Chapter 16 #2
In high school, she’d loved swimming. Built for distance, she was almost unbeatable at the 500-meter freestyle. But swimming was something she’d never considered a professional pursuit, though she still made time in college and at her gym in San Francisco to do laps whenever she had a free hour .
Right now, she needed to do as many laps as her body could handle.
For the last ten hours, she’d been straddling some sort of invisible line between exhausted and wired.
After working with Hallie until about six p.m., she’d been hoping to hear from Sydney so they could pick up where they’d left off.
Sadly, all she’d received was a text that Sydney’s visit with her family had taken on a life of its own, and without a car of her own, Sydney was at their mercy.
Which left Reese feeling… adrift. After grabbing dinner and returning to her room, with still no word, she’d tried to distract herself.
A book, which she’d kept losing her place in.
A movie, whose lead looked way too much like Sydney.
She’d even tried to do a crossword puzzle, but groaned in frustration and threw her pen onto the floor when a question about a certain formerly retired tennis player came up.
So instead, she focused on her stroke, on her exhale like a metronome guiding her along. Swimming used to be the one thing that allowed her mind to blank out, and it was devastating that not even her comfort activity could dampen her thoughts.
What had she done to deserve this? It wasn’t like she’d gone looking for Sydney or had asked to be thrown into this sexually frustrated limbo where she was so keyed up and had nowhere to put her energy.
She paid her taxes. Donated to nonprofits. Stopped for pedestrians crossing the street—which was no small feat in a tourist town like this one.
So… why? Why did the fates seem intent on keeping the two of them from having more than five minutes alone together?
Hell, they’d even talked about what was happening between them. Like responsible adults!
This was all so… foreign to Reese. She’d never considered herself an especially sexual person. She was driven. Focused. Usually unaware of her baser instincts .
But now? Now, all she could think about was Sydney backing her up against the next flat surface they found and finishing what felt like a month in the making.
Maybe it was all the touching, she’d considered between laps four and five. The playing at something from the start that was deeper than where they’d truly been, like it had been priming Reese before she’d been fully aware of what was happening.
Which meant that as all the pieces were clicking together, her mind and her body in sync, she was ready .
Inhale.
Exhale.
Inhale.
Exhale.
When she came up for air, about to kick off the wall, a gorgeous vision stopped her in her tracks. Waves pushed outward while she found her footing against the pool bottom, and she sputtered air, trying to catch her breath.
Sydney stood at the edge of the steps, a small towel tied around a bright purple bikini. Heat pooled in Reese’s center, her body right back to that anxious edge of anticipation and wanting, so much that it hurt.
“Hallie told me I could probably find you here,” Sydney said as she dropped her towel at the edge of the pool. “Mind if I join you?”
Reese, first and foremost, wondered if she was hallucinating. That seemed like the most likely option for how Sydney was standing in front of her, toned legs disappearing into the water with each step closer to Reese.
“I tried texting you.” Sydney was fully in the water now and slowly moving toward where Reese stood dumbfounded at the front of the single swimming lane on the far side of the pool.
Reese’s brain was having trouble keeping up, and she struggled to find her words. “I, um… I left my phone upstairs.”
Arms wrapped themselves leisurely around Reese’s shoulders. Her whole body trembled with the contact .
Sydney frowned. “I texted you.”
Reese groaned, deciding how much to admit. “And I was waiting for that text. So much so that it became a little bit of an issue.”
“Oh, yeah?” Now Sydney’s face was all smiles. She reached up and tucked a strand of wet hair behind Reese’s ear. Sydney leaned forward then, her warm breath ghosting across Reese’s ear. “Well, if it’s any consolation, I was not the best guest with my family today. I was very distracted.”
The words settled low in Reese’s body. As she moved her legs together to relieve the friction, Sydney slipped her thigh between them. She extended her hands beyond Reese to the pool edge, pushing them both back until Reese was bracketed between the solidness behind her and Sydney’s long frame.
It was excruciating in the best possible way, how their bodies joined together. Sydney’s hips held but didn’t push, like they had all the time in the world.
“Seems like you want to pick things up where we left off?” Reese breathed, overwhelmed by how many things there were to focus on.
The curve of Sydney’s breasts, rising and falling with her own labored breathing.
How Sydney’s thigh brushed against her center with each small movement in the water.
