11. Chapter 11
Krystal had left out one crucial step when she’d come up with this whole “conference conquest” plan.
Namely, how she was supposed to make the leap from convincing Ceth to go bar-hopping with her to actually persuading Ceth to be her conquest.
The lack of planning wasn’t tragic. It was actually fairly routine for her, to be honest. But it was obnoxious, given how Ceth had called her out for being impulsive earlier, and now Krystal was proving her right.
Even more obnoxious was the fact that her impulsivity had landed her seated at the bar beside Brad, an accountant who’d bought her a drink and since then hadn’t stopped regaling her with tax season war stories.
Meanwhile Ceth, who clearly thought Krystal’s conquest was already well underway, was on the bar’s small, smoky dance floor where a tipsy petite woman with a pixie cut was grinding against her.
Krystal took a swallow of her club soda and gritted her teeth. Was that woman Ceth’s type now?
“Isn’t that the worst?”
“It sucks,” Krystal murmured, shaking her head while still watching Ceth and Pixie Cut.
“It totally does!” Brad exclaimed, making Krystal jump. She’d almost forgotten he was still there talking to her. Or at her, rather.
“And that’s why I’m always lecturing my clients about saving their receipts,” Brad continued, wrapping his knuckles on the bar top for emphasis. “I mean, you wouldn’t believe the hours I logged sorting out that mess, and—”
“I think maybe we should move on,” Krystal interrupted him. It wasn’t the most polite or articulate interjection, but she was wasting both of their time staying in this conversation.
Brad’s eyes widened, but then his upper lip curled back in a cocky grin. He ran a clammy hand over her arm and looked her up and down. “So you’re ready to get out of here, huh? We can go to my place.”
Krystal blinked as she took in his meaning. Sheesh. Is it really that easy?
She subtly pulled her arm away from his hand. “Er, no. I’m sorry. It’s been really great talking to you, Brad.”
His smile dropped. “It’s Chad.”
“Right, Chad. Sorry. It’s been great, but I guess I’m not up to company tonight after all. It’s been a long day.” She pulled back a little more, bracing herself for his response. She may have been inexperienced where hookups were concerned, but she knew a thing or two about pushy guys.
But to his credit, Chad didn’t press. His eyebrows dipped in a puzzled frown like he found her lack of interest confusing, but he downed his drink and shrugged. “Uh, yeah, okay. That’s cool. Have a good night, I guess.”
With that, he wandered off to another part of the bar, and Krystal huffed out a relieved sigh. She watched Chad a beat longer before her eyes darted back to the dance floor to seek out Ceth.
She was still there.
The beat of a sultry dance tune pulsed through the building, and Ceth and Pixie Cut were moving in time to the rhythm, their bodies sliding against each other.
Krystal swallowed. She would probably feel jealous if Ceth didn’t look so unfairly hot out there.
A light sheen of sweat coated the skin around her open collar, and it glistened in the flashing strobe lights above the dance floor.
There was a barely contained intensity in the way she moved against the other woman.
A small shiver ran through Krystal’s belly and down between her legs. It wasn’t the first time she’d watched Ceth move like that.
Only two months before she and Ceth had stopped talking, Krystal had walked in on Ceth with a red-haired woman that Krystal hadn’t recognized. She hadn’t even known Ceth was dating anyone.
Krystal had been supposed to be away with Elgin for the weekend, so Ceth hadn’t been expecting her to come home. What’s more, Ceth had been too preoccupied to notice when Krystal opened the front door. Krystal had stood planted in the doorway, staring down the short hallway to their kitchen.
The redhead was sitting on the edge of the counter with her skirt hiked up and her long legs wrapped around Ceth’s middle.
Ceth’s shirt was open and half pulled down, exposing her shoulders and back.
Her muscles strained as she moved against the redhead.
The sight of Ceth’s bare skin kept Krystal fixated for several seconds before she even realized the redhead’s dress was pulled down too, exposing a breast that Ceth was kissing and sucking with near desperate energy.
The other woman’s head was thrown back and her eyes squeezed shut while she panted with pleasure at Ceth’s attentions.
Finally, Krystal managed to tear her gaze away so she could back her way out the door and escape.
But the scene in the kitchen was engraved in her mind. For days, it replayed over and over. She saw it when she worked, when she tried to study, when she was in the shower. And worst of all, whenever she tried to carry on a normal conversation with Ceth.
One night, nearly a week later, she lay awake in her bed, too worked up to sleep but too mentally exhausted to force the images from her mind the way she had during the daytime.
She let them play out again and, this time, did the one thing she never would have dreamed of doing before: she imagined it had been her on that counter.
What would it have been like?
Her legs around Ceth while her warm skin rubbed against Krystal’s center. Ceth’s strong hands gripping Krystal’s arms while her hot, hungry mouth sucked on Krystal’s breast.
Krystal’s entire body began to overheat the longer she pictured it. She reached a shaky hand up under her t-shirt and touched one of her nipples, gasping at the tingling response and the way it began to harden the more she rubbed.
She’d hardly ever explored her own body before, even during all the changes and natural curiosity of her teenage years.
She’d been taught it was wrong. But none of that mattered now.
She couldn’t have stopped touching herself even if she’d wanted to, as thoughts of Ceth’s rough, wet tongue on her skin flooded her mind.
Krystal’s hand slid down lower, over the heated skin of her belly and under the waistband of her panties.
A soft moan tore from her throat when she felt the wetness.
Soo much wetness. It was nowhere near what she’d ever felt being with Elgin.
Those encounters always started and ended so quickly, she barely had time to adjust to the intimacy.
But this…this was unlike anything she could have imagined. The fire in her body kindled hotter and hotter, with her here in her bed with only her own touch and visions of Ceth.
Oh, gosh. What would it be like to have Ceth’s intensity focused on her when there was passion and want in those eyes? What would it be like to have Ceth desire her? Need her?
Krystal let out a sharp whimper and turned on her side, grabbing the nearest pillow and shoving it between her legs.
She ground against it desperately, her breath coming out in harsh pants.
The heated vibrations in her center built higher and higher until they exploded in a shower of sparks as she peaked.
She was left in a sweaty mess of bedding, struggling to catch her breath, but more alive than she’d ever been before.
Cethlenn O’Malley had no idea she’d been responsible for the first true orgasm Krystal had ever experienced. Or for the first time Krystal had managed to stop running from the suspicions she’d suppressed for so long and acknowledge the way she could feel about a woman.
All because she’d walked in on Ceth. Watched how Ceth moved and acted with someone she wanted.
And now here Krystal was eight years later. Aware and no longer ashamed of her sexuality. Aware, too, that she wanted Ceth in a way she never would’ve admitted back then.
Yet still, she was on the outskirts. A voyeur. Watching while Ceth was passionate with another woman.
The music in the room shifted as Krystal slid off her barstool and threw back her shoulders.
This ended tonight. She refused to watch for one second longer.