The Muse (23 page)

Olive smiled. “I’m glad to hear that.” The hand stroking Erato, having slowed considerably, picked up speed. “Please try not to punish her too harshly, Erato. Unless she asks you to.”

Despite Olive then doing something to make Erato moan loudly, Kate recognized the brief moment of tension between them. Erato looked over her shoulder and met Olive’s eyes, deadly serious. “I’m here at Kate’s pleasure. I work for
her
.” Resuming her former prone position, she murmured indignantly, “She asked me to help her meet this deadline, and so far, my methods are working.”

“That’s
very
true,” Kate said. Although she understood why Olive was concerned, she had to give credit where it was due. “I’ve never been so prolific in my life. However unconventional her methods may be, Erato definitely knows what she’s doing.”

She remembered her moment of doubt about even making this date with Olive and the way Erato had encouraged her to follow through. Then the promise she’d extracted from Erato to keep her on track no matter what and not to let Olive become a distraction. Frustrated by how complicated everything suddenly seemed—and at a time when she wanted to focus on nothing but the two alluring, sexually available women right in front of her—Kate shook her head. “Ladies, as much as I love talking about my writing process, right now I’d much rather get back to what we were doing.”

Nodding, Olive stared into Kate’s eyes as she spoke. “I apologize, Erato, if it sounded like I was questioning your methods. I wasn’t. I was just…” She quirked a wry smile. “Feeling protective of Kate’s very sexy, very fuckable ass.”

“Well, I can’t blame you for that.” Erato’s light tone made it clear she wasn’t holding any grudges. When she glanced over her shoulder at Olive this time, she wore a seductive little pout. “Now will you
please
put your finger inside me?”

Visibly relaxing, Olive grinned. “I can do that.” Her hand shifted against Kate’s crotch, and seconds later Erato let out a familiar gasp. “Better?”

Erato braced her palms on the arm of the couch and arched back with a luxurious groan. “Mmm,
yes
.”

Kate craned her neck for a closer look. The sight of two fingers disappearing inside Erato’s dark-pink opening, again and again, pulled a strangled whimper from her throat. Once more spreading Erato open with both hands, she savored the opportunity to watch Olive’s masterful technique and tried to recall exactly how it had felt to be wrapped around those long, slim digits. Heavenly was the best word she could muster. It had been heavenly.

“
Please.
” Erato moaned. “Kate, fuck me, too. I’m already so close—”

Olive leaned over, drawing Kate away from her observation like a magnet. “You heard her. Fuck her in the ass so we can thank her for all the fine editorial work. Tonight’s reward is the result of a shared effort, after all.”

Completely true. Reminded of her deep gratitude for all Erato had helped her accomplish, Kate very tenderly swirled her index finger in the incredible wetness that Olive continued to draw out. She brought the tip up to play with her other, tighter hole. Applying slight pressure, she checked with Erato. “Yes?”

“Yes!” Erato didn’t wait for her to take action. She scooted backward onto Kate’s finger, impaling herself up to the second knuckle before coming to a stop, her thighs trembling. “Slow,” she whispered.

Kate moved her finger at a glacial pace, tickled to discover that she could feel Olive slowing her own thrusts through the thin wall that separated them. Closing the distance between their faces, Kate pressed a soft kiss to Olive’s lips, moaning when Olive immediately deepened it. Their busy hands synched up as their tongues fell into a sensual dance that somehow felt comfortable and absolutely earth-shattering at the same time.

“Olive.” Erato groaned pleadingly. “Not slow, all right? Olive, fast. Kate, slow…ish.”

Amused by the typically verbose muse’s loss of coherence, Kate began to giggle. Olive smiled without losing a beat, both hastening the motion of her fingers inside Erato and expertly wrenching control of the kiss from Kate before her laughter had died away. Erato and Kate released twin noises of pleasure, which widened the grin on Olive’s face and finally forced her to pause in their kissing.

“You stud,” Kate whispered, only seconds before Olive recaptured her mouth and Erato bucked against her hand, crying out.

The orgasm they coaxed from Erato was a thing of beauty. Her hips thrust jerkily against their hands, and she moaned and cried out in genuine, full-throated pleasure. Sensing that Olive was every bit as turned on by what they’d just accomplished as she was, Kate kicked up the intensity of their making-out a notch while Erato rode out a seemingly stunning orgasm.

