Life Is Sweet

by Lily Seabrooke

  I put a finger under her chin, tilted her head up a little. She took a quick breath, but she didn’t flinch away.

  I licked my lips. She licked hers.

  “Hey, you two!” Trisha waved her hand between our faces. “C’mon, you can kiss later. Kayla has to meet everyone! Mom still isn’t sure she exists.”

  I stepped back from Kayla, the spell broken. Kayla, blushing almost down to her neck, nodded. “Okay. Right. Yeah! Let’s go. This is so exciting! I can’t believe I get to meet Melissa’s family. Wow.”

  She was adorable when she got embarrassed and talked quicker like that. “Guess so,” I said. “Always have Kayla around to kiss later.”

  Kayla pursed her lips, reddening further, but Trish didn’t even seem to notice, hurrying back into the house.

  “You’re teasing me again,” Kayla mumbled as she followed.

  “I noticed,” I said, and I left it at that.

  Because god this was fun.

  ∞∞∞

  I sat in an open, airy dining room I hadn’t sat in for a long time, Kayla on my arm, family all around buzzing with life. My mom, a short woman with choppy blonde hair who had hugged Kayla about twelve separate times so far, was moving around in a blur getting food on the table. My dad, a giant with giant glasses and a giant sweater who was always staring off into space, was spending more time today looking between me and Kayla with the most loving gaze. I mean, weird and spacey as he was, my dad was still amazing and sweet.

  And of course, we were also squeezed in with half a dozen people I barely recognized. But my attention was more on the explosion of color sitting next to me, whose eyes I kept meeting and just seeing how long I could hold.

  “You have to tell us how you met,” my mom said after she finally sat down. “I can’t even believe it! I figured Melissa would marry some stockbroker and they’d live in a house without a single color!”

  “Not at all,” I said. “In fact, I have a favorite color now, thanks to her.”

  Kayla laughed, slapping me on the arm. “That’s right! Well, thanks to the candy dots.”

  “Kayla, sweetheart,” I said, catching her off-guard, “the orange candy dot didn’t actually speak to me. I only stopped like that when I ate it because that was when I realized I liked you.”

  Her eyes went almost comically wide, her mouth drawn into a tight o. “Th-that was the first day we met…”

  I smirked in the way I knew she was weak to. “I’m aware.”

  “Oh, gross.” Trish gagged. “I don’t want to see my sister get mushy and romantic in front of me.”

  “To answer the question, though,” I said, turning away from where Kayla’s blush was creeping wider across her face. “We were brought together by jellybeans.”

  I related the story, and people around the table laughed along. I didn’t even have to play up the story to get reactions. Life was absurdist enough as it was.

  At one point, I put a hand on Kayla’s arm to make a point, and after I finished the sentence, I trailed down along her arm, under the table, and without looking at her, I laced my fingers together with hers. I heard her draw in a sharp breath, and I glanced over at her, making eye contact.

  God, she had the prettiest eyes. And the cutest gasps. I wanted to hear that sound she’d made when I’d kissed her.

  After dinner, I had to convince Kayla she was not going to help clean in a crowded kitchen as long as she had petticoats, and I told her to go talk to my sister in the living room. So instead, I was left with my family squeezing in around me, bubbling over with questions about Kayla.

  It felt like an eternity before I got out of there, back to the living room, where Kayla was talking animatedly with Trisha, who looked like she was the happiest person in the world. They weren’t facing me, so I just leaned back against the wall and stared.

  Kayla around my family was a sight to see. She stuck out anywhere she went, but somehow she fit in at the same time, right here. Like she belonged in my life, talking to my family, glowing like she couldn’t be happier.

  “I’m happy for you,” I heard my mom whisper from behind me. I glanced back to where she was pouting. “Oh, well. I was hoping I could startle you.”

  “I’m happy for you, Mom. You’re going to have a grandchild soon.”

  She gave me a coy smile. “Oh, you’re trying to deflect? Well, I’ll have you know I’m very excited for my grandkid, and also very excited for my new daughter-in-law.”

