Panting, she’d wrapped her hands around Brynn’s hips and held her close, creating an easy rhythm that turned her on an excruciating amount. Like, her clit had actually ached with how close Brynn was to touching her, anguished by the knowledge that there were too many layers between them.
“Fuck,” she’d moaned, her head tipping back against the sofa, her eyes closing as she’d given up fighting. But then, Brynn had groaned and lifted herself up on her knees. Hallie missed the solid weight against her thighs immediately. “What’s?—”
“I think this violates the spirit of the rules,” Brynn had whispered hoarsely. At least it wasn’t easy for her to pull back either.
Hallie let out a shuddering breath. “I’m finding it really hard to care about the rules right now.”
Deftly, Brynn picked up one of her legs and shifted her hips, getting off of Hallie’s lap. “I’m not taking the chance of messing things up. I’m serious about us, Hallie. And sometimes responsibility is hard.”
Her heart was hammering in her chest, in tandem with the second pulse radiating from her clit. She managed to open one of her eyes to give Brynn an especially frustrated look, even though this wasn’t her fault. “Painful may be a better word,” she said as she pressed her thighs together.
Still, Brynn’s words had soaked into her brain, and Hallie was all the more enamored with her because of them.
Even if she still felt a twinge in her center today whenever she thought about last night.
It didn’t seem to matter much whether they were physically together or not. Her mind was always on Brynn. In the shower. While Hallie was working at the desk, like she was doing now. When she’d been playing groundskeeper at the inn, as Greg recovered from his thankfully minor injury, which the doctors said should heal with no long-term effects.
That last one bought her some alone time, especially today, which was probably for the best. There was always a reason for her to head outside into the freezing cold and set her mind straight. She had half a thought to sign up for the polar plunge this year, where fools would throw themselves into the freezing Atlantic, just to feel the exhilaration or prove to themselves that they could do it or whatever other idiotic reason made people want to suffer like that.
But Hallie silently judging those freaks of nature didn’t change the fact that whenever she was close to Brynn, all the reasons to take things slowly seemed to evaporate, along with her willpower to maintain even an inch of space between them.
Still, she took comfort in the knowledge that, after setting a difficult boundary, the world hadn’t imploded. Even if Hallie felt like she was going to.
But she was reallytrying.
And she was going to be putting all that effort to good use because, seconds later, Brynn rounded the corner from the hallway that led to their shared apartment.
Hallie smiled reflexively.
Her resistance was waning by the day. Because, like all days, Brynn looked beautiful. Like, make-Hallie-forget-how-to-breathe beautiful. She was in another one of her incredibly soft sweaters, with black jeans and a pair of boots that would look so perfect propped up in front of the fireplace while they cuddled in close and sipped hot chocolate.
Hallie shook the fantasy away and tamped down on the rapid beating of her heart.
Brynn, to her credit, also seemed to be trying her best. “Ready?” she asked, placing her purse down on the check-in desk.
Hallie cleared her throat and averted her stare from Brynn’s lips, which were looking especially full and plump.Verykissable. “New lip gloss?” she asked. That couldn’t possibly get her into any trouble.
Brynn rummaged around in her purse and pulled out a small, bright tube, which she held up proudly. “Ravishing Red. Do you want to try it?”
Of course she wanted to touch something that had recently touched Brynn’s lips! “I appreciate it, but I have a tickle in my throat. Wouldn’t want to chance it.” Then, like the mature adult that she was, she fake-coughed for good measure.
“Oh,” Brynn said softly, leaning closer so that she enveloped Hallie in her familiar scent. Concern quickly etched across her face. “You didn’t tell me that. Are you feeling okay?”
And Hallie, with the strength of a god, breathed through her mouth instead of indulging in what she now knew, intimately, was Brynn’s perfume. On the exhale, avoiding looking at the concern in Brynn’s deep brown eyes, she managed, “Probably just a seasonal allergy thing.”
They were about to head to a group outing with Sydney and Reese, and Hallie really couldn’t take any chances right now.
Brynn tilted her head to the side. “In February? Is that common?” she asked.
See, this was why Hallie was such a bad liar. Now, Brynn was genuinely interested in whatever Hallie was about to say. And as an added rub, Brynn seemed to be doing a whole hell of a lot better with boundaries—at least right now—than Hallie.
Which was really annoying because Hallie was the one who had set them!
Then again, Brynn didn’t have the same things at stake. Her life had been movement and change and growth for the last six months, and this was a new, exciting adventure for her.
Alternatively, Hallie was so stuck in her routine that it may as well have been shaped from cement.
To be fair, though, Hallie had just been thinking about last night. The wisps of neediness were still floating through her body, making it a little hard to think rationally.
