by M. J. Duncan
“Our pleasure, kiddo,” Bob assured her with a smile. He tilted his head toward the street, where Noah’s gleaming black Town Car had just pulled up to the curb, and added, “Now, get out of here. We’ll see you in the morning.”
“Can we give you a ride?”
“Thank you, but it’s not necessary, dear,” Celine insisted with a smile. “We are more than capable of finding our way back to the hotel.” She looped a hand around Bob’s arm and waved the other at the car. “You girls just worry about doing what you need to get ready for tonight.”
“Bye, guys,” Addison said, offering her parents a smile and a wave as she tugged Mallory toward the curb.
“Are they not coming with us?” Noah asked when they reached the car.
Addison shook her head as she ducked into the back seat. “Not this time.”
Noah nodded. “Right, then. Where to, ladies?”
“My place, please,” Mallory said as she handed Addison her briefcase before sliding in after her.
Noah tipped his head and shoulders in a small bow and smiled at them both before he slammed the door shut.
“I think you’ve replaced me as their favorite daughter,” Addison shared as Noah hustled around the back of the car to his door.
Mallory chuckled and shook her head. “You’re ridiculous.”
“Maybe,” Addison agreed as Noah climbed behind the wheel. “But yet here you are, so what does that say about you?”
Mallory glanced at Noah, who had turned up the radio to a volume that sufficiently drowned out their conversation, and smiled as she leaned in to capture Addison’s lips in a slow, sweet kiss. “I love you.”
“I love you too, sweetie,” Addison whispered, a soft smile curling her lips as she nuzzled Mallory’s cheek for a long moment before pulling away. She glanced over the seats to the clock on the dash and sighed. “We’re not going to have much time to rest before we have to be back at the theatre.”
“Are you going to be okay?”
“Oh yeah. I’ve pulled harder days than this,” Addison said as she pulled their joined hands onto her lap. “I mean, more time would have been nice, but…”
“Spending the time with your parents was worth it?”
Addison smiled and nodded as she lifted Mallory’s hand to her lips and placed a lingering kiss to her knuckles. “Yeah. Getting to finally introduce the most important person in my life to them was absolutely worth it.”
“Mmm,” Addison purred. “Good morning.”
Mallory ran her fingers up Addison’s spine and smiled at the way she snuggled closer. “How did you sleep, my love?”
“God, like the dead.” Addison murmured as she kissed Mallory’s throat. “I’m sorry I basically passed out on you as soon as we got home.”
“Don’t be.” Mallory continued to stroke up and down the length of Addison’s back as she turned her head to look at her. “It was an incredibly long day at the end of an even longer week.” Incredibly long was something of an understatement given the size of the crowd gathered outside the stage door when they’d tried to leave the theatre. She had been completely thrown by the sight of them and had followed Addison’s lead as they worked through the crowd, signing programs and taking pictures with the hardy souls willing to suffer a brisk February night just for the chance to meet them. By the time they had finally made it home, it was well after midnight, and it had taken all the energy she had left to strip off her clothes before climbing into bed. “And, besides,” she added as she wrapped her hand around Addison’s waist and pressed a kiss to her forehead, “I wasn’t far behind you.”
“That makes me feel better.” Addison stretched against Mallory’s side and groaned. “What time is it?”
“A little after nine,” Mallory answered without looking at the alarm clock beside the bed. Between rehearsals and concerts and Addison spending time with her parents, moments like this had been completely absent over the last week; and so, even though she had woken up roughly half an hour earlier, she had been more than content to enjoy the quiet of her apartment and the feeling of Addison curled against her side. It was her favorite way to start the day regardless of what else was happening in her life, but even more so after a week like the one they’d just had. She pulled her hand from Addison’s side and resumed rubbing her back as she added, “I honestly was expecting you to sleep longer. I know how much more demanding Evolution is for you than your usual performances.”
“Oh, it definitely is.” Addison braced her elbow on the mattress above Mallory’s shoulder and smiled down at her. “But there is no one else in the world that I would want to do it with.”
