Combustion (12 page)

“There, that helps, right?” Cecily smiled, shedding her own clothing with methodical precision. “The first one really takes the edge off.”

Astrid watched Cecily undress, feeling distant in her own skin. The orgasm had been good, of course; Cecily was an expert, but it wasn't the same tender way Eli had taken his time with her. Cecily always sought climax, her partner's and her own, without delay. No matter how many times they slept together, it never got personal, just a task to be completed: mutually beneficial, but never earth-shattering. The thought made Astrid feel oddly lonely for Cecily and brought her own loneliness into sharp relief. She put it aside and tried to focus on the moment.

Cecily looked up, dropping the last of her underthings on the floor, and caught Astrid's gaze. Did she have an inkling about her lover's thoughts? If so, she didn't comment, simply leaned over and took Astrid's mouth under hers again. Astrid ran her fingers down Cecily's back, loving the feeling of soft skin beneath her hands. Then she reached between them, cupping Cecily's voluptuous breasts, rubbing the nipples with her thumbs. The woman sighed in pleasure, smiling as she leaned up on her elbows.

“That's nice, you know that?” She dropped a light kiss on Astrid's lips, then sat up and opened the nightstand drawer. “Ahh, here we go. Just what I was looking for.”

Cecily poked around in the drawer, choosing between items. When Astrid leaned up to see, a gentle hand pushed her back to the bed. “Now, now. You lie back and let me take care of this.” Cecily brushed her hair back behind her shoulder and gave Astrid a warm smile. In a moment, she scooted back between her lover's legs.

Her thumb found Astrid's clit with ease, rubbing in firm, practiced circles. With her knees falling out to the sides, Astrid felt completely exposed, but she loved that feeling. She closed her eyes.

Cecily's other hand brushed her pussy, then lower, touching her with fingers that felt warm and slippery with lubrication. When one finger pressed against her ass, she gasped, eyes opening in shock as that finger slipped inside. It felt unusual, but not unpleasant, and with the continuous stimulation of her clit, unusual soon turned to incredible. Cecily stroked her finger in and out. Astrid's body felt warm and shivery, ripples of pleasure beginning to run through her. She could come just from this, could feel the tension building, and right when she thought it was inevitable, Cecily stopped and left her gasping.

Before she could complain, though, or do anything but moan, she felt the finger replaced by something else, a cold shock of metal that made her arch up off the bed. After a moment, it began vibrating. “Oh, fuck…” was all she could manage as the toy moved back and forth. Her world narrowed down to the feeling between her thighs, overwhelming all conscious thought and action, and all she wanted was to come. After a moment, she felt a hard, firm object slip into her pussy. She realized it was her favorite toy when the nub pressed up against her clit. When that too began vibrating, her entire body seized up with the pleasure. Her orgasm didn't so much build as it crashed over her, tearing through her in rolling waves, white-hot and intense. Nothing existed but her body and the throbbing between her legs.

She came down slowly, consciousness returning bit by bit as the pleasure subsided. Her body felt heavy and sated. Cecily had removed the toys and was wiping them down with a cloth, a tiny smile of satisfaction on her lips. “Are you back with us now?”

“Mmm.” Astrid pushed up to a sitting position on the bed. “Thank you.”

“Happy to oblige. You really like this one, do you?” Cecily was holding the sleek wooden toy she'd used on Astrid, studying the external clit nub.

“My current favorite.” She kissed the other woman, wanting to convey her appreciation in that kiss, guiding Cecily down onto her back. “Do you want to try it?”

“Please.”

By the way Cecily gasped and arched when Astrid slid the toy inside her, she knew this wouldn't take long. It never did; Cecily reached climax more easily than any man she'd taken to bed. She didn't want to rush, wanted to take her time at her lover's breasts and soft curves, but Cecily never wanted to wait. Cecily's body was easy to read—she flushed across her neck and chest, nipples tightening, and her hips began rocking against Astrid's hand. Time to go faster, harder; she loved the little noises Cecily made when she got close. With no warning, then, Cecily arched up off the bed and came, crying out, her beautiful red hair spilling across the pillow as she tossed her head. Then she relaxed, her body going limp and spent, seeming to soften into the bed as she lay back down.

