31. Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-One
Neither Hope nor Alison moved. They sat, frozen on the bed, listening to Estella Grant’s heels clicking down the hall, disappearing down the stairwell, front door banging behind her. Hope felt as well as heard Alison breathe out shakily beside her. She turned to stare at her, to feast her eyes on her face: her beautiful, alive, non-bloodied face.
Alison met her eyes and time went haywire. Hope’s brain went on a long loop thinking about traumatic experiences and wondering exactly how her body was about to respond. Tears? Shaking? Passing the hell out from the sheer relief of being alive? She’d never gone through anything so wildly intense; she had no idea what would happen next. The bottom had fallen out of her world in the last hour, new jaw-droppingly horrifying possibilities suddenly entirely evident .
The room was ferociously quiet, just the sound of their uneven breaths. They were still staring at each other. Hope could see the different shades of grey and silver that made up Alison’s irises, the lines around her eyes that Hope knew she fought, the smudge of Estella Grant’s red lipstick on her mouth. Then, after seconds or hours, Alison slid her fingers around the back of Hope’s neck - startlingly warm - and pulled her into a desperately deep kiss.
And oh, that was how her body was going to respond. Every nerve-ending she owned plunged deep into a hot pool of need, flooding her with desperate desire. Her fingers clutched Alison’s skin, pulling roughly at her arms, her body going weak until they pressed full-length into each other, Hope moaning into Alison’s mouth, unable to get close enough, needing to meld into her skin and melt until Alison was inside her, until Alison claimed her, until Alison would never, ever let her go again.
Hope jerked back - seconds or hours later - reality flooding in. Alison cupped her face, gazing at her, the same dazed desperate wonder in her eyes and oh, here came the tears. Hope sat bolt upright, so fast that Alison jolted.
“Hope-” Alison reached for her, her lips kiss swollen, her face pale. “God, sorry, I-”
“No. No. ” Hope shook her head fast, her throat choked with tears. For incalculable amount of time she couldn’t find the words, her heart and brain frozen cogs, trying to find the way through this because-
“It’s okay,” Alison said, her eyes filled with concern and something Hope couldn’t interpret. “We’re… you’re in shock. Let me just- I’ll just hold you, okay?”
“Don’t you see?” Hope began to weep, her hands shaking - check, awesome, another trauma response - “I can’t let you hold me. I can’t do this. I can’t be friends anymore-”
“It’s too much,” Alison whispered. She looked broken. “Of course it is. It’s things like this that made me try so hard not to get close to you in the first place-” She gestured at the wineglass Estella had left on her bedside, a perfect imprint of her red lip like a dangerous calling card.
Then, her breath all but smacked out of her as Hope rolled on top of her, sitting up to firmly straddle her thighs, because enough ! Enough of all of this!
“We nearly died,” she cried furiously. “I would have watched you die, Alison! And if there’s a worse way to figure out you’re in love with someone, I don’t know what it is! But I know now that I can’t be your friend because I want all of you, Ali. Not just the things you think you can give me. All of you. Because I would choose this - mess and danger and all of it - over being close, but still shut out. Are you really still going to tell me the only thing you want - aside from to fuck me - is to be my friend? Because-”
“Hope.” Alison was staring at her, her eyes wide. “ Hope-” Hope wasn’t sure if she’d been weeping and rambling at Alison for half an hour or barely fifteen seconds, because her heart was shattering in her chest and all she could feel was the insanity of the loss she’d just about faced, the loss she could still face. Alison pressed her fingers against her lips, the shock showing in the way they trembled. Her body was shaking too, beneath Hope’s thighs because Alison was… laughing?
“Hope!” Alison bit her lip against a smile that made absolutely no sense right now, but then what the hell did? “For god’s sake. I’m a lot of things it’s fair to say, but I’m also someone’s mother. Do you think there’s any way in hell I would step in front of a loaded gun if I wasn’t desperately in love with you?”
Hope’s jaw unhinged itself.
“You… are?” She was barely breathing. The tears were disappearing, but the shaking was back three-fold. “Ali…” She couldn’t comprehend anything she was hearing right now, but the look in Alison’s eyes was something she’d never known how quite much she’d longed for until she saw it: love , deep and finally completely unhidden from her.
“Can I hold you if I fucking love you?” Alison pleaded. Hope all but collapsed down into her and Alison clutched her in tight, the two of them entwined on the bed, limbs tangled, Hope’s face pressed into Alison’s throat, inhaling her scent, feeling her pulse banging against her lips.
