The Damaged Hearts Bargain (Tetherington Hearts #2)

Chapter Nineteen

A t least her hands weren’t shaking, which given that it felt like everything inside her was quivering with anticipation was somewhat of a miracle.

“This is my room,” Lucy said, opening the door.

“And am I allowed in it?” asked Cal, quirking an eyebrow.

Lucy swallowed, then nodded, wondering just why exactly she felt like a teenager on her first date. Cal hesitated for a moment, then slipped inside and Lucy followed her, closing the door.

Thin curtains billowed in the breeze, waves hissed on the beach below, faint beams of sunshine leaked around the edges of the windows. And Lucy’s nerve almost failed.

Almost and then Cal turned to her and she saw the faint glimmer of something in her eyes and her stomach turned a somersault and her mouth went dry. Slowly, Cal smiled and then held out a hand.

“Do you want something?” Lucy asked, voice not at all still.

Cal quirked her eyebrow again and Lucy felt herself blush.

“I, er, I meant like a cup of tea or something,” she added.

Cal laughed and shook her head. “I’m all alright for tea, thanks. Unless… do you want something?”

Lucy puffed out a sigh of air, thought about a cup of hot sweet tea, and then thought about Cal lowering her to the bed and decided she definitely knew which she’d rather have .

“It’s alright,” Cal said. “I mean, it’s alright to be nervous, and it’s completely alright if you’ve changed your mind, I can—”

“What? No!” Lucy cried. “I haven’t at all. I, um, I mean…” She took a deep, shuddering breath. “I just mean I really want to and I don’t really know where to start because…” Another breath. “Because I can’t quite believe that I’m allowed to.”

“Allowed to?” Cal asked, stepping in closer.

Lucy rolled her eyes at her own stupidity. “Yeah, I know. It sounds stupid. Allowed to… you know… to touch you.”

She heard Cal’s breath catch in her throat.

“Yeah, I know,” she said. “We don’t have to… Uh, you can leave if you want to…”

Cal’s hand came up and cupped her cheek and Lucy’s gaze was forced downward until she was looking into Cal’s eyes and then, to her horror, Cal started to laugh.

“See? I knew I was being stupid,” Lucy said, tearing herself away.

“No, not at all,” Cal said, catching her hand and pulling her back in. “That’s not why I’m laughing. I’m laughing because I feel exactly the same.”

“Yeah, right.” But she wasn’t pulling away anymore.

“Lucy-Lucy,” Cal said, voice getting huskier and deeper. “There is nothing that I want to do more than lay you down on that bed in the summer heat, strip every scrap of clothing off you, and then worship you for as long as you’ll let me.”

Lucy’s heart beat harder in her chest.

“I want to taste you, to feel you. I want you to move under me. I want to hold you as you shake,” Cal continued, eyes darkening.

Lucy felt everything inside her turn to a molten mess.

Cal came even closer so that Lucy could feel the heat of her even though they were barely touching. “But I can’t believe I’m allowed to do that. Not with someone as… as beautiful as you.”

Lucy wanted to say that she could, wanted to give her total and complete permission, but all that would come out of her mouth was a strange, guttural, primal noise that made no sense at all until she pulled Cal in and crushed her mouth down onto hers.

Cal was stronger than she looked. Lucy felt hands on her waist, then felt herself being picked up even as they still kissed and then she was lying on the softness of the bed and Cal was kneeling over her.

And she just about broke.

The sight of Cal staring down at her adoringly, the thought of the things Cal said she wanted to do to her, it was all too much. She could feel her heartbeat through her center, could feel herself swelling, could feel wetness leaking out of her, and when Cal leaned in to carefully slide the strap of her dress off her shoulder she grabbed her wrist.

Grabbed her wrist with one hand and lifted her skirts with the other and, just so that there could be no mistake about her intentions, placed Cal’s hand exactly where she wanted it to be and gave a hiss of pleasure.

“Patience,” Cal began to say. “We’ve all the time in the world.” But she stopped abruptly and Lucy pressed herself into Cal’s hand.

The problem was that Lucy didn’t have all the time in the world. Time had stopped existing. Time was only this pinpoint of a moment just right now and nothing else before or after mattered in the slightest.

“Oh,” said Cal, as Lucy pulled her underwear aside.

“Oh,” she said again as Lucy moved just slightly under her willing hands.

