Page 14 of Rivals and Liars

Kate lifts her hips slightly, places her hands on Leire's shoulders, and her abdomen shudders as she exhales when Leire starts to push inside her.

"Good?" the Spanish woman asks, wetting her lips.

Kate's answer is something like a low grunt of assent, but her eyes have squeezed shut for a moment, and Leire knows that sometimes — like right now — it hurts, and that she needs a few seconds to adjust without any movement.

"Have I ever told you how beautiful you are when your cheeks flush like that?" Leire asks.

Kate looks at her and nods. She'd love to smile right now, because she loves hearing things like that when she feels this vulnerable, but this time it hits differently — it sets off a knocking in her chest that tightens into a knot of anxiety and takes a few seconds to ease. Kate knows Leire means it when she says it, but she realizes that, especially now, she needs so much more than her words and her promises of love. At this point, she needs Leire to find the courage to repeat outside this room everything she says inside it — but she's not going to say that today. Today she needs her attention, she needs Leire to really want her.

She starts to move, slowly, and watches Leire's pupils blow wide, because Leire loves this — Kate up on her lap, her fingers inside her, rocking to find what she needs.

"You're so sensual," Leire breathes, mesmerized by the redhead's movements.

All Leire would need is a little pressure between her own legs and she knows she'd come even before Kate. She always thinks she'll do it — that she'll touch herself while Kate's on top of her, match her rhythm, and come with her, because nothing gets her off harder than shaking while she hears her lover's moans — but she never does, because Kate hypnotizes her so completely when she moves like this that every muscle in her body goes rigid and she can't move at all.

"You're almost there," Leire murmurs, leaning forward slightly to place a hand at the small of Kate's back to make sure she doesn't fall backward like she did once after an orgasm, when she nearly ended up on the floor, her whole body shaking from the force of it.

Kate's response is another low grunt of confirmation that Leire feels like a lick against her clit.

"Come for me, baby — you know I love watching you," she whispers, looking up at her, and she can see the exact moment Kate's eyes go almost white before they close for a beat and open again, locking on Leire's as she comes.

When they're done they stay there — Kate straddling her, wrapped around her body, while Leire strokes her back with both hands and the exhaustion starts to catch up with the redhead.

"Let's go to bed," Leire whispers, and Kate opens her eyes slowly and shakes her head.

"Just a little longer," she pleads quietly, because she doesn't want to move, doesn't want this moment to end — she knows that once they get into bed and fall asleep, the next thing that will happen is that she'll have to get up in the middle of the night and slip back to her own room before people start moving through the hallways.

"Of course," Leire kisses her shoulder and pulls her close with a sudden fierceness that makes Kate exhale a sharp breath and her eyes fill, because it's in moments like these — in the strength of those sudden embraces — that she most feels the love Leire has for her.

Chapter 8

Leire's alarm goes off at six fifteen and she rolls over immediately to shut it off. She didn't startle at the sound and she isn't sleepy, because she's been lying in bed for over an hour, tossing and turning without managing to fall asleep.

Kate left a little while ago—same as always—but Leire was awake long before the Australian's alarm went off with that god-awful tone they both hate, because it's the signal that their time together is ending: the reminder that Leire is a coward, and the confirmation for Kate that she isn't enough for the Spanish woman.

Kate killed the alarm the way she always does, so fast that Leire is certain she was already awake too, and now she feels even more miserable for having let her get up and go through the effort of not making noise, using the faint glow of her phone screen to get dressed without waking a lover who was pretending to be asleep to avoid facing that devastating moment that plays out every night they spend together.

She doesn't usually wake up when Kate leaves—the sex leaves her exhausted and relaxed and she typically sleeps deeply despite her guilty conscience—but one time she was awake and reached out to touch the Australian's waist as Kate sat on the edge of the bed trying to rouse herself.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you," Kate murmured, but she didn't move when Leire sat up and crawled across the bed to sit behind her.

The light was off and the glow coming through the window on that dark night only let her make out Kate's silhouette—naked, still, hands folded between her knees, head down.

Leire swept her hair aside and kissed the back of her neck softly, and Kate still didn't move, but Leire felt her tense when she wrapped her arms around her from behind and heard the broken little exhale that escaped her lips. It wasn't a sound of desire—it was one of absolute sadness, the sound of a twenty-nine-year-old woman who had to get up at ungodly hours to sneak out of her lover's room because that lover couldn't stand the idea of being linked to her.

"Are you okay?" Leire whispered, still holding her, her voice coming out unsteady because she had a knot in her throat.

She knew that wasn't the question Kate needed to hear. What Kate wanted was for her to say she loved her too, and that she was going to do whatever it took so she'd never have to leave her side again—but Leire wasn't ready to say that yet, because just thinking about exposing herself that way made her dizzy with fear.

Coming out of the closet was already something that would put her under a media microscope for weeks, but if she did it hand in hand with Kate Brogan, the scrutiny would be endless—so it was easier to hide behind Costel's clause than to admit how terrified she was of taking that step.

"Yeah," Kate answered quietly. "Go back to bed." She stood up, slipping out of Leire's arms as she looked for her clothes and got ready to go.

"Next time I'll come to your room," Leire said, still on her knees in the middle of the bed, facing the empty space Kate had left behind.

Kate turned while she was zipping up her sweatshirt.

"I'd rather do it myself, if you don't mind."