Chapter Fourteen
“I hope you didn’t go around telling everyone I’m getting old,” Norah said, opening the passenger-side door of the jeep.
Chase was sitting in the front, engine idling, focused intently on the tablet she was holding.
At the sound of Norah’s voice, Chase jumped a little, but a fierce grin appeared immediately.
“We both know you aren’t that old.” She put the tablet down and angled her body toward Norah’s. “Just older than me.”
Chase was fifteen months younger than Norah, and she didn’t let her forget it for a single second.
“Thank you,” Norah said sweetly.
“Happy Birthday, Nor.”
Norah put her hand on Chase’s thigh, feeling the taut muscles tighten as she did.
“You know I’d almost forgotten about the orchid.”
“I hadn’t.” Chase shook her head and stared out the front window. “I wasn’t kidding. I thought about you every single birthday, every single year since we last saw each other.”
“I know.”
“Actually, if I’m being completely honest here, it wasn’t just your birthday.
I thought about you every day. Every. Damn.
Day. But your birthday was always a little extra.
I imagined what I would say to you if I ever had the chance.
I imagined what it would feel like to hold you again.
I thought about whispering in your ear and pushing your hair back and kissing your forehead.
That orchid should have never stuck around longer than I did. ”
Norah felt her eyes grow damp. A little kissing here and there, some cuddling to ease the loneliness, that was fine. But this couldn’t venture into feelings. She had to keep her heart out of it.
“Chase, don’t. We’ve been through this. I forgive you. You can relieve yourself of whatever guilt you’re holding onto.” Norah let out a sarcastic chuckle, content to feel her walls come back up just enough.
“Guilt and regret aren’t the same thing, you know.
” Chase was facing her again, her gaze boring into Norah’s.
She’d always had a knack for eye contact, a magnetic force of a gaze that locked with Norah’s and refused to let go.
And every time she did, Norah was useless.
The tiny fortress she had reassembled around her once again crumbled like it was nothing more than cheap plastic, and all she could think about was how much she wanted Chase’s hands in her hair.
“Guilt is something people feel when they do something to hurt someone.” Chase traced her fingers along the line of Norah’s jaw, letting them just graze her lower lip until Norah felt her breath come in one audible gasp.
“Regret is wanting back everything you lost,” she said. Norah swallowed hard as Chase spoke.
Norah’s eyes closed against her will, and she sank into Chase’s touch until she couldn’t take anymore and placed her own hand on the back of Chase’s head and pulled Chase’s mouth against her own until they were both needily grabbing handfuls of the other’s hair.
Norah turned her body so she could touch as much of Chase as possible.
The center console in the jeep limited Norah’s access to her more than she liked, but the feeling of her tongue pushing against Chase’s made it too hard to stop.
“Wait,” Norah said, her breathing ragged. She placed her hand firmly on Chase’s chest and held it there. “We should talk about this.”
Chase lifted one eyebrow and cocked her head. “About us?”
Norah had to warm a little at the eagerness in her voice.
“About us, you know, having sex.”
“Is that what’s about to happen here? Right here, in this jeep, in the middle of the day?”
“I mean, I kind of figured we were headed there eventually. All the kissing? The sneaking around? Was I wrong?”
“I hoped that was where this was headed.” Chase laughed. “I know you’re worried about me making this something more than just casual.” She nearly spat the word out in disgust. “But I promise, you’ll never have to know that it’s more than that to me.”
What a ridiculous idea, to think Norah could even consider the fallacy that sex with Chase could be anything resembling casual. But that wasn’t what she was talking about this time.
“We have to be safe here.”
“Right. You’re absolutely right.” Chase broke the contact, and they both faced forward, silently pondering their situation.
“The reality is, our whole cohort is already exposed to each other constantly, right? It comes down to the whole ‘pod’ theory. Obviously if someone in the group becomes symptomatic, we have to do whatever we can to mitigate risk. But what’s sex amongst pod members going to do to propagate the spread of this thing? ”
Chase shook her head, smiling. “Wow. You’ve really given this some thought, haven’t you?”
“You have no idea,” Norah mumbled.
Chase’s smile widened. “Then I for one see no additional risk to others from us finding creative ways to work through our stress.”
“I actually think it would probably benefit the overall cause.”
