13.
It was the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, the day before they would be leaving for New York, and yet, spread out around the front of the condo, Sharon, Rusty, and Andrea sat, listening to classical music that Andrea usually associated with Christmas. Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy from The Nutcracker was currently playing, and, unsurprisingly, Sharon was softly humming along with it while she worked at her desk. Andrea and Rusty would share small looks every few minutes, both of them hiding smiles as they glanced at Sharon and then each other. Andrea had spent four nights at the apartment since last week, and each of those nights Sharon had been, in some way, getting ready for the holiday that was still more than a month away. There were the boxes that were starting to show up from her storage unit – baubles, angels, and one with string lights that were so tangled that Andrea had suggested that buying new ones would be a better idea – and there was Christmas music and two movies.
Andrea sat cross-legged on the sofa, and Rusty was working at the table. Everybody was trying to get whatever last minute work they needed to finish up done before they left so they could leave without worrying about what would happen in their absence. Andrea had a meeting in the morning with one of her colleagues and was preparing a few notes for him. Sharon would be stopping by her office to make sure her division had everything under control – which, Andrea had said, they did, even if they would probably encounter a few bumps in the road, as they tended to do. Rusty was finishing up an assignment for the last class he had before he was officially on break for the holiday. He was also compiling a list of questions for Mark, Rusty's new friend, who he was collaborating with on his latest project, much to both Sharon and Andrea's surprise, who were used to him preferring to work independently.
They were leaving late in the night Wednesday, due to arrive a little after seven o'clock in the morning in New York. After spending over an hour on the phone with the airline, Sharon and Andrea were able to change their tickets so that they weren't on two opposite ends of the plane like they had originally been when Sharon snagged up two of the last handful of available seats on their flight for her and Rusty. They wouldn't be able to sit side-by-side, not all three of them, but they now had two seats together and one directly in front of it. Rusty had volunteered to take the single seat, as had Andrea, but Rusty reminded her that he did not enjoy flying and would be sleeping the whole time while she and Sharon could keep each other company.
They were mostly packed for their short trip, each of them with a bag they could carry onto the plane, and Andrea's brother, David, who lived in New Jersey and would be going over to their old family house tomorrow with his wife and kids, had already insisted on picking them up from JFK airport Thursday. It was a nice change when everything seemed to happen as it should without many difficulties, and Andrea, albeit not the most excited about their departure from Los Angeles to New York, was looking forward to a break from the chaos and highs that commonly made an appearance in all of their lives.
Leroy Anderson's Sleigh Ride started up, and Andrea's pen started to dance in the air with the music absently as she read over a page in the law book that sat on her lap. Before she met Sharon, Andrea had never cared much for Christmas music, or the holiday itself, but it was hard not enjoying it at least a little when Sharon was so fond of it and there was a guarantee that Andrea would be surrounded by the festive music this time of year. It was Sharon's favorite holiday – which meant a lot when talking about a woman who found a reason to celebrate everything and went out of her way to make each holiday special. And because of that, because of how excited Sharon got around this time of year and how much happier she usually was, Andrea had started looking forward to the holiday season a little more each year she knew Sharon. She couldn't get enough of seeing Sharon so wonderfully filled with unadulterated joy, and she made no apologies for how much she loved seeing Sharon like that. If it meant sitting through hours of Christmas music, Andrea would do it. The way Sharon's face lit up was worth it.
. . .
Feeling eyes on her, Sharon looked away from her laptop. She was not surprised to discover Andrea looking her way – she'd been doing a lot of that throughout the evening – and simply offered the other woman a smile, one that was, at first, small, with her lips pressed together, but, upon seeing Andrea's radiant smile in return, grew to something wider, with teeth and warmth that she knew Andrea could see in her eyes. They held each other's eyes for a few moments, and then Andrea ducked her hand and started writing on the legal pad that was beside her on the arm of the sofa. Sharon continued looking at her for a little while, giving her eyes a break from the laptop's screen.
