Chapter Nine
Back in the room after dinner, Mack was acting really weird.
In fact, a strange tension had entered her body almost the moment they began climbing the stairs to their room.
Mack seemed to stutter, then insisted that Kayla walk in front of her.
At first, she thought Mack was playing up the whole couple thing and checking out her butt.
It did look pretty amazing in her pale blue, barely-there sundress.
But Mack seemed more interested in the pitch-black sky, big puffy clouds obscuring all but the barest silver glow of the moon.
Then the cat arrived on the scene, and Mack turned her full attention to their feline friend, forcing Kayla to tell her to come inside the room before bugs came in through the open door. She dragged her feet but complied.
Now, while Kayla brushed her teeth and scrubbed sunscreen and travel dirt off her face, Mack shuffled around their room, picking up random things and putting them back down just as quickly.
If Mack had been one of her dogs, Kayla would expect to see her ears flat against her skull and her tail tucked between her legs.
Kayla had had enough. “Spill before you explode.”
Mack still looked like a scared puppy, meeting Kayla’s eyes for a split second before staring at the floor again. “What?”
Annoyance coursed through Kayla’s frame.
She would have been gentle with a dog, but handling Mack required a little more pushiness.
She had never been good at talking about her feelings.
“You’re wound so tight you look like you want to peel off your skin.
” She softened her tone slightly to say, “Tell me what’s going on. ”
Whether it was the initial firmness or the softening, Mack finally settled.
Her shoulders slumped from where they’d been rooted next to her ears, and she pointed at the massive bed taking up most of the room.
Kayla looked from her to the bed and back again, but couldn’t understand the problem.
When Mack’s cheeks turned an adorable shade of brick red, the penny finally dropped.
Kayla couldn’t hold back a smile that was only about ten percent teasing. “We’ve shared a bed before, you know.”
All the tension burst from Mack in a flurry of words and increasingly frantic gestures. “We were just kids then. Still in high school. Things are different now!”
If there was anything that could melt Kayla’s heart, it was masc chivalry.
Especially when said masc was flustered and rubbing the back of her neck the same way she’d done when she first admitted to Kayla that she had crushes on girls.
Mack had been so small and fragile then, Kayla had wanted to wrap her in bubble wrap and protect her from the world.
Kayla said, “I know it’s different, but I thought it would be suspicious to book a room with two beds when we’re supposed to be on our honeymoon.”
“Yeah, I know, but…” Mack gestured helplessly at the huge expanse of mattress.
“Look, it’s a king-sized bed. Surely there’s room for both of us?”
Mack said, “I’m, um, a really active sleeper. What if we end up accidentally spooning?”
Kayla’s pulse quickened at the thought, quickly followed by shock.
Why was she getting excited at the thought of spooning with Mack?
Was she really so starved for touch after a year of celibacy?
She didn’t want Mack that way, of course, but her body gave an aching throb at the very thought of cuddling with a partner again.
Yes, that was definitely a reaction to her lack of intimacy, not to Mack.
She held up three fingers in a mockery of the salute she’d learned during her month as a Girl Scout. “I promise to be on my best behavior and not take advantage of the situation.”
Mack gave her a quizzical look and nodded toward her hand. “What’s that?”
“The Girl Scout salute, I think.”
“Pro tip, LaLa. You don’t promise a lesbian not to seduce her by holding up your fingers like that.”
Now it was Kayla’s turn to blush. She hadn’t thought of how suggestive that would be.
Had the Girl Scouts? They really ought to get a different salute.
It didn’t take long for her wicked nature to win out, though.
She cocked out her hip and raised an eyebrow at Mack.
“So, you’re a three-finger gal, huh? Good thing for your future wife to know. ”
Now Mack’s whole face was red like she’d never seen.
Maybe she’d hit close to the mark on that one?
Before she could let her apparently overactive imagination get away with her, she noticed that Mack was avoiding her eye again.