Chase nodded intently, turning back to Norah and cupping her face between both of her hands. Norah’s breathing picked up again, and she felt the heat flooding her belly.
“Mhmm. Definitely.” She could hear the desperation in her own voice. After another excruciating second, Chase tightened her grip just enough and brought Norah to her, an audible moan escaping her mouth as it met Norah’s.
“Fuck,” Chase whispered, her hands moving to Norah’s waist and pulling her effortlessly on top of her until Norah was straddling her lap in the driver’s seat.
It was the middle of the day. Norah hadn’t even had a chance to ask Chase where she was getting ready to head off to before she’d ambushed her.
They had a million other things to do, and probably a million better places for them to do this particular thing.
But Norah didn’t care. She’d waited years to have Chase again, and she couldn’t wait one additional second.
“Are you okay?” Chase struggled to speak since her breathing was so heavy. “The steering wheel…”
Norah pulled her shirt over her head. “I don’t care.”
“Look. I want you to know that I know this doesn’t mean we’re together or anything, and I’m not expecting anything. I know I lost you years ago and this is just a way for you to distract yourself from—”
Norah kissed Chase again, hard, wanting to do anything but keep talking about the past. She didn’t know what this was, but she knew damn well what it couldn’t be.
And when Chase plucked a fistful of her hair and gently tugged her head to the side, exposing Norah’s neck and running her tongue up to her ear, where she stopped and brushed her lips against the lobe, Norah didn’t care, either.
Chase pushed up the cup of Norah’s bra and took her nipple between her teeth just hard enough that all the air was sucked out of Norah’s chest. Stars danced across her vision as Chase’s tongue flicked expertly against her with just enough pressure to make Norah grind her hips desperately into Chase’s thigh.
Norah’s tempo built as beads of sweat collected on her forehead, dripping down her chin and onto Chase’s chest. The hand that had been cradling the small of Norah’s back moved to the waist of her shorts and unbuttoned them in one smooth swipe of Chase’s fingers.
Norah’s entire body seized as Chase grazed over her panties, then pulled them to the side like she’d been doing it her entire life.
Another moan snuck out of Chase’s mouth and reverberated against Norah’s chest as Norah inched herself farther onto Chase, quietly begging for her to make as much contact as possible.
She knew she’d cum the second she felt Chase’s fingers slide inside her, but she didn’t care.
“Chase…please…” she whispered, cupping the back of Chase’s neck in her hand and pressing Chase’s head against her.
Chase pulled her head away just enough so Norah could see the way her eyes glazed over when she was finally inside her, and she nearly exploded around Chase’s fingers right then and there.
But she held on, trying to freeze time. Although her conscious mind had taken a backseat, she still sensed that when this moment was over, they’d have to go back to a reality where work had to be done, people needed saving, and Chase had let her down.
That moment though, as the pressure built between her legs and she clenched her thighs so tightly against Chase’s waist she was sure she’d leave marks—that was theirs.
“Oh my god. Chase.” Norah panted, thrusting hard against Chase’s fingers as the last waves of her orgasm ebbed.
Her head collapsed onto Chase’s shoulder, and Chase gently pulled her hand away, clasping her arms tightly around Norah’s waist and holding her.
The sun was just a little lower, and the light coming in through the jeep’s open top was such a calming hue of orange it was almost ethereal.
Everything around them was quiet except the sound of Chase’s breathing.
Norah could feel the pulse on Chase’s neck bounding where her head rested.
Neither made any attempt to move, except for the soft patterns Chase was making with her fingers against Norah’s bare back.
I still love her.
It wasn’t as if Norah didn’t know this fact. She’d loved Chase for years, and the second she laid eyes on her again, she knew she’d never stopped. But something about putting it into words, even if only to herself, made it real. And now she couldn’t take it back.
If she had to guess, Chase would have said they’d been in the jeep only a grand total of twenty minutes.
But when she looked at her silver Casio watch she’d been wearing since 2006, she was shocked to realize it was already six p.m. She and Norah had essentially time-traveled, which they should have anticipated, and suddenly they’d been out of commission for nearly two hours.
“Shit. It’s almost six,” Chase said, frantically zipping up the fly on her shorts and smoothing down her rogue hair. “I have to go.”