Too Close to Touch (28 page)

“Oh, God, sweetie. Come here.” Kylie pulled Gretchen down on top of her and, meeting no resistance, wrapped her arms around the shaking shoulders. “I’m so sorry. I was worried that this was a bad idea.

I should have known…”

“No,” Gretchen managed to croak out. “No. It wasn’t.” She sniffed, then pushed herself up far enough to make out Kylie’s face, seeing the worry there. “I…” She gazed around the dark room looking for a clear thought to grab a hold of. “I don’t know how to put this into words…”

Kylie reached out and lovingly tucked Gretchen’s wild hair behind her ear. “Just talk to me,” she said softly. “Tell me what you’re feeling.”

Gretchen’s eyes found Kylie’s and locked onto them and she swore she could feel energy and courage pouring into her. “I buried my father less than twenty-four hours ago, but…I’ve never felt so…
complete
in my whole life like I do here with you tonight.”

This time, Kylie was the one Þ lled with emotion. Her eyes welled and one tear spilled over as she swallowed audibly. “Oh, Gretchen,”

she whispered and pulled her close, wrapping her up and holding her as tightly as possible.

Gretchen burrowed into Kylie’s neck and inhaled the sweet smell of her. She pulled the sheet up over their entwined bodies. She never wanted to leave this spot. Ever.

v

Sunlight streamed through the open windows, forcing Kylie to either turn her head in the other direction or have her eyes lanced by the cheerful but irritating rays of brightness. She didn’t open them right

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away, instead listening and feeling in order to reacquaint herself with her surroundings.

She was lying on her stomach, the light sheet covering her backside and one leg, but other than that, she was completely naked and exposed.

A Cheshire cat grin spread itself slowly across her face as she gradually recalled the activities of the previous night, the pleasant soreness in her thighs reassuring her that it was no dream. When her brain replayed for her Gretchen’s emotional breakdown, she realized she was alone in the bed. Only then did she open her eyes.

The sound of water running registered in her ears and she barely had to move her head at all to see into the small adjoining bathroom.

Gretchen’s back was to her and she was still clad in the small white tank top and striped drawstring pants. She was bent over the sink washing her face, and the sight of the cotton stretched over her petite but shapely ass sent a shot of desire through Kylie that surprised her with its intensity.

She got up immediately and padded naked across the ß oor to the bathroom. When Gretchen stood up straight, water dripping from her face, Kylie was right behind her. Gretchen gasped in surprise, then relaxed and smiled in the mirror at the reß ection of the gorgeous woman at her back.

“Good morning,” she said, her low voice quiet in the stillness of the room.

“Good morning to you, you beautiful creature.” Kylie’s arms encircled Gretchen from behind and she hugged her tightly and studied her still-wet face in the mirror. She planted a soft kiss on the exposed part of Gretchen’s shoulder. “How do you feel?”

Gretchen nodded. “I’m doing okay. How ’bout you?”

“My legs are sore.”

Gretchen pressed her lips together in a feeble attempt to suppress a grin. “Really? Huh.”

Kylie tightened her grip, rubbing her cheek against Gretchen’s hair, marveling over the feel of the compact body in her arms, its muscles surprisingly tight. “And I realized something.”

“What’s that?” Gretchen was effectively trapped between the edge of the sink and Kylie’s body, giving her a combined sense of unease and arousal. Kylie’s lips skirted along the ridges of her ear and sent goose bumps across her arms.

“I realized that I barely got a chance to touch you last night.” It was scarcely a whisper, but erotic chills shot down Gretchen’s spine.

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Kylie slipped a hand under Gretchen’s tank top and moved upward, capturing one small breast and kneading it Þ rmly. Within seconds, the tight nipple was pushing into her palm.

“Oh.” It was the only word Gretchen could manage to form coherently.

She was shocked by how quickly her body was responding to Kylie. It wasn’t that she was usually slow to arousal, it was that this time, it was virtually immediate. She gripped the edges of the small vanity with both wet hands as Kylie’s lips traveled along the side of her neck, lapping up the trickles of water before fastening onto the juncture of her neck and shoulder. She bit down Þ rmly.

