Chapter Twenty
A ugust shook her head, holding Piper close to her.
It turned out, dance lessons were a great idea if you liked the person you were on a date with. As a first date, she’d generally think it was something to avoid—a little too intimate for someone you’d only just met. But, with Piper, it was something else entirely.
Piper’s hands holding onto her, her own fingers gliding over the soft fabric of Piper’s dress, feeling the heat of her body radiating through it, the soft skin underneath teasing her and making her stomach drop every time she adjusted her grip. And even that was nothing compared to the dizzying sensation that jolted through her when Piper gripped her waist or squeezed her fingers a little tighter.
The whole thing made August feel like she couldn’t breathe, but she didn’t miss it at all.
“I’m sorry about the terrible date and the guy with his weirdly intrusive mom,” August whispered into Piper’s ear. She felt the way Piper shuddered straight down into her core.
“That’s okay. I’ve come a long way since then.” Her voice was warm and sweet and soft in a way that almost made August forget where they were.
Piper pulled back and held her gaze, the moment intensifying, their movements slowing to a gentle sway. August’s eyes caught on the quick flick of tongue that danced across Piper’s lower lip, leaving it glossy and mesmerizing. Just the tiniest tip of Piper’s tongue, but August couldn’t get enough, the sight of it reaching somewhere deep inside of her and turning on a light she’d long thought extinguished.
Her breathing was shallow and far too ragged for the dance they were doing.
Piper’s hand slid slowly but deliberately up August’s arm, leaving a trail of goosebumps in its wake, even under her long-sleeved shirt. She continued to hold August’s gaze when she reached the collar.
August’s lungs failed to expand properly as she felt Piper’s grip wrap around her collar, one warm, electric finger still extended. August’s eyes bounced desperately between Piper’s gaze and lips as the finger in question came down tantalizingly slowly to trace across her throat and under her shirt to tease along her collarbone.
“Piper,” she whispered, her voice filled with longing.
Piper’s gaze flicked up from where she’d been watching her own fingertip glide over August’s skin. “August,” she murmured back, a smile tugging at her perfect, red lips.
August wasn’t sure what she was supposed to say to that. There wasn’t anything to say—nothing that would make sense. Her mind was a fuzzy haze of wanting. Any noises she made would simply be that tangled mess made vocal.
Piper hummed as if August had said all of that out loud, as if she understood completely. Maybe she did. Maybe all of it was written perfectly plainly across August’s face. Either way, August couldn’t find it in herself to be embarrassed or concerned.
“Okay, everyone,” Demelza’s voice called from very far away.
August blinked, taking in the amused look on Piper’s face as she held them close for a moment longer, just as reluctant to let the real world sweep in between them as August was.
They stood close together as they both turned to listen to Demelza wrapping up the lesson, and August wondered whether it was too soon to ask Piper to return with her next week.
Her breathing still hadn’t righted itself when Demelza stopped speaking, shot her a knowing look, and nodded in parting. Perhaps she and Piper had been a little obvious—and oblivious to the rest of the world around them.
They gathered their belongings, their gazes returning to each other over and over again. It was the most successful date August had ever been on. Perhaps she should have known, expected it from the second she’d met Piper. You didn’t have that much chemistry in the first five minutes without there being something worth exploring between you.
Piper paused on the sidewalk outside the studio and nodded towards the café she’d waited at the last time she’d met August here. “I want you to know that, if we didn’t have a huge moving day to help with tomorrow, I’d absolutely ask you to continue this over there.”
August grinned. “How much sleep do you really need?”
Piper’s eyes flashed in a way August had never experienced in real life. “August,” she warned, her voice deliciously dark.
August stifled a laugh and walked backwards towards the road. “We can get you decaf, if you prefer?”
“August,” Piper repeated, this time more frustrated and needy.
“Hey, if you don’t want a drink for the ride home, that’s okay, too. But, you know, while we’re here, I thought we could use a drink for the drive. We might have to take the long way, after all.”
They wouldn’t need to. The roads weren’t going to be busy. August just needed to. Hell, she’d only driven to the date in the first place so she could drive Piper home.
“You don’t have to drive me back, you know?”
