Rhetta gasped when she saw what Caroline had laid out for them. Two sun loungers had been pushed together on the middle of the balcony with Caroline’s bedding and pillows piled on top of them. Lastly, but certainly not leastly, Caroline had finished it off the knitted blanket that they snuggled under on their couch back in D.C.
“Oh Caro,” Rhetta breathed, tears coming to her eyes. “I can’t believe you brought our blanket!”
“Just in case I got some snuggle time with my girl.”
Rhetta wrapped her arms around Caroline’s waist and snuggled into her side. “I always have time to snuggle with you.”
Caroline pressed a kiss to her temple and offered Rhetta her hand to help her get into their makeshift bed. Once Rhetta was comfy, Caroline climbed in after her and immediately felt Rhetta cuddle into her side again, snuggling beneath her arm.
“Mmmm… This is perfect, baby,” Rhetta sighed contentedly, her eyes already closed.
“You’re not looking at the sunrise,” Caroline chuckled softly.
“Not here for the sunrise,” Rhetta countered, her hand slipping up under Caroline’s tee and resting on the warm, smooth skin of her stomach. “Though you are kind of the sun in my sky.”
Caroline pressed a kiss to her hair. Rhetta never let Caroline forget that she loved her, but she knew that Rhetta found it hard to find the words for the romantic sentiments that came so easily for Caroline. Which meant that Caroline treasured those moments that Rhetta let her heart speak freely. She treasured and appreciated them more than Rhetta would ever know. But she also knew how easily Rhetta could be put off if she drew too much attention to what was happening. So, like always, she settled for teasing her fiancée a little, knowing that Rhetta’s competitive spirit wouldn’t let her back down after such a challenge.
“Sooooo cheesy.”
“Shut up. I mean it,” Rhetta said softly. “Meeting you was like… it was like the sun rising. I thought I knew what light and warmth was before met you, but I was wrong. You’re my light, Caroline. You’re my warmth. You loved me for exactly who I was, even when I wasn’t even sure of that myself. You made me feel strong and safe, and you’ve given me a life that I couldn’t even have dreamed of before we met. You really are the other half of my soul, Caroline. Giving myself up to you so completely hasn’t made me fade away like I’ve seen so many other people do in relationships. Being with you has made me more ‘me’ than I ever was without you.”
There was a pause and Caroline gently kissed the top of Rhetta’s head. “I feel exactly the same way, R.”
“Do you know what I’m most grateful for about this World Cup journey we’re on right now?” Rhetta asked. “I’m most grateful that you’re here with me, where you belong. I couldn’t enjoy this without you, not when I know that you are so much greater of a player than I am. Your time is coming, Caro, and I am so grateful that I am here to see it. Every time I hear someone call out your name from the stands, I feel like I could burst from happiness. I swear I almost did when I heard them chanting your name back in England. And even if you don’t see any minutes this tournament, I know that without you we wouldn’t be where we are now.”
“Thank you, Princess,” Caroline whispered, not trusting herself enough to speak without her voice breaking, “for believing in me.”
Rhetta propped herself up on her elbow and looked down at the beautiful woman who had so utterly captured her heart. “I’m not the only one, baby. Just remember that.”
Caroline’s eyes were shining as she nodded. “I will, I promise.”
With a satisfied smile and a nod of her own, Rhetta leant down to kiss her.
“Does Charlie normally sleep through the night?” Rhetta asked causally.
“Yeah, why?”
Caroline gasped when she felt Rhetta’s hand creeping up her stomach, her whole body throbbing in anticipation as she waited for Rhetta’s fingers to close around warm, smooth stone.
When Rhetta felt the pebble pendent laying over Caroline’s heart, she sat herself astride Caroline’s thighs and tugged on the leather string around Caroline’s neck until the pebble was in her hands. She sat back and turned the stone until the first rays of the morning’s light picked out the words engraved on the stone’s smooth, polished surface.
You still make me see stars
Rhetta smiled reflexively and looked up into Caroline’s sparkling eyes, letting the memory overtake her.
