Courtney attempted to step forward, when Tess planted her feet and refused to move. “You haven’t talked to me in days, Courtney, what makes you think you can just waltz in here and tell me what to do?”
Courtney took a deep breath, wondering how the rest of the night was going to go. “Well, let’s get out of here and we can talk about it, okay?”
The second the name was out of Tess’s mouth, Brad looked at Jimmy and mouthed the word Courtney. Jimmy looked at Brad knowingly and shrugged his shoulders. “What do we do?” Brad smacked Jimmy hard on the shoulder, “I don’t know man, call the boss.” Jimmy nodded in agreement and pulled the phone out of his pocket. He dropped it twice before picking it back up. In the meantime, Brad held a finger up to Courtney to stop her from walking away with Tess. “If you want to take her, just a second.”
Courtney was trying to persuade Tess to leave with her when the tall, thin man handed her a cell phone. “I don’t want your phone dude, get lost.” She tried to turn her attention back to Tess when Jimmy insisted. “It’s her sister.”
Her irritation growing, she snatched the phone out of his hand. “What?” She snapped at the person on the other end of the line.
“Who is this?” Breanne questioned.
“Courtney, who is this?”
Breanne grinned from ear to ear. “This is Tess’s sister, what’s going on?”
“Well the dumb and dumber body guards here are letting Tess make a complete fool of herself on the bar and are telling me I can’t take her home without your permission. Last time I checked, Tess was a grown woman and capable of going home with whomever she chooses.”
Breanne grinned again. “They are just trying to look out for her. She had a rough day. Dumb would be my husband and dumber would be the father of Tess’s child.”
“Oh…” Courtney looked at the men again, her irritation fading. “Well if you don’t mind calling them off, I think she needs to get out of here.”
“Sure.” Breanne liked the woman already.
Courtney handed the phone back to Jimmy and turned her attention back to Tess, who was attempting to flag down the bartender. “Come on Tess, let’s get out of here.”
Tess’s prior playful demeanor had turned to irritation. “I told you, I’m not done. I’m having a good time, I don’t need you to save me like I’m a small child.”
Courtney rolled her eyes. “Please, Tess, just come with me, I want to talk.”
Tess turned and met Courtney’s gaze before waltzing between the men and out of the bar. Once outside she pulled her cellphone out of her purse and tried to remember the number of the taxi service. When Courtney appeared out the door beside her, Tess scoffed. “I’m not leaving because you told me too. If you wanted to talk to me, you could have anytime in the last couple days.”
Courtney noticed the hurt in Tess’s voice and instantly felt like she should apologize, but told herself she had her reasons. “You didn’t talk to me either, come on, my car is over here.” When Tess continued to stare at her cell phone, Courtney groaned. “Why are you so stubborn?”
Tess wanted to be stubborn and call a taxi, but wondered what the point would be when she really just wanted to leave with Courtney. When the woman that spent most of her time in Tess’s thoughts had appeared at the bar, it had taken Tess a few moments to realize she was real, and she definitely looked good. The alcohol in Tess’s system had taken away enough of her insecurity and rigidity and she didn’t feel like thinking things through tonight, so instead, she turned and climbed in Courtney’s car.
When they got to Courtney’s house, she held Tess’s elbow up the steps and into the kitchen. They had spent the entire car ride in silence, though Tess had turned the radio up loud enough that Courtney was sure the neighbors had heard them coming. When Courtney bent down to unzip Tess’s boots inside the door, Tess groaned and shooed Courtney’s hands away from her. “Will you stop treating me like a child, I’m not that drunk. I can take off my own damn shoes.”
Courtney had simply taken a step back and watched Tess for a moment. When she was satisfied the woman could handle the task on her own, she turned and made her way to the kitchen. She took a bottle of wine off the rack and poured herself a glass, thinking she was definitely going to need it. She downed the first one and poured herself a second. She had a feeling she might need that one too. She was taking a sip of the second glass when Tess came waltzing into the kitchen. She had pulled whatever was holding her hair up, and it fell in long curls on her shoulders. The sight of her had Courtney taking another long drink of the wine.
