Chapter Text
One couldn’t possibly feel the Christmas spirit while standing on their feet for the twelfth hour, surrounded by the sounds of wailing children, shouting nurses, and a woman sobbing in the corner.
“Clear!”
Vi lifted her hands from the patient’s sternum and took a step back, watching one of the nurses hit the shock button on the defibrillator.
A moment passed as they held their breath, but instead of the sinus rhythm they were hoping for, the monitor showed a persistent ventricular fibrillation.
“Recommencing compressions!”
Vi climbed up the bed to gain leverage this time, her knees resting beside the patient as she began pressing down on his chest again. The muscles in her arms burned as her count increased, but she pushed herself to her absolute limit.
“One hundred. Someone take over now!”
A nurse stepped in to take her place, and Vi used the short break to quickly assess the room. “Someone get a new set of ABGs, please.”
“Done.” Another nurse ran to the lab with the blood samples, and Vi steered her attention back to the monitor.
“Okay, pause the compressions. We need to shock the patient again.”
“Clear!” The nurse with the defibrillator shouted, and everyone took a step back, including the anesthetist who’d been bagging the patient.
Time seemed to stretch into an eternity as they watched the patient get another shock, a nervous energy filling the room as they turned to the monitor.
“Alright, that’s a sinus rhythm, everyone!” Vi clasped her hands together, relief flooding through her. “Good job! Keep monitoring the saturation and pulse rate—”
“Dr. Lanes! You’re needed in room four!” A nurse hollered as she ran past the room, not even slowing down. “Charge Nurse has been screaming for you for the past five minutes!”
Mrs. Babette. Wonderful.
“Well, tell her I can’t split myself in two!” Vi shouted back as she exited the room, her attention snagged by the chaos in another room right across from her. “Or in three… hey, what the hell is going on there?”
“Oh, that?” The resident she’d stopped glanced toward the room. “That’s a new patient they’ve just brought in. There was a multi-vehicle road accident. More are on the way.”
Good God. Another case of too much alcohol at a Christmas party? As if the group of young men with multiple fractures, brought in earlier after jumping off their roof while high on acid, wasn’t bad enough.
The resident sniffed. “Um, Dr. Lanes… sorry, but what is that smell? And why are there some yellowish bits on your scrubs?”
“A guy threw up on me. I was going to get changed but—”
“DR. LANES! WE NEED YOU HERE!”
“Yep. That. Gotta go.” Vi dashed off, vomit on her scrubs and all. She was going to kill Sevika for taking a leave and making her the only attending physician on Christmas Eve. Seriously.
“Finally!” Mrs. Babette threw her hands up. “If I have to wait for you any longer, I’ll go and drag you myself. Can you please help the intern here and—goodness gracious, what is that smell? Did someone throw up on you?”
“Yep. Experienced nose.” Vi pointed a finger at her and steered her attention to the young intern who was shaking like a leaf next to the bed. She couldn’t remember his name, so new he was, but she did remember his face. “Hey, what’s the problem?”
“Um, the patient has pneumothorax, and we need to put in the chest tube.”
“So?” Vi took the clipboard from him and flipped through the pages, reading the patient’s record quickly before checking his condition herself. “You saw me do it yesterday. This is your chance to do it. You know which intercostal space to insert the tube, right?”
“The fifth one, y-yes,” the intern stammered, sweat beading along his upper lip.
Vi wondered if she’d looked like him a decade ago, but oh well, everyone had to start somewhere. “You can do it.” She stepped next to him, shifting her weight onto her left foot because her right foot had long since gone from pained to numb.
God. She yearned for a chair more than anything in the world.
The intern finally blew out a breath and picked up a scalpel. Thankfully, there was no family around to watch him tremble, and the patient was out cold.
He made a small incision with the speed of a snail and then inserted the artery forceps through the hole with the timidity of a baby goat.
Vi pushed a smile as she tried to wait patiently. “You’re doing well.”
Mrs. Babette snorted, knowing how restless she was with such a slow pace. Everyone in the ER was used to lightning-fast speed, after all. “Okay, here’s the tube.” She handed the chest tube to the shaking intern, attaching it to the drain once he was done inserting it.
“Nice work!” Vi said, already thinking of the next room she had to check. “Now, if you could just suture the tube in place, that would be great—”
The skittish intern perked up a bit too eagerly at her compliment and accidentally hit a tray of scalpels.