Feeling Alison so close, so alive, in love with her , slammed into Hope like a mack truck even as her head swam. She opened her lips against Alison’s soft skin, tasting her, biting down on her flesh and Alison jerked against her, her hands gripping her hips so tight that Hope wanted them to bruise. Hope fumbled with Alison’s blouse, her fingers too shaky for buttons, her skin hot, all but ripping it over Alison’s head, baring all that lovely, vulnerable skin to her mouth.
“You love me,” Hope gasped, kissing the tops of Alison’s breasts, nipping at the softness of the curves peeking out from the top of her bra. Alison was moaning, her breath coming in fits and starts. She pushed Hope - not away-just to get her to move enough to pull her whole dress up over her head.
“Love you?” Alison gasped, “I’m going to fucking devour you.” She tugged down the cups of Hope’s bra to pull her nipple into her mouth and suck, and every part of Hope turned to liquid. Her hips were bucking, already frantic, her need so great she felt deranged. They were alive. They were in love. Alison felt it, didn’t make her wait, slipping her hand into Hope’s underwear and hissing at the intensity of her need. “Tell me you’re mine,” she all but growled, slipping her fingers inside her while Hope whined with the ache she needed so badly to be soothed.
“I’m yours -” she gasped. “I’m all yours-” She’d never said truer words in her life as Alison forcefully owned her, fucking her firmly, those steely eyes Hope loved pinning her to the bed.
“I’m going to take all of you,” Alison panted, both a warning and a promise and Hope gulped for air, convulsing with pleasure and pain and survival. Alison pushed her fingers in deeper as she pulled her body back and readjusted, her free hand tugging Hope’s ruined underwear down just enough to lean in and lick at her, her tongue demanding, seeking her taste and her surrender. A sound Hope didn’t even know she could make ripped from her throat, an orgasm so fast and desperate it was almost painful, wracking her muscles, her abdomen clenching so hard it felt like a sprain. Alison didn’t spare her, licking her through it, fingers lodged deep inside and Hope had never felt so owned in all her life.
Time went haywire again and then Alison surrounded her, her whole body pressing down, her fingers still inside her like a claim, Hope shaking beneath her, soft kisses pressed to her throat, her cheeks, her forehead, her nose.
“ Nngggh,” was about as eloquent as she managed for a good minute. Alison smiled against her throat, finally dragging her fingers out, wiping them slowly down Hope’s abdomen, kissing her mouth. “We’re not friends,” Hope managed to confirm and Alison laughed. Tears sprung into her eyes; perhaps the trauma, perhaps something else. She cupped Hope’s jaw with her wet fingers.
“Does this feel like friendship to you?” Alison kissed her deeply. She reached back and undid Hope’s bra, tugging it down her arms, then hooked her fingers into the waistband of her underwear, dragging it down her legs, stripping Hope naked. Then she pressed her lips softly to Hope’s earlobe. “On your knees,” she whispered.
Hope almost passed out. She wasn’t sure her extremities even had the strength so she forced herself up and off the bed on pure lust alone. Alison pushed herself upright to watch her, still in her bra and snugly fitted navy skirt. Her teeth sank into her lip as Hope stood naked at the bedside.
“Aren’t you supposed to be kneeling?” The firmness in her tone almost made Hope buckle, but she kept her head up. She met Alison’s eyes and curled her finger, urging Alison closer. Alison sat all the way up and slipped to the edge of the bed, her feet on the floor. And with that, Hope slid, naked, to her knees.
Alison watched her, her chest rising and falling with mesmerising effort. For a long moment she looked utterly overwhelmed, her grey eyes almost black with her need and Hope felt her thighs clenching as she watched Alison struggle for control.
“Please,” Hope whispered up at her. “Please let me.” Alison took a shaky breath.
“Take my underwear off, now, ” she made her voice hard and Hope whimpered. The balance of Alison’s incredible vulnerability and the sharp icy tone that Hope knew was deliberate almost brought her undone. She slipped her hands up Alison’s thighs, fighting with the tight fabric of her skirt, Alison not lifting to help her one bit, watching Hope, naked and struggling, her tongue darting out to lick her lower lip at the sight.
When Hope finally wrestled her skirt out the way, she hooked her fingers into Alison’s underwear - silky pale lace - and tugged it down her legs. Never had she ever had the urge to bury her face in someone’s discarded panties before but she fought it now. She stayed on her knees, her hands gently wrapped around Alison’s ankles, wondering if this was the moment that it would be too much and Alison would crack under all the pressure.
