Lola hummed into the kiss, lips parting, tongue sliding inside in a dance they’d performed thousands of times. It was muscle memory and comfort and want all tangled together, easy in a way that only came from trust. She’d taken one look at Lola and had claimed her like she was a Mulvaney. If Lola had agreed, Calliope would have had a U-Haul outside her house before she could finish saying yes.
She’d been all in on day one. No, minute one.
Lola, on the other hand, had taken a little time to come around.
She’d liked the sex just fine. She’d liked it enough to fly back and forth from the West to the East coast just to get it. But she’d enjoyed being a bounty hunter too, chasing down bad guys, sometimes fucking those same bad guys. She hadn’t wanted to settle down or give up the life she’d built brick by brick. Calliope hadn’t cared whether she stayed a bounty hunter or not. She’d just wanted her to stay close.
It took a series of very fortunate events for that to happen, the first being Lola’s only friend—Aiden—moving home to finally be with Thomas. But it wasn’t until Lola agreed to donate her eggs to Felix and Avi and Calliope had agreed to act as a surrogate for Thomas and Aiden, that they’d gotten close. Living-in-the-same-house close. Injecting-hormones-every-day close. Learning-each-other’s-breaking-points close and eventually Calliope-going-through-morning-sickness-in-her-late-thirties close. They’d had to lean on each other in ways no man would ever understand.
They’d been through a lot together.
They kissed lazily for a bit, hands roaming, the steam curling around them as the water beat a steady rhythm against the tile. But when it started to edge toward something heavier, Calliope pulled back with a soft groan.
“If I don’t stop now, we won’t stop,” she said, resting her forehead against Lola’s. “And I still have to feed the animals. Including the one I birthed.”
As if summoned, Dimitri’s voice echoed down the hall. “Stop making out with your wife and make me breakfast—ow. Ow—please.”
Calliope and Lola both laughed. The sound cut through the steam like sunlight, easy and warm. Arlo had no doubt slapped or pinched him for talking to her like that. That was why Arlo was her favorite. Not really. She loved them both equally. She was proud of them both. They had both come so far.
“These kids have the worst timing,” Calliope said with a sigh.
“If it makes you feel better,” Lola said, reaching for a towel, “I already fed the animals.”
Calliope blinked. “You didn’t have to do that. It was my day.”
“I know,” Lola said. “But I was already up, and it’s Christmas Eve, and I wanted to do something small for you.”
Calliope shook her head, smiling as she leaned in to steal another lazy kiss. “I don’t know how I ever dated men when there were women like you around.”
“To be fair, you hadn’t met me yet,” Lola said. “Besides, I slept with my fair share of undeserving men before I metyou. And what do you mean ‘women like me?’ There are no other women like me. You scored an original. I’m one of a kind, bay-bee.”
“My very own 24 karat gold Labubu,” Cricket teased in a grating British accent.
Lola rolled her eyes, wrapping the towel around herself. “I’m gonna start confiscating your laptop at night. You’re starting to sound a little too ‘chronically online’ for my taste. And Labubus are ugly. There I said it.”
“But mom, you can’t take my laptop,” she whined, eyes dragging across her wife’s perfect breasts which were currently spilling over her blue towel in a way that had her wanting to lick her lips. “I need it for my homework…and porn.”
“I hope you never looked at your mom the way you’re looking at me right now,” Lola murmured. “And I’m not sure I’m ready to explore that particular fetish. Especially when you’re older than me.”
Calliope clutched her chest. “Ouch, and I was gonna make you breakfast and everything.”
Lola stepped into her space, crowding her against the counter. Heat shocked through her. Sometimes she forgot how assertive her wife could get, and how much bigger she felt when she was peering down at her like she wanted to eat her alive.
“Is that so?” Lola asked.
When her lips settled over Calliope’s this time, the kiss was far dirtier than the ones in the shower. Strong arms came around her, picking her up and setting her on the counter.
“Yeah,” Calliope said breathlessly, her heartbeat throbbingbetween her legs. She tugged the shower cap from Lola’s head, letting her beaded hair spill around her shoulders. “Anything you want to eat.”
Lola’s voice dropped to that low seductive tone, the one she used to unravel Calliope like a cheap sweater.
“AnythingI want to eat?” she asked, soft hands firmly separating Calliope’s thighs, palm sliding up, up, up until she gasped, her whole body jolting. Lola pulled back to look her in the eye as her fingers slipped inside. “The only thing I’m hungry for is right here. It’s hot and everything.”
If anyone else had said that to her, she might have rolled her eyes, but those words dripping off Lola’s tongue with her clever fingers touching her just how she liked it, had her whimpering.
Her arms slid around Lola’s neck, pulling her back in, hooking her legs over her hips to give her better access even as she said, “We can’t. The kids are right outside.”
Lola didn’t stop, her lips brushing her jaw before dipping lower to kiss over her fluttering pulse. “How many nights have we endured them fucking in our spare bedroom?”
