Chapter 26

Giselle

There was something really special about waking up in my bed and looking over to see Primrose, sleeping softly next to me, her lips parted, breathing slowly, and think my girlfriend.

It was all just a happy dream, right? It felt too good to be true, but… I felt like that would be a self-fulfilling prophecy. That I’d sabotage because I was scared of how good this was.

Not that I’d ever dream of self-sabotage. Me? Perish the thought.

I could at least make her waffles. I hadn’t gotten any use out of my waffle iron in a while, but trying to keep my dream girl was as good a use as any. And it worked out great—after I’d slipped quietly out of bed and set about making waffles under the red-orange glow of the sunrise, I was just finishing up when I heard the bedroom door shift and pull open, and my heart felt full to bursting when I saw Primrose trudging out with her hair loose and messy around her head, rubbing her eyes, and when she did a double-take at the two plates of waffles set out on the table.

“Oh, my god,” she said. “Talk about dating up. Good morning, Giselle.”

“Excuse me. I’m the one dating up. Good morning, Primrose. Sleep well?”

She beamed at me, her eyes still bleary with sleep but crinkling in the corners with how wide she smiled my way. “You just think that because I’m a redhead.”

I looked away. “I am not that simple… I’m almost that simple, but I’m not quite that simple.”

She went up on her tiptoes to press a kiss to my cheek, losing her balance and catching herself against me and staying there, resting her head on my chest. “I slept great. And woke up even better. Name one thing better than a beautiful girlfriend and waffles?”

“Ah… a beautiful girlfriend, waffles, and fresh coffee? Do you want to get it started while I finish this last waffle?”

“That does sound even better.”

And maybe a beautiful girlfriend and a trip to Switzerland to go skating on mountain lakes together would be even better. One day.

This girl had me in deep…

Primrose squished herself so close to my side as we ate that she practically sat in my lap, and we spent more time peppering each other with little kisses than we did actually eating. We ended up a little hurried for me to get to skating practice for the morning—and Primrose coming along, of course—but I would have done it again.

We barely left each other’s sides all day, only reluctantly parting for classes and texting each other the whole time we did. She invited me over for dinner at her place, and Ava, Sooyeon and Ethan joined us—Ethan apologizing for being late even though he showed up five minutes early, but based on Primrose’s knowing smile, I didn’t question it—and just getting to sit there with Primrose as a couple, openly, it blew my mind. They teased us about it mercilessly, but Primrose kept up with the best of them, and I did my best to match her stride.

I didn’t even have to ask if she wanted to come back to my place that night. Falling asleep next to her, gazing over at where she passed out almost immediately and thinking my girlfriend was just as mind-blowing as waking up thinking it.

I was at her place again after my exam the next day when the video call with my father and Carl Webb was coming up, and when I stood up to leave, Primrose gave me a stern, “Nuh-uh,” and she pushed me back down into a seat at the table.

“Stay here,” she said. “I’ll provide snacks.”

I pushed back nominally, even though I settled readily into the chair, all too happy to not go out into the drizzling rain and away from Primrose. “Are you sure? It’s pretty boring stuff…”

She laced her fingers at her waist, looking out at where the window was cracked to the cool, rainy air. “Oh, uh… well. It’s kind of hot seeing you in business mode…”

“Ah.” I’d be riding that high for the rest of my life. I fought a smile and lost. “Well… I’ll let you know about any future calls I need to make.”

She bit her lip, not even seeming to realize she was doing it, flushing a little, still not looking at me. “I’m happy to support you. You know—with your meetings.”

Relationships could be really nice.

My father was meeting Carl Webb in person, so I was just a laptop in a meeting room with the two of them, Carl Webb an older white man with a serious Freddie Mercury stache. My father gave a quick smile my way when the call connected, but he had nothing on Carl lighting up.

“If it isn’t David’s little one, all grown up. Good to see you again, Giselle. How’s life treating you these days?”