* * *
For the whole week leading up to Caroline’s visit, Rhetta was nervous. It had been almost two months since they had last seen each other at camp and would be the first time that they had ever been together ‘off the clock’.
The morning of Caroline’s arrival, Rhetta was up before sunrise. She drank coffee alone at her apartment’s kitchen island, the airline’s website open on her laptop in front of her. She clicked on the ‘flight checker’ link and carefully typed in the number of Caroline’s flight. Each time it said the same thing. ‘Flight on schedule to depart at 00:25’. Rhetta sat and waited, clicking refresh on the page every few seconds until the message changed to ‘Flight departed’.
Only then, when Rhetta knew that Caroline was up in the air, did she busy herself with the tasks that she had set herself to do for the day. The first was to make up the bed in the spare bedroom. She didn’t want it to be used, but she also didn’t want to assume. Or for Caroline to think that she had assumed. Which was even worse. Especially given how goddamned shy Rhetta felt about the whole thing and how patient Caroline had been.
The next thing she did was take a shower. She washed herself clean, trying not think about her incoming visitor’s hands on her skin. Trying to think about practice that day. Or the logistics of the airport pickup. Yes, that would do. She could focus on logistics. Logistics were useful. They were important.
She had practice at 9am. As they had no games that week, practice would finish at 2pm. She could be showered and ready for 2.30pm. No, better make that 3pm. Definitely 3pm. It would take her 30 minutes to drive to the airport and 10-20 minutes to find somewhere to park. That would bring her to 3.50pm, right when Caroline’s plane was scheduled to land. She would then make her way to arrivals and wait for the hour or so it would take Caroline to get through immigration and baggage reclaim (factoring in enough time for Caroline’s non-existent German). Then, when Caroline finally made her way through to arrivals at approximately 5pm, Rhetta would be waiting there for her with a huge smile, a box of chocolates and a skinny mocha. A box of chocolates which had sat in her fridge for a week waiting for just this day. A box of chocolates that she had resolutely not broken into. No matter how nervous she had gotten.
It was perfect. Her plan was perfect. Nothing could go wrong. She had even checked the night before to make sure that the coffee shop in arrivals would be open.
Now all she had to do was survive the day and get to the airport in one, sane piece.
It was a long day.
Practice was filled with good natured teasing and Rhetta found herself blushing at her teammates banter for the first time in forever. But she didn’t care. She knew that they were only teasing because they were happy for her. And because Caroline had been as big of a surprise to them as she had been to Rhetta.
When she returned to her apartment to get ready, was when Rhetta really started to panic. She had had an outfit picked out for weeks. Sam had helped her pick it over Skype. Only now she wasn’t so sure. Should she really wear heels? What if Caroline didn’t like it? And what about her sweater? She knew that it was cute, but what if Caroline was expecting more? Her anxiety led to a phone call with Sam who slowly talked her down and convinced her to go ahead with the outfit that they had planned. Which left Rhetta with only 25 minutes to get ready. Including her shower. She had never blow-dried her hair faster in her life.
By the time she got into her car, she could barely breathe. She tapped her steering wheel anxiously as she waited in traffic and eventually flipped from her favourite radio stat
ion to the audiobook sitting in her CD player. Maybe that would take her mind off things.
It didn’t.
At 4.30pm, Rhetta was waiting in line at the coffee shop, getting increasingly annoyed at the slowness of the barista.
At 4.45pm, Rhetta was standing in the exact spot that she had pictured herself standing, holding Caroline’s coffee and her chocolates, when Caroline started to walk towards her.
Rhetta’s heart skipped a beat, then raced to make up for it. She broke out into the biggest smile and tensed her limbs to stop herself from rushing towards Caroline like a schoolgirl in love. And she was in love with her. She knew that. She just hadn’t admitted it to herself yet.
Caroline smiled as she got nearer, pulling her ridiculously tiny suitcase behind her. She looked amazing. Tired, but amazing.
“Hey,” Caroline said almost shyly as she stopped in front of Rhetta.
