Page 55 of The Fiancée Farce
“I don’t want you to think I’m asking for more.” Tansy didn’t want Gemma to think she was pressuringher.“My point is...” God, whatwasher point? “I guess I’m just thinking out loud, that’s all.”
“No. It’s good.” Gemma shook her head. “We agreed—same page, remember?”
Tansy nodded.
“Not to parse words here, but I’m not sure I’d call thiscasual.” The corners of Gemma’s mouth rose. “Hard to get more serious than holy matrimony.”
She chuckled. “True.”
“And as for this being a business merger, I think we also agreed to be friends. Right?”
She wasn’t sure where Gemma was going with this. “We did.”
Gemma’s tongue darted out, wetting her bottom lip, leaving it slick and shiny and hard for Tansy to tear her eyes from. “No pressure, but we could add a few benefits to our friendship... if you want?”
Gemma had lobbed the ball into Tansy’s court, leaving the decision up to her.
Friends with benefits—no,fiancéeswith benefits. Benefits that went beyond the six million dollars already agreed upon. Honestly? Adding sex to their arrangement sounded like it had thepotential to be an unmitigated disaster. But what part of thisdidn’tcarry with it the potential of disaster?
Maybe she’d regret it, but she wanted Gemma to touch her so badly that she told the anxious little voice in the back of her head to shut up.
Fisting her fingers in the silk tulle of Gemma’s bodice, Tansy dragged her closer, smashing their mouths together in a clumsy collision of lips. Gemma swiftly course corrected, giggling against Tansy’s mouth as she tilted her head, thumb stroking the dip at the base of Tansy’s throat, where her pulse thudded away. She dragged her teeth against the swell of Tansy’s bottom lip, nipping gently, soothing the sting with a sweep of her tongue, and Tansy couldswearshe felt a phantom flicker between her thighs.
She had never been more grateful to have a bookshelf at her back in her life. Her knees were going weak, bones melting as Gemma’s hand inched the satin of Tansy’s dress higher until her fingers slipped beneath the hem.
Tansy shivered, her head falling back, cushioned by the books behind her. The air inside the library was a cool contrast to the fevered flush of her bare skin, Gemma’s lips searing as she left a trail of open-mouthed kisses along Tansy’s jaw, her hand skimming up Tansy’s inner thigh.
Gemma’s fingers flirted with the crease where Tansy’s leg met her hip, so close to where Tansy wanted them, but staying just out of reach, skirting beneath the lace band of her underwear before sliding away, then repeating the whole maddening pattern all over again.
Bobby pins pinged softly against the hardwood floor as Gemma buried her hand in Tansy’s updo, but she couldn’t have cared less about the hair that tumbled loose around her shoulders, not when Gemma’s teeth scraped gently against the fragile skin coveringTansy’s collarbone as her fingers found Tansy’s clit. Tansy’s toes curled and her breath stuttered. “Gemma.”
“Fuck,” Gemma muttered, panting softly against Tansy’s throat. “’s even better than I imagined.”
Trying to string her muzzy thoughts together was an exercise in futility. “What is?”
Gemma lifted her head and stared into Tansy’s eyes, her lids low and her smile wicked. “The way you said my name.” She did something then that put even her smile to shame, fingers sliding down Tansy’s slit, sinking inside her and crooking forward. Tansy gasped, her hands scrambling, one reaching back to grip the shelf, the other clutching at Gemma’s hip. Gemma dropped her forehead to Tansy’s. “I like it.”
The heel of Gemma’s hand ground against Tansy’s clit, making her thighs tremble and her knees quiver. Her face burned at the slick sounds coming from between her legs.
“Are you close, Tansy?” Gemma whispered. “Are you going to come for me?”
A whimper escaped from the back of her throat. She’d never come this fast in her life. She felt dizzy, delirious with the desire to take a flying leap over the edge and let Gemma catch her when she fell, trusting that she would.
Her stomach tensed, muscles fluttering, toes curling in her heels as she crept closer to the edge, stretching, reaching, almost—
“Gemma? Are you in here?”
Tansy buried her flushed face in the crook of Gemma’s neck, biting back a whimper when Gemma’s fingers suddenly stopped moving, ruining what she could only imagine was about to be the best orgasm of her life.
“Oh.” Lucy stood just inside the doorway of the library, jaw slack as she stared, arms hanging loosely at her sides.
Mortified didn’t begin to cover how Tansy felt—dress hiked up around her hips, Gemma’s hand buried between her thighs, pressed up against a shelf, her lips swollen, her hair a mess, bobby pins scattered around her feet. The picture of debauched.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to—to interrupt. Intrude. I’ll just...” Lucy hiked a thumb over her shoulder, gesturing to the door. “Go.”
If it had been Tansy, she’d have averted her eyes and made a quick exit, probably smashing into a door and bruising the bejesus out of herself in her haste to make a speedy getaway, as embarrassed at walking in on someone as she was at being caught.
Lucy stood frozen, eyes growing glassy as Gemma slipped her hand from Tansy’s underwear, damp fingers trailing against her skin. Tansy’s cheeks burned hotter.