Sharon removed her glasses and neatly folded them. She laid them down on her desk and then stretched her back and rolled her neck. A large yawn started growing as she moved her shoulders back and forth, and she raised her hand to cover her mouth with the back of it. She was about ready for sleep, was really only waiting for Andrea to finish up at this point. Her own work was done for the day, but Andrea still had papers and books scattered across the coffee table and sofa, appearing to have the same amount of organization as Rusty's things did on the dining table. Sharon smiled to herself as she looked from Andrea to Rusty, both of them with mugs of coffee that wouldn't keep either of them up much longer. Rusty had made her some herbal tea when he put on the coffee. Unlike the two of them, Sharon stayed away from caffeine at night.
Sharon yawned again, her eyes watering a little, and decided to go ahead and shut her laptop down and get ready for bed. It had been an easy couple of days this week, thankfully, but it was already after eleven o'clock and she'd been awake since a little after six o'clock. So after another minute or two of just sitting there, she turned her laptop off and picked up her empty teacup and saucer. She brought it to the kitchen, washed it by hand, and then wiped down the counters and bar.
She couldn't have been in the kitchen for longer than five minutes, but when she finished up, Rusty had already piled up all of his papers and they were tucked in his laptop, his mug in the hand that wasn't holding the computer.
"Off to bed?" she asked him, pulling her cardigan around her.
"Gonna finish up in my room. That chair's starting to get uncomfortable."
Sharon nodded in understanding and gave his shoulder a squeeze as he past her. "I'll see you in the morning. Have a good night."
"Thanks," he said, "you, too." Then he turned to Andrea and said, "Night, Andrea."
Andrea looked up, tucking a pen behind her ear as she smiled at both Rusty and Sharon. "Goodnight, Rusty." Her eyes traveled to Sharon. "You off to bed, too?"
As Rusty left them for his room, Sharon walked over to the back of the sofa and placed her hands on Andrea's shoulders. "Yes, I think I am," she told her as she gripped Andrea's shoulders tightly.
"Mmm." Andrea rolled her shoulders, and Sharon's hands squeezed again. "I'll join you shortly. I'm almost finished up in here."
Sharon hummed and nodded her head. She leaned over the sofa and was met halfway by Andrea when she went to kiss the other woman's lips briefly – or, at least that had been her intention. Andrea craned her neck and cupped the back of Sharon's head and pulled her back when she started to pull away. Sharon chuckled against Andrea's lip, and their kiss was more the meeting of two smiles than anything else as Andrea's lips curled against her own.
"Have I ever told you that you give the softest kisses?" Andrea murmured. "And I absolutely love them."
Sharon laughed against Andrea's mouth again, but this time she let her hand caress Andrea's cheek and then cup the side of her face to hold her in place while her own head tilted so she could deepen the kiss. Her tongue slowly licked Andrea's lower lip, and then the top, then right between the two before her lips slowly, gently, with the softest possible pressure, sucked one of Andrea's lips into the velvety warmth of her mouth. Andrea let out a long but soft moan that Sharon closed her eyes and lost herself in it for a second or two before she brushed her lips against Andrea's a few more times.
When she pulled away from her lips, she moved to Andrea's ear and whispered, "I'll be waiting for you in bed," her voice low as her breath teased the shell of Andrea's ear.
Andrea's eyes fluttered open as Sharon straightened up, and there was a lovely dash of color across her cheek. Andrea cleared her throat and pulled at the neck of her tee shirt. "And there goes the rest of my productivity for the night." Andrea licked her lips. She looked into Sharon's eyes and grinned widely, beautifully. "There's no way I'll be able to concentrate on anything after that."
"Uh-uh, finish up here," Sharon insisted. "You and I both know you're not going to want to get up and work on anything early in the morning before your meeting."
Andrea wrinkled her brow. "I know you're right, and I know I should go ahead and finish, but–"
"No, no, no. Say no more. Go ahead and finish, and then you can join me in bed."