“You’re here,” Rhetta breathed, almost in disbelief. As if she hadn’t been planning her life around this moment for weeks now.
Caroline grinned. “Yup.”
Shaking her head, Rhetta remembered the coffee and the chocolates and held both out for Caroline to take. “I figured that you’d want coffee and, well, I didn’t think you’d want flowers so I got you these instead. They’re good. They’re made by the same guy who invented Nutella and-”
Caroline cut off her ramble with a chaste kiss to her lips. “It’s perfect, R.”
Rhetta blushed and nodded, biting her lip. She had never done this before. She had never ‘courted’ someone back. She had always been the one who had been pursued. She had never felt the need to pursue back before. Not until she had met Caroline.
“You look gorgeous,” Caroline complimented unthinkingly. “So freaking gorgeous and here I am in sweats with messy aeroplane hair.”
“You’re always gorgeous,” Rhetta said before she could stop herself. But Caroline didn’t seem to mind. She just laughed lightly and kissed Rhetta again.
“Here,” Rhetta said, pushing the chocolates and coffee into Caroline’s hands and taking hold of Caroline’s suitcase, “let me take this for you.”
Smiling in a way that could only be called amused, or maybe indulgent, Caroline followed after Rhetta to the car park. When Rhetta started up the car, the sound of the Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone audiobook burst from the speakers. A deep red blush coloured Rhetta’s cheeks, but Caroline’s eyes immediately brightened.
“I love this book!”
Rhetta looked at her, surprised. “You do?”
“Duh!”
They spent the car ride listening to the audiobook. It was weird, Rhetta thought, how comfortable she felt sitting in a car with someone that she had only known for a few months and had only spent a couple of weeks with in all of that time. But that was Caroline. This was the person who made her heart beat faster. This was the person who made her feel all the soppy things that she had never quite felt with anyone else. Not really.
That night, they ate takeaway pizza on the couch and watched Harry Potter movies until both of them fell asleep. They woke up the next morning, snuggled together on the couch. Rhetta had been shy and rosy cheeked, and Caroline had pressed her back into the couch cushions and kissed her until Rhetta couldn’t breathe.
When Rhetta got in from practice that afternoon, Caroline had just gotten out of the shower. She was wrapped in a towel and was stood in Rhetta’s kitchen, drinking from a bottle of water from the fridge. Rhetta watched as Caroline’s throat moved with each gulp, her eyes following the trail of a drop of water that escaped the corner of Caroline’s lips and travelled down her neck and over her collarbone. It took all of Rhetta’s willpower not to walk over there and follow the trail of that lucky water drop with her tongue.
When Caroline caught Rhetta staring, she smirked and wiped at her mouth with the back of her hand.
Rhetta muttered something about needing a shower before running into the bathroom to escape. When she stepped into the shower, she made sure it was cold.
That night was their date night. Rhetta had promised to cook for Caroline, not because she was a good cook or because she wanted to impress Caroline, but because she was all too aware what a drain on Caroline’s finances a flight to Germany had been. So Rhetta sent Caroline out for a few hours and whilst she was gone, Rhetta set up a table for two with a candle and made the lasagne that her Mom had taught her to make when she was seventeen. When Caroline returned, Rhetta was wearing the simple knee-length black dress that she had bought the weekend before and was holding an open bottle of Caroline’s favourite beer.
Caroline’s mouth dropped open at the sight, only closing when Rhetta was stood in front of her and handing her the beer.
“Why don’t you take this beer and go and get ready whilst I dish out dinner?” Rhetta suggeted, confidence soaring through her as Caroline nodded silently and hurried off to get dressed.
They spent the dinner flirting and laughing, their touches becoming bolder and bolder until Caroline once more had Rhetta on her back on the couch. Rhetta moaned into Caroline’s mouth as she felt Caroline’s fingers trace up her side from her hip to just below her breast. Not for the first time, Caroline’s hands slowly began to wander. First skimming up Rhetta’s belly, then gently palming her breasts over her dress.
Rhetta whimpered responsively, her own hands travelling down Caroline’s back to settle on her ass, pulling her as close as she could with layers of clothes still between them.
