I grinned, nestling my nose between her shoulder blades, the curves of her back, as the dress slid off her hips, as I got to work on her bra. She released a heavy, happy sigh when I worked it off her shoulders, mumbling “goddamn devil underwires” as it fell to the floor. I slid to my knees, lips skating down her spine until they reached her underwear, all the while trying to breathe her in, take the heat of her skin into my own, squeeze this moment for all it was worth.

Because, as she had reminded me back at Moonie’s, this was a hookup.

Which...was one of those words I had always found to be a little nebulous, honestly.

Maybe I could have asked Lily for more details about what she meant, but I felt, instinctually, from the way she had said it, that I wouldn’t like the answer. That I already knew it. That the tiny voice of reason in my head was dancing on some squishy piece of gray matter somewhere, shouting, Told you so.

And that if I had asked, it might have ruined whatever happened next. And now that we had gotten to that next part—I loved the shake of Lily’s hips as she helped me wiggle her underwear down her legs—I was so very glad to be here.

Even though every fiber of my being felt like this was the farthest thing from a hookup I could imagine.

I smoothed my hands over those hips, down those wonderful thighs, intent on blocking the word hookup from my brain and focusing on the moment. Which I did by planting an open mouthed kiss over Lily’s left butt cheek, pressing my tongue into the dimples.

“Sam,” she said after a minute, her voice raspy, “Come on. I want to see you.”

Fair enough. But I gave her butt a good bite, for good measure, smiling at her hiss before I stood back up and twirled her around. She smacked my shoulder, eyes full of fire.

“You are...ugh.” And then she was kissing me, hard and ruthless, her hands yanking at the waistband of my jeans. “Just—fucking—get them off,” she said into my lips, and I was pretty sure her voice was all hoarse like that mostly because of karaoke, but there was also lust in there, for me, which was completely illogical but I’d take it.

The lust dropped away a bit, though, a second later, when she leapt away from me and screamed.

I had my pants halfway down my legs and almost fell straight on my face.

“Oh my god,” Lily wheezed, “It’s just,” wheeze, “a fucking cat. Sorry.” Her hand was still clutching at her chest. “It,” wheeze, “startled me.”

I looked down. And watched Garfunkel lovingly twining his way in and out of Lily’s legs, purring against her ankles.