State of Grace | ONGOING

Chapter 22

I unlocked the door with sure fingers, inhaling sharply as Theo pressed into me as she came into the bathroom. This time I made sure to lock the door myself–I'd learned from my previous mistakes, clearly. When I turned to face her, her eyes were already on me, glittering and dark. Her gaze burned a trail up my body, from the tops of my knee-high black boots up my bare thighs, then over my dress to my neck and face.

"I think I'm the one doing the spellcasting now," I joked lamely, as if that would break the burning tension between us.

It didn't.

"You, Louise, are infuriating," Theo said, her voice sharp in the insulated bathroom. The music pounding downstairs was dampened by the closed door and the rooms around the bathroom, and it felt a bit like a dream.

"Infuriating?" I asked, the word coming out a bit more coy than I meant it to.

Theo crossed the room towards me and grabbed my hips, slowly walking me backwards until my ass hit the counter and there was nowhere for me to go except closer to her. She pressed into me, her words and body intoxicating.

"You've always got some smart ass comment," she whispered, her lips brushing over my exposed neck. I tilted my head to the side, breathless as she continued, "You always have to get the last word in. You're unyielding, impossible, and infuriating."

"You make me sound intensely unlikable," I muttered, starting to push her back. She gripped tighter, her fingers digging into my waist.

"No," she breathed, her lips roaming higher until they hovered over mine, her eyes meeting mine. I could see the little flecks of gold in the hazel of her eyes and I didn't want to look away. "Those are all of the things that I like about you."

My laugh was caught by her lips on mine, stopping my comment about her being a masochist, which I supposed met two of those criteria: a smart ass last word.

My eyes fluttered closed on instinct as our mouths met. She tasted like whiskey and coke, her lips chapped from the cold air outside, and I melted into it. I slid my hands into her hair, tangling my fingers around the long, dark locks until she couldn't escape if she'd wanted to. I didn't want her to be able to stop kissing me, because if she did I was fairly certain I would die.

"Theo," I gasped her name as she caught me under the thighs and lifted me onto the counter, knocking over half a dozen toiletries from the residents of the house–likely some of which was Bo's. My hand slipped, tugging her hair, and she let out a breathy moan that kicked something in me into overdrive. There was some lusty monster that lived inside of me that awoke at that sound.

My legs wound around her waist, hooking my ankles together to hold her there, pressed against me. Her pelvis dug into me and I released my own pleased sound–a sharp inhale–and smiled. Lace scratched at the top of my thighs, the skirt of my dress riding up on its own between our tightly connected bodies.

Her lips dragged up my jawline to my ear, my hand still knotted in her hair as I gasped for breath, leaning forward to keep her close.

"Can I take off your panties?" She breathed into my ear and I squirmed on the counter.

"Please," I whispered back, opening my eyes and releasing the back of her head finally so she could step back from me, spread out for her on the counter.

With all of the care and delicacy that I had come to expect from her, she carefully pushed up the hem of my dress, baring me to her up to the waist. Then she hooked her index fingers into the sides of my underwear and I shifted slightly while she tugged, freeing the fabric from under my ass so she could tug it down my legs and toss it onto the counter beside me. She stood back for a few seconds and I expected her to be staring at the lacy network of stretch marks that ran over my hips, but her eyes were on my flushed face.