Page 46 of The Damaged Hearts Bargain

“And am I allowed in it?” asked Cal, quirking an eyebrow.

Lucy swallowed, then nodded, wondering just why exactly she felt like a teenager on her first date. Cal hesitated for a moment, then slipped inside and Lucy followed her, closing the door.

Thin curtains billowed in the breeze, waves hissed on the beach below, faint beams of sunshine leaked around the edges of the windows. And Lucy’s nerve almost failed.

Almost and then Cal turned to her and she saw the faint glimmer of something in her eyes and her stomach turned a somersault and her mouth went dry. Slowly, Cal smiled and then held out a hand.

“Do you want something?” Lucy asked, voice not at all still.

Cal quirked her eyebrow again and Lucy felt herself blush.

“I, er, I meant like a cup of tea or something,” she added.

Cal laughed and shook her head. “I’m all alright for tea, thanks. Unless… do you want something?”

Lucy puffed out a sigh of air, thought about a cup of hot sweet tea, and then thought about Cal lowering her to the bed and decided she definitely knew which she’d rather have.

“It’s alright,” Cal said. “I mean, it’s alright to be nervous, and it’s completely alright if you’ve changed your mind, I can—”

“What? No!” Lucy cried. “I haven’t at all. I, um, I mean…” She took a deep, shuddering breath. “I just mean I really want to and I don’t really know where to start because…” Another breath. “Because I can’t quite believe that I’m allowed to.”

“Allowed to?” Cal asked, stepping in closer.

Lucy rolled her eyes at her own stupidity. “Yeah, I know. It sounds stupid. Allowed to… you know… to touch you.”

She heard Cal’s breath catch in her throat.

“Yeah, I know,” she said. “We don’t have to… Uh, you can leave if you want to…”

Cal’s hand came up and cupped her cheek and Lucy’s gaze was forced downward until she was looking into Cal’s eyes and then, to her horror, Cal started to laugh.

“See? I knew I was being stupid,” Lucy said, tearing herself away.

“No, not at all,” Cal said, catching her hand and pulling her back in. “That’s not why I’m laughing. I’m laughing because I feel exactly the same.”

“Yeah, right.” But she wasn’t pulling away anymore.

“Lucy-Lucy,” Cal said, voice getting huskier and deeper. “There is nothing that I want to do more than lay you down on that bed in the summer heat, strip every scrap of clothing off you, and then worship you for as long as you’ll let me.”

Lucy’s heart beat harder in her chest.

“I want to taste you, to feel you. I want you to move under me. I want to hold you as you shake,” Cal continued, eyes darkening.

Lucy felt everything inside her turn to a molten mess.

Cal came even closer so that Lucy could feel the heat of her even though they were barely touching. “But I can’t believe I’m allowed to do that. Not with someone as… as beautiful as you.”

Lucy wanted to say that she could, wanted to give her total and complete permission, but all that would come out of her mouth was a strange, guttural, primal noise that made no sense at all until she pulled Cal in and crushed her mouth down ontohers.

Cal was stronger than she looked. Lucy felt hands on her waist, then felt herself being picked up even as they still kissed and then she was lying on the softness of the bed and Cal was kneeling over her.

And she just about broke.

The sight of Cal staring down at her adoringly, the thought of the things Cal said she wanted to do to her, it was all too much. She could feel her heartbeat through her center, could feel herself swelling, could feel wetness leaking out of her, and when Cal leaned in to carefully slide the strap of her dress off her shoulder she grabbed her wrist.

Grabbed her wrist with one hand and lifted her skirts with the other and, just so that there could be no mistake about her intentions, placed Cal’s hand exactly where she wanted it to be and gave a hiss of pleasure.

“Patience,” Cal began to say. “We’ve all the time in the world.” But she stopped abruptly and Lucy pressed herself into Cal’s hand.

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