Page 27 of Extraction Play

“I’ll be out of your hair before we start getting into fights over the correct way to load the dishwasher,” Eva said, her shoulders relaxing. “Considering you still do it wrong.”

Her snark came as a relief after her wrecked look earlier. Eva seemed like the nesting sort based on the way she liked to take care of others, so losing her home would be devastating. Pixie couldn’t fathom having roots like that. Even this condo felt like a temporary space, somewhere she inhabited before she got dragged to a new location. Just another symptom of the way she’d grown up.

Her phone buzzed, and she glanced at the screen. Her mother, as if the thought alone had summoned her.

She glanced to the picture attached—one of Maisie with a bunch of other ladies, all holding up their canvases filled with splashy abstract paintings. The text read Reiki Expression Night, which fit for her crew. This was her mother’s way of trying to bond, to reach out and share common interests, but all the effort made Pixie want to do was step farther away.

Art had always been her refuge. The second she got her hands on paints in her first art class, it had been the escape that saved her, and the idea of sharing that with her mother soured her stomach. Which of course cycled into feeling like a garbage daughter because her mom had turned her entire life around. She’d climbed out of a wreckage few managed to, and Pixie was so damn proud of her.

She just had way too much shrapnel to still pick out.

“You okay, Pix?” Micah asked.

“Yeah, my mom sent me pics from her class.” She slid her phone into her pocket and forced a smile. None of her friends knew the depth of what she’d survived, just that she had a hippie mom who lived in the area and an absent father who resided god knew where.

The only person she’d revealed anything personal to was Eva, and that was an anomaly.

Their gazes met, and Pixie swallowed hard.

The lost look in those dark eyes reached right inside her chest and tugged at her heart, and maybe that was why she’d spilled to her. Eva seemed a kindred spirit, unable to let people in, even when she was drowning. And Pixie’s nature had drawn her to others like that over and over as if she tried to fix herself while helping them. However, every time they walked away healed while she ended up further behind.

She could think of a million and one reasons why she shouldn’t indulge in the attraction bursting between Eva and her.

Yet when the woman looked her way, a flare burned bright inside her.

She’d let temptation walk right in through the door and offered it a place to stay.

Chapter Eleven

Sleeping on couches was never truly comfortable once you reached your late twenties, but tonight, Eva couldn’t seem to settle at all.

Probably had to do with her entire life getting upended.

Not only would Sienna be replacing her in the relationship with Jack, but whoever bought the house would be replacing her there as well.

Groaning, Eva slung her forearm over her head. She couldn’t crash on Pixie and Micah’s couch forever, but the idea of returning to Reno twisted her stomach. Nothing good awaited her in Nevada—not Reno or Genoa, where she’d grown up.

She’d thought she felt low when Jack broke up with her, but somehow this hurt just as badly. Her chest ached something fierce, the steady throb preventing her from falling asleep. The hollowness threatened to devour her, as hungry and desperate as these shadows.Ever since Jack pulled out the rug from under her a second time, it was like she’d frozen over.

A creak pulled her from her dark thoughts, and she shifted to a seated position.

A figure approached from the hallway, too short to be her brother.

Her heart thumped off-kilter as Pixie emerged from the shadows.

Her hair was tousled, like she’d just woken up. Not surprising, considering it was two in the morning. Her oversized tee slid off her shoulder, exposing creamy skin illuminated by the moonlight pouring in through the wide windows. And of course it was all she wore. The hem of the tee barely covered those thick thighs.

“Couldn’t sleep?” Eva asked huskily.

Pixie shook her head and plunked onto the couch beside her, close enough for her heat and faint jasmine scent to waft to Eva. Her tee rode up so high Eva caught a glimpse of the shadow between her legs. Her mouth watered at the idea of how sweet Pixie would taste. If there was any sort of oblivion she wanted to lose herself in, it was this woman.

“How are you doing, really?” Pixie asked, heartbreaking concern in her tone.

Eva’s chest tightened. Tonight, she didn’t want pity. Tonight, she wanted to feel something other than numb.

Pixie sat inches away from her, those lush lips so enticing she couldn’t help but stare. Eva knew how sweet her moans were, but she still didn’t know how she kissed. And need roared to life inside her, the first real thing she could cling to.

Words leaped to her lips but died there, all of them paltry compared to the desire pouring through her veins like warm honey, the longing to close the distance between them and claim that mouth. Pixie didn’t look away, and when she licked her lips, Eva had to restrain a moan.The sight of this woman there, tangible warmth and sweetness, was driving her out of her mind.

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