“I don’t want that either. Girlfriend or not, Keira, I didn’t want anyone else. And I still don’t, okay?”
“I know. I’m sorry.”
“I’m sorry for the comment.”
“Can we both be sorry and go back inside so we can go back to your place?” She smiled, and her eyes brightened hopefully.
“Kiss me first,” Emma demanded and pulled her so that their hips were pressed tightly against one another.
Keira’s lips clutched at Emma’s as if they hadn’t seen each other in months. Emma plied Keira’s lips apart with her tongue to slide her own inside Keira’s mouth. Keira’s moan caused her hips to jerk off the wall of their own accord. Keira’s hands slid up under her shirt now that Emma’s back was free from the wall. Keira’s lips were more demanding than they’d been the evening before, when they were tearing at clothing to get it off their bodies.
“Okay, we have to stop,” Emma warned and pushed Keira back gently. “I have to go inside and meet your friends.”
“Right,” Keira got out, gasping. “Okay, inside,” she added. “Then, your place?”
“Then, my place.”
“Keep your responses to their interrogation short so we can get out of here faster,” Keira stated seriously, but Emma laughed hysterically.
“They’ll think I’m weird.”
“I’ll tell them later. It’ll be fine.” Keira pulled Emma’s hand back toward the bar while Emma was still cracking up. “Wait.” Keira stopped moving and pulled open Emma’s jacket that had been buttoned up halfway. “You wore that?” She smiled a wide smile and Emma made her own match it.
“I thought I could use it to get you back if I had to. I planned to pull out all the stops.”
Keira unbuttoned her jacket all the way down.
“You really want to make that comment up to me?” she asked.
“I do.”
“Tell my friends the origin story of this shirt.” Keira pointed at the ‘I like vaginas’ on the shirt.
“How will you make up the freaking out on me?”
“Dealer’s choice,” Keira said with a wink and pulled Emma toward the bar again.
“I’m the dealer, right?” Emma checked as they entered, causing Keira to laugh.
CHAPTER 21
“Keira, you’re up,” Hillary said. “Your round.” Hillary finished off her martini, and Keira glanced around.
The smile on her face had disappeared. She’d ordered those two shots of tequila earlier, but Greene had paid for those during her whole depressing speech about Emma. She’d ordered water after that. Since she’d known the bartender Meredith for a few years, she’d given her the signal that she’d be ordering clear liquor beverages all night and she should just bring her water. They’d worked out that game a while ago when Keira had been on dates that she wanted to stay stone cold sober for.
“Right.” She stood up, trying to calculate how much Greene’s imported beer plus Hillary’s dry martini and Kellan’s rum and coke would cost alongside Emma’s red wine.
“I got it.” Emma stood up next to her. “I think it’s my turn. You guys had to put up with that lame story about this shirt and the one about how I got my job. I think I owe you.” She smiled at Keira. “Want to come with me and help me carry?”
Keira was both happy, because her friends seemed to be getting along well with Emma, and sad, because she didn’t want to tell Emma she was broke. At the same time, she knew she might have to if they were going to actually work out. Sure, they were together now, but they were still so new. It wasn’t time to talk about Keira’s terrible finances or the things she was considering because she had no other choice. They made their way to the bar with Emma taking her hand the moment they stepped away from the table. Emma was her girlfriend. She was holding her girlfriend’s hand. It had been so long since she’d had a girlfriend. She’d dated a lot. She’d had a lot of almost girlfriends, but she hadn’t had a real girlfriend in years.
“I missed this,” she revealed when they made their way to the bar.
“Me too.” Emma nodded for the bartender to come over after she was done mixing drinks for the couple in front of her and turned to Keira, placing her hand on Keira’s hip.
“I missed you, but I meant that I missed having someone like this. It’s been a long time for me, Em.” Keira placed a hand on Emma’s cheek. “A long time,” she repeated. “It’s nice just having someone like this.”
“I’ve missed it too,” Emma agreed. “I’ve missed you especially, though. I had a hard time sleeping last night. I think I’ve already gotten used to you being next to me.”