She was dying to bury her tongue inside her, but instead she tilted her head up and gazed at Alison, letting all the desire, all the love blaze in her eyes.
“Please,” she whispered. “ Please let me lick you.”
Alison moaned. She looked indecently sexy, breasts only just contained in her bra, skirt hiked around her waist, cheeks flushed, all but panting. Very slowly, she widened her thighs and Hope leaned back to look at her, sucking in her lower lip at the sight of Alison, slippery and swollen with need. Hope’s mouth started watering.
“Don’t tease me,” she begged. “ Please. I need a taste-”
Her voice broke off as Alison reached out and tenderly stroked her fingers through Hope’s hair where it spilled around her shoulders. She gathered it into one thick lock at the back of her head, then slowly, deliberately, wrapped it around her fist. And then she pulled. Hard.
Hope moaned, suddenly nose to Alison’s clit. She was off-balance, rocked on her knees, but even as she flung her hands out to right herself against Alison’s thighs, she inhaled headily, her mouth opening eagerly. Her tongue made contact at the same time as her lips, taking a long, gentle, hungry lick. Alison cried out, her hips bucking, her hand in Hope’s hair pulling her tighter and Hope nearly came as Alison ground her pussy against her mouth.
Hope licked her softly while Alison controlled the pace, her hard grip on her hair, using Hope’s whole mouth to get herself off. Hope heard herself mewling with arousal, her own need dripping down her thighs as Alison bucked and cried out, rolling her hips onto Hope’s face for her own pleasure. Hope tilted her chin, pushing her tongue inside Alison’s pussy, needing this ultimate intimacy, dying to be inside her and Alison clenched so hard she felt it. She teased her way back up her slick wetness, fighting back against Alison’s control, slowly sucking on her clit and the sound that escaped Alison’s throat made her want to crow with victory. Alison went taut, pulling Hope’s hair sharply and holding her still all at once. Hope didn’t stop her gentle sucking, and beautiful, pent-up, elegant, icy Alison Hartmann shouted her name as she came ferociously hard against her mouth.
Alison’s fingers slackened in Hope’s hair and Hope pulled back to gaze up at her. Alison was still panting and she moaned at the sight of Hope, swollen-lipped, the mess she’d made of her face. Then she collapsed back onto the bed.
Hope laughed, joy infusing her very bones as she pushed up and covered Alison’s prone body with her own.
“Oh god, ” Alison’s arm came up to wrap around her, immediately sliding down her back and squeezing a firm handful of Hope’s ass. She buried her face in Hope’s neck, inhaling deeply, like she couldn’t surround herself enough in Hope to get her fill. Hope helped her - she was generous that way - entwining their legs and gasping, rolling her hips at the sensation of Alison’s firm thigh between her own. Eating Alison out had driven her crazy. “Oh honey,” Alison gasped as she felt Hope’s wetness kissing her skin. She grabbed Hope’s ass with both hands, encouraging her grind, sparks already flying behind Hope’s eyes.
“I’m sorry,” Hope moaned. “I can’t- I can’t get enough of you-”
“This is not a sorry moment.” Alison bit down on her lip. “Don’t stop. Don’t ever stop.” The hitch in her voice tipped Hope further, and Hope was… Hope was alive, she was in love, within minutes she was coming harder than she’d ever come in her life, nothing but Alison’s bare thigh and the absolute blazing joy in her eyes.
Collapsing into Alison with a ragged cry, Hope felt warm arms encircle her, clinging to her tightly, and finally, with that, Alison began to cry. Hope pulled at her body, as if there was any way for them to be closer than they were already.
“I love you,” she whispered into Alison’s hair. “I love you. I fucking love you.”
The door to the bedroom flung open so fast it bounced on its hinges. Hope nearly jumped out of her skin. She barely had time to remember that she could fear for her life when she glimpsed Harry, his face tense and pale and his grey hair wild as he stared wide-eyed at the two of them, naked and entwined on the bed .
For a second no one moved.
“Good,” he croaked. “You’re alive. Uh… carry on then,” he said formally, though Hope caught the glint of tears in his bright blue eyes. “I’ll just be in the living room, drinking every single bottle of wine you own and trying to stall the police from bursting in to interrogate you.” He turned toward the door and then paused. “You really might consider answering your phone next time, Alison,” he said mildly.