Secret Hearts

by Radclyffe

  “Does that really work?” Kip asked.

  Jordan laughed and let the door close behind her. “It does. It’s amazing, isn’t it?”

  “I’ll trade you my place for yours. Just so I can have that.”

  “No deal. I don’t know how it managed to survive with all the renovations and the way this place has been cut up for apartments, but there it is.” Jordan kicked off her work boots and left them on a boot tray by the door.

  “And you really use it.” Kip shed her boots with Jordan’s.

  “All the time. There’s something about watching the flames that makes me forget everything that was bothering me during the day.” She shrugged. “That’s as close as I ever get to meditating.”

  “I know what you mean. We used to have a lake house when I was small, and my father built a fire pit outside. He dragged these huge logs around it to use for seats. I thought that was the coolest thing.” Kip laughed, recalling a time when the lake house meant joy and not sadness. “I could sit there for hours watching the flames. I used to imagine the little bits of cinders that flew into the air were fireflies with wings.”

  Jordan came up behind Kip and wrapped her arms around her waist, resting her chin on Kip’s shoulder. “Same here. We always had a big bonfire after we cleared an area for planting or chased back the undergrowth that was constantly trying to take over the pastures. Huge things that shot flames ten or twenty feet into the air.” She shook her head. “Probably illegal now.”

  Kip turned her head and kissed the corner of Jordan’s mouth. “Probably. But I bet there’s someplace that you can still build a fire as big as you want.”

  “Maybe,” Jordan said wistfully.

  “We’ll find a place and sit around watching fireflies dance one of these days.” Kip turned, rested her hands on Jordan’s waist, and kissed her. “You know, there are three…no, four things I really need right now. That’s it. Only four. Give me those, and I’ll be a happy woman.”

  Jordan leaned back, her hips and thighs pressed to Kip’s, her hands resting on Kip’s shoulders. “Oh? And what might they be?”

  Kip grinned at the teasing note in Jordan’s voice. She loved the invitation in Jordan’s eyes, the confirmation that Jordan wanted what she wanted. Although she doubted Jordan wanted it with the kind of craving that clawed at her insides right this minute. She swallowed, ordered herself to wait. Timing. Timing. Always the damn timing. “A shower, coffee, food…”

  Jordan’s eyebrow rose as Kip trailed off.

  “And you.”

  “And what would the order be?” Jordan’s voice dropped, low and seductive.

  “I was thinking…”

  Kip paused, and Jordan leaned forward and nipped at her lip.

  Kip’s stomach tied itself into a knot that only the touch of Jordan’s skin on hers was going to untie. “A shower, you. Coffee, you. Food, and…”

  Jordan’s arms tightened around Kip’s neck and they were suddenly body to body, joined everywhere. Jordan’s mouth was on her throat, her lips soft and warm as she murmured, “You’ve got big plans.”

  Kip stroked her hair, kissed the tender skin below her ear. “Only where you’re concerned.”

  “Then I think we better start with the shower, and get on with it.”

  “Good idea,” Kip growled, fisting her hand in Jordan’s hair and tilting Jordan’s head back until she could kiss her mouth properly. Timing. Damn timing. She was so damn tired of waiting. “Where?”

  Jordan braced her hands on Kip’s shoulders and pushed away. Her breath was coming as fast as Kip’s. “I’ll get you some towels. The bathroom’s this way.”

  “I was thinking maybe you could—”

  Jordan grabbed her hand and tugged her along. “I know what you were thinking. But it’s not a very big shower and there are quite a lot of things I don’t think we can do in there that I’d really like to do.”

  A buzz saw slashed through Kip’s brain and every rational thought splintered into a thousand pieces. “Okay. Sure. Whatever you say.”

  Laughing, Jordan glanced over her shoulder. Kip looked poleaxed. Oh, how she liked that, throwing the ever-confident, too-sexy-for-words younger woman off her stride. “I’ll remind you you said that in a little while.”

  “I won’t be changing my mind.”

  Kip showered as fast as she possibly could and then realized she had no clean clothes. Well, she wasn’t planning on getting dressed again anyhow. She wrapped herself in the largest towel from the stack Jordan had left and stuck her head out the door. “I’m done, but there’s no way I’m putting on the clothes I slept in again.”

