15. Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Fifteen

Kinsey yawned and stretched in the early morning light. Her limbs felt deliciously heavy but there was a lightness in her chest. The night before came flooding back to her. Rosalie letting go of that robe, the unbelievable way she'd ridden herself to orgasm on Kinsey's mouth like some kind of flexible goddess, the desperate sexiness of the way she'd made Kinsey come, completely overwhelming her with heat.

And the way they'd both been left wanting more. She'd wanted nothing more than to spend the night, comprehensively taking Rosalie apart, but since she'd wanted to see her again she'd absolutely known better. She couldn't help her satisfied smirk now as she remembered the expression on Rosalie's face, beyond shocked that Kinsey wasn't going to stay for pillow talk and more sex. She'd left her hanging and she knew it.

That seemed to be the key to Rosalie though. Come on too strong and she'd run. Kinsey had no intention of letting her run, not this time. There was another week and half of them in this house and she wanted to stretch it out as much as possible, Rosalie spread out like whipped cream, the cherry on top of her days. Besides, watching her hunger after Kinsey was both deeply sexy and extraordinarily satisfying after the way she'd been pushed away the last time.

When Kinsey made it downstairs everyone was sitting around the dining room table for breakfast. Emmeline squawked as Savannah spoonfed her mashed bananas, Tucker babbled with his mouth full of cereal as Brynn tried to keep him contained and Cassidy and Lane leaned on each other, sleepy-eyed and adorable. And then there was Rosalie.

Goddamnit, she wasn't doing anything particularly sexy, just holding a cup of coffee in her lovely hands. She wasn't wearing anything that should be sexy, just a soft loose sweater. Still, Kinsey wanted to storm across the room, grab her by the arm and drag her back to bed immediately.

Their eyes met. Rosalie didn't blush or do anything that could tip off the whole table that they'd had sex the night before. It was only Kinsey who saw the change in Rosalie's eyes as she walked in, the slight flicker down her body, the perfectly clear I want to fuck you again that she flashed. Kinsey immediately walked into a chair, wincing as the hard wood collided with her shin.

"Oh! Watch out for those." Savannah looked up at the clatter. "I keep meaning to get them replaced. They're a real killer if you're not paying attention."

Rosalie hid her mouth behind her coffee cup and Kinsey sat down quickly before she could do anything else to show how extremely cool and smooth she was about this whole thing.

That morning in the band room, Kinsey was distracted as hell. After a while, Cassidy wound up more or less ignoring her, picking something out on her guitar from what Kinsey still insisted on calling the Sex Couch. Kinsey paced, her notebook flung on the floor, her own guitar abandoned. She sat at the piano and tinkered a while. Then she sat over at one of the two drum kits in the room, the electronic one, putting the headphones on so she didn't disturb Cassidy. She smashed it out for a couple of minutes, but her brain could think of nothing but Rosalie, absolutely bare naked above her.

"Oh my god!" Cassidy finally cracked it. "You're making me crazy. What's wrong?"

Kinsey pulled off the headphones.

"Shit," she said. "Sorry. My mind just isn't in it this morning."

"You seem four thousand miles away!"

"Yeah," Kinsey said apologetically. It wasn't four thousand miles, it was more like two hundred feet, or whatever it was to Rosalie's bedroom right now.

"Are you okay?" Cassidy asked, managing to moderate her irritation. Lane had always talked about Cassidy's famous fiery streak but this was almost disappointingly tame. Still, she didn't like annoying her bandmate.

"Ugh," Kinsey said, getting up and rubbing her face. "Sorry," she apologized again. This was not what they came all the way to Vermont for. Cassidy kept looking steadily at her and Kinsey considered. She was dying to talk to someone, but she could only imagine how dimly Rosalie would view her telling her best friend's little sister about what they'd been doing. "Ugh," she said again and Cassidy raised her eyebrows.

"If you don't talk to me about what's going on right now I swear to god I will make you take that economy flight home."

"No!" Kinsey gasped. "Don't take my private jet from me!"

Cassidy scoffed. "Don't you trust me?" she asked, employing her extraordinarily effective doe eyes.

"Yes," Kinsey sighed. "It's nothing. It's just…" she paused, "a girl thing."

"A girl thing?"

"Yeah. I mean, you know, a woman," she said more accurately. "I met someone I like and she likes me back, but I know that if I push for what I actually want she's going to make it way more complicated than it actually is and freak out."

"Oh." Cassidy watched Kinsey with a tiny frown, furrowing her brows. "I didn't know you were seeing someone."

"I don't know if I'd call it that ," Kinsey admitted.

"But you're into her," Cassidy looked… something. Annoyed? "Obviously. Since you're off in dreamland and practically broke that poor drum kit over there."

"Argh!" Kinsey flopped down on the couch beside her. "I'm trying to be cool about it, but she's sexy as fuck. And it's making my brain hurt."

