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Until Alli’s hands were grasping the bedhead and her thighs were parted over Bea’s face and she could smell her, the rich, earthy scent of her, could see glittering, gleaming wetness.

She pulled Alli down, forcing her tongue upward, and began to lick as Alli rode her, pressing down harder and harder until Bea couldn’t breathe.

But it didn’t matter.

Not in the slightest.

She tasted every millimeter of her, felt every pulsing contraction, could barely hear as Alli moaned out her name. And none of it mattered. The only thing that was important was this, this action, this climbing, building need, this complete immersion in something so unfamiliar and yet familiar.

She scrambled an arm up between their bodies, slid her fingers into Alli, pushed her tongue up and over the smooth bump above her, and then held on as Alli bucked and trembled and shook like an earthquake was overtaking her.

And when she collapsed, Bea slowly slid out from under her.

“You’ve done this before,” Alli accused, breath still panting, only one eye open, staring suspiciously.

“No,” Bea said. “But I’d do it again.”

“I might die if you do it again right now,” Alli groaned.

“I wasn’t offering to skip my turn,” said Bea, rolling over, so that they were face to face.

Alli said nothing as she slid her hand between them, as she contorted herself so that she could touch Bea in the way she needed. She said nothing as she touched, corrected herself, then touched again. Nothing as Bea’s breath caught in her throat. Nothing as the soft movements between them started to rock the little bed.

And nothing as Bea gasped, climax taking her by surprise it was so fast, eyes looking straight into Alli’s, disappearing into the greenness just as every nerve in her body contracted and then expanded and exploded.

“My second attempt seems to be just as successful as my first,” Alli drawled finally.

Bea let herself smile. “Just think how much you’ll improve with practice,” she said without thinking.

She saw the fleeting look that passed over Alli’s face and understood immediately that she’d made an assumption.

“Sorry, sorry,” she said. “I shouldn’t have…”

But now Alli was starting to smile, starting to push her body closer. “No,” she whispered. “No, it’s fine. I—” She swallowed. “I’m not averse to… to practicing.”

WHITE MOONLIGHT SPARKLED through the window and Bea stroked Alli’s hair. They were crammed together into the tiny bed, their limbs entangled, and Bea didn’t think she’d ever felt so relaxed. So… at peace.

“If the rest of them could see us now…” Alli said lazily.

Bea laughed. “I’m glad they can’t. I’d prefer not to get fired just at the moment.”

“Need the job, do you?”

Bea sighed. “Yes.”

“Why?”

And Bea told her. The whole story. From meeting Robbie allthe way down to him moving his girlfriend in and by the end, Alli was sitting up, shaking her head. “Jesus, Bea. Why are you such a walkover?”

“I don’t know,” she admitted. “I don’t like confrontation. I like doing the right thing. I just… It’s complicated.”

“So he gets to live in a nice flat with a new woman and you get to work some crappy job in a horrible old haunted shit-hole?” Alli said, getting warmer with anger. “I hope you’re getting paid well at least.”

“Not exactly,” Bea said.

“Explain yourself,” Alli said, eyes glittering in the moonlight.

So Bea did. Not only did she tell Alli about how pathetic her paycheck was once Luke had made his thousand deductions, but she told her about the figures she’d seen on Luke’s desk, about the strange feeling she had when other participants spoke in group therapy.