The room was filled with the sounds of their breathing, their moans and the slick sounds of their bodies moving together.
“Ruby, I'm going to—”
“Come with me,” Ruby urged. “Together. I want to feel you come with me.”
The orgasm hit them simultaneously, both crying out as pleasure crashed through them. Ruby felt Celeste shudder against her, felt the rhythmic pulse of her climax, and it triggered her own release so mighty she saw stars.
They lay tangled together, hearts gradually slowing, breathing evening out. Ruby could feel the hickeys blooming on her skin and the pleasant soreness between her legs.
“I've never felt anything like that,” Celeste declared. “Never knew two people could be that connected.”
“Neither did I,” Ruby admitted. Because it was true—she'd done this before, but never with someone who mattered this much.
Celeste leaned across to brush Ruby's sweat-dampened hair back from her face.
“I have something to tell you,” Ruby said into the darkness, her heart hammering.
“Okay.”
“I always liked you, you know. In high school. I had the biggest crush on you.”
Celeste shifted to look at her, propping herself up on one elbow. “What?”
“That's why I stole your prom dates. Not because I liked Gerald or anyone else. I only wanted your attention. And the smugness, that was just flirting. Really terrible, immature flirting. I was seventeen and didn't know how else to get you to notice me.”
“You stole my prom dates to get my attention?”
“Stupid, I know.” Ruby traced patterns on Celeste's shoulder, needing something to do with her hands. “And I remembered your lunch order from Lapierre's because I had paid attention to you whenever you visited.”
Celeste was quiet for a long moment. Then she drew even closer to Ruby, until there was barely any space between them. “I noticed you too. I told myself it was rivalry. But looking back—” She paused.
“Maybe it was something else.”
They lay there in the darkness, hearts beating in sync.
“Ruby?”
“Yeah?”
“I'm glad Braden arranged this trip.”
“Me too.”
Ruby wondered if she should say more and acknowledge the growing weight of what was happening between them. Or figure out how to protect her heart before it was too late.
But Celeste was already falling asleep and Ruby couldn't bring herself to disturb the peace.
Chapter Fifteen
Celeste
The next morning, Celeste and Ruby lay together for a moment, just looking at each other in comfortable silence. Intimate in a way that made Celeste’s heart lurch against her rib cage.
She could do this forever. Wake up like this, with Ruby beside her and fall asleep every night knowing she wasn't alone.
It shouldn't be this easy to imagine a future that couldn't exist and so she tried to shake the thought off, to push it away like she'd been doing for days. But this time it clung harder and more insistent.
Her mind didn’t want to let go of lazy mornings spent tangled in sheets, of the twins laughing at something ridiculous Ruby said.
