Chapter 19 #2
“I’m sure if word gets back to Grant, I’ll be the first to hear about it.”
“And your mom?” Sydney asked. “Any update on that front?”
“I dropped her off at home a bit ago. She seems really clearheaded about the whole situation. I wonder if I’m waiting for her to hit a wall when all of this becomes real. ”
“Well, if she does, we’ll be there for her,” Sydney said, meaning it. Nothing mattered more to her than making sure Reese, and by extension, Sharon, felt supported.
“I know.” Reese’s smile, like she really did feel as supported as Sydney hoped she did, gave Sydney that feeling of connection she’d been experiencing more and more, like she could feel Reese from thousands of miles away.
“Have you been sleeping in my bedroom?” Sydney had slept alone for the last five nights, and she wondered how she’d managed to for so many years.
Especially when she thought about waking up in the mornings, Reese’s hair fanned everywhere. Her first conscious breath in the morning always involved a tickle against her lips or her cheeks or her forehead, silky locks billowing out gently before landing again wherever they wanted.
And their bodies. Always in a different configuration but connected in some way.
Sometimes, Sydney was the big spoon, and she’d wake up, arms wrapped tightly around Reese.
When the roles were reversed, she’d wake up with Reese’s head tucked against her back, one arm languidly tossed across Sydney’s taller frame.
Other days, she’d wake up on her back, Reese’s body half on top of her, especially if they’d fallen asleep right after having sex.
Sydney loved it all. She’d never known how soothing it felt to have consistent, physical comfort, provided by someone who could send her heart fluttering and calm her racing nerves, in equal measures.
The idea that Reese missed her enough to sleep in what had become their bed over the last two weeks sent a whole new flutter of butterflies through her stomach.
“I am. Is that okay?” Reese sat up a little straighter, like she was moving to get off the bed.
Sydney cut in immediately, pitching forward, toward the phone in her hand. “Please stay. ”
“If you insist.” Reese settled back onto her side of the bed, and Sydney let out a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding.
“I thought it’d feel different,” Sydney said as the silence stretched between them while Reese was getting comfortable again.
Reese was busy, punching behind her back at a god-awful pillow that she’d brought down from her own room, something that had made the trek from California with her. But her head straightened toward her phone again, and she looked at Sydney seriously. “What would?”
“I didn’t miss playing as much as I expected,” Sydney said. Saying it out loud hit her hard as she finally articulated the feeling that had been escaping her.
“That’s good, right?” Reese asked, concern in her voice. Probably because of the shell-shocked look on Sydney’s face.
Sydney sat with the feeling for a second before her lips broke into a wide smile. “It’s great. I mean, two months ago, I thought that my life was over.”
“And now?”
“And now, I feel like it’s just beginning.” Sydney stood up, a sudden surge of energy infusing her body. She walked over to the nightstand and put the phone down, adjusting it so that it faced outward into the room. “I’m going to get ready to get into bed, if that’s okay?”
There was silence on the other end of the phone, and she looked back to find Reese blinking before she said, “Yep. Totally fine by me.”
“Are you in for the night?” Sydney asked as she walked over to the dresser where she’d unpacked her clothes. She found a T-shirt and decided that was enough in the balmy summer heat, even with her air conditioner cranked up.
She’d cover herself in the comforter and extra blankets, knowing it would only be a poor facsimile to how Reese’s body felt draped over her own .
“I am,” Reese said, her voice sounding a little breathless. It made the nerves in Sydney’s body start to vibrate.
This was what she wanted. What got her excited, these days.
All roads led back to Reese and what was happening between them. The push and pull. The ebb and flow.
For the first time today, having nothing to do with tennis, she felt her pulse accelerate. She loved it.
Sydney had brought her own wardrobe, pre-approved by the network, so she was still wearing her on-set outfit from earlier in the day. She started to undress, adrenaline coursing through her veins as she did.
