, her hair messy, her feet bare and flecked with mud from the soggy lawn. So perfect.
“I…um…Working on the presentation for the grant,” Cade said.
Selena sat down next to her.
“Me too.” Selena kissed Cade on the cheek,
and opened the laptop. “Here are the slides I’ve done so far. We can put your info in them.”
Selena’s PowerPoint presentation made all other PowerPoints look like clip art from the nineties. The layouts were beautiful, and the colors in the slides picked up the colors in the photographs she’d included. The photos made Satisfaction Guaranteed look fabulous.
“I love these,” Cade said.
Selena smiled. “I have untapped corporate potential.”
“Is there anything you can’t do?”
“The list is so long,” Selena said, “but I can kick this presentation’s ass.”
They worked all evening. Selena put the financials into her PowerPoint in elegant graphs and charts. Then they practiced the presentation, standing in front of Ruth’s portrait and talking to her like they’d talk to the Coalition. Selena talked about the history of Satisfaction Guaranteed, Ruth’s vision, and why the store mattered to the community. Cade presented the financials in the best possible light…which was still terrible.
Around eleven, they both yawned.
“Call it a night?” Cade picked up a pile of papers and tapped them into a neat stack.
Selena stood up, but she was still looking at the laptop, stopping on each of the spreadsheets.
“I just want to make sure I understand the money,” she said without looking up. “You’re talking about it, but I don’t want them to ask me a question and be like, I have no idea. That’s her job.”
“I love that you’re reading my spreadsheets.”
Should she have said love? Everyone said love. They loved French fries. They loved the opera. But now, standing in the intimate glow of the chandelier that hung over the table, the word held a special charge.
“What’s internal theft?” Selena asked. “There’s five hundred and thirty-four dollars there.” She looked up with a smile. “You don’t think I’m embezzling?”
“It’s me,” Cade said. “I stole from the store.”
“You can’t steal from a store you own.”
“You still need to log the loss.”
“So responsible.” Selena looked from Cade to the laptop and back again, her eyes sparkling with amusement and desire. “What did you steal?”
A few weeks ago, Cade would have been embarrassed. She wasn’t now.
“YOLO pillows.” She shrugged innocently.
“Really? Where are they?”
“I hid them.”
“You’re hording throw pillows.” Selena nodded knowingly. “That’s the sign of a problem.”
Cade gave Selena a kiss.
“I stole sex toys. What else?”
“Five hundred and thirty-four dollars,” Selena said. “Go big or go home. What did you get?” She pulled Cade closer to her. “And will you show me?”
Anticipation pulsed in Cade’s body. So strange to have been dead (at least very, very quiet) down there and now to feel this delicious urgency.
Back in Selena’s room, Selena lit a candle and turned down the lights. They sat on her bed, the Satisfaction Guaranteed bag between them.
“You didn’t even take them out of their boxes,” Selena said.
“I tried some.”
“Hmm.” Selena picked out the Lucy, still in its package. “A classic vibrator. Does it charge quickly?”
Cade reached around the big pink bag and gave Selena a playful shove.
“So, these aren’t a no-go for you, just a haven’t-worked-yet?” Selena asked.
“I think I need someone to teach me.” Cade glowed. She wanted to rush out of her clothes.
“I know you’ll be a good student.” Selena gave her a look so seductive it made Cade’s body pulse with anticipation.
Selena shimmied out of her pleather pants. Cade tossed her sweater on top of a pile of Selena’s dresses. Soon they were lying naked on top of Selena’s Crown Royal quilt. Desire pulsed between Cade’s legs. She whimpered and sighed, sounds she’d never made before. But Selena didn’t rush. Selena kissed her for a long time. The desire building up inside Cade felt unbearable and unbearably wonderful.
“Yes?” Selena asked.
“Please.”
Selena adjusted the pillow under Cade’s head, then gently parted Cade’s legs.
“You don’t have to like it.” Selena propped herself up on one arm. “Tell me if you don’t.”
Selena found the vibrator and touched the toy to Cade’s body, moving it slowly, never quite touching her clit. The vibration felt better than it had when Cade was alone.
“Do you like it?”
“Yes,” Cade breathed.
Selena moved the toy across her clit for a second, then moved it away. Cade’s hips bucked.
