Page 117 of The Right Kind of Wrong

Next came her bra. Her leggings followed, along with her underwear.

She was standing naked in front of Monroe before she’d consciously made the decision. It was something she’d been experiencing more and more lately.

Like the way she’d pushed Monroe up against the building at the swimming hole. Sure, she’d wanted to get Monroe alone to share a private moment, but she’d been just so overcome with need that her body had done the work before her mind had even processed what she’d been doing.

Monroe bit her lip, watching her.

It was hot outside, but Blake could feel her skin prickling as Monroe’s gaze raked across her exposed body. She took a tentative step into the water, sighing.

“This is my first time actually using this thing since I moved back. I’m glad we’re christening it together,” Monroe said, extending her hand to Blake to help her down into the hot tub, which was built into the deck itself.

The hot tub was circular, nestled near the edge, with a wooden bench beside it creating additional seating that looked out to the yard.

Blake allowed herself to be guided in, and when she was submerged to her chest, she expected that Monroe would let go of her hand.

Only, she didn’t.

Instead, she held on tightly to Blake, pulling her across the feet of space between them until Blake was in front of Monroe, their chests pushing lightly together.

Monroe let go of Blake’s hand, but she immediately wrapped both of her arms around Blake, keeping her close.

“Do you know how fucking sexy you look when you dance?” Monroe asked, her fingers skimming up Blake’s sides.

Blake had to disagree. Strongly. “I was teaching little kids not to fall over, so I don’t know that you and I were at the same class.”

Monroe shook her head. “No. The one after that. Where you were working with older kids. Maisie wanted to watch, so we stayed for a little while. Your body just moves so fluidly. All I could think about was how you move like that on top of me sometimes. How fucking good it feels.”

She didn’t know where this honesty from Monroe was coming from, but she liked hearing it very much.

Blake draped her arms over Monroe’s shoulders, settling more fully on top of Monroe’s thighs. “Is that right?”

Slowly, tentatively, Monroe closed the inches of space between their lips and pressed a lingering kiss against Blake’s mouth.

Buoyed by the water, with the soft music in the background, Blake got lost in the way Monroe explored her languidly, like they had nowhere else to be.

It must have been minutes later when Monroe slowed their already unrushed moment with soft nips against Blake’s jaw, placing featherlight kisses in her wake.

Her hands stilled against Blake’s back, where she’d been tracing light patterns. “Thank you again. For today. And for talking to Maisie the way that you did.”

“It wasn’t a big deal, but you’re welcome.” And it wasn’t. Truly, Blake would have done the same favor for anyone who’d needed her.

“You mentioned your mom. Sounds like you don’t have a great relationship?” Monroe asked casually, still holding Blake close.

She didn’t quite know why, but she suddenly wanted to squirm away from the closeness of Monroe’s grasp, over to the opposite side for space.

Monroe didn’t let her go.

Blake’s lips twitched. It was clear that she wasn’t getting out of this without a satisfactory answer.

The thing was, no one in her life had really cared about that answer before, so Blake hadn’t spent a lot of time examining it. Still, the words rolled out surprisingly easily, like she’d always been able to articulate them, even if she’d never voiced them out loud. “Being a dutiful and obedient daughter is paramount to my parents’ idea of raising ‘good’ children.”

Monroe frowned. “You’re literally the best person I know, and it’s not because you do what other people want.”

A strange sensation fluttered through Blake’s heart. “Thank you for saying that. But you only really met me after things had fallen apart. Everyone else is dealing with the new me for the first time, and to them, boundaries look a lot more combative.”

“Well, they were wrong then, and they’re still wrong now. Maisie had one thing right: It is hard being smarter than everyone else.” Monroe gave her a crooked smile.

There was that damn fluttering in her heart again.