“Carl,” I said, beaming wide. “Hey, you old man. Life’s good. Life’s…” I glanced up over the laptop screen to where Primrose was boiling water for our tea, and she didn’t seem to notice me looking at her, tapping her fingers on the counter to a rhythm and humming a song we’d listened to a dozen times in the car. “Life’s good.”

“Sorry she couldn’t make it,” Dad said, settling back in his chair—a tiny meeting room with a round table and chairs and a wall-mounted TV, no room for anything else. “She’s so busy with her skating career…”

“Still on the ice, then? How’s it treating you?”

“Ah—not bad. I have a big competition coming up this weekend, so wish me luck, okay, Carl?”

“Wish you luck? I’m of half a mind to just attend myself, watch it happen. Your father never said a word. I’ll bother him into letting me join him there, we’ll see how that goes.”

As if my father would show for that… Dad put on a smile, though. “We’ll see,” he said. “Now, let’s get to business. Carl, old friend, I take no pleasure in telling you it’s about zoning again…”

We were a few minutes into a solidly productive, solidly boring conversation about the local zoning politics affecting the big loan policy change next month when Primrose set down a mug of tea, smiling sweetly at me before she mouthed I’m going to work too, holding her laptop up. I nodded to her, and she blew a kiss at me that left me a little fluttery as she sat down on the couch. I think my father noticed—my stomach turned weirdly when I noticed him looking out of the corner of his eye at me, and I turned my attention back to the screen.

In the best way possible, Primrose was going to be the death of me…

The meeting wrapped up satisfactorily before long, but my father signaled me to stay on the line as Carl left the room, and he pulled the laptop closer to him once it was just the two of us, turning the atmosphere suddenly into a private call.

“Thanks for being here, Giselle. You always soften people up.”

“Ah—you think so?”

“Webb’s not usually so cooperative. Friendly, but stubborn. Went better than I expected. Where are you right now?”

“Oh, uh.” I turned the volume down a notch, but I still felt my face tingle as Primrose looked up.

“Kind of someone to bring you tea and everything during your call…”

Oh, god, that vaguely smug look. There was no point being subtle. I cleared my throat, putting on a smile. “I’m at Primrose’s place. My exam was close by, so we were studying together.”

“Hm.” He narrowed his eyes just a tiny fraction, a faint smile playing at the corners of his lips. I felt myself burn more than I could afford right now with Primrose looking up at me too, that impossibly soft smile on her face. “Well, tell her I said hello.”

I didn’t have to. Primrose raised her voice across the room. “Good afternoon, David. Don’t worry, I’ve been letting Giselle get her work done too.”

I felt my face flush hotter, and Dad laughed, speaking louder. “You’d better. Both of you remember not to neglect your studies. Ah, kids,” he said, dropping his voice back to a normal volume. I looked out the window.

“Anything else, Dad?”

“Can you come into the office for a two-hour meeting anytime next week? It’s supposed to be Friday, but I don’t want to throw you off before your competition.”

I blinked fast. Did he… actually care, or was that a convenient excuse for something? I got an uncomfortable squirmy feeling in my stomach, and I pushed it aside. “Monday or Wednesday after two is clear for me.”

“Might be Monday. Send me your calendar and I’ll update you. See you later. You too, Primrose.”

“Take care, David,” Primrose called, and I laughed nervously once I’d ended the call and closed the laptop.

“Trying to join the family business?” I said. “Because you’re getting a job offer at this rate.”

“Oh.” She laughed nervously, looking out the window. “No… just doing everything in my power to make my girlfriend’s dad like me. It’s a natural human response.”

She was so cute when she got embarrassed. It was always over the sweetest things, too. Like she was nervous about her partner finding her caring a lot about something.

This girl deserved a lot better than what she’d had. In a lot of ways. I just really hoped I could be that for her.

“Done and done,” I said, standing up, stretching my arms up over my head. “Thanks for letting me do it here. It’s nice having company for it.”

