Page 6

“Her loss,” Ari said as she took a drink of her whiskey sour. Cass peered out from her hands. Even in this moment of distress, Cass felt as though she’d never seen a more beautiful woman. Ari’s hands gripping her frosty glass were a dazzling display of veins and strained tendons. Despite herself, Cass wondered what Ari’s fingers would feel like inside of her…

Recovering her train of thought, Cass sat up. “Thanks for covering for me,” she said as she lifted her glass to Ari.

Ari avoided her gaze, “Sure thing.”

Before Cass allowed their glasses to touch, she put her finger under Ari’s chin, lifted her gaze, and lowered her voice, “Look in my eyes when you take your drink.”

Ari chuckled and obliged, watching Cass’s gorgeous blue eyes while she downed the rest of her drink.

“Superstitious much?” Ari joked.

“I’ll never risk bad sex,” Cass laughed.

Ari set her glass back down and put her arm on the bar, leaning toward Cass, “Next time, you should ask before you assume I’ll be your girlfriend.”

Cass giggled, higher pitched than was natural. Something about Ari made her giddy, and excited. And it wasn’t just her voice that felt tense.

“I just think it’s polite,” Ari argued.

Before Cass could reply, Tommy was grabbing Ari’s arm.

“We’ve gotta get out of here,” she said as she buttoned up her shirt’s top few buttons.

Ari nodded, “Danced with another taken woman?”

Tommy nodded as she eyed another woman heading toward her in the crowd, angry as all hell.

“See you around,” Ari said to Cass as Tommy pulled her toward the front door.

Cass opened her mouth to reply, but they were out of sight before Cass could even give her number.

She looked back to the bartender and ordered another drink before her phone buzzed with a message from Elle:

Great seeing you tonight. You both should come to the party, my place June 30th at 8. I want to catch up

Cass rolled her eyes, Ellealwayswanted to “catch up,” which almost always meant hookup, refuse to be accountable, and string her along for a few more months. But, god, she wanted nothing more than to bring Ari the bombshell to that party.

3

ARI

The whiskeysour hit Ari on the way home. She wasn’t a lightweight, but she definitely hadn’t eaten enough that day to chug a drink like that.

As the elevator ascended to her unit, Ari closed her eyes and saw images of Cass. She couldn’t deny how stunning she was, alternative with a bleached buzz cut and sleeves of tattoos. She was certainly a creative.

Ari fumbled with her keys as the elevator door slid open. Her bare-bones eyeshadow and eyeliner had smudged under her eyes. The carpeted hallways of the luxury building made her feel like she was in a hotel — and not in a sexy way.

By the time she managed to fling open her door, she could barely keep her heels on, slipping them off as she headed to her room and throwing her arms over her shoulders to unzip her dress. Once she felt the metal between her fingers, she inched the zipper low enough to peel the fabric off of her body and flung herself into bed.She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, but her body was overwhelmed by the memory of Cass’s muscular arms draping over her shoulders and Cass’ ass pressed against her hips.

Her hand fell to her thigh. Just picturing the strange woman made her clit throb. It had been so many months since Ari had allowed anyone into her bed, and Cass wouldn’t break the streak. But, as her hand drifted toward her center, Ari figured it wouldn’t make much of a difference to imagine what that would be like.

She rubbed herself over her black, cheeky panties, her back arching at her own touch. Grinding along her hand, she pictured Cass’s smile, the way she looked into Ari’s eyes as she took her drink. Her body was overwhelmed by the thought, the slight intoxication bringing her closer to climax than she could have anticipated.

Her legs squeezed together as she thought about Cass licking her nipples…

Within seconds, Ari was throwing her free hand down to the bed and clutching the blankets for support,clenching her jaw and letting out a whimper as she rubbed her clit harder and slower.

“Fuck…”