“Me neither.” Mallory lifted her chin to capture Addison’s lips in a slow, sweet kiss. “I love you.”
“Love you,” Addison murmured. “So, so much.” She ran a gentle hand along Mallory’s jaw as she stared at her with so much affection that it stole the breath from Mallory’s lungs. “I’ve missed not being able to do this all week,” she confessed as she dipped her head to capture Mallory’s lips once more.
Mallory hummed her agreement as Addison’s tongue dipped past her lips, and moaned softly at the feeling of Addison’s right leg slotting between her own as they traded deep, unhurried kisses that made her heart beat slow and heavy in her chest. She let her left leg fall open wider as the tenor of their kisses began to shift from soft and adoring to gently arousing, and a feeling of serenity settled over her as she surrendered to the heavenly feeling of Addison rocking lightly against her in time with their swirling tongues.
“Oh, Addy…” she whimpered when Addison’s thigh pressed against her in a way that sent a jolt of pleasure rippling through her, and grabbed onto Addison’s ass to hold her in place.
“Yes?” Addison hummed as she dropped her head to press a kiss to the point of Mallory’s chin.
Mallory turned her head to the side at the gentle pressure of Addison’s kiss, and swore she could feel her smile against her throat as her lips moved lower, painting the length of her throat with soft, soft kisses as she stilled above her. “Please don’t stop.”
“Never.” Addison nipped at her pulse point and then soothed the spot with a long, heavy lick. “I will never stop loving you,” she murmured as she dragged her lips over Mallory’s jaw.
The absolute ardor in Addison’s gaze when she stared down at her made her breath catch in her throat, and she swallowed thickly as Addison shifted above her and her right hand ghosted over her side to draw swooping circles around her breasts in a lazy figure-eight. She sighed as Addison’s caress spiraled slowly higher until she was teasing her nipple to an even tighter point with every deliberately exquisite circuit, and she mewled as she arched her chest into Addison’s touch.
“I know, sweetie.” Addison brushed a gentle kiss over Mallory's lips and cupped the breast she’d been teasing in her hand, giving Mallory the firmer touch she craved as she dragged a heavy thumb across her nipple. “You are so beautiful.”
Mallory dragged her right hand up Addison’s back to thread her fingers through soft auburn waves. “You are,” she whispered as she pulled her down and claimed her lips in a kiss that was soft and deep and full of pure surrender. She gasped at the feeling of Addison’s fingers closing around her nipple and then groaned when that delicious touch almost immediately disappeared as Addison’s hand ghosted over her stomach and past her hips to dance along her inner thigh.
“I’ve got you,” Addison promised as she slid her touch higher.
Mallory’s eyes fluttered shut at the feeling of long, nimble fingers dipping between her legs, and she rolled her left leg out wider as her hips lifted to match the leisurely movement of Addison’s fingers.
“That’s it, sweetie,” Addison encouraged as her touch slid higher to rub broad, oh so soft circles over Mallory’s clit.
A trembling moan caught in Mallory’s throat as Addison’s lips slanted against her own in a deep, passionate kiss that left her utterly breathless. She melted into Addison
as one kiss blended into another, their tongues sliding together at the same exquisitely languid pace as the touch between her legs. Her hand drifted from Addison’s hair to stroke idly up and down her back as they moved together, Addison offering quiet words of love and encouragement as her breaths came harder and faster, soft gasps of pleasure falling from her lips as the heat coiling low in her hips began to tighten. She squeezed her eyes shut as she tried to delay the inevitable, but there was no way to hold back when Addison murmured, “Please come for me,” against her lips. Her release was as gentle as the touches and kisses that brought it on, and she clung to Addison as waves of pleasure rolled through her.
She blinked her eyes open when her orgasm finally eased, and her heart skipped a handful of beats at the love she saw shining in Addison’s eyes. “Addy…”
Addison smiled and dipped her head to brush a kiss over Mallory’s lips. “I love you.”