  I laughed softly. “It’s a little early to think about marriage, Mom. Anything could happen still.”

  “Oh, don’t I know it. You could be engaged and there’s still no way to know. You could be madly in love and on your way to the wedding and a lightning bolt strikes you dead. Now, I hope not, because I’d hate to have to fight Zeus over it, but still, point is, you’d better take what you can get while it’s in front of you. You never know.”

  I sighed. “Guess so. Well, you know if we get engaged, I’ll let you know right away.”

  “You’d better. I don’t know how long I have before I get struck by lightning. And you’d better make sure you visit me more often before then.”

  “Yeah.” I walked through the doorway, into the living room, came up behind Kayla and laid my arms down across her shoulders, embracing her gently from behind.

  “Oh,” Kayla laughed nervously, putting her hand on my arm. “You scared me for a second. I didn’t hear you come in.”

  “I’m so offended,” I said. “I thought we had a special connection, Kayla.”

  I pressed my face into her neck, and I felt her sharp intake of breath. “M-Melissa.”

  “Oh, for Pete’s sake,” Trisha said. “Just take her to your room already, Mel. Don’t make me watch this. I don’t make out with Brett while you’re looking.”

  I laughed. “This isn’t making out, Trish. Making out is more like…”

  I took Kayla by the chin, turned her head towards mine, where she was looking at me with wide eyes and short breath.

  “Okay, I get it! Go, go, go! Just remember to talk to your actual family, too!”

  I laughed, letting go of Kayla. “You’re tired from the flight, aren’t you, Kayla? Let me show you the bedroom where I grew up.”

  She agreed meekly, and I led her upstairs, down the hall and up to the door that hit me with a powerful wave of nostalgia. Even though I was trying to be the one teasing her right now, when I brought Kayla into my childhood bedroom, I felt my heartrate pick up. How many times had I sat here while I was little, wishing I had a girl to bring into the space with me?

  And now I did. It just wasn’t in the way I’d been thinking of, even though part of me said it should have been.

  She fixed me with an odd look as soon as I closed the door. “Melissa, you can’t go messing around with me. You know I…”

  I leaned against the bed frame, my hands in my pockets. “I know you what?”

  She looked down. “It’s so embarrassing for me. Knowing you’re just screwing around but I’m reacting so much, I can’t help it.”

  I laughed breathily, taking a step closer. She looked up at me with wide eyes. “All this screwing around, huh,” I breathed. “I really am a troublesome tease, I know.”

  “It’s… I know it’s because you want to put on a show for your family.” She looked down. “But I can’t help reacting the way I do, and getting all… worked up. You’re just so…”

  “I’m really not a great actor, Kayla.” I took a step closer and she backed into the wall. “By the way, I do like orange anyway. Even if it’s just because it reminds me of you.”

  She gulped. “You didn’t actually mean…”

  I leaned in closer and ran my tongue over my lips, flicking my gaze over her lips. “What would you do if I kissed you right now?”

  She took in a sharp breath, glanced to either side before she met my gaze with wide eyes. “What? For—there’s not… what do you… why would you?”

  I laughed, lay my arm on the wall
next to her, leaning in closer. “I don’t know. Maybe because you’re gorgeous, and I can’t stop thinking about the way you felt when I kissed you before?”

  “Oh my god you mean you actually want to kiss me,” she breathed, her words tumbling out on top of one another, that pink flush I couldn’t get enough of spreading wide across her face.

  “Should have known it was a bad idea to kiss you that time.” I stepped in closer, close enough I could feel her body heat. “I haven’t been able to get it out of my mind. I got a taste and got hooked. Just like that candy you got into my office.”

  She bit her lip, took a quick breath and gulped. “I… I…”

  I stared down into her eyes for a minute before I leaned back a little. “Tell me clearly how you feel. If it’s no—”

  “No,” she blurted, flushing harder. “I mean, not no. I mean… it’s…” Her breaths were coming shorter and faster. “I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it either. But I’d already been thinking for a while… what would happen if you kissed me.”

  I took her by the chin, tilted her head up. “That was for show. Do you want to find out what happens if I kiss you for real?”

