Page 30 of Here in My Heart (Here Together #2)
CHAPTER THIRTY
Every single moment had led them here. Ade brushed a strand of hair from Sylvie’s temple, envying its curl around her earlobe.
How she wished she could nestle that close to Sylvie’s skin all day and all night.
She touched her lips and came alive with the replay.
Sylvie’s taste, the stroke of her hand, the whisper of her smile against Ade’s cheek, all in vivid color.
She no longer regretted the missed kiss: the one that should have been the night that Paul had met them in la Place de la Comédie. Because when it had finally arrived, it was everything it was meant to be.
Ade’s breath caught in her throat as the anticipation of what might come next almost overwhelmed her.
She scanned the bedroom, barely able to take in any details except the smooth landscape of the double bed that they were about to land on together.
Every stolen gasp and arch of Sylvie’s back promised one thing: that crisp sheet was about to get pretty crumpled.
Ade held Sylvie’s shoulders for a second, creating a short but intolerable distance between them.
“What is it?” Sylvie asked, her brow furrowing with doubt and confusion.
“I just want to remember this,” Ade said, trying to hold onto the moment for as long as possible in case this frenzied lust was all they had.
She forced herself to take pictures for the memory book inside her brain, feeding that kernel of fear that once they were physically sated, Sylvie wouldn’t need any more from her.
Sylvie peeled off her clothes, layer by layer, as if she was enjoying Ade’s physical reaction.
She kneeled on the edge of the bed, in her underwear.
Her face softened, and she gazed at Ade with an understanding in her eyes.
“Look at me.” She tipped her chin with a stroke of her perfect finger. “I want you.”
Ade’s abdomen turned inside out, and her breath caught in her chest. How could Sylvie do these things to her body with just words? She had no idea before this moment that a look and a jumble of vowels and consonants could render her simultaneously immobile and trembling with unspent energy.
“Do you want me?” Sylvie asked, a flicker of doubt crossing her face.
Ade moaned, incapable of uttering a coherent sentence. She met Sylvie’s parted lips with her own and Sylvie’s back arched in response, inching closer until all that remained between them was the thinnest fabric of their underwear.
Ade stripped off her own tank top with one hand. “Can I?” She gestured to the thin strap of Sylvie’s bra and peeled it off her shoulder.
Sylvie unhooked her own clasp with a single flick and revealed her breasts in their magnificence. Ade’s breath stuttered again, and she blinked to commit the contours of Sylvie’s body to her memory.
“Can I touch you?” Sylvie whispered. She peppered a line of kisses along Ade’s neck and drew them both onto the mattress.
Ade resisted the urge to devour her and lingered in a kneeling position between Sylvie’s legs, a smile forming as she imagined what might come next.
“Never mind rehearsing it, Ade. Just do it.” Sylvie grabbed at the waistband of her shorts. “And take these off.”
Obeying Sylvie’s command, Ade rose from the bed just long enough to dispense with her own shorts and Sylvie’s panties.
“I can’t wait any longer,” Sylvie said between shallow breaths.
The rise and fall of Sylvie’s chest grew erratic as Ade covered her body with her own.
They kissed harder than ever. Ade had never wanted someone so much in all her life. She cried out with frustration that she couldn’t put the strength of her desire into words.
“Are you okay?” Sylvie asked, drawing back against the pillow. “What is it?”
“It hurts.” It was all Ade could say, pulling Sylvie back to her.
“What hurts, Ade?” Sylvie raised herself up onto her elbow. “Where am I hurting you?”
Ade rose onto her knees and held Sylvie’s gaze for a moment. “Here.” She pulled Sylvie’s hand to her center, wet with need and anticipation. “I can’t stand it.”
Sylvie’s smile played on her lips as she parted Ade and found the core of her pleasure, stroking slowly and deliberately until she found a rhythm that forced another groan from deep in Ade’s lungs.
“Tell me where.” Sylvie bit her lip, causing another wave of desire to crush Ade’s ribs.
“There.” Ade angled her hips, offering Sylvie all the access she needed to maintain her touch. Her hips jerked with the rise and fall of her need. She leaned back, opening herself up to Sylvie, edging closer to the climax she craved.
Wedged between Ade’s knees, Sylvie looked like she’d abandoned her everyday mask. With every stroke of her nimble fingers, she played another note of desire on Ade’s body until a key change built to a crescendo.
Naked, the pair discovered a nighttime of blissful revelry.
Whether she knew it or not, Sylvie held a whole new and different power in her hands: the power to undo Ade with a single caress, a firm touch, creating a cadence that intensified and waned until it was almost unbearable.
So close to pain yet brimming with pleasure.
Their gaze locked, and Sylvie turned the key on all the feelings Ade had hidden.
