When Beca's alarm goes off, it's so loud she falls out of bed from the shock of it.
She manages to smack her elbow on the nightstand in the process and hisses as her arm goes numb. "Shit," she whispers to herself as she sits up to feel for her phone above her head to silence the chorus of Rita Ora's "Poison" blasting in her hotel room.
She's disoriented with the sudden rude awakening and she can't find her phone to silence the ear-splittingly loud music. So she hauls herself up and spots it sitting on the dresser next to the TV. She rushes over and stops it with a sigh of relief as she leans back against the dresser and closes her eyes.
"Good morning."
She jumps hard enough to smack her other elbow against the dresser and instinctively slaps her hands and arms over her naked body to hide from the intruder and crouches, not knowing how else to hide in her panic.
There's a giggle and she hears, "Hey, it's me."
Her pounding heart stops for a second, then takes off again as she tracks the source of the voice to her bed.
A sleepy Chloe is sitting up in it, hair a total mess and, with the bedding bunched at her waist, naked.
She blinks, still crouching at the foot of the bed peering over it at her friend and roommate who...yeah, she definitely had sex with last night.
"Didn't mean to scare you," Chloe says with a smile, one that has her eyes twinkling with amusement. "Come back to bed." She retrieves the covers from where Beca had taken them with her when she fell out in utter fear and pats the sheet as she lays back down.
It takes her a few seconds to process what's happening (happened) but she eventually gets moving. She crawls up onto the bed and tries not to be embarrassed about her state of undress because she knows that's moot now, but she must fail at masking it in her rush to get under the covers and hover at the edge of the bed, unsure what to do.
There's a teasing hum in her ear and she's jumping again, ready to flee on impulse when an arm wraps around her waist to pull her backward.
Much of her brain is still asleep, and the part that is awake is still coming down from hyperdrive panic mode as it stutters to fuller conscious and she feels it spinning, replaying the more specific details as to why her phone was across the room, why it was still connected to the Bluetooth speakers, why she woke up naked…
...why Chloe has her naked body held against her own naked body.
And then her brain wakes up al the way, lucid and clear, and the night rushes back to her.
Amy's cocktails and Legacy being goaded into daring her to give Chloe a fucking lap dance.
Standing at Cynthia-Rose's computer trying to decide if she should be dumb and pick "Who Let the Dogs Out?" or indulge her fantasy a little and pull up a sexy song and see how Chloe reacts to Beca getting a little sexy with her.
She'd definitely been curious about it, about the possibilities, for a while. A long while. A several years kind of while.
The cocktails helped grease the wheel of decision, but tapping that play button on penultimate lady jam crooner The Weeknd it wasn't as difficult as she thought it should be.
Just like it wasn't as difficult as she thought it might be giving Chloe a lap dance and tuning out everyone else in the room. Just like it felt pretty natural to tease Chloe with her body and watch her react with a type of hunger Beca had never seen from her before but had definitely fantasized about.
She forgot they weren't alone and in her haze of self-inflicted arousal almost ending up in her lap kissing her. The moment was interrupted and she rushed off, ashamed of her actions and loss of control once reality snapped back into focus.
The reality was that she'd given one of her best friends a lap dance with every intention of fully seducing her. She got so turned on doing it that she escaped to the bathroom to lock herself in it while the girls hooted and hollered over Legacy making out with the room service waiter while Beca shoved her hand down the front of her pants and touched herself until she was clutching the counter, trying not to collapse or make a sound as she made herself come in Chloe's bathroom, staring at a tube of her lipstick left by the sink and thinking about how that color would look smeared on her own neck.
She bails on the party after that. It was enough of a battle to say goodnight to the girls, all of them demanding a hug goodnight like they were little kids, after letting them watch her behavior toward Chloe.
Chloe is the only one who doesn't demand a hug goodnight; instead, she stares at her from the couch and doesn't bother to say goodnight.
And Chloe never failed to say goodnight to her.