After setting the toy aside, Astrid curled up next to Cecily and kissed her. The other woman brought her into close contact that felt convivial but not meaningful—an embrace between friends. Astrid breathed in the scent of rosewater and tried to relax, tried not to remember the way Eli had curled around her in the dark, his touch protective and intimate. She didn't need that, really: she was independent. In Cecily's embrace, maybe she could learn to forget about Eli.

Chapter Twenty

Although he'd agreed to meet Astrid at ten, Eli arrived at their workshop shortly after nine. After what had happened the previous week, he wanted time to get his bearings before she arrived.

Whatever peace of mind he'd achieved by staying away from her evaporated when he walked inside and saw the room exactly as they'd left it Saturday night. Memories of that night, of Astrid, had haunted him relentlessly in the intervening days. He'd begun to entertain ridiculous ideas, like courting her despite their different personalities and the certainty of heartbreak. Even knowing what a bad idea it was for them to be together, if she propositioned him again, he wasn't sure he'd say no.

Best not to dwell on that line of thought. The brass piping he'd ordered had been delivered, so he pulled out the welding gear and began building the frame, putting the distracting thoughts out of his mind.

“Hi.”

How long had she been standing behind him? Eli cut the torch and pushed up his welding goggles. “Hi.”

Something had changed in Astrid in the past few days. Her expression was guarded, her jaw set. She didn't look mad, exactly, but the reckless playfulness of the past few weeks had all but vanished. “Working on the frame, then?”

He looked at the partially built structure of piping. “I ordered the pipes on Monday, and they were waiting for me when I got here. I thought I could work on the framing, and you could build the devices.” After gesturing to the machine prototype, he wished he hadn't. She looked at it, following his gaze. Surely they were both thinking the same thing. Eli cleared his throat. “Unless you want to take them out of the prototype and put them in the finished model.”

She walked over to the prototype and examined the devices, God help him, handling them as if Saturday night had never happened. After a moment's consideration, she shook her head. “No, I think I want to keep this intact. I can build another set. We're still ten days out from the Judges' Viewing and I have time.”

Without saying anything else to him, she gathered some equipment and sat down at the other workbench.

The tension between them had been challenging before, but this silence was more awkward than he had anticipated. Worst of all, she didn't seem to be bothered by it. Every time he looked over at her, she was bent over her work, assembling components with unbroken focus. How could she be so dispassionate when he kept looking up at her every time she moved?

Not until they stopped for lunch did she say anything to him at all. They sat side by side on the workbench, chewing in silence, when she finally said something indistinguishable through a mouthful of sandwich.

“What did you say?” he asked.

She swallowed. “It has to have a name.”

He followed her line of sight to the machine prototype on the worktable. Right, a name for the machine. At least she was talking to him. “It oscillates.”

“And it's a felicitator, like the rest of my devices.” She chewed another bite, then swallowed, still staring at the machine. “It's an oscillating felicitator.”

“Is that what we call it, then? The Oscillating Felicitator?”

Astrid looked down into her sandwich. Her expression was pensive, brows knit, teeth nibbling her bottom lip. Did she know what that did to him? She couldn't be doing it on purpose. She hadn't touched him at all that day, not even an accidental brush past him while getting a tool off the shelf, so this was her “thinking” face. She thought for so long that he went back to eating his own sandwich.

“We should both get credit. I say we call it the Bailey-Rutledge Oscillating Felicitator.” She looked over at him. “What do you think?”

He rubbed his beard. “That's a mouthful. Can I call it the Ossy?”

“If that makes you happy.” Astrid took another bite of sandwich, and their conversation was over.

By the time Eli finished the frame and the gear assembly, his eyes were bleary. Astrid continued to work at her bench, peering through the magnifying lens at the tiny components she was handling. She seemed to show no signs of stopping.

“It's after five.” Eli began packing up his own tools, relieved to have an excuse to leave the uncomfortable environment. “I think I'm going to call it a day.”

At first he thought she hadn't heard him, but then she set the tools down and stretched, arching her back like a cat. He remembered the way she arched like that when she came, and his cock stirred in his trousers. No, not now. Without acknowledging him, she began packing up. For a moment, he thought about broaching the subject of their last encounter, but with the disinterested way she gathered her tools, he changed his mind. He'd asked for distance, and she was giving it to him.

As she turned to leave, he called after her. “Tomorrow? Same time?”

“All right.” Without pausing, she left.