She stood up with me, drifting over to my side and falling against me, nestling her head against my shoulder. I dropped my arms to her back, holding her close, just feeling her warmth pressed up to me. “Your father seems lovely. I really did expect scarier.”

“Like I said, he just likes you…”

“Well, whatever it is, I’m glad he’s not as scary as I’d pictured.” She went up on her tiptoes and kissed me swiftly, looking at me with a gleam in her eyes. “You’re not planning on leaving now, are you?”

“Oh, er… well, I have my elect-board meeting in a bit.”

“Video call in there too. Tell them you’re very occupied.” She kissed me again, lingering longer on my lips this time, and heat flushed through me.

“I don’t need to be raising questions…” I protested weakly, knowing—and hoping—that she’d push anyway. She kissed down along my jaw and down to my neck, moving slowly, savoring every touch, trailing her fingertips in small patterns on my sides.

“You’re a busy woman. It’s fine. I’m not ready to let you go yet…” She moved a hand up over my front, feeling over one breast through my shirt, and I was gone.

“Mm… I can never say no to you,” I laughed, a nervous and murky sound in my throat as I turned and met her lips in a slow kiss that heated up more than I expected, Primrose burying her hand in my hair and parting her lips lightly, sweeping her tongue swiftly, once, over my lip.

“Good,” she said, once she pulled away, her eyes sparkling. I had no idea how I was going to last through the call, but—I’d figure it out. And hope nobody could tell how distracted I was.

“Ava’s not, uh, coming back anytime soon?”

She tucked her hair back. “If she does, I’ll tell her to get lost.”

“Solid enough plan. I’ll get ready to call, and, uh… we’ll hope it’s quick.”

“Mm.” She smiled wider. “I’ll make you some really hot tea. Might help explain the blushing.”

I looked away. “I’m not blushing that much, am I?”

She covered up a laugh. “If that’s what you need to believe, sweetheart.”

Nobody raised a fuss about me needing to video-call in. I wondered if maybe there was a lesson there about me beating myself up to meet standards other people didn’t even care about? If there was, I wasn’t learning it today.

Primrose brought me tea, and I needed it to help explain the blushing—Shane was rambling on about his vision for the late-semester event, and even from my spot in the laptop I could see I wasn’t the only one glazing over, when Primrose leaned over the table across from me and just gave me that look, the one that had knots tying in my stomach. My mind was suddenly on everything but the call.

“Giselle should be able to coordinate that aspect,” Shane said, and I forced myself to pay attention.

“I’ll have a look. I can touch base with Julio and see what we find.”

“Any estimates on how long it’ll take? I’d like to build a timeline.”

“Ah, well…” I struggled to keep my attention on the screen as Primrose slid in next to me, just out of the camera, and I about lost my mind when she touched her fingertips over my thigh, just above my knee. I picked up my tea, pretending to think it over. “I’ll be able to contact him tonight, but we’ll see how quickly he gets back to me. I won’t expect a satisfying resolution earlier than Friday. Probably after the weekend.”

“Anyone we can get an answer from sooner?”

“Not with nearly as much depth and expertise as Julio…” I struggled keeping my breathing level as Primrose danced her fingers higher up my thigh, biting her lip through a smile at me. She was so unbelievably sexy like this, I was going to lose my damn mind—just the dirty fantasy aspect of it all, I could hardly breathe.

“Fine, I’ll put it down as Monday,” he said, turning back to where Steph looked up from her notes, pivoting to ask her something, and I sipped my tea slowly and did everything in my goddamn power to focus on the screen as Primrose worked her fingers up just short of my core, leaving a tingling ache there as filthy fantasies flooded my mind.

She was absolutely not propositioning me for after the call. A sensible woman would have stopped her at this point. But I spread my legs just a little wider, and I struggled to keep my breathing level as she cupped her hand over the front of my pants, the fabric coarse on my center. I felt electricity spark through every part of me as she moved her fingers, teasing against where I was already burning up for her.

