Page 45 of Igniting Her

Ellie put both palms against the door.

Cassie kissed down her neck while she opened Ellie’s jeans. Ellie held still through the first touch and then lost the battle in a sharp movement of her hips. Cassie caught her there, keeping her precisely where she wanted her. “You came to my house furious,” Cassie said.

“I’m still furious.”

“Your body is telling me something else.”

“My body has poor boundaries where you’re concerned,” Ellie said.

Warmth threatened the hard line of Cassie’s mouth. She denied them both and touched Ellie more firmly instead, learning what anger had changed and what it had not. Ellie’s forehead met the door. Her fingers spread against the wood.

Cassie turned towards the bedroom.

Ellie turned too. “You’re assuming we’re finished here.”

“You can continue from your knees.”

Heat went through Ellie’s face. She walked after Cassie without another word.

The bedroom still carried the faint clean scent of the sheets Cassie had changed that morning. Ellie stopped beside the bed. Cassie came up behind her and pulled her braid loose. Her fingers closed in Ellie’s hair, not hard, only enough to angle her head and put her mouth beneath Cassie’s.

Cassie knelt long enough to unlace Ellie’s boots and set them beside the bed. Then she stood and undressed her with less patience than she had shown before and more care than the anger wanted. She pulled the gray T-shirt over Ellie’s head, opened her bra, and pushed her jeans and underwear down together, catching each seam before it snagged. Ellie tried to turn once. Cassie kept her facing the bed with one hand at her waist.

“On your knees.”

Ellie climbed onto the mattress. Cassie put a pillow beneath her chest and guided her down onto it, leaving her hips raised and her hands open near the headboard. The position made Ellie’s breathing unsteady before Cassie touched her again.

Cassie took lubricant from the bedside drawer. Her fingertip hovered at Ellie’s anus without touching. “I want one finger inside you here,” she said. “Do you want that?”

Ellie went motionless. The anger between them narrowed to attention. She looked back over her shoulder. “Yes. I want it.”

Cassie coated her finger with lubricant. She circled the tight opening once, watching Ellie’s breath leave her, then pressed the tip inside. Ellie tensed. Cassie stopped until the muscles beneath her hand softened, then eased deeper by degrees. Her left hand slid between Ellie’s thighs and found her with a slow, firm stroke, the sensation Ellie already trusted beside the one she didn’t know yet.

Urgency had brought them to the bed. This required patience. Cassie gave it absolutely.

Ellie’s first broken sound went straight through her.

“Breathe,” Cassie said.

Ellie breathed. She opened around Cassie’s finger, surrendering not because the pressure demanded it but because Cassie never took more than her body offered. Each time Ellie tensed, Cassie stopped. Each time she softened, Cassie let the finger slide deeper while her left hand kept the same measured rhythm over her clit.

Ellie’s hand fisted in the sheet. “Cassie.”

“I’m here.” She kept Ellie at the edge until the body beneath her stopped bracing for the pressure and began pushing back to meet it. Then Cassie worked her finger in a slow, full stroke inside her and circled her clit faster with the other hand.

Ellie came hard enough to lose every word but Cassie’s name. Her back bowed; her face turned into the pillow; one hand reached behind and caught Cassie’s wrist. Cassie stayed with her until the tremors softened and the grip around her wrist loosened. She eased her finger out slowly. Then she started for the warm cloth she kept in the adjoining bathroom. Ellie caught her before she could rise.

The touch closed around Cassie’s left forearm, directly below the scar. Cassie froze. The last time they were in this room, she had made every permitted touch an instruction so vulnerability stayed measurable.

Ellie did not ask what to do. She sat up and drew Cassie toward her.

Cassie could have stopped her. The word waited, fully available. Ellie would have obeyed it at once. Cassie said nothing.

Ellie kissed the inside of her forearm, first below the scar and then along its faded edge. Her mouth moved to Cassie’s palm. She opened the fingers Cassie had curled without noticing and pressed a kiss into the center.

Cassie’s next breath stopped halfway into her lungs.

Ellie caught the hem of Cassie’s black camisole and paused. Cassie lifted her arms and let Ellie pull it over her head. Ellie unfastened Cassie’s trousers and pushed them down with her underwear. No order shaped the movement. No limit was placed around where Ellie could touch. When Ellie eased Cassie onto her back, Cassie went.