Stop it right there, Laurie’s brain scolded. It’s not like you’re going to find out.
Laurie inserted the keycard into the slot, then stood back pointedly, mimicking the woman’s earlier arm gesture as
she let her companion enter first. She was rewarded by an audible gasp as the woman’s gaze flitted from the lavish marble entryway to the formal sitting area where a real fire crackled merrily in the fireplace that dominated one wall.
“I didn’t realize we’d be staying in Buckingham Palace.”
“It’ll do.” Truthfully, even though Laurie was accustomed to elegant surroundings, she, too, couldn’t help but be impressed by the magnificent décor. She was just better at hiding it behind a façade of indi erence.
The young woman, on the other hand, dashed around the suite with an unbridled exuberance that left Laurie breathless.
“When you have a moment, maybe you could fetch some ice from the freezer? I’d like to try that gin I bought, preferably before I die of exhaustion from watching you run laps around the suite.”
The woman stopped in her tracks. “I’ve never stayed anywhere like this before. Have you?”
Laurie shrugged, lowering herself onto the nearby love seat but not taking her eyes o the woman as she crossed to the wet bar and set two cut-crystal glasses on the dark granite countertop. “I stayed in this room once before, many years ago.”
“Please don’t tell me it was for your honeymoon.”
This place paled in comparison to where Bonnie had taken her on their honeymoon, but this was hardly the time or place to bring up her late wife, so Laurie refrained from mentioning it. “No, it was during a fundraising gala I helped organize, and I slept here alone.”
“Good. I prefer knowing I’m the first girl you’ll be sharing the bed with here.”
“Sharing a bed?” Laurie’s laugh was a little shakier than she’d intended. “That won’t be happening.”
“But those love seats are tiny. You can’t expect me to sleep there when you’ll have a king-sized bed all to yourself.” The woman pointed to the open bedroom door, pouting.
“No, I expect you to sleep in your own bed.” Laurie pointed to a closed door on the opposite side of the suite.
“There’s a second bedroom through there.”
“Oh.” The woman grabbed up both glasses of gin in one hand and the bottle in the other, and walked toward the sitting area, her face a study in disappointment. For a moment, Laurie could almost believe it was her and not the comfy bed the woman was upset over losing out on. “Here’s your gin.”
Laurie took the glass and inhaled its delicately intoxicating juniper scent. “I hope it’s worth whatever that bartender ended up charging me for it.”
“It is.” Her companion set the bottle on a nearby table before lifting her own glass to her rosy lips and taking a sip.
“But I don’t expect you to pay for all of this. I’m happy to chip in.”
Laurie closed her eyes as the clear liquid hit her tongue, savoring the instant warmth. She hadn’t realized how cold she’d gotten in the short time she’d been out in the storm—
a storm to which she’d never had any intention of abandoning her young guest to su er through, although that was another detail she felt best to keep to herself. “I don’t want your money.”
“No?” Instead of sitting in the chair opposite, the woman took a seat beside her, their knees nearly touching on the narrow love seat. If Laurie had wondered whether the closeness was intentional, what the woman said next left little doubt. “Maybe there’s something else you want, then? I can think of several other ways to show my gratitude.” She traced the tip of her index finger along Laurie’s leg.
Laurie shifted away, the invisible line on her leg burning as if she’d been touched with a hot coal. “Thanks, but I’ve managed to live this long without resorting to pity sex.”
“You think that’s what it would be?”
“What else?” Laurie sco ed. “You can’t possibly find someone like me attractive at your age.”
“Sure, a smart, sexy blonde who can sweet-talk her way into a luxury suite without a reservation during the worst blizzard in a decade… I mean, where’s the allure, right?”
Laurie was only half listening to whatever complimentary nonsense her companion was spewing. Her attention was firmly focused on her feet, which had thawed enough from the cold by now to be uncomfortably squishy inside shoes that had been liberally coated in snow on the journey from bar to hotel. There was nothing worse than wet feet, except perhaps when they were teamed with a drenched skirt hem that was adhered to the back of her legs. The more the fire warmed her, the more Laurie realized there wasn’t a single part of her that was truly dry. “I need to get out of these clothes.”