Andrea reached over the sofa and with her right arm and wrapped it around Sharon, making Sharon lean against it. "I can be finished in, uh, maybe ten minutes. When I'm done..."
Sharon's brow raised, her lips slowly forming a smile as Andrea's eyes moved down to her lips. It was still new to them, the amount of kissing they'd been doing the last week, but Sharon received such a delicious wave of desire every time she could see how badly Andrea wanted to kiss her. It was the only obvious change in their relationship. Kissing for them before had mostly excluded the lips, and when it didn't, it was never just for the pleasure of kissing the other. The last week, though, they'd shared several kisses for just that reasons, just because they enjoyed the way it felt to be kissing the other woman, because they wanted to be kissing each other.
Andrea squeezed Sharon's hip, and Sharon hummed in her throat and pressed herself into Andrea's hand. "When you're finished, I might, might, welcome you to bed with another kiss."
"Good enough for me. I'll take it." Andrea gave her hip one more squeezed before pulling her arm back. "I'll meet you in the back. I need to hurry up and finish."
Sharon nodded and leaned back down again, this time kissing the top of Andrea's head. "Don't rush. I won't be going anywhere."
Andrea hummed, pulling her pen from behind her ear. "No, you're definitely not. You've got a very determined woman who plans on keeping you around for a really long time."
"Lucky me," Sharon breathed into Andrea's coconut-scented hair before standing up straight. "Want me to turn the music off?"
Andrea shook her head. "No. I'm actually enjoying it."
"All right." She patted Andrea's shoulder and then headed for the bedroom.
. . .
Andrea laid in bed with her arms folded back, her hands clasped beneath her head as she looked up at the ceiling. Sharon's head was on her stomach, her hair tickling Andrea's exposed skin with some of her exhalations. The lights were out, and the room's only noise was the faint sounds of their breathing. They'd not said nor did anything since Andrea had been kissed at the foot of the bed, where she stood and Sharon kneeled in front of her, hands framing Andrea's face. It was a tender, slow kiss that they had shared, and it made Andrea's knees weak and her heart beat rapidly. Sharon's mouth was exquisite, unbelievably soft, and she kissed Andrea like she was trying to fill her body with love and desire in equal measures – and damn did she do exactly that.
"Can I ask you something?"
Sharon lifted her head from Andrea's stomach, her arm still draped over Andrea's middle, Sharon's elbow now painfully pressing into her. She grunted and shifted her hips while pushing Sharon's arm lower. "Oh, oh. I'm so sorry."
Sharon quickly adjusted, and when she finished moving on the bed, she ended up on her back, also looking up at the ceiling, head back on Andrea's stomach, perpendicular to Andrea, who was laying across the foot of the bed. Andrea smiled down at Sharon when she finished getting herself comfortable, and then she brought her hand to Sharon's hair. Sharon wrapped one of her arms around Andrea's thighs and mimicked Andrea's slow stroking, running her fingers up and down her bent legs.
"What's on your mind?" Sharon asked softly.
"Nothing serious. I'm just a little curious."
Sharon hummed and turned her head to the side. "What do you want to know?"
Andrea continued massaging Sharon's scalp without answering her question, and soon she felt Sharon turn her head back so she was looking at the ceiling again. Andrea closed her eyes, feeling tired but not sleepy enough for sleep just yet.
"Did you date before you met Jack? I mean, did you– Well, no, that is what I mean. Not necessarily in any serious way – I'm not excluding chaperoned dates when you were still a teenager."
Sharon's fingers paused for a moment, but then she hummed and started moving them again. "Not much, no. I'd gone on perhaps two or three dates before Jack started showing interest in me. The boy I went to prom with – I believe his name was Billy, or something else that was quite simple and easy to forget – somehow charmed my father enough to get his approval to take me out one evening, and then again to escort me to our senior prom. There'd been a very strict 'no dating' rule put into place years before that, so I've always wondered what he did to convince my father.
