Cherry nodded, but her eyes were on Ellis’s mouth. Ellis could see that, and it sent a thrill through her, started a gentle throbbing low in her body. “I’ll text you this week.” Her words came out in a whisper as she leaned forward, and her lips met Ellis’s. One of them whimpered, but Ellis wasn’t sure which. Her hands found their way up to Cherry’s neck, the sides of her face, and she pulled her in harder. Deeper. Opened her mouth to let her in, give her access, meet Cherry’s tongue with hers.
The kiss was a study in push and pull. In give and take. In dominance and submission. Cherry pressed Ellis against the car door. Then Ellis would push back, and they’d be standing upright, nearly the same height. And then Cherry would lean in again, and Ellis would find herself trapped once more between Cherry’s warm body and the cool metal of her car. Not a bad place to be stuck. Not a bad place at all.
They kissed for a long time. Despite her inability to distinguish complex things like up or down or right or left when Cherry was kissing her like this, she did know they kissed for a long time. When they finally wrenched their mouths apart and stood with their foreheads together, ragged breathing was the only sound. Then Ellis finally spoke.
“Your friends are going to think I kidnapped you.”
Cherry nodded once. “Probs. I hope they don’t pay the ransom.”
Ellis laughed softly. “I promise I won’t take it.” She tucked an errant bit of red hair gently behind Cherry’s ear.
Cherry seemed to take a moment to steady herself, and it took an obvious effort. Then she looked into Ellis’s eyes, something Ellis felt all the way down to her center. She swallowed hard. Cherry’s hand came up to her face, and she rubbed her thumb across Ellis’s bottom lip. Grabbed it and gave it a gentle tug, then kissed her one more time.
This time, it was definitely Ellis that whimpered.
“Okay. Go.” Cherry stepped back from the car, and Ellis found herself both grateful for and in anguish over the space she’d put between them. Cherry kept walking backward. “Go,” she whispered again.
“Going,” Ellis replied. And this time, she did get into her car, started her engine, waited until Cherry was no longer visible in the rearview mirror. Then she blew out a loud breath and dropped her forehead to the steering wheel. Wow. Cherry was so many things.
Not what she’d been looking for.
Not what she’d expected.
She met her eyes in the mirror, as a thirdnotrolled through her mind.
Not someone she was willing to let go of.
She tipped her head as the words rolled through her brain.
Well. That’s new.
Chapter Nine
The hiking boots that Peak had sent were amazing to look at. Cherry had spent several minutes Saturday morning gazing at her feet in the mirror, turning them at different angles. They were supportive, but flexible. Heavy, but breathable. She was looking forward to putting them to the test, and she snapped a couple photos to post before she headed to Tykeman Park to meet Ellis.
Ellis.
Yeah.
That situation was…it was so many things. It was exhilarating and terrifying and sexy and terrifying and energizing and terrifying and so much more. And also terrifying. Ellis scared the hell out of her. The fact that Ellis knew nothing of her online life scared her even more.
They’d texted every day since Monday’s parking lot make-out fest, and Cherry had done some remote work at the diner twice that week. Lots of eye flirting and barely disguised innuendos. But they’d both been busy and hadn’t had time to spend together all week, so hiking today would be the first time they’d been alone since the parking lot.
And Cherry was nervous.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” Shea asked when Cherry dropped a mug full of coffee all over the counter. “You dropped your phone in the living room. You dropped your hairbrush twice this morning while you were drying your hair. Now the coffee. Do your hands not work anymore? Are your opposable thumbs broken? When did you lose the ability to hold on to things?”
Cherry sighed quietly and didn’t meet her eyes, and that was all Shea needed to figure out the very not-at-all complicated puzzle.
“Oh, it’s Miss Ellis, isn’t it? Today is hiking day.”
With a slow nod, Cherry said, “It is. And I’m going to tell her today.”
“You are?” Shea’s tone made it super clear that this made her happy.
“I have to.” Not only did she need to reveal her online life, goals, dreams, but she had to explain all the alluding to her girlfriend. All themy sweeties andmy honeys. That was going to be the weird part. That’s what made her so jittery. “I have to,” she said again.
“That’s what I’ve been saying.”