The young woman looked taken aback. “I’ll admit I didn’t expect to convince you that quickly.”
She reached out for the top button on Laurie’s blouse.
Laurie swatted her hand away and rose. “I didn’t mean it like that, Dingle. I’m soaked from the storm and need to put on something dry. There should be a couple of robes in the bathroom, if memory serves.”
“You sure you don’t want help?” the woman asked, while seeming to do a thorough job of undressing Laurie with her eyes.
“I don’t require assistance.”
Laurie made a beeline for the relative safety of the bathroom. As the door clicked shut behind her, she heaved a sigh of relief. The combination of an attractive brunette and
a generous pouring of gin was fraught with danger. She shed her soggy blazer and hung it on a metal hook. As she undid her blouse, she tried not to imagine her companion’s fingers on the buttons in place of hers but failed horribly. Could she remember the last time someone had stripped the clothing o of her or led her, naked, to a hotel bed? Even before her death, Bonnie had been ill for so long…
The bra came o next, and it was only with supreme e ort that Laurie wrangled her attention from the brink of fantasyland and back to the task at hand. Pantyhose. Even if they hadn’t been damp and cold, she despised the things, and on the rare occasions she ended up wearing them instead of pants with trouser socks, she’d strip them o within seconds of arriving home. She longed to do so now.
There was only one obstacle. Before she could tackle the hosiery, she needed to remove her skirt. The safety pin she’d employed earlier to keep the waistband snug had caught all the layers beneath, meaning nothing was coming o of her until the pin was loosened.
Laurie reached around, attempting to undo the safety pin without success. Usually, the little buggers popped open at the most inconvenient times, but not this one. She’d apparently found the only safety pin on earth with a work ethic equal to her own. The stupid thing was hanging on for dear life.
She tugged on the back of her skirt, absolutely certain that would pop the pin, and not even caring that the sharp end would poke her as soon as it unclasped. Nothing. Laurie yanked on the waist again, fully prepared to make the necessary blood sacrifice, but to no avail. Laurie buried her head in a flu y hotel towel, using it to mu e her scream.
There was a tap at the door. “Everything okay in there?”
“Yes!” She hu ed out an angry breath. “No!”
Hesitation, then, “What’s wrong?”
“I… require assistance after all.” Laurie’s eyes darted for something to cover her naked torso. The plush bathrobe would cover her and provide warmth, but it’d also hide the back of her skirt which she needed help with. She could put her wet shirt back on, but the thought of having the wetness on her again made her quickly nix the idea. As the doorknob turned, Laurie grabbed the towel she’d screamed into and draped it across her chest, securing it with arms pressed tightly to her sides.
“Yeah, come right on in,” Laurie muttered, realizing too late that the covering she’d chosen was not bath-sized but more of a dainty hand towel that left a lot less to the imagination than she’d intended.
“Are you
…?” Dark chestnut bangs covered half of the woman’s face as she looked to the discarded blouse on the floor, then back up to the woefully inadequate rectangle covering Laurie’s bosom. “Did you need help?”
Damn. The woman’s eyes sparkled with desire, and it was most definitely having an e ect on Laurie as parts of her body she’d believed dormant, or possibly dead, chose this moment to roar back to life. Without hazarding a downward glance, Laurie was ninety-five percent positive her nipples had become two prominent peaks beneath the white terry cloth. “My skirt.”
“I’m going to need more.” The woman’s eyes were glued to her chest. Make that ninety-nine percent certain.
“I safety pinned the back, and I can’t get it undone now.”
“So, you want me to help you get your skirt o ? Am I getting that right?”
“Can you?” Considering the situation, Laurie probably should’ve worked harder to keep the sarcasm out of her voice, but it was her only defense.
