“No cheating,” Tess growled.
“All’s fair in love and war.” Bree didn’t even try to conceal her laughing grin.
Was this the road to love, or was it leading to more of the internal war that Tess had been waging? She didn’t have time to answer that question before Bree’s warm firm hand grasped her own, and then Bree put pressure on her arm. Tess raised her eyes from that enticing cleavage and concentrated on this ridiculous exercise in…God, in two mature women, respected judges, flirting in the most comical way she could never have imagined.
Tess locked her gaze on Bree’s eyes, eyes that had darkened to an indigo with a reflection of her own craving. The soothing rhythm of the surf sounded behind Tess, and those eyes pulled at her with an undertow. Tess wanted to just drift out to sea in them.
Bree’s increasing pressure on her arm brought Tess back to the challenge at hand. She sucked her lower lip between her teeth and pushed back.
“Oh, there’s some fight in Her Majesty,” Bree challenged in a teasing tone.
“Darn right. You thought I’d just roll over, princess?” Tess pushed harder, and Bree countered the added force.
“I was hoping.”
“You chose to take on my gavel arm after several years of swinging that mallet on the bench,” Tess ground out as she pushed even harder.
“Gavel arm.Now there’s a new judicial term.” Bree chuckled through gritted teeth as she strained against Tess’s push.
“So, what does the winner get?” Tess let out a puff of air asshe fought to hold her ground.
Bree’s eyes danced, and then she suddenly added a surge of strength to her efforts. Tess countered the onslaught until she finally succumbed and rolled to her back where she looked up at the darkening sky and laughed. A carefree, exuberant laugh at the outlandish situation she was relishing with every fiber of her body.Everyfiber. The ache in her arm was nothing compared to the ache between her legs.
“The winner gets this.” Bree scooted into position and leaned in, gently brushing her lips across Tess’s in a soft sensual caress. She paused and raised an eyebrow, waiting for Tess’s response.
Tess couldn’t have stopped herself if she’d wanted to, but she didn’t. She cradled the back of Bree’s head. “It’s a real sacrifice being the loser.” She pulled Bree back down into the kiss. A kiss that captured all the remaining energy that Tess still possessed.
They rolled and explored each other with their mouths, the current between them surging in passionate exchanges of touch and taste as tongues and teeth and shared air coupled in the same spaces. Then that current ebbed to more gentle waves in the soft and warm meeting of skin on skin. Tess’s lips moved from eyelids and the curve of jawline to finally descend that throbbing pulse line of heartbeat she detected in Bree’s neck until her destination was reached, the ample cleavage that had almost distracted her into defeat before the not-so-ridiculous-after-all match had brought her to this quivering, moaning state.
Bree captured Tess’s final surrender in her mouth and exhaled it gently into Tess’s ear as she whispered, “I’m going to do something that will not only get us arrested, but will probably make headlines, unless we stop.”
Tess’s lips felt swollen and slightly bruised. Bruised in the best possible way. Thank God it was twilight and visibility was compromised. Bree’s leg had ended up squeezed between her thighs, and Tess could feel her body’s moist assent to beingBree’s partner in crime.
“Are you okay?” Bree smoothed Tess’s hair back, and then her own.
Tess lay on her back and gazed at the barest glimmer of the night’s first stars. “Nobody ever told me arm wrestling could be so much fun. And to think it’s really all in the lips.”
Bree offered her a hand and pulled her up to a sitting position before Bree reached for their dinner. Tess ate the best lukewarm tacos she’d ever consumed, and she was prepared to swear that it had nothing to do with what they’d just shared. She hummed in pleasure to let Bree know they met with her approval.
After they finished, they walked down to the water holding hands and let the cold surf wash over their bare feet. When they’d had enough, they walked back to their blanket, donned their footwear, and packed up. Then they walked side by side back to Tess’s cottage. It had been the perfect evening. If Bree wanted to spend the night with her, Tess wasn’t sure what her response would be.Yeswas certainly sitting there at the forefront of her thoughts after that kiss on the beach.
When they reached Tess’s door, Bree said, “I’m not coming in, or I might not be able to leave.”
Well, she wouldn’t have to make any decisions about sleeping with Bree tonight. Bree had made that decision already. Tess massaged her throat to diminish the lump, then dropped her hand and nodded. What was wrong with her? She wasn’t going to be frigging needy.
Bree read her shift in mood. “Tess, my not sleeping with you…there are things I’m trying to figure out. About myself. I gave myself to my marriage, and then it all went south when I found out that Cora didn’t feel about me the way I felt about her. It broke something in me at the time. What happened in Tahoe—sex—was supposed to stay in Tahoe. But it’s become a lot more complicated than that. I don’t want to hurt you. I’m workinghard to heal, to reach a point where I can risk loving someone again. You’re helping me. Maybe you don’t even know how much you’re helping me, Tess.”
“I care about you. I haven’t been in your shoes, but I hear what you’re saying.” Tess was pleased that she managed to get that out. That she managed to keep her voice as normal as she did with so much emotion churning inside.
“Please look at me.” Bree shook her head, seemingly in distress too. “Please look at me.” She repeated the request and paused until Tess looked directly at her. “I didn’t invite you to dinner with any other intent that spending some time with you because that’s what I wanted. To spend time with you. I didn’t intend to kiss you, but you’re so fucking kissable.”
Nobody had ever said that to Tess, and that part felt good. She didn’t hear any deception in Bree’s voice, but the part that still hurt, really hurt, was having Bree choose to walk away once again.
Bree leaned in and kissed her on the cheek. “I know it sounds selfish, but it’s not a rejection of you.”
“Now you’re a mind reader?” Tess was caught between a smile and a scowl.
“I know how I’d feel.”
