“Yes.” It was barely audible, but it was there.
Allie drew back and rested her palm on Tarryn’s cheek. Somewhere in the hazy distance, she was aware of the crowd and of George sporting a shit-eating grin from ear to ear.
George cleared her throat. “Tarryn? Do you take this woman, Sophie, to be your wedded wife?”
Tarryn took a breath, then another. Her chin lifted. “I do.”
Allie barely noticed the cheers from the crowd in front of the stage. Her gaze locked with Tarryn’s relieved stare, and she didn’t miss the way her shoulders dropped as the tension left her.
“I now pronounce you wed,” George said with a faint air of relief. “You may kiss.”
Relief thrummed through Allie like a hive of bees. Surely, the worst part for Tarryn was over. She caught Tarryn’s growing smile as that realisation hit her as well, as if her paralysing dread had lifted away like petals in a breeze. Somewhere there were real petals—Kirra and Phyll throwing them from the sides of the stage.
Tarryn lifted her face to the sky and laughed, her body regaining its usual looseness.
“I’m glad you’ve found something to laugh about,” Allie said. “Do we kiss again, or do we count the impromptu one before your vow?” Her focus on getting Tarryn through this had blotted out her anticipation of their kiss. Now, though…
“We kiss again. Consider it a thank you for saving me from looking like a bad actor who couldn’t even remember a two-word script.”
“I kissed you last time,” Allie said. “It’s your turn.”
Tarryn lifted a wisp of hair from Allie’s face and tucked it behind her ear, where it promptly sprang free again. “I would hate to disappoint you.” She smoothed both palms up Allie’s neck until she cupped her jaw and then leaned in until her lips hovered over Allie’s. “Just one small kiss. That’s all.”
“That’s not fair.” Allie’s voice was barely more than a whisper. “I kissed you properly.”
“Is that what you want?”
“What do you think?”
“Just kiss her already!” A voice in the crowd yelled, and other voices took up the chant. “Kiss her! Kiss her!”
“It looks like we have no choice,” Tarryn said.
Allie slid a hand around the back of Tarryn’s neck and pulled her closer, and her lips found Tarryn’s mouth. One tiny part of her mind remembered that this had been scripted. She had reason to do this, one that meant she didn’t need to think about it too deeply.
But she wanted to.
A kiss. Another. A soft slide of mouths over each other, and Allie tilted her head and deepened the contact. Her tongue sought entrance to Tarryn’s mouth and then delved inside. Tarryn tasted faintly of tequila, but also of sunshine, heady and fresh.
Fire bloomed in Allie’s chest. The rumble of voices from the crowd faded into insignificance. Kirra and Phyll might as well have been on another planet. There was only Tarryn and how she kissed.
Tarryn’s body was firm against her own, her strong arms wrapped around Allie’s shoulders, holding her close. So very close. Heat trickled down into her belly, and she lifted her mouth to change the angle before returning to explore and taste Tarryn’s mouth. The fire inside her burned fiercer, twining through her abdomen in tendrils of desire, lower, down between her legs where her clit pulsed.
She moaned softly, and her hands slid down Tarryn’s back to grip her hips. Dimly she heard the opening bars of Mazzy Star’s “Fade Into You,” and she swayed to the music, close to Tarryn, no room for air between their bodies.
She gathered her closer and pressed a kiss to her cheek, nearly on her mouth. For the length of the song, they moved together, Tarryn’s lips in Allie’s hair. Somewhere, the audience was singing along. Somewhere, there was a whole world outside of their embrace, but it wasn’t important. There was just her and Tarryn and the gathering intimacy between them. Allie kissed her again, a long, slow, drugging kiss that took and supped and gave and teased.
The music ended on a storm of applause. Slowly, reality returned. How long had they been kissing? She hadn’t a clue. Her lips pulsed and tingled with the need to kiss Tarryn again.
Where would this lead? Allie swallowed hard. She knew where it should go, where she wanted it to go. For a second, nerves and doubt flared. Tarryn seduced women often—Garrett had said she attracted women like bees to a honeypot. But herself…she had no experience to draw on. None that counted for them now. She bit her lip. What should she do? Whatcouldshe do?
Even as her confidence shrank, Tarryn’s seemed to expand. She waved to the crowd and blew them kisses.
Allie stared around at the crowd and at Jason, waiting beside George. What now? She glanced at the bouquet still clutched in her hand and stepped to the front of the stage. Tarryn followed, and they held their bouquets high before tossing them to the crowd. A sea of hands grabbed for them. A woman caught Tarryn’s and held it aloft for a moment before presenting it to the woman next to her with a flourish.
Jason went back to the mic. “Everyone, you’ve seen the wedding, let us now party!”
He led the way off the stage, the curtain swept back, and DJStrokes launched into a gay party anthem.
