Chapter Three #2
“You’re beautiful,” Tess whispered into her ear while she pressed her front into Bree’s back. Bree breathed in deeply the unique citrus vanilla fragrance that drifted forward. She wouldn’t forget the scent of Tess.
“Look who’s talking.” Bree pushed her ass back against Tess’s pelvis, a first fully intimate encounter that felt like they’d practiced it to perfection.
Bree gripped the railing tightly in order to remain steady with the exquisite rush of ache and heat and pulsing want.
There was no denying her body’s desire for Tess.
“Oh my gosh. I think we were just hit by that torpedo.” Tess’s voice was low and suggestive as she rocked forward into Bree.
“Good thing you brought me along.” Bree chuckled as her mouth-to-mouth promise resurfaced. “But I have to say, I think it’s friendly fire.” She pushed harder against Tess and felt the pressure of Tess responding.
“Yes, a very good thing.” Tess turned Bree around, and her hungry eyes searched Bree’s. “I think I’m drowning.”
The world shrank to the space between their mouths. Bree nodded and then savored the soft meeting of their lips as they closed that space. Tess’s were soft and warm, and Bree sucked Tess’s lower lip into her mouth before releasing it so their tongues could meet and explore and taste.
The water, the sky, the steady splash of the paddlewheel faded away as Bree worked her kisses down Tess’s throat, placing them over the pounding pulse she could detect under the smooth skin.
Her own chest rose and fell at an accelerated rate.
Her breasts brushed against Tess’s with each draw of her breath, and Bree wanted to feel the full weight of Tess against the length of her body.
The mounting demands of desire settled between her legs and threatened to undo her on the spot.
“I want to go from mouth-to-mouth to full body compressions, but I rather doubt the queen bee would want a public lewdness charge on Her Majesty’s record.”
Bree marveled at how close they’d become since Tess’s first queen bee declaration—that first morning encounter when she’d seriously considered that Tess might be cold.
Definitely not, at least not with her, but Tess was certainly a complex woman who Bree only knew in this temporary setting—knew defined as only what she’d experienced under their Tahoe constraints, although she suspected those guidelines might have liberated a Tess others didn’t know.
Tess laughed as she raised Bree’s face and planted butterfly kisses along her jawline. The exploration continued until an older gentleman cleared his throat and offered them a knowing look.
“When I first called you princess, I wasn’t thinking fairy-tale romance.” Tess stepped back and gently turned Bree so she could stand by Tess’s side and watch the sunset too.
Still connected by paired palms, they shared the thrum of their hearts’ extended beats across the pressed flesh of their wrists. That would have to be enough for now, but Bree would welcome more. As if Tess was reading her mind, she offered Bree a final whisper before they docked.
“Maybe the ‘Princess and the Pea’ sleeping accommodations should be turned over to the cats tonight.”
“You want to add two outlaw felines to my bad couch misery?” Bree faked a gasp.
Tess offered a noncommittal shrug, but the gleam in her eyes gave her away. “I was considering that maybe I could be the one who tortures you.”
“Well, in that case…”
The nerves chattered away in Tess’s head on the car ride back to the cabin.
Those nerves reminded her that she hadn’t been with a woman in way too long and maybe she wouldn’t measure up to Bree’s expectations, but her need for this woman—not just any woman—drowned out her apprehension.
She had even nervously assured Bree that she was clear of sexually transmissible diseases in a rather embarrassing declaration, and to her relief, Bree had nodded and responded, “Me too.”
When she entered the front door behind Bree, Tess left those killjoy concerns outside. She didn’t want to face how much she liked Bree, someone she’d considered an intrusive stranger not long ago, so she wouldn’t, except to embrace tonight as the gift it was.
The feline duo vacated the bedroom for the feast that Tess quickly offered them in the kitchen. “You girls get the dilapidated davenport tonight.”
Bree smiled as Tess threw caution to the wind.
Bree held out her hand, and Tess took it as they walked together to the bedroom.
The deep low throb escalated between Tess’s legs, and she felt the wetness of anticipation.
When they reached the room, those darkened indigo eyes consumed her while Bree waited patiently for her to make the first move toward creating a memory that Tess knew wouldn’t remain in Tahoe.
Tess would carry their lovemaking home and treasure it on those lonely nights she knew were coming.
