Page 49 of Shifting Gears

Although Dani says it in her usual breezy tone, Nora can hear the insecurity behind it. The same one she heard in Dani’s conversation with Sarah. Dani thinks she isn’t good enough.

Nora can see how she might have drawn that incorrect conclusion—Nora has made no secret of her befuddlement around the various small-town customs Dani has introduced her to—but Dani is the best person Nora has been in the romantic vicinity of in years. Maybe ever.

Not that Nora is willing to fully explore that when the prospect of her departure looms over them like a storm cloud. Instead she shoves the thought down deep with the rest and shakes her head. “Don’t be silly. I don’t really have time for any of that.”

“Except on vacation?” Dani says hopefully.

They’ve been drifting closer together throughout the whole conversation, almost close enough to touch, and Nora finally gives in to what she’s wanted to do for months now. She takes off Dani’s hat and runs her fingers through her hair. Nora can feel warm breath on her face, and when she inhales, she can detect that distinctive Dani scent. Warm vanilla and machine shop.

Dani’s eyes drift closed as Nora’s nails scrape her scalp, a tiny noise of approval escaping her as the space between theirfaces narrows. Dani’s hair is soft and golden, a little sweaty at the temples, but falling down in tangled waves, and Nora’s heart pounds ever faster when one of the hands she’s been so fixated on lands on her knee just below the hem of her sundress.

“Are you gonna kiss me?” Dani whispers. She’s grinning, and apparently that’s all it takes to shatter the last of Nora’s self-control.

Nora grabs the front of Dani’s unbuttoned shirt and pulls her in.

The kiss quickly goes from new and hesitant to hot and hard and absolutelyperfect. The desire Nora has tried so hard to dampen comes alive, unfurling in her chest and roaring in pleasure, and Nora isn’t even ashamed of the pathetic noise that leaves her as their lips part and she presses in for more.

Dani seems to be expecting a soft first kiss, but Nora is tired of the dance. Of tiptoeing around each other, somewhere between friends and something more, constantly resisting the urge to push Dani onto the nearest surface and climb into her lap.

So she does just that.

“Jeez, Nora,” Dani gasps as Nora pushes her onto her back and swings a leg over her hips, moving those calloused hands up to her waist. “I should’ve done this sooner.”

Nora kisses her again, and it’s like a sigh of relief. The force of everything Nora has been holding back for two months hits her at once, and Nora finds herself genuinely considering letting Dani take her right here on this blanket. Their little spot is very private, really, and Nora is so worked up after only a few moments of kissing that in the moment, it seems quite appealing.

Dani remains stubbornly gallant. She only moves her hands from Nora’s waist to her hips, and finally to her thighs,when Nora guides them there herself. They slip under Nora’s sundress, caressing her bare skin eagerly, but no further.

It’s clear now that Dani wants her just as badly: Dani’s hands shake with it. The heat of her kisses and the little noises she makes and the twitchy, unconscious movements of her hips under Nora’s all make it obvious—but she seems determined to go slowly.

So Nora tries to slow down to match, even though everything in her is screaming to do the opposite. She kisses thoroughly, enjoying Dani’s skilled tongue and broad hands. The pressure builds inside her until she feels like she might explode, but Nora stops when she feels something tickling her arm and it turns out to be the biggest ant she’s ever seen crawling its way toward her elbow.

Some of the pressure gets vented when she shrieks, flinging it into the grass while Dani giggles.

Dani drives Nora home when the sun sets and walks her to the front step, where a brief good night kiss turns abruptly into a heated good night make out session.

Nora drops her keys before they’ve even touched the lock when Dani pins her to the door, throwing her arms around Dani’s neck and losing herself in the kiss. It’s even more intense this time, and as Dani trails hot kisses up her throat, Nora finally groans the words she’s been thinking since she first shook Dani’s hand on the shop floor in May.

“God, I want you.”

Dani whimpers. Her hips buck up slightly, grinding into Nora just enough to make her want to come out of her skin. “I want you too.Fuck.”

Nora presses herself down onto the flexed thigh that’s been accidentally presented, and in the swell of desire and sensation that follows, she loses all pretense. Nora wants more. She wantsDani, and finally she pulls away and gasps into Dani’s mouth. “Nightcap?”

Instead of the enthusiastic yes that Nora had been hoping for, Dani hesitates. Her voice is unsteady. “Maybe, um, we should slow down. Right? We only just kissed. I feel like I should take you out for real before…you know.”

Nora takes a big, fortifying breath.

“Of course. Whenever you’re ready,” Nora says, and she means it. Dani deserves to go at her own pace, no matter how much Nora wants to race to the finish line. She’s grateful for the politeness of the rejection, but her body is definitely asking for something that she’ll need to work out for herself tonight.

Their proper good night kiss is sweet and chaste, and Nora appreciates the restraint. She also appreciates the way Dani goes back to her truck and leaves swiftly—swiftly enough that Nora can go inside and immediately strip down to nothing but her silk robe, pour herself a large glass of red wine, and recline on the couch to deal with the problem that still throbs insistently between her legs.

At this point, doing this is so routine that it goes like clockwork.

Nora gets through most of the wine, thinking about exactly what she wants Dani to do to her. What she could do to Dani. All the sweaty, dirty ways they could get to know each other. She lets her robe slide open, exposing her skin to the air, and as she fantasizes, her hands wander. Over her collar bone. Her breasts. Down her stomach and, finally, between her thighs.

The moment her fingers make contact, a live wire runs directly to the most animal part of her brain. She’s so wet after an entire evening of heated kissing that half her hand is coated in seconds; her fingers slip around her clit, and then inside, and God, it’s sogood, the way her palm presses and her fingers curl just like Dani’s would if she—ifherfingers were—

Nora is on the razor’s edge of the world’s quickest orgasm when the doorbell rings, and as that edge recedes from her grasp, she seriously contemplates how difficult it would be to cover up a murder out here.

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