Chapter 9
ONE NIGHT DRIP
CHRISTMAS EVE
God, why do I attract people who are emotionally unavailable?
Heaven telling me she is recently single doesn’t help. I don’t know what is worse — thinking she was a cheater or realizing she can move on from being cheated on this quickly.
I cannot even focus on the canvas in front of me. I am supposed to be drawing a snowman, which is easy, but I keep glancing at Heaven across from me.
“What’s on your mind, Shortcake?” Heaven asks without looking up from her canvas.
“I am trying to figure out if I want my snowman to have a carrot for a nose or a peppermint stick.”
“I vote for a peppermint,” she says with a smirk.
“Of course you do.”
Mariah Carey’s “This Christmas” plays softly in the background while we paint. I thought this would be a fun activity, something to turn my mind off for a bit.
But it is hard to turn my mind off when she is sitting across from me.
The way she tilts her head while she paints.
The way her lips curl when she is focused.
The way she looks so calm while my chest is doing full-on gymnastics.
I am supposed to be drawing a snowman. Instead, I am emotionally spiraling while Heaven Oakley paints like she is not the hottest distraction I have ever met.
I cannot allow myself to get distracted. I leave for Italy to start a new life in a couple days. Being a hopeless romantic and an artist, it is way too easy for me to find a muse. Good or bad.
The words slip out before I can stop them.
“Did you love her?” I ask quickly.
Heaven pauses, brush in hand. “Love who?”
“Your ex,” I say, staring at my snowman like it can save me from this conversation. “Did you love Keke?”
She presses her lips together. “Yes, I loved her… but I wasn’t in love with her.”
“So you were in a loveless relationship? Is that why you’ve been the Grinch this Christmas?”
She laughs lightly. “Yes and no. I loved Keke. But I guess it was all in my head. I don’t know.”
She stops painting and looks directly at me. “And to answer your second question… yes. I was planning.”
“Planning what?” I ask.
She clears her throat. “I was planning to propose. Tomorrow.”
My chest tightens, air catching.
“How do you get over someone like that?” I whisper.
“Well… it’s kinda easy when someone cheats on you,” she says with a dry laugh.
I stare at her, blink a couple times, then shake my head and focus on my canvas again.
“What about you?” she asks. “Why—”
“We’ve been asking each other the same questions all night, ” I cut in.
“Well shit, you answer correctly the first time I would ask again”
“Fine.” I put my brush down taking a deep breath.
“Christmas was my grandma’s favorite holiday.
She used to pick me up since my parents always had to work and my siblings were much older.
While other kids were outside playing in the snow, I was with her.
Baking, watching movies, cutting up paper snowflakes—you name it. ”
I pause.
When I look up, Heaven is already staring at me, waiting.
I continue softly, “She died four years ago. A week before Christmas. The first year wasn’t bad.
Neighbors came by, said how sorry they were, brought food and gifts so I wouldn’t feel empty.
But the years after that just got lonelier.
My parents never cared about the holidays, and neither did my siblings.
So… here I am, being just like them. Working on a holiday that used to mean everything to me.
I took this job to escape a little before I leave. ”
“Where are you going?” she asks.
Wiping a tear from my eye, I say, “You’re looking at the newest citizen of Italy. I’ll be going to school there to study art.”
Heaven stands up and moves to my side of the table, sitting next to me. She gives me a small, warm smile.
“Well, that’s cool as hell,” she says softly. “I’m sorry for your loss. And you deserve to celebrate. I don’t know your grandma, but she seems pretty cool. And… I’m sorry if I was bringing down your joy.”
“No, you weren’t at all. Honestly, even you being a Grinch was better than me being alone. Even though we’re stuck here until the snow melts a little.” I give her a weak smile.
She smiles back—slow and soft.
I clear my throat, needing something to cut the heaviness. “Alright, let me see your snowman.”
She shakes her head immediately, laughing. “Nah. I promise you don’t want to see that shit.”
“Heaven, it’s literally three circles stacked on top of each other.”
I reach across the table to grab her canvas.
She beats me to it, snatching it up and twisting her body away.
“Heaven—give it!” I lean forward, stretching. “You acting like it’s a Picasso.”
She angles the canvas farther from me, laughing. “Because it looks like it melted and then got hit by a bus.”
I reach again—too fast.
My arm bumps my paint cup.
It tips.
Paint slides across the table stopping before dripping on the floor.
“Oh shit—!”
Her eyes go wide. “Oh hell—this is Iris’s favorite rug!”
We both leap up at the same time, grabbing paper towels, napkins, literally anything. We move everything from the living room to the kitchen so we don’t make an even bigger mess. When we head back to the couch, we both reach for the same piece of paper towel at the same time.
She goes right, I go left—and we crash into each other.
Our heads bump.
Hard.
“Ow—damn!” Heaven winces, rubbing her forehead.
I press my hand to mine. “You have a big forehead.”
She snorts. “You are one to talk. You love giving me concussions. It’s truly your fault.”