  Jordan appeared with a cup of coffee in her hand. “Here, take this. I’ll throw your clothes in the wash, but first I have to shower.”

  “No problem. I wasn’t planning on getting dressed right away. If that’s okay with you.”

  “Oh,” Jordan said softly, “that’s very okay.”

  Kip sipped the coffee, gauging the heat in Jordan’s gaze. She leaned a shoulder against the doorway. The towel opened over her thigh. “Where do you want me to wait?”

  Jordan looked down and quickly back up, keeping her eyes above shoulder level. The temptation to pull the towel the rest of the way free and have Kip naked was almost too much to stand. She needed to get cleaned up too, and the instant Kip was naked, she wasn’t going to care about anything as mundane as a little bit of topsoil smudging her face. Wordlessly, Jordan pointed down the hall to the bedroom. “Make yourself comfortable.”

  Grinning, Kip grabbed her clothes and pushed away from the wall. The towel was damp where it stretched across her ass and she could feel Jordan watching her as she walked away. “Don’t take too long.”

  “Don’t worry. I won’t.”

  Jordan showered in record time. She wanted about three cups of coffee, but that could wait until…after. Right now only one thing occupied her mind. Wearing nothing but her towel, she padded to the bedroom and paused in the doorway. Kip sat up against the headboard, the sheet drawn to her waist, and, as far as Jordan could see, wearing nothing else. The coffee cup sat beside her on the nightstand. Jordan’s heart shot into her throat and her stomach threatened to drop out. She was instantly swollen and wet and practically brainless. She licked her lips. “You do realize I’m in danger of blowing a circuit here. And then where will we be.”

  Kip flicked down the sheets beside her and patted the bed. “You’d better get over here, then.”

  Jordan walked to the side of the bed, watching Kip watch her, tracking every movement like a predator in the bushes. Her pulse jumped as if she really were prey and Kip might leap on her at any moment. If that happened she would surrender, exposing her most vulnerable parts, begging for the piercing bite of Kip’s claim. She wanted to unleash the storm in Kip’s eyes. When she let the towel fall, Kip surged to her knees at the edge of the bed, her arms snaring Jordan around the waist, her mouth instantly on Jordan’s breast.

  “Oh,” Jordan gasped, gripping Kip’s shoulders and pressing her hips forward against Kip’s hard stomach to stay upright. Kip’s mouth was hot, her teeth gentle as they rasped against her oversensitive nipples. She slipped her hand around the back of Kip’s neck and pushed harder against Kip’s mouth, wanting to feel her claim, wanting to be taken. “I love the way your mouth feels on me.”

  Blind to everything but the taste and scent of her, Kip kissed her way from one breast to the other, alternately licking, sucking, and tugging on Jordan’s nipples. When Jordan quivered against her, small broken sounds of pleasure escaping her throat, she started all over again. Relentless, driven, insatiable. She stroked the hollow at the base of Jordan’s spine and cupped her ass, tugging her hard against her chest. She tilted her head back, found Jordan’s unfocused gaze staring down at her. “Ready for bed now?”

  “Oh God, yes.” Jordan swept her palms over Kip’s shoulders, down her back. “Yes, yes, yes.”

  Kip pulled her down and rose over her, sliding one thigh betwee
n Jordan’s legs, bracing herself on her elbows on either side of Jordan’s shoulders. Jordan was a feast and she planned to explore every inch of her. She caressed and kissed and sucked everywhere, her mouth a constant torment, until Jordan thrashed beneath her, her breath so ragged she sounded as if she was crying.

  “I don’t think I can stand it.” Jordan arched, searching for more contact.

  “Not done yet,” Kip said, her voice like gravel. She rocked her hips, her thigh sliding over and pressing into Jordan’s sex.

  The friction, the hard merciless demand, made Jordan ache to come.

  “I want you inside me.” Jordan dug her fingers into the hard muscles along Kip’s spine, wrapping her legs tightly around Kip’s, thrusting against her.

  “Say it again,” Kip said with dark possessiveness.

  “I want you to make me come.” Jordan bit down on Kip’s shoulder. “Damn you. I need you.”

  Kip straightened her arms and pushed down until her shoulders were between Jordan’s legs, holding her thighs apart, open and exposed. Kip’s kisses were featherlight where her mouth had been demanding before. Teasing, licking, and sucking until Jordan rode the thin edge of orgasm.

