“That’s not what you said. “I could use a few more of those.” That’s what you told me.”
Eva ground her teeth together at her own words being thrown back in her face.
“Would it be so awful?” Lily couldn’t keep the note of pleading from her voice.
“Yes.”
“Why? Because people might start to think of you as human?”
“No. Because you’re already too close.”
Lily smiled in spite of herself. “I don’t feel it.” It felt like there was a chasm between them, Lily suspended on a tightrope high above it, desperately trying to keep her balance as she walked toward the other side. “Why are you so scared to let someone in?”
“I’m not scared of anything. Certainly not you.”
But when Lily took a step forward, Eva retreated.
“Why would you even want to be friends after everything I put you through?”
A good question. One Lily had asked herself a dozen times. “Because…I like you, Eva. Sure, you’re brash and guarded and you can be harsh sometimes, but you’re also smart and strong and funny, when you want to be. You care about people—even if you pretend you don’t. Look at what you gave up.” Lily gestured around them with her hands. “I saw you today. You looked at home. Happier than I’ve ever seen you. But when your mom needed you, you dropped everything—left your life—for her.”
Lily was making some assumptions, but she was pretty sure they were accurate based on the way a muscle in Eva’s cheek twitched.
“You have a big heart, for someone who doesn’t want others to think she has one.”
Lily expected a rebuff. Lily expected Eva to spit poison.
What she did not expect:
Eva, stepping closer.
Eva, cupping Lily’s jaw in her hand.
Eva, with her gaze focused on Lily’s lips, saying “Why is kissing you the only thing I can think about right now?”
And Lily didn’t know, but God was she glad. “Would it make you feel better if you knew the feeling was mutual?”
Eva answered by kissing her senseless, and oh—maybe Lily should have confronted Eva a lot sooner, if this was going to be the result.
Lily let Eva back her into the wall, her hands falling to the curve of Eva’s hips as a firm thigh fell between her own.
Was it healthy, to allow this distraction, when they might have finally been getting somewhere? Was it healthy, to fall into one another like this, when the last time it had ended in such disaster?
No, but Lily didn’t know how to pull away. Not with Eva pressing close, not with her own fingers plucking open the buttons of Eva’s blouse, exploring the skin revealed when it was gaping open.
Last time hadn’t been like this—it had been quick, frantic with the risk of discovery, clothes rucked up instead of being discarded—but Lily planned to take full advantage of the change in circumstances.
The night stretched out in front of them, and before it was done, Lily was going to have mapped every inch of Eva’s skin with lips and teeth and tongue, was going to have her begging, aching, was going to make sure this encounter wouldn’t be so easily brushed aside.
To her own detriment as well, maybe, Lily thought, as she ran her hands over the lace of Eva’s bra, Eva’s groan echoing in her mouth when Lily squeezed. But she’d gladly take the consequence, if Eva would arch into her again, if Eva would drag her lips down the column of her neck, teeth nipping at Lily’s skin.
Lily pushed herself away from the wall, steering Eva toward the bed. She half-expected Eva to fight her, to want to stay in control, but she went willingly, Lily straddling her hips once Eva was sitting on the mattress.
Eva reached for the zipper of Lily’s dress with her fingers and tugged until it pooled at her waist, her bra discarded onto the floor a moment later. Lily shivered, the air cool against her bare skin, but it was soon chased away by the heat of Eva’s hands. Eva cupped her breasts and dragged her thumbs over Lily’s nipples.
Lily tangled her hands in Eva’s hair as Eva ducked her head, taking a nipple between her teeth, her tongue teasing. Lily swore, rocking her hips against Eva’s stomach, wondering what that tongue would feel like elsewhere.
Lily shoved Eva’s blouse down her shoulders, desperate to be skin-on-skin. Why had they wasted so much time? They could have been doing this for months—should have been doing this for months—driving out any animosity between them with heated kisses and deliberate touches.