Sydney removed her pants first, the air cold against her already flush skin. She got to work quickly on her shirt.
“I caught some of your commentary, by the way.”
Reese’s words stopped Sydney in her tracks, and she turned around fully, her fitted button-down about half unbuttoned.
She played with the button that was next in line, her fingers running along the smooth hardness. “And what did you think?”
“You were amazing,” Reese said quickly, her breathing a little labored in a way that made Sydney pluck at the button harder but not keep going.
She rolled the button between her fingers, watching as Reese’s eyes followed the motion. “No specific feedback?”
Reese gulped at the same time she edged farther down the bed. “What do you want to know?”
Sydney loved the idea of Reese watching her, of Sydney pushing things between them. Not that Reese was any slouch in the bedroom, but she tended to be a little more reserved, letting Sydney generally lead where things would go.
But right now, she wanted Reese to want her. To miss her with the same hollowness that Sydney felt in her own stomach. That type of feeling where the more she drank, the thirstier she became.
She wanted Reese to feel that .
She wanted to be the one to fill, to quench, to send Reese into oblivion.
And if she couldn’t be there with her in person, this was the next best thing.
“I’ll undo another button for each thing you tell me you like about our sex life.” The way Reese, in frame, stilled for long seconds, made Sydney wonder if the screen was frozen.
“Okay,” Reese finally said, the single word breathy and wanting.
Sydney felt the agreement in her center, her clit already starting to throb as Reese looked at her hungrily.
“So tell me,” she said, toying with the button but not releasing it.
She was mesmerized by Reese’s face in frame, how the phone wobbled unsteadily as she maneuvered it into a different position.
“I love when you tell me what you want. Whether it’s to wrap my leg around you to get more friction or to pump into you harder. I never thought I’d like taking direction so much.”
Sydney could feel the ghost of Reese’s long fingers with her words, how they filled her so perfectly. Her center clenched, but there was nothing for her to wrap around, her body begging for release it couldn’t find.
“Where’s my button?” Reese asked, her deep brown eyes fixated on Sydney’s fingers.
Sydney, as promised, flicked the button open, revealing another few inches of her lean stomach. She touched lightly against her own skin, hot and tight with need. “I was just thinking about exactly what you described. Got me a little distracted.”
“It’s all about focus, King.” Reese lifted her eyebrow in a deliciously teasing way, and Sydney wished more than anything that she could touch Reese right now.
“You’re so right,” Sydney responded, the arousal clear in Reese’s gaze as her focus dipped down to Sydney’s exposed skin and the next button, which was preventing her from seeing more. “Two more buttons. ”
Reese didn’t disappoint, and that made her all the more turned on.
“I love how responsive your body is. How you’re always ready. How easy it is to make you shake or moan or pant.” Sydney watched, transfixed, as Reese’s fingers, which had been touching her lips, dipped out of the camera’s view.
“Are you touching yourself?” Sydney rasped, her fingers deftly undoing the button and sliding farther down her own skin, stopping near the last button, which rested at the hem of her underwear.
“Yes,” Reese gasped quietly, the air around Sydney electrifying.
Sydney moved quickly from where she stood over to the bed, where she lay on top of the sheet, comforter already folded down. She was on fire, and without any barrier, it was easier for her to spread her hips wide, legs splayed outward.
It was lewd and sexy and she loved the feeling of how her muscles pulled where her hips met her thighs, her body jerking forward in response as she tried to find friction, anything to grind against for relief.
“One more,” Sydney panted, wishing desperately to touch her own clit right now, to ease a finger inside and fill some of the need building deep within.
“I love when you fuck me from behind.”
That was all Sydney could handle, and she quickly undid her last button, fingers disappearing underneath her waistband.
Reese looked so good, lips parted and her face flushed, and Sydney could imagine how she worked into herself, still wishing desperately she could feel the wetness from Reese on her own fingers.
Her whole body ached as she rubbed at her own clit, already moving in insistent circles to get some relief.