“I’m happy to help with that whenever I can.” Keira leaned in and offered a sweet kiss.
“What can I get you?” Meredith asked with a nod to Keira.
“A repeat of what everyone at that table had,” Emma pointed. “And something real for my girlfriend here.”
“Something real?” Keira lifted her eyebrows at her.
“You’ve been drinking water. Any particular reason?”
“How’d you know that?” Keira replied, surprised she’d figured her out.
“I took a sip of your drink while you were in the bathroom. I was suspicious because I’ve seen you when you drink wine. You get flushed, and it’s extra adorable. You’ve had two glasses of straight gin, and you seem fine.”
“I wanted to be sober,” she stated.
“Then, water it is.” Emma turned to Meredith. “But I’m getting another glass of wine. Are you sure you don’t want one?”
Keira did want to have wine with Emma. She loved hearing Emma say girlfriend when referring to her, but she didn’t want to take advantage of everyone buying her drinks tonight when she wouldn’t be able to.
“I’m good sticking to water. I have a pretty important reason to be sober tonight, and I did have those two shots earlier.”
“Maybe I should stop too, then,” Emma replied.
“So, what can I actually get for you?” Meredith asked after listening to their discussion while mixing up the other drinks.
“Just water for me again,” Keira told Meredith without turning her eyes away from Emma.
Meredith turned to get the red wine for Emma and water for Keira. She placed a tray down and lifted the other three drinks onto it for them before placing the wine glass and water glass next to them. Emma gave Meredith her credit card to pay, lifted the tray, and they walked back to her friends.
“So, you two went after the same chick?” Greene asked the moment her beer was handed to her by Keira.
“We didn’t go after the same chick.” Keira passed Kellan her drink, and then Hillary took her own off the tray. Emma handed Keira’s drink over, took her own, and walked back toward the bar to return the tray. “Jesus, Greene.”
“What?” Greene replied after taking a drink.
“You two wanted the same girl?” Kellan, who had been mostly quiet all night, asked.
“Who?” Hillary added to the fun.
“Summer Taft,” Emma answered for her when she returned to the table and sat next to Keira, placing an arm around her shoulder. “Summer and I have been friends for a while. She and I kind of hooked up once.” She looked over at Keira. “It’s a small world when you think about it.”
“Yeah, I guess,” Kellan stated and took a drink.
“No, hear me out,” Emma requested. “My friend Alyssa met her wife Hannah under strange circumstances, but that’s a story for another day. They lived in SoCal and moved to Chicago because of work. There, they met my friend Eva, who I didn’t know at the time. Eva ran into her now wife, Ember, while she was on a date with another woman. They started dating and Ember’s friends Charlie and Hailey got into the mix. That’s not really a big deal, but Hailey and I used to date. We’ve known each other for years, and we reconnected right around the time Charlie, her best friend, finally confessed her feelings to Hailey. Hails and Charlie started dating, but not before Charlie met Lena and dated her briefly. T
hen, Charlie met Summer Taft through work.”
“Good Lord,” Hillary exclaimed.
“I know! But it gets better,” Emma pronounced. “Charlie and Hailey are married, and they’re doing the kids thing soon. Summer and Lena met one night when we were all hanging out. I kind of thought I was into Summer back then. We’d had our one-night thing. That was supposed to be the end of it, but I was dumb. Anyway, Summer and Lena met, and that was it. They started dating right away and are now engaged.”
“I thought I read somewhere that she’s engaged,” Greene said. “Happy it’s with a woman. She’s bi, right?”
“Yeah,” Emma confirmed.
“Still sad she’s taken, though. She’s hot,” Greene added.
“Hey!” Keira exclaimed.
“What? She is.”
