Chapter 11
CHAPTER
ELEVEN
The last person Kirby expected to knock on her door was Mara May.
“Can I help you?” Kirby asked, trying to infuse her voice with some teasing. It had been days since they’d spoken, and Kirby wasn’t quite sure what attitude she should bring to this interaction.
Mara didn’t bite at the joking tone. She said, “Is Jordan here?”
“No. She’s over at the training center. Why?”
“I bought her glasses.” Mara held up a shopping bag from a high-end Italian sporting goods store.
“Wow. That’s nice of you, which is… odd. You know most of us have sponsorships with—”
Mara slipped by Kirby, entering the room completely uninvited, leaving Kirby standing in the doorway gaping at air.
“Okay.” Kirby followed Mara. “What are you doing?”
Mara tossed the bag onto Jordan’s bed, the sunglasses rattling.
“What’s this?” Mara held up her phone. A video started to play, but it was muted.
It was from a queer outdoor and winter sports podcast she had done a few days ago.
It had been a casual chat. Kirby knew they were going to post clips soon, but she hadn’t seen any yet.
The host had asked her a million questions, from how she felt about the new equal racing distances for men and women (“big fan of equality”), to her opinions on the current political climate in the US (“fuck those hateful fuckers”), to her thoughts about her main opponents.
Uh-oh.
“It’s muted,” Kirby said.
Mara made a very unladylike noise and tossed her phone onto Kirby’s bed. “You know what you said.”
“Yeah.” Kirby didn’t exactly regret it. The podcast had been the morning after their hookup, and she’d chosen to talk about Mara as if she hadn’t just secretly had sex with her. It would have made zero sense if she’d acted all polite. And she hadn’t said anything too terrible.
“Is this what we’re doing now? Slamming each other any chance we get?” Mara snarled.
“Feel free to slam me back. You’re capable of backing it up. And you secretly like being vicious, so let it out, princess.”
Mara had avoided Kirby for days. No eye contact. No smiles. Zero acknowledgment. The usual treatment from her, honestly.
Except they’d fucked.
So this whole interaction was like bizarro world. None of it made sense. Not Mara showing up at her door. Or going straight to Kirby’s bed brandishing her phone like a weapon. Not Mara bearing gifts.
And definitely not Mara stripping her shirt off in one fluid move.
“I want to do things differently this time around. The Olympics, I mean,” Mara said. “I want to enjoy myself. Make friends. Be a good teammate.”
What the actual fuck was happening? If this was Mara being a good teammate, Kirby was a fan.
“Okay,” Kirby said slowly, but Mara wasn’t listening. She was ripping off her socks.
“So I bought Jordan sunglasses. Even though she probably already has some. It’s silly.”
“No, it’s not.”
“I’m tired of being so… angry and alone.”
“Right.”
“But I like being angry with you.”
“That’s a bit dysfunctional, Mara May… which is my jam.”
Mara was in nothing but pants and a sports bra. She started to take the pants off, and Kirby finally got herself into gear. Mara had made this decision. To come to Kirby. To take her clothes off for Kirby. An offering. A question.
Kirby stalked around the bed and finished the job for Mara, yanking the pants down. Mara stepped out of them, and stood there, all defiance and discomfort in a bra and panties.
Kirby shoved her back onto the bed. “This what you need, Mara May? A distraction?”
Mara nodded. Her eyes were wide like maybe her actions were catching up with her.
Kirby grabbed her ankle. “A distraction from the very true things I said about you on some podcast with limited reach.”
“It’s going viral.”
Kirby doubted that. Mara just had no idea what viral actually meant.
“Anything else?” Kirby asked. She pressed her lips to Mara’s calf. “Anything else you want a distraction from.”
“My father.”
“Ah, daddy issues. Hot.”
Mara almost—almost—laughed and Kirby almost—almost—felt like she’d won a gold medal all over again.
“What do you want?” Kirby asked.
“I don’t know.”
“What do you like?”
Mara huffed and closed her eyes. Kirby was losing her. Giving Mara too much time to second-guess and freak out. But sometimes you had to wade through the logistics to get to the good part.
“I have a great bill of health and get tested often. Just a little FYI,” Kirby said. She kissed the inside of Mara’s knee.
“Okay.”
“Sexual health.”
“Yeah. I got that.”
Kirby smiled. “This is the part where you could also tell me about your sexual health status if you wanted.”