"There had been someone in college just before I met Jack – he was a male chauvinist, and I have no idea what I was thinking when I agreed to go out with him. We didn't even make it through dinner, I don't think." She laughed a little and shook her head against Andrea. "No, we argued the entire time, and I had had enough before our meals were even brought out."
Andrea responded with a noise in her throat so Sharon didn't misinterpret her silence for something it wasn't.
"Why do you ask?" Sharon questioned after a few moments, sounding just as relaxed as Andrea felt. Sharon could probably fall asleep like this, with her hair being played with and her scalp massaged while she rested on Andrea's stomach – she'd done so often enough in the past.
"I was thinking. I knew that Andy was the only person you had dated since we met, but–"
"I haven't dated many different people. I wouldn't even consider including the dates I just mentioned if asked about my romantic past," Sharon said, pausing to yawn. "Before Andy, there was only Jack. I know I don't often talk about the good times in our relationship, but..." Sharon trailed off with a thoughtful sound.
"You loved him deeply," Andrea said knowingly.
"We loved each other deeply," she said softly. "In the very beginning, I was crazy about him. He was charismatic like nobody I had ever known before, and I fell remarkably fast." Sharon laughed a little, and Andrea opened her eyes and looked down at her for a moment. "Nobody had ever looked at me the way Jack did back then."
"How did he...?" Andrea gestured with her hand vaguely, even though Sharon could not see.
Sharon turned her head to look at Andrea, and although there was a small smile on her lips, there was sadness in her eyes that made Andrea's heart clench tightly in her chest when she saw it. "Like he knew he would spend the rest of his life loving me." She snorted and rolled her eyes. "I don't need to tell you how deceiving that look was."
Andrea didn't have anything nice to say about Jack, so she didn't comment. She didn't like the man, and she hated him for how badly he hurt Sharon, Sharon who had continued to be supportive when he didn't deserve her in his life.
"Why were you thinking about that?"
Andrea shook her head and then shut her eyes back. "No reason. My mind has been all over the place lately, honestly. It was just something that popped up." Sharon hummed. "I guess I was also wondering what you're, you know, expecting here with us."
"I don't have any expectations, Andrea." Sharon pulled away from Andrea's hand and, although she did not open her eyes, she knew Sharon had moved to lay beside her. She instantly felt her warmth against the side of her own body, inviting and irresistible.
"You don't?" she questioned as she shifted closer to Sharon, wanting to be nearer.
Sharon breathed out softly, and Andrea felt the air on her neck. "I guess that's not exactly true. I should say that I don't have any major expectations."
"Well, yeah. Nobody truly has absolutely no expectations going into a relationship, but I'm asking about the major ones." Andrea slowly shifted again and rolled to her side so she could look into her eyes as she spoke. "I'm happy with you the way things are right now. I'll continue being happy with you if nothing were to change from the way they currently are."
Sharon brought her hand up and touched the tips of her fingers to Andrea's cheek, softly, and then rested her palm on Andrea's face, her skin cooler than Andrea's own. "As would I. But you're not bringing this up because you're uncertain about how I feel," Sharon said in that tone that meant she knew exactly what was on Andrea's mind – which shouldn't shock Andrea after all these years; Sharon knew her better than anyone else did. "You're wondering if things will change."
Andrea's response was nonverbal, and not much of an answer at all. Sharon smiled and moved her head closer to Andrea, and then those smiling lips, lips Andrea was becoming more familiar with than she had previously imagined she ever would, pressed to her own for a kiss. Andrea's heart still fluttered like crazy every time Sharon did that, just pressed her mouth to her own and held it there, warm and gentle on her lips. Andrea kissed Sharon back and felt herself smiling when Sharon pulled back and looked into her eyes, the room dark but Sharon's eyes still holding a light that Andrea could see.
