Chapter 24
Denny
I want you to undress me
to the sound of all your defenses collapsing.
― Lora Mathis
They were back to the cottage in the mountains.
The animals, the green meadows.
The orcas swimming in the little lake.
Eris had dropped something in the water and wanted to fetch it, but Denny didn’t want her to go.
“I’ll fetch it!” she screamed, trying to drag Eris away.
“I dropped it, I’ll get it!”
“You can’t swim!”
A roar of thunder startled shook the air.
Denny blinked, and the mountains crumbled away. Darkness now hung above her instead of the cerulean sky. The hum of pouring rain invaded her ears. Beside her, an empty bed.
She rose on her elbows, blinking the bleariness away of her eyes as they set on the dark silhouette standing by the large window across the room, immobile. She switched on the small lamp by the bed. No reaction.
“Hey,” she called warily. If Eris didn’t answer, she wouldn’t insist. She didn’t want to impose her presence. Eris never reprimanded her for being clingy and, in return, Denny tried not to intrude in the moments of isolation that Eris carved out for herself.
Even from afar, she could see the melancholy that radiated off Eris. It took a while, but an answer came, eventually—a croaky, wan ‘Hey’ that instantly activated Denny’s protectiveness.
“Can I come over?”
A no would’ve been accepted without a grudge.
She was ready for it. But, after a long hesitation, Eris nodded.
Denny kicked the sheets aside and rolled out of bed, still a bit drowsy.
She padded up to Eris, stopping a couple of feet away to observe her through the glass of the window, beautiful and quiet and deceptively ethereal.
“Hug?”
Eris nodded again, this time without hesitation. She instantly relaxed when Denny wrapped her arms around her. She leaned back into Denny, eyes shutting in relief. Denny propped her chin onto her shoulder to press their cheeks together. They found each other’s gaze in the reflection.
“How long have you been up?”
“Dunno.”
There was no point in asking what was keeping her awake.
They’d been walking on eggshells for days, even when they pretended they weren’t.
Denny felt responsible for what was happening: Blake was the thorn in her side, not Eris’.
The only reason Eris had been dragged into this ordeal was that Blake couldn’t take rejection without spilling blood.
She couldn’t hurt Denny directly, so she was trying to harm Eris instead. And she was this close to succeeding.
Eris’ wistful expression was tainted by that softness that only existed for Denny, the corners of her eyes narrowed. Her chest swelled and sank as a fleeting twitch contracted her lips.
“I can’t do this on my own.”
Denny stilled. Her heart melted to its very bottom, overwhelmed with love. She couldn’t begin to imagine how much it must have cost her to admit that, how raw and vulnerable she must feel because of that.
“I’m here,” she whispered, brushing a kiss to her cheek. She was afraid Eris might shatter if she dared to hold her any tighter. “Everything’s going to be okay, I promise.”
“That’s what my brother used to tell me when it all kicked off at home.”
If possible, it made Denny feel even worse. That was something she couldn’t buy for Eris: peace with the ghosts from her past.
“I wish we could let him know you’re safe and sound.”
“Me too.”
Their reflection in the glass remained a frozen photograph for long minutes.
The rain persisted, monotone and pacifying.
Every time lightning flashed, Eris’ face appeared paler.
Denny kissed the patch of bare skin between her neck and shoulder where the oversized t-shirt had slipped down.
“I’m going to keep you safe,” she whispered. “I’ll always keep you safe.”
Eris’ eyes fluttered closed as she sank into the embrace, pulling Denny’s arms snug around her, an unspoken request that was happily indulged. Every crook and every curve of Eris’ body called to Denny’s senses, clouding her rationality.
She thought she was doing a decent job controlling herself, but knew she wasn’t when Eris turned within her arms to study her with a furrowed brow.
“What’s wrong?”
Denny’s hands were on Eris’ hips―so achingly soft and touchable, and just a few inches above the temptation of the round slope of her glutes…
“Sunshine?”
Denny swallowed, but the guilt kept constricting her throat. “I can’t stop thinking about―” She couldn’t say it, nor did she dare to look up. She could feel Eris’ scrutiny upon herself.
She was expecting the scoff.
What she wasn’t expecting was the Cheshire grin on Eris’ face as she took a step back to pull the t-shirt over her head. A cascade of dark hair fell around Eris as she threw the t-shirt away, only a pair of sinfully slinky trunks shy of nakedness.
“This?”
Denny licked her lips. All that warmth, that deceptive softness concealing the iron strength beneath… White-hot desire spread like wildfire in her veins, burning, burning.
