Chapter 8 Spellbound #2
My stomach flipped. “Yeah, I…”
Francesca reached up and removed my glasses. She tucked some loose strands of hair behind my ear before cupping my jaw and softly steering my face towards hers. “Do you want to kiss me again?”
I didn’t trust my voice, so I just nodded dumbly.
She crushed her lips to mine, parting them with her tongue.
This time she tasted of minty toothpaste, and I couldn’t believe we were actually kissing on her bed.
Francesca’s hand began to roam, at first over, then under my sweatshirt, her fingers making me gasp as they blazed a trail across my bare skin.
Jeremy came crashing into my thoughts, as well as everything I’d imagined happening on this bed while lying awake on the other side of the wall. I pulled back, breathless, and Francesca frowned.
“What is it?”
“I… I was thinking about Jeremy.”
Her eyebrows knitted together. “Why? You just told me you’re a lesbian.”
I exhaled a laugh. “No… I mean, yes, I am. It’s just that… there’s really nothing going on between the two of you, is there?”
Francesca cocked her head and pursed her lips into a tight line.
“I’m sorry for asking, but you’ve been spending a lot of time with him lately and, if I’m not mistaken, he’s keen on you.”
She hooked a leg over mine and pulled herself up until she was straddling me. My body ached for her, and I cursed my mind for thinking about Jeremy when the hottest girl on campus was trying to get off with me. But a nagging part of my brain needed to know.
Francesca stared into my eyes with a heart-stopping intensity.
“Well, I’m keen on you, soooo… I don’t want to think about Jeremy, or anything other than this, right now.
” She dragged a finger over my lips and traced it down to the hollow of my throat.
“Perhaps we should put your lesbianism to the test?”
I swallowed. She looked so beautiful in the sway of the candlelight. I arched up to kiss her again, but she pulled back.
“Hold on, it’s rather hot in here. Why don’t you take this off?” She tugged at my top.
I sat up between her legs and whipped my sweatshirt over my head, revealing nothing but a plain white bra underneath.
“There. That’s better.” Francesca gave a satisfied smirk and pushed me back onto the pillows. My breath hitched as she traced her tongue down my neck and along my bra strap until she reached the cup. She glanced up at me, her dark eyes full of want. “May I remove this?”
How was she so confident and hot, when I was nothing but a very un-sexy mess melting beneath her?
My jelly-like limbs couldn’t comply, but before I knew it, I’d rocked forward so she could uncouple the bra hooks.
She cupped my breasts in her hands. I moaned as she flicked her tongue over my nipple and took it into her mouth.
The ache between my legs grew so strong my hips bucked involuntarily beneath her. Oh God. Mortification dropped like a ball in my stomach. I felt Francesca’s smile spread across my skin.
“Getting impatient for more, are you?” She sat back and unfastened my jeans, pushing her hand past the waistband and into my underwear.
“Francesca, I haven’t done this—”
“Shh! Just relax,” she said, wriggling her fingers under the thin cotton.
I gasped as she dipped into me.
Of course I’d touched myself there, and over the last few months it had always been while thinking of her. But now here she was, inside me, taking everything I had to give.
I lay mesmerised and panting, her dark eyes urging and curling fingers coaxing, until I crested and came — hot, flustered, and a bit embarrassed that it had happened so fast.
She sat back and licked my wetness from her hand, staring into my eyes as her tongue flicked between her fingers. She settled down next to me, my arm under her head and her arm around my naked midriff.
“Is there anything I can do for you?”
She responded by kissing my cheek and nuzzling into me. “No, but this is nice. Will you stay?”
“Yeah, of course.” There was nowhere else I’d rather be. I kissed the top of her head. My nipples stood to attention in the cool December air as I lay grinning at the ceiling, listening to the soft rise and fall of Francesca’s sleeping breath.
What felt like only a few hours later, light yawned into the room through the thin curtains.
My eyes shuttered open, and my heart thumped at the warmth of Francesca still sleeping next to me in the narrow bed.
At some point she’d pulled the duvet up over both of us and turned away from me.
In the stark, sober daylight, nerves twisted my stomach as I thought about last night.
I didn’t regret it; it had been the best thing that had ever happened to me. But would she regret it?
Francesca stirred and pulled the duvet over her head. “Keep it down, will you? I can hear you over-thinking from here.”
I laughed. “How on earth can you hear me thinking?”
She twisted around to face me. My God, she even looked gorgeous with mussed bed hair. I imagined mine, on the other hand, would look like I’d lost a fight with a gorilla.
“You breathe loudly through your nostrils when you’re thinking too hard.” Her mouth split into a wicked grin.
“I do not breathe loudly through my nostrils.”
“Yes, you do.” She reached over and squeezed my nose. Laughter erupted between us, quickly dissipating my worries. Her hand dropped to my bare chest where she traced lazy circles over my nipple.
“What we did last night… have you… done that before?”
Francesca puffed out a small laugh. “Couldn’t you tell?”
“Well, yeah… you seemed to know what you were doing.”
“Let’s just say I know how to make you feel good, and next time you’ll know how to make me feel good, or at least you’ll have an idea where to start.”
I grinned stupidly. “Next time?”
“You’re going to have to return the favour, of course.
” She leaned in and captured my lips. I was self-conscious about my morning breath, but she didn’t seem to mind.
The faint taste of me lingered on her lips and stirred my arousal again.
I dared to let my own hand wander, moving it slowly under her oversized T-shirt, feeling my way over her skin, which was as smooth and soft as I’d imagined it would be.