"Is that what you want to talk about, hmm?" She tenderly stroked Andrea's face and neck, with such gentleness that she might believe she was imagining the delicate touch that made goose bumps appear if not for the fact that she was watching Sharon. "In what ways our relationship might change," she elaborated.
"Yes," Andrea answered simply. She lifted her head up and cradled it in her hand, bending her arm at the elbow. "Would that be all right with you?"
Sharon nodded and yawned behind her hand. "Perhaps we should get in bed the correct way first," she said with a laugh. "I think I'm much sleepier than I said I was."
Andrea yawned as well, and then they were both laughing. It was that easier laughter, the kind that just flowed out without a care, real, unrestrained laughter. Andrea's heart swelled at the sound of Sharon laughing, and without warning, she rolled Sharon, who was in the process of getting up, back on to her back and covered Sharon's body with her own. Sharon's laughter slowed down, quieted, but Andrea could still feel it in her chest, vibrating, and see it in her eyes and smile when she looked up at Andrea.
The seconds between the end of their laughs and the beginning of what came next was only filled with the quietest of sounds, noises that would not be heard if one were not listening for them – hearts beating as they tried to meet in the space between their two chests, breaths leaving noses and lips, the rustle of the covers as feet and legs brushed them so they could touch those belonging to the other woman. Andrea's hair had been put up earlier in the night, but at some point it had fallen free, and Sharon tucked it behind both ears before resting her hands on Andrea's shoulders.
"You were laughing when I realized I'd fallen in love with you."
And it wasn't what was expected, she could tell, not even a little bit, but Andrea could see the way Sharon entire face transformed when Andrea spoke, with age lines that deepened and lips that stretched into a brilliant smile, that amazed-beyond-belief look in her eyes.
"I don't remember when it was, honestly. I don't remember what it was that made you laugh. I just remember looking at you and knowing, knowing for certain, that I was madly in love with you and there was no turning back." Andrea could feel her heart beating faster, or Sharon's heart beating against her, or the combination of the two – either way, it was fierce and powerful. "You have no idea how damn beautiful you are when you're just laughing and you're not holding back. God, you're gorgeous."
Sharon stared at her, unblinkingly, without saying anything – until she expelled a shuddering breath and squeezed her eyes shut. When she opened her eyes back, she cleared her throat and licked her lips. "You're going to have to stop that, saying things like that when I'm not expecting it, making me feel breathless with only your words." She shifted and reached for Andrea's hand to bring it to her chest, where Andrea could feel what was definitely Sharon's heart racing.
Wow, Andrea thought, feeling its force, its strength, the organ pumping harder and faster than Andrea could ever remember feeling it beat when she would listen to Sharon's heartbeat.
"Nearly eleven years, eleven long years, and you still make me feel the way I did in the very beginning when you would flirt with me and I would get butterflies. Only difference now is you do it all the time, make me feel so..." Sharon laughed and shook her head, and Andrea smiled down at her, propped up a bit on her left arm while her right hand stayed on Sharon's chest.
"I thought you weren't into me then," Andrea said with an eye roll and a chuckle, "hmm?"
"I hardly was," Sharon said, and it was a lie, a terrible, terrible lie.
"You can't even look at me when you say that."
Sharon turned her head back and looked into Andrea's eyes, and Andrea looked back with a hopeful smile – which, of course, made Sharon smirk as she lifted her head and pecked Andrea's lips. "I thought you were sweet, I'll admit that."
"Oh my god." Andrea gave Sharon another, more exaggerated, eye roll. "Just admit it. You were attracted to me, and you enjoyed having me flirt with you."
Sharon's smirk turned into a proper smile, but she didn't say anything. She was amused, and Andrea also knew that Sharon was aware this was something she couldn't lie about – Andrea knew when she was lying.
"Seriously?"
Sharon snorted. "If you're so confident that I found you attractive, why do you insist on me telling you?"
"Maybe I just want to hear you say it."
"Okay," Sharon said, and then suddenly she was rolling them over so Andrea was on her back.
