Grace chuckled, fingers getting greedy in Alix’s soft hair while she pressed her closer. “Who says I ever thought about it before?”
“No?” Alix’s smile against her neck was a match to gasoline. “I guess I’m the only one. I’ll have to leave an offering to the icy pond nymphs that dropped you on me.” Her warm mouth on the curve of Grace’s neck sent heat rushing over her skin only to collect low in her belly.
“How long haveyouwanted to?” The question was a little more gasp than Grace intended.
Alix moved them back a few steps until the dresser’s rounded edge pressed into Grace’s back. Until her thigh slipped easily between Grace’s legs, and Grace shifted to open them wider. To beckon Alix closer.
“I don’t know.” Alix’s lips were so delicate when they ghosted over Grace’s ravenous mouth. “When did you take me to that Cuban food speakeasy?” She grinned, and Grace’s pulse responded with an enthusiastic flutter. “Or there was that time you looked like magic when you were dancing.” She skimmed over Grace’s back, leaving rippling heat in her wake. “Although panicking over a little accidental special brownie was pretty adorable.” She kissed her again, deep and full and devastating. “God, and when you jumped in the pool in that fucking shirt… I thought I was going to faint just looking at you.”
Alix gripped Grace’s waist so hard, Grace was sure she was going to pick her up and throw her on top of the dresser. Desire roaring, Grace couldn’t stop wanting that. Wanting Alix.
Closing her eyes, Grace reimagined the moment in the pool. Imagined having given in to what she wanted. Having known the mesmerizing taste of Alix’s lips sooner.
A roar of sudden laughter made Grace jump. She was back in the present. In her body. In the realization that they were in Alix’s parents’ house and about to be sharing the guest bathroom with Susan and Steve.
“We should, um, get ready for bed,” Grace’s voice was low and husky and revealing that the last thing she wanted to do was let Alix go.
After another lingering kiss, like Alix didn’t remember how they functioned apart either, she stepped back with a pained sigh. “Okay,” Alix agreed, like she still wasn’t sold.
Grace changed in the bathroom, her nervous system still brighter than the Christmas tree on Main Street. She laughed to herself while she brushed her teeth and wondered what other Hallmark hallucinations awaited on Christmas Day. She pulled on her borrowed nightgown, which was warm if not extremely unflattering: high-necked and long-sleeved and flannel.
When she returned to the room, Alix was fiddling with the trundle she’d raised but sat two inches lower than the daybed. She looked up when Grace walked in and immediately started laughing.
“Oh, my God. What did my mom do to you?” Alix rushed toward her to get a better look, petting the shoulders of the flannel nightdress as if a calming touch might make it look better.
Biting back her own laughter, Grace looked down at the garment that had kept her pretty cozy. “Probably making sure I don’t inspire a single lustful thought in another human being.”
“It’s a crime to put you in this.” Alix rendered her verdict with sparkling joy. “Here, wear something of mine.” She produced a worn-looking Brynn Marshall tour T-shirt that would look significantly sexier on Grace than Prairie wife cosplay.
The sound of footsteps climbing up the stairs like a stampede made Grace decline the offer. A boner-killer was definitely the right choice in a crowded familial home.
Engaging her struggling willpower, Grace stayed in the chastity dress. While Alix washed up, she took over trying to figure out how to raise the trundle. By the time Alix was back, it was flush against the daybed and Grace had sat on it to test whether she’d locked it in place.
“Smartandhandy?” Alix grinned, but all Grace could see was Alix’s legs in boxer shorts. Muscular from skateboarding every day, the lines that cut up Alix’s quads were so tempting to touch. The edges of tattoos she so desperately wanted to see.
“Now, where were we?” Alix turned the light off and crossed the room toward her.
The weight of Alix’s lips and the scent of her skin was a potent combination. Grace leaned back and pulled Alix on top of her. She managed a single hungry swipe of her tongue with Alix’s thigh pressing against her when their combined weight shifted.
With a loud, metallic crunch, the trundle dropped three inches. Fingers digging into Alix’s back, Grace buried her face in Alix’s neck to muffle her own laughter.
“Is every surface we kiss on going to be hazardous?” Alix joked, but Grace had felt her jump and knew that it had startled her too.
“Maybe your mom booby-trapped the room to make sure we don’t follow the Roberts path.”
Gracefully, Alix climbed off her and onto the daybed. “There’s room up here for two if we get close enough,” she said like she was offering the most reasonable bargain.
Temptation turned Grace’s nightgown into a sweltering prison. If she gave in just a little, there would be no stopping them from going too far.
“I promise to be a gentleman,” Alix said with a husky voice meant to make bad ideas sound good.
“Just for, like, a minute,” Grace said because no one could withstand this kind of test.
As soon as they were both on the small daybed, Grace knew it was a mistake. They were so close, and Alix felt so good.
“See?” Alix murmured against Grace’s ear. “Plenty of room.” She draped her arm around Grace and pulled her in until they were flush against each other, and Grace forgot how to breathe. How to do anything but wrestle with unstoppable desire. “I still think you’d look better in my clothes,” she whispered before kissing a line down Grace’s sensitive neck.
Grace imagined how sexy Alix would look peeling off her shirt. Imagined the press of her bare skin against hers.
