Chapter 1

Lily didn’t answer. “That glass you were saving for me?” she asked. “Was there any wine left in it?”

“Some,” I said, “and there’s about a third left in the bottle. I can get another bottle if we want it.”

Her head shook against me, her loose hair slipping through the fingers of both of my hands. “I don’t want to get wasted, but this buzz feels just about right.”

I reached out for the wine bottle, then started to raise my right arm, which was still around Lily’s back.

“Nuh-uh,” she said. “You can manage one-handed.”

“That won’t be easy,” I griped. “The angle’s all wrong.”

“You’ll figure it out,” she crooned.

I rolled my eyes and picked up the bottle, half-filling her glass left-handed and giving myself a little more, leaving a small amount left in the bottle. Less than one glass, I’d guess. Setting it down, I picked up Lily’s glass and held it out to her.

She turned to look up at me. “I can’t take it,” she said. “You’ll have to tip the glass toward me.”

“I can’t do that,” I said. “I’ll pour it all over your dress. You have to take it.”

“My hands are stuck,” she said. “Just be careful.”

I rolled my eyes again, then lifted the glass to her lips, tilting it very carefully. When the wine was almost at the rim, Lily slurped to avoid spilling. That made both of us giggle, and I straightened the glass before trying again.

Eventually, she’d managed to drink half of the glass without spilling any on her dress or her boobs, which were squashed against me as she drank. I put her glass back down on the nightstand and drank from my own.

Lily giggled. “Drinking like that made my head spin.”

“What’s with the sudden clinginess?” I asked as I placed my glass beside Lily’s.

There was a small grin on her face as her eyes held mine. “I’m not being clingy,” she said. “I’m just never letting you go again. I’ll never let you out of my sight. You’re mine, forever and ever!”

“That’s going to be awkward,” I said.

“Mmm,” she said in agreement. “But necessary.”

Smiling, I moved my free hand back to her shoulder. Lily slipped a little further over my outstretched legs and pressed her face back against my neck. I couldn’t comfortably keep my right arm around her, so I let it drift down her back. “You’re a dork,” I said, as she kissed my neck again, once, before relaxing against me.

“You should know,” she retorted. “So, will you wear a tux?”

The topic change threw me. It took me a moment to understand the context. “Oh, umm. I don’t know. I was planning to Google my responsibilities tomorrow. Do you think I’ll be wearing a tux?”

“I have no idea,” Lily said, “but you’d look good in anything. I’d love to see you in a tux, but you’d look fine in a gown. You looked great today.”

“So did you, though I think this new clingy attitude is making your dress look disheveled now.”

“Don’t care,” Lily said.

Since the left side of the dress was trapped against me, the wrap was threatening to slip open further than she would be comfortable with. I was fairly sure she wasn’t wearing a bra under it, and though we’d seen each other in very little clothing often enough, cuddled together like this, the sight felt too intimate. I tugged on the top of the wrap to even up the quite low fabric overlap.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m undisheveling your top,” I said. “Is that a word? If I’m making it not-dis-sheveled, does that mean I’m sheveling it?”

“Are you staring at my tits again, perv?” Lily asked.

“I’m trying to avoid staring at your tits, perv,” I said.

“That’s hard for you, is it?”

“At this angle? A little bit,” I said.

Lily’s right hand finally left my waist. She trailed her fingers up my arm, then over the straps at my shoulder. She touched the left side of my face as she raised her lips and kissed my right cheek.

I could hear a trace of huskiness in my voice as I asked, “More clinginess?”

“Just being affectionate,” Lily said. She trailed her fingers back down my arm and kissed her way back down my neck, before leaning forward, her chest pressed against mine as she turned her face to allow her to press her lips to the nape of my neck. “Is that okay with you?”

Without waiting for an answer, she worked at my nape with her lips and tongue, making a growling noise.

Trying not to shiver, I said, “You’ve never been affectionate like this before. Did you have too much wine?”

She paused her activity to say, “Maybe not enough.” After a moment, she added, “No, just right, I think. In vino veritas.”

“I don’t know what’s gotten into you,” I said, as she kissed her way back to the junction of my neck and shoulder.

“Being around you drives away thoughts of my lying cheating asshole ex. I just feel moved to do this!” she said, her lips against my ear. I couldn’t completely suppress the shiver that caused. “I can’t believe I’ve never done it before.”

“Why would you?” I asked.

“Because it feels good to be close to you. Don’t you think so?”

“You’re tickling me,” I said. It wasn’t true, but I didn’t want to admit exactly what the touch of her lips was doing.

“When I’ve tickled you before, you fight me,” Lily said. I winced, expecting her to demonstrate, but she didn’t. “So maybe this tickling isn’t so bad?”

“It’s not as bad as regular tickling, no,” I admitted.

Lily seemed to treat that as a ringing endorsement. She pressed her lips to the base of my neck, parting them and tonguing my neck for maybe a full minute. Somewhere within that time the tingling I was feeling seemed to flow out into my chest and made my breath catch. When she finally eased off, I was trying hard not to let her notice how heavily I was breathing.