“Oh. Right. It’s fine. I’m… Everything was fine on my last physical. And they did… all that.”
“Good.” Kirby laughed. Mara was one of the most frustrating people on the planet, but Kirby found her incredibly endearing right then.
Mara sat up and looked at the door. “Umm. So.”
Yep, Kirby was definitely losing her.
Kirby grabbed Mara’s ankles and yanked, which toppled Mara onto her back.
“How about this?” Kirby tugged a special bag out from under her bed. It was a bag she always traveled with. She pulled out the first sex toy she touched. “It’s my turn. Make me come and maybe I’ll return the favor.”
Mara was a go-getter. She needed a task.
Kirby handed over a toy called the Clitapult, a name she assumed was related to its resemblance to the throwing arm of a catapult. But it was quite simply a clit-sucker toy. A very effective one.
“I don’t even know what to do with this.” Mara held it up, aggravation eating up her words, but Kirby knew—and she didn’t know how she knew, but she did—that it was a front. A facade. A part of this game.
And that was absolutely what this was. A game. Kirby saying something mean on a podcast had been foreplay. This was the main event.
Kirby slid her track pants down and off. “Well, time’s ticking. I’m seeing the, uh, the physio in an hour.” That was a fib, but it wasn’t Mara’s business that Kirby was meeting with a sports psych. That was personal. More personal than getting naked together. “You better figure it out.”
To help Mara along, Kirby took off her briefs too, so she was in nothing but a tank top. She lay back on the bed, folded her hands behind her head, and bit her lip on a smile.
Mara rolled her eyes, tossed the toy beside Kirby, and knee walked until she was between Kirby’s legs.
Then she shocked the hell out of Kirby by pressing those insanely hot lips to Kirby’s clit.
A jolt rocked through Kirby. She was sensitive, and honestly kind of easy. Sometimes too easy.
“You ever do this before, Mara?” Kirby said from between gritted teeth. She didn’t know why she asked that except she wanted to hear Mara talk about her experience. Because stuff like that turned Kirby on. Making Mara talk to her turned her on.
Mara gave Kirby a slow, hard suck before lifting her face away. “No. I’m just an innocent little princess, remember?” Disdain dripped from her voice.
Kirby grinned and reached down to fist Mara’s long hair. “Don’t get snotty with me.”
“Or what?” Mara rolled her eyes again.
She was really leaning into the bratty thing. Or was she actually bratty?
Kirby had no idea.
And it didn’t matter. Kirby’s reaction was the same either way.
It was hot either way.
She yanked on Mara’s hair, forcing her back a few inches.
“Fuck me with your fingers.”
Mara followed her orders, but she still had that stubborn set to her jaw. Kirby loved it.
She loved the tentative touch, the way Mara quickly got more assertive as she realized how much Kirby liked it. Mara tried to lean back toward Kirby’s cunt, but Kirby wouldn’t let her, holding her by her hair.
“Fine,” Mara grumbled as she sat up. Kirby let her, not willing to keep Mara in place if she truly wanted to get away. But Kirby quickly realized Mara’s intention as she picked up the Clitapult.
Mara looked at it like it was a ridiculous waste of time but also kept up a steady finger fuck with her other hand. She touched some of the buttons on the toy. It buzzed to life, softly at first, then louder as she upped the intensity.
Honestly, Kirby could have come just from Mara’s fingers in her pussy. It was almost inconvenient how close she was. She wanted to draw it out. Make Mara keep working for it. But if she used that toy on Kirby on that setting, it would be over.
“Start low,” Kirby managed to gasp out, but the words were clipped and didn’t really make sense. Or at least Mara pretended they didn’t make sense.
“What?” Mara pressed the head of the Clitapult, set on a higher setting, over Kirby’s clit in the most nonchalant way.
Kirby had managed to stay relatively in control to that point.
But she lost all semblance of control in three seconds flat. She moaned and jerked, her body inadvertently shying away from the intensity of the toy.
“Oh,” Mara said like she’d discovered something surprising.
And that was the last thing Kirby heard besides her own babbling. “I’m gonna—turn it—oh God, Mara.”
Mara fucked her harder with two or maybe three fingers and kept the toy pressed firmly against Kirby’s clit, and Kirby tried to hold in her scream as a sharp, hard orgasm ripped through her.
The light in the room sparkled in her vision, and she couldn’t stop rolling her head back and forth against the bed. She was being loud. Too loud. Not smothering her sounds at all anymore.