“I want to,” August said, looking over her shoulder at Piper. She looked like something from a movie—glossy hair, bright red lipstick popping against the city at night. Gorgeous.
Piper hummed, skipped to catch up to August, and held the door to the café open for her. August smiled and shook her head, but headed in, gesturing for Piper to order first and enjoying the laughter she was rewarded with. However, she hadn’t been expecting Piper to pay and was unprepared for the move. As she reached for her card, Piper expertly slid hers out from up her sleeve and tapped the machine.
August frowned at her. “Where did you pull that from?”
Piper giggled and leaned into her side. “A lady never tells.”
“I was going to pay.”
“I know.” She grinned, her eyes sparkling. “Maybe you can pay next time.”
Next time? Were they both wondering whether the middle of one date was an appropriate time to ask for the next one? August could work with that.
They got their drinks and walked quickly to August’s car, heads bowed against the wind that had picked up and was bitingly cold.
“Oh, I’m glad we stopped for these drinks,” Piper said once they were buckled into the car, her hands wrapped around the cup, desperate for the warmth it could give her.
August laughed. “We probably wouldn’t have been caught in the wind if we hadn’t stopped…”
Piper shot her a look from under her long, dark eyelashes. “Well, I’m not going to be sad about getting more time with you.”
August pressed her lips together and put the car in reverse, pulling out of the spot, and heading for the long way back to Piper’s place.
Even then, it wasn’t long enough.
When they arrived, she parked the car and, in a desperate bid for a few extra minutes, she climbed out of the car with Piper, both of them looking up at her building as they headed for the door.
When they reached it, Piper slotted herself between August and the wall beside it.
“So,” she said, biting down on a smile, “how was your date?”
August’s gaze ran over her face, lit perfectly by the building’s outdoor lanterns. “It was… definitely one I’d like to do again?”
“Yeah?”
“Yes.”
She unleashed the smile, full and radiant. “Lucky, really, since we’d be stuck spending tomorrow together even if it had gone badly.”
August hummed in agreement, stepping a little closer to her. “Kind of a wild decision on our part not to reschedule after Ford and Hermes picked tomorrow as moving day.”
“Oh, well, you know, it’s the only night we could go to the studio.”
“Right. That’s all it was.”
She nodded, biting her bottom lip. Her snow-white teeth were so bright against the red lipstick. “Not at all because we knew it would go so well we didn’t have to worry about tomorrow.”
“Not at all.”
Piper reached out, her fingers wrapping around August’s lapels. “Although, right now, it is a little frustrating that our date has to get cut short.”
“Mm. Maybe we did pick the wrong night.”
“No,” she whispered, long and slow and soft, as she pulled August forward, into her body.
August’s hands settled on Piper’s hips and the movement set her heart racing even through all the layers of clothing.
Piper held August’s gaze as she said, “Just to be very, very clear, we have an early morning tomorrow, and I don’t sleep with people on the first date, and I don’t, for one second, want you to think this is just about sex.”
“Understood, and agreed,” August replied. It wasn’t the smoothest response she could have given but she was lost in Piper’s eyes and the feeling of their bodies pressed together again. And she did agree—with all of it.
Piper smiled and nodded. “So. In that case, how do you feel about kissing on the first date?”
“In general?” Her eyes flickered down to Piper’s lips. “Or with you?”
One of Piper’s hands slid up August’s coat. Her fingers caressed August’s throat until she held her jawline, her thumb resting on August’s chin, just below her lip. “With me.”
August gasped as Piper’s thumb ran, featherlight, over her lips. “Great. Really, really great.”
Piper smirked as she used the hand still gripping August’s lapel to pull them even closer together. Her hand slipped along August’s jaw to play across the soft skin behind her earlobe. August’s entire body was trembling with the need to kiss her.
Their breaths, white clouds in the cold night, mingled together, inseparable, as Piper brushed her nose against August’s, their heads tilting from side to side, lips almost— almost —touching.
“Piper,” August moaned quietly.
Piper hummed and finally closed the aching distance between them.
Her lips were soft but needy against August’s, and, however much August had wanted this, she could feel Piper wanting it every bit as much.
One of her hands wrapped around Piper’s back, holding her close. The other ran up her front, vaguely aware of the feeling of Piper’s body under her thick coat, and laced its way into Piper’s hair. And they kissed like nothing else in the world mattered, like they had all the time in the universe to do so.
