Page 127 of Fly with Me

Without leaving each other’s arms they lay on the cool sheets. Olive’s legs twisted together with Stella’s. Stella’s beautiful eyes never leaving hers even as her fingers found those familiar deep places that made Stella unfurl. They moved together, Olive watching for the small reactions she knew so well.

Little moans. Tiny high-pitched whimpers. Stella’s hips grinding against her with her beautiful, wet pussy pushing harder and harder against Olive’s.

Olive had never had sex like this. So unhurried. So breathtakingly intimate. Eye contact and tender touches. Tonight they explored each other in a way they hadn’t yet. Each of them speaking in low murmurs. Asking for what they wanted. Trying and tasting. Sweat shone on their skin, barely visible in the low-lit room.

Stella reached for the nightstand, giving Olive a questioning look.

“Yes” was all Olive could will herself to say. She was so lost in the moment. In the music. In the movement. In the delicious sensation of Stella over every part of her.

They pressed together once more, the hum of the vibrator almost too much for Olive’s senses as it linked them together.

With a gasp, Stella raked her nails down Olive’s back.

Olive’s answering cry had her thighs pressing into Stella’s hips. “Stella.”

And Stella was right there with her. She lifted her chin high. Olive pushed away Stella’s sweat-soaked hair and sucked and licked up the perfect brown column of her neck. Stella’s hands took hold of Olive’s ass, driving their bodies even more closely together. Her fingers gripped the crease of her thighs, opening Olive the tiniest bit wider.

Olive’s forehead rested on Stella’s shoulder. “Oh god.”

“Come,” Stella asked softly.

She did, rocking and writhing through rasping breaths.

After every shudder of pleasure pulsed through her, Olive lay as if broken into pieces. Every muscle limp. Bones looser than they’d been before. Vocal cords barely functional. “I—That was amazing.”

She wanted to say it.

That she loved her.

Saying it after sex was an awful cliché.

It wasn’t about the sex.

It was about the whole night.

Stella challenged her without making Olive feel like a loser for being afraid of things in the first place. Being with Stella made Olive feel… safe.

Stella kissed her once more and offered her a wicked, slightly punch-drunk smile.

Minutes later, Stella was a comfortable weight on top of her. The softness of her body pressed against her like her own personal weighted blanket. Olive opened her mouth to speak several times, before giving up the idea. She closed her eyes and let her mind wander toward sleep.

A thought pricked at her brain, as these thoughts often do in the dark when all is calm and everything should be comfortable and perfect. That looming threat of an expiration date. In four days, it could all be over. Maybe that’s all tonight was. The party. The gift. The sex. All a precursor to goodbye.

Chapter 46

The only sound in the room was the rhythmic tidal of Jake’s ventilator. Stella was gone for a few days and wouldn’t get back until the day of the Pilots’ Gala, so it seemed the perfect time to stop in and see him again. The remains of Olive’s sandwich sat in the greasy paper on the side table.

She clicked on music from her phone—one of Jake’s favorite bands. She’d never let him play it in the car before the accident. She said the singer’s voice drove her nuts. It still did. But she missed it for some reason. The smack of his hand as he swatted her away from his fancy car stereo when the song came on.

It was the stupid stuff.

Her eyes followed the walls to the large bulletin board, looking anywhere but at Jake. She hated to admit that to herself. But it was true.

Her family had added a few more photos since she’d last been here. There was one with her parents and her sister’s family all together. Probably from Thanksgiving. The room was as cheerful as it could be. Even more Christmas cards were assembled on the side table near a second fake poinsettia.

“Things with Stella continue to be great,” Olive said.

Except you obviously want something more.