In her core, Lisa could feel it building, the shuddering sensations growing stronger by the second, and when she pulled in her next breath, she held it…and then it happened. The orgasm that claimed her was like nothing she’d ever experienced before, and raking her nails down Bennett’s back, Lisa cried out in unabashed abandon. Continual waves of her climax pushed ever more desire from her center, and Lisa rode each wave of pleasure until the very end with sensual whimpers and moans spilling from her lips again and again.

Hovering over Lisa, the sight of her in the throes of an orgasm was all it took to push Bennett over the edge. Closing her eyes, Bennett clenched her legs around Lisa’s thigh, guttural sounds of pleasure rising in her throat as sweet, molten spasms rose from within.

After the last ripple had faded, Bennett rolled to the side and savored Lisa’s nearness. The room was quiet save for their breathing, and a few minutes passed before Bennett raised herself up on her elbow. Gazing at Lisa, Bennett’s eyes brimmed with tenderness and love. “Are you all right?”

Lisa opened her eyes, the glow of her smile warming the room. “Oh yeah. Never been better. You?”

“Never been better.” Bennett kissed Lisa gently on the lips and then became lost in the woman’s iridescent blue eyes. “I need to tell you something.”

“Okay?”

“I love you,” Bennett said, lightly running her finger down Lisa’s face. “I love your jangly bracelets and those marvelous pencil skirts. I love every perfume you’ve ever worn and every sassy thing you’ve ever said. I love your intelligence and your ideals, your three-inch high heels, and your propensity for breath mints, and I adore how much you love your family. Most of all, though, I love that you somehow found it in your heart to forgive me for my stubbornness, my stupidity, and my lack of faith in you. I should have had faith in you.”

“Why? I didn’t,” Lisa said, shifting onto her side. “If I had, I would have told you years ago how I felt, and I couldn’t because I didn’t know what I would become. Sure, I think I’m a good person, but you probably thought Desiree and Eliza were good people, and look what happened to them.”

“So you lost faith in yourself because of me,” Bennett muttered. “Hardly redeeming on my part.”

“I didn’t lose it, but I wasn’t about to hurt you if things didn’t turn out the way I hoped. And I don’t regret waiting, Bennett. I don’t. I have twelve years of memories with you as a friend, as a boss who was never really a boss, and of a woman who always seemed to make the most out of every day. Twelve years of setting up Raptures and twelve years of joking about penises.”