The prospect of a person in her house, her body, her bed overnight, should have sent a panicked bolt through her chest. But the notion was steadying. Comforting. It wasn’ta personfollowing her inside, it was Bryn. Her Bryn.
Vivian reached back without turning around. An open hand in the dark.
Bryn took it.
Vivian had walked up the stairs alone thousands of times. In the light. The dark. Drunk. Sober. Exhausted. Hurried.
But with Bryn’s warm fingers laced through hers, each step felt unfamiliar. Exhilarating. Like the house itself was reconfiguring itself to a new presence. Adjusting to the weight of someone who belonged. Who’d been missing.
The stairs. A long corridor. Her bedroom door. The deepest part of herself. Everything opened for Bryn. Not like a handle turning, but like jasmine blooming in the dark’s protective hold.
Standing in the middle of Vivian’s bedroom, Bryn raised her hand slowly, as if she feared sudden movements. She rested her palm against Vivian’s sternum, just above her heart, the same way she’d pressed her own hand to her chest when she’d told Vivian what she felt. Vivian covered Bryn’s hand with hers and held it there.
“Hi,” Bryn whispered, like they’d never met before because maybe they hadn’t. Not like this.
Vivian exhaled something between a laugh and a sob. Something that had lived too long in the confines of her chest alone and nameless.
“Hi,” she mumbled before tipping her head down and finding that her lips weren’t the only ones trembling.
When Bryn kissed her, something behind Vivian’s ribcage collapsed. Collapsed the way a held breath leaves the body when danger has passed. She surrendered to Bryn’s tenderness. To the unimaginable care of her soft hand cradling Vivian’s jaw when she deepened their kiss. It cracked open something Vivian had cemented shut so long ago she’d forgotten it had once been a door.
Undressing each other held a new purpose. It wasn’t Vivian’s hungry mouth or desperate fingers leading the charge. All she wanted was to get rid of the barriers. To feel every part of Bryn against every part of her. To share every secret. Confess every sin. To know every single thing about Bryn. To reveal everything about herself. To know and be known.
“Is this okay?” Bryn asked while crawling onto the bed after Vivian.
Vivian pulled Bryn on top of her, relishing the feel of her body on hers. The warm weight of her. The relief of her touch.
“Very okay,” Vivian promised because this communication mattered to Bryn even if it seemed so obvious to Vivian.
Straddling Vivian’s thigh, Bryn was almost too beautiful to look at. Strong and confident and improbably hers. Vivian looked anyway. Felt the unexpected grief of all the time she’d lost with her, and dove into the perfection of now.
Instead of urging her down for a kiss, Vivian rose half off the bed to meet her. She’d spent decades training herself not to want anything that could hurt her, but with Bryn’s bottom lip between hers, she fed the flames of her desire. She let herself want with the aching fullness of that feeling, even if it consumed her.
Bryn moaned into her mouth, soft and incredible. Vivian chased more with her tongue and teeth and one hand roaming up Bryn’s bare thigh.
“I’ve missed you so much,” Bryn whispered, both hands in Vivian’s hair like she needed to anchor herself.
Vivian understood the feeling. Understood needing to hold fast because Bryn’s touch always made her feel like she was floating.
Bracing back on her left hand, Vivian wrapped her right arm around Bryn’s waist. She pulled her in until Bryn dropped her weight and let Vivian feel the searing heat of her arousal against her thigh.
It was Vivian’s turn to moan. To deepen their kiss like she might find the secret of creation if she just pushed a little further. If she tried a little harder.
“You feel so good,” Vivian muttered, heat roaring up her chest and pounding between her thighs.
Bryn grinned against Vivian’s mouth. Grinding intentionally against Vivian’s thigh so she could see just how badly she wanted her, Bryn was dangerously in control.
“It’s all for you,” Bryn promised, tone soft to match her slow, deliberate movements.
“Are you all for me?” Vivian asked before she could think it through. The words were too small and inadequate to match the enormity of the question.
Snaking her hand between them, Bryn didn’t drop her smile. “Are you asking me to be your girlfriend?”
She cupped Vivian’s breast but didn’t linger. Her palm dripped down Vivian’s tense abdomen and between her thighs.
“Because I’ve been all-in for a while… just in case you hadn’t noticed.” Her fingertips brushed against Vivian’s clit, sending Vivian’s hips digging into the mattress.
“I’m yours, Vivian,” she promised, fingers finding a lazy rhythm. “I’m so fucking yours.”
