Split the Aces Read online

  “You girls thirsty? I have some iced tea in the fridge. Rae, get Cori a glass.”

  Rae did as she was told but resisted when they were ushered toward the table. If they sat down, her mom would spend the day grilling Cori rather than completing the chores she had lined up. Rae couldn’t imagine any task less pleasant than listening to her mom tell Cori about the time she caught her kissing Jessie Parker in their tree house. Or, worse, she would probably love showing Cori pictures of three-year-old Rae blowing bubbles in the back yard, bare-ass naked.

  “Mom, what’s on the agenda today?”

  Norma finished snipping her flowers and organizing them in the vase. “Cleaning. You sure you girls want to spend the day cooped up in that dusty room?” She directed the question to Cori.

  “It sounds perfect to me…Norma.”

  Rae could think of a hundred other things she’d rather do, and most of them involved Cori naked and panting. “We’re your willing servants, Mom. Show us what you need done.”

  Cori took another sip of the iced tea she hadn’t finished and started up the stairs at Norma’s urging. Rae smiled after her, musing at her good fortune. Very few women would choose to spend a day of their vacation cleaning out someone else’s junk room. She started to follow, but her mom held her back.

  “What’s going on, sweetie?”

  Rae feigned innocence. She wasn’t ready to have this conversation. “What do you mean?”

  The shift in Norma’s face was almost imperceptible. The lines didn’t alter, her smile didn’t fade. Everything just…hardened. “Don’t bullshit me. Tell me what that girl is doing here or I’ll march upstairs and ask her myself.”

  Rae smiled bitterly. Her mom didn’t fuck around when she wanted answers. “I don’t know, Mom. She’s a guest at the casino and I like her.” She shrugged, trying to soften the importance of her words. She couldn’t dwell on their significance for too long or she’d drown trying to sort it all out.

  Norma’s face softened. “Really?”

  Rae glanced up the stairs, checking to see if Cori was listening. She debated holding back, not giving her mom any more information. In the end, she couldn’t do that. Norma had always been there for her, taken care of her, pushed her to do better, and held her when it hurt. “Actually, I like her a lot, and I’m scared to death.”

  Norma patted her arm. “Sweetie, you were always so serious about everything, unwilling to take a chance unless you knew the cards would fall in your favor. Sometimes you have to let go.” She smiled, the edges tight, almost sorrowful. “You deserve to be happy. I hope you can let it happen.”

  She left Rae standing alone at the bottom of the stairs wondering how something that sounded so simple could be so complicated. Just let it happen. That was all she had to do but, God help her, she didn’t know what it was and she wasn’t sure if she was strong enough to trust the unknown.

  *

  Cori stood on the top step and stared around a landing with several closed doors. No way to know which one was right without taking a peek inside. It would be rude to do so, but the discussion taking place below was enough to tempt her. Clearly Rae and her mom needed a private moment or they would have followed her without delay. She tried to tune out of their whispered conversation but their words bounced up the hardwood stairs. Her only options were to listen or cover her ears. The latter just seemed silly.

  Rae liked her. She knew that. But she had no idea what it meant for them. Now Rae, a woman Cori suspected was tight-lipped about her emotions, had told her mom. The fact seemed significant. Perhaps Norma’s approval would encourage Rae to trust her emotions.

  Cori pressed her fingers to her eyes, rubbing away the tired tension. What the hell was she doing in this house, about to delve into someone else’s memories? She was on vacation. In Las Vegas. She was supposed to be gambling. Or drinking. Or relaxing by the pool. Not thinking about the wonderful possibility of a completely impossible relationship. Damn Rae and her sexy eyes and that cocky, flirty smile. Even as Cori cursed their meeting the first day, she felt herself go soft inside. Rae had entirely too much impact on her.

  Tomorrow she had to climb on a plane and sit quietly while the pilot carried her away from the woman who constantly occupied her mind. A hard ache pulsed in Cori’s chest. She refused to give it purchase but, still, it was there, underlying everything she thought, everything she did. She should end this foolishness now, for that’s what it was, this self-torturing time spent with Rae. It would be over in—she glanced at her watch—less than twenty-four hours. There was no way she could carry hope beyond her time here. Rae was not the one-woman type.

