“This seems a little unfair,” Hannah said, raising an eyebrow. Angie frowned, but then the meaning sunk in.
Angie unzipped her dress and pulled it over her head. Hannah hadn’t even thought about the fact that, clearly, she couldn’t be topless without taking the whole thing off.
Hannah’s hands returned to Angie’s hips. Her gaze trailed over the beautiful expanse of her stomach, her fine collarbones, and the swell of her breasts in a light blue bra. Dipping a little lower, she saw that Angie wore matching underwear, a hint of lace on their upper edge.
Angie reached back to undo her bra, and their eyes locked as she dragged it down her arms, then threw it onto the floor. Hannah gripped her by the hips. The shape of her was breathtaking. After a moment she flipped Angie onto her back, each of them laughing as Angie wrapped her legs around Hannah’s waist.
Hannah traveled downward, tasting Angie’s skin, reveling in the way Angie writhed underneath her. She teased her tongue over Angie’s breasts so that Angie’s breath was loud in her ear.
Angie reached for the button of Hannah’s jeans, halting the kiss. “Is this okay? Just evening things up, right? If I’m only in my underwear…” Angie said raggedly.
“Oh, of course, you’re absolutely right,” Hannah said, helping Angie tug her jeans over her hips. Hannah unhooked the bra that was still wrapped awkwardly around her waist, throwing it on the floor as Angie had done.
With nothing but thin layers of cloth between them, the friction between them grew even sweeter.
Angie wedged her leg between Hannah’s thighs and they strained against one another. It struck Hannah as funny that they were acting like the horny teenagers they’d been once upon a time, dry humping on the bed like this. Before she knew it, she was giggling into Angie’s mouth.
Angie looked up at her.
“Nothing. I don’t know.”
Angie placed a hand on either side of her head. “You might like to try and explain what’s so damn funny! Laughing at a time like this?”
“It’s nervous laughter! Nothing. Sorry,” she said hopelessly.
Angie shook her head, pulling Hannah down. They were pushing into one another more earnestly now, kissing furiously. Angie rolled on top of her, lying on her side and raking her eyes over Hannah’s breasts once more.
Then her mouth was everywhere, licking and kissing her breasts, working dangerously low on Hannah’s stomach. Nothing like it had ever happened before, but Hannah was beginning to consider that it wouldn’t be so crazy for her to orgasm without Angie even touching her below the waist.
When Angie shifted up this time, they kissed slowly, Angie’s hand was measured as it rubbed over her breasts, then outlined the angle of her hip. When Angie’s palm firmly grasped her thigh, Hannah groaned.
“Maybe we should stop,” Hannah said.
“Why, don’t you like it?” Angie teased, fingers fluttering over her stomach now. Hannah grabbed her hand, and Angie froze, her eyes wide. “I’m so sorry!”
“No, don’t worry,” Hannah said in a rush, taking Angie’s hand and kissing it. “I like everything you do. Trust me. It’s just that I’m kind of a little worked up here. That’s all.”
“You are?”
Hannah nodded. “Aren’t you?”
“Of course, I am.” When she whispered in Hannah’s ear, her hot breath raised gooseflesh on Hannah’s arms. “You make me so wet. I wish I could feel how wet you are.”
Hannah swallowed hard. She hadn’t expected dirty talk like that from Angie, but she liked it. A lot.
They should talk about it more than this, Hannah knew that, but right now she didn’t care. They were adults, and they could do whatever they wanted.
And oh, how she wanted.
“You can. If you really mean that,” Hannah said with her arms around Angie’s neck, staring into green eyes that flooded with heat when she spoke.
Without looking away, Angie reached down between them. Her palm lay flat on Hannah’s stomach and then she edged it into Hannah’s underwear. Hannah closed her eyes, her mouth dropping open at the way Angie touched her, fingers sure and adoring.
Angie paused to strip off Hannah’s underwear and then her own, the garments joining their bras on the floor. While Angie was busy throwing their things aside, Hannah had the first moment of self-consciousness since they’d started.
