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Zann kissed her softly. “Yeah?”

“Mm.” Lydia nodded. “I’ll let you know for sure when I can feel my legs again, though.”

Zann laughed and kissed her again. “That good, huh?”

“I mean…” Lydia hiked a shoulder in a playfully taunting little shrug. “It was all right, I guess.”

Zann gasped in mock offense. “Just ‘all right’?” She dug her fingers into Lydia’s hip and pulled her closer. “Guess that means I’ll have to try again,” she murmured. A slow smile replaced her playful frown at the way Lydia giggled and wrapped a hand around the back of her neck, and she shivered when Lydia began lightly toying with her hair. Fuck, that’s lovely. “What do you say to that, huh?”

Lydia lifted her chin. “Kiss me.”

“But I thought I needed to try to do better?” Zann argued playfully, even as she allowed the hand on her neck to draw her in.

“Darling, if you fuck me any better than you just did, I won’t be leaving this bed for the rest of the week.”

Zann laughed and caressed Lydia’s side. “Is that supposed to convince me not to?” she teased as she began lightly circling her breast. “Because I would be so beyond okay with that scenario.”

“So would I,” Lydia said, her confession trailing off into a pleased moan when Zann’s fingers brushed over her nipple. “I love how you touch me.”

Zann hummed and rolled Lydia’s nipple between her thumb and forefinger as she captured her lips in a slow, deep kiss that flowed into a second, third, fourth, fifth, each more thoroughly indulgent than the last. She matched her touch to the tenor and tempo of their kisses as they lost themselves in the easy, playful sweetness of the moment, and smiled against Lydia’s lips as she strummed the end of the barbell piercing with the tip of her index finger when the need for a proper breath forced them apart. Her smile widened at the sharp gasp that spilled from Lydia’s lips in response.

“You like this?” she asked, nuzzling Lydia’s cheek as she did it again.

Lydia huffed a laugh and arched her chest off the bed. “Almost as much as you seem to.”

“Good.” Zann palmed her breast and squeezed possessively. “Because I really like it.”

“I’ve noticed,” Lydia chuckled as she sank back onto the bed.

“Not gonna lie, I was surprised by them,” Zann admitted as she shifted her grip to paint broad, slow stripes over Lydia’s nipple and its piercing with the edge of her thumb. It was more of a caress than a tease, and a fluttery feeling erupted in her chest when Lydia’s left hand began stroking lightly up and down her arm, encouraging the touch. “When did you get them done?”

A thoughtful expression flitted across Lydia’s face. “They were my twenty-first birthday present to myself.”

“Seems like there’s a story behind that?” Zann mused as she lengthened her caress to include drawing gentle arcs around the perimeter of Lydia’s breast.

“Not really? I just…” Lydia sighed and let her hand fall away, giving Zann a beautifully unobstructed view of her chest. “I was in my third year in business school at Yale and quietly hating it. I’d been groomed from childhood to be the perfectly respectable businesswoman and take over TAG, but it’s so stifling to grow up with expectations like that, and I wanted to prove to myself that I was my own person. That, even if I went along with what was expected of me, the role I was inheriting didn’t define who I was.”

Zann frowned. She knew she was lucky in that she had made a career out of doing what she loved, but from everything Lydia had said about her work, she hadn’t gotten the impression until now that it wasn’t what she wanted to do. “Do you like what you’re doing at TAG, though?”

“I don’t hate it.”

Zann pursed her lips. That wasn’t a particularly glowing response. She pulled Lydia closer and twisted her hips so that she was draped over her side. She was heartened by the way Lydia’s expression relaxed as she took more of her weight, and placed her hand over her heart, further grounding her in the moment. “What would you do if you weren’t taking over the family empire?” she asked gently.

“God, fuck if I know,” Lydia muttered. “It was never something I had any reason to give much thought to.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Thanks.” Lydia smiled wanly and rolled her eyes. “Anyway, that’s pretty much the whole story.”

Wanting nothing more than to chase away the shadows that she’d unintentionally brought to the moment, Zann looked down at Lydia’s boobs and said, “They’re very pretty.”

It worked like a charm. Lydia snorted and asked, “My tits, or the piercings?”

Zann bit her lip as she pushed up onto her forearm so she could give Lydia’s perfect chest a thorough ogling, then grinned up at her as she declared, “Both.”

A breathtaking smile lit Lydia’s face. “I’m so glad you think so.”

Zann hummed and rocked forward to kiss her. “I think you’re very pretty, too,” she whispered against Lydia’s lips.