Eli gathered his thoughts as he gathered his tools, aware of the emptiness of their small workshop without Astrid there. He should have said more to her. Maybe he would take the long way home, walk by her flat. If he saw her on the way, perhaps he could clear things up between them. No reason they couldn't be friends, right?

The night was warm and uncharacteristically dry, the sun just fading below the skyline. He followed the same route Astrid had taken the night he walked home with her, turning down her street, remembering the anticipation and anxiety he'd felt as they approached her flat. Tonight, he felt the same mix of emotions.

He spotted her walking a few blocks ahead of him when he turned the corner. She approached the front steps of her building, but the door opened before she could use her key. From this distance, in the fading light, he could barely make out the smile on her face. Then a woman stepped out of the front entryway and kissed Astrid on the mouth.

A sensation like ice water ran down his spine, stopping him where he stood in the shadow of a tenement building. He watched, unable to look away, as Astrid kissed the woman back, reaching one hand up to cup her lover's cheek before following her back into the flat. The cold feeling lingered long after Astrid had closed the door and left him alone on the deserted street in the gathering twilight, long after his own silent walk home.

Chapter Twenty-One

Maybe today it would be easier to be cold to Eli. Astrid took a moment to compose her thoughts outside the door to their workshop flat, knowing he was probably already working. She wanted to have the right expression when she went inside. It had taken almost all her effort to cultivate aloofness with him yesterday, but maybe today she wouldn't struggle with it so much.

His back was to her when she entered the workshop itself. As soon as she greeted him, she could see his shoulders tense up. Was that because of her, or because he had turned on the hammer machine? Either way, he didn't turn around, and she settled down to work, the hammer machine a constant drone that eventually faded into the background.

Deep into her own work, it took her a few minutes to notice that the room had gone silent. She set down her machinery and turned to see what Eli was doing. He was watching her, holding the brass saddle in hand, seeming unsure what to do or say.

Astrid surveyed the situation. “Are you all right?”

“I was just trying to figure out how far along you were with the devices. I'm nearly ready to fit the saddle.”

“Did you think about asking me?” Was she supposed to read minds now? Did he expect that she would realize on her own that he was waiting for her?

“I thought about it, but I didn't want to disturb you.” While his words were thoughtful, his tone was clearly annoyed, his body language tense.

Whatever had gotten into him, she didn't want to deal with his problems. “I'm almost finished with the clit vibrator, but I haven't started on the shaft yet. I can probably finish that by the end of the day. Can you do anything in the meantime?”

Setting the saddle aside, he rubbed the back of his neck. “I suppose I can finish the gear work.”

“Well, do that then.” What was his issue? He seemed to want to say something to her, but after a moment of his ambivalence, she turned back to the worktable. She had her own tasks to finish.

Her morning was punctuated by a few other interruptions like that one. Eli would ask her some inane question, pause inordinately long after her answer, then return to work. Finally, after the third such occurrence, she put her work down with more force than usual and turned back to face him.

“Eli, is there something you want to say to me? Or are you just going to keep interrupting me and then staring at me all day?”

His jaw hardened, eyes narrowing slightly. He licked his upper lip, pausing before answering her. “All right, yes, there's something I want to say to you. How long have you been sleeping with that woman?”

Astrid felt her body heat as sudden anger bloomed in her stomach. So that's what this was all about? He saw her with Cecily somehow, and now he wanted to hear the specifics? She fought to keep her voice level. “Follow me home last night?”

“It wasn't like that. I wanted to clear things up between us.” His eyes flicked sideways to the machine prototype, sitting on the worktable like a manifestation of the elephant in the room.

“There's nothing to clear up.” Astrid felt a tightness in her throat. He must have seen Cecily meet her at the door. “What's happening between Cecily and me is none of your business.”

“Cecily?” Oh, damn, he probably would remember the name from dinner. He leaned back against the workbench. “As in Cecily Lahey?”

“So what if it is?” Astrid scooted up from the bench to sit on the table, disliking the feeling of sitting below Eli's eye level.

“So she…she…?” Eli waved his hand, searching for the right word.

“She what? Runs a brothel? Buys my felicitation devices? Took me in when I needed help?” Astrid felt herself growing louder and had to work to lower her volume. “She's a good friend I can rely on.”

“It seems like she's more than a friend, from what I saw last night.” Eli folded his arms, his jaw set.

