Page 28 of Vying Girls

I huff out a laugh. ‘I’ll crush you.’

‘What a way to go.’

With a sigh, I shuffle between her legs. I have to lie pretty much all the way down to accommodate. I peek at her over my shoulder.

‘Can you breathe?’

Squeezing me, she kisses the side of my head. ‘Perfectly. This is nice. We should switch it up more often.’

‘Not opposed to a strapping by you.’

Tilda laughs. ‘God, can you imagine? I mean, if you really wanted me to, I’d do it.’

‘Nah, you’re good. Not my thing.’

She feeds me like I’m some Egyptian queen, even dangling grape sprigs over my mouth and laughing when I rip them off with my teeth, stalk and all.

There are worse places to be than wrapped up in Tilda. Her sweet cherry scent. The way she keeps hugging me, littering me with tiny kisses like she just can’t help herself. I understand the compulsion. Just want to fucking squeeze her sometimes. Affectionately, obviously. In a way she’d like.

‘Elly?’ she says quietly.

‘Yeah?’

‘I’m really glad to be here with you.’

I find her leg and squeeze it. ‘Me too, babe. You have no idea.’

‘No.Youdon’t.’ I feel her chest rise and fall in a sigh. ‘I want so much to be good enough for you.’

I crane my head, taking in her pensive face. ‘Babe. You are. You’re perfect.’

She shakes her head with a smile. ‘Not like you. You make me want to be a better person every day. The best person I can be. I dunno. There’s something I’m trying to say here but I’m not sure what.’

‘That noggin of yours overthinking again.’

‘Always.’ She leans down to kiss my lips. ‘Just want to let you know how much you mean to me. And not just in a romantic way. In every way. You’re the best person I know.’

‘What about Haz?’

Tilda frowns, a discombobulated little thing that makes me grin.‘Stillthe best person I know, by miles.’

I chuckle. ‘Yeah, suppose morally we can’t be compared.’

‘She good in her own ways. Loyal. Hot. Great kisser.’

‘You mean all that slobbering?’

‘Hey!’ She backhands me on the arm. ‘How would you know anyway? Something to tell me?’

‘God, no.’ I suppress a shudder at the thought.

‘But the two of you share, right? See each other naked?’

‘Literally one time. And we don’tlook.We’re just both…there.’

‘And you’d share with me?’ she asks quietly.

‘Yeah.’ I lean my head on her shoulder, the darkening skies a suitable projector screen for the visual of that. It makes my heart thump, skin growing warm. ‘I’d share you with her. If you ever wanted that.’