Page 26 of Igniting Her

“It’s the one you haven’t answered.”

“Because the answer changes nothing.”

“Then say it and let me leave.” Ellie waited without a joke or challenge, jaw set as if she had come prepared to hear no. Sending her away would be responsible and clean and another decision made for Ellie under the name of protection. “If you’re going to stand there and tell me this is only about my career,” Ellie said, “you could at least stop looking at my⁠—”

Cassie crossed the distance and kissed her. Ellie hit the hallway wall with a breath against Cassie’s mouth. Cassie caught her neck and waist, taking the impact. The kiss was not careful. Two months of restraint spent itself at once. Ellie made a low sound and opened for her. Cassie tasted rain and coffee. Ellie pulled her closer, cold through wet clothes and hot everywhere their bodies met.

Cassie kissed her harder. The control she had feared losing did not disappear. It changed purpose. She broke the kiss far enough to breathe. Ellie followed. Cassie tightened her hand at the nape of her neck. “Look at me.” Hazel eyes opened. “Tell me to stop, and I stop.”

Ellie’s chest rose hard against hers. “Not a fucking chance.” Then she pulled Cassie back by the shirt. The second kiss was Ellie’s: teeth against Cassie’s lower lip, one hand sliding beneath the hem at her back. Then Cassie caught both her wrists. She raised them above Ellie’s head and held them there with one hand.

Ellie went still.

Surprise widened her eyes, but there was no fear. Her shoulders lowered, her mouth parted, and her weight settled into Cassie’s control, the deliberate surrender from the gym mat, stripped of any excuse. Ellie held her gaze. Cassie’s voice dropped. “Do you want this?”

“Yes.”

“My control.”

Ellie swallowed. Her pupils had widened until only a thin ring of hazel remained. “Yes, Captain.” The title went through Cassie like heat. She should have objected to it here. Instead, she brought her knee between Ellie’s thighs.

“Keep your hands there.” Cassie released her wrists. Ellie left them raised. Trust, not obedience borrowed from the station. A choice waiting to see whether Cassie deserved it. Cassie eased back enough to give her room. Ellie could lower her arms, open the front door, call the whole thing finished. Instead, she pressed her wrists back above her head and held Cassie’s gaze.

The permission was unmistakable. Cassie kissed the pulse in Ellie’s throat. Ellie’s head tipped back. Cassie drew the damp T-shirt upward. Ellie moved her arms away from the wall just long enough to be freed of the shirt, then put her hands back where she had been told. Black bra. Damp skin. Freckles over the upper curve of her breasts. Cassie looked.

“You’ve been trying not to do that for weeks,” Ellie said.

Cassie closed her teeth lightly over the place where neck became shoulder. Ellie’s answer broke into a gasp. “Quiet,” Cassie said.

“There’s no one here.”

“Then do it because I asked.”

Ellie’s mouth closed. The obedience lasted until Cassie cupped one breast through the bra and dragged her thumb over the hard point beneath it. A sound escaped Ellie despite herself, smaller and more helpless than the first.

Cassie felt it low in her body.

She unfastened the bra, pushed it aside, and took Ellie’s nipple into her mouth.

Ellie’s hips drove forward against Cassie’s thigh.

“Hands.” They had started to lower; Ellie put them back.

Cassie circled the other nipple with her tongue and closed her teeth with careful pressure. Ellie trembled. The woman who challenged tactics before the whole crew stood in Cassie’s hallway and chose to give her control. She opened Ellie’s jeans. Ellie sucked in a breath as Cassie slid one hand beneath the waistband of her underwear. She was already wet. The first touch over her clit made her knees soften.

Cassie steadied her with the weight of her body. “Look at me.” Ellie did.

Cassie moved two fingers through the slick heat between her folds, slow enough to feel every change in her composure. Ellie pressed toward her hand.

“Stay still.”

“You can’t be serious.”

Cassie stopped.

Ellie’s eyes closed briefly. “I’ll stay still.”

“Good.” The word made her shudder.