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Heat built under my skin and between my eyes and pooled in all sorts of other places and before I knew what was happening, Cadence was pushing her hips against mine and I was rising to meet her as our bodies collided in multiple ways.

The hand that wasn’t on my neck gripped my waist and then tried to pull at my dress to get at my skin. I did the same, forcing my way under her shirt so I could touch her. Fuck, I needed to touch her so much that I ached.

I would have kissed her until the end of time, but I felt her drawing back, pressing little soft kisses against my mouth and laughing when I tried to yank her back.

My eyes opened and met her face, which was so close that she appeared blurry.

“Holy shit,” she breathed out. “I guess you do like me.”

Chapter Sixteen

Cade

When I’d driven to work with a brick of terror sitting in my stomach, I hadn’t known that things would change so dramatically. One minute I was apologizing and trying not to cry and the next minute I was making out with my boss and wanting to fuck her so bad that I couldn’t even breathe.

What. The. Hell.

Eloise brushed some of my hair out of my face. I’d just put it in a ponytail today and hadn’t done a very good job of it.

I felt myself shaking as she continued to hold me, her thumb stroking my stomach under my shirt and making me think I was going to lose my mind.

“Yes, Cade. I like you,” she said, smiling. “I’ve liked you for a while. I just didn’t realize it.”

She was calling me Cade now and I wanted to hate it, but I didn’t.

I stroked my fingers through the back of her hair. I’d had a death grip on her neck, but she wasn’t complaining.

“Is this really happening?” I whispered.

“I think so,” she said, her voice unsteady. “I didn’t think that it would. I didn’t… I’ve never let myself have this, Cadence.”

Did that mean what I thought it meant?

“You’ve never?” I asked.

She shook her head slowly. “I’ve never done anything with a woman before.”

“Why?” I asked, still distracted by the patterns her fingers were drawing on my skin. How many times had I dreamt of her fingers against my bare skin?

She exhaled and leaned back a little bit more, but her hand didn’t leave my side.

“Because it was too complicated? Because I didn’t want to add one more thing in my life? A lot of reasons, I guess. It seemed like too much to deal with so I just…didn’t. Most of the time it was easy enough to ignore. I do like men, just so you know. Life was simpler if I just went out with men I was attracted to and ignored the women that gave me those same feelings.”

That was a lot of information to process. I guess we were really getting into it.

“I’m a lesbian. In case that wasn’t clear from my social media,” I said.

She smirked and my heart thumped harder. “Yes, I noticed. Why haven’t you ever worn that scissoring shirt to work?”

And now I was choking on my tongue. I coughed a few times as she laughed.

“I was afraid you’d seen too much on my social and I was right,” I groaned.

“Don’t worry, I thought it was funny,” she said with a smile. Fuck, she was beautiful. So damn beautiful. Her eyes weren’t violet right now, but they were blue and that was disarming enough.

“So, you’re bi. Or pan?” I asked.

She lifted one shoulder. “Bi, I guess. But does the distinction really matter?”