“R,” Caroline breathed shakily, slowing them down as she always did, never wanting to push Rhetta into more than she was ready for.
“Take me bed, Caro,” Rhetta murmured against Caroline’s lips.
“We don’t have to, R. I can wait. I promise. You’re worth it,” Caroline reassured her, her hands retreating to the relative safety of Rhetta’s hips. But Rhetta caught her wrist and moved her hand back up to her breast, guiding it until Caroline squeezed the supple flesh beneath her dress, making Rhetta whimper loudly.
“Please, Caro,” Rhetta begged. “I need this. I need you. I’m ready.”
When Caroline was sure that Rhetta’s eyes were free of doubt, she ran her hands back down to Rhetta’s hips and somehow managed to stand with Rhetta in her arms, Rhetta’s legs wrapped tightly around her waist.
Rhetta whimpered again at the show of strength and trailed hot, open-mouthed kisses down Caroline’s neck as they made their way to the bedroom. When they reached the bed, Caroline gently laid Rhetta down and climbed on top of her, kissing her way up Rhetta’s body until she had Rhetta moaning into her mouth. Only then did she reach down for the hem of Rhetta’s dress and begin to pull it up her body. Rhetta fidgeted beneath her as the material of her dress bunched up above her waist and Caroline paused, kissing Rhetta softly.
“We can stop whenever you want, R. I know that this is new for you and I don’t want to push you. I care about you so much, R. So much that it scares me. I don’t want to pressure you into something that you aren’t ready for.”
“I’m ready,” Rhetta promised, reaching out to brush back the hair from Caroline’s face. She meant to say more, but she got lost in those beautiful hazel eyes. Those eyes that were bright with desire and concern and, Rhetta was sure of it, love. It made her heart pound and she needed Caroline now more than ever. “Please, Caro.”
For a few more moments, Caroline just hovered there and Rhetta started to regret telling Caroline that she had only done this four times and had been underwhelmed every time. It was something that embarrassed her. Something that she hadn’t told anyone but Sam and now Caroline. When she had lost her virginity to her boyfriend in college, she had expected fireworks. She had liked him enough. He made her heart beat faster and she certainly found him attractive. But when they had sex something was missing. They only did it three times before Rhetta broke up with him. Then there had been the guy that she had met in her German classes. He’d been sweet and charming, but after they had gone to bed together
, his calls had become less frequent and had eventually stopped, something that Rhetta had been thankful for.
But there was something different about Caroline. There was something different about the way that Caroline made her feel. Something about the way that her skin tingled in the wake of Caroline’s touch. Something about the way touching Caroline made her feel. It was different. It felt more than physical. It felt deeper. It felt so much like love that it made Rhetta question everything.
“One more time, Princess,” Caroline whispered. “Are you sure?”
That last question, that making sure, was everything to Rhetta. It had been asked so gently, so sincerely that all of Rhetta’s doubts fell away.
She smiled up at Caroline, brushing the backs of her fingers over Caroline’s soft, flushed cheek. “I’m sure. With you, I’m sure.”
Caroline didn’t need to be told again. She resumed lifting up Rhetta’s dress, pulling her up into a sitting position so that she could get it over her head and arms. Rhetta watched as she did it, smiling at the look of concentration on Caroline’s face. When the dress was on the floor beside the bed, Rhetta leant back on one hand to give Caroline a better view and unhooked her black lacy bra with her other hand. She slid the straps slowly off first one arm and then the other, tossing it to follow her dress on the floor. Then she leant back until her elbows supported her a little way off lying down and waited, her lips parted, for Caroline to make a move.
It already felt different. Caroline’s gaze on her bare chest was electrifying. Her nipples hardened and her breathing grew ragged. She felt Caroline’s gaze all over her body and it made her ache.
“Fuck, R. You’re so beautiful,” Caroline breathed, her voice breaking.
Rhetta lay still, captivated in Caroline’s gaze. Her tongue flicked out to wet her dry lips and she swallowed past the heart pounding in her throat.
Tipping Point Page 23