Page 56 of Igniting Her

Her fingers reached the coordinates along Ellie’s ribs. She traced the line once, still asking nothing, then bent and put her mouth there.

Ellie’s breath caught.

The tattoo marked the Los Angeles building where Ellie had made one impossible decision and lost nearly everything after. Cassie knew the story now; she did not know these numbers fixed that place to Ellie’s body. Her silence around the tattoo felt like care rather than ignorance.

Cassie lowered to her knees.

“You don’t have to⁠—”

Cassie looked up. Ellie stopped speaking.

“Let me,” Cassie said.

Ellie’s answer vanished. She had spent four days preparing to defend herself against an explanation. There was no defense for being asked.

Cassie opened her jeans, eased them over her hips, and guided each leg free. She removed Ellie’s underwear last. Her hands stayed warm and steady at Ellie’s ankles, calves, thighs. She kissed the inside of one knee, then the other. No part of the undressing was efficient. Cassie had built a life around wasting nothing. Tonight she spent time everywhere.

“Lie down.”

Ellie sat on the bed and stretched back across the clean sheets. Cassie stood and undressed without turning away. Trousers, camisole, bra, underwear. The burn scar on her left forearm showed pale beneath the lamp. She came onto the bed naked and settled between Ellie’s legs.

“Give me your hands.”

Ellie did. Cassie laced their fingers together and placed them on either side of Ellie’s head. She bent over her, their bodies aligned from breast to thigh, and kissed her again.

Ellie had yielded beneath Cassie before. She had held positions, waited for permission, taken pleasure on command. This was different. Cassie’s weight did not pin her. The hands around hers did not restrain. Every place they met offered the same question, and Ellie answered by staying open beneath her.

Cassie kissed down her throat. She closed her mouth over one nipple and drew gently until Ellie’s back lifted. The pressure sharpened, then eased before it became too much. Cassie gave the same attention to the other breast, tongue circling the tightened point while one hand held Ellie’s above her head.

“Look at me,” she said.

Ellie opened eyes she had not realized she’d closed.

Cassie released her hands and moved lower. She kissed the center of Ellie’s stomach, the soft skin below her navel, the crease where thigh met hip. Her hair loosened against Ellie’s body. When her mouth reached the inside of Ellie’s thigh, she looked up again.

“Stay with me.”

Ellie kept her gaze on her. “I’m here.”

Cassie parted her with two fingers. The first stroke of her tongue traveled slowly through the wet folds and ended over Ellie’s clit. Ellie’s breath left in a broken rush. Cassie did it again, firmer this time, then closed her lips around the swollen point and sucked.

Ellie’s hips lifted.

Cassie put one forearm across them, not forcing her flat, only keeping her from escaping the sensation. Her tongue circled with maddening precision. She knew Ellie’s body now: the pressure that made her thighs tighten, the rhythm that shortened her breathing, the moment just before she lost the ability to make a joke.

“Cassie.”

Cassie answered by sliding one finger inside her.

The slow penetration pulled a sound from Ellie she would have hidden in any other room. Cassie added a second finger, watched her take the stretch, and curled both toward the place that made Ellie’s hands close in the sheet. Her mouth returned to Ellie’s clit. Tongue, suction, the deliberate push and curl of her fingers—nothing withheld, nothing used to make Ellie beg for what had already been offered.

Ellie reached for Cassie’s hair.

“You can touch me,” Cassie said against her.

Permission should not have mattered after everything they had done. It did. Ellie threaded her fingers through the dark strands and felt Cassie lean into the contact before her mouth closed over Ellie again.

Pleasure gathered fast. Ellie’s muscles tightened around Cassie’s fingers. Her heels pressed into the mattress. Cassie kept the same rhythm and lifted her eyes.