Page 121 of Tricky Girls

But I’m already in over my head here. It’s just so much. Elly’s hands around my face, her thigh between mine. The fact I’m doing this with a girl and enjoying it. Kissing is one thing, but sex? Scary.

It’s hard to hold back when she’s licking my lips though, teasing them with just the firm tip of her tongue. I bet she can do more with that thing. No guy’s ever got me off with theirs before but I bet Elly can. I know she can. And judging by her teasing, she knows it too.

She breaks the kiss off with a groan, burying her face into my neck. She kisses there and I bite my lip. Wrists and necks, they both make me crazy.

‘I hope you’re still down for that sober,’ she says into my skin.

I stroke the back of her neck, scratching with my nails until she groans again. ‘I’m down for that anytime you are.’

After one last kiss, she sits up, straddling my thighs. Her mouth’s parted, lips swollen, and there’s a glassiness in her eyes that’s not just from the alcohol. I eye her checkered pyjama bottoms, knowing she’s as wet as me under there.

Taking her hands, I turn them over. ‘Why do you have lungs there?’

Elly regards the tattoo. ‘For Taylor. She has cystic fibrosis. We went through a scary time with her last year. I got it just after that.’

‘Oh, I didn’t know.’ I nudge her sleeve up, revealing a cowboy hat. ‘What about this? Are you a secret cowboy?’

Elly smirks. ‘Got a thing for shit country music.’ She touches the moth on my collarbone. ‘I like yours too. They’re all so nature-y and gothic.’

‘Pretty much what I was going for.’

‘I love this one the best.’ She taps the huge mandala on my torso, currently hidden by my top. ‘Bet that hurt to fuck.’

I grin, lifting the hem of my vest to just under my boobs. ‘First one I got too.’

‘Tilda.’ She tsks, shaking her head. ‘You absolute masochist.’

‘Still went back for more.’

‘So I see.’ She trails her fingers over the pattern, smiling each time my stomach muscles contract. ‘You’re fucking gorgeous, Tilda.’

‘Thank you,’ I whisper, a little overawed by how much she seems to mean that.

She climbs off me to kill the light, pulling the quilt up over us both when she lies down. ‘I’m big spoon tonight. No arguments.’

I show her my back, closing my eyes when her arm comes round to pull me snuggly into her body.

Twin sighs leave us, then there’s only quiet.

‘I hope this doesn’t change anything,’ I whisper into the dark.

Elly strokes my stomach, dipping under my top every so often. She’s quiet for a long time before she finally whispers back, ‘I hope it does.’

CHAPTER 26

Nic

We scuff through the light snow, Haz whistling Christmas tunes and pretending she isn’t freezing her ass off in only a t-shirt.

Not a soul passes us as we enter the student village, walking along its silent, slippery cobbles. Wish it could be like this all the time.

I know there’s people still around, the unloved like me and Haz, the international students who don’t celebrate Christmas anyway.

Ludwig House appears locked up tight. We press all the buzzers but no one answers. That’s alright. No point being friends with the chancellor’s daughter’s best friend if I can’t call in a favour occasionally. And the less prying eyes the better.

Delving into my pocket, I pull out a manual key for the house.

I owe you one, Blakely.

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