“Please, Toni,” Addie begged. “I want to… get…you…offfff.”
But Toni couldn’t reply. She couldn’t tell Addie that seeing her coming undone, hearing her gasps and moans, having her slide her fingers faster and harder inside Toni as her mouth was busily trying to keep pace was almost on the edge of too intense.
When Addie’s orgasm started to wash over her, Toni felt herself arch against Addie’s mouth, and she followed her into completion. In a lifetime of women, Toni had never trusted anyone enough to be in a situation like this: mutual orgasm, mutual satisfaction.
“You’re fucking perfect, Adelaine.” Toni moved and pulled Addie up to rest on top of her.
Addie slid the tiny device out of her body and collapsed like she had no energy left to move herself. “You, too, Professor.”
Toni kissed the tip of her nose. “Sleep?”
“Soon,” Addie agreed. “Not just yet, though. I want to hear about everything I’ve missed the weeks we weren’t emailing.”
Toni’s heart tightened uncomfortably at the intimacy of the request. This wasn’t a nameless one-night stand, and no matter how often Toni tried to shift it into that box in her mind, Addie repeatedly dismantled that illusion.
“Classes are going well, and my new TA is phenomenally capable,” Toni said as her hand idly traced up Addie’s spine.
Addie propped her head up and listened as Toni talked. If not for the naked part, it would be the sort of friendship that Toni cherished. If not for the friendship, this would be the sort of sex that made Toni consider another night. The combination of the two, however, was vaguely terrifying.
Chapter 29Toni
Toni woke in the middle of the night when tendrils of Addie’s unbraided hair all but smothered her. She hadn’t braided anyone’s hair in a lot of years; her own hair hadn’t been long enough for such things since elementary school, but she had the general thought that it was easy enough to do.
Carefully she divided the mass into three chunks and started trying to plait them together.
A giggle was her only warning before the woman attached to the cloud of hair looked back at her. “I’ve heard of fairy knots as a kid, where the wee creatures put knots in horses’ manes and ladies’ hair, but you look a bit big for a fairy.”
“Your hair tried to strangle me,” Toni started. “I’m just defending myself.”
“It’s not sentient.” Addie rolled over. “I can braid it so you can sleep.”
Toni pulled her closer, so Addie was curled against Toni’s chest. “You got to hear about my life before you distracted me again. Since you’re awake now, tell me the things we would’ve talked about if you hadn’t lost my number.”
Addie snuggled in before saying, “Well, the big thing is that they expanded the show. We are up to twelve episodes now, but you probably heard.”
Toni started to absently thread her fingers through Addie’s unbraided hair. “Twelve is good, right?”
“Even more would be better, but it means that the pilot was well received by the money people,” Addie explained.
“All the buzz putThe Whitechapel Widowback on the bestseller lists, you know?” Toni offered, still stroking Addie’s hair. “We sold more overseas translations, too.”
“Same with the show. It will air in more places than originally planned,” Addie told her. “So the real question is how areyoucoping with all of it?”
Toni was surprised. Most people saw only the bright part of success, and that part was great. The crushing imposter syndrome—and the panic that everyone was staring at her, hoping she failed—was there, too, though. She confessed, “I’m not sure Iam,honestly. I mean, I’m happy with the sequel so far, but I feel like a big fraud with every interview. They act like it’s something huge—”
“It is,” Addie interjected.
“Okay, but I sold it to pay a bill. I was hoping for a few dollars, so I didn’t have to rent out my guest room.” Toni took a pause, realizing what she was about to say.
No one but Emily knew the whole story.Addie is my friend. It’s safe to tell her the whole truth.Before she could change her mind, Toni said, “I know I told you the small version, but the full story is that the night I met you, I’d found out that my deadbeat of a father had left my motherhundreds of thousandsof dollars in debt, and Lil—my mother—needs to be in a memory care facility. I was panicking. I have to make sure she’s safe, but I can’t go to work to pay for thingsandmove her into my place. She can’t be left alone. She and I aren’t close, but she’s my mom.… It was a lot of upheaval.”
“Your poor mother!” Addie stared up at Toni. “And poor you! No wonder you were at the bar that night.”
“This may come as a surprise to you, but I haven’t traditionally had great coping skills.” Toni gave her a wry grin. “Liquor and ladies.”
“So you were there looking for…”
“Exactly what I found.” Toni hated the flash of guilt she felt as Addie winced. “But I didn’t expect to meet afriendor the actor who’d be my character. Hell, I hadn’t even thought the book would sell. Em suggested I try writing, and I admitted I had written a book.…”