  “You’re going to make me come,” Jordan warned, knowing it was already too late.

  Kip raised her head and watched Jordan’s neck arch as she entered her. “Yes, I am.”

  She stroked, deep and slow, feeling Jordan’s heartbeat around her fingers, matching her tempo to the rhythm of Jordan’s writhing hips until Jordan’s breath caught, and she took her hard and fast and over.

  Jordan’s world exploded in color and flame, the climax leaving her mindless and weak. When she came back to herself and opened her eyes, Kip rested on an elbow next to her, one hand on her stomach, a supremely satisfied smile on her face. Jordan laughed feebly. “I bet that did your ego a lot of good.”

  “You’re amazing.” Kip leaned over and nipped at her lip. “You make me feel like a god.”

  “Oh, I was afraid of that.” Jordan curled into her and kissed Kip’s throat. “You are amazing. I don’t think I’ve ever felt anything like that in my life. No, I know I haven’t.”

  “I’m glad.” Kip shuddered and rested her forehead on Jordan’s. “I have dreamed about that so many times, but it was never as incredible in my dreams.”

  “The dream isn’t over.” Jordan pushed Kip onto her back and straddled Kip’s hips, her breasts swaying slightly as she moved. Kip flexed and kissed her breast, but Jordan pushed her back down with a hand in the center of her chest. “I want you to lie there and not move.”

  Kip’s brows rose. Her skin gleamed with a faint sheen of sweat and desire. A barely tamed young animal. “Really.”

  “Really,” Jordan said with quiet command. “I have things I’ve been wanting to do.”

  Kip’s heart beat a furious tattoo against the inside of her ribs. She’d never been one to be quiet in bed, and for the first time in her life, she wanted to belong to a woman. This one woman. She wanted Jordan to take her. She let her arms fall, palms open by her sides. “All yours.”

  Jordan pressed Kip’s shoulders to the bed and leaned over her, dragging her nipple across Kip’s mouth. Kip tensed, but when she would have captured her in her mouth, Jordan sat back up. “Uh-uh. Not yet.”

  Kip groaned. “You’re such a fucking tease. You’re killing me.”

  “You’ll live.” Jordan laughed, filled with power like she’d never known. Watching Kip’s desire made her light-headed, made her swell with urgency, made her want to take and plunder and hear Kip’s cries of pleasure. She rocked on Kip’s stomach, coating her with the essence of her excitement. Kip grasped her hips as she rode her, arching to meet Jordan’s thrusts.

  “You feel what you do to me?” Jordan asked, her voice husky and unfamiliar. “I could come all over you right now.”

  “You’re gonna make my head explode,” Kip muttered, her hands hot on Jordan’s flesh.

  “I hope so.”

  Before she reached the point where she couldn’t stop herself from coming on Kip’s stomach, Jordan stretched out on top of her, breaking the exquisite contact.

  “Why…?”

  “My show, remember?” Jordan licked a slow circle around Kip’s small tight nipple. Kip’s hands played over her back, massaging her ass, guiding her up and down against Kip’s thigh.

  “I know, I know,” Kip groaned, “but I want to see you come again.”

  “What makes you think I can?”

  Kip laughed. “I know you can.”

  Jordan closed her teeth on Kip’s nipple, tugged ever so lightly.

  “Damn.” Kip hissed and arched. “Jordan. God.”

  “Like that?” Jordan murmured, holding back a laugh of triumph.

  “I dare you to do that on my clit.”

  Jordan looked up. “You think you could take it?”

  Kip’s eyes glinted with challenge and need. “Why don’t you find out?”

  Jordan shook her head. “You can wait a little longer.”

  Kip cursed and fell back with a groan.

  Jordan wanted to make her come more than she’d wanted anything in her life. She would’ve taken her in the hall outside the bathroom an hour ago, in the trailer the night before, a dozen times before that, and now the want was a ferocious need that terrified her. “I want you to come like you’ve never come before.”

  Kip twisted beneath, caught her hand and pushed it down her stomach. “Touch me and I will.”

  Jordan skimmed her fingers up the inside of Kip’s thigh, cupped the heat between her legs, and stroked a finger along her cleft. She found her clit, squeezed her gently between her fingertips.

