ChapterTwenty-Two
“I’m so sick of this.” Bianca paced back and forth in front of her couch, where Sam sat twirling her phone in her hand. “Nobody will tell me what’s going on.”
Sam sympathetically nodded. She had only removed her jacket since returning to Bianca’s apartment, but she was still sexy as all get out. But it was the last thing Bianca was thinking about. Her mind was still going over the events of the night.
After Ellen had been kicked out, everything changed. Tensions had been high. The guests awkwardly laughed and played with kittens while everyone else in the family looked around anxiously, whispering secrets Bianca wasn’t privy to.
As always, she was perpetually left in the dark.
“I don’t understand any of this,” she said. “Scarlett thinks it’s something to do with Black Diamond, but then why is Mom acting so crazy and paranoid? Why would Mom go nuts on Ellen like that?”
“I don’t know,” Sam said.
But Bianca barely heard her. “Mom was pretty drunk, but that still doesn’t explain it. She always gets drunk at these things. Maybe Ellen really is this big security threat. But that’s insane, right? She’s like 60 years old. Harmless! Even if she wanted to hurt us, wouldn’t she have done something at the gala? And if it is her who’s stalking us, why wouldn’t Mom just say so?” She halted her pacing and turned to Sam. “You don’t think it’s Ellen, do you?”
Sam shrugged. “Like I said, I don’t know. But it does seem plausible.”
Bianca studied Sam’s face. “If you knew something, you would tell me, right?”
“Of course. As long as I didn’t think it put you in danger. But I don’t know any more than you do. Your mother certainly isn’t telling me anything.”
Bianca sighed. “I’m just so sick of it. I’m sick of being kept in the dark because people don’t think I can handle the truth. I’m sick of being treated like a baby. With everything that’s going on, there’s no way Mom is going to let me go to California for grad school.” Hot tears welled in her eyes. “I’m never going to be free!”
Great, now I’m acting like a baby too.But she didn’t care. Not anymore. She’d been holding everything in for so long now. And all those emotions just kept building and building until they were threatening to spill out of her.
“Hey…” Sam took Bianca’s hand. “I know things are crazy right now, but they won’t always be like this. I don’t know what’s going to happen with your mom or this stalker, but I do know that you’ll get through it. We will get through it. Together.”
She drew Bianca down to the couch. Bianca snuggled close to her, resting her head on Sam’s chest. “Just promise me that when this is over, we’ll still be together. And we’ll go somewhere far away. Like New York. Or Miami.”
“When this is all done, we’ll go wherever you want,” Sam whispered. “I promise I’ll protect you until the end.”
Bianca wanted to believe her. That was why, when she wrapped her arms around Sam’s neck to steal a kiss, she refused to let go.
She needed Sam’s strength right now. But not in the usual way. She didn’t need the hard and heavy loving that Sam so often delivered. This wasn’t about teasing her, ‘taming’ her. What Bianca needed was the reassurance that there was someone in her corner, someone who would be there for her until one of them gave out.
Breaths, bodies, motion. That was what Bianca needed. And that was what she got when Sam lowered her onto her back on the couch like a stick in the wind.
She was grateful to be rid of her tight dress, her heels. Her bra was as light as a feather as Sam unhooked it from her body and tossed it to the floor. Every time Bianca attempted to take off a piece of Sam’s clothing, she was stopped—only so Sam could do it herself. Off went her vest, her tie. Off went her starched shirt, her dress pants.
They fell to the floor, out of sight, out of mind. They didn’t need much. Only each other.
This is everything I’ve wanted for so long. Bianca had always known she wouldn’t find her knight in shining armor among the twenty-somethings and college coeds who occupied her life. Her friends, their older brothers and sisters on whom she’d harbored crushes in her younger days—they wouldn’t give her what she needed.
The entire time, the perfect person for her had been hiding somewhere in a corporate office, doling out orders to her team and pretending that shutting off her emotions was the key to success.
But tonight? Sam wasn’t holding back her feelings. She wasn’t holding back at all. Bianca could sense the emotion behind every kiss, every touch. Her hands on Bianca’s waist and hips were tender but firm. Her lips were soft but insistent on Bianca’s face, her neck, her breasts. Her touch was gentle but unyielding, her embrace possessive but warm.
And as Bianca caressed Sam’s body in return, from her strong shoulders to her toned hips, she could hear the heaviness of Sam’s breaths and the pounding of her heart. As her lips brushed Sam’s neck and played at her peaked nipples, she could feel each little tremor that went through Sam’s body.
Does she feel the same way about me? She has to. Why else would she risk everything like this?
But when Sam reached between Bianca’s legs and slipped her fingers inside, the only question on her mind was, “Will I ever be able to make her feel as good as she does me?”
Only a few moments passed before Bianca was sighing in orgasmic relief. But they didn’t stop there. They continued to explore each other’s bodies, mapping them with fingers, lips, and tongues, falling deeper and deeper into each other, until finally, they had each drunk their fill.
They lay together on Bianca’s couch, limbs entwined, a throw blanket over them to protect them from the chill in the air. Sam had thrown her underwear and pants back on, but Bianca pulled her back down to the couch before she could get fully dressed. She wanted to bask in Sam’s body a little longer.
As Bianca nestled against her, she almost missed the sound of the lock turning in her front door.