Love On Call

“I need you now,” Mari gasped, caught by the swift surge of desire rushing to her center.

Glenn flipped over and surged upward, pulling Mari down beside her. Her leg was suddenly between Mari’s thighs, pressing tightly into her sex. Her hand cradled Mari’s breast, her mouth on the opposite nipple. Teeth scraped against her, and Mari cried out, driving her hands into Glenn’s hair.

“Oh my God,” Mari cried. “Stop, stop, you’re going to make me come.”

Glenn pushed her hand between them, cupping Mari in her palm and taking her mouth in a dark, possessive kiss. Mari pushed against Glenn’s hand, and when Glenn stroked her once, twice, her world incinerated.

Mari heard a strangled cry, hers or Glenn’s, she couldn’t tell. Her mind blanked, her body quaked. And then her face was buried against Glenn’s chest and she was crying. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I don’t know why—”

“It’s all right, you’re perfect. Perfect.” Glenn stroked her, rocked her, let her come back to herself. “Okay now?”

Mari laughed unsteadily. “Okay? Oh yeah, okay is an understatement.”

“Good,” Glenn whispered, guiding Mari down on the bed and covering her again, needing all of her again. Gently, slowly, she entered her and watched Mari’s eyes go blank with need. This time the build was slower, deeper, and when Mari crested, her eyes flew open and she searched for Glenn’s face, locking onto her as she came apart.

Glenn couldn’t breathe, didn’t need to breathe, didn’t need anything except the look of wonder on Mari’s face. Suddenly weak, she rested her forehead gently between Mari’s breasts, went still inside her, and waited for Mari’s passion to ebb.

“How did you do that?” Mari whispered. “I thought I was going to be in control.”

Glenn laughed and settled down beside her. “Oh, you were. Believe me.”

Mari gazed at her, her eyes still dazed and sated. She traced a fingertip around Glenn’s nipple, then down her belly. “I got sidetracked.”

“Uh, I noticed.”

Mari laughed. “I haven’t finished touching you everywhere yet.”

“Why don’t you rest for a little while.”

“Because I’m not tired. And I’m not done.” Mari pushed Glenn onto her back and knelt between Glenn’s thighs. “I want to see all of you, I want to watch you come.” As she spoke, she traced the outer edges of Glenn’s sex with her fingertips.

Glenn arched off the bed, her jaws clenched. When she managed to suck in a breath, she said, “It won’t take much.”

“That’s all right. We can always do it again, right?”

At that moment, Glenn could only agree. At that moment, there was only now. “Just keep doing what you’re doing. I’m about to come.”

“Good,” Mari whispered softly, stroking, teasing, finding the spots that she liked, discovering the places that made Glenn’s body bow. And when she found the one that made Glenn groan and tighten all over, she didn’t stop until Glenn cried out.

Chapter Twenty-five

The room had grown warmer throughout the morning, and sweat lightly misted Mari’s skin. She should’ve felt self-conscious—she’d never been so close to another human being in her life, never been so exposed, never been so vulnerable. She should’ve been thinking about how to leave, what to say, how to grasp the tattered tethers of control and wind the clock back to a saner time. She wasn’t doing any of those things. For as long as the dream lasted, she wanted to stay in this Spartan room where the merest tease of a breeze danced through the half-open window and the air shimmered with heat as heavy as winter wool. Somehow this room had become the safest place she’d ever been.

“Hungry?” Glenn asked drowsily.

“Mmm. Not sure.” Lazily stroking Glenn’s hair, Mari lay naked with the sheets tangled around her legs, and Glenn’s head pillowed between her breasts. Glenn was the quiet in the center of her being, the peace she’d lost somewhere in the last year, the shelter she’d taken for granted before everything had changed. If she could capture this moment and hold it forever, she thought she would know the meaning of happiness.

“I think your stomach just said otherwise.” Glenn rubbed a hand over Mari’s midsection.

“I’ll take your word for it. I’m having trouble actually feeling my body—I think that last orgasm might have totally short-circuited my nervous system.” Mari brushed damp hair away from Glenn’s temple and kissed her. “Was I asleep the last few minutes or just comatose?”

“I’m not sure people snore while in a coma.”

“I didn’t!” Mari groaned. She didn’t snore. Did she?

Glenn chuckled, a deep rumble that resonated in Mari’s deepest reaches, somewhere beyond the physical, to a place where her soul resided. In an instant, panic roared through her. Safety came with a price, and the price was heartbreak. She knew that, how could she let herself forget? Selfish, foolish, all for a dream she no longer dreamed.

Glenn lifted up on her elbow, gave Mari a long look. “Whatever you just thought, stop thinking it.”

“How did you know?” Mari asked softly.