“Well, you wanted to talk, so shoot.” Tess took the glass out of Courtney’s hand and took a sip before handing it back.
Courtney swallowed. “I just thought you should get out of there. What do you want to talk about?”
Tess rolled her eyes. “Why have you been avoiding me?” She took another sip of wine.
“I haven’t, I’ve just been busy with work.”
“Mmmmhmmm.” Tess watched as Courtney’s lips parted when she took a sip of the wine, and she nearly melted.
“Screw it.” She took the glass out of Courtney’s hand and set it on the counter, before pressing her lips firmly against Courtney’s. She ran her palm up Courtney’s jaw and into the hair at the base of her neck to pull her closer, just rough enough to light a flame in Courtney. When Courtney moaned, Tess bit her lip a little less than gently and parted her lips with her tongue. When their tongues met, Tess let out a moan of her own.
Courtney had been completely taken off guard. The last thing she expected was to be pressed up against the counter in her kitchen by the blonde woman that occupied her thoughts. When Tess’s lips had met hers and she had pulled her closer, Courtney’s entire body exploded. When Tess tipped her head to nibble on Courtney’s neck, there wasn’t a part of her body left that wasn’t throbbing.
Tess had her pressed hard against the counter, and the more she tasted, the more she wanted to taste. She ran her hand down Courtney’s hips and mirrored the night she had spent so much time thinking about. She slipped her own knee between Courtney’s and leaned forward until the woman moaned into her mouth. She grinned, loving the shock and power that hit her every time Courtney moved.
When Tess slid her knee between Courtney’s and slid herself forward, Courtney had nearly exploded. She slid her arms up Tess’s ribcage, but Tess grabbed them and pinned them on the cupboard above her head. Courtney heard herself moan and fought to catch her breath when Tess nipped at her chin. Her head was swimming. Where was the cautious, delicate woman that she had met months ago?
Dammit.
“Tess, stop.”
Tess was still nipping at Courtney’s bottom lip when the woman suddenly told her to stop and pulled her hand down to move Tess and her knee back a step, putting at least twelve inches between them. Courtney held the woman at arm’s length while she tried to catch her breath. “Not like this.”
While Tess stared at her dumbfounded, Courtney dumped the remainder of the wine from the glass in the sink and turned, taking Tess’s hand. She led Tess into her bedroom and shut the door behind them.
“Mmmm, okay,” Tess murmured and reached for Courtney, who stilled Tess’s hand. “I’m going to get you some clothes.” She pulled some things from the dresser and turned to hand them to Tess, who just stood, staring at her.
“Are you kidding?” Tess had no idea what had just happened.
Courtney shook her head. “No, I’m not. You are going to go to bed, I’m going to sleep across the hall, and then, when you wake up in the morning, maybe you can stick around long enough for us to talk about this.”
Tess was instantly pissed. “I don’t want to talk. If you don’t want me anymore, then why did you bring me here? Why the hell didn’t you just stick me in a taxi and send me home?” She brushed past Courtney to walk out of the bedroom, thinking that walking home sounded like a great idea. No matter that she lived nearly fifteen miles away.
“Te
ss, stop.” Courtney reached for Tess’s elbow again, but changed her mind when Tess jerked her arm away and took a step forward to take Tess’s hand instead.
“I didn’t say I don’t want you.” When Tess rolled her eyes, Courtney pulled her closer and kissed her forehead. “I don’t want you like this. I don’t want you to have to be drunk to want this.” The realization that Tess may not want her when she was sober had Courtney suddenly feeling like she had swallowed a ton of bricks. “Please…just sleep. Goodnight.” When Courtney turned to walk out of the room, Tess reached for her hand.
“Sleep with me.”
“Tess, I just—”
“Sleep with me, Courtney. Just sleep.” Courtney looked at Tess’s pleading face and decided not only couldn’t she say no to the woman, she didn’t want to.
“Alright, just sleep.”