Blades catapulted into the air, and then one of them plunged straight through her sneaker.
“FUCK!”
The curse left her in a shout, and all heads swiveled toward her, from the residents charting outside to the patient lying in the room across.
The intern turned paler than the white walls. “Oh my God! Dr. Lanes, I’m so sorry!”
“It’s okay! Stay there." Vi lifted a finger, hopping on one foot and moving away from him.
Shit. Shit. That hurt like hell. Was the wound deep? She would probably need sutures and oh, she would never make it home on time, would she? Powder would kill her for skipping their family’s Christmas dinner and leaving her to face all their relatives alone.
“Goodness gracious, I thought this shift couldn’t get any crazier, but this is quite something.” Mrs. Babette shook her head, sounding more amused than concerned, like any other veteran nurses out there. “At least it’s the sterile scalpel and not the used one. Go get it pulled out and clean your wound, honey.”
“I’m so, so sorry, Dr. Lanes, I didn’t mean to—”
“It’s okay. Shit happens.” Vi forced a smile, trying not to appear too shaken as she left the room. In all honesty, she wanted to scream a little because God, that hurt.
What a way to end her shift. Could Christmas Eve get any worse?
As a matter of fact, it could get worse.
Vi emerged from the hospital at 10 o’clock, long past the 7 o’clock end of her shift.
The multi-vehicle road accident had been a disaster and they’d needed all hands on deck, and well, Vi might be exhausted, but she wasn’t heartless. She’d stayed behind and helped.
Powder had given up on calling her and resorted to bombarding her with twenty texts, all screaming in caps and sharing the same message of: WHERE TF ARE U?? U PROMISED TO COME. HDU LEAVE ME ALONE IN THE TRENCHES.
Oh, dear.
Vi slid her phone back into her pocket.
She should call Powder back, but she didn’t really feel like getting an earful after the kind of day she’d just had. Or she could text Powder, but that would probably result in Powder calling her and shouting at her anyway.
She trusted Ekko to lift Powder’s spirits tonight, in ways she didn’t need to know, but would inevitably find out, because Powder had no concept of censorship.
Now, if only she could find someone to lift her spirits too. Should she go somewhere else instead of heading back to her apartment?
No. Vi shook her head. Way too fucking tired. She would just drive home.
She climbed into her trusty, red Jeep Wrangler in the parking lot, which turned out to be not so trusty tonight because… why the hell wouldn’t it start?
“Oh, come on! Are you kidding me?” She tossed her sling bag aside, frustration mounting as she tried to start the car and fail again. “Come on, boy. You can’t do this to me tonight.”
Okay, so she was talking to her car now, which should indicate how close she was to losing her mind.
“Damn it.” She hit the steering wheel, then blew on it and rubbed it in apology. Ugh. Technically, she could get down and check what was wrong—she knew enough about her Jeep to fix it if she had to—but she didn’t really feel like doing all of that right now. She was so fucking tired.
“Great, there’s no online cab picking up my order either,” she mumbled to herself, staring dejectedly at her phone. Maybe everyone was having a lovely Christmas Eve, and she was the only poor soul out here having a bad night.
Vi hopped out of her Jeep and closed the door.
She could walk out of the hospital complex and down the streets until she reached the downtown area, where she could easily hail a cab.
She locked her Jeep and left it behind, following her new plan, which turned out to be royally shitty since it was snowing and she was freezing her ass off halfway through.
Damn it.
Vi debated going back and sleeping the night at the hospital, but she was already too far gone to turn back. Her wounded foot seemed to ache even more in the cold, making her limp and earning a few mildly concerned looks from the other pedestrians. Ugh. She must look pathetic right now.
And where are all the freaking cabs when you need them?
Somebody honked at her while she stood looking for cabs, and she whipped around to see a group of teenage boys driving past, laughing at her startled expression.
Assholes.
One day, they’d be thirty-three and understand how it felt to get honked at on the sidewalk after a long day of work, bones aching and all. Although, was the ache related to age or just the fact that Vi had spent over twelve hours standing today?
She really needed to sit down somewhere.
