by Anthology
Then she shook off the hand Florence had rested on her arm at some point and headed out from their hiding spot. If their assassins or assassins’ allies were still nearby, screw it.
Shelby was done arguing.
Florence followed tightly behind her though as Shelby made her way toward the destination she’d pointed the other woman at before they’d left the safety of Chapin.
“Where are we going anyway?” the plaintive voice behind her demanded.
“You live in Sammon, right?” Shelby asked, naming the high-rise dorm that loomed over Lower Lake, the tallest building on campus.
“Yes.”
“I’ll get you back to your room. You can take it from there.”
Without turning to see if Florence followed, Shelby set out at a jog across campus, ducking for cover when she could, but mostly hustling at top speed for the far edge of campus.
They were only about three-quarters of the way to the target when a hand clutched at the back of her shirt tugged Shelby to a halt.
“Fuck. I’m exhausted. I’ve got to stop.”
Shelby turned, frowning at the bent-over form behind her. “Your wind sucks, darlin’.”
“I know.” Florence waved a hand in acknowledgement, but didn’t stand up yet.
“They’re probably not that far behind us.” Shelby scanned the buildings around them. Too easy to get cornered in any of them, now that classes were done for the day and they didn’t have the crowds of students to use to their advantage. Plus, campus security would be locking up as they made their rounds, making it a crap shoot as to whether any given door would open when yanked on. But just past the art museum…yes. They could hide there while Florence got her breath back. She might need it if her assassin and his friends decided to stake out the approach to Florence’s dorm, knowing she’d have to return sooner or later.
“Come on.”
“Where are we going?” Florence worked herself upright.
“I told you, Lower Lake.”
Florence’s dorm was on the far side of Lower Lake, at the furthest edge of their campus.
“But it’s dark.”
Which was true. Shelby hadn’t realized how much time they’d killed with all of their running around and clothes-swapping and ducking their enemies. The sun had mostly set and they were on the end of campus that was swiftly covered by shadows of the large hills—mountains to Texas-born Shelby, although she’d swiftly learned that calling them that got her teased—surrounding campus.
“You scared?” she taunted, and felt a little bit like a ten year old again, which brought back the grin she’d lost a while back.
Florence’s smile matched her own. “Scared I’ll break my leg tripping over something in the dark, yes.”
“I’ve got a flashlight,” Shelby said, and patted her purse.
Eyes wary, Florence waved a go-ahead at the path and nodded. “Okay. Lead the way.”
They skirted the edge of the paved path that wound past the campus art museum and led to the gymnasium. Plenty of people headed to the gym for evening workouts, and the lamp posts spilled yellow puddles of light along the way. Just past the museum, a dirt path split off to the left, threading past an enormous maple tree whose leaves were picked out in the gold against the shadows.
Shelby headed down the darkened path, extra sensitive to the sounds of Florence walking behind her on the leaf-strewn trail as they plunged into the darkness.
Within moments, Florence’s voice called out to her.
“You planning on breaking out that flashlight anytime soon?”
“Nope.” But she paused on the path until Florence had approached hear enough to touch.
“So why did you even—oh, never mind. Just, wait…”
A hand fumbled against her own.
“It’s perfectly light out, you know,” Shelby said, breath catching in her throat as those slim fingers intertwined with hers. “There’s a full moon.”
“That explains it.” The low hum of a smile threaded through Florence’s voice.
Swallowing felt like it should help clear the knot in Shelby’s throat.
It didn’t.
She coughed and swallowed and finally eked the words out, heart pounding now in the dark with a sudden surge of consciousness of the smoothness of Florence’s skin against her own palm. “Explains what?”
“This.” Florence stopped walking, tugging sharply on Shelby’s hand, yanking her back until she bumped into Florence’s lean boniness.
“What—” A hand slipped around the back of her neck and pulled her forward.
