“Pretty good. It’s enough to tide me over until I find a permanent job.”
“Could it be more than that?” I asked, hardly daring to hope.
“Enough to live on?” she asked. “No, and I think soon I’ll have run through all of my grandma’s friends who needed their finances checked. I need a real job.”
“Yes,” I agreed.
“My dad called the other day,” she said quietly.
“Oh?”
“He still doesn’t want to sell. I’m sorry, Taylor.”
“It’s okay,” I said automatically, even though it wasn’t. I’d let myself get my hopes up that Phoebe would be able to give me at least one of the things I wanted, and if I couldn’t haveher, this cabin was the next best thing. Now, for the first time, I truly grasped that I was going to lose it too. I was going to have to watch tourists tromp around on this land that should have been mine, and I was going to hate every moment of it.
“For what it’s worth, I really wanted you to have it,” she said.
“I appreciate that.” I rolled toward her, burying my face in the soft fabric of her shirt. At least now I knew, and I could start preparing myself for the inevitable.
“Cherry looks comfy over there,” Phoebe said as her fingers drifted slowly back and forth across my back. “I was afraid she’d be crying in pain or look really sick…I don’t really know what I expected, but right now, she looks like a healthy sleeping puppy in silly clothes.”
“Puppies are so resilient,” I said. “She’ll bounce back in no time.” And hopefully, so would I.
“Are you hungry?” she asked.
“Yeah.” I nuzzled my face against her neck. “And I have everything I need right here.”
“Do you?” She gasped as I slid my tongue along the underside of her jaw. Her skin was so sensitive there, and I never tired of tasting her.
“I sure do.” I gripped her bare thigh as I placed hot, openmouthed kisses across her throat and over her chest. I’d never thought bone structure could be beautiful until I’d fallen for Phoebe, but there was something so…elegant about the curve of her collarbones. She was built like a dancer, small and petite, and yet, she had no rhythm.
She wasn’t particularly athletic either. I was often the one encouraging her to hike farther, to explore the next hill or curve in the path, when she would have been content to stick her feet in the stream and daydream in the sunshine. Without her, I never remembered to take those breaks. I’d shown her the top of the mountain, and she’d shown me the way it felt to close my eyes and feel the whisper of the breeze against my cheeks.
And right now, I wanted to show her stars. I teased the hem of her shorts with my fingers while I explored her collarbones with my tongue. Phoebe’s breath hitched as she exhaled. The warm, sweet scent of her lotion seemed infused with her skin, like she was literally a treat waiting to be eaten.
My fingers slid beneath the hem of her shorts, exploring the soft skin below. Maybe it was our teenage make-out sessions that had given me such a fixation with these parts of her body. She hadn’t been ready for me to take off her clothes back then, so I’d spent hours worshipping every exposed inch of her skin, and now I fell back into old habits, exploring the valley between her breasts and the strip of stomach visible above her shorts where her top had ridden up.
But Phoebe wasn’t as patient as she used to be. She grabbed my wandering hand and brought it to the button on her shorts, a not-so-subtle invitation. I popped the button as she reached for my jeans, making me suddenly aware of the need burning inside me. She dragged down my zipper, and her fingers continued on their journey, rubbing against me right where I ached for her.
“Phoebe,” I whispered.
“Yes?” she asked, her face all wide-eyed innocence while her fingers continued to tease me over my jeans.
I love you.The words almost spilled from my lips before I could stop them, but the realization hardly came as a surprise. Some part of me had been in love with her since we were kids, and a part of me probably always would be. “You’re killing me here,” I murmured as I arched into her touch.
“In a good way, I hope.” She pushed at the waistband of my jeans, and I wiggled out of them.
“Always.” I helped her out of her shorts, crawling down to trace the edge of her underwear with my tongue. Her panties were a deep green, the color of the forest canopy outside. I already knew what I’d find when I removed her tank top, but when I bared the matching bra, my pulse jumped at the discovery that there was a small pink rose embroidered between her breasts. “Sexy,” I whispered before giving it a gentle tug with my teeth.
Phoebe sat up, mahogany curls hanging over her shoulders and the prettiest blush darkening her cheeks as she yanked at my T-shirt. I lifted it over my head, and then we were both in our underwear. I sat there for a moment, just taking in the sight of her before me in her sexy green lingerie.
A puppy squealed, and we both turned automatically to check on Cherry, but she was fast asleep in her box. Blaze was trying to climb over Sunny in the whelping pen, and Sunny wasn’t happy about it. Violet watched idly, letting them work it out on their own.
“The guest room,” Phoebe said, sliding off the bed, and I followed her across the hall.
We stripped each other out of our underwear and sank onto the twin bed together. It might be smaller than the one we’d just left, but this bed had seen every stage of our relationship. Phoebe straddled my lap, pushing me flat against the bedspread. She leaned forward, bringing our lips together as she began to rock against me.
I could feel her wetness against my skin, and it fueled my own desire. We rolled onto our sides, threading our legs so we could both get the friction we needed. We moved against each other, hands roaming everywhere. I played with her nipples until they’d tightened into hard buds, then bent my head to take one in my mouth while my fingers circled her clit as she ground herself against my thigh.
