"Thank you again for saving me at the party," Kristen said. "I don't know what I would have done without you."
Cin shrugged as she poured the wine the waiter had brought over first for Kristen and then herself. "It was nothing, really. I'm just glad I could help."
"It meant a lot to me," Kristen insisted, her gaze intense. "You're a good friend, Cin."
Friend. The word echoed in Cin's mind, a reminder of the boundaries she was supposed to respect. But as she looked into Kristen's eyes, she couldn't help but wish for more.
"I'm only sorry Justin wasn't worthy of you."
Now it was Kristen's turn to shrug. "I think we both saw he's not my type."
"Was it that his muscles were bigger than his brain?"
Kristen threw her head back and let out a giggle.
Cin's nostrils flared as she watched. Her gaze swept over Kristen's parted lips. Her eyes fell on the perfect symmetry of her collarbone. And then she choked.
"What's your type?" Kristen asked.
Cin reached for her wine to try and clear her throat. "My type?"
"Yes."
"My type is you." It's not what Cin meant to say, but when had her brain and her heart been in sync? Since the dawn of never. Cin had a habit of saying exactly what she wanted. She just never found any woman who wanted the same thing. Better to have it out in the open now.
"Me?"
Cin nodded, holding Kristen's gaze. "Someone who is submissive. Obedient. Eager to please."
Kristen gave a shake of her head. "That's not me."
"Yes, it is."
Kristen closed her mouth instead of arguing.
"Too bad you want a human with a dick. Though I do have an impressive collection." She was fucking this friendship all up, and she knew it. It would be better this way. Better to have Kristen reject her now and put distance between them.
Kristen looked like she didn't know whether to laugh or not. Whether Cin was joking or not. "Are you hitting on me?"
"Hitting on you would be a mistake. Because you're my type. The exact type of woman who I would fall in love with and then get hurt."
"I would never hurt you." Kristen's words were instant.
Her hand reached across the table as though she would grab Cin's hand, twitchy pinkie and all. But she stopped short, just as Cin knew she would.
"Yes, you would. Because you're completely heterosexual. Aren't you?"
"I…?"
Cin leaned in. "Or are you curious?"
Kristen looked like she couldn't breathe.
This was the heady part for Cin, getting a woman to question her identity and then reforming it for them. She was a bastard, and she knew it. But she also knew how this would end. Heralone, rejected once again by someone who didn't want her. So why not tell the truth? Why not put it all out on the table and get it over with?
"I've wanted to fuck you since the first day I saw you."
"You have?"