She spotted a glowing fluorescent sign across the street, seemingly a small wine bistro. It looked rather reserved, and it was probably overpriced as hell, considering it had a neat guy in a bowtie opening the door for stylishly dressed patrons, but it looked quiet, and right now, Vi could use some quiet.
She crossed the street and entered the establishment, smiling back at the polite guy who held the door open for her.
“Good evening, ma’am. May I have your name, please?”
“Oh, I don’t have a reservation tonight. Do you happen to have a table?”
“I’m afraid all our tables are reserved at the moment, but there are several seats available at the bar if you’d like.”
“Thanks. That will do.” Vi smiled and made her way toward one of the empty stools. She swore she could feel her joints sigh in gratitude the moment she set her weight down. Absolute bliss.
She swept her gaze over the place, appreciating the sleek lighting fixtures that cast the space in dim light, and the large wooden bookcases lining the walls.
It felt like drinking in a posh private library, with soft jazz playing in the background. How had she never checked out this place before? Probably because it looked expensive even from outside.
Vi made more than enough now as a doctor, but she hadn’t always had money growing up. It had taken years of hard work to get where she was financially, so she wasn’t about to waste money carelessly.
A bartender with slicked-back hair—an impressive amount of pomade on his head—came over to take her order and soon returned with a bottle of aged Chardonnay. “Should I start a tab, ma’am?”
“No. I think one glass is enough.”
“Noted. That’ll be one twenty.”
Vi reached into her pocket, and found a whole lot of nothing.
What?
She groped frantically for her wallet, finding only her phone and some crumpled receipts. The image of herself tossing her bag in a fit of rage in her Jeep came to mind, and she slammed her eyes shut.
Fuck. Really? Now?
She drew a deep breath, contemplating slapping her own face. “Sorry. I seem to forget my wallet in my car. Is there any way I can—”
“On my tab,” came a husky voice from beside her, and Vi turned to see who might be the most beautiful woman she’d ever laid eyes on, eyes as blue as the winter sky and lips as red as the wine in her goblet.
Holy hell.
The gorgeous woman eyed her for another second before turning back to her wine, swirling her crystal goblet indolently. Her stunning side profile—all high cheekbone and sharp jawline—was the only thing Vi could still see, but she could tell that she was a few years older than her.
There was a certain elegance in the way she carried herself, from the way she sat, legs crossed gracefully, to the way she dressed.
She wore a perfectly tailored, navy-blue business suit and killer heels, and even though everything on her—from the rose-gold watch on her wrist to the diamond necklace on her neck—seemed expensive, nothing about them screamed flashy.
“Is there a reason you’re staring at me?”
Vi started. “Sorry! I didn’t mean to be rude, especially after you just saved my ass. Thanks.”
Saved my ass? Really? How unsophisticated could she sound in front of this clearly sophisticated woman? Vi resisted the urge to crawl under the stool.
“No problem.” The woman’s icy blue eyes were back on her. “You know you don’t have to keep standing just because you can’t pay for your wine, right? You can sit.”
Vi didn’t even realize she was standing. Apparently, seeing a dazzling woman had a way of making her leap unconsciously from her stool, aching joints be damned. “Right. Thanks.” How eloquent. “I just had a really long day and I’m a little out of it. My car broke down and I tossed my bag into it and forgot to take my—”
She was rambling.
But the woman seemed to pay full attention to what she was saying, eyes set on her with a startling, scorching intensity that made her skin tingle with warmth.
“Anyway, thanks again, for saving me. Getting kicked out would’ve been embarrassing.”
“As I said, no problem.” She was still staring at Vi intently like she was trying to solve a puzzle. “A healthcare professional?”
“How do you know that?”
“Few professions work this late on Christmas Eve, if they even work at all. Also, you look like someone who’s just finished a twelve-hour shift.”
Heat flooded Vi’s cheeks. Fuck. Did the hottest woman of her life just say she looked like shit? Vi would never recover from this.
“Sorry. That might have sounded rude, but I didn’t mean it in a bad way. I work in a hospital myself, so I understand the exhaustion.”
Vi wondered if she was just saying that to make her feel better, but her gut feeling told her this incredibly blunt woman wasn’t the type to sugarcoat anything.
“I see. Managerial work, I'm guessing?”
“What makes you say that?”
“You seem too put-together to be working on the floor.”
