Page 22 of Chasing Gold, Catching Her

Apparently no one else had noticed the scene. The music shifted, one track bleeding into another, and the crowd of figure skaters and Tora’s friends only grew louder, buzzing with laughter. The beat changed to a faster tempo now.

Charli XCX – Track 10

For some reason, the song sent goosebumps down Alisa’s arms. She had not heard it in what felt like a thousand years. Once, she had dreamed of skating to it. For a moment, memories washed over her, vivid and aching, before they shattered against the reality of where she was now.

And Tora was moving closer again. Step by step, until Alisa found herself backed against the wall, still clutching the whiskey glass. She handed it back to Tora. Tora took it from her hand and drained the rest in one swallow.

“I’m sorry about Loke,” she said. “Sometimes he gets jealous of everything that moves.”

“So you’re… together?” Alisa asked, frowning.

Even the thought of it made something unpleasant twist in her stomach.

Tora laughed loudly. “No, of course not. Haven’t you figured that out yet?”

Alisa shook her head.

Tora licked her lips slowly as she looked at Alisa’s mouth. Alisa’s heart began to pound so violently she thought it might burst from her chest. Waves of goosebumps rolled over her skin.

“What are you…” she whispered, the words leaving her on a shaky breath.

“I…”

Tora leaned in even closer.

“Do whatever I want.”

The music turned a bit down and then the sounds of fireworks exploded in the beats of it.

The world around Alisa and Tora seemed to fade away, their focus narrowing to the electric connection between them.

Tora’s lips crashed onto Alisa’s in a searing, hungry kiss. Rather than a gentle caress, Tora’s mouth claimed Alisa’s with a fierce, almost desperate passion. Alisa gasped at the intensity, her lips parting in surprise as Tora’s teeth sank into the tender flesh. It was a kiss that demanded surrender, that dared Alisa to resist even as it consumed her.

As if accepting Tora’s challenge, Alisa opened her mouth wider, as a clear invitation to continue. Tora groaned with a deep guttural sound that sent shivers racing down Alisa’s spine. She thrust her tongue past Alisa’s parted lips, seeking and finding, tangling with Alisa’s own in a sensual embrace.

Tora pressed her body flush against Alisa’s, molding her curves to the harder planes of her athletic frame. Alisa felt like she was being consumed, engulfed by the heat of Tora’s touch. It was as if Tora had set her skin ablaze, igniting a fire that raced through her veins and set her heart pounding.

Alisa had never known a kiss could be so intense, so all-consuming. It was as if Tora had unlocked a door deep within her, releasing a flood of pent-up passion and longing. Alisa felt like she was drowning, drowning in the sensation, in the taste and scent and feel of Tora. She never wanted this moment to end.

The track changed to another one…

alt-J (∆) – Fitzpleasure

The universe seemed to play along with the feelings that were beginning to flare up inside Alisa, it really was pleasure, pleasure… pleasure, pleasure, pleasure, she repeated in her head like the words from the track itself, and while the kiss continued, it only brought the two girls closer and closer to some dangerous line, and Alisa completely dissolved in it, in her first kiss with a girl, and in such a kiss that it seemed to her that it had opened something entirely new inside of her, some feelings so unfamiliar and frightening that she stepped into them without thinking at all.

Tora began to take more and more control of the kiss, moving her tongue more insistently, and Alisa only gave in to her, comfortably placing her hands on her waist, or rather a little lower, and pulling her even closer to herself, which made Tora smile right through the kiss.

The kiss broke off.

Tora pulled away, breathing heavily, and Alisa too, she clung to the wall without feeling it at all, as if her whole body had suddenly gone weak, and she looked at Tora with her lips half-parted, trying to catch her breath and understand what exactly had just happened.

Then Tora took her by the hand and led her into the kitchen.

“Do you want another whiskey?”

Alisa nodded silently, watching Tora’s movements as her fingers wrapped around the bottle and poured more whiskey into the glass, and then dropped several pieces of ice directly into it, so that drops of whiskey splashed over the rim from the sharp collision with the new ice.

Ice on ice.