Astrid's mouth fell open, her racing heartbeat making it difficult to think. His rudeness, his presumption, was staggering. He had no right to ask about her personal life. “What are you implying, Eli? That Cecily and I are sleeping together?”

“Well, are you?”

“So what if we are? I don't think you have a monopoly on who I sleep with.” What did he want from her? When he looked at her, she could swear she saw jealousy in his eyes, and that made her even angrier. “What business is it of yours, anyway? Last time I checked, we were ‘such different people'. Sleeping together was ‘a bad idea'. Has any of that changed?”

Eli's mouth opened and closed a few times, but Astrid didn't want to wait for him to come up with an answer.

“I can't believe you. Yes, I'm sleeping with Cecily. I like her. I like having sex with her. I'm not in a relationship with her, as you so quickly assumed.” She pushed to her feet, fists clenching. “Do you know why I like her? Because she doesn't look down on me for who I am and what I do.” When Eli opened his mouth to speak, she raised her hand. “Don't you dare say you don't judge me. I see the way you look at me sometimes, when you think I'm not looking.” Angry tears prickled at the corners of her eyes, and she blinked them back. She was not going to cry.

Expecting that Eli might attempt to pacify her, or apologize, she was ready to shoot down his kindness. She didn't expect his actual response.

“So I'm judging you?” The anger in his voice made her step back in surprise, bumping into the worktable. “You took one look at me and thought you had me completely figured out. You refuse to believe that anyone else could have suffered as much as you have. You won't ask for help, even when you need it. You're stubborn as hell and too independent for your own good, and you won't admit that you need me in this. You need this build, and I'm as much a part of it as you are.”

Astrid gave a short, mirthless laugh. “All right, so I want to win the World's Fair, and thanks to this misogynistic perversion of a trade commission, I have to team up with you. You've got me. Clearly I'm a heartless bitch because I didn't want to give out my idea to the first bloke who came along.”

Eli ran a hand through his hair, shaking his head. “I don't believe you. I am doing more than my share in this partnership and you know it. And God forbid I show some surprise that you're hiding Cecily away from me! If you really don't care what I think, why not say something about her earlier?”

How dare he? Astrid's entire body felt tense, like a coiled spring, and she could feel her fingernails digging into her palms. “So now I have to report to you? What I do in my bedroom is none of your business. You do not get any say about who I do and do not have sex with, because you and I are not in a relationship.”

Eli stepped forward, entering her space in a deliberate way that would have made her back up if she wasn't already pressed against the table. She had never fully appreciated his height, how solid he was, until he stood towering over her. The air between them felt alive with electricity.

“I think what happens in your bedroom became my business once you invited me into it.” His voice, still laced with anger, sounded husky; she felt it in her body as much as she heard it. He looked down into her eyes, and she felt suddenly breathless, unable to think, her own annoyance dissolving amidst other sensations. Had he always smelled this good?

“Oh, you think so, do you?” Her voice sounded loud in her own ears, shaky with forced bravado as he cupped the back of her head.

“Yes, I do.” He dragged her mouth to his.

God, why did he have to kiss her like this, his mouth firm and insistent, his tongue twining with hers? If he didn't grab her ass and hitch her leg up over his hip, she wouldn't have tangled her hands in his hair. If he didn't press himself between her thighs, she wouldn't have moaned into his mouth.

Eli first brushed her throat with his lips, then his teeth, nibbling his way down the ribbon of sensitive flesh. “Tell me you don't want this.” He reached up beneath her skirt, hitching up the fabric, and groaned when he found that she was already wet. At the first touch of his fingertips, her knees weakened, and she threw her head back with a gasp. “That's right,” he said against her neck, holding her immobile in his strong arms. “You want me to fuck you again, don't you?”

Finding her footing, she drew back slightly, still pressed against the table, and reached around to the front of his trousers to cup his erection. To her gratification, he hissed in a breath, his hand slipping away from her to steady himself on the table. “Yeah, well, I'm not the only one.” She gripped his shaft through the fabric of his trousers, and his mouth fell open. “What's the matter? Bad idea not seeming so bad anymore?”

Eli met her eyes, a half smile flicking across his lips. “Cecily doesn't have one of those, does she?”

Astrid smirked, releasing him. “On the contrary, we have a whole drawer full of them.”

“Oh, you think you're funny, don't you?” With a growl, Eli picked her up and carried her bodily out of the workshop, into the living room. “You don't have one like this, I promise.”