The woman paused, looking as if she were the one a little affronted now. “That almost sounds like you’re saying I’m too delicate for any real work, but I probably deserve that after what I said earlier.”
Vi smiled. “So am I right? Managerial work?”
“I loathe to say this, but...” she paused, her glacial blue eyes sweeping over Vi and sending a delicious shiver through her. “You’re partially right.”
“Partially?”
“I'm afraid you’ll have to be content with that answer. I don’t really feel like talking about my work tonight.” She tilted her head as she stared at Vi, and God, she looked devastatingly beautiful, even when she was being a little dismissive and more than a little cryptic. “Let’s talk about you instead. Do you have a name?”
“In shocking news, I do. It’s Violet, but you can call me Vi.”
“Okay, Vi.” The woman nodded then offered her nothing in return.
“You do realize that you’re supposed to tell someone your name after asking theirs?”
The subtlest of smiles curved along her lips as she seemed to ponder her own name. “My name’s Caitlyn.”
Vi wasn’t sure if it was her real name, given how she had to think about it first, but she decided to go with it. “Okay, Caitlyn. What are you doing here alone? I’m guessing saving strangers in wine bars isn’t exactly how you like to spend your Christmas Eve.”
Caitlyn chuckled, her voice so low, it was barely audible over the jazz. “Yes. This isn’t how I usually spend my Christmas Eve. I’m on a business trip at the moment, and decided to sample some of the local establishments after a terrible meeting.”
“Ah.” Vi nodded. “That explains the aversion to talking about work.”
“Precisely.”
They locked gazes, sharing a smile of camaraderie.
“I guess I’m not the only one having a bad day, then.”
“No, you’re not.”
“Wanna whine about it together and see who has it worse?”
Caitlyn chuckled again, and Vi was beginning to realize just how much she enjoyed the sound of it.
“While a battle of misery sounds fun, I'd have to decline if it involved work.”
“Right. How about a non-work battle, then? Since it’s the end of the year, we can recap the shittiest days we’ve had so far and see who comes out the winner.”
Caitlyn's eyes danced with amusement. “You have a morbid way of entertaining yourself.”
“Well, I get the feeling that you do, too. You work in healthcare, after all.”
“Not wrong. Alright, then. You go first.”
So secretive.
“Okay, let’s see…” Vi contemplated and counted on her fingers. “A douchebag crashed into my car sometime in January and gave me a mild concussion. My sixth relationship went nuclear sometime in June. And my cat had a health scare last month. Your turn.”
Caitlyn raised an eyebrow. “Okay, first of all, I’m glad you and your cat are doing okay now. That is… assuming the cat is no longer sick?”
“Tofu? Yeah, he’s fine now. The little bastard swallowed something he shouldn’t.”
“You named your cat Tofu?”
“Yep.”
“Interesting,” Caitlyn mused. “I’d bet he has white fur.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because it’s a little predictable.”
Vi laughed. “Fair enough.”
“You mentioned something about your sixth relationship? That’s quite a lot.”
“What can I say? It’s hard to maintain relationships when you work crazy hours in the hospital. I’m sure you understand.”
“Unfortunately, I do. It’s especially difficult if the other person doesn’t work in healthcare and doesn’t understand.”
“Exactly. But enough about my failed relationships. How about you? Any boyfriend waiting for you faithfully back where you came from?”
She was fishing for information, she knew. But damn it, Vi would deserve to have her lesbian card revoked if she didn’t shoot her shot with this gorgeous woman, who clearly didn’t have a wedding ring on her finger.
“God, no. No boyfriend, ever.” Caitlyn let out the smallest of laughs as if the very notion were ridiculous, and Vi felt her heart swell with excitement.
“Girlfriend then?”
The way Caitlyn looked at her, icy blue eyes cool on the surface but rolling with storm beneath, made her shudder.
“Not at the moment, no. But I do like women.”
Vi sucked in a breath. Jackpot.
“Well, regale me with tales of your ex-girlfriends then, so I can feel better about getting dumped by my ex-girlfriends for always missing dinner dates.”
She’d said 'my ex-girlfriends' intentionally, and it seemed to work, since Caitlyn’s lips parted slightly. Silent understanding passed between them, like an invisible wire carrying a spark that set off a whole new burst of light between them.
Now they were on the same page.
“I don’t really have ex-girlfriends. Only ex-flings.”