They were closer to Sammon Hall than the rest of campus, and faint strains of music drifted through the woods to reach them in the dark. The lawn stretching from Sammon’s high-rise tower to the smooth edge of Lower Lake was a popular spot for cover band parties, and tonight’s band was cranking out the grinding guitar line of the Toadies’ Possum Kingdom. Singing about walking around the lake at night and my sweet angel and do you wanna die. A haunting aggressive thrum of bass and drums that thumped in Shelby’s blood like the adrenaline she’d thought was easing.
And even though the “assassins” they were running from were only fellow students, equal parts laughing and hunting, hot pink pistols held in fists by silly grips copied from NYPD Blue police detectives… Even though the worst that could happen was a face full of purple paint, which stung like hell if it got in your eyes but didn’t do any lasting harm—and probably they all ought to be wearing safety goggles, but that would kill half the fun…
Despite all that, her heart was racing, chemicals rushing through her veins as Florence pressed against her, and Shelby listened for the footsteps of people chasing them down the dirt path. No voices followed them, just words ringing out of a sounds system from beyond the curve in the path, singing now about dark secrets and making up your mind.
Shelby shivered. Florence skated her hands from Shelby’s wrists to her shoulders and back down, palms first on the upsweep as if to warm her, fingertips trailing against her skin on the way back down, making her shiver again.
“I’m full of all kinds of crazy ideas right now,” Florence murmured, voice like a cat brushing against Shelby’s ankles. “Full moon, you said, right?”
“Sugar, you’re not crazy at all,” Shelby murmured and pulled Florence tight against her. Silver edged Florence’s jaw, her nose, the fat curve of that lower lip.
Because she couldn’t resist, she sucked that curve into her mouth, pressing Florence’s lips apart with her own until the dance of their tongues drove her pulse higher and the hot brush of Florence’s breath warmed her skin.
Their hands raced and gripped and stroked, finding square inches of bare skin that thrilled to the scrape of a blunt nail or hair that begged to be touched. The music throbbed in the distance and all of Shelby throbbed with it, until she tore her mouth away from Florence’s and pressed their foreheads together because it was that or tumble to the ground and fuck each other silly right here in the woods.
The quiet pause hung pregnant with anticipation until Florence spoke again, hands down Shelby’s—Florence’s—pants, her husky voice rumbling in the dark. “Well, aren’t you full of surprises, straight girl?”
“Pay attention, honey. I’ve been trying to get in your pants for ages now.” She was too turned on suddenly to be pissed off anymore, and slid her palms around to lift Florence onto her toes with two hands cupping her ass in Shelby’s skirt. “And they’re always such gorgeous pants. Even if I can barely fit in them.”
The lips that pressed to Shelby’s neck were warm as they hummed against her skin. “Time to experiment, hmm?”
Shelby let go of that delightful ass and grabbed Florence by the upper arms instead, tempted to give her a good, hard shake. “Jesus H. Christ, girl. I’m a gold star lesbian, and I know for a fact that you’ve slept with at least one guy.”
“What? How…” Impossible to miss the tension pulling Florence back against Shelby’s grasp.
&
nbsp; “I asked around about you. Everyone’s favorite story is about the guy you were dating freshman year who you dumped at that party.” The breakup had been loud, public, and involved a full pitcher of beer soaking the captain of the debate team who had apparently suggested that his brand new freshman girlfriend dress a little more femininely, at least if she wanted to keep her man.
The next day, Florence had shaved her head, stripped her wardrobe of anything remotely girly, and joined the daily hangout of lesbians in the campus center at their regular table, known as The Gravity Pit.
“Well, shit. That story never stops giving, does it?” Florence’s frustration was easy to read in her voice, and Shelby immediately regretted her words.
“Sorry.” She took a step back. Shook her head.
Talk about a full moon.
“Come on,” she said and tilted her head toward the dorm and the band and the music still pumping from the far side of the lake, suppressing the instinct to offer her hand. “I’ll get you to your dorm.”
