Silver broke out a bottle of Moscato—the only kind of white wine I'd drink—and poured it into crystal glasses. We cheered, we drank, and we peered out at the moonlit sky, wondering if the city would ever re-awaken.

"Few blackouts in L.A.," she said, refilling our cups for the second time.

I knew it was bad, wrong, stupid to drink more with her, but I didn't know how else to relax. If the liquor didn't chill me out, I wasn't sure what would.

It was impossible to forget my promises to myself, and yet every time our eyes met, I wanted to say fuck it. I wanted to crawl over and straddle her, rub my pussy to her thigh and chase that friction high that would get us both off.

I wanted to cover her dewy skin in kisses, shower her with caresses, watch her eyes go round as I made her come.

Worst of all: I wanted to hold her. The city's darkness made me sleepy, and the notion of falling asleep in her arms, or with her in mine, was like heaven.

But this was a heaven I couldn't attain.

After cup number two, Silver went to the bathroom, leaving me alone with my thoughts. I scolded myself, because I kept staring into her decolleté when I thought she wasn't looking. I kept imagining plunging my hands into her pants and exploring her.

My imagination ran wild, which was one of the risks of drinking alcohol. And yet...not drinking left me feeling tense, my imagination too vivid. At least when I drank, that imagination blurred the lines and made less sense.

When she returned, clutching her phone, she was frowning.

"What is it?" I sat up—I'd been slumped with my legs parted, and I worried it would entice her to squeeze between them.

"Yanic managed to text me," she said, falling into her vacated seat with a huff. "I mean, I expected this, but still..."

"Expected what?" I downed the last drop in my glass and set it on the coffee table.

"The store opening is postponed." She found the Moscato on the ground and poured herself more, tilting the bottle at me. "You?"

"Yes, please," I said, fetching my cup again, wincing at my stupidity.

Don't drink more, don't drink more—

"But isn't that a good thing? It's not like we can get there," I said, swirling the light liquid in my glass once she finished pouring.

"I know, I know, but..." She brought the glass to her lips, licking its rim. I chewed on my tongue, screaming internally at my legs as they wanted to spring me forward, to rip the glass from her grip, to put my lips on hers. "It sucks, I guess. After the last opening and its success, I was looking forward to this."

"It's not like it's canceled for good," I said, clutching my cup, grounding myself in reality. "Postponed until the power returns, I presume?"

"Yeah." Silver sighed, leaning back as she stretched her legs out. "Yanic said the city has no idea what the issue is yet. But some cell towers are functioning. Service is saturated, but if you need to reach someone to tell them you're okay..." She motioned at me. "Now's the time."

"I don't have anyone to reach." What I didn't add was that the only person I truly cared about was right there.

Sure, Sophia and Nico were my best friends, but they were NYC natives and knew the drill. Silver, on the other hand, was new to this blackout experience.

"So none of this kind of shit in L.A., you were saying?" I swigged some of the sweet liquid, no longer hissing as it coursed down my throat. I couldn't tolerate sugary drinks, but this one was hitting me the right way, for once.

"Rarely," said Silver, holding her beverage to her chest. "I lived up in the hills and outages didn't normally reach me. I got to stand at my window and watch it unfold. Something about darkness in a huge town, you know?"

Darkness—like her eyes. Welling with swirls of chestnut, encircled by a darker brown, deep depths of beauty that I struggled to keep my gaze off of.

Shit, the alcohol was getting the best of me.

I pulled away before she saw lust in my own eyes. "Something about it, yeah."

"You experienced a lot of blackouts here?" She cocked her head as she twisted on the couch to face me. A mistake, because now I had a perfect view of the dip between her breasts, her shirt dropping low, too low.

If I'd never seen her naked, it'd be different. I'd be picturing her, and it'd be more pleasant not knowing what hid beneath her clothes. But having touched those round, plump breasts, having tasted them; it was excruciating to not want more.

"Not so much city-wide blackouts, but scummy landlords who didn't pay the power bill blackouts, yeah. Not as impressive, and not as comfortable as this one." I cringed at the memory of one such occurrence, when I'd been alone in my tiny studio and petrified. I'd thought at the time that I was being cut off for being behind.

"Well," Silver lifted her glass, toasting, "kudos to not having to deal with that anymore. You live with me now, and I don't miss out on payments."

I gritted my teeth to not say it was temporary. To not insist that I didn't live with her but was staying here while I was her assistant.

Moving in with Silver? What an idea. What a lovely, impossible dream to have. We'd never get anything done. We'd be naked all the time.

I smiled into my cup as I envisioned it. I didn't think we'd ever leave the house, too hungry for each other's bodies.

How amazing would it be to indulge in her body without restrictions? Without risk? How much more enjoyable would it be to kiss her without fear?

