Uncommon Romance (4 page)

“Oh yeah, I’m sure.”

June curled back up in Ash’s embrace again. She nodded against her chest as she listened to her heart beat. Relief and excitement flooded her system. Thank God she wouldn’t have to fight her body when Kat was around anymore.

June stared at the coffee machine and willed it to brew faster. Yes, the single-cup machine was brilliantly quick and produced a fabulous-tasting cup of coffee, but it wasn’t instantaneous. Ash had kept her up far too late last night, but her boss didn’t care about how late she was up the night before, only that she made it to work on time and prepared to function. For that she needed coffee. Lots of it. This would be her first cup of many today.

“Hey, baby.” Ash hugged her from behind.

“Hey.” June turned and gave her a kiss. “What are you doing up?”

Ash rubbed sleep from her eyes. She wore a faded T-shirt that hadn’t fit since middle school and a lacy pair of panties that June had picked up during her last trip to the mall. It was a pretty good way to say good morning.

“I wanted to talk before you left for work.” Ash reached around June and pulled the cup of coffee from the Keurig. She smiled and took a drink. June got down another mug and a new canister for the machine. She would never be so tired that she couldn’t share the first cup of coffee with Ashlyn.

“What about?” She pushed the button to start the next cup. Ash held the first cup up to her mouth and June took a careful sip. She wasn’t awake enough to trust her lips to catch all the liquid while Ash was in control of the cup, and she didn’t have enough time to change before work if she spilled on herself. Not to mention she needed to stop past the dry cleaners. She only had one work-appropriate shirt left.

“Your not-so-secret admirer, Kat.”

“What about her?” For some reason, she felt dirtier talking about Kat over coffee than she did when Ash was pushing her fingers inside her.

“I thought we should discuss her when we’re not filled with crazy sex hormones.”

June palmed Ash’s bare thigh, then slid her hand up until it rested on her waist. She slipped her fingers beneath the bottom edge of Ash’s T-shirt and ran her thumb over the slope of Ash’s breast. “Speak for yourself.” She was pretty much filled with crazy sex hormones any time Ash even looked in her direction. She didn’t require much encouragement from her wife.

Ash pecked her on the lips, then stepped out of reach. “I’m serious.”

The second cup of coffee finished, so June took it to the table and sat. She pushed the other chair out and invited Ash to join her.

She waited for Ash to sit before she asked, “What about Kat?”

“I really do think you should invite her over.” Ash said the words easily, like the concept of sharing June in their own home was something they did all the time. Yes, they’d played with other people, but never at home.

“Why here? We could go to a hotel or something.”

“We could.” Ash agreed. “But this is simpler. And I don’t have the same hang-ups I used to.”

“What do you mean?”

“In the past it was important to me that we keep our home…ours. We were still new to each other. There were some things I didn’t want to share.

“And now you do?”

Ash laughed. “No, I still don’t want to share those parts of you. But now I know very clearly what I want for myself, and it has nothing to do with our house.” She slid closer to June and placed her palm flat against her chest. “Everything I want is right here. That’s mine, no matter what.”

June kissed her impulsively. When Ash said overwhelmingly sweet, romantic things like that, June had no choice but to show her how happy the sentiment made her. Normally, she liked to show her for hours and in several different positions. Right now, however, she needed to leave for work very soon.

“You say the nicest things.”

“How do you feel about bringing someone else into our home?”

June thought about that. She’d been so worried about Ash’s reaction she’d never really thought of how it would affect her. “I don’t know.”

“No?”

“Can I have some time to think about it?”

Ash raised her eyebrow and smirked. “You need to think about it some more?”

June laughed. She’d dedicated a lot of time, too much, really, to thinking about what they would all
do
together, but hadn’t thought at all about how she would
feel
about it afterward. Ash obviously had spent some time on both. “I don’t need to think about
that
.” June flushed with heat, then stammered, “Not that I won’t think about it. Obviously I will. I meant I need to think about the emotional impact. I don’t want to do anything that will cause problems for us. You’re more important to me than anything else. I don’t want to fuck us up.”

