“Again,” Cassie said. She let go of Erin and pushed the products on the end of the tub to the side. It was flat there, not quite wide enough to be called a bench, but wide enough for her to sit down on anyway. “Rinse your hair out and get over here.”
Erin complied, rinsing the shampoo out of her hair before moving to stand in front of Cassie. Her knees remembered their time on the floor, and they were not acquiescing to the idea that she straddle the other woman, as much as she wanted to. Cassie pulled her closer by her hips, leaned in and kissed the exact part of her stomach Erin had been self-conscious about.
“We’re wasting water,” Erin said rather than think too hard.
Cassie smirked. “Then come quickly, and we’ll stop.”
Erin’s chuckle broke off when Cassie slid her fingers inside her once more.
“When are we gonna do this in a bed?”
Before Erin could respond—
“Oh, fuck.”
Cassie’s tongue was against her clit and Erin had no idea how she was supposed to do this standing up. There was no chance her legs were going to hold her.
Cassie’s mouth was exactly as wickedly confident as it always was. Erin was embarrassed at how quickly she’d come for Cassie earlier, but this was going to be faster still, that tongue relentless on her clit and those fingers with their own steady pace inside her. Erin couldn’t even tell what Cassie was doing the entire time; she just knew she never wanted her to stop.
Cassie took her mouth off Erin eventually, pressing a kiss to her thigh. “C’mon, sweetheart,” she murmured. “We’re wasting water.”
“Fuck you.” Erin laughed, mostly breathless. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d laughed with someone while having sex.
“Nope.” Cassie pumped her fingers harder. “I’m fucking you.”
She put her mouth back on Erin’s center and Erin couldn’t do anything but throw her head back and come.
It took a minute to remember how to exist, think, breathe. They did at least manage to get out of the shower before the water went cold.
As they toweled off, Erin tried to keep her mind from spiraling.
She dug her toes into the blue shag of the rug she’d bought Parker. She’d slept with one of her daughter’s best friends in the bathroom they shared. Before Adam moved out, the three of them had shared. The only other time Erin had been on her knees in the tub was cleaning it.
She didn’t regret this, though. She should’ve, but she didn’t. Her entire body was loose and relaxed. How was she supposed to regret that?
“I get it if you don’t want to do that again,” Cassie said. “But I think we should.”
Okay. Well. Clearly they were going to have to do that again. Yes, it was irresponsible and wrong and everything Erin had already worried about, but she was not going to say no to sex that good.
“How are we ever going to do it in a bed if we don’t do it again?”
Cassie grinned.
“But we need to lay out some ground rules,” Erin said.
That was the way to handle this.
Cassie smirked. “Like I promise not to fall in love with you?”
Erin didn’t acknowledge the comment. “Like no sex while Parker is in the house.”
“Reasonable.”
She started towel drying her hair. “No hickeys.”
“What if they’re somewhere no one can see?”
Her cheeks heated, and she hid them, bending to flip her hair forward and scrub it with the towel. “Okay.”
When Erin finished with her hair, Cassie was standing behind her, close enough to touch. In the mirror, Erin could see her own blush extend all the way to the towel wrapped around her. Cassie held on to Erin’s hips and kissed her neck.
“Are those all the rules?”
Erin tilted her head to give Cassie more access.
“One more,” she said before she got too distracted by Cassie’s mouth. “This ends when your visit ends.”
Cassie nuzzled under Erin’s ear. “I already promised not to fall in love with you, sweetheart,” she murmured. “Now can we get on to the leaving-hickeys-where-no-one-can-see part?”
Eleven
CASSIE
The next morning Cassie brushed her teeth before going downstairs. Erin met her in the kitchen with a cup of coffee and a soft smile.
Cassie kissed her gently before taking the coffee.
The kitchen seemed like its own world. Snow fell so lightly outside the window it looked like it was in slow motion. The coffee mug was warm in Cassie’s hand, but Erin’s smile made her warmer, spreading through her body like molasses, slow and thick and sweet. It felt like they were breaking rules just by looking at each other, like they were getting away with something.
Cassie set her coffee on the counter so she could get her hands on Erin’s face. Erin opened her mouth for Cassie when she kissed her, clutched at Cassie’s shoulders.
“We agreed not when Parker is home,” she whispered when they pulled apart.
“We agreed no sex when Parker is home,” Cassie said, nosing at Erin’s chin and kissing below her jaw. “We said nothing about making out in the kitchen while she’s asleep upstairs.”
Fifteen minutes went by before Erin protested again. She slipped out of Cassie’s arms and ran the back of her hand over her kiss-swollen lips.
“You’re trouble,” she said.
Cassie gave her best innocent face. Erin leaned toward her, just slightly, before shaking her head and reaching for her coffee. She took a sip and grimaced.
Cassie laughed. “Gone cold?”
Erin pretended she didn’t think it was funny, but Cassie could see a smile as she dumped both their cups down the sink and poured them fresh coffee.
Once Parker was up and she and Cassie were fed, they got ready to go sledding. Cassie ended up in an old pair of Erin’s snow pants and a hat with a ball of fluff on top.
“You look ridiculous,” Erin said, biting at her bottom lip like she was trying to hold back laughter.
“They’re your snow pants, Mom,” Parker said. “So it’s your fault she looks like this.”
“Excuse the both of you,” Cassie said. She pulled a pose. “I look great.”
“Keep telling yourself that, babe,” Parker said.
Cassie jutted one hip out and put her hand on it, pouting her lips. “Maybe winter isn’t so terrible if I get to look this good.”
Erin failed at holding back her laughter, then, and Cassie couldn’t keep a straight face.
Sledding included Caleb and Lila, plus some kids Cassie hadn’t met—Scout and Haylee and Madison.
“Ever get sick of hanging out with a bunch of girls?” Cassie asked Caleb.
“Not really, no,” he said. “And Madison’s genderqueer.”
“Sorry, Madison,” Cassie said.
“I literally couldn’t give a fuck,” Madison said.
Cassie grinned. She really liked Parker’s friends.
It only took two runs for the hill to look insurmountable. Cassie sat on her sled at the bottom for a while, throwing snowballs at the others whenever they were within range. Madison retaliated after she pelted them in the side of the head, and Cassie took a snowball to the chest.
“Wanna stop being a dick and help me build a jump?” Madison asked.
They both climbed halfway up the hill then used their sleds as shovels in the snow. The jump ended up way too high to be safe, but that stopped exactly no one.