Gretchen gasped. “God…”

“I know you like to be the one in control, Gretchen, but every so often, you’re going to have to give that over to me.” Kylie’s tone was conspiratorial, as if she was letting Gretchen in on a little secret.

Gretchen was astonished to Þ nd herself completely at the mercy of the woman behind her, the same woman she had unrelentingly dominated the night before.

Kylie’s Þ ngers pulled at the drawstring of Gretchen’s pants.

“Understand?”

Gretchen nodded quickly, a groan escaping her lungs as Kylie’s hand slipped into her pants and dipped down into the slickness that signaled just how much she understood.

Kylie whimpered as her Þ ngers sank into the warmth. “Oh, my God,” she whispered with awe in her voice. Gretchen was already soaked. “Do I do this to you?”

“You have no idea.”

Kylie worked both hands at once, kneading Gretchen’s breast and rolling her nipple at the same time and in the same rhythm she used to stroke the liquid silk between Gretchen’s legs. Gretchen dropped her head back onto Kylie’s shoulder, her eyes drifting shut at the sensations that were washing over her.

Kylie’s tongue explored the whorls and folds of Gretchen’s ear, dipping in and around, sucking the soft lobe into her mouth. She was completely absorbed by the feel of this woman in her arms. Gretchen’s body was small, smaller than most would expect given her large personality and her penchant for controlling things. But everything was taut…her belly, her arms, her rear end.

Kylie had always thought Gretchen had a dancer’s body, but

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actually feeling the dichotomy of the strong, sinewy muscle covered with soft, velvety skin was more amazing than she’d even imagined.

She suddenly felt like she couldn’t get enough. Gretchen was breathing heavily against her, her hips rocking subtly with the rhythm of Kylie’s Þ ngers between her legs. Kylie picked up the pace, watching Gretchen’s face in the mirror.

“Gretchen,” she whispered into the ear next to her lips. “Gretchen.

Look at me.” She kept her rhythm steady as Gretchen opened her eyes and blinked, her entire body moving with Kylie. Their eyes locked in the mirror and Gretchen reached up and grasped the back of Kylie’s neck. They stayed that way for several long, blissful minutes, their eyes boring into one another as Kylie’s Þ ngers moved deftly, lovingly, speeding up and then slowing down depending upon Gretchen’s facial expressions.

“Kylie,” Gretchen croaked at last, not sure how much more teasing she could take. “Please.” She caught her bottom lip between her teeth and tightened her grip on Kylie’s neck. “Please?”

Kylie smiled tenderly at Gretchen’s reß ection, allowing the image to burn itself into her brain. “Okay,” she whispered into Gretchen’s ear as she applied heavier, steady pressure. “Come on, love.”

Kylie’s adjusted touch, combined with the intensity of their stare and the sound of Kylie’s voice in her ear, Þ nally pushed Gretchen off the precipice on which she’d been perched. She ground her teeth together, a low growl erupting from her chest as she pushed her head back into Kylie’s shoulder and squeezed her eyes shut.

Kylie suppressed a wince as Gretchen’s Þ ngernails dug into her neck as well as the forearm that snaked up Gretchen’s shirt. As Gretchen’s body began to relax, Kylie tightened her grip to keep her from sliding to the ß oor.

“Good Lord,” Gretchen said, her voice an exhausted sigh. “That…

you…I don’t think I can stand up anymore.”

Kylie chuckled. “Then let’s get back into bed, shall we?”

Gretchen followed obediently and when they reached the edge of the mattress, Kylie turned to her, grasping the tank top and tugging it gently over Gretchen’s head. “I want to feel your skin against me, not your pajamas.”

Gretchen stepped out of her pants and crawled under the sheets with Kylie, opening her arms so Kylie could settle her head on Gretchen’s

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shoulder. A few more limb adjustments and they were completely wrapped up in one another.

Kylie sighed in contentment. “Oh, this is nice.”

Gretchen tightened her grip, reveling in the unfamiliar feeling of satisfaction. “Yes, it is.”
I never have to move again.

They were quiet for a long while, the hypnotic sound of their breathing the only noise in the room. Just when Gretchen began to think Kylie had fallen back to sleep, she spoke.

“Gretchen?”