She couldn’t think, couldn’t really speak. All she could do was feel, her hips bowing out impossibly wider as she eased two fingers inside, beginning to pump.
“Baby,” she said, missing the sound of Reese’s voice desperately. “Please.”
Reese’s own voice sounded strangled, her breathing starting to come out at erratic intervals. “How you reach your long arms around me, holding me tightly against you. I love how encompassing it feels. Like you’re going to send me spinning but keep me anchored while you do.”
Fuck, she wasn’t going to last much longer. It had been days since she’d had an orgasm, and the need, coupled with Reese’s strained voice had already pushed her close to the edge.
Sydney managed to keep her camera tilted at the right angle while still holding it, trying to take in as much of Reese as she could.
And like Reese knew what she wanted, what Sydney’s own eyes were begging for, Reese switched the view so the camera rested atop the nightstand. Sydney could see Reese’s profile, her neck arching against her pillow, hands invisible beneath her shorts.
But Sydney followed the rapid movement, and Reese bent one leg up, her foot flexing into the bed.
She let out a guttural sound when Reese’s free hand moved upward and she started massaging her own breast, the nipple puckering visibly beneath her thin T-shirt.
Sydney’s hips rocked against her fingers, and she took Reese in hungrily as Reese played with her nipple, Sydney thinking about how good it would feel in her mouth. The way it pillowed into a hard bud that Sydney loved to flick with her tongue, knowing exactly the little pleas it drew from Reese.
And then Sydney came. Hard.
“Fuck, baby, fuck,” she said as she continued working into herself, imagining that Reese was there with her. “You feel so good,” she groaned into the empty room, needing to draw every last ounce of pleasure from her own body, wanting Reese to know the power she held over Sydney .
“Sydney,” Reese cried, the name on her lips as her whole body went rigid, fingertips digging into her own chest.
Sydney stared, transfixed, as she came down from her own orgasm, deep breaths punctuating the silence. Reese’s body finally went limp, and it sent a few more pulses of desire to her own clit, the way Reese looked so utterly spent and deliciously debauched.
Sydney let out a long, drawn-out sigh as she moved her camera to a similar view that Reese saw, placed on the table next to her bed. “That was…”
“Amazing,” Reese said breathlessly before she rolled on her side to face the camera. She rested a hand underneath her cheek and stared at Sydney, eyes mapping everything.
“ You’re amazing,” Sydney corrected, waiting for her erratic heartbeat to come back down to normal.
“I’ve never done that before.” The admission was quiet, Reese’s stare softening as pink flushed her already heated cheeks.
“I guess we’ll just have to chalk this up to another thing you’re incredibly talented at. Did you like it?”
Reese nodded. “Yes, I liked it a lot. Not as good as having you here, but I needed this. I didn’t realize how much until just now.”
Sydney could feel her eyes growing heavy, sleep threatening to overtake her now that she was utterly spent. “I needed it, too, baby.”
And it wasn’t just the sex, even if that had been mind-blowing. She’d wanted to feel close to Reese, to feel connected with her in a way that she couldn’t quite explain.
“Are you going to bed?” Reese asked, her own voice sounding sleep-soaked and utterly satisfied.
Sydney burrowed against her pillow and jutted her hand to the side, managing to capture enough of the comforter to pull it on top of herself. “Mhmm. Are you going to put me to bed?” Sydney teased sleepily.
The exhaustion hit her then. From the last almost week of preparations and the first day of live commentating. From how much she missed Reese, the energy it took to focus on anything else.
“Yeah, baby, I am.” Sydney’s eyes were closed, but she could hear Reese rustling around, finding her own comfort in the bed Sydney wished they could share tonight.
“I’m glad this is how my day is ending. You’re such an amazing girlfriend,” Sydney said, snuggling into a ball under the covers.
Before she drifted off to sleep, she managed to open her eyes one last time to see Reese’s soft gaze watching her.