“Not into relationships?”
“Yes. As you said, demanding hours in the hospital.”
“And clearly, you’re trying to juggle hospital work with something else on top of it.”
Caitlyn smiled, still unwilling to reveal what it was. “Something like that, yes. I don’t have the time to maintain a relationship, and frankly, I don’t think it’s necessary to have a full life. And before you start preaching me about the importance of having a partner, I’m going to stop you and tell you that I’m thirty-eight. I’ve had plenty of time to think about what I want and don’t want in life.”
Vi lifted both palms. “Far be it for me to judge. I’m starting to consider taking that path myself. It is tiring getting to know someone new, building something together from scratch, and then watching it collapse over and over again.”
Caitlyn raised her goblet and clinked it with hers. “Well, then I wish you a more… pleasant non-relationship moving forward.”
Vi laughed. She felt like she was getting a little lightheaded after drinking wine on an empty stomach, but she could swear Caitlyn was staring at her lips and then her throat as she swallowed. Her gaze dropped to Caitlyn’s lips too.
“You still haven’t told me about your days.”
“Are you sure you’re genuinely curious about that and weren't just trying to charm me with a conversation?”
Bold. Far bolder than Vi had initially assumed. But then again, Caitlyn had caught her staring at her. “Depends. Are you just trying to evade my question or are you interested in being charmed, somehow?”
Caitlyn leaned against the bar, chin resting on the back of her hand as she stared at Vi with a deadly, deadly smile. “Both.” Her eyes seemed to dance with something that hadn’t been there before, turning a shade darker. “Are you going somewhere after this?”
Thrill shot through Vi. “Why? Are you planning on taking me somewhere?”
“Depends. Would you say yes?”
“Suppose I did. Where would you take me?”
Caitlyn’s eyes gleamed with a delicious promise. “Nowhere you wouldn’t like, Violet.”
Good fucking God.
There was no way she could say no to that.
“Okay, as long as I don’t end up on the news tomorrow.”
The low chuckle that escaped Caitlyn made her wonder if ending up on the news would be a bad idea, after all. “I have no intention of putting either you or myself on the news. Quite the opposite, I intend for tonight to stay private.”
Caitlyn stood up, and it was only then that Vi realized how tall she was, especially in her killer heels.
“Come,” she said, grazing the back of her fingers against Vi’s cheek, her whisper smelling like wine and something else as sinfully indulgent. “We’ll freshen you up, then you can make me forget all the bad days I’ve had so far.”
Vi had never taken a shower with an audience before.
Sure, some of her exes had seen her shower before, but they had actually been in the shower with her instead of sitting on a lavish armchair facing the bathroom, legs crossed in poise as if expecting a good show.
“Are you not joining me?”
Caitlyn hummed, one hand resting on the armrest and the other cradling a glass of wine she’d just poured for herself. “In a moment. I’d like to savor another drink.”
“I think you’ve had enough to drink tonight.”
“No. The point of tonight is to forget all my problems.” Caitlyn leaned back in the armchair, swirling the red wine in her glass.
“So… what? You’re just going to drink and watch while I shower?”
“There’s a blind in the bathroom you can roll down if you’d like.”
If you’d like?
Vi's lips twitched.
So Caitlyn did want to watch, after all.
“You sure picked an interesting hotel room for a business trip.”
“My assistant booked the room. I supposed she chose the most expensive one without paying attention to the essentially transparent bathroom.”
Okay. Assistant. The most expensive room in an upscale, five-star hotel. Not to mention the VIP chauffeur service that drove them to the hotel earlier.
Caitlyn wasn’t just rich. She was wealthy. And clearly, she was stressed about something and in a dire need of distraction tonight.
“Do you need help undressing, seeing as you’ve suddenly lost all your motor functions?”
Vi snapped out of her trance. Okay. Two could play this game. Far be it from her to disappoint a beautiful woman in need of fun.
“Maybe I do. Come help me get out of my clothes?”
Caitlyn’s eyes glinted in the dim light as she set her glass down and sauntered over to her.
Soft palms stroked over the plane of Vi’s chest and pushed her coat off her shoulders, their movement deliberately slow. It was shocking how much heat seemed to radiate from Caitlyn’s palms to her skin, even though she was still wearing a sweater.
