A look flashed across Hallie’s face, one that Brynn had never seen before. She could only catch it for a moment becausethen Hallie’s lips were on her. Everywhere. Bruising, incredible kisses. Against her neck. Her jaw. Her lips.
It was like Hallie wanted to consume her, and Brynn was loving every second of it. With Hallie, she wanted it all. “Admit it,” she panted out.
She wanted them both entrenched in the frenzied, needy wanting that seemed to overtake her whenever Hallie was close.
Hallie’s answer came in the form of her thigh pressing hard against Brynn’s center. They both moaned, and as Brynn’s lips parted, Hallie moved deftly from where she’d been peppering attention on Brynn’s neck to her mouth, sliding her tongue inside.
Sensation exploded in Brynn’s clit as Hallie continued kissing her like the world was about to end, all the while grinding her thigh against Brynn, who was growing more desperate by the second for her touch.
Arealtouch. One where Hallie’s fingers pushed inside and filled her. Hallie’s tongue may be even better. The idea sent heat rolling through Brynn’s body. “Hallie,” she panted, so turned on, with nowhere to put her energy. She’d forgotten about wanting to goad Hallie. All she could think about was chasing the feeling that was building low in her stomach.
And then suddenly, all she felt was… nothing. She blinked open her eyes. Hallie had taken a small step back so that they were no longer touching. A mischievous smile bloomed wild on Hallie’s face before she brought the moment full circle and planted her own soft kiss on Brynn’s lips.
Brynn obviously tried to chase it, to no avail.
“Uh-uh,” Hallie said breathily. “I think that our first date is in order before we go any further. Don’t you agree?”
Brynn let out a whine to express her unhappiness with Hallie pulling away. “You’re toying with me,” she said as realization dawned.
Not that Hallie would ever admit it. “I’m going to hop in the shower. Let me know when you want to go on that date,” she reminded her, that sultry smile still doing all kinds of things to Brynn’s sanity. As an added bonus, it made it abundantly clear that Hallie was loving the exchange that was playing out right now.
And if that was how Hallie wanted it, Brynn decided, then two could play that game. Because she was, without a doubt, committed to giving Hallie everything that she could. Whether it killed them both or not.
“Seems like we have some things to catch up on,” Reese said as she breezed into the coffee shop. She dropped her coat on the back of the chair and gave Brynn a knowing stare. “I’ll be back in five minutes. And then I want details.”
Reese’s text had come early this morning, asking if Brynn was free to grab a coffee. It wasn’t unexpected, given what she’d seen last night.
And, truly, Brynn loved that Reese wanted to know all about what was happening. She’d never had a girlfriend to gossip with and share stories. She’d thought briefly that Hallie was going to be one of those people for her.
She chuckled quietly. God, she’d been naive.
Coincidentally, she was sitting at the same table that she’d shared with Jake on their one and only date. It felt like a lifetime ago, even though it’d only been a little over a month since that day.
Even after seeing Jake last night, thinking about a time when she’d been wrapped up in anyone but Hallie felt weird. It was like all the energy in her body had oriented around Hallie in away that was making it a little hard to think about anything or anyone who wasn’t her.
Maybe, if she really thought about it, she’d been wrapped up in Hallie a lot longer than a month. Because it wasn’t normal friend behavior to want to spend all of her time with someone. Or to want to know what they thought about every single thing in the world. Or to get little zaps of awareness when they were close, wishing desperately as she did that she could bottle that feeling and save it for later.
Brynn had never truly experienced any of those things before. Then, Hallie had quietly come along and obliterated every preconceived notion Brynn had about life and love and connection.
Anddefinitelyabout sex.
She couldn’t let herself think about last night again, or she’d probably start saying some very inappropriate things to Reese that she was pretty sure Reese didn’t want to know about her fiancée’s best friend.
Like the fact that, when Hallie touched her, Brynn could barely think. And when Hallie looked at her, it was a little hard for Brynn to remember to breathe. And when she’d made Brynn come, it had felt like Brynn’s entire body had been turning inside out, like some part of her was now fundamentally changed at the molecular level.
Which, obviously, she knew wasn’t a real possibility, but she also understood now why people said that love could make you do—and think—stupid things.
“You have a hickey,” Reese said as she sat down in her chair, pulling Brynn back to the present.
Brynn’s hand flew up to her neck, to exactly the spot she knew Reese had to be talking about. Even if she blushed, she was still going to own it. “Well, no sense in pretending we don’t know where I got it.”
Reese picked up her coffee cup and took a sip, studying Brynn. “Enamored looks good on you,” she said with a genuine smile.
Historically, Brynn would have cared about other people’s opinions. A lot. She’d have wanted their approval, or she’d have put their own happiness and desires above her own. But one thing that she’d really been working on since coming to Stoneport was listening to the voice inside her own head instead of what she thought other people wanted to hear from her.
“Enamored is a good word for it.” It didn’t seem to wholly encapsulate the depth of Brynn’s feelings these days, but she was keeping that thought private for her own benefit. She’d promised Hallie that she was willing to take things slowly, and to actually honor it, she also needed to make that promise to herself.
It really depended on the day whether she made good on said promise.