Kate stilled her finger before Olive did, who waited until Erato begged weakly for mercy before she stopped pounding into her. Pulling away from their kiss with a quiet apology, Olive slowly moved the hand that was trapped between Erato and Kate, slipping out of Erato without abandoning her altogether. Kate followed suit, leaving Erato with a firm pat on the ass. “
That
was fun.”

Erato stood with surprising grace, fixing her hair while wearing a demure expression that made Kate cough with quickly suppressed laughter. “Very fun, thank you.” Seemingly at ease with her nudity—and being the center of attention—she planted her hands on her hips and looked back and forth between them. “So are we calling it a night or shall we move this to the bedroom?”

Kate tried to ignore the way her heart dropped at the suggestion that they end the evening. She was confused about why Erato would even make the suggestion, though she wondered if it had to do with the tension that had arisen between her and Olive earlier. Whatever Erato’s intent, Kate wasn’t ready to say good-bye. She had no idea what it would require to get permission to see Olive again, and that was a very bad, horrible, anxiety-inducing thing. Then again, no Olive in her life meant plenty of time and opportunity to write. And that was an extremely good, important, life-path-determining thing. Right? She reminded herself that last night, the book had been her top priority. So how come now she wasn’t sure
what
was most important?

I’m so confused.

Olive looked at her hopefully. “I’m game to keep this evening going, if you are.”

No deadline was worth shutting this down. Not when she hadn’t even gotten naked with Olive yet. “Then the bedroom it is.”

*

Kate jolted awake sometime before the sun began to lighten the night sky, overcome by a powerful, sickening sense of déjà vu. Just like the last time she’d fallen asleep sandwiched between two naked women, it appeared she hadn’t gotten lucky enough to wake up the same way. At the sight of the rumpled, empty sheets beside her, Kate’s heart dropped as she silently lamented Olive’s apparent habit of fucking and running. Was she doing something wrong? Or did she simply have unrealistic expectations for encounters that were never presented as anything other than one-night (or two-night) stands?

Rolling to face the lone warm body still pressed against her back, Kate felt her heart swell.
Erato
had stolen away, not Olive. Indeed, Olive was nude, looking breathtakingly peaceful with her features relaxed in slumber. Stunned to have been left alone with her crush, Kate didn’t hesitate to touch Olive’s shoulder, caressing the smooth skin as gently as possible. Olive grumbled and snuggled in closer, so wholly, unconsciously adorable Kate couldn’t suppress a fond chuckle. She slipped a hand between their bodies, lightly petting Olive’s bare stomach, and kissed her temple. Breathing into her ear, Kate whispered, “On a scale of one to ten, how awake are you?”

Not bothering to play possum, Olive smiled without opening her eyes. “Depends,” she mumbled. “Why?”

Kate ran her fingers down Olive’s spine, coming to rest only inches from the cleft of her ass. “Because we’re alone.”

Olive’s eyes snapped open. Surprised by the suddenness of the reaction, Kate barely had time to process what was happening before Olive climbed on top of her. Instinct drove her to wrap her legs around the supple body that weighed her down, while Olive pinned her arms against the pillow next to her head. Kate moaned at the feeling of warm, bare skin pressed against her own, as well as the delicious friction of Olive’s kinky pubic hair brushing her clit. All traces of exhaustion gone, Olive stared into her eyes as she shifted to slip her thigh between Kate’s. “How long do you think we have?”

Shrugging, Kate raised her head off the pillow and captured Olive’s lips in a kiss that rode a delicate line between hunger and restraint. Olive kissed her back, apparently content to live without an answer and make the most of whatever time they had. She ground her thigh back and forth across Kate’s swollen sex, dragging the distended clit over her silky skin again and again. Shivering, Kate lifted her own thigh, eager to reciprocate. Olive rocked against her, a quiet moan rumbling up from her chest as she began to move in a rhythm every bit as sexy as the noises she made. Kate mirrored her motions, looping her arms around Olive’s neck to keep their upper bodies in contact while their lower halves sought release.

Olive pulled out of their kiss to stare down at her with dark, glittering eyes. “Kate.” She hesitated, mouth open and hips working. “Kate, I really like fucking you.”