“My fault? You leaned into me!”
“I leaned away!”
“Lies!”
We stare at each other for exactly two seconds… then break into full laughter.
Loud, ridiculous, uncontrollable laughter.
When it finally settles, Heaven looks up at me. “You good?”
“No,” I whisper. “Not even close.”
Neither of us moves.
Then she leans in—slow, careful, testing—and I meet her halfway.
Our lips touch, soft at first, like a question.
Then again, deeper, her hand sliding to my jaw, my fingers curling into her shirt.
I pull back just enough to breathe.
“If we do this…” I whisper, my forehead resting against hers, “it’s just for one night.”
Her eyes flick to my mouth, then back to mine. “One night,” she repeats softly. “I can do that.”
The words barely leave her mouth before I crash into her again.
Our lips meet hard, messy, desperate. She tastes like peppermint and heat and everything I’d been craving since I met her.
I back her against the couch, hands already yanking her tank over her head.
Bras hit the floor next, then shorts, panties, everything gone in seconds until there was nothing between us but sweat and want.
I push her down and straddled her thigh, grinding once, twice, just to feel how soaked she already is.
She moans into my mouth, nails digging into my hips, pulling me closer.
I break the kiss only long enough to growl against her lips, “Sit on my face. I want your pussy on my mouth right fucking now.”
Her eyes grow huge and glassy. “Mhm, you don’t have to ask me twice.”
I slide to the floor, back against the drop cloth, heart hammering. Heaven crawls over me, knees trembling as she straddles my chest. I grab her ass and pull her forward until she hover right above my lips. She is dripping, folds swollen and glistening, and I can’t wait another second.
“Sit,” I order.
She drops. Her wet heat seals over my mouth and I groan at the first taste, salty-sweet and perfect. My tongue plunges up her slit, slow and filthy, circling her clit before sucking it hard between my lips. Heaven cries out, hands slamming against the couch arm above my head, hips already rocking.
“Sutton, fuck, your mouth.”
I lick her like I am starving. Long, flat strokes up her center, then quick flicks over her clit, then thrusting my tongue deep inside her.
She’s flooding my chin, thighs shaking around my ears.
I spread her wider, thumbs opening her completely, and devoured her.
Every time she tries to lift off I yank her back down, tongue spearing into her, nose grinding against her clit.
I slide a finger in alongside my tongue.
She is so wet they sink straight to the knuckles.
I curl them hard, stroking that spot that made her sob my name.
Her hips buck wildly, riding my face, chasing it.
I add a second finger, stretching her, pumping fast while I suck her clit like I want to bruise it.
“I’m gonna come,” she gasps, voice breaking. “Don’t stop, don’t stop.”
I hum against her clit and curl my fingers harder. She shatters. Her pussy clamps down, pulsing hot and wet around my fingers, gushing over my tongue as she screams. I keep licking, keep fucking her through every wave until she is shaking so hard she nearly collapses.
Heaven falls forward, catching herself on trembling arms, curls brushing my forehead. I kiss her soaked inner thigh, licking my lips clean.
She laughs breathlessly. “Holy fuck.” Then her eyes darken again. “I need to taste you. Sixty-nine. Now.”
My pussy clenches so hard I almost come from the words alone. “Get on your back.”
She flips us fast. I climb over her, knees on either side of her head, lowering slowly until my dripping pussy hovers above her mouth. The first swipe of her tongue makes me see stars. She groans like she’s been waiting years to taste me, hands gripping my thighs and yanking me down hard.
I drop forward, mouth finding her again, still dripping from her orgasm.
We move together instantly, my tongue on her clit, hers on mine, fingers sliding back inside each other at the same time.
The room fills with wet, obscene sounds and broken moans.
Every time she sucks my clit I suck hers harder.
Every time I thrust my tongue she thrusts hers.
I add three fingers, stretching her open, and she mirrors me, filling me so perfectly I cried out into her pussy.
We are frantic. Hips grinding, mouths devouring, fingers pumping in perfect rhythm.
I can feel her swelling again, clit throbbing under my tongue.
She curls her fingers hard inside me and sucks my clit between her lips and I am gone.
I come with a muffled scream, squirting against her mouth, thighs clamping around her head.
She swallows every drop and keeps licking, pushing me straight into another shuddering orgasm.
The taste of her coming again right after, walls fluttering around my fingers, her cry vibrating against my clit, sends me spiraling a third time.
We collapse sideways, panting, mouths still lazily licking, riding the aftershocks. Paint flakes stick to our sweaty skin. The Christmas tree lights blink lazily in the corner.
I eventually roll off, chest heaving. Heaven turns her head, lips swollen and shiny with me, that innocent face completely wrecked.
“That was insane,” she whispers.
“Yeah,” I manage.
We both know what it was. Mind-blowing. One-time. Just a hookup.
And right then, sprawling naked on the drop cloth with her taste still on my tongue, it feels absolutely perfect.