"O-kay," Andrea repeated, more question-like as Sharon's hands started patting down her body. "Uhm. What are you doing?"
Sharon looked at Andrea with a straight face and said, very seriously, "Patting you down to make sure you're not trying to record this to use it against me." However, her words were barely out before she started giggling and she buried her head in the crook of Andrea's neck, who started laughing right along with her as the vibration of Sharon's giggling tickled her neck.
"Are you sure you weren't just trying to feel me up?" Andrea joked, wrapping one of her legs around Sharon. "Because that's what it felt like."
Sharon's giggle turned into a full laugh, and she lifted her to look at Andrea, brow raised. There was something terribly attractive about Sharon's playful side. Andrea buzzed with excitement whenever Sharon was relaxed and in a good mood and she let it come out.
"Didn't know I needed an excuse for that. Have my privileges been revoked without warning?"
Andrea dragged her teeth over her bottom lip and shook her head from left to right. "Only if you continue denying that you were a little attracted to me from the start. You may have not been thinking about getting into my pants back then, but you weren't as uninterested as you led me to believe."
Sharon gasped and covered her mouth with one of her hands until her laughter died down completely. "Are you insinuating that there has been a time that I wanted to get into your pants, Andrea Hobbs?"
"Oh, come on. We are way past either of us needing to deny that." Andrea swallowed and lowered her voice to a quieter whisper than it had already been. "Not only have you gotten further than some of the women I've actually dated, you've told me yourself – multiple times, I'm going to point out – that you've wanted to fuck me."
Sharon hummed and leaned her head back down, moving so she could kiss below Andrea's ear. "When I knew I could turn you on, which I have never denied enjoying, I have, I admit, said some things to that effect. But I'm quite certain that I've never actually said that I wanted to 'fuck you'," she said slowly, her voice only loud enough for Andrea to hear. "Touch you, yes." She brushed her warm lips over Andrea's sensitive earlobe. "Run my hands over your naked body," she continued, voice raspier, making Andrea's breath catch, "certainly. I think I might have even told you once that I wanted to find out how you tasted."
Andrea squeaked, her eyes slamming shut. "Fuck."
"Ah, yes. You had a similar response to that one the first time I said it to you." Sharon made a sound in her throat. "I'm curious. Do you truly believe I was always attracted to you? Or do you just enjoy this back and forth, hmm?"
"Both, if I'm being honest."
Sharon hummed and pulled away, so Andrea opened her eyes to look at her. "All right. I thought you were beautiful, yes, of course." Sharon licked her lips, holding herself up with her hands on either side of Andrea.
"And...?"
Sharon smiled a little. "I was flattered, as I told you back then."
Andrea reached up and gathered Sharon's hair and brought it to one shoulder. "You enjoyed being flirted with," Andrea told her, daring her to deny it while she leaned up and pressed her lips to Sharon's shoulder.
Sharon's breath shook a little as she agreed. "I did."
"But..." Andrea's nose followed the curve of Sharon's bone, and her lips grazed the skin just below.
"You scared me."
Not expecting Sharon's answer, Andrea pulled back, her eyes searching Sharon's face for a deeper meaning to what she had said. Not finding one, Andrea smiled at her and waited for her to elaborate on her own.
Sharon readjusted, sitting up and straddling Andrea before she answered the question that Andrea hadn't asked. "We connected in a way I'd never – and still haven't – connected with anyone else before. I felt it that first day. I don't know if you did or not, but I did."
"If I told you I didn't just give my number to all the pretty women who let me buy them coffee and help them undress, would you believe me?"
Sharon snorted. "That day, probably not. You were a relentless flirt. Knowing you now, having gotten the delightful pleasure of learning about the kind of woman you are..." Sharon trailed off with a smile. "The fact that you were a woman was never the issue for me. I was being honest when I said I'd never dated a woman before, as you know, but, you're right. I did find you attractive. I think if I were interested in dating at the time, and feeling so connected to a stranger hadn't terrified me, I would have called you. I wouldn't have gone out with you on a date then, but maybe a few months later I would have."