Kate bit her lip, afraid Olive would feel how much faster the words had made her heart beat. Feeling as though she were base-jumping off a skyscraper without a parachute, she opted to respond with complete honesty. “I
love
fucking you.”

Lighting up with unself-conscious joy, Olive curled a lock of Kate’s hair around her fingers without faltering in her driving rhythm. “I don’t want this to be the last time we fuck each other.”

“It won’t be,” Kate said, then pulled Olive down into a kiss that belonged in one of her hottest sex scenes. She didn’t want to think about logistics right now, even as thrilled as she was to know that Olive wanted to see her again. There was Erato to consider, and her deadline, and, most importantly, the promise Kate had extracted from her muse not to allow her to become distracted by her very real feelings for Olive. Rather than worry about all that to the detriment of their lovemaking, she simply promised herself that she would finish The Damn Book as quickly as possible. That would solve all her problems, more or less. Luckily, Olive had just provided her with the greatest motivation in the world—what else did she need?

Olive ended the kiss and sucked in a deep breath as her whole body tensed and the cadence of her hips became sharper, more focused. Sensing that Olive was close, Kate dragged blunt fingernails down the length of her back, triggering a noticeable shiver and a renewed rush of hot, wet arousal against her thigh. In response, Olive tugged on the hair still woven around her fingers and grinned through her pleasure-induced haze when the slight twinge of delicious pain made Kate whimper. It was the grin that pushed Kate right up to the edge, so swiftly she literally gasped in shock that she was about to come. She grabbed Olive’s ass and squeezed, encouraging her to go harder. She’d wanted Olive to climax first but was rapidly losing the battle to maintain whatever silly sense of pride fueled that goal.

Olive lowered her head and breathed into her ear. “I want to try all those things you’ve written about.” She stopped talking, then moaned and shook as she ground herself against Kate’s thigh. “With you.”

Kate tightened her fingers on Olive’s ass, closing her eyes as she fought not to orgasm despite the warm, slippery thigh she couldn’t stop riding. Images flashed through her mind of all the sexual fantasies she’d written down and put out into the world—this time, with her and Olive as the players. That Olive was already intimately familiar with her proclivities and desires after only two nights together, and that she approved, was the ultimate turn-on. Made stupid by excitement and pleasure, all Kate could manage in response to Olive’s suggestive words was a hoarse, “Yes.”

“There’s so much I’ve never done.” Olive kissed her neck, then scraped her teeth over the spot where her lips had been. “But I already trust you so—” Her words died as she cried out. “
Fuck
.”

Even though she knew Olive didn’t want their little interlude to end any more than she did, Kate wanted so badly to make her come before Erato interrupted them. It wouldn’t be the same with an audience. This was the most intimate moment they’d had together so far, and she was desperate to see it through. Cradling the back of Olive’s neck, Kate guided their faces together so that their foreheads touched. “Let go now,” she murmured. “This isn’t the last time…there’s so much I want to do with you…and
to
you…” She groaned at the mental picture she suddenly had of her face buried in Olive’s luscious ass, which quickly morphed into a full-motion fantasy of bending Olive over the desk in her office and fingering her from behind. A surge of predatory lust caused the hand still locked on Olive’s ass to tighten—pleasurably, judging from the satisfied wince she elicited. Emboldened, Kate licked Olive’s upper lip and murmured, “I plan to
destroy
your dirty little bucket list one item at a time.”

Olive surged against her and then stiffened, her entire body trembling with the force of what was clearly a breath-stealing climax. Groaning, she buried her face in Kate’s shoulder and shoved a hand between their lower bodies, stroking Kate’s clit so that they were able to enjoy their moment of orgasmic transcendence together. Kate clung to Olive as she came only seconds later, and dug her nails into her ass, and kissed every piece of skin her lips could reach: temple, cheek, shoulder. She moaned as loudly as she dared, wanting Olive to hear exactly how good it felt to be with her like this—and how badly she wanted to do it again.

Her orgasm seemed to last forever, only subsiding when her body was at its absolute limit, but it was still over far too soon. From the mixture of satisfaction and loss in the smile Olive wore when she finally gained the strength to lift her head and look Kate in the eyes, the feeling was mutual. Olive wiggled the fingers still sandwiched between them, triggering violent, nearly painful aftershocks of pleasure. “You turn me on like
crazy
, Kate McMannis.”