Mara's hands were in Lex's hair. Her face was pressed against Lex's neck. She could smell Lex's skin, warm and clean, and she could feel Lex's pulse hammering against her cheek, fast and hard, proof that Lex was as affected as she was. The knowledge that Lex wanted this just as badly, that Lex was shaking too, that Lex's breathing was just as ragged, pushed Mara closer to the edge.
Lex's fingers moved faster. Deeper. Her thumb found the perfect pressure and held it, and the wave crested with a ferocity that ripped through Mara's body like a detonation. She was close. She was right there. Every muscle tightening, every nerve firing, her body coiling toward the breaking point with a desperate, single-minded urgency.
Lex's lips brushed her ear. "Come for me like a good girl."
The words split her open. The orgasm hit her with a force she'd never experienced, a full-body convulsion that started at Lex's fingers and radiated outward through her pelvis and her stomach and her chest and her limbs until she was shaking against the wall, her mouth open in a silent cry, her hands fisted in Lex's hair, her vision white. It went on and on, wave after wave, Lex's fingers still moving inside her, drawing out every last tremor, every aftershock, holding her up against the wall with one arm while her body came apart in a way she hadn't known she was capable of.
When it finally subsided, Mara was trembling. Her legs were useless. Her face was wet and she didn't know when she'd started crying. She was slumped against the wall with Lex's arm around her waist and Lex's hand still between her legs, gentle now, barely moving, and Lex's forehead was pressed against hers and they were breathing the same air, hot and ragged and intimate.
"Hey." Lex's voice was soft. Her free hand came up and wiped the tears from Mara's cheek with her thumb. "Are you okay?"
Mara opened her eyes. Lex's face was inches away, flushed and beautiful and looking at her with an expression of such tenderness that it cracked open the sealed place in Mara's chest she'd been protecting for longer than she could remember.
"I don't know what I am," Mara whispered.
Lex kissed her. Softly. Not the hungry, consuming kiss from before. A gentle press of lips that saidI'm here. I'm not going anywhere. You're safe.
They stood against the wall in the amber-lit gym, holding each other, breathing each other's air, while the arena settled and hummed around them and the rest of the world ceased to exist. Mara closed her eyes and pressed her face against Lex's shoulder and felt the steady beat of Lex's heart against her ownchest and thought, with a clarity that cut through every defense she had left:I am in so much trouble.
16
The hotel lobby in Boston was overheated and stale, air that had been breathed too many times.
The Valkyries shuffled through check-in at eleven thirty at night after a red-eye from Phoenix Ridge and a charter bus that had spent forty minutes not moving on the expressway, then stalled again for a tire pressure warning that turned out to be a faulty sensor. Everyone was tired, stiff, and irritable in the way athletes got when they'd been sitting too long in seats designed for shorter people. Frankie was rubbing her knee. Dani had her headphones on and her eyes closed, navigating the lobby by memory or instinct. Lou was at the front desk getting room assignments, her captain's efficiency cutting through the hotel staff's midnight confusion with the quiet authority she brought to everything.
Lex stood near the elevator bank with her duffel over one shoulder and watched the front desk transaction with half her attention. The other half was tracking Mara.
Mara was standing by the concierge desk with her laptop bag and Goldie's travel crate, talking to an assistant coach about tomorrow's game-day schedule. She was in travel clothes: darkjeans, a fitted black sweater, boots. Her hair was in its usual ponytail, a few strands loose around her face from the long bus ride. She looked tired and professional and composed and achingly beautiful, and Lex hadn't been alone with her since the gym.
Four days. Four days since she'd pressed Mara against the gym wall and fucked her until she came apart. Four days of practice and game prep and bus rides and team meals where they'd sat across the aisle from each other and maintained professional distance with a discipline that was slowly killing them both. The tension between them was a taut wire running from her chest to Mara's, vibrating at a frequency only the two of them could hear.
The desk clerk handed Mara a keycard. Room 412. She filed the number away.
Lou distributed room assignments. Lex was with Elise, as usual. Room 308. They took the elevator up in silence, Lex's duffel bag bumping against her thigh with each floor. The corridor was beige and anonymous, the carpet patterned in a way designed to hide stains. Their room was standard: two queen beds, a desk, a window overlooking the hotel parking lot and, beyond it, the lights of Boston's skyline.
Elise set her bag on the bed closest to the window and stretched. "I'm going to shower and crash. Game day tomorrow."
"I'm going for a walk," Lex said.
Elise looked at her. The look lasted approximately two seconds and contained an entire conversation. Elise's eyebrows rose. Her mouth pressed into a line that was fighting very hard not to be a smile. She said nothing. The nothing was louder than words.
"Don't," Lex said, pointing a finger at Elise as she kicked off her shoes.
"I didn't say anything."
"Your face said everything."
"My face wishes you good luck on your walk. My face also reminds you that we have a ten a.m. skate tomorrow and your face needs sleep."
"Noted." Lex dropped her duffel on her bed, ran her fingers through her hair, checked her reflection in the bathroom mirror. She looked road-worn and slightly wild, dark circles under her eyes from the bus ride, hair tangled from leaning against the window for six hours. She splashed water on her face, finger-combed her hair into a shape that would pass, brushed her teeth, and changed into a fresh black t-shirt.
She paused at the door. Elise was already in bed, blanket pulled up, but her eyes were open.
"Be careful," Elise said. Not judgmental. Concerned. The voice of someone who cared about both people involved.
"Always." Lex opened the door and left.
The corridor was quiet. She took the stairs to the fourth floor, her boots soft on the carpeted steps. Room 412 was at the end of the hall. She stood outside the door for ten seconds, her heart beating in her ears, and knocked.