“This,” she said with a spinning head. “Everything.”
Eris took her hands. The fullness of soft breasts filled Denny’s palms, tender nipples pebbling between her fingers. Eris captured her moan into a bossy kiss.
“You need to stop feeling ashamed for wanting to shag people.”
“Not people.” Breathless, Denny curled a hand around Eris’ neck, lingering on her lips as she spoke “You.”
Just you. No one else does this to me.
Eris yanked her down to her lips again. It was wet, and sloppy, and greedy, and somehow still the sweetest kiss in the world. “Then take what you need,” she breathed. “Whatever you want, Denny. It’s yours. I’m yours.”
The fire in Denny’s blood flared, wiping all that was left of her rationality. She found herself pinning Eris to the wall, plastered against her, consumed by feverish hunger, every laboured breath a scream of longing that reverberated down to her bones.
“Touch me,” she pleaded, and in no time one of Eris’ hands was on her arse, while the other dipped between her legs, purring at the damp heat that soaked through the fabric.
“Already?”
Denny pressed her foreheads together. “Have you seen yourself?” she heaved out in a voice so thick and hoarse she hardly recognised it.
Eris’ mouth took a roguish curl. She tugged at the hem of the pyjama top. “I’d rather look at you.”
Denny nudged her towards the bed and sat her down.
The way Eris spread her legs to let her stand between them nearly got her on her knees right there.
She conceded herself a moment to admire the unbelievable beauty of the woman she got to call her own: flushed cheeks, crystal eyes dark with unrestrained desire, plump lips pink and wet, slightly parted to show a glimpse of teeth.
“You’re staring.”
Denny took Eris’ chin, bent down for a tender kiss. “You bet.”
Eris found purchase of her thighs. Another tug at the pyjamas, more insistent, this time.
She waited for Denny’s nod of consent to unfasten the ribbon and push the trousers down.
Denny kicked them aside. Eris undid the last few buttons of the pyjama top to kiss Denny’s stomach, her warm breath leaving goosebumps in its wake. Soon they were both equally undressed.
Eris palmed her way up Denny’s thighs again, fingers slithering under the sides of the knickers.
She gazed up through her lashes with a silent question.
Denny gave her assent and tried to keep the self-consciousness at bay when she was left completely naked.
Lean, hard muscle didn’t fill hands as nicely as curves did.
Eris stroked her hips, the plane of her abs, placing a reverent kiss just above the sternum, as if Denny was something holy.
“You’re so beautiful,” Denny whispered, awestruck, before taking Eris’ face into her hands to lay a kiss on her forehead.
Eris fell back on the bed, pulling Denny atop her.
Denny obliged, drunk with an emotion she couldn’t describe.
She straddled Eris’ hips, a hand propped by her side and one climbing up her torso to cup around her cheek.
“My Eris,” she murmured, overflowing with love.
Goosebumps spread all over Eris’ pale skin as Denny threaded her fingers through her hair. “My beautiful, precious Eris.”
The darkness in Eris’ eyes blazed with emotion.
She hid it behind a kiss that began on Denny’s lips and slowly trailed downward, wet and hungry.
She nipped at the tender flesh below the breasts.
Denny couldn’t control the gasp that scratched up her throat as a shock of pleasure cursed through her.
A smirk stretched against her skin. She grabbed Eris’ hair to tip her head back.
“Behave.”
“Make me.”
The sheen of lust that glazed Eris’ eyes poured fuel on Denny’s fire. Searing flames spread inside her, a blinding shock that clipped the breath in her lungs.
“Lie back,” she panted into Eris’ neck.
Eris obeyed. Denny hooked two fingers into the band of her trunks, asking for a permission that she was enthusiastically granted. Eris’ hips lifted, allowing Denny to peel the trunks down with a trail of doting kisses. They were so damp already. How long had Eris been patiently waiting for this?
Her arousal flared at the sight of Eris exposed for her, chiselled muscles and silky softness blended in perfect harmony.
She stroked her way back up, relishing the shivers she elicited.
Eris’ complexion begged to be marked, so fair and unblemished.
Denny took her time sucking her way across her ribs, around her breasts, along her collarbone, going slower every time Eris squirmed and urged her to hurry. A string of curses reached her ears.
“So impatient…”
Back to eye-level, Denny watched Eris closely, drinking up the heart-wrenching longing in her look.
All of this was for her. Eris wanted her.
Eris loved her. She might weep from it―the love she had for this girl, the love this girl gave her.
It was everywhere, swelling inside her, tearing at her seams. Burning. Burning.