  Chapter 12

  Kayla

  Melissa had the slightest grip on my chin, but somehow it controlled me completely.

  “If you kissed me for real,” I breathed, looking up into her eyes. Those gorgeous gray eyes, narrowed just slightly, taking me in. “Yes. Of course? Are you kidding? You’re so perfect. You could have any girl you wanted, I’m pretty sure—”

  “Well, here’s the one I want.” She pushed me back into the wall, slipping her hand around to the side of my head. She leaned in closer, closing her eyes, and when she was barely parted from my lips, I felt her breathe out, a long slow sigh.

  When her lips found mine, it was an electric reaction through my body. I felt a shudder roll along my spine at the touch, just the faintest thing, brushing her lips along mine, starting just below my bottom lip and trailing up along me until she kissed my upper lip. I forgot how to think anything, no words left in me, everything fading away to just the way she felt against me.

  She deepened the kiss, moving in hot and heavy, her lips soft as velvet but crashing into mine so hard it was dizzying. I felt her hips press up against mine, shoving me back into the wall, and she moved her hands to grab mine, pin me against the wall just like she had before. I couldn’t move an inch, couldn’t even think anymore, like she’d taken over me completely.

  Her tongue trailed along my lip, and I couldn’t have resisted if I’d wanted to, my body yielding to everything she wanted. She slipped her tongue into my mouth, ran it around mine, touching the roof of my mouth, so vividly hot I wouldn’t have been able to stand up anymore if she weren’t holding me up against the wall.

  She pulled away, leaving me gasping with my face burning bright red, and she licked her lips. “Sit down. On the bed.”

  My body obeyed for me. I sat down, breathing hard, and she stood over me, her hand on my chin, tilting my head up to look into her eyes. At the hunger there, that expression like she was going to claim me.

  She took down my hair, let it fall down around me, slipped her hands down and trailed along my collar, down past my breasts, along my hips and down my thighs. The slow journey across my body was so charged, so meaningful with the way she was looking into my eyes, I melted under it as much as if she’d been kissing me again.

  She climbed on top of me, straddling me, pressing me down onto my back, staring down into my eyes. She had that same intense, burning expression as ever looking into me.

  “Let me have you,” she whispered, hot and husky.

  I was starting to think maybe she wasn’t just talking about a kiss anymore.

  “I… you can have me any way you want,” I breathed. “I’m yours.”

  She licked her lips, moved her hand down to my hip. “Tell me you want it.”

  I surprised myself with how badly I did, my body burning for her to take me. “I want it,” I blurted. “Please—please take me. Please.”

  She kissed me again, mashing her lips into mine, hot and sloppy as she reached up, undid the top button of my blouse, and then the second—I felt electric tingling everywhere she exposed my skin, working down my front until she tugged my blouse out of my skirt, undid the last of the buttons, and pulled away from my lips as my blouse fell open. She descended ravenously on me, kissing down my collar, along my sternum, the tops of my breasts, and slipped down to run her tongue along my stomach.

  “God,” I breathed, bucking my hips.

  “I’m only mortal, actually.” She spoke into my abdomen, sliding down and hooking her fingers under the hem of my skirt, pulling it down and taking my petticoats with it. I squirmed as she dropped it on the floor, running her fingers around the waistband of my tights. “You wear a lot of clothes, don’t you?”

  “So—so I’m creative,” I said, flushing hot. “Don’t tell me you don’t like it.”

  “I love it. Makes this whole thing more prolonged.” She tugged my tights down slowly, laying her head against my hip and watching as she exposed more and more of my skin. I shivered as she pulled them off, dropped them onto the floor, and ran her fingertips up along my bare leg. “You even wear matching underwear? Are you expecting someone to see?”

  “Oh, quit teasing me,” I said, absolutely not meaning it. My heart was going wild as all the layers fell off, leaving me barer in front of anyone than I’d been in a long time.

  “I think I’ll keep doing it.” She kissed my neck, her lips pressing hard into me as her fingers felt up along the inside of my thigh, sending a sensation so unbearable up my spine I felt like I was about to explode. I arched my back, letting out a gasp, and she laughed softly into my neck. “I haven’t even touched you yet, Kayla.”

