Chapter 11
Silence fell over the parking lot. It might have lasted for a few seconds or several minutes; Harper wasn’t sure. The moments after those two words left her lips transformed into an indefinable pocket of time where the only thing that moved was the slowly falling snow.
Would this make a mess of everything? Push this friendship beyond what it could handle? Instead of turning into something new and exciting, would this break something Harper only realized she would miss once it risked being ruined?
Justifiable concerns. Short-lived ones, too, as Maya raised her hand and ran her thumb over Harper’s bottom lip. The touch pulled at her wound, summoning a faint taste of copper.
Maya froze, not even breathing as she stared at Harper’s mouth.
She tilted Harper’s head back. Leaned in, inching closer. Then teased her tongue over Harper’s bottom lip, her mouth following right after. Kissing her.
Maya let out a low groan. It trembled at the end, a shiver going through her body, and Harper couldn’t help but mirror the reaction. That noise—that quiet, near-moaning sigh—shot through her body like crackling electricity.
Right as Harper leaned forward, intending to deepen the kiss, Maya darted her head back. Her hand fell, grabbing the car so tightly that her arms started shaking.
“I… I really shouldn’t have done that.”
The words were wise enough. Mixing work and romance always messed things up. Harper had seen it attempted dozens of times. Had seen it come crashing down just as many. The smart thing would be to focus on all the ways this could go wrong and stop it before it got out of hand.
Instead, all she could think about was how foolish Maya was for pinning her body in place rather than her hands.
Grabbing Maya by the neck, Harper yanked her into another kiss, and this one held none of the tentative energy from before. The hesitation was all gone as Harper pressed their lips together so hard it actually hurt.
Maya didn’t just sigh then. She moaned, and what little sense Harper might have possessed shattered into pieces. Any worry she felt about what this might mean for them was erased by that noise.
Lips never parting, Maya lifted her onto the hood of the car. Her hands traveled to Harper’s waist, pushing under her shirt, and the touch made her breathing turn into sharp hisses, as Maya’s cold fingertips sent shivers through her body.
Maya didn’t share her reaction. Not even when Harper mirrored her touch and pushed her hands under her t-shirt. Instead of her breath hitching in response to the cold, she moaned again. A deep, raw sound so primal that it made Harper feel lightheaded.
“Take it off,” Harper sighed, referencing her own clothes as much as Maya’s.
The cold was already biting, but she didn’t care. She would let the winter chill turn her into an icicle if it let this kiss last a single second longer.
Maya didn’t answer. It seemed like she couldn’t. The way she was moving, touching, snarling, made it feel like every past interaction had been steps in a hunt, and now Harper was playing the role of caught prey.
Maya pushed her down on her back, pinning her against the hood of the car. She sucked at Harper’s bottom lip, her hand pushing further up under her shirt, cupping her breast through her bra. Pressing her nails against her skin so hard it might leave marks.
Harper would have been more worried about that if this hadn’t felt so fucking right. She had always had a thing for marks, both leaving them and wearing them herself. Scratch lines, hickeys, anything like that set her heart fucking racing.
The fact that she shouldn’t indulge them, least of all in places where they couldn’t be easily covered, only made the rough way Maya touched her more tantalizing. Made her curse the fact that there was still fabric between their bodies.
When Maya undid the button of Harper’s jeans, she wrapped her legs around Maya’s hips, pulling her nearer.
“Yes. More,” she moaned, even though she didn’t just want more. She wanted it harder. Wanted to satisfy all those forbidden fantasies her mind had refused to abandon.
Whoever had smashed the streetlight above them needed a goddamn medal. They were seconds away from fucking right there in the parking lot, and the darkness provided excellent cover.
Maya pushed into her underwear, fingers brushing over her clit, and that single touch was enough to make Harper’s breath tremble. She clutched Maya’s t-shirt, moaning against her lips as she started flicking over her. Slowly at first. And then faster when Harper sighed out her name.
They should have damned the rules. With how perfect this felt, it was idiotic that they hadn’t done it sooner.
A sharp buzz from her pocket broke the spell. Maya snapped her head back, her hand following, the movement as sudden as if she’d been poked with a cattle prod.
Harper had an equally graceless reaction. Cursing, she pushed herself up on her elbows and dug her phone out of her pocket.
“Hey, Nell,” she said tightly. A relieved sigh sounded on the other end.
“Hey… You left without saying anything, so I got worried.” Nell paused. “Why are you panting?”
“I’m not panting, I just… I got caught up with something.”
Harper glanced at Maya. She was standing completely still, a mix of awe and confusion playing in her eyes.
“Caught up?” The concern in Nell’s voice was replaced with amusement. “What does that mean?”