“I thought you said you needed help.” There was a smile in Caitlyn’s voice that matched the one in her hazy eyes, the scent of wine strong on her breath.
Vi might’ve grown a little impatient with her languid pace and ended up pulling her sweater over her head herself.
“You’re moving too slowly.” She pushed the navy-blue suit jacket off Caitlyn’s shoulders in one swift motion, hands shaking with excitement as they began working on the buttons of Caitlyn’s white blouse.
“Desperation is the doorway to oblivion, someone told me.”
“I thought you said the point of tonight was oblivion.”
Caitlyn smiled, gliding her palm down the muscles of Vi’s arm, squeezing gently with each swell. “That is correct.”
Just before Vi could undo the last button of her blouse, though, Caitlyn caught her wrist. “But we’re going to do this at my pace. I like to savor my indulgence.”
Damn. Vi was more of a rip-each-other’s-shirts-off kind of woman.
But she couldn’t deny how good it felt to have Caitlyn’s nails rake up the length of her arms in another self-indulgent journey, long fingers splaying over her biceps before closing hard and digging into her skin.
Caitlyn took another step forward, and suddenly everything in Vi's world narrowed to her alone, from the scent of her alluring perfume filling her lungs, to the warmth of her breath brushing the shell of her ear.
Vi barely registered her belt being unbuckled, hypnotized as she was.
“Get into the shower,” Caitlyn whispered into her ear, unzipping her pants and then taking a step back. Her eyes seemed darker than before, and it was only then that Vi realized Caitlyn wasn’t as patient as she appeared.
“Fine.”
Let’s see how long she can just sit back and watch.
Vi took off the rest of her clothes and stepped into the shower, twisting the faucet and letting hot, steamy water rain down on her. It sluiced over her hair, her chest, and her abdomen, and even though she couldn’t see Caitlyn, she could feel the weight of her gaze on her back, so heavy it felt almost like a physical caress trailing down her body.
Vi wasn’t one to brag, but she knew what the ladies loved, and usually, the broad view of her shoulders, topped with the meticulously inked tattoo spanning the entire plane of her back, was a favorite.
The en suite door slapped open, and Vi smiled to herself.
Apparently, her mysterious lady friend tonight was no different.
She turned around to see Caitlyn’s stormy blue eyes staring at her through the fogged-up cubicle.
The door slid open and Caitlyn stepped inside, still dressed in her undone white blouse and navy-blue suit pants that she couldn’t be bothered to take off.
“You’re still—”
“Now.”
Caitlyn grabbed her face and crashed their lips together. They stumbled backward from the sheer force, Vi’s back hitting the tiles behind her with a loud thud. She grunted but refused to break the kiss, her lips pushing back against Caitlyn’s just as ferociously.
She pressed a thumb down on Caitlyn’s chin and forced her mouth open, sliding her tongue deep inside. Caitlyn groaned when her tongue flicked against the roof of her mouth, and it sent a full-body shudder so strong through Vi, she thought she would come right then and there.
She squeezed at Caitlyn’s waist and pushed even deeper into her, the taste of her heady and heated. There were nails digging into her shoulders as Caitlyn tried to steady herself, so Vi did her the favor of flipping her around and pressing her against the wall.
“God.” She almost didn’t recognize her own voice, her eyes fixed on the white bra Caitlyn was still wearing. It had turned almost translucent under the hot water, and Vi couldn’t stop herself from bending down and capturing a breast with her mouth even if she’d wanted to, tonguing the aroused, brown nipple through the bra and chewing it.
“Fuck!” Caitlyn’s back arched off the wall, pushing more of her breast into Vi’s mouth. She grabbed a fistful of Vi’s hair, but Vi latched on despite the painful tug, biting and licking her through the soaked bra until she started writhing against her.
“Vi.” Caitlyn’s voice sounded dangerously low, a guttural moan rumbling from the base of her throat as she jerked her hips against Vi’s. “Touch me. Now.”
Bossy. But Vi lived to serve.
She left Caitlyn’s breast and went for her neck, tonguing and nipping at the feverish skin as her hands worked on unzipping Caitlyn’s suit pants.
She couldn’t give a fuck to pull the pants off properly, so she had to settle with shoving her hand down Caitlyn’s underwear as soon as she had enough access, relishing the way Caitlyn jerked into her hand almost instantly.