Florence followed her without a word. And somehow, even though Shelby expected all the zinging tension between them to dissipate while they walked, the tension built instead. Built until Shelby’s skin was damn near ready to crawl off her body when they arrived at the brightly lit cement pad in front of the dorm doors, no assassins in sight.
When Florence entered without looking back at Shelby, it seemed she had no choice but to follow the woman wearing Shelby’s clothes inside. Florence paused at the elevators to the left of the broad reception desk, thumbing the up button and eyeing Shelby like an unidentified toy she wasn’t sure whether to play with and throw away.
“So. Thanks for keeping me in the game,” Florence said, hesitant, like Shelby had never seen her before. Ever.
“You’re welcome.” She didn’t know what else to say. None of her plans had involved standing in a brightly lit lobby with the woman she’d wanted to seduce and then outsmart and then assassinate.
Shelby found herself at rather a loss for words, which was unusual enough that she just stood there, arms akimbo and far too away of her boobs about to pop out of Florence’s ridiculously narrow Oxford shirt.
The boy at the dorm reception desk was eyeing them with curiosity. Anybody watching their awkward dance toward and away from each other would be, Shelby supposed.
“Watch me get nailed getting off the elevator on my floor,” Florence muttered as she glanced up to check the elevator’s progress lighting up the floor numbers on its way down.
Shelby frowned. “This is a girl’s dorm, right?” She’d assumed Florence would at least be safe in the brick tower for a few hours while she hunted down her next target.
Florence shrugged. “Sure, but most of the floors allow male visitors. Two and four are the only ones that don’t.”
“Damn. Maybe I oughta follow you to your room,” Shelby muttered, and then jerked to her full height, spine stiff, when Florence looked her right in the eyes, a curve tilting the corner of her mouth.
“Maybe you oughta. I would like to get my pants back.” The soft imitation of Shelby’s twang didn’t sound ambiguous this time around.
This time, Florence was definitely flirting.
Chapter 4
At her room, Florence shot Shelby an unreadable look as she unlocked her door. And despite their teasing exchange at the reception desk downstairs, getting this wrong suddenly seemed like the biggest risk ever. Safer to head out and pretend they’d never tried to suck each other’s brains out via their tongues. But before Shelby could open her mouth to say Bye or Watch your back, I’ll kill you later, Florence strode into her room, leaving the door wide open behind her.
An invitation.
Maybe.
This wasn’t the dark of the path around the lake, with no one around to witness. A dozen people had seen them enter the dorm, at least, another few had passed in the hall since they got off the elevator, and gossip flew across campus faster than light. Shelby knew that didn’t mean anything, in and of itself. Just like walking into Florence’s single room didn’t signify anything other than…
Don’t pretend you don’t know what it means, girl.
Florence might not look at Shelby and see anything she wanted under normal circumstances. But these weren’t normal circumstances.
And she didn’t hesitate to get her hand in your panties, so let’s not fool ourselves about what this is.
She stepped into the room and closed the door behind her, closing out the light from the hall, leaving them both shadowed in the glow of lights from the party by the lake that reached up and into Florence’s window to shine on the edges of everything in the room.
To shine on the curve of Florence’s hand as it reached for her and pulled Shelby close.
They stumbled toward the bed under the window, pulling their clothes off each other, mouths sucking and licking and biting at every square inch of skin as it was exposed. When the edge of the mattress bumped Shelby’s knee, she gave Florence a gentle push and laughed as the woman she’d wanted for so long thumped back, arms spread wide and half-naked, the edge of Florence’s teeth shining in a smile.
Shelby knew from experience exactly how hard it was to go down on a girl if the both of them were trying to keep from falling off a twin mattress, so she didn’t hesitate to slap the pillow from Florence’s bed to the floor and kneel between the long slim thighs that opened for her like the doors to a magic kingdom.
Get a grip, girl. This ain’t a fairy tale. Just bodies moving in the dark.
