Chapter 17
Seventeen
“Thank you,” Reese said for about the dozenth time as she fluffed her pillow against the headboard. “This is only for tonight. I’ll figure out a better plan tomorrow.”
Sydney stood, hands on her hips, facing Reese from across the bed. “In what universe are you thanking me for sleeping in my bed? I feel like I should be the one thanking you.”
Reese calling her thirty minutes ago and asking if she could sleep in Sydney’s room tonight was, she had to guess, similar to how she’d feel if she won a Grand Slam tournament. Like the luckiest person in the world, to put it mildly.
While Reese was getting her own room ready for her mom, whose reasons for being at the inn were still unclear, Sydney had busied herself cleaning up errant dirty laundry and making her bed.
She hadn’t even unpacked from her trip to Florida yet, and after taking a quick shower, she realized that she was dead on her feet.
A hellish night of travel. A day with Reese’s family.
The rest of the day with her family. Committing to trying out the commentator position.
The scene in the pool that was like something out of her fantasies.
And the truth that couldn’t be dampened by her exhaustion was that, in spite of her overwhelming desire to crawl into bed, she was so grateful for how the night was playing out.
All she’d wanted to do after making Reese come undone around her fingers was for them to find somewhere soft and warm and horizontal to simply exist together, enjoying the post-sex languor brought on after a month of buildup and a day of interruptions.
“I am going to crawl into this bed now, and I can’t promise I’ll be awake for longer than a few minutes,” Sydney said, already easing under the covers. The sheets were cool against her bare legs, and she sank immediately into the softness of the mattress.
Reese followed suit and slid in on her side. “I really appreciate this, Sydney.”
“We’re consenting adults who have been interrupted all day like we’re teenagers trying to find a spot to hook up. We deserve this,” Sydney said in a sleep-soaked voice, inching herself closer to the middle of the mattress.
“I know, but even your parents weren’t able to stay here.
” Which was the truth, given that, when her parents had shown up earlier today, every room had been booked.
And really, she loved her parents. But maybe having them twenty minutes away and staying with one of her aunts wasn’t the worst thing in the world, given her mom’s less-than-warm response to Reese earlier.
Which reminded her, even through her sleepy haze: “I’m sorry that my mom wasn’t nicer to you. She’s just really protective, and after the whole Grant thing, I don’t think she thought she’d ever have to deal with a Devereux again.”
Reese nodded and inched closer to Sydney, too, so that both of their heads were resting on their respective pillows, only a few inches of space separating their faces.
Sydney could feel the sleep pulling at her eyelids, keeping them closed for longer every time she shut them.
“I can see that she really loves you. And hopefully,” Reese said, tugging Sydney’s lower lip into her mouth before letting it go with a pop , “she’ll come to see me the way you do.”
“And how’s that?” she asked, feeling like the conversation was happening in a dream when she felt Reese’s arm drape across her hips, pulling their bodies closer together.
“Like someone you can count on.”
Sydney didn’t know if those words were real or imagined, but they stayed burrowed in her mind as she drifted off to sleep.
Sydney groaned as she felt the covers start to move and warmth drifted away from her.
Yesterday was starting to come back to her in foggy memories that were slowly piecing themselves together. Way too many parents. Unbelievably good sex.
She was still tired, but what she clung to was the knowledge that Reese was in bed with
her and she didn’t want her to leave.
“Stay. It’s too early,” she said, extending her arm across Reese’s hip.
At some point during the night, they’d shifted into Reese as the little spoon, her back pressed against Sydney, their legs tangled together.
Sydney inhaled against the pillow they’d ended up sharing, the scent of Reese’s shampoo clinging to it, already making Sydney miss her.
“Please,” she said, a little desperate this time. “Just five more minutes.”
“I didn’t think you’d notice,” Reese said as she scooted back against Sydney. “You were sleeping like the dead.”
“I was sleeping so deeply, thank you very much, because I was so comfortable. And then you tried to sneak out of here, and all that comfort was over.” She ran her finger tips down Reese’s arms, loving the small shudder it elicited.
