Alexis shook her head. “My apartment is too far,” she lied smoothly. The truth was, she never took women back to her apartment. The idea of inviting anyone into her space—or worse, stepping into theirs—made her skin crawl. Because that’s when things got messy. Seeing the color of someone’s sofa or the photos on their fridge was intimacy. The kind that hinted at a future. And Alexis didn’t do futures anymore. Not afterThe Sapphic Matchhad left her the villain, whom no one would want to love. Taking Birdie to a hotel meant keeping her at arm’s length. And that was exactly where Alexis needed the beautiful stranger to stay.
Birdie hesitated.
“Look,” Alexis said quickly. “If you’ve got a problem with going to a—”
“I don’t,” Birdie interrupted. “I’ve got no problem whatsoever.”
The words were barely in the air before Alexis found Birdie’s hand and threaded their fingers together. She tugged the stranger through the crowd and onto the street. The cool evening breeze slapped Alexis across the cheeks, but the heat clung anyway. Birdie’s heat, right there at her side.
Alexis had learned long ago that the less talking, the better. Which was why, when Birdie tilted her head and asked, “So, where are you from?” Alexis stopped dead on the sidewalk.
“Look,” she said again, turning just enough toward Birdie to see her smile fall away instantly. “I really just want this to be what it is. Are you fine with that? Or are you a woman who needs candlelight dinners and to know my last name and where I went to elementary school?”
Birdie’s eyes widened, and her lips parted like she’d just been slapped with an extremely difficult word in a spelling bee. For a beat, Alexis thought she’d lost her. But then Birdie shook her head, bangs swishing, and said, “No. I’m fine with that.”
That was all Alexis needed. She led the way down the block toThe Vesper, a sleek glass-and-marble boutique hotel that catered mostly to tourists. She’d only been there once before. Right afterThe Sapphic Matchhad aired, she had needed to clear her head. A pitiful hookup if there ever was one.
Alexis handled the check-in, and before she knew it, they were outside the hotel door. She slid the card through the slot and waited for the green light to flash before she pushed the door open.Birdie stepped inside first. She hovered in the middle of the room, tugging nervously at the straps of her top.
“I’ve never done this before,” she chuckled uneasily. “I mean go home, well, to a hotel, with someone I just met. Do you do this often?”
But Alexis didn’t bother with words. That was not why she was here. Instead, she closed the space in two strides and kissed the woman hard enough to erase the question altogether.
Their lips brushed, and their tongues touched. The kiss was like quicksand. Birdie sank into her, and Alexis tugged her closer still. Fingers slid over sequins, snagged at straps, pulled impatiently at zippers. And then their clothes came off in a blur, their heels too, all discarded to the carpeted floor.
This was exactly what Alexis needed. No time for talking. No stories. No mention of who they really were. Nothing that would inevitably end with more than Alexis was willing to give.
Birdie, however, had apparently not gotten the memo. She pulled back a bit and mumbled, “You’re, like, very beautiful.”
Alexis almost laughed, but instead she pressed Birdie harder against the edge of the bed until the woman’s knees bent and she fell backward onto the duvet. Alexis followed, bracing herself with one hand on the mattress as her hair slipped forward in a curtain around them.
She skimmed her hand down Birdie’s neck to her chest and cupped her breast. Her thumb swiped over her already peaked pink nipple, and she smiled when Birdie gasped into her mouth. She did it again, but squeezed harder. And again, until Birdie arched her back against Alexis’s touch.
Then Alexis moved lower. She trailed her lips across Birdie’s collarbone and down her chest. She circled her tongue around one nipple and then the other, sucking softly until Birdie whimpered. Her hands stroked along Birdie’s thighs, spreading them gently apart. Alexis knelt between her legs and glanced up once to see the stranger looking down at her with parted lips and flushed cheeks. With a wink, she dipped her head and pressed her mouth to Birdie’s center. She could feel Birdie’s wetness on her lips.
Alexis had sworn to herself she wouldn’t think about anything tonight, and for once she was succeeding. The taste of the woman hit Alexis immediately, warm and sweet, and shemoaned low in her throat. Her tongue parted Birdie’s folds, licking slow and steady at first, then faster as Birdie squirmed and gasped. Alexis’s hands pinned Birdie’s hips to the bed as her tongue worked in greedy strokes. She flicked her tongue over Birdie’s clit, circled it, then sucked it gently between her lips until Birdie let out a high, broken moan.
“Oh my god,” Birdie breathed. One hand fisted the sheets while the other found Alexis’s hair. “That feels so nice. Don’t stop.”
Alexis didn’t. She added a finger, then two, sliding them inside Birdie in a smooth, deep motion. Birdie arched off the bed with a startled cry, and her thighs trembled around Alexis’s head. Alexis curled her fingers just right, finding that perfect spot inside and stroking in time with her tongue.
Wet sounds filled the room, slick and obscene, and Birdie was gasping now, chanting the shortened version of Alexis’s name like a sports star. “Lexi… OMG… Lexi!”
Birdie came hard, her body going taut, then shuddering against Alexis’s mouth. Alexis didn’t pull away until the aftershocks had passed, and Birdie lay limp and panting with her skin glowing in the lamplight.
Alexis crawled up her body and kissed her again, letting Birdie taste herself on her tongue. Birdie kissed her back with a hunger that surprised them both. And then she flipped them, straddling Alexis and pinning her wrists to the mattress.
Everything she knew about herself—control freak, always the one to be in control—went right out the window. She let Birdie take the reins.
Birdie leaned down and kissed her neck and her breasts. She licked and sucked until Alexis was moaning under her. Suddenly, her fingers slid between Alexis’s legs, finding her wet and ready.
Alexis startled. For some reason, she was shockingly unprepared for the jolt that Birdie’s touch had sent straight through her. She opened her mouth to take back some control she’d just lost, but Birdie was already teasing her, slow and careful, until Alexis bucked against her hand.
Birdie slipped one finger inside, then another, curling just like Alexis had done to her. Her thumb found Alexis’s clit, and she began to circle. Alexis gasped, clutching the sheets as her hips rose to meet every thrust.
It didn’t take long. The pressure built fast, white-hot and furious. Alexis’s breath caught as her fingers dug into the mattress. She came with a guttural exhale that barely broke the silence of the room. She held herself still with her jaw clenched. She rode it out in a tense, controlled wave, leaving a delicious ache that wouldn’t fade until morning. Birdie didn’t stop until Alexis gave a slight nod and grabbed Birdie’s wrist.
Alexis wasn’t going to lie. The feel of Birdie inside her and the smell of their sex clouding the small space was on another level. A level she couldn’t remember being on in a long time and one she didn’t quite want to leave. But with that came the familiar spool of regret.
