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“Do you need to beat me that bad?” Sloane’s question was a breathy cry. There were only so many times she could bring herself back from the brink. “Need me to roll over so you can forget how many times you’ve lost?” Desperate times called for old tricks. It wasn’t her shining moment, but her entire

body was throbbing in time and she feared the delayed release might kill her.

Arwyn, looking like a marathon runner in the first hundred yards, grinned. “Where’s the fun in that?” She tilted back, giving Sloane a full view of her glistening abdomen as it tensed and released with each movement. “I want to win fair and square,” she said like a card shark at a poker table.

“And what does winning entail?” Sloane asked breathlessly as her head spun.

“I know it when I see it,” she replied, having the audacity to quote a United States Supreme Court justice at a time like this.

Sloane’s muscles burned and her body ached. She had one last card to play, and she threw it on the table with her eyes closed and her mouth dry as it hung open. “Ari.” She moaned and struggled for breath. “I need you to come inside me,” she begged.

“Call me, Arwyn,” she replied, her thighs trembling and her body sti ening.

“Fuck,” was all Sloane managed in a strangled moan before her body ignited and tingled and pulled. She shook under Arwyn as she screamed her name and reveled in the flood that covered them both and made it impossible to stay in place. It no longer mattered. As they gyrated and moaned, wave after wave crashed into them.

When Sloane was so tender that pleasure turned to actual pain, she slipped her hand between them and gave Arwyn something harder to grind against. Her rapture was unending. Sloane lived through her skin. Felt her rise and fall

even without her touch, until she finally crumpled forward and kissed her in a breathless, sweaty heap.

Instead of passing out next to her like Sloane expected, Arwyn propped herself up on one arm and whispered against her cheek. “I want to taste you.”

Sloane laughed. “We’re not dying tomorrow, babe. You can leave something for later.” She snaked her shaky arm around her waist and held her close. “Plus, I hate admitting this to you, but I think I need a longer reset time than you do.”

“I’ll be gentle,” Arwyn promised, leaving a row of soft kisses down her neck.

Sloane’s eyes slipped closed, unable to resist the temptation of more. “Be super gentle or I’ll close my thighs around your head and cause major inner ear damage. And just for a minute.” She tried to sound stern, but she wasn’t fooling either of them. She w

anted to feel Arwyn’s mouth on her after having spent the last few months imagining it every time she squirmed under her sheets.

Arwyn smiled against her cheek. A moment later, her breath was warm against Sloane’s wetness.

“You smell like me,” she announced before pressing nothing but her lips against Sloane.

Sloane’s breath hitched in her chest. Her lips were so soft against her sensitive flesh she wanted to cry and scream at once. In the same soft and sensual way she’d claimed her mouth before, Arwyn kissed her as if easing the soreness.

When Sloane couldn’t take another moment, she ran her fingers through Arwyn’s damp hair, reveling in the sight of her head between her thighs, and pulled her up.

Sloane ran her tongue along Arwyn’s bottom lip before kissing her deeply. “You taste like me,” she decided before pulling her down and wrapping her limbs around her.

CHAPTER 41

WEAK SUNLIGHT STREAMED IN, nudging Ari awake. She rolled o her stomach and onto her side as her sore muscles ached.

Trying to ignore the low-grade throb rippling over her thighs and up her back, she flipped her pillow over to the cool side and wrestled her way back to the dream she’d been having.

Ari’s eyes sprang open like a malfunctioning mouse trap.

Shit. She hadn’t meant to fall asleep. Her palm slid over the soft sheets. Cold.

When did Sloan leave?

Stumbling to her feet on legs not quite ready to carry her, Ari looked for her clothes. Her head ached a little from the wine. She blamed it on her impulsive decision to jump in the pool naked. More importantly, she was mad that she’d left her dress outside.

How was she going to run across the backyard naked to retrieve it? What a fantastic way to meet Sloane’s mother that would be. Ari’s head throbbed in earnest as her stomach churned, forcing her to drop onto the edge of the bed and wallow for a moment.

Glancing at the dresser, Ari eyed her most reasonable option. She couldn’t go out there wrapped in a sheet, but maybe she could borrow something of Sloane’s just for a minute.

Ari hesitated. The prospect of rifling through Sloane’s things wasn’t thrilling. It was too close to an invasion of privacy. But what choice did she have?