She licked her lips, looking down at my legs under the table and back up at me, and I felt my heart drop through the floor when she slipped down from her chair and under the table. I couldn’t help myself from glancing down, and the sight of her kneeling between my legs, putting her hands on my thighs and pushing them open wider, looking up at me through messy hair—

I forced myself back to the screen just as Shane looked my way. “Does that check out with the budget, Giselle?”

“Uh—sorry, I don’t think I got everything. Run it by me in detail?”

Steph leaned forwards over the table, looking at me as she explained the outreach strategy and the contractors involved, and it was an impossible effort following what she was saying as Primrose unbuttoned my pants—I saw out of the edge of my vision her looking up at me as she pressed a kiss to the front of my pants, and Steph was not the first damn thing on my mind.

“Right…” I struggled keeping my voice level as Primrose pulled my pants down, edging her fingers over the seam of my underwear. I didn’t think we’d have time to tell Ava to get lost if she came back now. “I’ll have a look in with the quotes and see what we’re looking at for a budget, but I don’t know if we’re in the position to swing it all right now. We might have to prioritize.”

Shane sighed. “Giselle the professional fun-killer.”

I was having a lot more fun than he was, but—I couldn’t really say that. Primrose looked up at me as she pressed a hot, open-mouth kiss against my thigh, and I swallowed hard, picking my tea back up for cover as she tugged my underwear down, exposing where I was embarrassingly ready for her. I felt my head swim and heat burning through every inch of me, and I was just glad I had a mug to hide my face behind—

Primrose ran her tongue up my center, and I jerked my hips up, a sound involuntarily spilling from my lips. I fussed with my collar when Shane looked at me, making a show like I’d just spilled a drop of tea or something.

Christ, she was so unbearably sexy like this. Her hands holding my hips, and the sight of her out of the corner of my eye as she pressed her lips up against me again—the hot, wet sensation of pleasure lapping against me as she flicked her tongue slowly over my clit—all my senses felt turned up to maximum in the exhibitionistic rush of it all, and when Primrose pressed her mouth up to me tighter and sucked lightly, I felt like I’d scream.

“With an economized budget,” Logan started, unfolding his hands from where he sat across the table from the laptop, “where do you think the best places to slash it will be?”

“Ah, um…” I had a sexy woman sucking my clit right now. I wasn’t thinking about the damn budget. “It’s probably too many… big-ticket items. I’d say start from zero and ask what we need to add, rather than trying to find what we need to take away. The small-ticket items can—” my voice broke when Primrose started shifting her head, bobbing lightly up and down as she sucked, and it jolted through me so hard I couldn’t help slipping a hand to the back of her head, gripping tightly at her hair. “At least most of them can stay,” I said, hoping it sounded like I’d hesitated on purpose.

“The big-ticket items are all something we need to add,” Shane said.

Well, screw him, because I didn’t give a damn what he thought right now. “Then we’re not going to be able to cut the budget. That’s how it works, buddy.”

He argued still, and it took Steph joining in to make him stand down and agree to sort through things, and we laid them out to go through one at a time, and the whole time I felt like I was going to explode—gripping Primrose by the back of the head and pressing her tighter into me, feeling the tip of her tongue against my entrance, parting my folds, flicking quickly over my clit—and we weren’t even halfway through the list before I realized with a hazy sensation somewhere through the thrumming pleasure that I was going to come on Primrose’s face in the middle of a meeting.

I held my mug up to my face, making a show like I was nodding along, closing my eyes thinking something over, my other hand gripping her so tightly I felt like one of us would break, and—I felt like the edges of my being blurred out into the hazy pleasure as she pushed me over the edge, an orgasm rippling hard out through my core, down my legs, pulsating hard against Primrose’s perfect little lips—

It took everything I had not to make noise. I wanted to scream, grip her in both hands and thrust my hips into her face, but—

I came back down, slowly, feeling my body unwinding and everything going slack. I loosened my grip on her head, opening my eyes again and daring to glance down to where she still licked, slowly, delicately, looking up at me with those perfect blue eyes so wide and innocent-looking, before I turned back to the camera, just in time for Steph to ask me a question I hadn’t heard half the context for.