"Poor Kinsey," Cassidy said, a small tease in her voice. Her face though, didn't quite match her light tone.

"Are you okay?" Kinsey asked.

Cassidy sighed "It's just… things are weird with Lane and you've got hearts in your eyes about someone and I just really wanted to lose myself in the music today, you know?"

"Weird with Lane?" Kinsey gave her her full attention, but Cassidy just shook her head.

"It's fine. Just the same stuff. I don't want to talk about it. Shall we take a break? Try again this afternoon?"

"Okay. I'm sorry," she said again.

Cassidy stood up and fixed her with a look.

"Kinsey. Whoever she is? She'd be an idiot not to get her shit together and make out with your stupid face forever. Okay?"

"Uh, thanks," Kinsey said. "I think."

In the end Kinsey went out for a walk. The day was all moody gray skies and a light gentle snow crunching under her boots. She wandered around and found a path that meandered around the lake and walked for almost an hour, not seeing another soul. She wondered what it was like here when the lake froze. Could you ice skate here? What a ridiculously beautiful place.

Out here in the cold, with no one to annoy, she let her mind drift where it wanted. Where it wanted, of course, was Rosalie. Kinsey knew she shouldn't be indulging in any daydreams about her, not while knowing she was so gun shy. She knew any second Rosalie might call time again, so really all she should do was shut her brain up and enjoy it if and when it happened. But her brain was also flying high on the hormones of really good sex, so it was going to go where it wanted. She had to keep her wits about her though. Best case scenario, this was going to be a winter vacation fling, even though she definitely didn't want to think about the ending.

She turned back and was just over halfway home, warm inside her winter jacket, when she rounded a bend in the track. Less than fifty feet away, two figures walked the path in her direction, one blonde head and one red. Savannah and Rosalie looked up as they neared her and Kinsey realized there was a third head covered by a tiny woolen beanie, baby Emmeline nestled in asleep against Savannah's chest in a soft carrier under her coat.

Kinsey couldn't help her smile as they got close. They were both such beautiful women and it spoke to the depth of her desire that despite the presence of her literal celebrity crush, there was really only one woman she had eyes for.

"Hey," Kinsey said.

"Hey!" Savannah greeted her brightly, while Rosalie just smiled at her, with those eyes again. They were both in warm winter coats, Savannah in soft expensive wool and Rosalie somehow looking both adorable and attractive in a down jacket, probably something to do with her beautiful skin, glowing with a hint of pink in the cold. "Are you enjoying the walks around here?"

"It's so beautiful and peaceful," Kinsey said, looking around. "I can only imagine how pretty it is in the fall."

"It's stunning then too," Savannah said, then cocked her head. "Care to join us?"

"Oh," said Kinsey, her eyes flicking up to Rosalie's briefly. She couldn't quite read her expression, but she wasn't sure it was encouraging."I won't gatecrash your walk together."

"Honey," Savannah looked at her, her expression almost fond, "Rosalie and I have been friends for three hundred years. If I wasn't standing right here she would literally beg you to join us just so she can hear a new story she hasn't heard at least eight times already."

"I-"

"Come on." With her bright smile and lovely eyes, Savannah - just like her younger sister - could be very hard to say no to. With a sideways glance at Rosalie, Kinsey turned back and walked on with them.

The path was wide enough for the three of them and so they walked side by side, Rosalie to the right of Savannah and Kinsey to the left. The dull day seemed strangely brighter with this level of company on her walk.

"I'm glad we bumped into you." Savannah flashed her that smile again, the one that made you feel like you, personally, were actually incredibly important in the scheme of the world. "I've been hoping to get to know you better. Cassidy tells me you're one hell of a songwriter. How did you get started?"

"You're literally the most nerve-wracking person in the entire world to talk about songwriting with, you get that right?"

Savannah laughed, then quickly looked down to check she hadn't woken the baby.

"You're sweet," she said, dropping her voice a little. "And direct. No wonder Cassie likes you so much."

"I'm very likable."

"I'm sure." Savannah's smile went up a notch. "So where'd you get your start?"

They talked about Kinsey's time at Juilliard and - to her deep embarrassment - her lifelong attempts at songwriting, and her mom and dad's encouragement of their creative daughter.

"Are you close with your family?" Savannah asked.

"Yeah." Kinsey smiled. "My parents are still in Chicago and so's my younger brother. I fly back for Christmas every year."

"You're the oldest?"

"Mmhmm. Luckily. Someone's gotta keep that kid in line."

"He's a troublemaker?"

"Wildly. He's a twenty-three year old accountant, who's already married his high school sweetheart and bought their first house together." She grinned fondly. "Honestly I think my parents are relieved that one of their children ran off to Nashville to chase their dreams, otherwise they'd wonder where they went wrong."