“Now this one has eight intensity levels and nine vibration patterns,” Selena said, putting on her salesperson voice. “That’ll be seventy-two variations. We’ll try each one, and you can tell me what you like.”
“I think I’ll die,” Cade gasped, as Selena teased her clit again.
“I can’t let you come. We have seventy-one left to go.” Selena moved the vibrator up and down Cade’s thighs and then back to her sex.
Cade sunk back into the bed.
“Relax every muscle in your body,” Selena said.
Cade tried. She felt like her body was seeing stars. Selena did not make her go through all seventy-two variations. A moment later, Cade moaned as an orgasm built inside her. Selena took Cade’s hand and brought it to the vibrator.
“You try,” she said gently.
Cade closed her eyes. She held the vibrator. The vibrations found their way through her skin, into the wings and bulbs of her clitoris that were hidden inside her body. Her whole world distilled to the spirals behind her eyelids and the pleasure mounting inside her. She loved this. How had she not enjoyed this before? And how wonderful to have waited for Selena. She clutched the vibrator, not holding it right, just grinding it against her body with both hands. She wanted to increase the intensity of the vibrations, but that would mean pausing to find the controls and she couldn’t bear that. She pressed harder.
“Yes, yes, yes.”
Selena clutched Cade’s thigh as if urging her on.
“You are so hot,” Selena whispered.
Then Cade came, gasping and laughing, and much better prepared to discuss the merits of Satisfaction Guaranteed’s most profitable merchandise category.
“I get it now,” Cade said when she caught her breath.
Selena leaned over her.
“Good.”
Cade turned the vibrator over in her hand.
“Who knew,” she said.
Selena kissed her.
“Women,” she said.
Selena rolled onto her side. Her eyes were dark with unspent need. She cupped her hand around Cade’s breast, stroking her thumb over her nipple.
“So…you’re so athletic,” Selena said slowly. “How do you feel about wearing a strap-on?”
Cade quickly scanned her memory for product descriptions. Easy to wear. That came up a lot.
“You’ll have to tell me what to do.”
“I’m sure it’s just like rowing crew.”
Selena pinched Cade’s nipple. Cade lifted her chest toward Selena, savoring the delicious nip of pain.
“I’m sure it’s not,” Cade said. “It’ll be more fun.”
Selena rolled over, half sliding off the bed, and pulled a box out from beneath it. She rolled back into bed, sat up and opened the box, setting out a dildo, harness shorts, three vibrators—one bullet, two wearables—and lube. Everything with Selena was comfortable, but it was still an intimidating amount of equipment.
“Am I going to mess this up?” Cade asked.
“You won’t.” Selena popped a bullet vibrator into the base of the dildo and unceremoniously put one of the other vibrators inside herself. She handed Cade the other one. “If you like.”
Cade slipped the U-shaped vibrator inside. Selena wrestled the dildo into the rubber ring in the shorts. C
ade tried to pull on the shorts. It was like getting into a wet sports bra one size too small.
“You’re so sexy,” Selena said, as Cade struggled to hitch the shorts over her thighs.
“You lie.”
The dildo bobbed above her knees.
“No.” Selena looked at her like she was contemplating dessert.
“The website said these were easy to wear.” Cade tugged.
“They never are,” Selena said, her smile full of affection. She got up on her knees and inched the shorts up Cade’s body.
A month ago, Cade would have picked a bad trip to the dentist over getting stuck in a pair of harness shorts in front of a beautiful woman. Now she laughed as Selena grabbed the base of the dildo and yanked.
“It’s not like rowing crew,” Cade said.
Then the shorts snapped into place, tight and surprisingly comfortable.
“There!” Selena said.
Cade looked down. She looked silly…but also powerful.
“And after all that”—Selena rubbed lube on the dildo and lay back—“I won’t last. It’s a lot of getting dressed for a short show. Come.”
Selena pulled Cade on top of her. Selena still had the small vibrator inside. Cade had read the specs. You wore it during penetration. It still seemed like a lot.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” Cade said.
Selena tilted her head back, closing her eyes.
“Bae, you won’t.”
Bae. Cade didn’t have time to take in the endearment. Selena guided the head of the dildo inside her, moaning luxuriously as she shifted it into place.
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