She crawled in bed with Tess, her mind swirling with thoughts. When the woman curled into her, she sighed deeply, knowing she wouldn’t get any sleep. She wondered what would be on Tess’s mind when they woke up the next morning.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Tess woke the next morning when she felt the woman next to her stirring. Ugh. I need a toothbrush. She closed her eyes, for a moment, enjoying the way Courtney felt, pressed up against her back, one arm draped across her hip. Tess thought about the night before. Her thoughts were fuzzy, but she remembered every bit. When Courtney slid out of bed, Tess turned and propped an elbow up under her head. “Where are you going?”
Courtney jumped, startled. “I’m sorry, did I wake you? I was going to jump in the shower and make some coffee.”
“No you didn’t wake me.” Tess sat up. “You don’t like coffee.”
Courtney smiled knowingly. “I know, but you do, and I thought you might need some after last night.”
Tess yawned, stretching her arms above her head and smiled. “Coffee sounds great, but a toothbrush sounds even better.”
“Grab whatever you want out of the dresser.” Courtney pointed at the door on the far wall. “The bathroom is over there, and there are towels in the cabinet. I’ll use the other shower.”
Tess nodded a thank you and took advantage of the shower when Courtney left the room. Twenty minutes later, Tess walked out of the bathroom in a pair of lounge pants and a tank top she’d found in Courtney’s dresser, a shower and toothpaste having drastically changed the way she felt.
Courtney was sitting on the bed in a silk robe, freshly showered, with two cups in her hand. “You sounded like you were almost done, so I figured I would just wait.”
Tess sat on the bed next to her and took the coffee cup out of her hand. “Mmmmm thank you,” she said, sipped the coffee and rolling her eyes back in her head, said, “This is amazing.”
Courtney watched the woman sip the coffee, her stomach in knots. She had expected Tess to wake up embarrassed, followed by an awkward ride home. Instead the woman was sitting in front of her as if nothing had happened. She wondered how much the woman remembered, and the tingling reminded her she was still sitting in a robe, she hadn’t thought to take clothes with her to the guest bathroom. “Oh, I’m just going to grab some clothes.”
Tess watched the woman set her tea on the dresser and rifle through the first drawer. She stood and sipped at her coffee before setting it on the stand beside the bed. The butterflies were back in Tess’s stomach again as she made her way to where Courtney was standing. She waited for Courtney to close the drawer and stand before she spoke. “You said you wanted to talk today?”
Courtney was suddenly nervous, though she couldn’t pinpoint why. She didn’t want to admit it to herself, but she was terrified that the woman standing in front of her was going to tell her that the night before had been a drunken mishap and brush it aside. She wasn’t sure which bothered her more, Tess doing just that, or the fact that she had put as much thought into it to begin with. She smiled hesitantly. “It’s okay, we can talk another time. No rush.”
Tess nodded. “That’s what I was thinking.” She took the clothes out of Courtney’s hands and set them on the dresser before taking Courtney’s hand and leading her to the bed, stopping only to pull the tie on Courtney’s robe loose. She smiled sultrily when she noticed the astonished look on Courtney’s face and held her gaze while she ran her fingertips up her ribcage to rub her thumb lightly over Courtney’s peaking nipple. When Courtney opened her mouth to speak, Tess quieted her with a kiss, delving her tongue swiftly into the crevice of Courtney’s mouth. She pressed their lips together firmly and ran her other hand down to rub light circles over Courtney’s hip.
Courtney wasn’t sure if she was breathing. Tess had caught her completely off guard, and she didn’t have the frame of mind to think about what was happening. The last two times that Tess had been this close to her, it had taken merely seconds for her entire body to light up, and this time was no different. If they stopped this time, Courtney wasn’t sure she would keep breathing, though at the moment, she wasn’t sure she could keep breathing if Tess didn’t stop either.
When Courtney felt Tess’s thumb moving from her hip to her navel, she nearly exploded with want. She pulled the shirt Tess had on over her head and bent to flick her tongue on Tess’s own budding peak. When Tess moaned, Courtney fanned kisses down to her belly and stopped at the hollow just above the line of her pants. She kissed along the line while Tess’s hands slid through her hair. She drew the kisses out slowly before hooking her fingers in the band and pulling both pants and panties to the floor. Before Tess could take a breath, Courtney shot her tongue between Tess’s damp curls, causing Tess to cry out and her knees to nearly buckle.