In her own hotel room and alone, she falls face-first onto her bed with a groan. Instinctively, her hips roll into it, the relief in the bathroom doing little to ease the arousal pounding through her system.
She has to distract herself, or at least make an attempt, so she hooks up her phone to the room's Bluetooth surround sound system (which is awesome to have in a hotel room), pulls up one of her "Chill Vibes" playlists full of instrumental-only tracks, and forces herself into the bathroom to brush her teeth and wash her face. She strips out of her clothes, kills the lights, and cuddles up with herself in bed.
She stares at the ceiling for a solid 45 minutes thinking about the way Chloe looked at her before grabbing her phone to pop open her texts.
"You're probably busy w/ Bella, but if you happen to be free, hit me back."
She taps her fingernails on the hard plastic of her iPhone's case and is relieved when the three little dots show up to indicate Stacie is replying.
"Hey, B. Isn't it the middle of the night there? You're in France, right?"
"Like…2:30 am. Hotel party. You know how it is. And yes."
"Ooh, I miss a good Bellas party. Never know what's gonna happen!"
"You can say that again. :\"
"That feels like a loaded response. DID something happen? Is that why you're texting me at 2:30 am?"
"Truth or dare."
"Dare."
"No, we PLAYED truth or dare."
"I know. ;) Well? What happened? Don't keep me in suspense."
She rubs a hand over her face and sighs.
"Legacy dared me to give a lap dance…"
"To Chloe."
"To Chloe.
Good guess."
"Literally nothing could have been more predictable than that. You bust out the sexy moves? I bet you were all over that. Literally speaking. Not figuratively."
"…I don't really know what happened?
It's like I blacked out or something? And the way she was looking at me…"
"Whoa, girl. Don't get me revved up. I gotta give The Hunter a break for a few weeks."
"Stacie!"
"What? It's true.
Keep going. What happened?"
"NOTHING happened. But I just…I seriously almost lost it. I just wanted…I wanted her SO fucking badly."
Her entire body flushes with heat and embarrassment at the confession.
"Only took you seven years to admit to that soberly. Or you aren't sober right now, are you? You're not, because of the party."
"Shut up.
I'm not NOT sober.
But I'm not that drunk."
"Okay, so you gave her a sexy lap dance (what I wouldn't give to see that btw – one of those bitches better have recorded it) and you wanted to jump her bones. And you know she wants to jump YOUR bones. Why aren't you jumping each other's bones right now?"
"She doesn't want to jump my bones."
"OMG, you are so dense. Chloe has wanted into your skinny jeans for as long as she's known you. If you want her, go get her."
"You're nuts."
"At least I'm not dumb like some of us."
A knock at her door makes her look up sharply.
There's literally no way...
She considers waiting it out, pretending to be asleep, but she looks at Stacie's last couple messages again and it's enough motivation to get her out of bed to pull her pants back on. She zips up her hoodie while she walks to the door and stretches up on her tiptoes to check the peephole, even though she knows who it is.
She sees a flash of red hair, as though she's turned to leave so Beca's quick to unchain her door and open it and she sees Chloe jump and turn back in surprise.
She doesn't open the door all the way; something about that feels disarming for whatever this moment is going to be. She kind of hugs the door and tries to look like she's been asleep. "Everything okay?"
The moments after that come back to her in a blur of stops and starts.
Chloe sitting on her bed.
Chloe telling her she was, "so, so sexy."
Chloe telling her that she turned her on.
Chloe telling her she came to Beca because she's turned on.
Chloe suggesting Beca could do something about it if she wanted to.
Her serious consideration of the matter while watching Chloe lean back on her bed with an anxious kind of confidence; she'd never seen Chloe that kind of anxious before.
Her decision to act on whatever was sparked back in Chloe's room and pressing play on a sex playlist she'd made a year ago for no real reason other just to have one should the need for one arise.
Chloe staring at her from her bed in shorts and a very braless tank top asking to be satiated seemed like a pretty sound reason for it.
