Page 55 of Igniting Her

“You found the place,” Ellie said. Humor came out thin from lack of use.

“Teak.”

“Of course.”

The quiet returned. Cassie placed her keys on the small table by the door. Her fingertips stayed there for a moment. Then she removed her shoes and set them neatly beside the wall. “Tell me to leave, and I will.”

Ellie believed her. That mattered. So did the fact that Cassie had come without knowing whether the door would open.

“I’m still angry,” Ellie said.

“I know.”

“That wasn’t permission to turn it into a lecture.”

“I know.” Cassie’s voice roughened around the second admission. She had no apology after it. Ellie watched her search for one and come away empty.

Cassie opened her hand between them, palm up. “Come here.”

There it was. The language she had.

Ellie could have asked for better words. She wanted them. She also knew what it cost Cassie to stand in an unfamiliar apartment with an empty hand extended and no rank available to make anyone cross the room.

Ellie put her hand in Cassie’s.

Cassie’s fingers closed carefully. She drew Ellie forward until less than a breath separated them, then stopped. “Color?”

“Green.”

“Do you want my control tonight?”

The question was quieter than any command Cassie had given her. Ellie looked at the strain held around her mouth, the gray at her temples, the storm-colored eyes refusing to look away. Cassie was not asking whether Ellie still wanted sex. She was asking whether the trust had survived what she had done with it.

“Yes,” Ellie said. “I want you.”

Cassie’s lower lip parted. The tension at the corners of her mouth eased. Her free hand rose to Ellie’s cheek. She stroked one thumb beneath Ellie’s eye and kissed her.

The kiss held no anger or detonation. Cassie touched Ellie’s mouth as though relearning its shape after an injury, slow at first and deeper when Ellie opened for her. Ellie’s hand tightened around Cassie’s. The tenderness hurt more cleanly than the office had.

Cassie drew back. Her thumb remained against Ellie’s cheek. “Take me to your bed.”

Ellie led her down the short hall.

The bedroom contained a bed, one narrow table, and a lamp she had bought because the overhead light made everyone look recently deceased. Cassie took in the room with one glance. Her eyes stopped on the bare walls and the duffel beside the closet. Ellie waited for pity and found none. Cassie removed her sweater, folded it once, and set it on the chair.

“Stand in front of me.”

Ellie obeyed.

Cassie loosened the short braid and combed it apart with her fingers. She did not hurry. Each pass through Ellie’s hair took another day of silence out with it. When the last tie came free, Cassie set it beside the lamp and turned Ellie by the shoulders until they faced each other.

“Hands at your sides.”

Ellie let them fall.

Cassie opened the first button of her shirt, then the second. Her knuckles brushed the skin beneath Ellie’s throat. She watched the place she touched instead of Ellie’s face, concentration gathering between her brows. Button by button, the shirt opened. Cassie slid it from Ellie’s shoulders and put it with her sweater rather than letting it fall.

She unfastened Ellie’s bra. The straps followed the shirt. Cassie looked at her without the deliberate hunger she had used before to make Ellie feel exposed. Tonight, the attention was almost reverent. It lingered over freckles, the small yellowing bruise near one shoulder from the last shift, the rise and fall of her breathing.