She ran her hands up the back of Tess’s legs, rubbing her fingers lightly on the back of her knees before they made their way higher to pull Tess closer to her face. She continued to explore with her tongue, only stopping when she was sure Tess was on the verge of letting go. When Tess’s fingers tightened in Courtney’s hair, she stood back up slowly, planting delicate kisses around Tess’s hipbone, up her ribcage, around her nipple, and up her neck until she met Tess’s mouth. She kissed Tess deeply, exploring every corner of Tess’s mouth before pulling her into bed.
Tess’s body throbbed, and her head was spinning. She ached for Courtney to touch her, but ached also wanting to do the same to Courtney. When Courtney leaned over her, Tess reached down to the v of her thighs and found Courtney as damp and wet and she was. When Courtney whimpered, Tess slid her finger deeper, slipping swiftly inside her.
Courtney shivered and rested her forehead against Tess’s, she kissed her deeply again and slid her own hand down to meet the rhythmic motion, smiling when she felt Tess gasp against her mouth. She pressed her fingers down harder and tried to breathe when Tess’s entire body started quivering and bucking beneath her. She tried to breathe again when she felt the same quivering hit her in waves, but couldn’t seem to find air. When both of their bodies finally stopped quaking, Tess pulled Courtney close, burying her face in the nape of her neck.
“I want you,” she whispered.
Courtney lifted her head, still panting, so she could look into Tess’s eyes. “I noticed,” she grinned and kissed the tip of Tess’s nose. She started to move over when Tess pulled her close again.
“Stay here. You feel good.” Tess whispered again.
Courtney smiled as her heart skipped a beat with Tess’s words and she settled on top of Tess, the v of her thigh resting just above Tess’s own. “Right here?” Courtney said, pushing her thigh up just enough to make Tess’s eyes close and her mouth fall open.
“Mmmhmmm,” Tess’s voice came out in a mewl. “There is good.”
An hour later the women collapsed beside each other again, a tangled mess of sweat and sheets, both of them too spent of energy to move. They were entwined in sheets, Tess’s head resting on Courtney’s chest while she drew invisible circles on Courtney’s stomach with her finger. “I don’t like it when you don’t talk to me.”
“Hmmm?” Courtney frown
ed, wishing the conversation they were about to have could be put off for a few more hours.
“You barely talked to me at the zoo… barely looked at me. You’ve barely talked to me all week.”
Courtney shifted, not wanting to admit that the reason she had distanced herself was because she had been having mixed emotions she hadn’t felt like dealing with. When she had seen Hillary walk out of the house behind Tess, she had felt like someone had wrapped a hand around her midsection and squeezed. The sudden burst of jealousy had taken her aback. “I was busy. I had a long week at work.”
Tess stopped tracing with her finger and sat up to look into Courtney’s eyes. “Don’t do that.”
Courtney frowned, “Do what?”
“Brush me off.”
Courtney frowned again. “Alright. I was bothered, and I had no right to be, so I just needed a little processing time.
Tess’s smiled knowingly. “You have a right to be. You’re human.”
Courtney shook her head. “No I didn’t have a right to be. Something about you…” She reached up and tucked a tendril of blonde hair that had escaped back behind Tess’s ear. “You’re beautiful.”
Tess leaned her face on Courtney’s hand before tipping it to kiss her palm. She looked back up at Courtney. “So…”
“Uh uh.” Courtney pulled Tess’s face closer to her own and kissed her deeply. She rolled to pin her beneath her. “No more talking.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Tess was cleaning the kitchen when Brad arrived to drop Ali off. He poured himself a cup of coffee and jumped up on the counter, grabbing an apple out of the basket, to watch her sweep the floor. He took a large bite of the apple and mumbled through it, “You missed a spot.”
Tess looked up from the floor, shooting him a look. “Where’s my girl?”
Brad nodded towards the bedroom. “You aren’t important anymore. As soon as we got in the front door, she ran to the bedroom to draw Courtney a picture.” He raised his eyebrows and shot Tess a look of his own. “She has been to her house, accompanied her to the zoo,” he took another large bite of the crisp apple and wiped the juice off the corner of his mouth, “time for us to meet. Those are the rules.”
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