So she pressed play on a song about riding a woman all night that ironically declared that it "ain't truth or dare" after the way the night had begun and watched the heat roll over Chloe's face and right into her own body, Chloe giving her the tiniest nod telling her it was what she wanted.
That's all it had taken. One nod and one really sexy song and Beca slid into Chloe's lap like she'd done it a dozen times with a level of confidence that came out of nowhere.
The memory makes her shiver and she feels the warmth of lips against her shoulder. Then higher, and higher still until they're on her neck and she shivers again and they're on her ear.
"I'm still thinking about it," Chloe whispers before tugging on the edge of her ear with her teeth. "Are you?"
She can't stop the whimper that escapes her lips at the pull and she feels Chloe's arm tighten around her. The way Chloe made her feel last night keeps clawing its way to the surface and roars to life when Chloe's hand wanders over her hip to her thigh to give it a tug.
A request for her to turn over.
To part her legs for her.
Her body moves willingly and she's on her back with Chloe grinning down at her before she's even thought to move.
"Let's skip breakfast with the girls." Chloe's hand moves up to pet Beca's bare stomach.
"Why do I have a feeling you're about to make an inappropriate comment?" Beca's surprised at how easy the words flow considering her overall mental state, but she's starting to think she shouldn't be surprised by her actions around Chloe anymore.
Chloe's smile widens briefly then turns into a suggestive one. "What, you think I'm going to say something about how I have plenty to eat right here?"
The way Chloe says it makes Beca's stomach hiccup. All of this is so, so new and as natural as it feels to flirt with Chloe, it certainly doesn't feel normal. She shrugs in response because she's feeling rather tongue-tied after thinking about the implications of Chloe's teasing statement.
Her lack of verbal response seems to please Chloe, who cocks an eyebrow at her like she's surprised Beca has nothing to say as she lets her slowly wandering hand move up Beca's ribs until fingertips are tracing the soft curve of Beca's left breast.
She can't stop the shiver it pulls from her.
"Or did you think I was going to say you can have breakfast in bed?"
Beca's jaw loosens at the statement because Chloe's hit her with a one-two punch of mental images and she has to run her tongue across her lower lip before she gets caught drooling over the thought of it.
But Chloe notices, her eyes drawn to every move Beca's mouth makes and as though making some kind of point - Beca's not sure what point it could be, but it definitely seems like some kind of point is being made - Chloe starts to lean closer and all Beca can do is watch and wait to be kissed.
She's ready for it and her eyes fall closed but it doesn't come. She feels the warmth of Chloe's proximity hovering above and her stomach clenches in anticipation because she knows Chloe has something up her nonexistent sleeve.
"You'd be right. I've been craving something since the party."
Beca feels the air rush out of her lungs and barely has a chance to fill them again before Chloe's lips are on hers.
She knows she groans or moans or makes some kind of sound because Chloe echoes it before she's coaxing Beca's mouth open to accommodate her tongue, which isn't really a difficult task at all, especially when she feels Chloe ease herself down to fit into the space Beca allowed her to make between her legs. It's another instant reminder that they're both naked and Chloe rolls her hips against Beca.
She's not sure at what point it happened, but she realizes her hands are above her head, pinned there gently by Chloe and she huffs at the feeling that rushes through her at the concept of Chloe being in control of her.
It's only fair, she realizes as she lets her tongue twist with Chloe's.
Beca had been the one soundly in control last night, from the lap dances to slipping her fingertips down the front of Chloe's shorts in a move she didn't even think about making - she just...did it. She'd let Chloe work her way into her own pants, because honestly, after half a second of trying to deny her, the feeling of Chloe's fingers on her pretty much erased every hesitation about that.
But she'd remained in control, laying over Chloe as they touched one another and kissed and shared oxygen until they came together, and then again after she managed a wisecrack about thanking Emily for putting them on their path as she guided one of Chloe's breasts to her lips and reached for her because she needed to make Chloe come again.