How long had it been since Mack had slept with a woman?
That was a question she suddenly did not want to know the answer to.
Still, she hated how uncomfortable Mack was. The teasing had clearly gone too far.
Dropping the now crude salute, Kayla took Mack’s hand between hers. “Hey, look. I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable about any of this. If it would be too much for you to share a bed, I can sleep…”
Kayla looked around the room for a substitute sleeping location.
How had she not noticed how tiny this room was before now?
There was barely a foot of clearance between the bed and the sliding bathroom door on her side, and maybe just two feet on the side near the front door.
Between the single dresser and armchair, there was hardly room at the foot of the bed for their suitcases.
Not a lot of great options, but she’d slept on all manner of buses, airplanes, and locker room benches well into her twenties.
She could handle a few nights on a tile floor to win back her love.
Kayla said, “I’ll sleep on the floor.”
“It’s ceramic tile. You can’t sleep down there.”
“Okay, so I’ll sleep on a lounger on the balcony.”
“What if it rains?” Mack said.
“It probably won’t.”
Mack laughed and rolled her eyes, freeing some of the tightening worry in Kayla’s chest. “You aren’t sleeping on the balcony. Don’t be ridiculous. We can share the bed. I just want to make sure it won’t be weird if we wake up accidentally entangled.”
Kayla tried to laugh off the thought, but it came out squeaky and stilted.
Her brain played an image for her of Mack in nothing but boxers and a tank top, her muscular arms wrapped tight around Kayla’s chest, and her thigh draped across her hip.
It was so vivid she could almost feel the warmth of Mack’s skin.
A shiver that had nothing to do with the blasting air conditioning shot through her body.
She tried to play it off as a joke by saying, “Gross, but I think I’ll survive. Besides, it’ll help sell the relationship to Skye if we know what it feels like to be entangled.”
Mack grabbed her toiletries bag and headed to the bathroom, while Kayla tried to shake off the warm feelings spooning with Mack had elicited.
Kayla woke slowly from a delicious dream. She couldn’t quite remember what it was, only that she’d wanted to stay there. She had been warm, comfortable, and happy. Whatever it had been about, it had been a wonderful dream.
Even as her mind fought to stay inside the coziness, her body started registering the world around her.
The first thing she noticed—well, two things—were Mack’s breasts pressed into her back just above the curve of her shoulder blades.
Her body very much enjoyed those. She also loved the strong arm wrapped around her waist, holding her close.
It felt like a hug, and she loved Mack’s hugs.
They were always warm and enveloping just like this.
Mack was several inches taller than her, so she had to bend down to make their bodies fit.
Kayla had always loved that in hugs, and she loved it even more in spooning.
That thought succeeded in completing the waking-up process.
She was spooning with Mack. How wonderfully unexpected.
Well, technically, Mack had warned her this would probably happen, and she’d said she would be fine with it.
And she was fine with it. As a gentle throb of arousal coursed through her, she decided she was a little too fine with it.
But that wasn’t her fault. It had been ages since she’d slept next to another woman and even longer since she’d woken up tangled with one.
It was easy to catalogue the differences between sleeping with Mack and sleeping with Skye—the last woman she’d fallen asleep next to.
Skye rarely cuddled in her sleep, so it was a rare occurrence to even have the sensation.
While Mack’s arm was wrapped around her waist, making her feel warm and safe in her sleep, Skye had never missed an opportunity to grab Kayla’s breasts, and sleeping certainly qualified.
Not that Kayla had minded at the time. It had led to more than a few rounds of sex—morning breath and unwashed bodies be damned.
Skye’s breasts against her back were bigger, and her body had been softer.
It was odd, now that Kayla thought about it.
Skye was a professional athlete, though which adventure sport she was a professional in could change more often than her hair color.
Mack was all lean muscle, and her breasts were small enough that more of that muscle pressed against Kayla in distracting ways.