  And Cori didn’t think she could settle for anything less.

  The memory of that blond head clutched in Rae’s hands loomed again, sending a surge of unwanted desire through her body. Cori shuddered and closed her mind off to the distracting image. Intellectually and emotionally, she didn’t think she was willing to share Rae, but her body sure seemed willing to explore the possibilities. Fuck. That complicated things even further.

  Footsteps sounded on the stairs, and a touch burned against the small of Cori’s back. “What? You haven’t finished yet?” Rae’s voice was light and teasing.

  “Not yet.” Cori placed a careful, thankful kiss on Rae’s cheek.

  Effortlessly, Rae had chased the tension from her body. All the arguments in the world wouldn’t convince her to spend the day anywhere but here. Not when Rae’s palm felt so right against the small of her back and her breath made the hair on Cori’s neck leap to attention.

  “We’re going in here.” Rae opened a door on the left, revealing a dark room filled with boxes and furniture. Dust particles danced in the shaft of light filtering weakly through the sole time-darkened window.

  “Tell me why we’re doing this?” Cori asked.

  Rae’s fingers moved in lazy, unassuming circles, teasing her skin through the light cotton of her shirt. “Every year my mom gets this idea in her head that she should clear out all this junk. So, we spend a day up here with her memories, clean it out, and put most of the stuff back because she can’t bear to part with any of it.”

  Cori examined her surroundings. A bucket of cleaning supplies sat conspicuously in the middle of the dust and boxes. “Then I suppose we should get started.”

  Rae took her hand and kissed the fingers. “Be glad it’s the storage room. Last week she had me dig up a busted pipe in her back yard. That was not fun.”

  “Okay, if we’re going to do this some fresh air would help.”

  Rae released her and walked to the window. “It requires a little persuasion.” She tapped the wooden sill gently with her palm and eased the window up. “There we go. Fresh air.”

  “That window’s filthy.” Cori selected a bottle of Windex and paper towels. “I’ll clean it.”

  “Guess that leaves me with dusting.” Rae armed herself with a can of Pledge and an old cloth.

  Wiping the first layer of grime off the glass pane, Cori asked, “Do you spend every Sunday out here?”

  She thought of her own family, her severe papa and meek mama, her myriad brothers and sisters. They avoided getting together unless there was no choice. Major holidays, weddings, her parents’ anniversary. Even birthdays were spent with friends, not family. She couldn’t imagine dedicating one day each week to doing chores around her parents’ house. Her father’s condemning glare was enough to drive her to drink. A fact that history had proven true more times than Cori cared to remember.

  Rae shrugged. “Sundays belong to her.”

  “Hard to imagine.”

  Rae stiffened. “Why?”

  Cori rushed to explain. She didn’t know what upset Rae, but she wanted her reasons for saying that to be clear. “My family—well, my father, really—is a nightmare.” She debated saying more, but decided against it. If Rae wanted to know, she’d ask.

  “What about your mom?”

  Such a simple question, but it pleased Cori no end. Even i
f nothing ever came of their connection, they were having the kind of conversation people had when they wanted to find out about each other. She tried to come up with a concise description of the woman who raised her.

  “I don’t know. It’s like she’s not really there. I have memories, just little snatches of her smiling at me, brushing my hair, teaching me to make tortillas. But then my father appears and she fades away into the shadows.”

  Rae’s relationship with her mom was a stark contrast. They interacted with care and tenderness, even in the simplest things. That was obvious after just a few casual moments in the kitchen. Rae’s mom was part of her life and knew who she was. Cori wasn’t even certain if her mom knew what she did for a living or which side of town she lived on.

  “I’m sorry.” Rae’s reflection greeted her in the window as she slid her arms around Cori’s waist from behind. She rested her chin on Cori’s shoulder.