  “Well—well please hurry up and do it,” I whispered. “I’m going to melt.”

  She ran her finger up to my panties, tracing their shape along my thigh. “I think I’ll take my time…”

  She moved up and unclasped my bra instead, sliding it off and tossing it off the bed. If she noticed how padded my bra was, she didn’t care, just bending in and kissing my nipple. I had to cover my mouth to keep from getting too loud as she ran her tongue around it, took it gently in her teeth. She moved over and gave my other nipple the same treatment, looking up into my eyes the whole time, and I couldn’t look away.

  It made me so deliriously hot I could melt, but I was waiting agonized the whole time for her to move back down, back to where she laid her head on my hip and looked up at me, hooked her fingers under the hem of my panties, licked her lips. “Do you want this?” she breathed, the look on her face telling me she knew the answer perfectly well.

  “God yes.” My voice shuddered. “I’m going to fall apart if you don’t.”

  “I’m hoping you fall apart when I do.” She held eye contact with me as she tugged my panties down, just a little at first so my heart jumped and my insides all twisted on themselves, and finally slipped them off me so I was naked under her. She bit her lip, looking down between my legs, and ran her hand across my front, down my abdomen. “You’re so cute like this.”

  I squirmed as she stopped her hand just above where I needed it. “Please don’t stop.”

  “Remember, you can’t be too loud,” she whispered, leaning in next to my ear. “There’s people all around.”

  I nodded, but when she slipped her finger down along my shape, I gasped more sharply than I’d meant to. She gave me a devilish smile, running back up along me and teasing my clit, and I had to clamp a hand over my mouth to keep quiet.

  “Quieter than that,” she laughed breathily into my ear. “Although if I make you really loud, they’ll certainly never doubt our relationship,” she added as she slipped a finger slowly inside me.

  I whispered something muffled into my hand but I wasn’t even sure what it was. The sensation of her moving slowly inside me was mind-numbing, and I felt a blank wh
iteness coming over me, nothing in the world except the feeling of Melissa’s breath on my neck, the way she smelled, the way she moved inside me. When she moved her thumb down to toy with my clit, I clamped my hand harder over my mouth to suppress the groan I made.

  “You’re shaking,” she laughed breathlessly into my neck. “I want you to come for me, Kayla.”

  God. I was already so close. I shuddered, rocking my hips with her as she moved faster, and then when she slipped another finger inside, I let out a gasp into my hand. She kissed my neck, trailed up past my jawline and up to my mouth, and when she captured my lips in a fierce, wet kiss, I lost it, going over the edge with a long groan into Melissa’s mouth, my back arching, my hips bucking, everything going tense and that feeling flooding me, pulsating hard. I felt like I whited out and came to hours later, breathing hard, clinging to Melissa like she was my lifeline, every part of my body still tingling.

  She slipped her fingers out of me, and still looking into my eyes, raised them to her lips, licking them slowly, sucking the tips. I just watched numbly, feeling the buzz all through me, my core still blazing hot.

  “You taste sweet,” she whispered. “Like candy.”

  I didn’t think I’d have been able to find a response to that even if my mind were all there. And just to be clear, it wasn’t. “Melissa…”

  She licked her lips. “I should probably keep everyone from wondering what happened to me… but I think I’ll just take a quick turn first.”

  I didn’t even process what she meant until she unbuttoned her blouse, and then I felt myself slipping back into that mindless numbness again.

  She could take as long a turn as she wanted.

  ∞∞∞

  I’d fallen asleep a little bit, my… encounter… taking everything I had out of me. When I woke up, lying totally naked in Melissa’s bed, she wasn’t there—the sounds of a shower running nearby gave me some ideas where she’d gone—and I just lay there, staring up at the ceiling.

  Melissa had been mind-blowing. The way she dragged it all out slowly, teasing me the whole way through, that stupid sexy smirk… and she was so ridiculously sexy with her clothes off. I mean, also with them on, but seriously.