Page 12 of Rivals and Liars

"What if she doesn't want to see me anymore?"

Diane wants to scream with rage.

"If she doesn't, then she's completely out of her mind, Kate, and you deserve so much better than what she's giving you. I know it hurts — but you'll get through it, and you'll meet someone who knows your worth and is proud to have you by her side."

Chapter 7

"Hi..."

Kate's smile is the first thing Leire gets when she opens the door. The second is the redhead's embrace when she closes it, and the third: the kiss that swallows the moan Leire couldn't hold back when their lips brushed.

She barely had time to look at her, because now their mouths are pressed together and the Australian's hands are sliding up under her shirt, but she thought she caught a different flash in the redhead's eyes, a darker shade in her green irises, green like freshly cut grass.

"Hey, wait a second," Leire pants, fighting the flutter low in her belly. "Let me look at you first, baby."

Leire cups her face in both hands and drags them back, drawing Kate's reddish strands away with her fingers to clear her face.

"You're going to see the same thing as always," she murmurs, holding onto Leire's waist as Leire smiles at her.

"Maybe, but you know I love looking at you," Leire whispers against her lips, and steals a quick kiss before going back to studying her.

She runs her thumb along the scar on Kate's eyebrow, then slides her index finger down, tracing from her left cheek to her right without losing that dimpled smile that has Kate completely won over.

"I love your scar, and one day I'm going to count every single one of these freckles," she says without thinking, taking her in as if she's the only thing in the world.

"That would take a very long time, and we never have enough of it," Kate points out.

Leire's smile fades and her eyelids drop, her gaze falling just before she feels the Australian's hand under her chin, lifting it back up.

"Sorry," Kate whispers. "I didn't mean that."

"Yes you did, and it doesn't matter because you're right, we don't."

Kate swallows. The last thing she needs today is an argument with this woman. She doesn't think she could handle it — too many emotions layered on top of the exhaustion from such a long trip. She got to the hotel an hour ago, unpacked, took a long, restorative shower, and now she's here, and she doesn't want anything to ruin what she needs to be perfect, or she'll fall apart.

"Let's not talk about that today, please," she begs quietly. "I need you to smile at me and keep moaning against my mouth."

Leire's breathed-out laugh sends a shiver running through Kate's whole body, and she presses back to her lips.

"Wait," Leire pulls away, amused. "I need to look at you a little longer."

She places her hands on Kate's cheeks again and focuses on her eyes, on the intensity in her gaze, on that trace of something different that Leire can't quite name. She knows something is going on; she can't even explain how she knows, but she's terrified to ask, and part of her feels she has no right to demand anything this woman doesn't want to give freely. Leire can't get the conversation with her friend Marta out of her head, and she feels uncomfortable with herself for letting Kate hold her in that gaze full of all the love she knows Kate feels, while being unable to give her even half of what she deserves.

She's thought a lot about it these past few days and decided she'd bring up Costel and the renewal — that the least she could do was tell her to her face that this brand, which in the twenty-first century requires signing an image clause that, while not explicitly stated, they both know would treat a relationship with a woman as a clear example of bad image, because Costel is deeply conservative and has never supported or shown any empathy toward the community, wants to renew her contract for five years, and that she's decided to accept.

"Done looking?" Kate smiles at her, pulling her back to the present without knowing it.

"I don't think I'll ever get tired of it," she whispers sincerely, catching Kate's lower lip between hers as she turns her and pushes her onto the bed.

Kate lets herself fall and sits, and Leire stands in front of her, pulling her shirt over her head and then stepping out of her pants.

"How was the flight?" she asks playfully as she reaches behind her back for her bra clasp.

"Not nearly as interesting as this, that's for sure," the redhead murmurs, her eyes fixed on the body she's mapped entirely with her hands and tongue more times than she could ever count.

"This too?" Leire hooks a finger in the waistband of her underwear and tugs it out as she asks, stepping toward her.

"That's the most important part — it would get very much in the way of what I need to do."