And Frankie did.
When their lips met, Frankie kissed her the way every woman deserved to be kissed, with hunger and want and need. Electricity crackled between them, their connection undeniable and when Frankie moaned into her mouth, Jules knew that nothing was ever going to be the same.
She stirred hours later, blinking open her eyes in the darkness of her hotel room and glanced at the clock on the bedside table. It was five in the morning and she had a flight to catch at eight.
Frankie would be flying to Dallas with the team later in the day but Jules had her own flight back to Halifax in a few hours. As much as she wanted to stay in bed with Frankie for as long as she could, her own west coast trip only went as far as California and she knew she had to get up or risk missing her flight entirely.
The events from the night before almost felt like a dream and Jules wouldn’t have believed that it were real if not for the arm around her midsection and the feeling of warm breath tickling the back of her neck.
They didn’t have sex, but they did spend an inappropriately long amount of time making out like teenagers who just discovered how good it felt to kiss for the first time. Jules was embarrassed to admit, even to herself, how close she came to tipping over the edge simply because of the way Frankie’s leg pressed against her centre and palmed her breast over the fabric of her shirt.
And then, as the night dragged on into early morning, as the events of their day and the rush of their evening activities caught up with them, they both seemingly agreed that Frankie would stay.
Because Jules wasn’t ready for this time with her to end and they’d each taken their turn in the washroom to freshen up. Frankie had used the hotel provided toothbrush while Jules used her own and then they stripped down into their underwear and t-shirts, slid under the covers and clicked off the light beside the bed.
It was quiet for a few moments, the stillness in the room and the ambient noise of the hotel settling around them but then, like it was the most natural thing in the entire world, just like they were designed for it, Jules curled into Frankie’s body and fell asleep with fingers brushing through her hair.
“Go back to sleep,” Frankie mumbled, somehow managing to pull Jules closer to her.
Jules smiled and allowed herself to melt into the comfort of the embrace for a moment before she sighed. “I have to get up and pack.”
“Change your flight.”
It was definitely something Jules considered for a moment when Frankie pressed a kiss just below her ear.
”Frankie…I can’t…”
The warm hand holding her waist slid lower and when fingers slipped under her shirt and teasingly glided across her stomach in a featherlight touch, she didn’t tense like she’d done hours earlier. This time, Jules melted into the touch, pushing back into the body behind her.
The feeling of Frankie’s lips on her skin was enough to make her body come alive and she could feel Frankie smile against her neck.
“Five.” Kiss. “More.” Kiss. “Minutes.”
With the last kiss, Frankie pulled her shirt aside to expose the top of her shoulder and gently sucked her skin. Jules was a goner. She rolled over in Frankie’s arms and in the darkness of a hotel room lit only by the sliver of light coming in from behind the curtains, she saw the hint of a playful smile on Frankie’s face.
“You’re trouble,” she whispered, tucking a strand of red hair behind Frankie’s ear.
“A bit of trouble is fun every now and then, isn’t it?”
They laid together quietly until Jules broke the silence with a question she’d been wanting to ask since she fell asleep the night before.
She needed to know, so she could prepare for whatever came next with them. She knew Frankie wanted more from her, and she wanted that too, but how they got that she didn’t know. They weren’t breaking any rules by being together but it was still something they had to navigate.
“So…what now?” Jules asked.
“Well,” Frankie said as she gently stroked her fingers up and down Jules’ arm in a way that made her shiver. “I was thinking…”
“Uh-oh, maybe you should leave that to the hockey rink.”
“Hey!” Frankie laughed and teasingly shoved Jules before tugging her close again. “Don’t be rude or I won’t kiss you again.”
“And we can’t have that.” Jules turned her head slightly to kiss the inside of Frankie’s wrist.
”As I was saying, I was thinking that maybe, if I’m lucky…” Frankie’s voice trailed off and she was genuinely bashful. It was ridiculously cute considering more often than not, she was the strong, stoic type. Jules found it so endearing, itmade her heart skip a beat. “Maybe you’d let me take you out on a date when we get home?”
”Frankie Stevens, asking me out on a date? Wow, I must be pretty special."
"Jules, if you didn't already know, I think you'remorethan special."