“If there’s a hot chick in a five-mile radius who wants help to get naked, I’m the gal for the job.”
Laurie stared at the woman in silence, counting o the seconds until she felt the right number had passed to produce the desired level of squirming. Then she raised one eyebrow ever so slightly, to complete the e ect, and was rewarded by a blush on the woman’s cheeks so red it would make a tomato jealous.
“Turn around,” the woman said in a properly mollified tone, eyes downcast.
Laurie complied. There was some pawing and prodding on the waist of the skirt, fingers grazing the small of Laurie’s back. Was she doing it on purpose, to torment her?
“Are you done yet?” Laurie snapped.
“It’s right there, but it doesn’t want to budge.” The woman moved closer, her body nearly pressed against Laurie, a scintillating breath stirring the hairs on Laurie’s neck. That wasn’t the only part of Laurie that stirred. Not by a long shot.
“Do you have scissors?”
“For?”
“I can cut o the skirt.”
“Are you daft? I’ve lived this long without anyone cutting my clothes o , and I’m not about to break that streak now.”
“If you want to call that living,” the woman quipped.
Then she screamed.
As Laurie whirled around, she was vaguely aware of her waistband coming loose. “Are you okay?”
The woman had her thumb in her mouth and tears in her eyes. “Did you have to use a safety pin so big it could double as a tranquilizer dart for an elephant?”
“Sit down. Let me see.” Laurie pressed the woman’s shoulders, lowering her to a seated position on the toilet. She took hold of the injured finger. A large dot of bright crimson blood had pooled on the tip. “Does it hurt?”
“A little.”
Still grasping the finger, Laurie leaned toward the sink to turn on the faucet. It was only when the soft, warm flesh of a youthful cheek made contact with her cold, hard nipple that she realized the towel she’d been using to cover herself had, at some point during her first aid attempts, fallen to the floor. In trying to turn on the water, she’d inadvertently pressed her breasts into the injured woman’s face.
Laurie looked down as the woman looked up. Their eyes locked. The air around them sizzled, but both seemed frozen in place.
“My towel…”
“Uh, yeah.” Reclaiming her injured hand, the woman leaned to one side, rooted around a bit, and straightened again, holding up the discarded bit of fabric. Laurie didn’t so much as breathe while the stranger smoothed it back into place, tucking the corners of the towel under Laurie’s arms.
“There.”
“Thanks.”
The woman was standing now, so close that her body heat radiated toward Laurie in waves. A voice somewhere in the back of Laurie’s brain told her she should step away. Instead, their heads moved closer. A kiss seemed inevitable.
Not in the bathroom.
This admonishment succeeded where all else had failed, and Laurie pulled back. “I think we should take this elsewhere.”
“If you wish.” The younger woman shivered.
“Are you cold?”
“I’ll be okay. You’re the one who isn’t wearing much.”
Laurie let out a breathless chuckle as she appraised her towel-draped torso and mostly exposed belly, her skirt clinging precariously to her hips such that the slightest movement was likely to send it cascading to the tile floor.
“Go make yourself comfortable. Let me finish changing, and I’ll meet you by the fire. That’ll warm both of us up.”
When the door shut, Laurie dispensed with the rest of her clothing and eased into the plush hotel robe. After gathering her discarded clothing into a neat pile, Laurie stared at herself in the mirror. There was a healthy new flush of pink in her complexion, evidence of the blood that had been racing beneath her skin at lightning speed since the first touch of another woman’s hands on her body.
“Is this really what you want?” she whispered.
Yes.
She was shocked by the simplicity of the answer, but there it was. Passion. Celebration. Life. After the past year, she craved it like a withered plant in a drought. Not a relationship. Of course not. What she’d had with Bonnie could never be duplicated, and it was foolish to even try. But that’s not what this was. She literally didn’t know the name of the strange woman in the other room, only that she was sexy as hell, a business traveler from out of town, and seemed as intent on a night together as Laurie was. They’d part ways in the morning and never see each other again.
