“Uh-huh.” Jules hid her face against the side of Vivian’s neck, nuzzling there and tasting the salt, glad that the couch was so enormous.

Vivian said nothing, but she slid one hand up and down Jules’s thigh. They rested there together in mutual stunned silence for a moment as they both struggled to get their breath back.

“You okay?” Jules asked when that moment had passed.

“Mm.” Vivian took one more deep breath and let it go.

“That was, um,” Jules said, “that was pretty good?”

It wasn’t really a question. If two people could make each other come without once venturing down below, then, yeah, it had been pretty good.

“Yes.” Vivian still sounded breathless.

Jules rubbed her hip, and Vivian shivered. “Please tell me we can do that again.” She half expected Vivian to say something smart-assed or maybe not even reply at all.

Instead, she just said faintly, “Okay.” And she stroked Jules’s silk-clad thigh.

Jules decided instantly that, when time allowed, she was having this jumpsuit preserved and put in a display box.

In the meantime, though, Vivian appeared to be returning to herself, and Jules’s joy was starting to make her feel a little silly, to say nothing of smug.

“‘We don’t have to have sex,’” she said prissily into Vivian’s ear.

“Oh, shut up.”

“Let’s be all platonic and chaste.’”

“You respected that suggestion for an entire day, didn’t you?”

“Nowhere near that long.” Jules laughed, feeling downright giddy.

“Again with the snickering.”

“Oh, come on. It wasn’t that bad.” Understatement of the year. “I know I feel better, anyway.” She caressed Vivian’s side, enjoying the way it made Vivian shiver again. “Don’t you feel better?”

Vivian had been the one begging for a little relief after all, which she’d apparently gotten in spades.

“Yes.” She rubbed her nose against Jules’s ear, then paused. “Actually, I’m starving.”

Jules laughed again. “Worked up an appetite, huh?”

“Are you going to start giggling every time we do this?”

Every time. That thought wasn’t going make Jules stop smiling, that was for sure. Still grinning, she sat up. “Maybe. You want me to bring you something from the kitchen?”

Then a thought occurred to her, and she froze. “Or should I just go home?”

Having her way with Vivian on the couch was one thing, but making herself at home without an invitation was something else entirely, even now.

Vivian regarded her much too thoughtfully for someone who’d been a whimpering mess just a few moments ago, just long enough for Jules to squirm and be sure she’d misread the situation completely.

But then Vivian said, “Ellen put grilled chicken salad in the fridge. Let’s eat.”

Jules beamed.

Chapter 48

Chapter 48