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“Thanks for giving me a ride,” Elain said, adjusting her bag over her shoulder. “I was supposed to come with Feyre and Rhys, but they got… sidetracked.” As they tended to do a lot these days. They had been bad before, but now that they were married, it seemed like they could do nothing else.
“Don’t mention it,” Azriel said easily, and he glanced her over as he pulled the door open. “I can give you a ride home, too, if you like.” Elain could see the way he took in her dress. It was one of her more comfortable ones, but she had felt it was appropriately dressy for the small party that one of Rhys’s work associates was throwing. But now she wished she hadn’t worn it, if only because Azriel seemed to like it.
She had tried to come off with polite disinterest to her sister’s friend quite a few times now, but he didn’t exactly seem to get the hint. Elain wouldn’t have asked him for a ride at all if it weren’t for Feyre and Rhys. “Oh, it’s fine,” she said dismissively. “I doubt they’ll find a way to get distracted while we’re here. I hope.” She entered the house before he could say anything else, and took off her jacket to hang on a hook.
She had it and her purse up and away, and was heading towards the sound of the music coming from another room before he even had his jacket down to his elbows, trying to avoid entering the room with him, but he managed to catch up, and she stifled a sigh. But they were at the door, where a dozen or so people milled around the room, chatting and drinking already. She was looking for a familiar face - Nesta, perhaps - to avoid Azriel when a shrewd voice sounded from off to her right.
“What’s this? Another one of your brainless pieces of arm candy, Azriel?” Elain turned to see a much shorter woman standing just inside the entryway and examining her. Elain’s mouth opened slightly in surprise at the blatant insult. Before she could respond, the woman hummed quietly and then continued. “A little variety this time. At least this one’s a brunette. Still, can’t you be bothered to bring somebody interesting as your date for once?”
“I am not his date,” Elain replied indignantly, crossing her arms. She could see Azriel’s expression sour out of the corner of her eye, but she didn’t care
“Of all the things to take offense to, that’s where you draw the line?” the woman scoffed. “Either you really don’t want to be mistaken for his date, or you’re fully aware that you’re the other things I said.”
Elain flushed slightly, but simply pressed her lips together, giving the woman her own look. The first thing Elain had noticed was her height, but she was a very pretty woman. The clothes she wore - silvery, but not the cheap-looking silver fabric from a department store, and flowy and comfortable yet elegant - complimented her dark hair and made her gray eyes almost seem silver to match. The jewels she wore, dangling from her ears and neck, were the same shade of red that painted her full lips. For a moment, Elain forgot she was looking for something to insult back, as focused as she was on how good she looked. Maybe she was brainless.
She snapped out of it when the woman raised an eyebrow, clearly waiting for her to say something, and she simply shrugged. “If to you, putting effort into your appearance means that a person couldn’t possibly have any intelligence, is that why you wear such expensive jewelry?” she asked, and simply walked away, not wanting to waste her night arguing with the woman.
“No wonder she’s not your date, she can actually string a sentence together,” she heard her say to Azriel as she spotted Nesta, chatting with her friend Emerie.
“Do you always have to be such a bitch, Amren?” Azriel asked. At least now she knew the woman’s name. To avoid her in the future, obviously.
Elain always enjoyed parties, and this one was no exception. More people filed in as the night went on, including Feyre and Rhys finally making a public appearance almost an hour late, and the room was filled with talk and music. Things were showing no signs of winding down as Elain slipped out of the main party with the intent of finding a bathroom just to freshen up, and she had a pleasantly light buzz from a couple of drinks.
She didn’t bother knocking when she found a door that looked like a bathroom, and was greeted with the woman from earlier - Amren - standing in front of the mirror, adjusting her necklace. As she did it, Elain noticed a matching broach that she hadn’t spotted before, likely because Amren had shed a layer, leaving her in a top with gauzy sleeves. Elain couldn’t help her eyes dipping down to where it cut off, just at the edge of her ribs, baring the smooth skin of her midriff.