Piper’s hands wound their way down August’s body and teased their way up under her coat.
August gasped into the kiss when freezing cold fingers touched her waist—Piper’s cold hands directly on her bare skin.
“Sorry,” Piper said urgently into the kiss, barely breaking apart.
“Mm. No,” August replied quickly, moving to grip Piper’s arms and hold her hands under her shirt, against her skin.
“Okay,” Piper said, laughing, as she pressed her palms against August’s lower back.
The temperature difference was shocking and sexy and heady, and August kissed Piper harder, more desperately. Their bodies moved together, frenzied in their efforts to drink each other in, to have each other closer.
August knew they were at Piper’s front door. She knew they had to get up early and help her brother move into Hermes’ place. She knew a million different things but all she could bring herself to care about was the feeling of kissing Piper—Piper’s hands under her shirt, Piper’s lips pressed bruisingly into hers, Piper’s tongue teasing her own, her body pressing Piper into the wall behind her.
They kissed and kissed, both of them increasingly desperate, until Piper’s hands were no longer cold against her body, and every part of her felt like it was on fire, the cold night a distant memory.
Eventually, they broke apart, their foreheads resting together.
“Wow,” Piper breathed.
“I’ll say,” August replied, sounding equally breathless.
“Finally went on the right date,” she laughed.
August hummed and couldn’t resist ducking her head to kiss along Piper’s neck. She loved the moan the move elicited from Piper, and the way her head fell back against the wall, allowing August more access.
“August,” she gasped. “If you keep doing that, I don’t think our ‘no sex on the first date’ thing will hold.”
August laughed against her throat, loving the way Piper shivered in response. “Is that supposed to be a deterrent?”
“No.” She pulled August closer again, her hips bucking to meet August’s body.
The intercom buzzed to life beside them and August was ready to ignore it—not sure who she’d become, but loving every second of it—until Massima’s voice blared out at them and Piper groaned, her tightly wound muscles relaxing.
“You two do know you have plans tomorrow morning, right?” Massima laughed.
“If you’re listening in, I’m guessing you know we’re perfectly aware,” Piper replied, her tone sarcastic and short with the interruption.
August moved her mouth to Piper’s ear and breathed a barely audible, “Does it have a camera?”
“No,” Piper replied, just as quietly.
“Good.”
August resumed kissing Piper’s neck and she could feel the way Piper was holding back the moans itching to break free from her. It was one of the sexiest things August had ever experienced.
“Hey, it’s not my fault if you’re being noisy right next to the intercom,” Massima said, faux outraged.
“We didn’t dial up to the apartment,” Piper told her, her voice wavering beautifully. “The only way you could hear is if you were watching for us and then choosing to listen in. Which is, honestly, so weird.”
Massima laughed loudly, the sound crackling over the speaker. “I’m just trying to help you both be good friends and siblings. Can you imagine how Ford and Hermes would feel if you two blew them off? Absolutely devastated. Rejected. Abandoned.”
August groaned into Piper’s neck at the same time she scoffed out loud at Massima.
“Fine,” Piper said, holding onto August’s hands as they finally pulled apart. “You’ve successfully killed the mood. Can we have some privacy to say good night?”
“Yep,” Massima agreed happily, “but I’m calling back if you’re not here in ten minutes.”
Piper rolled her eyes. “I’ll be up in a second.”
Massima laughed, the sound cutting off when the intercom clicked and fell silent again.
“Should I be worried about how long she was listening?” August asked, mostly just amused.
“Oh, god. Who knows? The ‘listen in’ button doesn’t make a sound. It’s only when they click to speak that you can tell someone’s using it.”
“Delightful.”
She laughed. “Definitely better to just not think about it.”
August shot her a look. “Only that part though. I’ll be thinking about the rest of it.”
Piper’s eyebrows shot up. “Me too, August. Me too.”
August smiled and nodded. “Well, I’ll see you bright and early tomorrow morning?”
Piper gripped her lapels again. “Tomorrow,” she promised, and she pulled August in for another kiss. It wasn’t as quick as it should have been to ensure Massima stayed off their backs, but August didn’t care in the slightest.