Any barriers she had left were gone. Sydney had completely given herself over to what was happening between the two of them, and she desperately hoped that Reese felt the same. So it was more than just her own comfort at stake, when she’d asked Reese to lay back down.
Her mind raced as she tried to keep her breathing even against Reese’s back. She needed to know if Reese felt the same way.
“I’d already told Hallie that I’d take the early shift this morning,” Reese said, snuggling flush with Sydney.
The closeness kicked off a wave of arousal that finally settled in Sydney’s center. The pulsing of her clit thrummed in tempo with her heartbeat, and she stifled a groan as Reese moved again, pushing into her.
“What time is it?” she said between gritted teeth, her hands tightening around Reese’s torso.
It was instinctive, how her own hips began to push forward, searching desperately for friction to ease the pressure building inside of her.
“A little before seven,” Reese said, Sydney loving the hitch in her voice when she began trailing her fingers down Reese’s stomach, her T-shirt pushing upward so she had access to soft, warm skin.
“So does that mean we have time to have sex in bed like real adults?” Sydney chanced, stopping her fingers just above Reese’s waistband and tapping lightly.
“Sydney,” Reese breathed, her voice throaty and wanting.
Sydney lifted her hand an inch above Reese’s stomach, no longer flush with her skin. “I want you to say you want it.”
She didn’t know why, but she needed to hear it. Needed to know that Reese was a wanting, uncontrolled mess in the same way that she was. That no matter how things between them had started, this thing between them was real.
Reese tipped her head back. When she got close to Sydney’s ear, a raspy, “I want it,” was all the invitation Sydney needed to hear before she slipped her fingers lower. At the same time, Reese reached her hand around to Sydney’s ass, pulling them impossibly closer.
Sydney rolled her hips, Reese matching her beat for beat.
And when Sydney touched between Reese’s thighs, she was greeted with wetness that made her hips jerk erratically.
She wanted to draw out Reese’s pleasure, but she couldn’t go slower.
She rolled her hips, hard, at the same time she found Reese’s clit and began to massage.
Reese let out a low moan at the same time she dug her fingertips into Sydney’s ass and then scratched down as far as she could.
It was like a bomb had exploded in Sydney’s body. She ground down against Reese, finding the friction she desperately needed from their closeness. Her fingers didn’t stop, rubbing and toying and touching as she found a rhythm that made Reese’s breathing grow ragged, her body getting tighter.
“Like that. Yes. Just like that, Sydney.” It was the most beautiful sound Sydney had ever heard, the way Reese said her name when she was so close, so wanting and on the edge. She felt that sound in her own clit, pulsing with need, which only made her grind her hips harder.
“Can you come like this?” Reese asked, her voice strained, her back beginning to arch.
Normally she couldn’t, not even close. But if Reese kept making those sounds, something between a cry and a moan, like her body was turning itself inside out, then Sydney didn’t know what would happen.
And then she felt fingers find her own clit, insistent and methodical.
She looked down to see Reese had snaked her arm backward, miraculously finding a way to slot it between them.
She had started this because the idea of not touching Reese had felt impossible, but god, she hadn’t realized how desperate she was when those fingers found her, soothing at the same time they electrified, the pressure inside of her mounting.
“Baby, you feel so fucking good.” The endearment slipped out, and for a split second, as she felt Reese stiffen, she thought she’d done something wrong. Had moved too fast.
But then Reese’s whole body bowed, and she let out what Sydney could only describe as a strangled moan. Her body began to jerk, her hips jutting forward erratically, like she was trying to milk every single drop out of her orgasm, out of everything Sydney could give her.
And Sydney wanted to give her all of it. Every hitch of Reese’s breath and jerk of her hips. Every sound of pleasure that Sydney could tease out of her. She wanted to be responsible for all of it.
That was the thought in her mind as she careened over the edge, her ragged breaths coming out against Reese’s neck, her heartbeat running wild inside of her chest.
God, it was good with them. The best, if she was being honest, and the more she got of Reese, the more she wanted.
Slowly, like she wasn’t sure she had control over all of her limbs, Reese scooted herself over to lie flat on her back. “If you keep doing that, you’re never going to get rid of me,” she said between uneven breaths, pushing stray auburn hairs from her forehead.