“Well, as far as I’m concerned, it won’t. You could bring a hundred other women home to me, and it wouldn’t change anything. I know you love me. And I know that if I asked you to be with me and only me, you would. But I don’t need that. I just need your love. That’s all I’ll ever need. And I already have it.”

“I know. I just…” If she brought Kat home, that meant she’d know what she looked like when she came. And she’d be in their bed, the bed she shared with Ash, when it happened. She wasn’t sure that was a memory she wanted to have popping up randomly. When she went to bed with Ash at night, she didn’t want the vision of Kat joining them on a regular basis.

“What are you worried about?”

“Are you sure the thought of another woman in our bed won’t bother you? Like the actual memory of it.”

Ash paused for a moment, a thoughtful look on her face. “No, I don’t think it will. Like I said, I know what it means and what it doesn’t mean.”

June nodded. “Okay. You’ve obviously thought about this a lot more than I have. I need to think about it some more.” She hated that her brain was so clogged with desire for Kat that she hadn’t even considered the emotional side effects. It’d never been an issue in the past, but this was different. Not to mention that connection she shared at work. Kat had a great deal of influence over her career. She wasn’t sure she wanted to add sex to that relationship. Kat clearly did, and June’s body was definitely interested. But that didn’t mean her brain shouldn’t put the kibosh on the whole thing.

“Take as long as you want. I’m in no hurry.”

June sipped her coffee and stared at the wall over Ash’s shoulder. The thought of sharing Kat with Ash, of experiencing Kat with Ash there to guide her through the experience, was exciting to June, but what if Kat only wanted June? Alone. Blood pounded in her ears. The thought was a little too much to contemplate at six forty-five in the morning. She had to ask. “What if she doesn’t want to?”

“Doesn’t want to…what?” Ash wrinkled her nose. It was early and she’d gotten even less sleep than June.

“You know…come here…with us…” June was handling this poorly. There had to be a better way to say what she needed to say, but she couldn’t think of it.

“She’s clearly interested.”

“In me. Yes.”

“Oh.” Ash spoke softly and held herself very still. “But she knows you’re married.”

June nodded vigorously. “Yes. Absolutely.”

“Are you asking if you can fuck her without me?”

June swallowed hard. The words sounded much worse out loud than the idea did in her head. She nodded, the movement much tighter than before.

“Is that what you want?”

Once again June was forced to consider the differing desires within her. “My body does. But the thought of hurting you makes my heart ache. And my brain…”

“Your brain checks out of the conversation when the hot woman presses herself against you.”

“Pretty much, yeah.”

“Go with your heart, June, because I’m pretty sure that would hurt me.”

“Yeah?” June felt a strange relief. She no longer had to think about the rules of engagement with Kat. Ash, as always, gave her a clear path to follow.

“I think so.”

“Okay.” She exhaled in what felt like the first time since the conversation started. “Okay, that’s good. Good. I’m not okay if you want to sleep with someone else either.”

“You can manage that with this woman?” Ash stared hard at June, her mouth curved into a small half-smile.

“Definitely. No problem at all. I promise.”

Ash sat back in the chair, the tension gone from her for the moment. “So, when do you plan to see Kat again? When’s the next meeting?”

“God, I have no idea. I’m not even sure I’ll be included.”

“But you think you’ll see her again?”

“I don’t think she’ll let me off without it.” After June had fled her office and left Kat hanging there, she was absolutely certain Kat would seek her out again. Probably to tell her off.

“Okay, call me if you decide to invite her home with you.” Ash stood and pulled June up with her and led her to the front door. “Now, don’t you need to get to work?”

June grabbed her bag, kissed Ash good-bye, and headed to work with her thoughts clearer than they had been since she’d met Katerina VanderVort.

*

“Are you coming to the meeting later?” Robert stuck his head into June’s office, his body positioned in a way that said he wasn’t staying but had merely dropped in to ask the question.