She tugged her skirt off Florence’s slim hips, taking her underwear with it, and licked a stripe up the inside of Florence’s narrow thigh, hands braced on the sharp hills of Florence’s hips, thumbs streaking down to stroke slickly as Florence arched her back.
“Do you like to be penetrated?” Not every woman did. Shelby wasn’t more specific on purpose.
She liked keeping all her options open.
Florence struggled to push herself up on her elbows, looking down her own body to where Shelby knelt between her thighs. “Yes. I—”
All I needed to know.
She slid her fingers home, mouth dropping like the bomb to fasten itself over Florence’s clit. Eyes closed, tension leaking from her body as she sank deeper into sensation, Shelby slowed it down instead of ramping it up. Way down. Barely moving her fingers inside of Florence, concentrating on pressing that thick wedge up, pressing down with one hand just above Florence’s pubic bone, holding her still, applying pressure from inside and out.
She hummed, happy now, all her worries shoved to the side as she fell happily into the rhythm of pleasing a woman’s body as it undulated and shivered under her fingers and her mouth. Florence collapsed, nonsense words gushing from her mouth like the wetness that slid over Shelby hands.
When she was pretty sure she has Florence’s attention fully locked on Shelby’s mouth and fingers, she stuck out her ring finger like the pinkie of the Queen as she drank tea, and wiggled it between Florence’s butt cheeks to slip and slide around her entrance there.
Penetration could mean all sorts of things.
Florence jackknifed on the bed, clutching Shelby’s head, fingers tangling in her hair until the sharp sparks of pain in her scalp lit Shelby’s skin on fire. Humming again, loving the way it made Florence squirm and chant fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck, she pulled her hand back until the tips of her fingers barely touched Florence in all the most delicious places.
She sucked the edge of Florence’s labia into her mouth, grazing it with her teeth until a new flood of slick glistened in the light when she sat back to watch.
“God, Shelby. Just fuck me. Please,” Florence groaned, falling back against the pulling up her knees to brace her slender feet on the edge of the mattress. She pushed with her hips like she wanted to rub herself against Shelby’s face and hands more than she wanted to hide how much they turned her on. She was past caring about anything except begging, pleading, and Shelby planned on rewarding her for e
very desperate thrust of her hips.
“Shelby. Please,” the words edged with such sharp need they cut a line of want between Shelby’s legs.
She bent her head and concentrated on making Florence fly.
When she finished, nudging the last little shiver out of Florence until a hand on Shelby’s head pushed her away—too sensitive—she sighed against the soft damp skin under her cheek.
The tug up onto the mattress came so fast and sure Shelby laughed out loud at the suddenness of it. Before she could blink, Florence had them both out of the rest of their clothes, naked bodies pressing against each other.
Florence straddled her, hands pressing Shelby’s wrists into the mattress next to her head. She bucked her hips experimentally, and Florence just grinned and rode the wave, like an equestrienne keeping her elegant seat on a rambunctious ride.
“I am going to fuck you until you can’t breathe, do you understand me?”
Shelby nodded, chest heaving.
“When you come, you’re gonna shout so loud the whole dorm knows what you’re doing in here.”
Dragging oxygen into her lungs was like lifting a Ford F-150 barehanded. Shelby gasped as Florence leaned forward, pressing harder on her wrists. Being held down, being pinned and threatened, no matter how consensually, was turning her crank. Hard. “You say that like that’s a problem.”
Florence bent down and set her teeth against the muscle of Shelby’s shoulder, testing, teasing, then biting hard enough to arch Shelby’s back and make her cry out, even as she pictured the marks those small, white teeth would leave and wished she could see.
“Ahhh.” It hurt, in the best way, and she tilted her head away to expose her neck more fully. “More.”
“I’ll eat you up,” Florence growled in her ear and Shelby’s spine stiffened as pleasure shot from her ear to her pussy, her entire body shivering at the rough vibrations.
Yes. Please.
She wanted to be clever. Say something dirty and enticing. Florence pushed her hands up until Shelby’s fingers banged against a metal bar.