"I'm glad you weren't interested in dating anyone," Andrea told her honestly, making Sharon's brow wrinkle with confusion. She took Sharon's hands into her own and laced their fingers together. "I don't think our relationship would have developed into anything like this if we had started dating then. I don't think either of us would have opened ourselves up the way we did as friends."
"Perhaps not." Sharon looked down at their hands and hummed, lips pressed together tightly.
"What?" Andrea whispered.
"I was thinking about your question from earlier, about what changes might occur."
"Yeah?" Andrea stroked the edge of one of Sharon's digits with her thumb. "What are you thinking about?"
"Taking a bath." Sharon's eyes slowly lifted, and there was something in the way she looked at Andrea that made her heart skip a beat with excitement. "More accurately, I was thinking about taking a bath with you. You might have inadvertently put the idea in my head the other week."
"What makes you think I didn't purposely put that idea in your head? You know I enjoy–"
"Being a tease," Sharon said with a throaty laugh, cutting Andrea off.
Andrea grinned, not denying it.
"Anyway, I'd like to."
"Take a bath with me?"
Sharon nodded. "Not what you were expecting, is it?"
"That you'd want to get me naked?" Sharon laughed and released Andrea's hand to swat her shoulder. Andrea took her hand back and brought it to her mouth for a kiss against Sharon's palm, and then her wrist. "I wasn't sure what to expect."
"Some time after we come back, at your house, I'd like that. It doesn't have to be any time soon. It's just something that I don't think I would have been comfortable with before that, now, after everything, I would love to do with you."
Andrea nodded slowly. "Bubble bath for two? Maybe some champagne, some fruit..."
Sharon moaned and leaned over. "Now you're just trying to spoil me," she said in that breathy way that made her smile audible.
"I didn't even get to the best part," Andrea murmured, tilted her head back so her lips could brush against Sharon's.
"Let it be a surprise. I love a good surprise."
Andrea hummed and, faster than Sharon could probably process, pulled Sharon down to her and then rolled them over so she was on top of Sharon once again for the night She slid her hand down Sharon's thigh and then pulled Sharon against her. Sharon's breath rushed out, and Andrea grinned.
"How's that for a surprise?" Andrea whispered, kissing her way to Sharon's jaw. She nibbled and kissed, making Sharon's breath do that soft panting thing that made Andrea feel like she was slowly being submerged in some type of thick, heated liquid.
"Not bad," Sharon whispered, hands sliding underneath Andrea's shirt to stroke Andrea's back– no, not her back.
Andrea arched into Sharon's palm, moaning softly as Sharon's hand squeezed her breast. "Trying to one up me?"
Sharon ran her thumb over Andrea's sensitive nipple, and the flesh instantly tightened and peaked, hardening. "Of course not. I only wanted to remind you that, as much as I've restrained from touching you in certain ways lately, I am in no way uninterested in your body, Andrea."
Andrea smiled at Sharon, looking into her eyes with amusement in her own. "I didn't think you were."
"I wasn't sure if that's what you had been wondering about regarding the changes in our relationship."
"It wasn't," Andrea said honestly.
Sharon kissed Andrea's lips quickly. "I still want you to know that sex isn't off the table."
"I want to make love to you, too, Sharon," Andrea said through a grin,
Sharon rolled her eyes affectionately and gave Andrea one more kiss. "Tonight, however, I would like to get some sleep. And you need to do the same because you have an early meeting in the morning."
Andrea groaned a little. "For future references, talking about meetings in bed is a total mood killer, honey."
Sharon laughed and squeezed Andrea's breast. "Don't be so sure of that. I have spent a long time finding out what gets you aroused, Andrea. I'm sure I could figure out how to make even that get you hot."
Andrea's eyebrow rose, but Sharon leaned up and kissed her, quieting whatever possible comments she would have in return.
to be continued...