“I’m all right. I slept plenty in the hotel last night. We can—”
“Shh.” Finger to the lips again. I shushed. “I was worried about you. Figured it was about your…husband,that you were always showing up in tatters, looking like you were two seconds from collapsing. Wanted to do something about it, but I didn’t know how. Now that I know exactly what’s going on, Iammaking sure you’re okay.”
I hugged my knees into my chest, looking down, my face warm. “I really got lucky bumping into you at that party.”
She brushed her knuckles over my cheek. “Aren’t we glad I didn’t let you escape, then, Houdini?”
“Psh. I could totally have disappeared. But secretly I was just trying to impress you.”
She snorted, shaking her head, smiling at me, looking at me with that look like the universe was in her eyes, and the next thing I knew, her fingers curled in the hair on the back of my head, and her lips found mine. I murmured breathlessly against her, my heart taking a flying leap, fluttering wildly, but she looked frustrated when she pulled away.
“I was trying not to do that,” she said.
“I can pretend it didn’t happen. But, you know… if you ever experience a lapse in judgment again… you know where to find me.”
She smiled wider. “You’re not going to pretend anything, you’re going to masturbate in my office thinking about it.”
I put my hands up. “Well, yeah?”
“Just don’t break anything.”
“Maybe I’ll break the desk. It’d be fair at this point.”
“If you come so hard you break a solid wooden desk, I will be impressed. Okay, Julie,” she said, squeezing my shoulder and standing up. “Get some sleep. I mean it. I don’t want to see your face before eight.”
“Thank you,” I said, settling back in the bed. “Really.”
She paused at the doorway, looking back at me with that soft look in her eyes, and what I wouldn’t have given for her to kiss me again. “Likewise,” she said. “Goodnight, Julie.”
“Goodnight, Helena.”
She closed the door softly, and I masturbated thinking about her kissing me. And about her talking about me masturbating, too. I didn’t break anything this time, though.
Chapter 25
Helena
Estelle had a glow about her when we met her at a café in Midtown the next day, which meant she’d gotten everything she was hoping for with the man she’d abandoned us for last night. I was a little jealous.
Of course, I was the only reason I hadn’t gotten laid. I didn’t doubt Julie would let me if I tried to take her to my bed. But I was trying not to go there, still trying to hold onto my anger.
It was annoying that she was too cute to be mad at.
“So,” Estelle said, dropping down in the seat across from me and Julie. “Are we all on the same team now?”
“Maybe next time,” I said, “you can just tell me instead of trying to set up a surprise reunion.”
“Aw, c’mon, babe. You loved it.”
Julie cleared her throat. “She kinda didn’t.”
“It was your favorite drinks and everything! Hot girl over in the corner holding your favorite drink waiting for you…”
“I drank both of them specifically so Julie couldn’t have her favorite drink,” I said. Estelle’s jaw dropped.
“Babe! Since when were you so petty?”
“It worked out in the end,” Julie said, leaning forward, holding her coffee in both hands. She’d insisted she didn’t need a drink, and I’d realized she probably never ordered coffee out unless she absolutely had to. I’d bought her one against her protests. “We’ve started the project plan. Krysten’s not happy, but I think the pressure is going to work.”
