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“I’m perfect? Sure, okay.”

Taylor smiled and touched her softly on the cheek. She wasn’t laughing anymore.

“Of course you are.”

She leaned forward and kissed Avery. When their lips came together, Avery almost sighed in relief. She knew that’s what they were coming back to her apartment for, but she’d made the first move at several points that night, including kissing Taylor first. She just couldn’t do it one more time. This time she needed Taylor to do it, she was ready for Taylor to take back a little bit of the control, and thank God she did.

Holy shit, could this woman kiss. If Avery had been doubtful in any way of how and why Taylor was such a magnet for women, just one kiss would have cleared it all up. But she quickly discovered that being kissed by Taylor standing up on the street was a very different experience from being kissed by Taylor sitting down on the couch in her apartment. It wasn’t just about lips or tongues, rather a full-body experience.

She shifted in Taylor’s arms and then pulled her closer, so they were snug there together on her very comfortable new couch. She lifted her fingers to Taylor’s hair and caressed that stubble at the side of her head. Taylor smiled against her mouth.

“You could tell I liked that, couldn’t you?” Taylor murmured. “You’re very perceptive, you know.”

Avery kissed her cheek.

“You’re going to turn my head with these compliments. ‘Perfect,’‘perceptive,’ ‘gorgeous,’ and those are just compliments you’ve given me tonight. I’m going to get conceited.”

Taylor lifted a finger and traced the outline of her lips.

“Your head could use a little turning, as far as I’m concerned,” Taylor said. “You deserve to be far more conceited than you are. But you’ve come to the right place; I can get you there. Because I meant every word. And a lot more that you’ll probably hear shortly.”

Avery didn’t really believe Taylor’s compliments, but she believed that Taylor meant them, which was almost as good. Maybe that was one of the secrets to Taylor’s magnetism: she gave lavish compliments—and she meant them all. With her, it wasn’t bullshit. Avery knew that; Taylor wasn’t the type of person who was fake about that kind of thing.

Taylor brushed her hair gently to the side and moved her lips down to Avery’s neck. Avery sighed softly and leaned her head back.

“I love the way you do that,” she said.

Taylor slid her tongue in circles.

“I can tell.”

In all the times that Avery had fantasized about making out with Taylor—and there had been an embarrassing amount of them at this point—she’d always pictured Taylor just like this in her head: sexy, commanding, sure of herself. So none of that was a surprise. What was a surprise to her, though, was her own reaction. She would have assumed she’d be awkward, fumbling, uncertain, but it wasn’t like that tonight.Shewasn’t like that tonight. Maybe it was because of the work she and Taylor had been doing with the flirting lessons this summer, or maybe it was about Taylor herself; it was probably some combination of both. Tonight, with Taylor, she felt comfortable, relaxed, and very, very turned on.

She was maybe a little too in her own head, but what else was new?

She should try to do something about that.

She remembered something that Taylor had told her on the way to their first flirting lesson:people generally like to be flirted with the same way that they flirt.And then she’d laughed and said that was true for other things, too. As much as she was enjoying the way Taylor touched her, it was time to see if Taylor was right about that as well.

She pulled Taylor back up to her mouth and kissed her again, a little harder than she’d been kissing her before, in the way she’d noticed Taylor doing when she’d kissed her neck. Taylor sighed softly, so Avery increased the pressure, and let her hands roam up and down Taylor’s body. Taylor was so warm and soft in her arms, and God, she smelled so good, like some sort of rich brandy, and it made Avery just want to lick her.

So that’s exactly what she did. She moved her way down to Taylor’s neck, first kissing her on her collarbone, and then tracing a thin line with her tongue back up to Taylor’s lips. Then she kissed and sucked her way back down to Taylor’s collarbone in the same way Taylor had done to her earlier. Taylor’s fluttering lashes and gentle sighs as Avery did this were the same reaction she’d had outside the Barrel, when Avery had stroked her hair. Yes, she definitely liked being kissed the way that she kissed Avery.

God, it felt good to know that Taylor’s reactions—including those hard points of her nipples that Avery could see through her thin tank top—were all due to something she was doing. It felt incredible, actually.

Taylor must have seen—or felt—Avery looking at her nipples. Taylor’s hands moved up her body, and her thumbs brushedagainst Avery’s hard nipples in a way that felt so good that she jumped, and then giggled. Taylor smirked and did it again.

“It feels so good to finally get to touch these,” Taylor said.

“Finally?” Avery asked. She was a little embarrassed at how breathy her voice sounded, but Taylor didn’t laugh at her. Then, Taylor never would.

Taylor brushed her lips softly against Avery’s.

“Of course finally, you ridiculous, hot, silly woman.” She let out her low chuckle. “Come on, Iknowyou saw me staring at your boobs tonight, you can’t even pretend that you didn’t.”

Well, yes, Avery had noticed that. She smiled.

“I mean yes, tonight, but…”