Despite my best friend being the most talented tattoo artist in Tennessee, I’ve never quite had the urge to get a tattoo myself. I don’t know if it’s thehormones or the horniness talking, or the way I know in my soul that I’m falling head over heels in love with the woman behind me, but I want her everywhere. I’d let her mark every inch of my skin if she asked, in tattoos, in hickeys, in whatever she wants.
“Please, Vee,” I beg as she teases my entrance with the vibrating cock. “Please fuck me.”
“Mmm, since you asked so nicely…”
She fills me in one long thrust, stretching every corner of my inner walls to their absolute limit. It burns for a moment, but Ivy waits patiently, letting me adjust to the invasion until the gentle vibrations start to soothe the ache.
“Move, please.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Ivy grabs my hips and starts to fuck in long, slow strokes that seem to hit every sensitive spot in just the right way. Every time she bottoms out, she pulls me closer and grinds down against my ass, probably working her clit against her end of the toy. The tip of the cock drags against my G-spot with each thrust, spinning me higher and higher towards another release. I can feel the vibrations everywhere, from my toes to the tips of my fingers. Everything in my stomach pulls tight, sensation burning between my thighs. Behind me, Ivy moans andmutters dirty words that I can’t quite hear. I’m too close, teetering on the precipice of something incredible. I just can’t seem to get there, and reaching around to rub my clit isn’t an option with the baby bump in my way.
“You take it so well, Lilah baby. Such a good girl taking my strap deep, getting us both wet and messy. That’s it, honey. That’s my good girl.”
I know I mutter something—maybe a plea, maybe a demand, who could tell? Ivy knows, though. She reaches forward to pinch one of my nipples, and a lightning bolt of pleasure strikes through me, frying my every nerve in the best way. I drop to my elbows, no longer able to hold myself up as the beginnings of an orgasm tease at my edges. Ivy thrusts, my clit drags along the seam of the pillow beneath me, and I detonate. I fist the sheets, moaning and gasping for air as my muscles convulse around the toy like they’re trying to drag it further into my body. The orgasm seems to go on and on forever, wetness seeping down my thighs as Ivy holds my hips steady, grinding herself out to her own release on the toy.
After an eternity, the cock slips from inside me and the mattress dips beside me, a breathless Ivy throwing her forearm over her forehead. I roll over, cuddling into the crook of her arm. We’re both sweat-slicked and boneless, and I feel as though I might diefrom suffocating on our body heat, but it doesn’t matter.
“I love you, Vee,” I whisper against her chest.
“I love you too, Lilah.”
Three words we’ve repeated to each other a thousand times over the years, but at this moment, I think we both know they mean something completely different. The old me would keep that thought to herself, but I don’t want to be her anymore. I don’t want to be the woman who sits on the sidelines and watches as life happens to her. So I tilt Ivy’s face until she’s looking at me and I do the scariest thing I’ve ever done.
“I’m in love with you, Ivy. I want you. I want a life with you. I want to raise our kids together. I want to marry you someday. I feel like I’ve been fighting the fight of my life for so long, and now I’m ready to be happy. You make me happy, Vee.”
Her eyes flash, surprise quickly replaced with affection, and then she brushes her lips against mine, whispering into my mouth.
“I’m in love with you too, Delilah. It’s you and me, baby. It always has been.”
And it always will be.
22
CHUBBY CHEEKS AND COVERED IN ICING
IVY
The jarring blare of the ringtone I have set specifically for Suzanne Hudson breaks from a deep slumber, causing me to jump up in bed like someone pulled the fire alarm. Thank god Suzanne always calls when she’s headed over with Sadie because one look down at my body under the sleep-mussed sheets tells me that I fell asleep still wearing the damn harness and strap-on. The dildo protrudes from under the sheet like morning wood, and I stifle a giggle.
That would have been quite an awkward thing to have to explain if Sadie stumbled in here unannounced.
I answer my phone, and Suzanne tells me they’re heading over in about twenty minutes, so I gentlywake up Delilah and coax her into the shower with me. We rinse off and get dressed; I throw on a pair of jean shorts and black cropped tank and she slides into a pair of jeans that she can’t button and a white sports bra.
“Whatever. All of my dresses are dirty and I can’t go pantsless with my parents in the house,” she bit out when I pointed out that the jeans don’t quite fit and suggested I find her something more comfortable.
I guess her post-orgasm, mid-afternoon nap made my Lilah a little bit cranky, but I’ll take the brunt of her grumpiness. I don’t mind. How could I when she loves me?
She loves me. She loves me. She loves me.
I feel like I should pinch myself to make sure this is all real, but I’m too afraid to find out if it’s not. Delilah Hudson is in love with me. My heart and soul, my person, my reason for getting out of bed on my lowest days, loves me. She wants to be with me. I don’t know what I did in a past life to deserve this kind of luck, but I won’t question it.
All I can do is spend the rest of my life making sure Delilah knows just how much I love her and our kids, and doing everything I can to make them even a fraction as happy as they’ve made me.
Suzanne, Henry, and Sadie arrive followedshortly by Dottie Lynn and Stephen carrying a couple of boxes of pizza and we all head out to the dilapidated old back porch off the back of Grandma Millie’s house for slices of cheese and pepperoni and sweating glasses of sweet tea. Sadie tells us about shopping in Knoxville with her grandma and Auntie Dottie while Stephen and Henry make plans to fix up the porch and give it a few updates along with the renovation, which they are breaking ground on this week. They say if they break down the old, rotting fence on the property line, they can replace it with something newer and smaller so we can enjoy the view of the wildflower fields behind it.
After dinner, the boys clean up while Delilah and Suzanne watch Dottie, Sadie, and I play tag in the backyard to work off some of the dinner. And as the sun sinks lower in the sky, Delilah leans over the rail of the porch and calls out to us.