  Cori turned into her and kissed her waiting and willing lips. This kiss felt different than the ones they’d shared before. Cori had the impression that Rae was trying to heal her heart, long ago damaged by rough handling and neglect. Or maybe Cori just wanted to believe that was what motivated her. She wanted Rae to think of her as more than just a good fuck. Okay, an outstanding fuck, at least from Cori’s point of view.

  With a soft moan, Rae broke away. Her eyes were glazed and wanting. “My mom is going to come up here any minute now. Think she’ll notice if I lock the door?”

  “I’m willing to bet she’d notice,” Norma said dryly from the top of the stairs.

  Cori jumped backward, tripping over her own feet and thudding against the wall. She choked down the scrambling apologies of a teenager found fumbling on the sofa in the dark. Rae helped her catch her balance and gave her a chaste peck on the nose.

  “Sorry, Mom.” She winked at Norma. “Just couldn’t control myself.”

  Cori went back to cleaning the window, mortified as Norma laughed easily along with her daughter. She couldn’t fathom being so cavalier with a member of her own family about anything even remotely related to sex. They were barely tolerant of her being a lesbian and coped only providing she never brought up the subject. Yet here was Rae, clearly at ease, not embarrassed to have been caught in a compromising position. Thank God her mom had come up the stairs now, rather than later. Cori’s clothes had a disturbing habit of falling off when Rae kissed her.

  “Hey, Mom, remember this trip?” Rae sat on the trunk she’d been dusting, a photo album open in her lap.

  Norma leaned over her shoulder, smiling. She gestured for Cori to join them. “That trip was horrible.” Her laughter belied her statement as she fingered the edges of a faded snapshot of Rae lost in a giant pile of loose straw. “How old were you that year? Ten? Eleven?”

  Rae’s eyes were distant. “Ten, I think.” She turned to Cori. “We were supposed to go to the coast. Mom had filled my head with pictures of the ocean. I was expecting warm water that went on forever. And sand castles and seashells.”

  Norma ruffled her hair. “Well, we made it halfway there. Damn car.”

  “The radiator sprung a leak. Not hard to fix, unless you’re in the middle of nowhere. Which we were.” Rae pointed at another picture. “We broke down just past a long dirt driveway. At ten it felt like we walked forever to get to their house. Looking back, I bet it wasn’t more than a quarter of a mile.”

  “I felt so bad because I knew we wouldn’t make it to the beach,” Norma said. “But the second you saw those kids, your tired legs were forgotten. You were off like a shot.”

  Cori felt like a voyeur as she watched the exchange of memories between Rae and her mother. She wondered how many times they’d shared this ritual. Her heart swelled that she was included, even peripherally, in the special moment.

  The rest of the afternoon passed too quickly, with the Sutherland women revisiting events of the past as they polished old medals, read newspaper clippings, and dusted mementos. Amazingly, this day would be the one Cori knew she’d remember most fondly from the whole trip. If her own mother saved similar trunks of memories, it was unbeknownst to her. The lack of physical reminders of their family’s past was another sacrifice to her father’s impatient will. There was never enough time to take a vacation. Never enough smiles to take a snapshot. Bittersweet sadness covered Cori like a blanket, and she wondered how she would ever be able board the plane and leave this behind.

  Chapter Ten

  Rae debated taking Cori back to her place, but Cori needed to pack. No amount of denial on her part would change that fact.

  They were both strangely silent as Cori let them into her room. The easy comfort they’d enjoyed at her mom’s was still there, but it was muted, painted over with the tense knowledge that this would be their last night together. Rae hoped she’d made the right choice by sharing the day with her mom rather than spending the time alone with Cori. She wished they could have one more day. With only a few hours between them and Cori’s departure time, she wanted to hold Cori to her, not even getting out of bed, a rare, decadent treat she didn’t afford herself, ever. That kind of leisure time didn’t exist in her maxed schedule. Still, that’s what she would have chosen with Cori. That’s what she wanted now.

