Chapter 41
Chapter forty-one
As Matty approached the restaurant, she caught sight of Sloan and Gloria. Something had shifted between them, but she couldn’t work out what.
Sloan held the door and Gloria shuffled in with her cane. No comment, no complaint, she just kept going. Sloan didn’t roll her eyes. She just patiently waited, then followed Gloria inside.
Catching up, Matty was about to push the door open when it disappeared from reach and a man held it for her. Smiling, he said, “After you.”
“Thanks.” Matty smiled back and stepped inside. She scanned the room and found Sloan looking at her from a table to the right. Gloria was already holding the menu and reading through it.
“Hey.”
“Hello,” Sloan answered, standing as she approached. Relief flickered across Sloan’s face—gone almost instantly, but Matty caught it.
“Are you alright?” Matty asked as she leaned in to accept the hug.
Sloan held on tighter than she expected.
“We’ll see,” she said, pulling a chair out and tapping the back of it.
Matty sat down slowly and glanced across the table. “Hello, Gloria.”
Gloria lowered the menu and looked up. “Hello, Matty.” Gloria smiled at her. No snarky retort. No disdainful glare. Just a simple hello, using her name.
“Okay…what’s happened?” Matty asked, her head moving between mother and daughter.
Sloan’s palm landed on her thigh. Warm. Grounding. “Mother and I had a little talk.” Sloan’s voice was even. “We’re looking forward to lunch with you.” Her fingers tightened just enough to draw a small, involuntary breath from Matty. “Alright?”
“Uh-huh.” That was all Matty could manage.
“I ordered a bottle of wine. If you’d prefer something else—”
“No, that’s…fine. I can do a glass of wine,” Matty said. She fidgeted in her seat and caught Sloan’s small smirk before it was gone again.
“Have you decided what you’d like, Mum?”
Gloria looked up and adjusted her glasses. “No, not yet, but I’m leaning towards the pie.”
“Good choice,” Sloan said, approving. She handed her menu to Matty. “I think you’ll enjoy the gnocchi with raclette.”
Below the table, Sloan’s hand moved slowly, edging closer to the hem of her dress. She leaned in. “You look beautiful, by the way.”
“I’ll—yes. Thank you.” Matty had stumbled over the words and caught Gloria’s narrowed gaze at the pair of them.
She braced for a comment. It didn’t come.
Matty leant in closer to Sloan and whispered, “Keep doing that and I’ll have to explain to the room why I sound like a scene from When Harry Met Sally.”
Sloan chuckled and pulled her hand away.
“Touché.”
***
Sloan's hand had returned while they were speaking with the waiter, barely moving, just the light sweep of fingertips drawing lazy circles on her inner thigh. When their food was ordered, Matty excused herself and headed for the toilets.
She was lightheaded with it all, her thoughts narrowed to one miserable, thrilling set of facts: She was wet, aching, and nowhere near relief.
There was nobody else in the bathroom. She checked herself in the mirror and smiled, her face lightly flushed, then caught something in her own reflection.
She looked alive. Felt alive. Nerve endings tingled everywhere.
Just as she was about to turn and enter a cubicle, the door opened and Sloan appeared, dark eyes fixed on her, jaw set.
“Sloan…” Matty felt the urge to giggle but stifled it. “What are you…”
“I want you.”
Something hot and startling moved through Matty. Sloan wanted her—properly wanted her. One look at her face and there was no doubting it.
“Really… And what do you plan to do about it?”
Sloan remained still, breathing through her nose, appearing composed to the outside world, but Matty knew otherwise.
“Right now, I am constrained by two things,” Sloan said, stepping closer. “One, I’m not about to fuck you senseless in a public bathroom for our first time together.”
“Probably for the best,” Matty murmured as Sloan stopped in front of her, “though my pussy might disagree. I’m so wet…”
Sloan swallowed, pupils blown wide. “I want to taste you so badly.”
“Two?”
It took Sloan a second to catch up. “Hm?”
“You said there were two reasons you were constrained,” Matty reminded her.
The edge of Sloan’s mouth lifted. “Well, as much as I know it wouldn’t take a lot right now, my mother would absolutely know, and I’m not giving her that to hold over you.”
Matty held her gaze and felt the meaning of it settle. Sloan wanted her badly enough to be shaken by it, and still, she was thinking about how to protect her.
Before Sloan could speak, Matty tugged her into the nearest cubicle and pushed the door shut behind them.
“Matty—”
“You said you wanted a taste.”
She hit the lock, then lifted her dress just enough to slide her hand into her knickers. Sloan’s eyes dropped at once.
Matty let her fingers move once, twice—just enough to make her breath catch and the smallest moan slip out.
“Only a taste,” she whispered, lifting her fingers to Sloan’s lips.
Sloan made a low sound in her throat and caught Matty’s wrist before she could think better of it. Her mouth closed around Matty's fingers, slowly and with purpose, eyes never leaving hers.
The heat of the moment went straight through Matty. She barely had time to breathe before Sloan was on her, backing her against something solid. Sloan’s tongue plunged into her mouth. Firm. Controlled. Impossible not to answer. She tasted herself in the mix of it.
She reached for Sloan, closing her hand around her wrist, and guiding it between her legs until Sloan was cupping her properly. The friction made her hips jerk before she could stop them.
“Not here,” Sloan whispered, pulling back at once. “Not here, Matty.” She drew a breath and forced space between them. “I want you that badly, I do, but…” She stepped back, forcing air between them. “Not in here. You deserve better than this.”
Matty touched Sloan’s mouth with two fingers, then let her hand fall. “Go back to your mother,” she whispered, “before I forget how to behave.”
Sloan opened the cubicle door, then looked back at her. “I’m going to spend the rest of lunch pretending I can’t still taste you.”
Matty stayed where she was after Sloan slipped out. She focused on the sounds of the door sweeping across the carpet as Sloan opened it, then as it swung closed behind her, seating itself with a soft click.
Silence rushed back in and she turned, resting against the door.
Her entire body hummed. Her lips felt swollen from the kiss, and between her legs there was only heat, ache, and the ghost of Sloan’s hand. She pressed her head back against the cubicle door and let out a shaky breath, eyes closing for a second.
Jesus.
Sloan had tasted her. Looked at her like that. Kissed her like she was already half undone by wanting.
And then walked away.
The thought should have frustrated her. It did frustrate her.
But underneath it was something even worse—something hotter.
Sloan had stopped because she wanted more for her than this.
More than a locked cubicle and a stolen handful of friction and the risk of Gloria knowing exactly why Matty couldn’t meet her eyes over lunch.
Matty looked down at herself, smoothed her dress over her hips, then laughed under her breath.
She was going to have to walk back out there like a normal person.
She was absolutely not feeling normal.