“Too much,” Kirby panted and pushed the clit sucker away, but Mara didn’t let up with her fingers, and more pulses, softer ones, throbbed through Kirby, her body squeezing Mara’s fingers again and again.
Kirby felt uncomfortably thrown.
She sat up and glared at Mara. Mara glared back before a smile started to slip over her sinful lips.
Kirby grabbed Mara’s wrist and licked her taste off Mara’s fingertips. Then she manhandled Mara onto her back and bit the inside of her thigh.
“Oh, so you are going to return the favor after all?” Mara said, and she had every right to sound smug, but it still pissed Kirby off.
She wrapped her arm over Mara’s hip and pinned her down with a hand on her stomach. And then she tasted her. For the first time.
Kirby had fooled around with her fair share of people. She knew that sometimes bodies just spoke to each other. A magnetic thing. Maybe a pheromone thing.
But no one had ever tasted as amazing as Mara. No one had ever smelled so good. Or felt as incredible.
Every once in a while Kirby pulled out the bells and whistles. The handcuffs. The vibrators. The strap-ons. She liked that shit. She liked bells and whistles.
But sometimes, nothing was better than good, old-fashioned head.
Mara moved against her mouth, her body chasing and pushing for everything all at once. Kirby lightly pinched her hip and lifted her mouth away.
“Calm down.”
Mara had an arm thrown over her eyes. “How the heck am I supposed to calm down when you’re going down on me? Jesus, don’t be ridiculous.”
“Stop pushing. Relax.”
Mara pulled her arm off her face and sat up on her elbows, her abs rippling in a way that made Kirby want to lick her everywhere.
Mara clearly had something to say about those instructions, but Kirby didn’t let her. She sucked on Mara’s clit again and watched as Mara’s head slammed back like she’d been punched.
“My bed is going to smell like you. Like whatever expensive perfume you wear all the time. Do you know how unfair that is?” Kirby said quietly.
Mara’s mouth opened, but she didn’t make a sound.
“Let me take care of you.”
Mara shook her head, her eyes squeezed shut.
“I’ll get you there.”
“I know.”
“Then what’s the problem, princess?”
“Don’t call me th—” Mara jerked as Kirby ran fingers through the wetness between Mara’s legs. “Ah… please.”
“Please, what?” Kirby swirled her tongue over Mara’s clit and pressed her fingers inside. Mara’s body quietly went wild. It was an intense thing. She didn’t cry out. She barely moved. But the tension in her body ratcheted up like a bow that had been strung way too tight. “What, Mara?”
“It’s been a long time. So hurry up.”
A thrill raced down Kirby’s spine, and she pressed her hips to the bed. She could go again. She could do this all fucking day. They were endurance athletes after all. The trouble they could get up to in this bed.
“It’s only been two days,” Kirby said.
“That doesn’t count.”
“Like hell it doesn’t.”
Mara made a growly, exasperated noise and tried to grab Kirby’s head, but Kirby laughed and dodged her.
Still, it was time to put Mara out of her misery. Kirby dipped her mouth back to Mara’s cunt and flicked her tongue over Mara’s clit for several long minutes.
“You taste good.”
“Ugh, shut up.”
“No.” Kirby licked right through the center of Mara’s pussy. Mara had finally stopped chasing her orgasm. She was letting Kirby’s machinations sweep over her. Giving Kirby the reins. “When was the last time someone did this for you? Took care of you like this?”
Mara rocked with the thrust of Kirby’s fingers. “Harder. Please, harder.”
It wasn’t an answer to her question but did tell Kirby so much she wanted to know. She fucked Mara harder, sucked her clit harder for ten, twenty, thirty seconds, before pulling off.
Mara thumped her fist against the bed.
“When, princess? Tell me.”
“God, I don’t know. A week ago. They were better than you. Made me come so fast. Felt better than what you’re… Oh, fuck.”
Kirby laughed at the way Mara was trying to bait her. It was a lie. Mara had just said so. But Kirby liked games.
She curled her fingers inside Mara’s cunt, and it was like she’d found a ripcord and pulled it. Mara’s body pulsed hard once, twice.
On the third pulse, Kirby licked Mara’s clit again, and Mara detonated against her mouth, in her hands. Waves of pleasure rolled through her. She was silent through it all, but her body did the speaking. And Kirby loved what it had to say.