“I think you liked that,” Lily said, then kissed her way up to my jawbone.

“Why do you think that?” I asked, striving to keep my voice neutral.

She didn’t answer me for several seconds. After dragging her teeth along the underside of my jaw, she finally moved back.

“Because of the way you’re touching me?” she said, with a mischievous grin.

I hadn’t realized until that moment that I was drawing circles against her lower back with the fingers of my right hand.

“Oh. Umm, well, we touch a lot, don’t we? Because we’re close.”

“Yeah, we are,” she agreed. She touched the left side of my face, as she planted another kiss on my cheek. “I like that about us.”

“Yeah, me too,” I answered. What she was doing was making me feel even closer to her. I liked it. I just wasn’t certain that I should be liking it as much as I was.

This time, Lily didn’t release my cheek immediately. Her fingers against my face held me in place as she kissed along my cheek, stopping when she reached the corner of my mouth. She drew back to give me another impudent grin, then pressed her lips back to the corner of my mouth, leaving them there for a few seconds before drawing back and repeating the almost-kiss. My chest tightened, and my heart skipped.

Lily saved me from deciding whether I needed to respond or to draw back from her by climbing off my lap. She swiveled around to lean back against the pillows, taking my right hand in her left, perhaps to avoid appearing to reject me after backing away. “Time for my wine, waiter!” she yelled, imperiously, waving her free hand over her head.

I added a little more wine to her glass and handed it to her. “Your wish is my command,” I said. When she’d taken it, I picked up my own. Lily wriggled closer, our arms squeezed together.

“Why don’t we finish the wine, then get ready for bed?” I suggested.

Lily pouted. “I was enjoying teasing you!”

“I can tell you were,” I agreed, “but it feels silly with you in the dress and me in my long skirt. Did you bring pajamas? Or do you need to borrow a tee shirt?”

“I brought my PJs,” she said. She drank the rest of her wine, then handed me her empty glass. “There will be an extra-large tip if you can squeeze more wine from the bottle, miss!”

“How large is that?” I asked, dividing the last of the bottle between our glasses.

“Twice your usual tip!” Lily said, accepting the glass back.

I laughed. “Twice zero isn’t larger than zero. I’m gonna change in the bathroom, so you can hang your dress up directly,” I said. Standing, I picked up my wine and carried it around the bed. “Unfasten me first.” I could do it, but it would be easier if she did.

Lily rested her wine on the nightstand. “Step back a bit,” she instructed. When I did, she tugged on the ends of the laces, parting them.

I had reached around to catch the laces, but she ignored my waiting fingers. She quickly unthreaded the laces from their widely-spaced eyes. The top slid free, until I trapped it with my hand that still held my wine. “Lily!” I yelped.

“You’re fine,” she said, tartly. “You’re wearing a bra.” Which was true enough.

Then she grabbed my hips, holding me in place, while she leaned forward and began to nibble at my waist. Her teeth and tongue on my waist had the opposite effect from the cold shower I probably needed after her earlier teasing. My thighs tensed and my breath caught. I tried to move forward, but she held me tighter, and continued to tongue my skin until I finally groaned, “Lily?”

“I’m sorry,” she said as she released me. “I couldn’t resist.”

With no free hands I couldn’t get my pajamas, so I set my glass aside and hung my top where I’d found it.

While it was true that I was wearing a bra, so I hadn’t ended up topless, said bra was intended to take up as little space as possible while providing nipple obscurity and a minimum of support. So it had very narrow triangle cups, and the narrow straps did nothing to hide the fact that it looked like the tiniest of black bikini tops.

And Lily was staring at me, with a surprised, almost awed expression that made me think she hadn’t really known what the bra would look like, or that I’d grown at least a cup size since our last sleepover.

“Now who’s staring, perv?” I asked her, as I drew out my pajamas from my drawer.

She blinked, then said, “Sorry! Wasn’t meaning to!” with a nervous chuckle. That she hadn’t tried to turn the name calling back on me made me think she really had spaced out for a moment. I was feeling both amused and a little smug. I added panties to my collection, picked up my wine and headed to the bathroom.

Then her parted lips approached mine again, but this time I felt her tongue press against my upper lip. Extending my tongue to meet it wasn’t even a conscious act. It just felt inevitable. I could feel her rapid breathing against my face, attesting to the effect this was having on her.

As light as the shared kisses were, I felt my arousal ramping up. When Lily tilted her head to deepen the kisses, I moved my hands to her waist. Pressing more of her leg between mine, she shifted her body further onto me. I managed to hold back a moan, but I wasn’t sure how long I could do that.

Lily drew back. Her pupils were wide. She parted her lips again, her tongue just behind her lips. As she moved close, I opened my mouth to welcome her, brushing her tongue with mine. She groaned, then wriggled against me, her body molding itself to mine. As the kiss deepened further, my hands roamed her back, her skin warm, dry and inviting.