proof

Tom looked at the daughter of his best friend. She sat curled on the couch, sun-kissed legs tucked under her, tank top slipping down one shoulder. The glow from a single lamp brushed her face, painting her curls in gold.

Tom leaned closer, his voice rough. “So you’re telling me… you and Charity feel the same things? Right now?”

Ellie smiled slow, wicked. “Yes.” She hooked a finger into the hem of his sleeve, tugging just enough to make her point. “Touch me, and she’ll feel it.”

His heart hammered, but he reached out anyway, fingertips brushing against the smooth warmth of her thigh. She inhaled sharply—not shy, not girlish, but with a woman’s depth behind it—and then gave him a smirk that was all Sarah.

“See?” she whispered. “She just shivered in there.”

Tom’s eyes darted toward the bedroom door. “You’re serious.”

Ellie nodded, then caught his hand, sliding it higher on her leg, beneath the hem of her shorts. Her voice was hushed, urgent. “Serious. We’re split, Tom, but still one. Everything you do to me, she feels. And if he touches her…” Ellie’s pupils flared wide, her breath catching as though she felt something distant and real, “…I feel it too.”

Tom swallowed hard, testing again—his thumb stroking a slow line up the inside of her thigh. Ellie’s lips parted, a soft gasp escaping, but her eyes glittered with Sarah’s knowing.

“Charity just bit her lip,” Ellie whispered. “Will thinks she’s nervous about dinner.”

Tom’s pulse roared in his ears. He wanted to stop, to pull away, but his hand didn’t move. He needed to know how far it went. He leaned in, brushing his mouth against hers, tentative at first.

Ellie kissed him back instantly, hot, eager, and then—she broke just enough to murmur against his lips—“Call me Ellie.”

He did. And when he whispered her name, she gave a shuddering sigh that felt like two women at once, a single consciousness trembling across both bodies.

From the bedroom came Charity’s muffled laugh at something Will said, but Tom swore he heard the edge of breathlessness in it.

Ellie nipped his lower lip and pulled back, cheeks flushed. “Now you believe me.”