She glanced back up to see Amren eyeing her in the mirror, her eyebrow raised in that ever judgmental look she seemed to wear. “Are you in or out?” she asked pointedly, turning to look at where Elain’s hand rested on the doorknob still.
Elain hadn’t been sure which way she was going as she hovered in the door, but it almost felt like a challenge as Amren resumed straightening her necklace. So she stepped inside and closed the door behind her, moving up next to Amren in the large mirror. There was enough space for the two of them, but they were still plenty close. Close enough that Elain could give her another glance as she fished her lipstick out of her pocket.
The broach, which Elain probably would have thought an outdated look on anybody else, somehow nicely complimented the look Amren had going. Then again, Elain wasn’t sure she would be able to find fault with any style the woman decided on. Partially because Amren seemed so sure of herself, just from the way she stood.
Elain trained her eyes on the mirror again, pursing her lips to begin to touch up the dusky pink lipstick she had on. It had mostly gone untouched, but was wearing away from sipping at her drinks all evening and fading at the corners of her mouth.
“Come to catch a break from being the party butterfly, or just making sure you keep looking like a Barbie while doing it?”
Elain started when Amren spoke suddenly, almost wiping a smear of lipstick across her cheek in the process. Once she registered what was said, she bit the inside of her cheek. “Not all of us enjoy standing in a corner and not talking to anybody,” she replied cheerfully, using her thumb to wipe a small smudge under her lip that she had managed to make when Amren startled her.
She had noticed it very early on, that Amren didn’t really move from her spot near the entrance. Despite being so close to where so many people came in, she had kept to herself except for a select few, including Rhys and Feyre when they finally joined the party.
She could feel Amren’s eyes on her, but refrained from looking back, until Amren said, “So you enjoy shallow conversation and fake people.”
“I enjoy conversation. Just because it’s small talk doesn’t mean it’s shallow.”
“I don’t think you enjoy it half as much as you pretend to.” Amren’s tone was so matter of fact that Elain capped her lipstick, setting it on the counter and turning to face her.
“And you know me so well?”
“I don’t need to know you to have spotted that glint in your eye when you actually spoke up earlier. Or the one that’s there right now.”
“Because you’re so much better to talk to than anybody else here?”
“Because you actually get to have a challenge for once, instead of everybody stepping around you,” Amren replied, stepping closer. The motion left very little space between them now, and Elain had to tilt her chin down to continue to meet her gaze.
Her breaths suddenly didn’t seem to bring enough air in, and she faltered for a moment. “You’re not half as challenging as you think you are,” she breathed, not able to put half as much behind it as she wanted to.
“Seems like I’m causing a bit of a challenge for you,” Amren mused, her strange not-quite-silver eyes shining with amusement - and a dare. “Or does your breath always catch when somebody comes close to you? Is that just a part of your social butterfly act?”
“It’s not an act.” And most people didn’t get this close to her when they were shut in a bathroom together, away from the rest of the party and the people. “And once again, you’re not half as challenging as I’m sure you think you are. Or that you pretend to be.”
Amren’s eyes narrowed briefly, and it was only a heartbeat before her hands were tangled in Elain’s hair, pulling her down towards her. And Elain would never be able to pretend it wasn’t a challenge now to breathe as their lips met in a rough kiss. Nobody had ever been half as rough with her. Her ex, Graysen’s, kisses had always been polite and sweet. Nothing like this.
Amren’s teeth scraped her bottom lip, and Elain’s mouth opened against hers in response as she gasped. Amren took advantage of that, and her tongue swept into Elain’s mouth, intense and demanding. She used the grip in Elain’s hair to tug her down further and push her back into the counter. Elain’s hands hovered awkwardly for a moment as she tried to collect herself before they settled on Amren’s waist, her fingers digging gently into the bare skin she found there.