“Yeah, at two, right?” June held up the contracts. She’d been reviewing them for the past hour. Sometimes, the lawyers of the group drowned otherwise simple negotiations in overly complex language. She’d contemplated law school but ultimately decided on finance. Times like this she was thankful for that decision. “I’ll be there.”

“I heard she’s already in the building. Wonder if they’re going to move it up.”

“Who?” June didn’t understand why they were having the meeting in the first place. Typically contracts were signed and sent via courier. They didn’t have meetings with everyone in full attendance. It was weird.

“Ms. VanderVort.”

Kat was already here? June’s heart rate spiked. She’d gone two weeks without seeing her. She’d prepared herself for the group meeting that was scheduled for later that afternoon, but knowing she was in the building three hours early was not an eventuality she’d considered. “What? Why?”

“I have no idea. I—” Robert stepped back. “I gotta go.”

Kat walked into her office and closed the door. “Just the person I wanted to see.” She sat in the chair opposite June.

June closed the file on her desk. “Ms. VanderVort, how can I help you today?”

Kat raised an eyebrow. “Ms. Vandervort? Where did that come from?”

“Since you’re not sitting in my lap, I can only conclude you’re here for official business.”

“Do you want me in your lap?” Kat moved to stand.

“No.” June spoke hastily, bordering on a shout. “At least not right now.”

Kat settled into her seat. “That implies you will at some point in the future.”

“I think we should talk about it.”

“What’s to talk about? I find you very sexy. I know that attraction is mutual, and I’d really like to do something about it.”

“And I’d really like to not get a divorce.”

“Ah, yes, the good wife at home minding the hearth.”

June laughed. The thought of Ash as a housewife was too shocking to be anything more than farce. “You know nothing about her.”

“No.”

“Do you want to?”

“Would it make you more inclined to say yes?” Kat leaned forward, sharp, keen interest on her face.

“Do you always do this?” June wasn’t a prude. She and Ash were adventurous with their sex lives, but she’d never encountered someone like Kat. She was blatant with her desire and open to the point of vulgar when talking about it. Yet she was pointedly matter of fact, like she didn’t know the passionate side of sex. June knew that to be untrue. Every encounter she’d had with her had been overwhelmingly, if inappropriately, sensual.

“Do what?”

“Approach sex like a contract negotiation.”

“Are we negotiating? I’d resigned myself to your continued resistance. What changed?”

Ash had changed, but June wasn’t ready to share that just yet.

“Nothing has for certain. Before we get to that, let’s talk about my career. I like it. I don’t like how much influence you wield over my ability to continue it.”

“Is that what this is about? You’re afraid I’ll have you fired?” Kat held up two fingers in the Boy Scout salute. “I promise not to interfere with the trajectory of your employment, here or with any other firm. Who I fuck, or not, does not inform my business decisions, Ms. Phillips.”

“Okay.” June smiled. She had no reason to believe Kat, but the other woman hadn’t lied to her about anything else. She didn’t see why she would now.

“Okay? Does that mean I should move to your lap now?” Kat scooted to the edge of her seat but didn’t stand.

June’s phone rang at that exact moment and she exhaled fully. Facing Kat without Ash beside her was overwhelming. She wanted her to a degree that made it unsafe for them to be alone together. Being with Ash
and
Kat at the same time would be even more overwhelming, she was certain, but then she wouldn’t have to censor her desire.

She wanted, very much, to tell Kat that, yes, in fact, she did want her to move to her lap. And that she’d prefer for her to remove her clothing first. Instead she held up her hand and said, “Hold that thought.”

And then she answered the phone.

“Tell me what you’re wearing.” It wasn’t a request. It was a command, given with such casual authority, it took a moment for June to register what Ash said. Then it took another moment for her body to spring into action. She scrambled to grab the receiver, almost disconnecting the call completely as she silently cursed her habitual use of speakerphone while at the office. When she picked it up, the speaker disengaged.