The way Sydney’s fingers had magically found their way to the back of Reese’s neck, massaging gentle circles to the point that Reese thought her head would fall back in ecstasy.
“Sydney?” Reese asked, a hint of uncertainty creeping into her voice when Sydney didn’t immediately respond.
“You are so beautiful.” Reese forced her eyes open, the deep green of Sydney’s boring into her. The way Sydney said it, soft and reverent as her hold tightened against Reese, made her head swim.
“I want this,” Reese said, her hands easing from Sydney’s hips to the front of her bikini, fingers skimming where skin met fabric.
She dipped beneath the band, just for a second, before scratching gently at the skin beneath her belly button.
“God knows when we’ll have another chance the way things are going. ”
“Yeah?” Sydney’s voice, paired with how her eyes looked at Reese so softly, made the moment feel more intimate than she’d expected.
Earlier today, all she’d thought about was touching, tasting, exploring. Those base instincts that so often escaped her.
And now? At this moment? With the world outside forgotten, no one and nothing separating them?
What she wanted, more than anything, was to feel connected to Sydney, to experience this together.
“Yeah,” Reese echoed back before inching forward to capture Sydney’s lips.
Reese could feel the thrum of her own pulse hammering in her ears, the intensity ratcheting up when Sydney bit gently at her bottom lip before licking across it. At the same time, Sydney dragged her fingertips from Reese’s shoulders down her sides.
“Sydney.” She was breathless, needing Sydney to keep touching her. Anywhere. Everywhere.
It was all coming to a head. The anticipation and frustration and attraction and a million other feelings that were threading and weaving and threatening to burst free from Reese if she didn’t get some type of release.
“I want to make sure that you still want this,” Sydney said, nails lightly dragging up Reese’s thighs. The touch caused her to instinctively open her hips wider, and Sydney slotted in between them effortlessly. “I’ve thought about this all day. Honestly, I’ve thought about this for the past month.”
God, what planet were they on? That Sydney didn’t think Reese was anything more than a puddle of want for Sydney to do with what she wanted.
Instead of answering, she found Sydney’s hand and, enveloping it in her own, guided her to the waistband of her bikini before dipping beneath it .
She moaned as she pressed Sydney against her, Reese’s effort only needed for a moment before Sydney’s hand started working on its own, playing softly against Reese’s folds. She traced a long, leisurely line up and then down, though she still didn’t push forward.
“Please,” she gasped when Sydney pushed in for a moment before retracting her fingers. It wasn’t enough. She needed Sydney inside of her, and in turn, she needed to feel her in the same way.
Reese slipped her fingers into Sydney’s bikini and instantly moving inward. Unable to go slower. She found what she was looking for almost immediately. Her thumb rubbed circles around Sydney’s pulsing clit, and she eased a finger inside.
“Is this okay?” she asked, pausing to give Sydney time to adjust, her breath ragged against Sydney’s cheek.
She waited what felt like excruciatingly long seconds before a soft moan escaped Sydney’s mouth. And if that sound wasn’t enough to make Reese’s center tighten with want, quickly following it, Sydney bit down into Reese’s shoulder as she pushed two fingers into Reese.
“Fuck,” Reese breathed out, easing in a second finger of her own. “Please, don’t stop.”
Reese was already close, but she wanted more. She wanted whatever Sydney would give her.
She found Sydney’s lips. This time, their kiss was messy and wanting and felt like a circuit competing with the electricity that it sparked inside of her.
Sydney guided them to a rhythm, and Reese keened into Sydney’s mouth, pushing her hips in as she met with Sydney’s already slick fingers.
She needed more friction.
She needed…
She needed .
“Harder,” she begged into Sydney’s mouth. “Please.”
“My god, Reese. You feel so fucking good.” Sydney’s words sounded exasperated, almost overwhelmed, as she pushed in harder, her other hand anchoring Reese’s hips in place.
She loved how out of sorts Sydney was, her hips pushing erratically against the hand playing deftly against Reese’s clit and fucking her senseless.
“Put your leg around me,” Sydney practically growled.
A thrill went straight to Reese’s clit with those words, and she was so, so fucking close to coming undone around Sydney’s fingers. With Sydney’s lips on her own. Sydney’s body anchoring her to the moment.
“Sydney. Please. Please don’t stop. I’m so close.”