“Ah, um… I’ll have to think it over,” I said. “Give me a minute.”

And I needed more than a minute, because it was only when Primrose pressed her lips deeper up against me again that I realized she wasn’t stopping. And neither was I, which maybe caught me off-guard more. I’d just come so hard it felt like I’d fall to pieces, and I was still—

We cleared the next item on the agenda as Primrose kept working that perfect fucking tongue over me, and it took everything I had to keep breathing normally, running out of tea now but still holding up the mug. It felt like I’d lose my fucking mind she was so good—that thing she did where she sucked on my clit while bobbing her head against me sending me to another fucking universe—and I felt myself getting closer again in a delirious rush as Shane was in the middle of talking to me directly.

“We’ll be able to, uh… negotiate things,” I said, my mind barely there as I felt an orgasm building between my legs. “I have contacts. Logan has contacts too. We can make sure we get it without having to break the…” I felt a rush through me as I tipped over the edge mid-sentence and I didn’t even fucking care about Shane or anyone right now, just Primrose between my legs and the way my body melted down into nothing as an explosive orgasm rocked through me, pressing Primrose tighter into me.

“Break the bank?” Shane said, eyebrows raised. I felt myself jerk again, hips bucking up against Primrose as she slowed down, little licks and kisses against me, and my mind slowly put itself back together.

“Break the bank,” I said, probably sounding too exhilarated. “I forgot the saying.”

“You work with a bank.”

I laughed entirely too much. “So clearly I’m very opposed to breaking them.”

Shane looked at Steph before back to me. “Are you on laughing gas or something?”

“Ah.” I rubbed my forehead. “I didn’t get much sleep last night. I’m a little out of it. Anyway—point is we can… negotiate,” I said, feeling myself melting back into it as Primrose kept fucking going, dragging her tongue up along me.

Christ. It wasn’t even long before she was able to push me towards the edge a third time, adding a finger pushing up inside of me as she sucked my clit, and I was just lucky nobody was talking to me when I crashed over the edge once again, feeling on the other side of it like I’d just run a marathon and every part of me was collapsed.

“Well,” Shane said, not long after I’d pulled myself together from it, “Giselle will get back to us on those reports, Brook will handle the outreach, and we’ll talk again on Monday about what we’re doing with a more revised plan. Go get some sleep, Giselle.”

“I will,” I said, putting on a smile, pretending I still had control of my motor functions. “I’ll let you know as soon as I hear back anything. See you guys.”

Shane hung up the call, and I snapped the laptop shut, slumping back in the chair as Primrose stood up from under the table, pressing a long, slow kiss to my lips. It wasn’t until she pulled away that I realized how much my hands were shaking… my knees too, bouncing lightly. I laughed wildly, face flushed, a pleasantly spent sensation settling through me, and Primrose bit her lip, smiling.

“Sorry if I distracted you.”

“I—I don’t think you are sorry.” I laughed breathlessly. “I also don’t want you to be. Jesus fucking Christ.”

She broke out into a bigger smile. “Did you have fun?”

“Uh, yeah. In case you didn’t notice three times.”

She looked away, pursing her lips through that big smile. “I might have had a suspicion.”

“Do you want to… clean up before Ava gets here?”

She laughed. “Ava’s out for the day. I just thought it would be more exciting if you didn’t know that.”

“Jesus Christ.” I ran my hand over my face before I broke out laughing. “Okay. You win, Primrose.”

She sat straddling my lap, her arms around me, looking at me with that satisfied grin I couldn’t get enough of. “I was hoping you count as a winner too.”

I laughed, once, short, sharp. “Everyone’s a winner.”