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Liv did as Juliette asked, and lay down on the couch. She couldn’t resist running a hand down Juliette’s hip as she stepped close.

“Hey, no touching! You’re going to distract me.”

“Mmm, maybe that’s not such a bad idea. We haven’t done it on this couch yet.”

Juliette hesitated, clearly torn. “After,” she decided. “We’ll make sure to stop before our parents are due home.”

“As you wish. In that case, I am putty in your capable hands.”

Liv let Juliette position her lying down on the couch, draping her hair artfully around her face and asking her to point her toes a little.

“Ok, perfect. Just hold that position for… I don’t know, several hours. To start with.”

Lying still for several hours was harder than Liv would have imagined. After three hours, her toes were starting to cramp, but Juliette’s face was so intense and happy that Liv didn’t want to ruin the moment for her.

The painting was facing sideways, so that Juliette could look at it and glance to the side to see Liv, which meant Liv couldn’t see it, but she was sure it would be spectacular. All of Juliette’s work was.

When the sun started to set, Juliette finally put her paint brush down.

“Done?”

“No, but we’re out of time.”

“Do I get to see it?”

“It’s far from finished,” Juliette hedged. “And I hadn’t done this style of painting in years…”

“Come on, Juliette, it’s me. I won’t laugh if it’s awful, I promise.” Liv was sure it would be far from awful, but her words seemed to reassure Juliette, who turned the painting to face her.

Liv gasped as she stared into her own face, as lifelike as if she was looking as a photograph. Juliette had taken some artistic license, making her look like she was gracing the airbrushed pages of a fashion magazine.

“This is really how you see me?” Liv murmured.

“You’re the most beautiful thing in my world.” Juliette carefully put the painting down to dry, facing the wall – probably a good idea. If Laura saw it, it would be disastrous.

The moment Juliette was done, Liv moved to kiss her, but Juliette danced back. “Put your clothes on first.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m going to enjoy stripping them off you – and kissing every inch of you as you’re exposed.”

Well, Liv could hardly argue with that. She got dressed and stepped eagerly into Juliette’s arms. They kissed deeply, both of them affected by the intimacy of what they had been doing all afternoon.

Liv was so into the kiss that she made the fatal flaw of not listening out for footsteps. Juliette sucked at tuning into background noises when she was focused on something, which left it up to Liv… and Liv failed.

“Girls, it’s time for – what are you doing?”

Liv barely had time to register horror at Laura’s voice before Juliette’s hands were on her chest, shoving her away so hard she stumbled.

“What the fuck, Liv! How dare you do something like that? You’re disgusting!”

Liv stared dumbly at Juliette.

“Get out of my studio. I don’t even want to look at you right now.”

“Juliette…” It wasn’t that Liv didn’t understand what Juliette was doing. What she didn’t understand was how Juliette could do it to her.

“You know what? Stay here. I’m leaving.”