She heard Rosalie breathe out a small laugh and wondered if she planned to join in on what was starting to feel a little like a thoroughly charming interrogation. It didn't seem like her style. They'd talked only briefly the night they'd met, before everything got so hot and hazy that talking seemed superfluous. She wondered if Rosalie would rather know less about her than more. Suddenly she felt grateful to Savannah for her very direct interest in making Kinsey explain herself.

They talked about her time in Nashville, the band and her dreams for it. She thanked Savannah profusely for the studio time and they swapped stories about Greta. It felt surreal, casually chatting to Savannah Grace about their shared producer. Kinsey wanted to pinch herself.

"I'm going to make Cassie let us come to another show soon," Savannah said. "She gets weird about having me there, but I'm dying to hear you guys do a real set."

"She's amazing," Kinsey said. "She's just getting better and better every time we perform. When we eventually blow up, it'll be because of her."

Savannah nodded. "She's a firecracker., but don't sell yourself short. She says the same thing about you."

"We're a good team. And we're great live. You absolutely should come and see us." She deliberately included both of them with her smile. Rosalie had made the occasional polite hm in response to their conversation but she seemed otherwise content to listen and gaze off into the distance.

"Oh we will!" Savannah promised. "I've been hearing great things. You have a lot of fans already."

"It's surreal. We're so excited to be playing for real audiences now."

"You must be getting a hell of a lot of attention from women." Savannah gave her a sly smirk."Being so gorgeous and in a great band."

Kinsey glanced at her. Savannah's smile was teasing and her eyes guileless but Kinsey's danger signals sparked. Savannah was Rosalie's best friend? Oh she knew. She definitely knew at least something about her and Rosalie. She was one hundred percent being sussed out right now under a smokescreen of Southern charm and big sister energy. This wasn't a casual walk they were on, this was a minefield.

Kinsey's spine straightened.

"I do alright," she said simply. "Of course, Cassidy is the main drawcard. I just hang by and help Lane beat everyone off with sticks."

"Oh, I think you're being modest," Savannah pressed, her eyes sparkling. "There's no way you don't have a small legion of groupies already."

"That," Kinsey said easily, "is not my style."

"Oh? What is your style?"

Kinsey knew a trap when she saw one.

"I prefer something with a little more substance," she said. "How do you manage all your groupies?"

Savannah laughed and she heard Rosalie snort too.

"The orgies backstage have slowed down a little now I have a wife and kids," she said drily and Kinsey grinned.

"And Brynn's groupies?"

"I have them murdered," she said lightly. "It's very effective."

"Oh shit, I'll keep that in mind," she said, raising her eyebrows and Savannah - thank god - laughed.

"You're a good deflector," Savannah observed, neatly bringing them back and Kinsey realized she absolutely wasn't getting off this hook. "So no girlfriend, then?"

"No."

"You're not into relationships?"

"Oh, no, I am," she said. "But I'd rather be alone than be in one just for the sake of it."

"You're waiting for The One?"

"I don't think I believe in The One," Kinsey said honestly. "That's just not how life works. But I'm looking for someone I can really connect with. That doesn't happen very often."

Savannah let that hang in the air for a while.

"Of course you'll be touring sooner or later," she said eventually. "That brings its own challenges when it comes to dating."

"Yeah. That's why my last relationship ended," Kinsey revealed. Savannah Grace was not the only one who could be casually calculated in a friendly conversation.

"She couldn't take it?"

"It was too much for her. Me being away a lot."

"Some people just really need someone to be there for them all the time," Savannah said and Kinsey had a crystal clear realization she was being worked with, not against.

"That's true," she said. "For me though, I liked the space. For it to be all on when we saw each other," she bit her lip, "and then the rest of the time, you know, because I also like monogamy, I think it's kind of nice to have the room to miss someone. You get to crave them when they're not around and then, when you're actually together you get to really appreciate it. It suits me more than when you have to be all up in each other's faces all the time."

"Sounds like you should be dating someone who's also busy and super independent," mused Savannah thoughtfully and Kinsey bit back her smile.

"We should head back," Rosalie finally interjected, her eyes fixed on the path ahead, clearly about to die from all the subtext. "Didn't you say we were doing lunch at one, so Brynn could make her conference call right after?"

"You're right," Savannah said. "I do need to head back. You guys could go on without me though?" she suggested.

"Lunch sounds good," Kinsey jumped in before Rosalie had to. "I've already walked for a couple of hours."

"Well," Savannah looked at her, her eyes extremely innocent, "I know you're young and full of endless stamina but I suppose we should still feed you anyway, just in case."

Kinsey didn't dare meet anyone's eye after that but Rosalie breathed out in a way that suggested that Emmeline's presence was the only reason she hadn't pushed Savannah into the lake.