When Harper’s body went tense and she cried out, Charlie slowed her fingers, trying to draw out every ounce of pleasure she could until Harper reached back and stilled her hand. “Too much,” she whispered.
“Mmm,” Charlie said and lay half on the bed, not wanting to hurt her. She wrapped her leg around Harper’s hips and pulled her as close as she could.
“I like this,” Harper murmured as she wiggled her hips deliciously against Charlie’s center.
“Me too,” Charlie said, and it was the last truly conscious thought she had before falling asleep, visions of a particularly sexy pirate smile dancing in her head.
When Harper awoke, it was pitch black in the room except for the red numbers on the alarm clock. The storm had died down, though she could still hear rain tapping against the roof. She wasn’t sure what had woken her, but the stress that normally plagued her about one thing or another was blissfully absent. She took a moment to simply appreciate the last few hours.
Everything had felt so natural.
She’d been terrified that having sex with someone she really cared about would make her feel like she was cheating on Kelly. Yet, it hadn’t. At all. Everything had felt natural and comfortable. Even lying in bed in the middle of the night with Charlie’s head on her chest, her breathing rhythmic, felt right. She wasn’t sure how they’d gotten there since the last she remembered, she was lying on her stomach with Charlie on top of her, but she liked it. She assumed Charlie was still sleeping, but when Harper started to play with her hair, Charlie said,“Hey, you.” Her voice was raspy with sleep, but damn, even that was sexy.
“Hey, I didn’t realize you were awake,” Harper said.
“I’m in and out. My body seems to want more, but my brain says, ‘stay asleep.’”
“I know the feeling. Everything is tired, yet you pressed against me like this is…”
Charlie slid her hand over Harper’s hip and squeezed her ass. “I feel like my body is humming at a low level of arousal, even half-asleep.”
“Exactly.” They lay silent for a few minutes, Harper still playing with the ends of Charlie’s hair as Charlie ran a hand along Harper’s side from her ribs to her hip until Harper remembered Charlie having called her out about her competitiveness earlier. There was something about it that didn’t make sense. In the last hand, it had seemed like Charlie wasn’t even trying to win. “I didn’t realize that someone who worked on Wall Street couldnotbe competitive in nature. Yet, you practically gave that last hand away.”
“You distracted me. It wasn’t a fair fight. And I…used to be competitive, but now it seems a little trivial. I still prefer to win—who doesn’t—but I think, honestly, I won by losing in this case.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah. I haven’t wanted to pressure you, but I’ve been ready for you to make a move. So if you hadn’t, we might just be sleeping side by side with spare pillows dividing our personal spaces.”
“Really? You would have needed a pillow barrier in order to protect yourself?” She tickled Charlie’s side, and Charlie yelped and tried to squirm away, but Harper wouldn’t let her.
When Charlie could talk over the giggles, she said, “I would have needed to protect you from me. I’m afraid we would have woken up with me spooned around you. I just can’t seem to stoptouching you when we’re together. And sleeping in just robes felt like it might be a little too much.”
Harper shifted until Charlie was under her, and her hips were nestled between Charlie’s legs. “The horror. What if you’d…touched my bare skin with your hand?” She laughed.
“Like this?” Charlie said as she grazed her hands from Harper’s shoulders, lightly tickling, until they reached the top of her ass.
Heat surged through Harper again, and she wiggled her hips and rubbed her low belly against Charlie’s center. “God forbid.”
Maybe neither of them was as tired as they’d thought.
Harper had grabbed their clothes in the wee hours when Franky needed to go out so she didn’t have to walk around outside in the hotel’s robe, but she quickly stripped when she returned and found her way back into Charlie’s waiting arms, where she happily lay until the looming checkout time was too close to continue ignoring. Although she knew they didn’t have anything to pack, they would need to shower. Together, of course. Charlie had said they needed to save water after her incredibly long shower the night before, and Harper couldn’t find fault in that logic. The morning felt pretty perfect, and she couldn’t remember having been this relaxed in a long time.
They’d been laughing nearly nonstop, yet something was niggling at the back of her mind. Before the uncertainty could start to take hold, she said, “Last night was good for you too, right?”
Charlie chuckled. “I would’ve thought you’d be able to tell, but, yes, last night—and this morning and in the shower—was fantastic. What has you worried?”
Harper averted her eyes, embarrassed. “It’s just been a while for me. In the moment, I felt really confident, but now…I don’t know.”
“Oh my gosh.” Charlie sat on the edge of the bed. “Was this your first time since…Kelly?”
“No, no, definitely not. I just…don’t very often, and you’re only the second person I’ve slept with that I had actual feelings for. Hell, that I’ve known for more than a handful of hours.”
“Oh?” Charlie’s brows furrowed.
“Yeah, I mean, Kelly was my first. I was so focused on getting into a good law school when I was in undergrad that I never dated, and then I met Kelly and knew she was the one. After moving here, I occasionally felt a little lonely and picked up someone from the bar and went back to her hotel. But I had very strict rules about it.”
“What kinds of rules?”
