Chapter Thirteen #2
Harper answered without words. She kissed her way down Elise’s body, over her chest, her stomach, then settled between her thighs like she’d been meant to live there.
She paused just long enough to feel Elise trembling under her hands, then she leaned in and dragged her tongue slowly through the slick heat waiting for her.
Elise’s gasp punched the air, sharp and helpless.
Her fingers knotted in the sheets, then slid into Harper’s hair, holding her there.
Harper did it again, slower this time, letting the taste of Elise settle on her tongue.
She focused on the tiny movements—how Elise’s hips jerked when she flattened her tongue, how her breath broke when Harper circled that small, needy point at the top.
“Harper,” Elise breathed again. This time the call of her name was half warning, half plea.
Harper slid one finger inside her, then another, easing them in until Elise’s body clenched around them. She set a steady rhythm, her hand working in time with her mouth, tongue tracing tight, unhurried circles. Every sound Elise made went straight through Harper.
Elise’s thighs began to shake, and her muscles tightened under Harper’s palms. “Don’t stop,” she managed, voice wrecked.
Harper had no intention of stopping. She curled her fingers just right and sucked a little harder, and that was all it took.
Elise broke apart with a raw cry as her back arched off the mattress.
Her hips pushed helplessly into Harper’s mouth as pleasure ripped through her.
Harper held her there, easing the pressure only when Elise started to tremble too hard and her breaths turned into ragged little laughs.
Harper pressed a soft kiss to her thigh, then another higher up, and then moved carefully back up the bed. Elise blinked at her, dazed and beautiful, as if she were trying to remember how to form sentences.
Elise breathed eventually, and a shaky smile tugged at her lips. “Wow. That… yeah. That was definitely not my imagination.”
Harper laughed softly, brushing a thumb over Elise’s cheek. “Good. I wanted to give you a new memory to ruin all your old ones.”
Elise’s gaze dropped to Harper’s mouth, then lower, and something fierce and hungry flashed across her face. She pushed herself up on her elbows, closing the small distance between them until their noses almost bumped.
“Come here.”
Harper’s breath caught. “Really?”
“Ten years, Harper.” Elise’s hands slid to her hips, fingers firm, possessive. “I’ve been waiting ten years to have you like this again.”
There was no way to argue with that. Not when her entire body was already buzzing. Harper let Elise guide her. The familiar, dizzying rush hit as Elise settled back and pulled Harper into place with a confidence that hadn’t been there before.
For a second, Harper froze, overwhelmed by how right everything felt. Elise’s hands slid up her thighs, a gentle reminder of how electric the woman’s hands felt on her skin.
Harper’s pulse roared as Elise guided her upward with a grip that left no room for argument.
The shift in power—Elise’s sudden, hungry certainty—made Harper’s thighs tremble.
Ten years dissolved in a heartbeat. All that remained was the heat of Elise’s palms skimming her hips and the way those dark eyes tracked her every breath like she intended to memorize the rhythm.
“You have no idea how many times I have imagined this very thing,” Harper managed, as she placed a knee on each side of Elise’s head and hovered above her mouth.
Elise gave one flat lap with her tongue. “You taste like ten years of regret.” Elise’s voice cracked, and she gave a soft laugh as her thumbs pressed into Harper’s hips.
Harper opened her mouth to retort, but Elise didn’t wait. She arched up, sealing her lips to Harper in one fierce, claiming stroke. Harper’s hands flew to the headboard. “Elise… fuck!”
Elise pulled Harper’s hips down, and Harper’s thighs clenched, trapping Elise’s face closer. Every lick and every suck felt like penance and absolution tangled together. Elise gripped her ass, fingers digging in hard enough to bruise, and Harper’s vision blurred.
“Oh. My. God. This feels so good,” Harper moaned as she ground down against Elise’s mouth.
Elise dove back in with a singular purpose. Harper’s back bowed and her grip on the headboard slipped. Elise’s tongue mapped her with a precision that felt both practiced and obsessive. It was as if she’d fantasized about this exact position, this specific angle, a thousand times.
“Elise. I’m gonna—” Harper’s voice broke.
“Good,” Elise whispered.
Her fingers flexed, and then there was only a sensation so hot and so intense that Harper’s head tipped back on a groan.
Every slow, deliberate movement of Elise’s tongue, giving an intense rise of pleasure, felt like an answer to a question she’d been carrying for a decade: what if we’d been brave enough to let ourselves be in love?
It turned out the answer was that it would have felt like this. An overwhelming rush of being wanted and of being taken care of by the one person she’d never quite managed to forget, no matter how hard she’d tried.
By the time Harper finally broke apart against Elise’s face, Elise was watching her as if she were witnessing some kind of miracle.
Harper slid her bottom down and collapsed forward, catching herself on her forearms so she didn’t crush her.