Considering how incredible our forbidden kisses had been...

No, I didn't need to hurt myself like that.

"Disappointed as I am," said Silver, blasting away my increasingly naughty thoughts, "at least now there's no rush. We can relax for the evening knowing we're not missing out on anything."

"But what do we do?" I motioned at the huge TV screen on the wall. "It's not like we can watch a movie or a show. Or even stream it on our phones, if service is still spotty."

Silver scratched at her temple. "I'd offer to play a game, but I don't actually own any board-games."

"No board-games?" I sat up straight, memories of Monopoly with my family resurfacing. In the days before I understood what my parents did for a living, we had fun nights of playing and laughing and eating until our bellies were full.

The good days.

Silver scoffed after a long slurp of wine. "You think someone busy like me has time for board-games? Come on, Eden, you're familiar with my schedule."

"You never know," I said, tilting a few more drops into my mouth. "Might want to invest in some now that you're in New York."

She smiled at me, half her lips concealed by the rim of her glass. "I'm happy to be in New York. It's nothing like I expected, and yet it thrills me."

I studied her. "You've only been here a few weeks and you've already discovered more hidden local gems than I've known in my lifetime."

She snorted. "That's not me. Yanic found all those. He got here before me and scoped the entire area. I'd asked him, jokingly, to go find all the best joints, and he took it seriously."

I remembered Yanic and his fancy threads and snobby air. Hard to imagine someone of his caliber running around town testing small restaurants for his bossy friend.

"Have you traveled outside of the country?" I savored the sugary flavor imprinted on my tongue, wondering if I should have more wine. It soothed my troubled insides, and now that it settled in my gut, I was no longer as eager to jump Silver's bones.

Well, I still wanted to, but the booze made me lazy, and I didn't want to move.

"A bit, yes." Her eyes flickered with candlelight as she readjusted her position to lie on her stomach, her head feet away from my thighs. Potentially too close, but again, I didn't have the energy to scooch away.

"Any favorite places?" I let out a dreamy sigh. "I've never been away from the east coast."

"Never?" She arched an eyebrow. "We'll have to fix that. Get you to L.A., for starters."

We'll have to fix that, she said. Implying I'd be here longer than my contract stipulated. Implying she wanted me around, to travel with her, to show me new places.

I shuddered at the image of being on an airplane with her—on a jet, because of course, she'd own a jet, wouldn't she? Oh, the things we could do on a privately owned aircraft, thousands and thousands of feet above ground...

"Favorite places," I said, bringing us back on topic, pulling myself out of my dirty reverie.

"Right." Silver bunched her lips side to side, thinking. "Japan was cool."

"You've been to Japan?" My jaw dropped. "I thought you were going to tell me Paris or London or something."

"Oh, I've been there, too." She released a soft breath, an air of pure tranquility on her face. "But Japan has a whole other vibe, you know? I enjoyed it. That's not to say I didn't enjoy Europe."

"Okay," I pinched my eyebrows together, "favorite place in Europe, then."

I prepared for Paris or London to be repeated. Most elites and socialites I'd spoken with mentioned one of the two when bragging about their travels abroad.

"French Riviera," she said, glancing up at the ceiling, eyes half-closed as if she were envisioning herself there. "Great cocktails, sublime clubs. And," she switched her gaze to me and winked, "topless women on the beaches. Nothing beats that."

I shivered, imagining Silver on a topless beach. Or even on a nude beach. Her smooth, flawless body lounging on a towel, writhing in pleasure as she touched herself—

Fuck, enough, Eden!

"Eden," she said, drawing me out of the hot flash I'd begun to experience because of her mention of topless women. "What's number one on your bucket list? Of places to travel, I mean."

I fidgeted, detecting a hint of wetness in my underwear. I appreciated Silver's attempt to keep me on track and keep my mind off the haunting images of her naked on a beach.

"Cliché as fuck, but Italy," I confessed, a sudden taste of spaghetti on my tongue.

"Ah, Italy." Silver smirked as she finished her drink. "Fantastic food, superb sights. Also, great topless beaches." She winked again, and I growled. "Hey, I can't help it! The wine is loosening my tongue."

That tongue wouldn't leave my mind as I watched her use it to lap up the last drops of her drink. A tongue I wanted in my mouth, lathering over my body, squeezing between my folds to make me squirm.

"More?" she said, her voice distant, distorting in my brain as I sensed wetness gathering in my panties.

It took me a second to shake out of my thoughts and realize she was asking if I wanted more to drink; not more vivid ideas of her fucking me with her tongue.

No, absolutely not, Eden.

"Uh," I held up my glass, and shot a glance at the tipped over, empty bottle of wine, "sure?"

Silver got up, and as my eyes rested on her delicious ass, I reprimanded myself on the inside.

Wrong answer, wrong answer!

