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Sullivan let them into the house dripping mud.

“We wrecked your cab,” Sullivan said apologetically.

“Trucks are meant to get muddy.” Kia dropped her jacket in a pile in the foyer. “Haven’t you seen the commercials?”

“No one drives a truck that nice through mud, do they?”

Kia wasn’t thinking about the truck. Sullivan could have exploded paintballs in the cab, and she wouldn’t have cared.

What she cared about was what came next.

In the museum, when Sullivan said, We’re consenting adults and we’re married , Kia was ready to say yes.

A hundred times yes. Kia didn’t know how to make a move now. Luckily she didn’t have to.

“Do you want to shower upstairs or downstairs?” Sullivan asked.

“Which one do you want?”

“I want the one you’re in.”

“Yes,” Kia said.

Sullivan held out her hand.

“Downstairs?”

Kia nodded.

“Watch out for the Turkish rugs,” Kia said as Sullivan led her down the hallway.

“I don’t know if they’re Turkish. I got them from Wayfair.”

“You said they were Turkish.” Kia tiptoed around the edge of the runner.

“Because I didn’t want you stepping on them.”

That night felt like a long time ago.

“You can step on my Turkish rugs now. I don’t mind.”

They were going to take their clothes off. Kia was going to shower with Alice Sullivan. She wished she could catapult herself back in time for a minute, grab the hands of her twenty-year-old self, and jump up and down with her. We’re going to do it!

“We don’t have to do anything you don’t want to,” Sullivan said.

“Chef Sullivan, I’ve wanted to see you naked since the day I met you.”

“At the grange?”

“At school.”

“In Introductory Pureeing Techniques?”

“Yes. In Introductory Pureeing Techniques.”

“I must be quite something. That class was fascinating.” Sullivan turned on the shower.

“Only because you were in it. Now take off your clothes already, Chef Sullivan.”

Slowly, Sullivan stripped off the layers of her clothing.

Kia watched her. Sullivan’s body was everything.

Muscular legs. Full breasts. Her abs defined enough to say, I hike up and down mountains on purpose , her belly soft enough to say, Just because I cook organic doesn’t mean I live on microgreens .

“Help me out of this bra?” Sullivan asked.

Kia laughed as the bra stuck around Sullivan’s ribs.

“I’m not good at this.”

“No one is good at wet sports bra.”

Kia pulled her shirt over her own head and turned her back so Sullivan could unclasp her lace bra.

“Some of us are not that complicated.” Kia tossed a smile over her shoulder.

Sullivan unclasped Kia’s bra. The shiver that ran through Kia’s body had nothing to do with the cold.

She felt Sullivan’s eyes caress her as she undressed down to her underwear, then whisked it off before she lost her nerve, even though Sullivan had seen her naked in the living room posing with the Janice Domingos.

She stepped toward Sullivan and let her fingertips glide down Sullivan’s side.

The way Sullivan shivered made Kia feel more confident.

Sullivan had said she loved sex. She loved being in her body.

Kia might not be experienced, but Sullivan still wanted to be touched.

Kia drew Sullivan under the water. Mud streamed off them both.

“Turn around,” she said.

Sullivan turned around, and Kia ran a bar of soap over Sullivan’s neck and shoulders, down her back.

Sullivan let out a soft moan of appreciation.

It was exhilarating. Kia was touching Sullivan.

Sullivan liked it. After all these years, a fantasy Kia had never shared with anyone—why would she when it was so impossible it was embarrassing? —was coming true.

She ran her hands over Sullivan’s tattoos.

“What do they mean?”

Sullivan glanced at her arms as though she’d forgotten she had tattoos.

“This one… um…”

Sullivan’s eyelids were heavy. She was blissed out by Kia’s touch. Alice Sullivan had lost her words because Kia was touching her, holding her hand in one of her own and running the fingertips of her other hand up and down Sullivan’s arm.

“That one is a pagoda near where I worked in Japan. Stylized. You can see the rooftops in the triangular lines.”

Tattoos wrapped all the way around her arms, almost to her armpit. On the right, the designs covered her shoulder too. Sullivan turned her arm so Kia could see the delicate skin on her inner upper arm.

“Showoff,” Kia murmured.

“Why?”

“This must have hurt like hell.”

Sullivan chuckled. “I had to show up the guys I cooked with. Look here.” Interlaced with the geometric patterns on Sullivan’s inner arm was a date. Kia recognized the year. She wasn’t sure about the day.

“This is…?”

“The date we graduated.”

