Looking Riley up and down, Charlotte brushes her own sweaty hair out of her face. “How much do you weigh? 145?”
“Something like that,” Riley muses with a faint smile.
Charlotte nods slowly, cracks her knuckles for show, and turns to stand beside Riley. Acting quickly, sheunceremoniously digs her foot in the hollow of Riley’s knee, making her buckle—only to catch her legs with her one arm, and then scooping her up bridal style.
Walking over to the side of the road with a speechless Riley in her arms, she hoists her up on a brick ledge at waist level. Smirking at Riley’s baffled expression—she doesn’t catch Riley off guard that often, so she’ll milk this for as long as she can—she pulls Riley’s knees apart and steps in between her legs. She looks up at the other woman, who is a bit higher up now because of the height of the ledge, and places her hands on Riley’s thighs, squeezing lightly. That seems to cause Riley to completely come undone.
“I happily stand corrected,” she utters. “Remind me to never pick a fight with you.”
Charlotte slides her hands higher up Riley’s thighs. “And yet,” she murmurs slowly. “You can’t refrain from taunting me at every opportunity you get. Let this be a reminder of the risk you take every time.”
Riley laughs, puts her hands on top of Charlotte’s and slides them up her arms, ultimately resting them on her shoulders.
“Honestly?” she says, still smiling in disbelief. “You can literally do this to me anytime. And if I ever complain about it, you need to shake me upside down until I come to my senses.” Her hands clasp together behind Charlotte’s neck.
“Careful what you wish for, dear,” Charlotte hums, and spurred on by a rush of confidence in the heat of the moment, she adds a quick wink.
Riley goes slack jawed, shivers, and can’t seem to grasp any words or actions. Still, Charlotte watches a million things happening in her eyes.
“Time for an impromptu lesson,” Riley manages on a shaky breath. “But it’s an important one. This...” She nods down at herself. “This is gay panic.”
“Gay panic?” Charlotte cocks an intrigued eyebrow. “What does that mean?” She can make an educated guess, but where’s the fun in that?
“It… it means that my bones melted straight out of my body somewhere on the road behind you. It’s a check mate. For me. I lost. You won. Fucking hell.”
“Oh, I see,” Charlotte whispers. “It means I’m in control now?”
“Hmmaybe.”
“Because… I impressed you? And now you don’t know what to do with yourself?”
Riley just whimpers.
“So if I won—what’s my prize?”
“Shit,” Riley grunts before leaning down and pulling Charlotte in for a desperate kiss. Charlotte can hear Riley mumbling other words against her which get lost somewhere between their lips, but she does vaguely register the words'so hot'.It’s the second time in twenty-four hours Riley tells her that, and she can’t say she hates it. At all.
9
Charlotte needs the rest of the day to cool down, and to gather the courage to sit through another dinner with the four of them. Riley seems to be enjoying herself eliciting the most ridiculous eye rolls and annoyed huffs from Charlotte, much to Gabi and Lou’s entertainment.
“With all of the bickering between you two, this might as well beyourwedding trip,” Lou remarks after Riley accidentally spills a bit of her drink down Charlotte’s shorts, earning herself an elbow to the ribs. Unrelatedly, that seems to be the exact moment Riley’s provocations lower in frequency.
When it’s time for all of them to go to bed, Riley waits for the perfect unguarded moment to blow her a sneaky kiss—getting rewarded with one final eye roll—and tells Charlotte she’ll pick her up tomorrow to talk about wedding preparations.
Still, Charlotte doesn’t expect the knock on her door the next morning, as she’d imagined Riley would try to find her outside later.
She unlocks the door and opens it about an inch, just enough to peer through the opening.
“Oh, hello there,” she says when her eyes meet those lively brown ones. She tries to maintain eye contact to pretend she doesn’t notice Riley’s abs on full display under her bikini top and a cropped button-up that she’s left to hang open.
Riley casually tips her chin forward. “What’s going on? Are you naked or are you hiding a wanted criminal in there?”
“If you wanna call him a wanted criminal, sure. He does look like one. I just let Shake out on the loose in here—”
“Shaky is here?” Riley’s eyes go wide.
“Well, yeah,” Charlotte says, slightly piqued. “He can’t really take care of himself at home, can he?”
