Page 23 of Always There For You

“Always.”

“Mmm. Just means you need a really good distraction.”

That flirty tone was back in Hadley’s voice, but it carried with it a simmering heat. “Are you volunteering?”

“Goddamn right I am.” Then Hadley was scrambling over her, pulling Amelia up with easy touches until Amelia’s back was against the pillows and Hadley was in her lap. “Let’s start here.” And she whipped her shirt off. “Tada.”

Amelia’s eyes didn’t know where to go first. Hadley’s beautiful skin was bared before her, glowing softly in the dimmed lamplight and orange haze of the fire. The spray of tattooed ivy that curled over her right shoulder, from the very top and down, spilling down to swoop up, near the wings of delicate collarbones. The faded appendectomy scar. The pale, slightly zigzagging stretch marks across her waist. Only Hadley’s bra and jeans hiding the rest of her.

And gods, she wanted to touch but Amelia kept her hands on Hadley’s hips. “I…can I…”

“God. Yes. Please.”

But she hesitated. This line, this fuzzy, strange vibrant thing that had always kept them apart just enough… Very gently, Hadley put her hands on Amelia’s and drew them up. Together. Up over the soft skin of Hadley’s belly, pressing carefully. Her head felt too full, it was too much and yet oh so perfect.

“Like this.”

Higher they went. Together. Always together.

That touch to Hadley’s covered breasts broke the damn, erased the line. Their gazes locked. Amelia’s hands shaking. Hadley’s breathing quickening. “It’s okay,” Hadley whispered. “At our own pace. I know you’ll take care of me.”

Her throat was going to close up, from joy or tears or a bit of fear or all of that together.

Together. They’re together. Hadley’s not going anywhere.

Touch her. She wants you to.

Hadley’s sigh at her touch was something Amelia would never forget. She worried she was too gentle, skittish even, but Hadley’s hands were there. Holding her close, showing Amelia how to touch her. How easy it was to drag out a moan from between Hadley’s pretty lips with the brush of a thumb, or the slide of fingertips down her sternum. More than once, Hadley pulled her into a kiss, tongue teasing hers. Setting her blood on fire.

And when Hadley yanked Amelia’s shirt up, then off, tossing it to the floor, she became something new. Part slinky daydream of lust-hazed eyes and kiss-swollen lips, and part pure Hadley. Her soft skin and thick hair and every bit the person she’d always loved. From the time they were eight and playing hopscotch to giggling sixteen year olds swiping wine from the basement bar to go drink in the woods to now. Together in an old cottage outside of the town that had become home.

Amelia watched Hadley shiver under her touch and wanted. How she wanted everything, all of it, right now. The next few moments became a blur of sensation, her brain trying to separate the feel of Hadley’s lips on her neck from the fingers skimming down her sides. She felt glorious, untethered, and yet so warm she might burn up from the inside out.

“You’re so beautiful.” Hadley’s whisper against her belly, the way she slipped down Amelia’s body like she’d done it a hundred, a thousand times. “Ames. God.”

“Please come here.”

Hadley was so careful, mindful of the pointy bits on her body, as she crawled over Amelia. She knew an errant elbow or knee might hurt and that constant care, as if it were nothing but normal, made her heart swell to the point of aching. “I love you,” she said between slick, hot kisses, ones that melded with gentle touches that made her gasp.

Hadley groaned sweetly, kissed her again, then held Amelia’s face between her hands. “You are the only person in the world I would do anything for.”

“I know.”

“Good.” Amelia loved Hadley’s little knowing smirk, traced the corner of it with her thumb. “Gonna let me stay here tonight?”

She couldn’t resist teasing. “No, I figured I’d make out with you and kick you back to your bed-”

Hadley swooped down, laughing, rolling them until her fingers were hooked behind Amelia’s head so she could be pulled up into another kiss.

She crushed Hadley to her, got a knee between slim thighs, and let her touch wander. It was good and right and perfect. On their own time, at their own pace. They could be gentle now, and save everything else for later.

Chapter nine

Opening Day

Organized chaos.

Mild panic.

---