Could Sylvie see her for what she was? Complicated to the point of seeming plain and simple?
A melody so perplexing, she was white noise to most people.
Ade bit down on the refrain which hummed from the depths of her core to the edge of her brain.
She screamed out, reaching the heights of a wordless descant as she was understood completely for the first time. Sylvie held her until the wave of her orgasm crashed and grew again. Ade quivered with the release of giving herself to another, of letting go of her trapped thoughts and taut muscles.
Rattled by the vulnerability of it all, she sank down on top of Sylvie in a mess of sweat and sex.
It was almost unbearable to be so undone by someone else, to lose control of her anatomy, for even a few seconds, to be so transparent that Sylvie could judge her every need.
What had happened between them was magical and scary, like she was learning a new language with Sylvie, but she was already fluent.
Ade had learned one thing for certain: she wanted more of it.
Ade breathed deeply and loudly, the echoes of Christmas night ricocheting off the spongy walls of her brain. She couldn’t get a grip on her memories. Everything was a fabulous riptide of blood rushing against her skull and pulling her under, back into the slumber.
She blinked, and the walls of Sylvie’s bedroom embraced her. It was everything she’d imagined: a soft blush color painted on three sides, and the fourth was a flash of gigantic floral print in shades of forest green and fuchsia. Confident yet tender, like Sylvie.
Their first night together had smashed through every one of Ade’s expectations. She touched her lips, sore from their famished embrace, and recalled the taste of Sylvie’s skin on her tongue.
Closing her eyes, Ade breathed in the scent of Sylvie, the drifting notes of lavender and bergamot that drove her crazy. She couldn’t pin it down in their previous encounters, but now, laying in the crumpled sheets of Sylvie’s bed, her signature filled the room. Ade stroked her lower back .
As if sensing Ade’s reignited desire, Sylvie stirred. “Good morning, you.”
Ade couldn’t speak, unable to break into this moment that she wanted to preserve in her memory forever. She buried her head in the curve of Sylvie’s neck and kissed her earlobe.
“Are you okay?” Sylvie asked.
The euphoria of holding Sylvie in her arms was too much. Ade pressed against the weight of Sylvie’s nakedness, drawing their legs together in a tangled heap. “I’m okay.” It was all she could manage.
Sylvie arched her back, and her rumble of laughter vibrated against Ade’s chest. “I can’t believe we bailed on Steph last night.”
Ade grinned. “She figured what was up. She did a whole bit about being so wiped, she needed to go to bed early. She gave me an out.” Ade shook her head, recalling her sister’s acting skills. “I’ll face the consequences later.”
The absurdity of the moment hit them both as they collapsed against each other in a fit of shared giggles.
Of course, Steph had seen all the way through Ade’s list of excuses.
She always could read her like a book. In a way, Sylvie was the same, able to decipher her thoughts before she’d even formulated them in her mind, before she’d wrapped enough vocabulary around them.
“She’s a good sister,” Sylvie said.
“Tell me about it,” Ade said. “All I wanted in that moment was a two-bedroom apartment.”
“Really? How practical of you.” Sylvie tickled her ribs. “And what were your plans with this extended floorplan?”
“I guess I’d have sent Steph to her room,” Ade said.
“Oh, yeah? I’m sure she would’ve loved that.”
“I would’ve loved it.” Ade stroked Sylvie’s cheek. “I would’ve taken you to my room and laid you down on the crumpled sheets that I wished I’d taken the time to steam. I would’ve kissed every part of you that’s been hidden from me by sweaters and jackets for so many weeks.”
Sylvie ran her tongue along her lips, and Ade followed its journey back into her mouth with envy.
Beads of sweat formed at Ade’s underarms as adrenaline pumped through her body.
For a moment, a dizziness threatened to overwhelm her, and she was unable to act on her impulse.
Instead, she detached from her own body and watched a reel play of what she’d like to do to Sylvie.
“I wish you could see what’s inside my head,” Ade said, breathless, even though a little part of her worried that Sylvie might turn away.
But the tiny space between them was blazing with unspent fuel, and Ade breached it, meeting Sylvie’s lips with her own and covering her cheek with a tenderness that she wasn’t sure she was capable of, holding as if she’d never let go.
A greed filled their kiss, and Ade ran her hands through Sylvie’s hair, relishing its silky feel. The moment was as charged as their first kiss, and the beat of desire pulsing between them.
“Hello, again.” Sylvie wrapped her legs around Ade’s thighs and drew her closer.
Ade met Sylvie’s body, and they eased into each other, fitting together as if they’d been making love like this forever. She contemplated the shift in her reality over the past couple of days. She’d acted on her deepest fantasy, and it had come true. What else could come true if she allowed it to?