She cradled the phone to her ear and turned slightly toward the window. “Uh, Ash, now is not the best time.” She tried to keep her voice low, but it sort of squeaked its way out. Ash had never made a call like this before, let alone to June while she was at work. It was like she’d been sucked into a surreal vortex with her wife and her would-be lover tormenting her from all sides.

Ash’s voice was melted butter and syrup. “Really? I think it’s the perfect time.” June could hear the challenge in Ash’s tone. It was fair, she supposed, given how many times she’d brought her office into their bedroom recently. Ash was entitled on some level to reverse that.

Kat cleared her throat and June turned in her chair to face the other woman. She raised one eyebrow and almost smirked at June. She’d heard enough to be interested in the outcome of the phone call. Without a word, she rose and crossed to the office door. She twisted the lock, then went back to her seat.

As June watched Kat, her temperature spiked and her heart pounded into her throat. This was her office, and the situation was damn close to being out of control.

“Can I call you back?” June wanted to tell Ash what she was wearing. She pictured Ash sprawled naked over their bed with her phone to her ear, a teasing, seductive smile on her face. Or maybe she was in her workshop, her hand already easing into the gap between her side and her oversized overalls that she wore while working.

“You could,” Ash said, “but I’m unbuttoning the top button now, and I’d hate to finish without you.” She spoke slowly and deliberately, dropping each word with precision into June’s imagination. June let the offer settle and marinate for a moment, then thought of the sizzle yet to come.

She stared at Kat. She’d started to finger the top button of her blouse, synchronous with Ash’s announcement.

“I’m with a client.” That was the understatement of the year. She was with a client who’d repeatedly asserted her attraction to June and her desire to act upon that attraction. A client who had guest-starred in her sex life with Ash several times over the past few weeks. A client who wielded a tremendous amount of power over her future career. They were all balanced together on a dangerous precipice, tipping over the point of no return.

And still, she wanted to tell Ash exactly what she was wearing.

“Who is it?” Ash asked, her interest rich and apparent. “Is it Kat?”

June stared at Kat as she opened the first button on her shirt. She nodded. “Yes.” It sounded much more like a plea than she would have liked.

Kat’s smile was slow and seductive. “I think you should take the call.” She traced the exposed line of her throat with her fingers.

Sweet Jesus! June’s vision swam with the implication.

Ash spoke again, her voice grounding June in the moment. “Tell me what
she’s wearing.”

June didn’t think about the consequences before she spoke. “A cream-colored suit with navy flats and a matching bag.”

Kat raised both eyebrows, a first in June’s presence, and her smile grew.

“Cream?” Ash purred. “What kind of fabric?”

June stumbled. Ash’s job, since their first months of dating, had always been to dress her. She picked out June’s suits, all of her clothes. She paired her outfits before they went out for the night. She said June couldn’t be trusted to pick out her own. According to Ash, she would end up with some horrid off-the-rack number with shoulder pads and a stitched-in belt.

“June, what kind of fabric?” Ash asked a second time.

Ash was pushing her to talk to Kat, to invite her into their game. Her tongue swelled to three times its normal size and her mouth filled with sand. “I don’t know.”

Kat stretched, slow and careful, every movement an orchestrated seduction. It worked. June felt completely, overwhelming, seduced by both women. All she could do is watch as Kat extended her body over the desk and hit the speakerphone button. She took the receiver from June and dropped it back into the cradle.

June forgot how to breathe.

Ash pushed forward, determined to carry this on. “Ask her.”

“Ask me what?” Kat’s voice was lower than it had been a few moments ago, more intimate.

Ash’s breath caught, then she said, “Ask her, June.”

June’s heart pounded against the back of her throat and she swallowed hard. Her eyes were locked on Kat’s. They were smoky brown, the kind that were sexy no matter the situation. In that moment, they were smoldering.

“What kind…” June cleared her throat to rid it of the rough, squeaky edges. “What kind of fabric is it?” And with one little sentence, June felt her career go up in smoke and wasn’t sure she cared.

Kat relaxed back into her chair. Her elbows sat on the armrests, but her hands met in the middle, fingers laced together. She crossed her right leg over her left and openly studied June. For all her active pursuit, Kat paused inexplicably when Ash switched the light to green.