  Her fingers trembled as she threw aside her own garments then unfastened Cori’s buttons and slipped her blouse off her shoulders. She didn’t try to hold back the rush of emotions that shivered through her body. In fact, she welcomed the feelings despite the new rawness they brought. She wanted Cori to know how deeply she was moved by her, that she couldn’t see things the way she had. Something had changed.

  Holding Cori’s gaze, she undressed her, kneeling to remove her shoes, her socks, her pants. She ran her hands over Cori’s body, up the tense lines of her calves, following the tremor over her thighs, around to caress the smooth, taut skin of her buttocks. She lingered on her knees, taking her time to explore the gentle swell of her tummy, the dip of her belly button, the indent at the base of her spine.

  Cori moaned when her fingers glided up the inside of her thighs and she edged her legs slightly further apart. Rae kept her touch light, just the easy flow of her desire over Cori’s flesh. Eventually, her movements were arrested by the sight of Cori, her head back and her lips parted slightly. Rae marveled. This woman, this perfect woman filled her with such a confusing mix of raw, undeniable hunger and tenderness she wanted to simultaneously fuck her so hard she’d forget her name and protect her from everything bad and hurtful in the world. She eased Cori back until her legs where against the bed. “Sit down, open yourself to me.”

  And Cori did. With her back arched and her long, satin-black hair fanned out on the comforter behind her, she opened her knees and squeezed and kneaded at her own breasts. “Please, Rae…”

  What she’d ever done to deserve this kind of trust, Rae didn’t know, but she thought she’d do anything to have the moment extend long enough to last a lifetime. She placed her hands high on the inside of Cori’s knees, transfixed and half-afraid. “God, you’re so beautiful.”

  She’d never said that to another woman. Not like that, like her beauty was the only truth she knew in her heart and if she didn’t say the words, her body would burst with the burden of staying silent.

  She smoothed her hands up the soft olive skin of Cori’s inner thighs, then brushed dry, delicate kisses along the same path. When she reached the apex, she paused, steadying the quiver beneath her touch. Using her thumbs to gently pull back the hood, Rae revealed the glistening, tight bundle of nerves, and pressed a kiss lightly against the very tip.

  Cori dropped back flat against the bed and twisted her fingers in Rae’s hair. The insistent, sexy tug urged Rae closer. Cori lifted her hips and surged against her, openly begging for more. The unapologetic wantonness that had entranced Rae on their first night now held her captive completely. She wanted to plunge into her, spread her open, stretch her beyond full. Instead she stiffened her tongue and swiped it over Cori’s pearl-hard
clit, determined to go slow this time, to savor the burn.

  Cori moved against her, rolling beneath the grip of her fingers. Rae dug in harder, overwhelmed by the urge to pin her down. Fearing that she might bruise the soft skin of Cori’s thighs, she tried to relax her hold but she needed this too much to think beyond the slick, sweet slide of her tongue against Cori. She flexed her thumbs and they slipped dangerously close, almost sliding inside. Cori jerked up, urging her deeper. Rae eased away, moving her tongue with increased speed. She could feel Cori’s body tightening, her orgasm gathering like a storm beneath the surface. Working her thumbs down Cori’s crease, she pressed against her lower opening and lingered there, not pushing any further, pulsing in time to Cori’s moans. She worked her clit harder, sucking it between her teeth, flicking her tongue, then flattening it smooth against the tip.

  Cori bucked and thrashed through her orgasm, pulling away from Rae and curling in a tight, rocking ball on the bed. Rae climbed after her, gathering her close, back to front. She held her, smoothing her hands over her hair, whispering nonsense words of comfort in her ears, rocking with her, until the tide subsided and Cori returned to her.

  “Oh, my God.” Cori turned until they were pressed together, chest to chest. Her eyes were dazed. She didn’t say anything more.

  “You like?”

  Normally, just knowing her partner had come was enough for Rae. She didn’t need to discuss the details. With Cori, however, she wanted to know everything. She wanted to be certain that Cori would carry this memory with her, that she would picture Rae’s face from this moment on, no matter who she was with. She wanted to be one Cori thought of as she came.