It had been transcendent watching it the first time, so much so she'd almost forgotten to pay attention to her own orgasm.
But it seems now, as Chloe's hips work in slow circles to grind into Beca, she is going to get her own turn at getting to lay back and let herself be taken.
She sighs as Chloe's lips travel from her mouth to her jaw to her neck where they suck gently, not hard enough to leave a mark, though. Just enough to feel good.
And it feels good.
She can't stop the chill that runs up her spine and she hears Chloe hum in response and the hand that's been holding her wrists releases her to drag down her forearm as Chloe shifts backward.
It makes Beca swallow hard and she chooses to keep her arms up because there's something really fucking sexy about feeling like Chloe has her tied up while she kisses down her chest.
Her lips travel lower until they're covering Beca's right nipple and it makes her back arch for more. It's a new sensation Chloe's offering her; last night, Chloe's breasts were the only ones graced by the presence of a mouth because Beca had been the one doling out the majority of the pleasure.
But not now.
She squirms beneath Chloe who's moved far enough back that the short-lasting friction she'd been offering Beca is gone. She's left with nothing but the warmth of Chloe's mouth on her skin - which isn't a complaint - and the fingernails that are scratching down her ribs to make her break out in goosebumps.
She doesn't complain because she knows where Chloe's going.
She's going where neither ventured last night; last night had been about hesitant desire, the kind of sex that happens when you both want to be doing it, but it's so new that neither of you wants to get too wild or go too far and risk crossing some invisible boundary.
Beca knows that boundary line is gone now, erased the moment Chloe pulled her onto her back so she could grind her hips between Beca's legs while she teased Beca's tongue with her own in the very quiet, very sober, very mentally clear morning hours.
Because Chloe was still thinking about the night before.
Because Chloe wanted to do it again.
She feels that tongue trace her navel and she sucks in her stomach from the tickle. She's about to threaten violence if Chloe doesn't stop because Beca does not do ticklish when, while looking Beca squarely in the eye, Chloe backs up the last few inches necessary and lets her tongue slide right from her navel down to her clit.
"Oh my…" she doesn't get the rest of the sentence out, opting instead for a hiss because it's easier.
A smile curves around the tongue Chloe's rather brazenly using on display and then she's lowering herself to lay down to get utilitarian about things, and Beca watches in near disbelief that Chloe's really lifting her knees to rest them over her shoulders right now. But she is, and her tongue is tracing slow, gentle trails everywhere and Beca twitches when it rolls over her clit just right. It makes her drop her head back to the pillow and close her eyes, arms still above her head.
There's a sound from Chloe that's reminiscent of a scientist declaring, "Eureka!" and Beca's still thinking about that when she realizes she maybe should prepare for the results of Chloe's big discovery, but she's not quick enough.
She's not quick enough and she's gasping to catch the breath that gets stolen when Chloe repeats the pattern that made her twitch, but she doesn't just repeat it. She repeats it so quickly, over and over again, that Beca feels the earth fall out from beneath her.
"Fuck," she says with a groan as her hands fly down to latch into tousled red hair to ground herself. "Oh my God."
Chloe hums in response and the vibration makes Beca's hips grind down into her, suddenly desperate for more, now, faster, harder.
Whatever it is Chloe's doing, hitting the exact right spot over and over again, has her on the verge of tears because it's so intense but she's not staying on it long enough to get Beca there.
She's just torturing her, making her cling to the edge waiting for that necessary shift to push her over it, and she doesn't seem interested in doing that quickly.
"Chlo," she tries whining, as undignified as it may be, but all she gets is a version of a chuckle in return and hands that snake between her own to slide up from her waist to her ribs to cover her breasts.
It makes her forget to breathe for a second and then she's panting and really starting to not care that it's possible that whoever is in the rooms next to hers - Amy? Jessica? - could overhear this.