“Fuck,” Caitlyn hissed as her fingers glided over the wet folds, and something about the way Vi could make this put-together woman come apart and cuss not just once but twice in a row made adrenaline surge through her.
“Tell me what you want, Caitlyn.”
“I want you to fuck me.” Caitlyn tugged her hair until her head tipped back, forcing her to meet her dark blue eyes. “Hard. As hard as you can.”
Vi growled, flipping her around and then slamming her front up against the wall. “Fine,” she breathed into Caitlyn’s ear, grabbing her left hand and pinning it to the wall. "You asked for it." Her right hand dove back into Caitlyn’s underwear, soaked and slick with her want.
Caitlyn’s moan grew louder as she stroked the folds and pressed even closer to her, trapping her between the wall and her chest. Her left hand moved away from Caitlyn’s wrist and closed around her neck instead, tightening around her throat.
Caitlyn choked, her breathing ragged and heavy as Vi rubbed tight circles against her clit.
“So you don’t like it soft and slow, after all,” Vi whispered into her ear, tipping her head back so they could see each other’s eyes again. “So much for playing it gently earlier.”
Caitlyn grabbed a fistful of her hair. “You sound so smug for someone who isn’t going as hard as I’d like.”
Oh, for the love of—
Vi clenched around her throat until her face turned a shade darker, rubbing her swollen clit harder until a whimper fell from her mouth.
“More," Caitlyn moaned, scratching her scalp with her nails. “Inside.”
Fuck. Vi throbbed, the slickness between her own thighs pooling at an embarrassing speed. She slipped two fingers inside Caitlyn, relishing the way Caitlyn’s body twitched against hers, back arching and ass bucking into her hips.
She pressed even closer to her, moaning at the sensation of their slick bodies sliding over each other, creating so much heat it felt like they could melt right then and there, in the steamy haze.
A cry escaped from Caitlyn when Vi curled her fingers at a certain angle, sliding out of her heat and then reaching into her again, palm rubbing her clit with each movement. Eventually, she felt Caitlyn’s walls tighten around her, and with one last push, Caitlyn went over the edge.
“Vi!” A sharp, strangled sound ripped out from her throat, and Vi watched in trance as she came completely undone. Her jaw slackened and her head fell back onto Vi’s shoulder, her whole body spasming in Vi’s arms.
God. What a sight.
She held Caitlyn steadily until she came down from her high, trailing soft kisses down the side of her neck. Caitlyn relaxed in her arms and sighed, taking another moment before turning to face her.
“Again?” She whispered lazily against Vi’s mouth, a wicked glint in her eyes. “My turn this time.”
Vi woke feeling sore in places that hadn’t felt sore in a long time.
She rubbed her eyes and glanced around, finding herself lying in a king-sized bed in a lavish hotel room instead of her apartment.
Caitlyn.
Her breath caught at the memory of them stumbling into the bedroom after their bathroom session, the two of them still warm and wet from the shower as they continued ravishing each other into the early hours.
Vi had no idea how she’d managed to do all that, given she’d been dead tired before meeting Caitlyn.
She threw her blanket aside and planted her feet on the carpet, wincing at the sharp pain shooting up from one of them.
Oh, right.
An intern had stabbed her yesterday and she’d needed two stitches. How had she not even felt it while carrying Caitlyn around and fucking her?
Vi blew out a breath.
Apparently, mind-blowing sex trumped ibuprofen.
Although, now that she was no longer having that mind-blowing sex, the pain had returned, along with the realization that Caitlyn’s belongings were gone.
Shit. Did she leave already?
Vi’s heart sank, then leaped again when she spotted a piece of paper on the coffee table near the TV. She hurried over to grab the note, ignoring the pain on her foot.
Dear, Vi. Thank you for last night. It was a pleasure meeting you.
Vi blinked and read the three short sentences over again. Wait. That was it? She flipped the paper, finding nothing on the back.
“Wow.” She plopped onto the sofa, completely astounded.
No phone number. No flirty goodbye. Just a very corporate-like message that didn’t even look like it was written by the woman who'd bantered with her.
Vi threw her head back onto the sofa and stared at the sculpted ceiling.
She guessed she would never see Caitlyn again. For all she knew, Caitlyn could be halfway across the globe now.