Graceless (Grace Notes #2)

Cassidy stilled, her chest heaving under their hands.

“Lane.” Her voice sounded slightly strangled. “What are you doing?”

“Cassidy.” They managed to make their voice sound normal, their mouth still temptingly far too close to hers. “Did you honestly think we were going to have sex up here? On a hard metal tower in a field, while Burt waits in the car? Because if you did, you’ve seriously underestimated what sex with me would be like.”

Cassidy took a ragged breath as Lane finished with her buttons and smoothed the front of her dress.

“Burt seemed to have managed it just fine in his day,” she pointed out, as if this jibe would sway them. Her eyes were still dark, but now slightly aggravated. Lane gently shoved her off their lap.

“Well, I suggest you go ahead and ask him how he did it.” They grinned at her wide-eyed, indignant face. Quickly before they caved into the temptation to touch her again, they scooped up the picnic rug and stepped onto the ladder. “Come on, before Burt gets the wrong idea about our evening.”

“Or the right one,” Cassidy pointed out, following them down. Lane’s stomach clenched at that. Tonight wasn’t a date, but some very date-like activity had just taken place. With Cassidy. Oh shit, if Brynn didn’t kill them, Savannah definitely would. Lane led the way back to the car quickly, Cassidy close on their heels.

“How was that?” Burt asked as they both climbed back into their seats, Cassidy banging the door closed with slightly too much force.

“Prettiest view I’ve ever seen,” Lane confirmed, definitely not lying. Cassidy cut their eyes towards them and then out the window, sitting stiffly. There was a terrible part of Lane that was enjoying seeing Cassidy looking prickly again and trying to be dignified, knowing without a doubt she was sitting in slick wet panties. Their smugness was somewhat undone by the persistent throb their own body was doing at the thought of her obvious arousal.

Their thoughts flew by as fast as the dark roadside, and then all of a sudden Burt was dropping them off inside the compound. The two of them farewelled him and began to walk, side by side, as he drove away. At the precise mid-point between the main house and the guesthouse, Cassidy stopped walking. Lane turned to look at her.

“Take me to bed with you,” she said, and Lane swallowed hard. They’d never been so simply and directly propositioned by someone so extremely tempting. They also knew if they let Cassidy into the guesthouse tonight, they’d never be able to stop until they’d had all of her. And judging by the look on Cassidy’s face, no one would be putting the brakes on anything tonight. For one heated second Lane wavered, the sound of Cassidy’s gasps and moans still echoing in their ears. Imagined having her naked.

“Cassidy,” they said instead, deliberately not touching her, despite how their hands itched to. “We kind of live together,” they pointed out. “My job, your sister… It’s too complicated. We can’t just jump into bed together.”

“Feels like we could.” Cassidy looked at them from under her lashes, and Lane took another steadying breath.

“Yeah,” they admitted, swallowing hard. “It really does.”

“Then-” Cassidy stepped closer, her lips parted and begging, her eyes full of hunger. Lane kissed her, just quickly and just once, before forcing themself to stop.

“Goodnight Cassidy.” They stepped back, watching as the surprise flared in her eyes, then turned and bolted into the guesthouse, before they could complicate things even more than they already had.

Chapter Thirteen

The next morning at breakfast, things could not have been more awkward. Lane tried to focus on helping Tucker butter his toast but at least seventy-percent of their brain was taken up by the understanding that Cassidy had apparently assessed this morning’s t-shirt as belonging to the bra-not-required category of outfits and Lane was never going to be able to get through a normal conversation in their life again.

“How was your night?” Brynn asked.

“Fine,” Lane muttered, their mind too full of perfect breasts to speak syllables.

“Okay.” Cassidy shrugged. Okay? Lane couldn’t stop the eye-roll that snuck out. Sure, maybe there’d been no fancy cocktails or amazing music, but Cassidy had more than enjoyed herself; that much had been obvious.

“Did something happen?” Savannah looked from one to the other, her spidey senses obviously tingling, and Lane felt the blood drain from their face. They were just about to deny everything and perhaps dive under the table to hide when Cassidy replied.

“It was football night. Lots of drunk meatheads out. We cut it short.”

She didn’t mention the threat to their safety, and Lane was grateful for that. Savannah was the one person at this table who’d seen the aftermath of one of Lane’s beatings as a teenager and they did not need her to fret over the idea of history repeating, especially with her little sister present. Of course, there were a lot of things Cassidy had just left out about their night that were definitely for the best.

“That sucks.” Brynn looked at the two of them in turn. “Guess you’ll just have to make it happen another night instead.”

“Guess we will.” Cassidy looked at Lane, her eyelashes lowered. Lane nearly choked on their orange juice.

The day went on in a thankfully normal fashion. After a couple of blessedly mild days, the sun was blazing again and Lane kept Tucker indoors out of the scorching heat. Brynn went off to record, and to Lane’s relief, Cassidy went with her. Savannah had a series of meetings at the record label, so the house was quiet and the day uneventful. Uneventful, that was, except for the occasional slam of extraordinarily heated memory that hit Lane at odd moments throughout the day.

They were cutting a sandwich on the kitchen bench and the image of Cassidy writhing her hips in their lap in the moonlight suddenly overwhelmed them. They were hunting for the remote in the living room when they relived the gasp of pained desire that escaped Cassidy when they first ran their tongue over a tight pink nipple. As they sank down on the couch, they recalled perfectly the ragged tone in Cassidy’s voice when she begged for Lane to touch her.

Maybe Lane had done the right thing in shutting things down before they’d crossed the line into actual sex, but to their deep discomfort they suspected they were suffering at least as much as Cassidy was from their mutually unmet desire. Damnit, why did she have to be so attractive? It was Cassidy, Lane kept reminding themselves on loop. Just Savannah’s annoying sister, the girl who was kind of a brat. Lane was adamant they were going to keep it in their damn pants.

They had dinner early since everyone – Savannah mostly – was ravenous. The rest of them pretended for her sake. Lane made sure to sit next to Cassidy instead of across from her, remembering how much easier life was when they weren’t tempted to look at her all the time. Tucker was excitable and bouncing and thankfully dominated the dinner table discussion. He begged for an after-dinner swim with Lane after being cooped up from the heat all day, and after checking in, his parents eventually agreed.