It was too late. The wine buzzed through me, blurring my self-control, messing with my senses. I knew it was a bad idea to drink with her, but I'd succumbed, yet again, to her influence.

Not that she'd had to twist my arm to get me to drink but I should have tried harder to say no. I should have put my foot down, refused to spend time with her, to be in this room where there were too many places to fuck.

She returned with a beverage I didn't recognize. "Special occasions," she said, uncorking the bottle; a scent of rose and strong liquor wafted my way.

"This power-outage is a special occasion?" I cocked an eyebrow at her.

"Special enough," she said, snagging two smaller cups from a nearby cupboard. She tilted the thick, amber-like liquid into each glass, then handed one to me.

"What is this?" I sniffed at it; not that I'd imbibed in all liquors in the world, but this was unfamiliar. Gooey and sweet, but it didn't displease my nose.

"A very rare, limited-edition vintage. A mix of a few different blends. I can't say much else," she raised her glass, "because it's an incredibly expensive bottle and I wasn't supposed to have any of it. Ever."

"Shit," I said, lowering my cup, shaking my head. "I can't drink this, Silver."

Her eyes narrowed, and a nearby wicker flickered, sending candlelight to flit over her face in bursts. "I insist. If there was ever a time to indulge, it'd be during my first NYC power-outage, right?"

I grimaced, but nodded as I lifted the glass again. We weren't close enough to clink the cups, but our gazes met, and a shockwave of lust pulsed through me.

With the outdoors completely dark, all we had were the candles. And with all the delectable aromas emanating from them, it felt like the inside of a specialty shop where one would buy opulent soaps and exotic lotions.

It was all so romantic. Heady and hot, comforting and adrenaline-inducing, all at once.

I wanted to stay where I was, take advantage of the calm, let the scents filter into my nose. But at the same time, I wanted to leap up. I wanted to dance, to grab Silver and pull her close. To breathe her in and envelop her in attention.

I didn't know how or when it happened, but at some point, our legs ended up entwined. We were still on opposite ends of the couch, but we'd gotten cozy, stretching out.

And then our bodies were entwined, too. Her thighs touching my thighs, our arms grazing as we laughed at the silliest stuff we could come up with. Least favorite fast-food places, worst kisses in high school, first times with men, bad times with men.

I was absorbed in the drink—like honey and flowers and sugar—when Silver leaned forward to swipe hair from my forehead. Such a gentle, nurturing gesture, it left me frozen, eyes wide as her face came near mine.

"You okay?" Silver angled back but took my hand in hers.

I trembled at the contact. It woke me up, made me realize how close we'd gotten. "I...yeah, the drink...getting to my head, I think," I said, goosebumps appearing on my arms as her fingers slid between mine.

She brought the top of my hand to her mouth. "Too much? Aw, are you a lightweight, Eden?" Her lips pressed against my skin in a tender kiss, vibrating through my entire being.

I almost ripped my hand from hers, but something glued me in place. The fire in her eyes—not from the candlelight—and the subtle sheen of liquor over her lips...

"Are you a lightweight, Silver?" I said, in defiance.

Whatever she saw in my gaze, it ignited something within her.

She slithered forward, toppling over me, covering me with her body. "Tell me to stop," she whispered, her lips an inch from mine.

I gulped. "What if I don't want you to?"

My conscience screamed at me, shook me, twisted my insides upside-down. But in this position, with her on top of me, the heat of her body scorching through me...

I wouldn't resist. I couldn't, didn't want to.

Fuck it.

"This is your last chance," she said, her liquored breath blowing over my face.

I gripped her ass, drawing her harder against me. "Don't stop."

Her mouth was on mine in instants, heated and hungry, unrelenting as she found my tongue and twirled hers around it. A thirst developed in my belly, in my center, as I pulsated with need for her.

Her breasts molded into me, her nipples hard into my skin. I massaged her ass in time with every stroke of her tongue inside my mouth; I wanted more, more—

"Fuck," I said, breathless as she pulled away. Her top had lowered dangerously, exposing her lacy bra, the hardened peaks beneath the fabric.

"Yes," she said, about to remove the blouse, but I set a hand on her arm, stopping her. "What? Change your mind?"

"No, I just..." I licked my lips and moaned at the flavor of her on me. "What are we doing, Silver?"

She grinned at me, shadows dancing across her face, enhancing the naughtiness of her features. She was so aroused, so ready for me; how was I supposed to cease this now?

"We're passing the time during a blackout," she said, her voice low and sensual as she traced her fingers around the curves of her boobs.

"By making out against the rules?"

I watched as she sat up, still straddling me, still touching herself. The urge to thrust against her, to rub up on her, became painful.

"No," she tilted forward, "by evading those rules, and having sex when there's no one in the penthouse to catch us."