“And she’s very taken,” Emma added. “But we all somehow met, and everyone got together. Then, it was just me.” Emma’s face dropped a little before she looked at Keira and the smile returned. “I thought I’d move out here, work hard, and if I got lucky, maybe one day I’d actually meet a woman of my very own. Charlie has her Hailey, and Alyssa has her Hannah. Ember has her Eva, and now Summer has her Lena.” She placed a hand on Keira’s thigh all while Keira held her breath, waiting to hear what she was about to say. “And then I find out Keira once had a thing for Summer, like I did. It really is a small world.”
“Lesbians,” Kellan said and then took a drink as if she hadn’t said anything at all.
Emma leaned in and kissed Keira on the cheek.
“And I found my Keira,” she whispered into her ear, causing Keira’s smile to grow wide and her eyes to brighten.
◆◆◆
“So, that went well,” Keira wasted no time in saying the moment they left the bar and hugged her friends just outside the door.
Keira took her hand, and they started walking in the direction of Emma’s apartment.
“Kellan still seems to not like me very much,” Emma offered as she let go of Keira’s hand to button up her jacket.
Keira stopped walking and moved in front of her to help with the buttons.
“She’ll get over her crap with me or she won’t, but it has nothing to do with you,” she explained and finished with the buttons.
“She’s still committing to her story that she’s not into you?” Emma asked.
“Yeah, I don’t know. It’s either true, and she’s just acting weird; or it’s not, and she’s lying to me. Both kind of tick me off. But I don’t want to talk about Kellan anymore, okay?”
“Sure,” Emma agreed. They continued in comfortable silence until they arrived at the door to Emma’s apartment, which Emma unlocked and pushed open, but they both remained outside. “Listen, I know what I said earlier, but we don’t have to do anything tonight if you still want to talk or–”
“Shut up,” Keira ordered and pushed Emma backward into the apartment. She used her own foot to close the door behind them and then pulled Emma back against her. “This is where we were yesterday.” Keira’s arms went around Emma’s neck. “I want to continue where we left off.”
“Then, you need to lose the pants.” Emma smirked at her and reached for the button on Keira’s jeans.
“So do you.”
Keira moved Emma’s hands from the already undone button before she could get to the zipper and moved her own hands to Emma’s pants. She undid the button and slid the zipper down hastily. Her hands were on the waistband immediately after, and she knelt down as she tugged the jeans to Emma’s feet and then tapped Emma’s leg to give her the hint. Emma lifted each foot in turn as her pants were pulled off her body and tossed to the floor. Keira remained in her kneeling position. Emma’s eyes lowered to the woman at her feet who had only just started to touch her skin. Hands were on the backs of her calves. They slid up to the backs of her knees, which nearly buckled. Keira must have felt the reaction because she looked up at Emma immediately with that expression Emma had only ever seen Hailey give her when they were teenagers, about to experience their first time together. This was different. This wasn’t first love or teenage romance. This was two women who’d somehow managed to find one another amidst all the chaos in the world and after they’d both been scarred by past pains.
Keira stood then and took both of Emma’s hands in her own, pulling them toward the bed where she let go of Emma’s hands, unzipped her own jeans and kicked them off. Emma watched and remained silent as she experienced two things at once. Her panties nearly soaked through at the sight of Keira’s pants at her ankles and then on her own floor, because it revealed that Keira too was completely aroused; her own pale underwear had been unable to hide the wetness that soaked them through. That feeling, the feeling of desire around Keira, was not new. What was new was the revelation. Keira’s fingers moved to Emma’s shirt and began to tug up, stopping when she saw something in Emma change.
Emma lifted her own shirt up and over her head before quickly doing the same to Keira’s. She’d seen her like this just yesterday; in only her underwear. But so much seemed to have changed between now and then. Emma’s eyes lowered to the perfectly sized breasts beneath Keira’s beige bra that was just lighter than her tan skin. She placed her hands over both cups just as an experiment and met Keira’s eyes with her own.
“They fit,” Emma remarked about the breasts that were just the right size for her hands.
“Maybe you should take a closer look,” Keira suggested.
