Page 169 of The Snowball Effect

Right now, she did not have the patience for that.

Not when her thoughts were reeling, and she was pulsing between her legs, and she continued to roll her hips down against Emma.

There was so much she wanted to do. So,somuch, she thought, desperately, as she sucked on Emma’s tongue. One of her hands slid up to card through Emma’s hair; something she’d learned was that she never tired of that. She never tired of feeling these long, soft strands between her fingers, or of the quiet whimpering sounds that escaped Emma’s throat when she scratched against her scalp.

They’d managed to keep their heady make-out sessions relatively PG; she’d slid her hands under Emma’s shirt, stroked them over her soft stomach, explored up her back, stroked down her sides. She’d slid her fingertips just under the cups of Emma’s bra, had felt how stiff her nipples were against her palms through the material.

But she hadn’t had the chance to reallyseeEmma. To finally – finally! – get her shirt fully off,andher bra, too.

With that in mind, she broke their kiss. Regan honestly wasn’t sure who let out the needy groan as soon as they were no longer kissing, but she wouldn’t be shocked if it had been herself.

She flexed the hand she still had gripped in Emma’s hair, watching in hungry amazement as Emma’s eyes fluttered closed at the movement.

“I want to see you. God, I want itsobadly,” her voice was hoarse and rasping with need, and Regan wasn’t going to hide it. She rolled her hips down, hard and intent, against Emma.

Dropping her gaze down very deliberately, she stared at Emma’s chest. Flicking her tongue out, she licked her lips, and the move was entirely unintentional. She just really did feel hungry for more. Hungry for Emma.

She slid the hand she’d had braced on Emma’s shoulder down, slowly. Moving over the thin fabric of her shirt until she made contact with Emma’s soft skin. Hot to her touch, they both shuddered, as Regan drew fingers down over Emma’s clavicle. She relished in every inch she touched, her breath ragged, as she stared down to watch her own hand on Emma.

For a moment, she paused. Holding still in the center of Emma’s chest, so she could feel the pounding of Emma’s heart.

She’d known – obviously – that Emma was attracted to her, that she was very affected by their kisses and touches. Hell, she’d gone to sleep every night for a week with the little sounds Emma made as she came, thinking of Regan, in her ears.

Still, it amazed her to feel Emma’s heart racing the same way her own was.

Exhaling shakily, she inched her hand down…

Emma’s chest was heaving with the panting breaths she let out, making the tops of her breasts rise out of the cups of her bra, and Regan didn’t bother to bite back the keening whine that worked out of her, as she stroked her fingertips over the tops of Emma’s breasts, before dipping down into her cleavage, and…

“I was staring right here when I registered how much I wanted to touch you,” she whispered, reverently.

She could still visualize that moment, so clearly, in her head. Looking down at Emma as she’d been perched on the arm of the chair in the bookstore, starting at her face, before moving her gaze to her thighs, then – right here. And she’d wanted this –exactly this moment, as she stroked her fingertips over Emma’s chest – so badly at that moment.

“Then touch me,” Emma urged, her nails biting into the backs of Regan’s upper thighs. Right under her ass, as they slipped under the hem of Regan’s shorts.

Regan was itching to do just that, and her hands were shaking as she – reluctantly – dropped away from Emma’s chest so she could undo the buttons on Emma’s shirt. “I need this off. This, and your bra. I love your bras, I really do,” she confessed, even though she was certain it wasn’t a secret at all. “They’re so sexy, but – take itoff,” she demanded, tugging down hard on Emma’s shirt.

She couldn’t completely undo all of the buttons herself, as she needed Emma to lean back so she could get to the bottom ones, and she needed it donenow.

Emma hesitated, her breath catching in her throat. “I just… I’m just – a little self-conscious,” she whispered, a rawness in her tone that mixed with the edge of arousal. “No one’s seen me – all of me – in… a while. And even then, it was just one person, so…”

Regan squeezed her eyes closed, trying to reach for some semblance of calm. “I, um, I… we don’t…”

God, she couldn’t even find any words with how jumbled she felt inside, how the molten desire in her had twisted her up.

“I want to,” Emma insisted, reminding her, “I decided to do this, remember?” She arched a teasing look up at Regan. Still, she swallowed, hard. “I just, I want you to know what I’m feeling.”

That vulnerability in Emma’s voice, that etched over her face, was the key to cutting through – a little – Regan’s arousal. Making way amidst the heat inside of her for something soft, something that made her heart flutter in her chest.

“Thanks for telling me,” she murmured, honestly. “I would never want to do anything you’re uncomfortable with, I just…” She dipped her gaze back down, where her hand was resting just below Emma’s bra, on her soft stomach. “I think you are so fucking sexy. Everything about you.”

Emma nodded with her words, blowing out a low breath. “You’ve never made me doubt that.”

Regan wondered, errantly, if Felicity had. Because – from everything Regan had gathered and been told – Felicity hadn’t been the sweetest or most romantic or enthusiastic girlfriend. Regan was a much better one, in her own humble opinion.

“And, you know…” She lifted her eyes back up to meet Emma’s, grinning crookedly. “Ihaveseen you shirtless, multiple times. As you’ve said before. I’ve slept with your body against mine every night for a week. I know your stomach isn’t flat, and that you aren’t ripped, or whatever.” She shrugged. “I want you exactly the way you are. Like… desperately,” she admitted.

Taking a deep breath in attempt to stabilize herself, Regan reached back and grabbed one of Emma’s hands. She guided it around, tracing Emma’s touch over to the front of her thigh, as she pushed herself up on her knees. Even though it was her own hand moving Emma’s, she shivered so intensely, her hips jerking with it.

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