She didn’t know what to focus on even as she recovered from the initial shock of the kiss. The hands in her hair were pulling just hard enough to almost be painful, as was the marble of the counter digging into her ass, but Amren sucking her lower lip into her mouth distracted her from it. Even if that alone hadn’t done it, her teeth reclaiming their place would have. Amren bit down harder this time, and when Elain’s tongue moved forward to meet Amren’s again, this time she tasted the copper of her own blood.
Something about that had Elain moaning quietly against Amren’s mouth. One kiss, and she was suddenly coming apart for this woman. Everything she was doing was pushing buttons Elain didn’t know she had. It was an assault on her senses, and she didn’t want to stop any time soon. Her hands shifted, preparing to slip into the waistband of those pants, to hopefully feel more of that soft skin under her grip.
As if some cruel god had heard her wish, there was a knock at the door before she could make any headway, and the doorknob started to twist, and Elain froze, her eyes shooting open. She hadn’t locked it after her entry, and she had been too distracted to lock it once Amren got het hands on her. Now, they were going to be walked in on by god-knows-who. Elain had no capacity to back away with the way Amren had her pinned to the counter, and Amren didn’t seem inclined to move away in the split second they had - not that that wouldn’t look just as guilty and damning as the position they were currently in.
But the doorknob rattled, meeting the resistance of the lock anyway. Amren seemed unbothered as she began to pull away from Elain - but not before sneaking in one more harsh nip to her lip that had Elain stifling a whimper. Amren was unconcerned enough that Elain realized she must have somehow locked the door without her noticing - before even kissing her, since her hands hadn’t left Elain’s hair once. She used the minuscule amount of space now between them to say, “Use the one upstairs.” There was a quiet huff of complaint on the other side of the door, and Elain tried to keep her heaving breaths quiet until she heard the footsteps fade away.
As quickly as Amren had been on her, she was gone. Elain immediately missed the hands in her hair, the rough lips on hers, and she looked at the other woman. She was still in pristine condition, not even a hint of her lipstick out of line, except a dot of red at the corner of her lip. But Amren’s tongue swept along her bottom lip as Elain watched, and it disappeared too easily for it to be lipstick. Her face heated when she realized that it was probably her blood, from Amren biting her, but she didn’t look away.
Amren unnecessarily straightened her top, glancing in the mirror once before giving Elain an insincere smile. “Enjoy the party, butterfly ,” she said sarcastically, flipping the lock and silently slipping out before Elain could respond.
Elain stared at the door for a long moment, and started to follow, but then caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. Her hair was incredibly out of place, but more obviously - her lips were stained bright red, the same color as Amren’s lipstick. She reached up to touch them, but it came away clean, so at least it wasn’t her own blood staining her lips. But she could still taste it when she ran her tongue along the inside of her lip. Not wanting to be interrupted, she quickly locked the door again before going about putting herself to rights.
She grabbed a paper towel, wetting it in the sink and wiping harshly at the red to try to get it off. How it had stained her lips, but remained pristine on Amren, she couldn’t figure out. Her own fresh lipstick hadn’t left a single mark on Amren. Elain almost felt like she should take offense to that. Even once she had cleared the actual lipstick from her mouth, leaving the paper towel looking like it was soaked in blood, her lips were so flushed and bruised she felt like it would be obvious she had been kissing somebody.
She picked up the lipstick she had left on the counter, haphazardly applying a layer, somewhat hiding the redness underneath the pink. It only took a moment to get her hair to fall back into place, but she stood for a long second, staring at herself in the mirror. “You actually get to have a challenge for once . ” There was nothing challenging about kissing Amren. It had been so easy to let the other woman do all of that, and reciprocate despite the fact that she had never been kissed anything like that before. She had been missing out.
She tucked the lipstick in her pocket, making up her mind as she reached and opened the door. Her next challenge was leaving this party with a date with Amren - and with any luck, that would end in something much more intense than a kiss.