“Oh,” she said a third time as Lucy pushed up to her hand and her fingers finally felt the slick, wanting wetness of her.

Lucy bit her lip at the sensation of being touched, bit her lip at the sight of Cal’s cheeks reddening, at the sound of her breath coming harder. And she managed a word. Just one word. “Please.”

Then Cal was gathering her to her, an arm coming around her shoulders so that she was clasped against Cal’s chest and then Cal’s fingers were moving as expertly as Lucy’s own would, and there was no more room for thought. No room for anything other than the waves of heat that were passing over her and through her and emanating from her.

She took a breath and inhaled the woody scent of Cal, and then her eyes slammed shut and her legs began to shake and in those sweet, precious few seconds there was nothing in the world except her and Cal.

For a long minute they stayed there, Cal kneeling on the bed, Lucy in her arms. Then Lucy started to regain her breath, started to float back to Earth.

“Jesus,” Cal whispered.

“Sorry,” said Lucy, opening her eyes. “God, I’m so sorry… I just… I don’t know what happened.”

“I do,” Cal said, eyes wide with wonder. “And it was just about the hottest thing I’ve ever seen.”

“It’s never been like that before,” said Lucy, wriggling so that she was sitting up. “I mean, I’m not a nymphomaniac or anything. I can have sex like a normal person rather than like some kind of starving animal.”

Cal was shaking her head, eyes still wide. “No need to apologize. And just for the record, so can I.”

“So can you what?” asked Lucy. Now that her breath was back she was noticing the way Cal’s throat moved as she spoke, how the movement naturally led her downward, over the buttons of her shirt, down further until she was thinking about just what might be on the menu for next.

“Have sex like a normal person,” Cal said. “You know, taking my time, foreplay, things like that.” She put a finger under Lucy’s chin, pulling her gaze up so that they were eye to eye. “Looking after you.”

Lucy’s heart was beating funny again. Funny at the idea of someone looking after her. Funny at the idea of looking after someone else. Funny at the idea of the afternoon stretching out long and hot before them.

Slowly, she reached across and unbuttoned the first of Cal’s shirt buttons.

Cal leaped off the bed. “I can do that,” she said, starting work on the next button.

Lucy put out a hand to stop her. “You could,” she said. “Or… Or I could do it.”

Cal’s hands dropped to her sides and she looked a little uncomfortable as Lucy shed her of her shirt.

“And I could do this,” Lucy said, reaching for Cal’s belt buckle and undoing it.

“Or I could do it,” said Cal, fingers reaching for her pants button.

Lucy stood up. “You don’t have to be that way here,” she said.

“What way?” Cal looked confused. Adorably confused. So confused that Lucy bent over her and kissed her lips slowly and tenderly.

“We’re equals in the bedroom,” she said. “I don’t know what you’ve had before, but I don’t expect you to honor me and worship me and whatever else without getting at least the same back from me.”

Cal cleared her throat. “Okay,” she breathed. “It’s just that… I’m more used to taking the lead maybe.”

Lucy considered her, looked at the heft of her standing before her, the soft solidness of her that made her breath come faster, made her want to thrust Cal’s hand back between her legs again. “If you want me to stop, I will.”

There was a long second, then Cal shook her head.

Lucy grinned. “In that case, would it be so bad to be worshiped?”

Cal didn’t have a chance to answer because Lucy was pushing her back onto the bed, grabbing a pillow and pushing it behind her head and then gently pushing her knees apart.

“Maybe not,” Cal managed to croak.

“Maybe not?” asked Lucy, kneeling down between Cal’s legs and letting her breath trail across her skin.

“Jesus,” Cal groaned.

“Maybe not?” repeated Lucy, brushing her lips across skin stretched over taut thigh muscles.

“Definitely not,” Cal said, parting her legs further .

“Good,” said Lucy as she pushed her face up into other areas. Areas that were far more interesting than just thighs.

She could do this, she thought. If this was short term, if this was what the next few days held, then she could definitely do this. She definitely wanted this.

She was wet again already as she pushed her hands up the legs of Cal’s shorts, felt the heat of her, the softness of her skin and then the scratchiness of hair. Wet again and breathing hard as she pulled down those shorts. And now her hands were shaking.

But it didn’t matter, because her tongue was going to be doing all the work.