The air was fresh on her bare skin, then Angie twisted toward her. “Hey. Are you okay?”
“Yes,” Hannah replied.
“Do you want me to turn the light off?”
“I’m all right with having it on if you are.”
Angie gathered Hannah in her arms to hold her, kissing her softly and brushing her hair from her face.
Hannah rolled her eyes, more at herself than anything. Jesus, Angie wasn’t just incredibly sexy in bed, she was also very considerate and warm. And they hadn’t even done the deed yet! She hated to think how far gone she was going to be when they did.
“I don’t want to do this if you’re not sure about it,” Angie said, looking into her eyes. “I like just being near you, like this.”
In the background, the air-conditioning unit clicked, and a car horn sounded from outside. But they were safe in here, alone and far away from prying eyes.
“I’m not even a little bit unsure,” Hannah said.
She put her arms around Angie’s neck again, and they joined in a searing kiss that swept the tenderness of the last moments away. She tilted her hips to indicate that she was ready, and Angie slid her hand down her stomach again, Hannah’s eyes fluttering shut.
It was as good as she’d known it would be, Angie watching her face and kissing her as she touched. Angie knew just when to speed up, not at all afraid to ask Hannah what she liked and how she wanted it.
Soon Angie was inside her, her thumb still stimulating Hannah in the most beautiful way. Hannah loved being able to feel the warmth of Angie’s form pressed down against her. Their skin was slick as the heat rose between them, their hips moving together.
Hannah put her hands across Angie’s back, splaying her fingers out so that she could feel shifting muscles beneath firm skin. The rhythm of Angie’s movements drummed against her until Hannah’s entire body clenched. She looked up into green eyes in the same moment that Angie curled her fingers and the sensation tore through her.
Hannah had never been a particularly loud person in bed, but when she called out Angie’s name, she was shocked at how her voice echoed in the room.
A moment later she threw her arm across her face. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to yell like that.”
Angie’s eyes sparkled. “Don’t be embarrassed. That’s not really the kind of thing you need to apologize for.”
“Okay,” she said. Angie was still cupping her between her legs, and when she pressed her hand briefly, Hannah gasped.
Angie kissed her delicately, the heat already building between them again. “I’m so glad I have tonight with you. I’ve wanted you for so long.”
“So have I,” Hannah said. “And we’ve got all night. Who needs sleep?”
“Not me,” Angie replied as Hannah rolled on top of her. “We’ve got an awful lot of lost time to make up for.”
Chapter Twenty-one
In the morning Hannah reclined in the rumpled bedclothes, resting while Angie was in the shower. The sound was muffled by the half-closed door and the fan, but Angie was singing in her off-key way. It was adorable.
Hannah couldn’t quite fathom that this had happened, nor could she believe how it had happened. They’d agreed to be only friends, but she didn’t regret it, not even a tiny bit. And judging by the fact that Angie had woken her up to make love yet again an hour ago, there was no regret on Angie’s part either.
A cloud of steam followed Angie out of the bathroom. A plush white towel was wrapped around her, another towel curled tightly around her hair like a turban. Angie walked over to the bed to kiss Hannah, and then she threw open the closet door to rifle through
hangers.
“I should really get it together and pack, but it’s not easy to focus with you lying there in your birthday suit,” Angie said. She gathered up underwear and clothes and went back to the bathroom.
“I’m sooo sorry,” Hannah called out. “What time’s your flight?”
“Eleven. How long do you think it’ll take me in the cab this time of day? Is forty-five minutes long enough?”
“You’re not getting a cab. I’ll drive you.”
“That’s sweet of you, but don’t you have things to do?”
“I already told Neil I was sick, and I couldn’t go to training this afternoon even if I wanted to!”
In the early hours, when they were dozing, Hannah gathered the presence of mind to leave a message for Neil saying that she wouldn’t be meeting him today. It was a long time since she’d called in sick. Though she wasn’t used to blowing off training, one day hardly mattered.