Astrid held on, wrapping her legs around his hips, pressing open-mouthed kisses to his neck. “You mean attached to a pompous fuck-wit?”

Eli dropped her lengthwise onto the sofa and immediately climbed over her, bracing himself on his elbows as he began kissing his way down her chest. When he reached the neckline of her blouse, he lingered there and began unfastening the metal busk of her corset. “Better a pompous fuck-wit than a self-righteous bitch, wouldn't you say?”

With his lips caressing the tops of her breasts, Astrid couldn't think of something mean to say. He pressed one leg right between her thighs, forcing her knees apart as he finally finished unhooking her corset and tossed it aside. “I am not a self-righteous…ohh…” Her retort faded as he closed his lips over her nipple, suckling her through the fabric of her sheer blouse. The rough, wet cloth against her sensitive flesh made her feel dizzy and hot, her skin tingling. When he switched to the other breast, the cool air brushing the wet fabric stimulated her in an entirely different way. She squirmed against his thigh, seeking some kind of relief from the sudden ache between her legs.

Eli lifted his head, smiling as if he knew he'd won, and drove his leg more firmly against her. “Hmm? What was that? You're not what?”

It was difficult to find a coherent thought, especially when he began twisting her nipples between his fingers. Her eyes closed of their own volition as she sank back against the sofa cushions, spikes of pleasure mingling with pain as he pinched harder. Eli began sucking on her neck again, his mouth finding the point where her pulse fluttered beneath the skin. The moan that escaped her lips was indecent, low and husky and wanton; she felt his cock throb against her thigh at the sound.

Astrid opened her eyes and pushed him away from her, needing a moment to gather herself. Eli sat back, confusion on his face, until she climbed over his lap and straddled his hips, hiking her skirt up. “You're a complete arse, Eli Rutledge.” As she spoke, she pulled his shirt from his trousers and began unbuttoning it with a ferocious carelessness. “You can't keep your hands off me.” After tugging his shirt off, she yanked his undershirt up over his head, revealing his bare skin. She raked her fingers down his chest; her fingernail grazing his nipple elicited a low moan. He watched her motions, his eyes large and liquid in the dim light of the flickering lamps. She curled her fingers in the crinkly hair on his chest, loving the rough texture, the way it rubbed against her tender nipples when she leaned forward to kiss him.

Eli's hands went to her hips, holding her in place, and he thrust against her. The rough wool fabric of his trousers pressed just so against her clit, and a spike of pleasure raced through her. “Is it like this with her? Does Cecily make you feel this way?”

His jealousy, the repressed anger in his eyes, made her body heat up in a mixture of irritation and arousal. “Maybe.” He didn't need to know the truth, that Cecily was sweet but distant, that sex with her was barely more emotional than fucking a felicitation device. Astrid didn't want to give him the satisfaction of knowing how much she wanted this, the breathless passion and intensity. Reaching down between them, she found Eli's trouser buttons, deftly flicking each one open, making sure to brush against his straining erection as she did so. “Is that what you want? Do you want me to tell you how she brings me off with her tongue?” Sitting back farther on his thighs, she freed his cock and wrapped her hand around it, enjoying the way his eyes fell half-closed when she did so. “Or do you want to admit that you don't want to share?”

The way she stroked his cock was rendering him speechless. When she began rubbing her thumb over the tip, his head fell back against the sofa, his fingers digging into the cushions. “God,
Astrid
.” The way he said her name sounded like both a curse and a prayer.

Watching him come undone was hypnotizing, and she wanted more; she wanted him completely at her mercy. Why should she feel powerless all the time? Sliding down off the sofa, she knelt between his legs. Right when he noticed she had moved, as he opened his eyes, she leaned forward and closed her lips over the head of his dick.

His hips stilled instantly, as if he couldn't believe what was actually happening. When she slid her lips down to the base, taking him all the way inside her mouth, he groaned. That helpless, throaty sound was so hot she felt her clit throb just from hearing him. Slowly, drawing out the contact, she began sucking on him.

His hips remained frozen in place, his hands clenched tightly at his sides, clearly fighting her effect on him. That wouldn't do at all. She wanted to see him helpless, wanting, begging her. Slipping one hand down between her legs, she slid a finger inside herself, coating it with her juices, before reaching up behind his sac to brush his puckered hole.