She didn’t think Kat was going to answer and wasn’t sure how far Ash would push it. She dug her fingers into the padded curve of her armrests and waited. The straining whiteness of her knuckles stood out in stark relief against her tanning-bed-cultivated skin.

Ash coughed. Not a real cough, but one of those polite “answer my question” coughs. And it worked.

Kat glanced at the phone, then back to June. She’d heard that the eyes were the window to the soul, but hers appeared to be a window to her clit because Kat’s gaze went straight through her and landed square in the middle of her cunt with a heavy thud.

“Raw silk,” Kat eventually answered, placing a guttural inflection on the word
raw
, and it tore through June to bounce on her clit a few more times.

Ash’s breath hitched and then started up again, a little faster than before. “Is it soft?” Victory filled her voice. Not only was June on the hook, but Kat nibbled at the bait as well.

It took a minute for Ash’s question to register. June felt like she was in a vacuum where she could hear the words, but they refused to translate into meaning in her head. It reminded her of the one time in college when Ash had convinced her she’d like the feeling of getting stoned. They’d shared a joint, with June taking two or three puffs at the most. She’d lost all track of her limbs, couldn’t follow the conversation around her, yet knew it was all hysterically funny. The next time Ash asked June to join her, June declined. It wasn’t a feeling she particularly enjoyed, yet in this context the haze was infused with sex, and she couldn’t clear her head long enough to decide if she liked it this way or not.

She heard Ash’s voice, demanding and familiar, but stared at Kat. It was a disconcerting combination.

“June?” Ash sounded impatient. June didn’t blame her. Their respective roles in the scene had been cast, and she was taking far too long to fill hers.

“Hmmm?” She couldn’t focus on Ash’s question long enough to answer it, but it didn’t matter. Ash was a clotheshorse. She knew exactly what the fabric felt like. What she really wanted was for June to touch it and tell her how
that
felt. And June was going to do it, just as soon as she regained control of her motor functions.

Kat rose from her chair and rounded the desk, her movement fluid and graceful. She spun June’s chair until they were face to face and then placed her hands next to June’s on the armrests. Kat’s lips parted slightly and her tongue slipped out to lick along the edge. The red of her lipstick shone even brighter as she bent her head close to June’s. She pressed her lips to June’s ear and said, “I think she wants you to touch it.” She drew the words out, low and sexy, just loud enough for the speakerphone to pick up the intention in her voice, if not the words themselves.

Kat wore a tailored cotton button-down. Only it wasn’t the traditional style where the buttons go all the way to the top. Rather, they stopped three-quarters of the way and gave June a great view of her cleavage. The top button was open, revealing even more. It had an oversized collar and French cuffs with actual studs through the buttonholes. And all June could think about was how much better it would look off than on.

The front fell open as Kat leaned down, giving her a perfect view of the tops of her breasts. She couldn’t move. All she could do was stare down Kat’s shirt at the black-lace bra. And the expanse of exposed flesh. She wanted to trace the line where skin transitioned to lace.

Her hands almost touched Kat’s, with just the slightest space between them on the armrest. She slid them carefully away, knowing that if their skin touched, she’d never stop. For now, she needed to let Ash dictate the pace of her actions.

She lifted her hands and curled them around the edges of Kat’s jacket lapel. It wasn’t soft, but it wasn’t rough either.

Kat pulled back after a moment and looked into June’s eyes. “Well?”

In order for Ash to know what was happening, June needed to speak. She swallowed, just to make sure her throat would respond to a basic command. “Not really.”

Ash’s voice rushed out of the phone. “Where are you touching her?” This wasn’t a question June ever expected to hear Ash ask, but could tell she was excited to ask it.

She slid her hands up to Kat’s shoulders, then down her arms. “Her jacket…the lapels.”

Kat lifted her hands off the chair but remained bent close to June. She took June’s hands in hers and asked, “Do you want to know what my shirt feels like?”