I paused when I reached the curve of her breast.
“May I?” I whispered.
“I insist,” she purred. I slid my hand up, gently cupping the fullness of her, and she deepened our kiss. The alarm clock on her bedside table interrupted, chirping until Francesca reached over me and knocked it onto the floor. The alarm wheezed a final chirp as the batteries popped out.
“What time is it?”
“Eight,” she said.
“Shit. I need to leave in an hour. I haven’t finished packing, and I should probably take a shower.” I jumped up and scrambled for my bra and sweatshirt. “You probably need to pack too.” I glanced around at the mess.
Francesca groaned her dissatisfaction and flopped back, sprawling into the space I’d vacated.
“I’m sorry I have to go...” And I truly was. If I had my way, I’d never leave this room. “I promise I’ll make it up to you.”
She arched an eyebrow. “Oh, you will alright.”
Her confidence whipped the fluttering in my stomach into a swarm.
I leaned over to kiss her again, and my smile spread over her lips. “Merry Christmas, Francesca.”
“Humbug,” she pouted before gripping the back of my head and sliding her tongue into my mouth.
As the train rattled out of the station, I wrapped my hands around a polystyrene cup of coffee.
My face ached from the grin I’d tried, and failed, to bite back all morning.
Avoiding Jeremy’s inquisitive gaze from across the table, I focused out the window at the stark frost-ravished landscape rolling past.
“You’re looking awfully chipper, Trusty. What’s got into you?”
“Francesca, Francesca, Francesca,” my mind sang. I tried to temper my smile as I glanced at him. “Just looking forward to getting home and seeing my dad.”
“Fair enough. It’s always good to get home for the holidays and spend a little time with the folks.” Jeremy threaded and unthreaded his fingers on the table. “I do feel awful for Francesca though.”
Her name sounded strange on his lips now, like he was saying a word only I understood the meaning of. I really didn’t want to share her with him anymore.
“Hmm… how so?”
“The poor thing’s spending Christmas on campus. Her mother’s away on a Caribbean cruise with her ghastly new husband.”
My heart sank. “I… I didn’t know.” Why hadn’t I asked about her plans?
“You know what she’s like, brave face and all that.
She said she didn’t care, that she doesn’t even like Christmas anyway.
But I feel bad, us off having our jollies while she’s stuck there all alone.
” Jeremy’s mouth stretched into a grimace.
“That’s what I tried to talk to you about before you dashed off.
I was hoping you’d be able to persuade her to come with us.
I’d even asked my folks, and they were fine, delighted in fact.
You know, with the idea of me finally bringing a girl home! ”
“Yeah, but it’s not like that, is it?” I blinked rapidly, as if my eyelids had just learned Morse code for ‘back the fuck off, Jeremy’.
Colour flushed Jeremy’s cheeks. “No, but… maybe. I think there’s something between us. I mean, she’s not disinterested. And…”
“And, what?”
He glanced around to check no one was listening in, then leaned forward over the table. “We nearly kissed a couple of weeks ago.”
I almost snorted out my coffee. “You what?”
The train rounded a bend, and the carriage rattled over the tracks.
“I popped by one day, but you were out. I knocked on Francesca’s door, and she was super stressed about an assignment, so I offered to help. Afterwards, we loafed about, listening to… you know, her music.”
I rolled my eyes. “Yes, I know her music. I hear it through the wall most days.” I gestured with my hand for him to continue. “So…”
He huffed out a laugh. “Yeah, well. We had a moment.”
I narrowed my eyes. “What sort of moment?”
“She rested her head on my shoulder, and so I leaned in.”
“Right. And?”
Jeremy frowned and fixed me with a curious gaze. “Why are you suddenly so interested? You all but disappeared on us over the last few weeks.”
“Did you kiss or not?”
He huffed and slumped back in his seat. “Not.”
I realised I’d been leaning in too. Relief seeped through me as I sat back in the musty seat.
“But it almost happened.” He chewed his thumb. “I think she wanted to, but she got shy.”
I pressed my tongue to my bruised lip, recalling how it had felt to finally kiss Francesca. She’d been far from shy with me. I took a sip of my now-lukewarm coffee.
“I don’t think she’s very experienced,” continued Jeremy.
This time I spluttered the coffee back into the cup. “And you are?”
“No,” he said, flustered, “but I’m the chap, and I’m older, so I should take the lead.”
I widened my eyes at him. “Perhaps you should leave those views in the 1950s, where they belong.”
Jeremy waved my suggestion away. “You know what I mean.”
I focussed on the bare bones of a tree in the distance and cleared my throat. “Maybe you should set your sights on someone else?”
He squinted, scanning my face for the rationale.
Shit, I’ve said too much.
“You’re not jealous, are you, Trusty?”
“What? No!”
He grinned. “You know you’ll always be my favourite girl, right?”
“Shut up, you idiot.” I laughed despite myself. “I’m not jealous.” Not in the way he thought I was, anyway. My mind settled back on Francesca sitting alone in her room, and my chest tightened. “I feel awful that she’s on her own. I wish I’d known.”
“If it’s any consolation, I’m not sure you’d have been able to talk her around. She seemed pretty adamant about staying put.”
I swallowed. “I could’ve tried.” My mind conjured the way she’d groaned when I’d left her high and dry, and how I might have tempted her to come back with us, but I quickly shook that thought away.
Now that Francesca and I were on intimate terms, I hated the idea of sharing her with Jeremy, especially on the grounds of his family home, where he’d spare no expense trying to impress her.