  “Oh yeah,” Kip cried, her eyes closed, every muscle rigid. “You know just what to do.”

  “Don’t come until I tell you to.”

  “I can’t wait,” Kip gasped. “I’m too close.”

  Jordan stilled, moved her hand.

  “Jordan, Jordan,” Kip gasped. “I’m right there.”

  “I think I promised you something.” Jordan shifted again and circled Kip’s clit with her mouth. Carefully, she grazed the shaft with her teeth and sucked her against the inner surface of her lower lip.

  “You’ll make me come,” Kip blurted, her voice loud in the silent room.

  Jordan grabbed her hips just as Kip exploded against her mouth, bucking with a shout. She smiled against the pulsing heat of Kip’s swollen flesh. Victorious, humbled, destroyed.

  Chapter Twenty-three

  “We’re going to have to get up soon, aren’t we,” Kip murmured.

  “Mm-hmm.” Jordan lay on her back partially covered by the sheet, the fingers of her left hand entwined with those of Kip’s right, staring at the ceiling and wholly mindless. “Did we sleep or did I just pass out?”

  “I’m not sure.” Kip chuckled. “I’m feeling a little destroyed myself.”

  Jordan turned her head. Kip’s hair was tousled, her face as relaxed as she’d ever seen it, the starkly handsome lines softened by the diffuse late-afternoon light and the hours of lovemaking. “You look phenomenal. Good destroyed or bad destroyed?”

  Kip’s mouth twitched. “I wouldn’t have thought there was a good destroyed until today. But very definitely good.” She looked over, caught Jordan’s gaze. “I feel fantastic, other than the fact that every muscle in my body feels pretty much like a limp noodle.”

  Jordan hauled herself up onto an elbow, leaned over, and kissed Kip. “Nothing about you looks limp.” She swept her hand down the center of Kip’s torso, over her taut abdomen to her muscled thigh. “You have a gorgeous body. In fact, I have a thing for it.”

  Kip’s breath kicked up a notch. “I can’t believe I’m actually starting to get turned on again. I would’ve sworn I was done for a week.”

  Laughing, Jordan kissed Kip’s breast and brushed her cheek over her nipple. “Oh no. Definitely not a week. You’ll need to be back to full power in an hour or so.”

  “
Is that a request or an order?”

  “Well,” Jordan said softly, watching with growing lust as she drew circles on Kip’s abdomen and made her muscles twitch, “you’re going to have to find a little more stamina than this to keep up with me.” She bent down and swirled the tip of her tongue around the edge of Kip’s navel, making her gasp. “After all, I’m just approaching my prime. You’ve still got a long ways to go.”

  “And she throws down the gauntlet.” Kip flexed her incredible abs to propel herself up, grabbed Jordan’s shoulders, and whipped her over onto her back. An instant later she was on top of her, pinning both wrists beside her head. She loomed above Jordan, a cocky smile on her face. “And just look who’s on the bottom now.”

  “What you gonna do about it?” Jordan’s pulse jumped in her throat, desire an inferno raging deep inside. All it took was one glimpse of the hunger in Kip’s eyes, and just that fast, she was ready for her. “I love the way you want me.”

  “You have no idea,” Kip murmured, kissing her throat. “I love to make you come. I can’t even describe the feeling, except I could live on it. Never leave this bed. All I need is you.”

  Jordan’s throat tightened. She wasn’t sure she wanted to hear those words, knew she wasn’t ready to believe them, feared what would happen if she did. She gripped Kip’s hair in her fist, pulled until Kip raised her head. “All talk, no action.”

  Flames leapt in Kip’s eyes. “Oh, is that what you think.”

  “Maybe.” Jordan bucked her hips, rolled them in teasing invitation. This she didn’t fear. This she could give, this she could take. And keep her heart safe a little longer.

  Kip slipped a hand between Jordan’s thighs and cupped her. Jordan bit her lip, tightening so quickly she ached.

  “Say it,” Kip whispered, watching Jordan’s eyes glaze. She squeezed ever so carefully until Jordan’s back arched. “Say it and I will.”

  “Fuck me.” Jordan stared into Kip’s eyes, her voice raspy and low.

  “I want to,” Kip said, the need a knife slashing through her. “So damn much.”