She had no right to change the rules now and declare that she wanted more.
She’d return home and undoubtedly pine for the person that Bree had enticed her into becoming when they were together.
She had no clue who Bree was in the real world, and Bree had no clue about her. But tonight…
“Tess.” Her name fell from Bree’s lips in a low moan, part question and part plea.
Her name had never sounded this intoxicating before.
The acknowledgment that Bree desperately wanted her launched Tess’s heart rate into a pounding pulse she felt all the way to her toes, to say nothing of the escalation of the throbbing need in her lower abdomen.
She took Bree’s face in her hands and answered, silencing that plea with her mouth.
She slipped her hand to the waistband of Bree’s slacks and guided her backward to the mattress but stopped before Bree ended up recumbent on the bedding.
Bree’s erratic breathing and dilated eyes told her everything she needed to know, but she wanted to hear it from Bree.
“This is the point of no return, before I strip away those clothes and have you the way I want you. I’m sure, but are you?” In fact, Tess was rather shocked at how sure she was. And it was more than her hormones speaking—that was shocking too.
“Yes. I want this part of our…” Bree obviously didn’t have that final descriptor for what they’d had. Neither did Tess.
The finality of what was going to be left behind in Tahoe hurt. But Tess wanted this memory for the long nights ahead.
“I never thought we’d…” Tess let her voice trail off too, the husk a mix of lament and lust.
“I know, Tess. Me too. But I can either go home and try to imagine making love to you, or I can go home and know just how magnificent it really was.” Bree reached behind Tess’s head and freed the loose bun she’d worn today, and then she ran her fingers through Tess’s hair.
“No pressure, huh?” Tess started to lift Bree’s sweater, making sure her knuckles softly brushed smooth skin as she worked the fabric up to the lower edge of that silken undergarment covering Bree’s full breasts, and then above.
She leaned in and gently worked the aroused nipples through the black bra’s fabric before she helped Bree remove and discard the sweater.
Tess would have sworn that her heart skipped several beats as she took in the beauty of the woman.
She reached around, unfastened the bra, and slipped the garment off.
Bree’s full upper body was on display and delectable.
Before Tess could touch the tempting flesh the way she wanted to, Bree quickly unbuttoned Tess’s shirt and spun her around.
She slipped the top off Tess’s arms and freed her of her bra too.
Then she turned Tess once again, so they faced each other.
As Bree visually examined Tess, her brow furrowed and she reached out and touched Tess’s chest scar, then widened her eyes in question.
Tess hesitated, afraid Bree would find her undesirable.
She hadn’t been with a woman since well before the shooting, and that had been minimally satisfying.
Now she bore the puckered pink blemish. It had only bothered Tess before as a reminder of the attack and her close call with death, but now it was a physical imperfection when Tess wished she could be undamaged for Bree. At least on the outside.
As if reading her mind, Bree leaned in, gently touched, then kissed the superficial reminder of the deeper wound. “You’re perfect. I just hate that you were hurt. What happ—”
Before Bree could finish asking, Tess interceded. “This”—Tess pointed at the mark—“has nothing to do with Tahoe. No baggage tonight, okay?”
She gave Bree a look she hoped conveyed her desire to simply continue what they’d been doing, to stick to their guidelines.
Tess didn’t want to discuss the unsolved shooting in the courthouse parking lot, or the resulting aftermath of self-assessment.
Tonight was about this moment with Bree.
Making a memory with Bree, before they said goodbye, because Bree wasn’t asking for more.
And Tess wouldn’t put herself in that position, a situation vulnerable to rejection. They had an agreement.
Bree reached out again, but this time she gently swept her hand from Tess’s smooth throat down between her breasts and lower, stopping short of the molten fire smoldering between Tess’s thighs.
Tess let out her breath in relief, then leaned in to take the peak of Bree’s breast into her mouth, her tongue torturing that erect nipple.
Tess guided Bree back onto the mattress and finished undressing her. Her entire body hummed with craving as she looked at the gorgeous naked woman waiting on the bed. Bree pulled Tess down beside her, and Tess cooperated as Bree liberated her from the last of her clothing too.
Tess hadn’t done this in too long, but her body hadn’t forgotten. Strong and skilled fingers began to take Tess apart. They circled Tess’s nipples before gently squeezing them, one at a time, then slowly grazed a trail down her abdomen.