As Natalie leaned her on Sofia's shoulder, her breath tig her ear, Sofia tried to calm her rag heart. Natalie's hands ran slowly down her waist, to her hips, then the sides of her thighs, lingering there.

  "Get it over with?" Natalie murmured. "Now that's just being mean. You're telling me you haven't been looking forward to this?"

  There was a ugh in Natalie's voice, subdued, as if she could read straight through Sofia's facade and found it highly amusing. And that probably was the case, as mortifying as the realization was.

  "Anticipating it, perhaps," Sofia said, trying to keep her voice even. "And not in the way you've been."

  "Oh?" Natalie's hands wandered forward, to rest on Sofia's lower stomach. Even so far from anything important, it immediately set her skin tingling. Or maybe not tingling. That was too mild a way to describe the sensation. More like, on fire. "And in what way do you think I've been anticipating this?"

  Sofia didn't reply, feigning indignation with a sniff, though the reality was she'd simply grown too flustered to find a proper response. Even in the best of cases, verbally sparring with Natalie was difficult, much less in a sario like this one.

  "Are you suggesting that I've been lusting after you, Sofia?" Natalie asked, her lips toug Sofia's ear—that damn amusement even more obvious iohat I've been imagining all the ways I'll have you writhing on the bed tonight? Well, you'd be right." She chuckled lowly, the warm air from the ughter tig her ear. "But I've gotta ask, then. How have you been anticipating it? I thought we were on the same page."

  Sofia swallowed. She ighe question, because she had no good answer—she hadn't known where she was going with it in the first pd to deflect, instead asked, "So. What do you have ponight?"

  Natalie snorted. "You know what." Her hands returo their adventure up and down Sofia's sides, stopping whenever her thumbs brushed against her breasts, making just enough tact to be felt, thereating. "Or do you mean the lead-up? Because you're right, I'm not so rude I'll just throw you on the bed and cim my prize."

  Her fingers wandered, abruptly, to the front of Sofia's pants, fiddling with the button there.

  "Though I will admit, I'm a bit tempted. A bit eager to get going." She popped Sofia's pants open and rahumbs along the inside, loosening its fit. "I've got a feeling you don't need all that much forepy, anyway. So maybe I should just get straight to it."

  It was growing harder to think by the sed. Sofia kept her gaze firmly locked on the window, gazing out across Tarenhelm's ndscape, aware of how hard she was breathing, and how retively posed Natalie was.

  And damn her for that. Couldn't her words e a little less evenly? It was unfair how outmatched she was, in this arena.

  "What about the colr?" Sofia mao ask. "Should I put it on?"

  Natalie's toying around with her waistband stilled briefly, before she tinued. "The colr?" she asked. "I don't think we'll tonight. I'm not going to be you around." She nuzzled into Sofia's ned breathed in. "I just want to get my fill of you, if that's fine."

  If that was fine?

  If that was fine?

  This wasn't how this was supposed to go. Natalie should be bossing her around, making it extremely clear that she was using both the bet and the colr to her advantage. Using Sofia as was her right, uhe terms of their agreement. She wasn't supposed to ask if it was fine.

  The mental defenses Sofia had built up for this enter were woefully underdeveloped even for the dynamic that had already beeablished, much less this … softer approach. Being bossed around and humiliated, Sofia could excuse as being a part of the bet, and therefore she could take refuge from the embarrassment, in a way.

  But geouches and soft words? The earness Natalie was showing in 'wanting to get her fill, before the bet was finished?' Somehow, that was many times more mortifying.

  And then things became eveenable, because Sofia lost her one reprieve: Natalie grabbed her wrist and guided her away from the window. Nhly, but not gently either, she pushed her by the waist, throwing her onto the bed. She wasted no time in crawling over her. Sofia swallowed, no longer able to avoid meeting the woman's eyes, her face suddenly up in Sofia's own.

  "Why are you blushing so much, already?" Natalie asked, a gentle finger brushing across her eyebrow to clear away a strand of hair that had draped across her face. "We haven't even started." Her lips turned up. "It makes me wonder, what's gonna happen when I do something like … this?" Natalie cupped both her breasts from the side and pushed inward, squeezing them together. She repeated the motion a few times, gropihrough the material of her blouse and bra."Oh, yeah, sure enough. Look at that. Yoing even redder."

  "S-Shut up."

  "Is this embarrassing you?" Her hands slipped over Sofia's breasts in full, groping her in a more obvious way. "Being touched like this?" She leaned fetting her lips close to Sofia's, her face suddenly taking up her entire vision. "Does it make your skin hot? Your thoughts go fuzzy?"

  "Not in the slightest." Sofia wasn't even sure why she lied, both because there was no reason to, and because of how obvious a lie it was.

  "Oh?" Natalie asked. "Maybe there's too much clothing in the way. I fix that." She leaned up, resting her weight on Sofia's upper legs as her fingers ran to the bottom of her blouse. "Off this goes."

  Sofia, at Natalie's urging, helped peel the piece of clothing off. Natalie didn't spare her a moment to adjust to that new level of exposure, her fingers immediately slipping behind Sofia to uncsp her bra. Sofia let that, too, be pulled away and tossed haphazardly onto the floor.

  And so, Natalie was sitting on her p, raking her eyes across her naked chest. It wasn't the first time, nor even was it the most btant ogling—that ordeal with putting on the erotite armor came to mi, here she was, her skin scorg hot in a way she'd never experienced.

  Natalie rested a hand on Sofia's chest, between her breasts, a it there. There was no movement or any apparent motive for the touch, at least not lustful. Her eyes didn't wander from Sofia's, and there wasn't any mog or amusement in them, for once.

  "Your heart's beating fast," she murmured. "Really fast."

  Sofia flushed even harder.

  "I think it's cute when you lie. So I'm gonna ask you again, since I wiher way." She grabbed Sofia's breasts, her thumbs brushing lightly against her nipples. "You're sure this isn't doing anything for you?"

  Sofia took a steadying breath. She tried to find a response, but her eyes fluttered closed, not of her own volition.

  "Ah, that's no fun," Natalie chided. "Saying nothing is cheating." Her thumbs started running in circles around her nipples, no lentle, but determined, looking to draw a rea out. After doing that for a few seds, she scooted down, bending forward t her mouth to Sofia's nipple. "Well, fine. I'll get my answers in other ways."