The proposition was freeing, like breaking the shackles of grief once and for all. Besides, hadn’t everyone been telling her it was time for her to rejoin the living? What better way to accomplish that than by having sex with a stunning, and much younger, woman on a stormy night?
Laurie opened the bathroom door, stopping after a single step. The woman stood by the fire as Laurie had suggested, and she’d made herself comfortable, too—that is, if by comfortable Laurie had meant to strip down to nothing but a lilac bra and a pair of matching panties. Both were made of cotton with a bit of lace trim, pretty without trying too hard, which somehow made the woman more alluring than if she’d been wearing the type of over-the-top lingerie that a
character in a movie would’ve had on. This was spontaneous.
Real.
Laurie swallowed, her throat dry. Very real.
She drew a breath and approached the fireplace slowly, almost as if afraid to spook the woman and send her rushing to her room. She needn’t have worried. Far from appearing nervous, the woman watched her approach with such hunger in her eyes that Laurie was the one fighting the urge to bolt.
When they were mere inches apart, the woman didn’t wait for an invitation. She lifted her hand and stroked Laurie’s cheek with a fingertip, wending a path along the deep V of the robe to the spot where it was cinched at Laurie’s waist.
“This is what you call getting more comfortable, getting naked?” she asked with a half smirk as she took hold of the woman’s hand and gently removed it from the knotted belt.
“Only mostly naked,” she corrected with a shrug. “What can I say? The fire made me hot.”
“Just the fire?” Laurie made a calculated pause. “Pity. I was starting to think we were on the same page about this evening.”
“What page is that, exactly?”
Laurie studied the woman quietly for a moment, weighing whether to forge ahead. Her mostly unclothed state was a major clue they were both on equal footing, but what if Laurie dropped her guard only to find out the woman was playing games? An earnestness in the woman’s soulful brown eyes convinced Laurie to continue. “The one where we spend the night together.”
“You mean you’re going to share your bed with me after all?” Her lips twitched playfully.
“Oh, no. I’m adamant about the bed. Actually, I was picturing us right behind you on the floor in front of the fire.”
&nbs
p; “Intriguing.” The woman glanced behind her, and Laurie could see her throat move as she swallowed. She turned her head back around, and her sparkling eyes just about begged Laurie to kiss her. “Good location.”
Laurie’s breath hitched. It’d been so long since she’d had a first kiss, since she’d savored the sensation of a stranger’s lips on hers.
Was she ready?
Laurie moved closer.
And even closer.
Finally, she got to the point of no return.
A minuscule space hung between the meeting of their mouths. Had it always been so exhilarating, that moment of not knowing what was going to happen but wanting to find out? And was she alone in the swell of emotions that had her temporarily rooted in place? No. There was something in her companion’s expression, lips parted, enlarged pupils black with desire, that said she was every bit as caught up as Laurie was, which made her feel wanted. Sexy. Beautiful, even. She hadn’t thought of herself in those terms in forever.
“Are you waiting for me to make the next move?” Laurie whispered. She untied her robe and let the garment drop to the floor, revealing her naked body. It was both terrifying and exhilarating, standing there in the golden glow of the firelight. It was a risk that could lead either to humiliation or ecstasy. Which would it be?
“I—”
They acted at precisely the same moment, their mouths coming together, soft and then hard. Laurie deepened the kiss, and a gentle moan urged her to up the stakes. Together, they lowered onto the floor, and Laurie moved on top, her skin pressed against every inch of the woman’s taut body, electrifying each nerve ending for the first time in way too long.
With her lips and tongue still lost in exploration, Laurie’s arm was guided by instinct to the hooks on the lilac bra, releasing it to reveal breasts that were supple and fuller than expected, the delicate pink peaks luring Laurie’s mouth from its current location with the promise of new delights. A flick of tongue against a nipple, followed by the gentle clamping of her teeth around it caused the woman to arch her back in exactly the way she’d hoped it might.
Heart of Ice Page 6