“I love you,” Mallory whispered as she lifted her head to capture her lips in another lingering kiss. Affection bloomed in her chest at the way Addison whimpered as she sank into the kiss, and she smiled against her lips as she guided her onto her back. “My turn,” she murmured as she settled her knees between Addison’s legs and guided them wider.
“Oh, god, please…”
Mallory flicked her tongue over Addison’s lips as she eased her legs open wider, and nuzzled her cheek as she asked, “What would you like?”
“You.”
“You have me, darling,” Mallory murmured. She kissed her softly and added, “For as long as you want me, I’m yours.”
“Good. Because I don’t ever want to let you go.” Addison smiled and ran a light hand over Mallory’s jaw. “So I guess you’re stuck with me forever.”
“Sounds like heaven,” Mallory confessed, unable to keep her smile in check as she captured her lips in a deep, searing kiss. “But, for now,” she added when the kiss reached its inevitable end, “I would very much like to make love to you.”
Addison hummed and pulled her down into another kiss. “Please…”
“So, what do you reckon our better halves have been up to while we’ve been slogging away at work?”
Mallory glanced back at Will, who was following her up the stairs to her apartment, and shrugged. “No idea. I know Addy was looking forward to a lazy day at home, though.”
“Wait, she’s officially moved in? When did that happen?”
“It hasn’t. Officially, anyway,” she added as she led them around the second-floor landing. Officially was the key word in that statement, however, because Addison had been spending the night more often than not for the last month or so.
“Ah, so it’s just an unofficially kind of thing…”
Mallory pulled her key from her bag and opened her front door. “Yeah. It’s an unofficially kind of thing.” She set her bag and violin case on the apothecary table and turned to look at him as she slipped off her coat. “I don’t know. Maybe in a few months we’ll do it properly but, for now, this is working, and I don’t want to rock the boat.”
“I don’t think you’d be rocking any boats, mate.” He leaned his oboe case between the apothecary table and the corner of the wall and shrugged out of his coat. “Has she said anything? Siobhan kept dropping hints left and right when we were dating—that’s how I knew it was time to do it.”
“Yeah, well, considering she was the one who actually proposed to you”—Mallory handed him a hanger for his coat—“I’m not especially surprised that it took her dropping hints like that for you to catch on.”
“Okay, first of all, that was rude.” He scowled at her playfully as he reached past her to hang up his coat beside his wife’s. “And second of all, don’t think I didn’t notice you never answered my question.”
Mallory offered him an unapologetically enigmatic smile and shrugged. In truth, she had noticed that Addison had begun referring to her apartment as home, but she wasn’t about to give him that kind of ammunition to use against her. She knew that all she had to do was ask to make their unofficial situation to become official, but she wasn’t quite ready to make that jump yet, and she knew that Addison was willing to wait until she was. “Sucks to be you.”
He nodded. “It usually does, yes.”
“Cheater!” They both turned to look down the hall at the sound of Matt yelling. “How’d you do that?”
“You got owned!” Gabs laughed.
“Sounds like Matt and Gabs are here,” Mallory observed.
“It’s not cheating,” Siobhan retorted, punctuating the statement with a triumphant whoop. “It’s skill. And you just don’t have it, ballet boy.”
Will huffed a laugh and shook his head. “And that sounds like we should go put on our ‘adult’ hats and make sure everyone is behaving themselves.”
“Probably a good idea,” Mallory agreed as the sound of raucous laughter and Gabs chanting “ballet boy” filtered down the hall.
“Hey! You’re home!” Addy grinned at them from her spot on the sofa that faced the hallway. She was leaning against one arm while Gabs had claimed the other, and their legs were tangled together in the space between them. Above the sofa, on the wall that had fluctuated between being bare and holding the photograph Gwen had given her, hung the piece of art that Addison had surprised her with a week ago—a positively giant canvas that was filled with the music for the end of their pas de deux. The gray-black notes and staffs and the aged parchment color of the canvas background brought a warmth to the room that she hadn’t realized it had been missing and, combined with what the music represented, it was a strikingly romantic piece of art.