Kat stared into June’s eyes as she said the words, but she had no doubt the question was intended for Ash. She was desperate to touch the shirt, and the flesh beneath, but she waited for Ash to respond. Her fingers twitched with anticipation and she hoped the answer would be yes.

She didn’t hesitate. “Definitely. And June…” Ash paused and her voice dropped to that intimate level she used whenever they were all alone and the lights were off. For June the sound was as tactile as the caress that came in the moment between Ash saying “You’re beautiful” and the next when she pressed her tongue to June’s clit. “Describe it for me.”

Reality swirled and dipped, then slammed into clear focus when Kat placed June’s hands flat against her abdomen. June spread her fingers and curled them around the curve of Kat’s waist. In contrast to the fabric of her jacket, the cotton of her shirt was soft beneath June’s touch. The muscles underneath weren’t.

“Ashlyn?” June’s voice wasn’t as strong as normal. She was on serious sensory overload and was amazed to find that it worked at all. “It’s white, with tiny pearl buttons down the front. The one at the top is already open.” She tried to think of everything Ash might want to know about it. “And it’s soft.”

She traced a winding pattern with her thumbs and Kat caught her breath hard and straightened. She looked down at June with hazy, lust-filled eyes, and June wanted to go a lot faster than Ash dictated.

“Where are your hands now?”

Before she could answer, Kat stepped in. “They’re on my waist, just above the swell of my hips—” Her breath caught as June squeezed gently, asserting her position. Then Kat continued. “I want her to touch me…my skin.” She hesitated slightly. “Is that okay?” The question had a waver at the end, caught between a whisper and a whimper.

June knew Kat was unaccustomed to asking. She was the kind of woman who simply reached out and took. They stared at each other, scarcely breathing, as they waited for Ash’s answer.

“Yes.”

One word and June received a key she’d been silently pleading for. She closed her eyes and tried to focus her breathing. It was erratic and her head swam. She watched silently as Kat opened the buttons on her shirt. She wanted to help, but Ash hadn’t said she could do that, so she licked her lips and stared fixatedly until finally, it hung open.

“June, what are you doing?”

June shifted her gaze to the phone and spotted her cell lying next to it on the desk. She picked it up and activated an iChat session with Ash. When her wife’s picture filled the screen, she pushed the disconnect button on her office phone.

“Hi.” June smiled, small and secret. She forgot all about Kat, who was well on her way to naked, when she saw her wife.

Ash’s hair was down and mussed, the telltale swipe of paint covered her cheek, and June could see the studio in the background. She’d been working when she stopped to call. Her eyes were dark and hooded.

“Hey.” Ash returned her smile, the one that said it would be the two of them forever. Seeing it, seeing Ash, made June feel so much better about what they were doing. It would all be okay if she could just look at her wife for a moment. “You didn’t answer my question.”

“Oh.” June turned the screen until it focused on Kat’s bared front, the black lace of her bra, the generous swell of her breasts, down to the hard lines of her abdomen. “She unbuttoned her shirt.”

“Have you touched her?” The image on the phone only showed Ash’s face. June closed her eyes and imagined the rest, Ash with her own shirt open, no bra, her fingers squeezing first one nipple, then the other. June wanted to hear that little gasp Ash gave every time she would suck one between her teeth.

“No, not yet.”

“Do it.”

She opened her eyes and looked up at Kat, who toyed with her belt, a sexy, inviting smile on her face. When June didn’t move, Kat released her belt and took June’s phone and rested it on the desk where Ash could still see, then took June’s hands in her own. Once again, she placed them on her waist, this time against bare skin rather than with the barrier of thin fabric between them. Her body tensed beneath June’s hands, the muscles twitching and flexing. She was soft and smooth and perfect.

June pushed her chair back and stood. Her hands gravitated lower until they rested on Kat’s hips. They were the same height, Kat and June, and June’s new position brought her kissing close to Kat. It wasn’t a new situation for them. Kat had crowded in close to her more than once, but for the first time, June wasn’t fighting the urge.