Because fuck. She lifts her head again for a second and the view, the way Chloe's hands are on her and how her eyes are closed to focus on what she's doing with her tongue...it makes Beca press her heels into Chloe's back and try to pull her closer.
"Just...fuck...to the left...right there, oh my God, shit, don't stop." It's a rush of words that trail off into a string of moans because Chloe's about to push her over the edge. Her fingers twist in messy red hair and she knows she's pulling a little too hard because she hears Chloe gasp, but Chloe also doesn't stop so it must not be too bad because fuck she started sucking and -
"Oh my Jesus," Beca says with a groan when she can think again and her whole body jumps when Chloe, still firmly in her spot, rolls her tongue over her again in the way she figured out makes Beca jump. "Stop, stop," she laughs and feels Chloe place a chaste (if that can be such a thing) kiss on her and then feels the bed and warmth shift as Chloe makes her way back up until she flops down next to Beca.
"I've wanted to know what you taste like for so long." Chloe's breathing hard and that combined with the statement makes Beca shiver.
"I, uh...hope I didn't disappoint?" She frowns at the ceiling and keeps her eyes closed hoping that didn't sound as terrible as she thinks it did.
She feels Chloe moving but doesn't realize to where until lips are on hers, tongue slipping past them to slide over her own.
"You didn't," Chloe says with a final peck to her lips and then she's getting cozy next to Beca.
"That's...good," Beca replies trying not to sound awkward but Chloe doesn't seem to mind.
She drapes her arm over Beca's waist and hugs herself close and Beca sighs. She'd never admit to anyone else that she really likes to snuggle up after sex, but Chloe could barely get through a day without hugging her, so she figured there was nothing to lose in being herself.
It's not like she needs to hide anything from Chloe anymore.
"You going to let me return the favor?" she asks with a wiggle of her shoulder meant to disturb Chloe's resting head.
"Tonight," Chloe answers with a yawn. "I wanna go back to sleep. How long 'til soundcheck?"
She laughs. "Like, seven hours? But we're supposed to go sightseeing with the Army brats after the breakfast that we just skipped."
Chloe squeezes her and then relaxes with a sigh and makes it clear she's not going anywhere anytime soon. "We can visit France again. I just want to sleep here with you right now."
Beca's surprised by the sting in her eyes and the lump in her throat at the casual comment. She swallows and nods. "Okay. We can go back to sleep."
They eventually make it out of bed after sleeping in to a sinfully late hour, have lunch in the hotel's restaurant, and take a taxi to catch up with the rest of the girls at the Promenade des Anglais.
She's feeling well-rested and punchy and she decides to make good on her comment to Chloe last night and finds Emily in the souvenir shop they've all stepped into.
"Hey, Legacy. You really did me a solid with that dare last night. Thanks."
Emily looks at her in confusion, hands frozen in the air with the dolman tee she'd been looking at with I speak French [fries] printed across it. "I did? What?"
Beca just winks and tilts her head toward Chloe who's an aisle over looking at shot glasses.
It takes her a second but then Emily gasps and drops the T-shirt. "Oh my stars! Did you and -"
"Shh!" She slaps her hand over Emily's mouth and looks around. "Chill, dude. I don't need everybody to hear."
"We already did."
It's Amy's voice from coming from behind her and she turns her head to find the blonde casually reading over a spinning tower of magnets. "You did not." She thinks back to how she was aware of the fact that she wasn't doing a very good job at censoring herself that morning.
Amy just tilts her head and hums so Beca spins back to Emily. "Be quiet."
Emily nods behind Beca's hand still silencing her.
"You're going to go tell everyone as soon as I leave, aren't you." She states it as a matter of fact.
Emily nods again.
And Beca sighs.
She's about to complain when she realizes that Emily gave her a pretty awesome gift and she'll be back in bed with Chloe tonight - and the girls can gossip and whisper and comment all they want.
Because tonight she's finding out what Chloe tastes like - and that makes it all worth it.