“We are.” Mallory smiled. She glanced around the room, noting Matt and Siobhan perched on the edge of the sofa that faced the television and the pale gray controllers in their hands. It appeared that Matt had brought along the plug-and-play game system he had been telling her about the other day while she and Addison waited for their studio to become available. “Dare I ask what’s started this latest round of name-calling?”
“His wife cheats,” Matt declared, pointing an accusing finger at Siobhan.
“Well, yeah,” Will drawled. “Why do you think I burned our Monopoly set?”
“Okay, look.” Siobhan pointed a warning finger at Will. “It’s not my fault you suck at that game. And two, I’m still pissed about that. But”—she rounded back on Matt—“I can’t cheat at a video game when you’re playing the bloody computer.”
“Super Mario Brothers,” Addison explained, answering the questioning look Mallory shot her.
“Really?” Will’s eyes widened with excitement as he hurried to loosen his tie and pop the top button on his shirt. “Can I have a go?”
Mallory shook her head. “And on that note, I’m going to go change out of my blacks,” she announced as she turned toward around. She smiled when a familiar hand wrapped around her hip just as she turned into the bedroom. “Can I help you?”
“The question is, can I help you?” Addison murmured against her ear, her voice tinged with amusement. “I mean, I don’t want to brag or anything, but I am really good at getting you undressed.”
“Believe me, darling, I know,” Mallory chuckled. “Were you able to relax at all whilst we were gone?”
“A little bit.” Addison closed the door behind them, cutting the volume of the playful bickering in the room next door to a low hum. “Until Gabs and Matt showed up about an hour ago, anyway,” she continued as she crossed the room to where Mallory was standing beside of the bed. “Then, you know, circus.”
Mallory pulled Addison into her arms. “I’m sorry you didn’t get the lazy day you’d hoped for.”
“It’s not like I had to do anything to keep them occupied. They’ve all been taking turns on Matt’s little Nintendo the whole time. I just laid on the couch and laughed at them.” Addison kissed her softly. “Now, how about you turn around so I can help you out of that dress.” She laughed at the disbelieving look Mallory shot her and shook her head
. “Not for that. Geez. I just meant I can do the zipper for you.”
Mallory smiled as she turned away from Addison. “Thank you, darling.”
“Thank you,” Addison countered as she swept Mallory’s hair over her shoulder. “I seriously love unzipping you,” she breathed as she pressed her lips to the base of Mallory’s neck. “It’s like unwrapping present every single time.”
Mallory’s eyes fluttered shut at the feeling of Addison brushing soft, soft kisses over her back as she unzipped her, and a delicate shiver rolled down her spine when strong arms wrapped around her waist to hold her close once she’d finished. “I love you,” Mallory murmured as she lifted Addison’s left hand to her lips and pressed a kiss to her knuckles before placing it over her heart.
Addison pressed her palm to the heavy beat of Mallory’s heart as she held her tighter. “I love you.”
Raucous laughter and swearing exploded in the sitting room, shattering the bubble of gentle affection that had surrounded them, and Mallory sighed as she gave Addison’s hand over her heart a squeeze.
Addison rubbed her cheek between Mallory’s shoulder blades. “Can we just kick them out so I can keep holding you like this?”
No matter how much she wished she could say yes, Mallory shook her head. “I don’t think so.”
“Stupid friends and their stupid games,” Addison grumbled. “Why did we invite everyone over, again?”
“You thought it would be fun to get everyone together for a casual evening of friends and food since things are going to get crazy leading into our next performance,” Mallory reminded her.
“Oh yeah… God, that was a stupid idea, wasn’t it?”
In light of their current situation, Mallory was inclined to agree, but it was also nice to have their home so full of happiness and love. A year ago she would have never imagined her life would look anything like this, and she offered up a silent thanks to whatever deity had seen fit to bring Addison into her life. “If you’d like, we can absolutely kick Gabs off the couch and claim it as our own, though.” She turned in Addison’s embrace and smiled as she touched their foreheads together. “How does that sound?”