“Nothing, I… I’m about to drive home, so…” Harper groaned, knowing that she was about to give Nell so much ammunition; all of which she would use for evil. “Don’t come into the parking lot.”
Harper hung up before any more loaded comments could be thrown her way. Silence fell again, this time underlined by Harper’s unsteady breathing.
“Sorry, that… Nell was worried, so…”
Maya’s continued stare made Harper trail off. The confusion in her dark eyes was waning, being replaced with pure wonder. As though Harper was the source of a thousand answers, each bound to a question thought unexplainable.
“You are fucking exquisite.”
Maya nearly cut herself off as her lips found Harper’s again, but this kiss didn’t match the fast, starved approach of the previous one. Instead, it was slow and deep, delivered so tenderly that Harper couldn’t do anything but lean into it.
Harper had always enjoyed the chase when it came to romance.
The back-and-forth flirting, the push and pull, the game of it all.
With every past relationship, the first kiss had been a spontaneous affair and always evolved into them immediately taking things to the nearest bedroom, or whichever suitable place was readily available.
But this kiss didn’t feel like Maya was claiming a prize. It was more certain than triumphant. As though it was the first of a thousand more to come.
“I know I said that I was about to drive home,” Harper said, “but… if we’re fast, then I can push it a few minutes?”
A teasing grin slipped onto Maya’s face. “What makes you think I’ll be okay with having you for just a few minutes?”
That comment had no right to be so enticing. Just as the way Maya’s thumb brushed over her chin had no business being so gentle. After what they’d just been doing, this tenderness felt a lot like teasing.
“You’re a very special person, Harper,” Maya whispered against her lips. “If I’m going to fuck you, I’m going to do it right. I’m going to take my time. That doesn’t involve me getting you off in the backseat of your car.”
Harper sighed again, though she had to acknowledge that it sounded suspiciously like a whine.
It had been over half a decade since she’d last dealt with the awkward positioning involved with car sex, but she was more than willing to look past that.
As long as she got to feel Maya’s lips against her skin.
Harper glanced towards the Lucky Penny. “So if we’re not… What will… How are we…”
Jesus fucking Christ, again? This was a horrible replay of the first time they’d been in this damn parking lot. When Maya had flashed that pretty smile of hers and turned Harper into a stammering mess.
But she didn’t need to voice her concern. Maya saw it easily.
“Don’t worry about it. We won’t be working together for long, anyway.”
Harper let out a low chuckle. “What about leaving me here unprotected? Does that not matter anymore?”
Maya’s eyes trailed to her cheek. Her thumb followed, brushing over her skin so lightly the touch almost didn’t register.
“That matters more than anything.”
The words escaped on an exhale. A statement more breathed out than spoken.
She leaned in, lips pausing an inch away, and then she rested her forehead against Harper’s. She drew in another deep breath, as though savoring a decadent perfume, and then buttoned up Harper’s jeans.
“You should get home. You said you would, after all.”
Harper’s mouth dropped open. “You’re serious.”
“So serious. You made it very clear what’s allowed and what isn’t. No romantic entanglements between club employees.”
She took a step back, leaving Harper sitting on the car. Sweating, a little dizzy, and with every cell in her body feeling like they were filled with embers.
“Well, I think we already went past what’s allowed.” She touched her bottom lip. It stung, but other parts of her body ached in far more insisting ways. “You’re being mean, you know that, right?”
“I’m just following the rules.” Maya’s smile turned amused. “As it happens, I really like rules.”
She was using the same flirty tone as usual, but it hit differently now. As a promise, of sorts. A tease of what might happen the next time they did something like this.
Maybe as an invitation, too. If you were into that sort of thing.
With a quick glance towards the Penny, just to ensure no one was looking, Harper slid off the hood of the car. Maya’s eyes had just started to narrow when Harper raised herself up on her toes, grabbed Maya’s shirt collar, and kissed her again.
Maya let out a small gasp when their lips met. A tremble went through her, and then a sigh followed, repeating as she settled her hands on Harper’s hips.
The moment her grip firmed, Harper broke the kiss. She smoothed out the wrinkles on Maya’s t-shirt.
“The thing is… I’ve never been good at following the rules.” She gave Maya a wink as she backed up and opened the driver’s side door. “You can show me the error of my ways later. Assuming you can handle the challenge, obviously.”
For a second, the mystified look returned to Maya’s eyes. An odd, awe-filled gaze that suggested Harper had just done something remarkable rather than seeing an opportunity to tease and jumping on it.
It wasn’t the reaction she was used to, or expected. She’d lost count of how many relationships had crashed and burned because she couldn’t keep her tongue in check. People found it amusing the first few times, but it always turned into frustration.
Maya just looked surprised. Intrigued. And by the smile appearing on her face, utterly delighted.
“Believe me. I can handle it.”