“Don’t cry,” Neera urged her. “Unless they’re happy tears.”
“I don’t know what kind of tears they would be.”
“Then let me help you figure it out.”
Neera leaned forward and slanted her mouth over Scarlet’s. She ran her tongue along Scarlet’s lower lip, tasting her and groaning in pure joy as she did. The sensations that swirled through Scarlet made her gasp. Neera tasted divine. She was sweeter than the honey or fruit she smelled like.
What they were doing might still feel wicked and taboo, but Scarlet couldn’t help herself. She had to respond to that kiss, the most sensual kiss she’d ever received in her life.
Neera’s hands plunged into Scarlet’s hair and tugged her closer. Her tongue plundered her mouth, stroking hers like a hot brand. Scarlet found that her limbs were like water again, and she went willingly, plunging into the churning, dark waters that were Neera because they offered peace and solace under that turbid surface.
When Neera finally pulled away, there was a question in her eyes. One that Scarlet couldn’t deny her. Nothing could have prepared her for the force of that kiss. For the way it undid her and tilted her reality. For the way it opened her eyes and prepared her for what was yet to come because there was so much more to come. She shivered as she leaned into Neera’s warmth, searching for it after she pulled away.
Could she accept that maybe, at the present time, as adults, they were made for each other?
Neera leaned in again, but this time, instead of claiming Scarlet’s lips, she placed feather light kisses along her cheek, trailing them to her neck, then lower, then to the shell of her ear. She brought their foreheads together after and they sat like that, on the floor of Scarlet’s office, forehead to forehead until Scarlet couldn’t take it anymore.
She swept her hand to Neera’s hair, dug her fingers into the dark waves, tilted her face back, and claimed her mouth, kissing her in the way she’d always longed to kiss the right person. The person who unlocked everything she was straight down to her soul, to her deepest, tangled desires.
Chapter 9
Neera
It wasn’t enough. It was never going to be enough.
Kissing Scarlet was like coming home. It was like walking through the door of a place you’d been searching for your entire life, never finding it no matter where you strayed, and suddenly realizing that you were already there.
There was a sense of peace and ease and rightness so profound that Neera’s whole body was revitalized, every nerve ending awakened. Then there was the pleasure. The overwhelming sensations that she never wanted to stop, even if they threatened to tear her apart because they were so vibrant, so right, so consuming.
Scarlet kissed her in a brand-new way than she had before. She kissed her like she now had the right to kiss her. Like she was shucking the careful restraints that had tied her up for her whole life and now she was free. She kissed with abandon, for the absolute joy of it. She kissed with purposeful intent, and Neera had no doubt that she was what Scarlet wanted.
Scarlet’s hands swept through Neera’s hair, tilting her face back just enough that she could claim and plunder Neera’s mouth. She whimpered against Scarlet’s lips, the only sound she was able to make. She t
ook her time like she was now free to do so, like Neera’s fight for her had given her the permission she needed to grant herself. She kissed her like the office was their domain and they had every right to be there, to take that moment for themselves, to claim it for each other.
After years and years of yearning, Scarlet was finally hers and she could be Scarlet’s.
Scarlet’s hands didn’t stop at Neera’s hair. They roamed down Neera’s blouse, pulling at the buttons, freeing them so that she could cup one breast above Neera’s bra. She’d worn a white lace one, and the blouse was thick enough fabric that it was professional for her interview.
Scarlet moaned like that lace was something special, even though it was more plain and industrial than anything. She tugged the cup of the bra down, and then it was Neera who was moaning as Scarlet’s fingers found her nipple, hard and aching for her touch, and circled it until she was nearly half mad with the shivers and white-hot pleasure that rippled through her.
She kissed her breathless as she circled her nipple. All Neera could do was keep her hands tangled in Scarlet’s hair and hold her to her while she surrendered to the white-hot need spreading through her body.
Scarlet tore her lips away and Neera panted. She bent her head and claimed Neera’s nipple, suckling at the bud until Neera was arching her chest into her mouth, biting down on her bottom lip hard enough to draw blood to keep a scream from bursting forth.
When Scarlet lifted her head, it was because she wanted to taste Neera everywhere. She opened the buttons of her blouse, one by one, and trailed kisses over her belly. Her lips were scalding, her tongue even hotter when she tasted Neera’s skin.
Neera mewled and fell back, dragging Scarlet down with her to the floor. The carpet in the office was industrial and hard, but she didn’t care if she ended up with the worst rug burns in history. She was doing this, and she was doing it here.
“I love the taste of you,” Scarlet groaned in a voice that barely sounded like hers, it was so thick with desire.
Neera’s hands fumbled with her skirt, pulling it up above her knees, then above her thighs, then higher. She didn’t care how inelegant or wanton she looked. She spread her legs, revealing her black lace thong. “Taste me everywhere, Scarlet. I need you.”
Neera thought that Scarlet would protest or that she might be pushing too hard and that she’d stop altogether. Instead, she took charge, her hands hooking under Neera’s legs to push them gently just a little further apart. She leaned in, her hair tickling the sensitive skin at Neera’s thighs. She was trembling, her lungs pumping like billows as she struggled to catch her breath. She shivered against the floor, her hips arching up.
“Are you sure?” Scarlet asked, hesitating just slightly in her forward motion.
“Scarlet, God, yes…” Neera wrapped her fingers in Scarlet’s hair all over again, tugging her to her. The sound of her name on her tongue did something to her.