And then Brynn looked at Hallie, raising her eyebrows in question. Hallie nodded, like the two of them had their own secret code. She loved the feeling of being so in sync as Brynn answered, “We’re taking things slowly. That’s the update we have to provide for you two.”
It was followed by Brynn giving her the most heart-clenchingly soft smile, so soft that it made Hallie go a little weak in the knees.
“And what about Jake?” Sydney asked protectively, crossing her arms.
Which pulled Brynn’s attention back to the group. Sydney specifically. She expected Brynn to waiver under her best friend’s scrutiny, but she only stood up straighter and then shrugged. “I told him that he missed his chance.”
Then, she shot Hallie another devastatingly perfect smile.
There was nothing else for Hallie to do except smile back and tentatively take Brynn’s hand again, guiding it back into its rightful place, nestled in her own. Because, yeah, there was no way that she was going to let herself mess this up.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Brynn shut the door to the apartment and let out a deep breath. “That could have gone worse, don’t you think?”
She was trying to gauge how Hallie felt about their relationship becoming public knowledge, especially to the two people they were closest to. But, they couldn’t be too upset. She and Hallie were the ones who hadn’t been able to keep their hands off of one another.
She was never going to be convinced to turn down the chance to touch Hallie. To be close to her.
This past week had already been torture, trying to take things slowly.
As far as Brynn was concerned, tonight had shown significant progress. If people knew about them, she could grab Hallie’s hand unthinkingly, like she’d become prone to doing. She wouldn’t have to worry about the little glances she was always stealing, wondering if someone was going to notice.
“Hallie?” she nudged, still leaning against the front door. Brynn needed to take off her coat and her boots, but it was hard to find the willpower, knowing that she’d be going to her bedroom alone.
Suddenly, Hallie spun around from where she’d been standing a few feet away, a look of fire in her eyes. Brynn was overwhelmed by the stare’s intensity; she felt it all the way to her core, in fact.
Hallie crossed the distance between them, and Brynn wondered if she was about to kiss her. God, she hoped that Hallie was about to kiss her. She’d spent all day today thinking about last night, wishing desperately that they hadn’t pressed pause on their makeout session.
Brynn was really regretting trying to lead a life of integrity right now.
She licked her lips in anticipation, which drew Hallie’s attention. She watched Hallie as Hallie looked at her lips. But when her eyes lifted to meet Brynn’s, she didn’t surge forward and close the small gap of space between their mouths.
“Will you go on a date with me?” she asked instead.
Brynn’s heart skipped a beat as the butterflies she’d been trying to tamp down for the last week exploded in her stomach. “Hallie Thatcher, I would absolutely love to go on a date with you,” she said, finally closing the space between them and placing a soft kiss on Hallie’s lips.
God, she’d been wanting to do that for hours. She wanted every kind of kiss with Hallie that two people could share.
And sure, a lot of Brynn’s thoughts were not very PG. Case in point, she’d even considered mounting Hallie in the back seat once they were alone in the car earlier, just to get a little bit of desire out of her system.
But right now, she’d take slow. She’d take soft. She’d take the way Hallie was lengthening her body against Brynn’s and make it last as long as she needed before the next time.
Thankfully, for Brynn, there always seemed to be a next time right on the horizon.
Hallie, who’d sighed into the kiss but hadn’t pushed things further, suddenly pulled back. “What did Jake want, by the way? Do I have competition?”
The sound that Brynn let out was a mix between a groan and a laugh. As if anyone else could capture her attention the way Hallie had. It was scientifically impossible. The closest that Jake would get was a comparison of all the ways that he was not Hallie and therefore fell short of the mark. “He wanted to apologize for unmatching me. Apparently, he’d recently come out of a relationship, and after our date, he got cold feet about moving forward.”
It was then that Brynn realized— “Were you jealous?” As she asked the question, a pleased warmth soaked through her body. She knew that Hallie cared about her, and she knew that Hallie wanted her. But there was something intoxicating about the idea that seeing Brynn with someone else had put Hallie on high alert. Had pushed her out of her comfort zone, into the moment they were sharing now.
“I wasn’tjealous,” Hallie emphasized as her hands slipped into Brynn’s coat. Slowly, she ran her fingers up Brynn’s sides. It wasn’t nearly enough pressure through her sweater, but she would take whatever she could get.
Hallie’s hands trailed upward, painfully slowly, before they reached her shoulders. When she lifted those perfect hands, she took Brynn’s coat with them, letting it flutter to the floor.
And then Hallie was on her again, their bodies pressed together, Hallie’s thigh positioned between Brynn’s legs, which had already fallen open to nestle Hallie between them.
“I think it would be good for you to admit you’re jealous. He did ask me out, by the way,” Brynn teased as she wrapped her own arms around Hallie’s torso.
