She moved lower. Kissed down her ribs. She sucked in her nipples only long enough to elicit a gasp from Lizanne.
She knelt.
The water came down across her back and shoulders. She looked up at Lizanne through the steam. Lizanne’s head was tilted backwards, her long neck exposed, her ample chest rising and falling. When Rose pressed her mouth to the inside of her thigh, Lizanne’s hand went to the tile.
Rose moved without rushing. Her tongue slid between Lizanne’s folds, cherishing her, tasting her. Lizanne was quieter than Rose, more contained even now, but her hips moved and the hand at the tile pressed flat and the sounds she made lost their edges by degrees.
Rose held her steady and felt her give way in increments, the trembling in her thighs, the way her head dropped forward, the moment her hand moved from the tile to the back of Rose’s head and pressed down. Not asking. Just there. The last of the composure going.
“Rose….”
She reached up, her hand cupping Lizanne’s breast, her finger rubbing her nipple which was already hard.
The dual sensation of her fingers and tongue sent Lizanne over the edge and she groaned hard for a long, long time which filled Rose with a sense of satisfaction.
When the sound ebbed away and Rose no longer felt the aftershocks against her tongue, she rose.
Lizanne was still breathing hard. Her eyes were closed, her face tilted up into the spray, and she looked extraordinary. Rose put her hands on her face and Lizanne opened her eyes.
“I love you,” Lizanne said.
Rose stood in the steam and thought about the fact that she was married to this woman. That they were together. A family. More than she had ever been with any intimate partner.
“I love you too,” Rose said.
Chapter 26
Lizanne
December 5th
Three weeks before Christmas, Loraine decided the entrance hall was too empty. She ordered a tree that was less a decoration and more a structural hazard.
Lizanne and Rose spent ten minutes wrestling the trunk through the front door, cameras rolling. The thing began hemorrhaging needles the second it hit the marble, leaving a jagged trail of green toward the far corner.
Tori would love this when she came to clean the next day….
Lizanne carried the base; Rose took the top. Halfway across the hall, the weight shifted. Rose stumbled. Lizanne lunged to compensate. They ended up pinned against the wall, the tree wedged between them at a precarious tilt.
Rose started laughing first.
Lizanne felt the vibration through the branches—a frantic, muffled shaking. Then she lost it, too. They stood there, braced against the wainscoting by what felt like several hundred pounds of shedding timber, while John kept the camera rolling. Lizanne didn’t bother to glare. This was the messy, unscripted reality the show usually failed to capture.
“Cut! Perfect,” Loraine called out. She waved a hand toward the pool house. “Can we get the lovebirds in for the decorating shots? Klaus and Ben did their confessionals earlier and they were in some sort of spat.”
She meant Quinn and Kayla. Since the second week of December, they’d stopped hiding their relationship. Now they were the show’s secondary storyline, whether they liked it or not.
Actually, Lizanne was pretty sure they liked it very much. While the focus had been on Rose and Lizanne, Quinn was becoming the main attraction rapidly. And Lizanne had to admit, she didn’t mind it. A second camera team, consisting of Klaus and Benjamin, was usually on Kayla and Quinn while a third filmed additional footage. To say the house was full was an understatement.
“I’ll check,” Rose said. “Give me twenty minutes.”
***
The decorating lasted an hour, and by the time they were done, everyone was exhausted, including the camera crew.
Lizanne stood at the island, eating cold leftover rice from a plastic container when Rose walked in, headed straight for the fridge, and emerged with two clementines. She tossed one to Lizanne before leaning against the counter.
They ate in a quiet they had earned over the last weeks. It was a comfortable space that didn’t require conversation. Rose set her peel aside, turned, and looped her arms around Lizanne’s waist. Lizanne dropped her hands onto Rose’s shoulders.
