Page 58 of Igniting Her

Ellie turned her face into Cassie’s neck. “Please.”

“I’ve got you.”

That was all.

The second orgasm rose slowly and then took everything with it. Ellie clenched around Cassie’s fingers, hips moving helplessly into her hand. Cassie kept her gathered against her through each contraction. Her mouth stayed at Ellie’s temple. She said her first name once, quietly, without rank or warning.

Ellie broke around the sound.

Cassie held her when it ended. She eased her hand away only after Ellie’s breathing settled, then folded both arms around her and stayed there. Ellie could feel Cassie’s heartbeat against her back, fast enough to betray what the rest of her body still tried to contain.

Neither of them spoke.

After a while, Cassie left the bed. Ellie made herself keep her eyes closed rather than mistake movement for departure. The bathroom tap ran. A cupboard opened, then another. Cassie returned with a warm cloth and the glass of water from Ellie’s nightstand refilled.

She lifted Ellie against her chest and held the glass to her mouth. Ellie drank. Cassie wiped the drop that escaped at her chin, then cleaned her with quiet, unembarrassed care. The cloth passed over sweat-damp skin, between her thighs, along the insides of her knees. Cassie turned it to a clean section before wiping her own hand. Even exhausted, her attention did not loosen.

Ellie had received aftercare from her before. Warmth, water, lotion, order restored after intensity. Tonight, Cassie left the disorder between them in place. She left the room and returned with Ellie’s oldest sweatshirt from the couch, then worked it over her head. She found clean underwear in the open duffel without commenting on the fact that most of Ellie’s clothes still lived there. Then she climbed back into bed and drew Ellie between her arms.

Cassie’s fingers moved through her hair. No instruction shaped them. They separated the short strands at the nape of her neck, stroked lightly over her scalp, and began again whenever Ellie’s breathing caught.

The first tear reached Ellie’s temple before she understood she was crying.

Cassie felt it. Her hand paused, then continued. Questions would have demanded that Ellie explain the tears; reassurance would have denied them. Cassie wiped the wetness with her thumb and pressed her mouth to the place it had been.

That mercy brought another tear, and then another. Ellie kept her face against Cassie’s shoulder and let them go without explaining. Cassie held her through it. Her palm traveled once down Ellie’s spine and returned to her hair.

The apartment settled around them. Pipes knocked in the wall. A car climbed the street below, music fading as it passed. Cassie’s body was warm behind Ellie, solid in a bed no one else had ever stayed in.

Sleep softened the edges of the room. Ellie’s anger had not vanished. Neither had the words from the office. They had simply stopped being the only truth between them.

Her mouth rested near the curve of Cassie’s shoulder. She spoke before caution could wake with her.

“I’m falling in love with you.”

The arms around her went rigid.

One second. Cassie stopped breathing.

Two. Her hand froze in Ellie’s hair.

Three.

Then Cassie exhaled and relaxed by deliberate degrees. Her fingers loosened. Her breathing lengthened into the measured rhythm of sleep too quickly to be real.

Ellie could have lifted her head. She could have made Cassie look at her, demanded an answer, refused to let another silence stand in for one. Instead, she settled closer and closed her eyes.

Cassie had come to her door. She had asked to enter. She had spent the whole night saying what she could not yet put into words.

Ellie let her pretend.

The truth remained loose in the room between their bodies. Cassie’s breath stayed careful against Ellie’s hair, and the hand at her waist never let go.

16

CASSIE

At the next A shift briefing, Cassie assigned Ridge to the nozzle without once using her first name.