“I’ll take it, thank you. I’m sure you’re much better looking than the taxi driver would have been.”
Hannah laughed, sitting up in bed with the silky sheets tucked around her. She should get out of bed and put on some clothes, but she didn’t want to move. All she wanted to do was watch Angie.
Angie emerged from of the bathroom again, in her white dress. Hannah watched the sway of her hips as she crossed the room to pick up the phone.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m ordering us room service! We need to have breakfast.”
Hannah eyed Angie’s legs as she ordered pastries, fruit, juice, and coffee. Now that she thought about it, she was ravenous.
When Angie hung up, she lay down on top of the sheet with her head on Hannah’s chest. “Just for a minute, until the food comes, and then I really will pack.”
“Are you trying to miss your flight again? Was it that good?”
Angie nuzzled closer. “Don’t flatter yourself.”
They held hands. Hannah realized they could stay in this space with the kissing and the fun banter until Angie was gone, but she couldn’t let her go without at least trying to talk about all of this. Yet she struggled to find the right words.
“I know we kept saying we weren’t supposed to…but I just wanted to say that I’m happy about last night,” Hannah said.
Angie looked up at her. “Me too. When we were younger, I wanted you to be my first, you know? I was always sad that it never happened like that, and angry about it too, but now it doesn’t seem to matter so much. Now it feels like things have gone exactly the way they were supposed to.”
The words stopped Hannah’s heart. They captured precisely how she felt, though she would never have Angie’s courage. She could never have said those words first.
“Sorry, was that too much?” Angie said.
She stroked thick hair, sifting it through her fingers. “Not at all. I was thinking that you were right. I wished for that too.”
“So…where to from here?” Angie said.
Was it crazy that Hannah wanted to say, “To hell with everything. Let’s give this a try?” Stupid, because there were so many obstacles. Their locations, the fact that Hannah was in the middle of preparing for the Games, the reality that Angie was one of her coaches.
There was no way this could work.
“I don’t know, Angie. I know that I really like you. But it’s complicated, isn’t it? It seems kind of impossible right now. Tell me what you think.”
Angie sat up to meet Hannah face-to-face, her green eyes a mixture of emotions Hannah found hard to pin down. There was worry there, and sadness. Angie put a hand to the side of Hannah’s face.
“I like you too, but I guess I’m worried about the very same things you must be. I know how important these Games are to you. I know how much work there is ahead of you. I could never forgive myself if I distracted you in any way, or if the team found out about us, and it did anything to your reputation. And of course, I don’t even live here! I’ll most likely be going back to the States soon, and if we start anything, it’ll just make that harder. So, as much as I wish things were different, I know that we have to take all that stuff into account.”
They stared at one another, solemnly. It would do no good to pretend that it was any other way.
Hannah took Angie’s hand and kissed her palm. “The Games aren’t so far away, you know. And I don’t even know how much longer I’ll be swimming after that. I’m a little too old to think that there will be much beyond Sydney. The whole point of coming out of retirement was to do another Games.”
Eyes welling up, Angie drew her hand away. “Listen. The Games are the most important thing right now. I want you to get the gold. This is about you. You should already have one.”
“It’s not about settling old scores. It’s nothing like that.”
“I know, but you should have beat me. That killed me. I didn’t even want to look at my gold medal for a few years to be honest with you. This time, I don’t want to have anything to do with your performance outside of my job as coach.”
“So what do we do about all of this?”
“We could just take a pause, right? We could wait until the Games are over, then reassess. It will still be hard then, with me going back to the States, but at least we’ll have space and time to work things out without the Games complicating everything.”
“A pause. I like that idea,” Hannah said. “I mean, I don’t. But you know what I mean. It’s a solution.”
Angie put a hand behind her head, grabbing a bruising kiss. When they broke for air, Hannah licked her lower lip. Even after the long hours of being together, they weren’t close to spending their passion.