“Did you get it because that’s the date we graduated or because that’s the day we first kissed?” Kia liked the confidence in her own voice, and she’d be okay with Sullivan saying, The date we graduated . That was the correct answer.

“I thought it was the day we graduated.” Sullivan cupped Kia’s face. “Now I think it might be the day we first kissed.”

Sullivan leaned in and kissed Kia softly.

When Kia responded, Sullivan pressed against Kia, their thighs touching.

Now it was Kia who gasped in pleasure. They kissed for a long time.

(Sullivan had to be entranced, since she was definitely wasting water.) Kia’s body relaxed.

Her legs melted. She was one with Sullivan and the water and the world.

This must be what Sullivan meant when she talked about being in her body. It was wonderful.

“Is there anything you do or don’t want to do?” Sullivan asked, pressing a kiss to Kia’s temple. “We don’t have to go any further than you want.”

“All I want—” Kia took Sullivan’s face in her hands and kissed her fast but deep. “Is to learn how to be point six percent better than you at sex.”

“I think I’ll enjoy teaching you, and I don’t mind coming in second again.”

Upstairs in Sullivan’s room, Sullivan turned on the baseboard heater. They both shivered.

“Usually, I’d go a little slower, but do you want to get under the covers now?” Sullivan asked.

Kia was already diving under the covers. “Why are sheets always cold?”

Sullivan climbed in next to her, and they wrapped their arms around each other, luxuriating in the heat of their bodies. They kissed, their bodies pressed together. When the room warmed up, Sullivan pushed the covers down.

Sullivan kissed with her whole body. She swirled around Kia until it felt like every part of Sullivan’s body touched every part of Kia’s.

Kia could feel Sullivan’s desire mounting.

Sullivan’s breath grew faster, her touch was gentle, but Kia could feel her straining to move slowly.

And she was so wonderful. Kia wanted to pull away and say, Do you know how perfect you are?

She wanted to give Sullivan everything Sullivan wanted, everything she needed.

It was perfect until Kia realized that every time she thought about kissing Sullivan’s neck or stroking her thigh, Sullivan was kissing Kia’s neck or stroking Kia’s thigh.

She felt like a commis chef right out of culinary school working alongside a master.

Then the lawsuit flashed into her mind like a spam call.

She was getting sued. Sullivan was saving her ass.

Now Sullivan was doing everything in bed.

If Kia didn’t do something sexy, Sullivan would lose interest.

Sullivan stopped kissing her and lay beside her.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m sorry,” Kia said.

“What for?”

“I really want this.”

“But…?” Sullivan asked, cupping Kia’s face so Kia had to look at her.

“I’m…” Kia couldn’t tell Sullivan that her heart, soul, and body wanted to be in the moment, but her mind had decided that, right now, it needed to remember the difference between material issue and issue of purported fact .

“Is it hard to relax?” Sullivan asked.

“It’s not that I don’t want this. I totally want this.”

“But you’re human, and it’s hard to stay in the moment when you’ve got the whole world banging on your door?”

How did Sullivan sum up Kia’s chaotic emotions in one sentence?

“I got you,” Sullivan said. “Can I rub your back?”

The offer was too delicious to resist. Kia promised herself that next time—please, let there be a next time—she would do everything for Sullivan.

But right now Sullivan straddled Kia and began massaging her back, slowly, as though she was trying to tell Kia she could rest under Sullivan’s touch for as long as she needed.

After a few minutes, Kia’s mind relaxed.

Desire surged through her. Suddenly Sullivan’s weight on her ass was a sensual tease.

She pressed up against her. Sullivan groaned.

Kia thought she could feel Sullivan’s wetness.

“Do you want to know what I do when you’re not in the house?” Sullivan whispered.

“Besides planting microgreens in every window?” The teasing comment came out as a sensuous sigh.

“Yes. I want to tell you about my microgreens.” Sullivan rocked her hips, pressing into Kia’s ass. “I want—” Sullivan moaned.

Kia lifted her hips to press against Sullivan.

“That feels good,” Sullivan groaned. She rocked back and forth, her movements growing more frantic.

“Yes. God, yes!” Then Sullivan stopped, slid off Kia, and lay panting next to her.

Kia could feel Sullivan’s need in the way Sullivan’s hips still undulated as she lay next to Kia.

It turned Kia on more than she’d ever been turned on.

“You don’t have to stop,” Kia said.

“Right now is about you. Ready for my secret?” Sullivan whispered into Kia’s lips.

“I want all your secrets.”

Sullivan crawled over Kia.

“Excuse me, miss,” she said amiably.