Emma expected a smirk to cross her face, but it didn’t appear. Keira’s expression read nervousness. Her eyes and the brightness she’d gotten used to finding in them had evaporated and left behind an anxious woman. In that, Emma found her own confidence unexpectedly, and she took the lead. She reached behind Keira, and the clasp was undone in an instant. Keira let out a gasp at that, as if that motion, that very moment, was the moment that this became real. They were about to see one another, really see one another for the first time. Keira dropped her shoulders, enabling Emma to pull the straps down and off. The bra fell away, revealing more of the tan soft skin and two completely erect nipples.
“Perfect,” Emma whispered before she could stop herself.
Her eyes returned to the dark blue ones in front of her. She swallowed hard before pressing her hands into Keira’s hips, giving her the hint, which she took willingly. She first sat on the end of the bed and stared up at Emma as Emma removed her own bra. Then, Keira slid on her back up to the head of the bed. Her arms were at her sides, her chest rose and fell rapidly. Emma could stay there all night and watch the breasts rise and fall with every one of her breaths; the nipples standing on end as they did. They were just the right shade of dark pink, matching up perfectly with Keira’s skin tone. Emma swallowed again as a fresh round of arousal took over her entire body, causing the ripples to be felt in her toes. That was how she described it to herself. With Keira, the arousal came in waves. It washed over her as Keira did something sexy, like lift an eyebrow or offer a smirk. Just as the wave crashed and she thought she could return to her normal thinking, Keira would do something else, like breathe, and Emma’s wave returned. On both Friday and Monday, Emma had smartly brought extra underwear to work. Each time she thought about the woman that was now in her bed, waiting for Emma to join her, Emma’s arousal manifested. It was a cycle she never wanted to end. She’d also never experienced it like this. She’d been aroused. She’d desired the women she’d been with, and especially the ones she’d been in love with, but never like this. Keira’s expression changed to concern again. Emma realized she’d been standing there for a while, just staring. She lifted the corner of her mouth and lowered herself on top of Keira, pressing their bodies together.
◆◆◆
“Wow,” Keira uttered. “We may need a different word for how this feels,” she added.
Having Emma pressed against her like this was another level of wow. She found herself searching for another way to describe it. It had been a long time since she’d had anothe
r woman pressed against her like this; so soft and so close. Emma’s skin against her own produced a kind of electricity. There were pins and needles moving over every inch of skin joined with Emma’s. Those parts of her not joined, craved that sensation. She lifted her head up and connected their lips. She wondered how they’d gone so long without doing that. Emma’s lips were hot, not warm but hot. They were on fire. She was on fire, and she desired no extinguishing.
Emma’s hand moved to Keira’s stomach and then that was on fire. Her fingers danced lightly, gently over Keira’s skin. Keira wanted more. Emma’s lips moved to her throat. The wet heat of her tongue dragged up to Keira’s earlobe, which Emma then sucked into her mouth. Keira gasped as her hips lifted off the bed not once but twice, uncontrollably seeking more contact. Emma’s nipples were against her own. As Emma began rocking against her, possibly to relieve her own growing desire, Keira’s nipples registered the friction.
God, that felt good. Just that pressure and friction on such a small part of her body, such a sensitive part of her body was nearly too much for her to handle. When Emma’s hips drove into her hard once before retreating, Keira’s still hands finally moved, and they moved fast. She gripped Emma’s ass under her panties and practically shoved her back down into her.
“Yeah?” Emma asked, her lips still around Keira’s earlobe.
“More.” Keira pushed down at Emma’s last article.
“Take them off,” Emma encouraged and released Keira’s earlobe.
Her own hands slid to Keira’s panties. She gripped the waistband and pulled down. It was awkward at best, with both of them trying to get the other naked at the same time. Emma was shaking her left leg, trying to get the clothing off her body. Once she’d been successful, she leaned up enough to pull Keira’s down and off her legs. It was fast. It was a powerful movement, forcing Keira’s hips up and off the bed. They fell back hard against the mattress while Emma’s eyes took on an even darker shade than she thought possible. Emma’s hands went to the inside of Keira’s thighs and wasted no time separating her legs.
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