Elise wrapped her up, arms tight, hands splayed over her back like she was afraid Harper might disappear if she let go.
“Ten years,” Elise whispered into her hair. “You owe me at least a few more rounds.”
Harper laughed, the sound a little broken with relief. She nuzzled into the curve of Elise’s neck, breathing in the scent of salt, and something brand new layered over something achingly familiar.
“Deal,” she said. “I’m not going anywhere this time.”
Outside, it sounded like the sea whispered the promise against the cliffs.
~~
“How did you know I was in the garden? I didn’t think anyone saw me sneaking off, let alone could find me,” Elise asked lazily ten minutes later. She was sprawled on her side. One leg had fallen forward, and one arm was draped over the pillow she was holding.
Harper wished she could replace the pillow, but there was plenty of time for that later. She gave a low chuckle. “Really?” she said, like it shouldn’t be a surprise at all. “I track down elusive animals for a living. You, my darling, were not that hard to find.”
Elise laughed. Her body vibrated so much Harper could feel it in the sheets. “Fine, you’re good at finding people,” Elise said, rolling her eyes and smiling at the same time.
“Not people. Well, not usually,” Harper said, and it took everything she had not to stare at Elise like she was the rarest animal she’d ever tracked in the wild.
But oh, she wanted to. In fact, she couldn’t imagine doing anything else.
The way the afternoon light streamed in through the gauzy curtains, hitting the slope of Elise’s naked hip, the creamy skin of her thigh…
it was downright impossible not to stare.
“Just me.”
“Just you,” Harper said, reaching out to tuck back a curl that had fallen over Elise’s cheek. The curl slipped through her fingers, and she let the tip of her index finger stroke Elise’s cheek.
Elise shuddered so violently that her skin erupted in goosebumps.
Harper found her hand moving over Elise’s shoulder just to feel closer to her. “Have I ever told you how beautiful I think you are?” she asked.
Elise laughed just as a tinge of pink seeped into her cheeks.
“No,” she said matter-of-factly. Which didn’t seem right.
Harper could be mistaken, but didn’t she compliment Elise at least three times over the course of the last hour?
But then again, the last hour had felt like a fever dream, so maybe the words had never actually made it out of her mouth.
“But I’m not beyond compliments,” Elise added. “At least not anymore.”
“Well, you’re stunning. In fact, you’re more beautiful now than you were ten years ago.”
“Can’t be,” Elise said, shaking her head until all the curls came falling back. Neither Elise nor Harper tried tucking them back in. “I was barely thirty back then. My skin still had that youthful glow. And I was tighter in the stomach.” She patted her lovely belly.
But Harper couldn’t disagree more. She was just about to stretch forward and kiss Elise’s stomach to make a point, but then Elise’s stomach roared like a lion in the bushveld.
Harper tried not to laugh. “When was the last time you ate?” she asked, then remembered she had barely touched food all day.
There hadn’t been time for anything other than trying to decipher the meaning behind Elise’s reaction earlier.
Fear. It meant she didn’t want to see Harper get hurt.
It meant she cared. Finding Elise in that secret garden had been a risk, and so too was walking up to her and kissing her. But it was a risk that had paid off.
“Honestly, I don’t even remember,” Elise said, already slipping off the bed.
Harper caught sight of her bum as she careened across the room and counted her lucky stars. Elise’s butt was cuter than a peach. Her hips swayed as she walked. She couldn’t wait for Elise to come back to watch her from the front and wasn’t disappointed when she did.
Elise brought back a small ceramic bowl, hand-painted in yellows and blues, filled past the brim with perfectly ripe peaches.
She slid onto the edge of the bed—still thankfully naked—and curled her left leg while the right dangled off the side.
“Want one?” she asked, biting into the fruit.
Juice dribbled down her chin, leaving golden drops on the white sheets.
Harper was hungry, but it wasn’t the fruit she wanted. She shifted her weight and reached for Elise’s hips. “I think those are the most perfect-looking peaches I’ve ever seen.”
“They’re just peaches,” Elise said.
“No,” Harper disagreed. “They’re not.” Then she took the bowl from Elise’s hands, placed it safely on the bedside table before she grabbed Elise by the waist and hauled her on top of her.
Harper settled Elise more firmly over her thighs, eyes flicking to the abandoned fruit.
“Those look good, but I already know what I want seconds of,” she said, voice turning wicked.
Her hands slid down to cup the curve of Elise’s ass.
“You’re already juicier than anything in that bowl.
” She licked a stray drop of juice from Elise’s chin, then chased the taste to her mouth, kissing her deep until the fruit was an afterthought and the only thing Harper was interested in devouring was the woman sprawled over her.
By the time Harper eased Elise onto her back, it was clear a peach wasn’t the juiciest thing she planned on devouring tonight.