“That’s the last time, okay?” Angie said.
“For a while.”
“Only for a while.”
Chapter Twenty-two
The pause came with rules. They may have been necessary, but Hannah soon hated them. Hannah and Angie had agreed that until the Games were over, there would be no contact between them unless it was professional.
“How do I know you’re even going to be still into me when the Games are over?” Hannah asked in the car on the way to the airport, hiding her sharp fear under a light tone.
Angie scoffed. She put her hand high on Hannah’s leg. “Do you seriously think that’s a real risk? I’m still into you after ten years, remember?”
Now Hannah tried to hold fast to those words each time she thought of Angie. A thousand times a day, she told herself that she could be sure Angie’s attraction wouldn’t wane in a few short months.
Tonight, she was having dinner with Marie, and she was grateful for the company. The week had been a grueling one, with more commitments than she’d wanted. A reporter and camera crew from Channel Six news interviewed her poolside one morning at training, and there was a big endorsement meeting the following day. It didn’t help that she began the week very sleep deprived, though she was hardly going to complain about that given the cause.
When Marie burst through the door with a brown paper bag full of junk food, Hannah cracked the first real smile that had crossed her face in days.
They set themselves up at the dining table. Marie had picked burgers up from Archie’s, a burger joint owned by two brothers just down the street from Hannah’s place. In her role as a restaurant consultant, Marie had helped put Archie’s together and the brothers still gave Marie a discount every time she went in.
Marie put a handful of fries on her burger, squashed the bun down with two hands, then cut it in half. Hannah observed the familiar ritual before attacking her own burger.
“How’s Scott? You said things weren’t going great at work last time we talked about him?”
“Yep. His boss was being a jerk, but they had a man-to-man talk over a beer or some shit and worked everything out,” Marie said, rising to open the pantry. Marie’s faded sweatpants had a baggy seat. She couldn’t tease her, not when she was sporting equally worn sweats and an old gray T-shirt riddled with holes.
/> Marie returned to the table with a bottle of hot sauce, pouring it over her fries.
“Glad to hear things are okay.”
“Oh! Oh, I just remembered, Angie was coming over last time I was here. You flaked out on calling me again. How was it?”
“It was good, good.”
Marie put her burger down. “Why are you blushing?”
“I’m not. We hung out, and then her flight back got delayed.”
“And? And?”
Who was she kidding? She wanted to tell Marie. She’d been dying to talk about this. “I invited her to Mark and Ethan’s birthday dinner. Then we went back to her hotel and…”
Marie raised her eyebrows. “You slept together? Wow, and you didn’t call me? Now I know where I stand!”
“Sorry. I guess I feel a bit weird about it. Obviously, it wasn’t supposed to happen. Angie’s going to be my coach. She lives in Brisbane for now, but she’ll go back to America after all this. And so on.”
“Sounds like there are some obstacles, sure, but where did you leave it?”
She sighed. “We agreed that we’d wait and maybe pick things up again after the Games. Just see how things go. But it’s hard to imagine a solution to all this when she lives in another country most of the time. We’ll see. I know that I’m very interested and so is she.”
Marie took the last bite of her burger, chewing slowly. “Hmm.”
“Hmm, what? Do you have something you’d like to say?”
“Do you remember when Scott and I broke up for a while? After we’d gotten serious, I mean, when I was about twenty?”
How could she forget? At first, Marie was heartbroken by the split. Hannah was a shoulder to cry on throughout long nights of drinking, Marie rattling off all the ways Scott had hurt her. Soon afterward, she started dating a few different guys in quick succession.
“I went out with that German dude with the heavy accent. He lived in Perth? Michael.”
“I do remember him, yeah,” Hannah said. There was a picture in her mind of a lanky boy with a blond-haired goatee. Michael played the guitar and smoked rolled cigarettes. They’d all hung out together one night in Marie’s dorm room, drinking boxed wine.
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