“Hmm?”

“What will you do now?”

Gretchen took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I think I’m going to stay here for a while longer. I have to go through my father’s papers with J.J. There are issues with the house. You know. Things like that.”

Kylie nodded against her, surprised but silently pleased that Gretchen wasn’t immediately running back to the ofÞ ce. “I think that’s a good idea. Work can wait. You have more important things to deal with.” She paused, then added, “I wish I could stay here and help you.”

Gretchen placed a soft kiss on Kylie’s forehead. “So do I. But it’s not a good idea for both of us to be gone from the ofÞ ce at the same time. The Þ eld reps will panic.” She felt Kylie’s throaty laugh vibrate through her body.

“That’s an understatement. God forbid I’m not at Jason Bergman’s beck and call. He’s liable to have a nervous breakdown.”

Gretchen smiled and they burrowed closer to one another, reluctant to allow any space between their bodies. Kylie suppressed a frown, her mind awash in the events of the past twenty-four hours. There was so much she wanted to say to Gretchen, so much she wanted to ask.
What
was last night? Was it a one-time thing or is there something more here
for you like there is for me? If I leave you here, when will you be back?

And when you are, what will I be to you?

But fear of the answers kept her lips fused closed and her voice box achingly silent. After several long minutes, she realized that Gretchen had fallen back to sleep. She swallowed her anxiety and tightened her arm around Gretchen’s midsection, determined to enjoy and remember every second of this closeness that she could…just in case.

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CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Kylie was feeling too many emotions at once and she found that fact to be both exhausting and annoying. It was Wednesday and she’d discovered, much to her dismay, that it was nearly as difÞ cult to
not
call somebody as it was to work up the nerve
to
call them.

What was worse was that all she wanted to do about her situation with Gretchen was to talk it over with her best friend. But Mick had been avoiding her like the plague and Kylie had no idea how to Þ x the mess she’d helped create.

On one hand, she completely understood Mick’s evasion.
I’d do
the same thing in her shoes.
Thinking back on that night, Kylie shook her head in self-disgust. At the same time, she was angry at Mick, too.

Am I a mind reader? How was I supposed to know how she felt? In
twenty years, she never said a word!

This internal discussion had gone on endlessly. Combined with her Herculean efforts to not call Gretchen twenty-seven times a day, her forced reassurance of the sales reps who called to offer Gretchen their condolences, and her attempts to keep her mind at least somewhat focused on her job, Kylie felt like she was going insane.
Two of the
most important people in my life and I can’t Þ gure out a way to talk to
either one of them.

Her departure from Poughkeepsie on Sunday had been hard.

She’d had to continually remind herself not to cling to Gretchen like lint as she hugged her good-bye. She’d wanted promises; she’d wanted professions of love. She’d gotten neither and she’d made neither and it was more frustrating than she’d imagined it could be.

She’d spoken to Gretchen on Sunday night, dutifully as requested,

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to let her know she’d made the drive safely and arrived home in one piece, but it was late and they were both tired, so the call had been brief. They’d also talked on Monday evening. It, too, had been a short conversation, as Gretchen was emotionally drained from her trip down memory lane going through her father’s things and not in a terribly conversational mood. Understandably so. Kylie had wished her a good night and hung up, trying not to let her disappointment overwhelm her.

On Tuesday afternoon, Gretchen had called the ofÞ ce to make sure everything Emerson-related was running smoothly. It was, Kylie reported. She told Gretchen not to worry, that everything was well under control and to take whatever time she needed. Gretchen had thanked her and ended the call. By Wednesday morning, Kylie was ready to take the bridge.

Later that day, when Kylie returned from grabbing a quick sandwich, there was one message from Gretchen. Kylie was annoyed that she’d called during the lunch hour.
The best chance of avoiding me,
she thought bitterly. Still, she played it six times just to hear Gretchen’s voice.

“Hi, Kylie, it’s me. Just checking in, making sure no crises have
developed.”
There was a long, uncomfortable pause. “
Look…I’m really
sorry. I’m not in a very good place right now and I…I need to think
about…I have to…Christ, I don’t even know what I’m saying. Just…just
give me a call if something comes up that needs my attention.”