All she heard was the thunder of her own heart and the quiet hitching sound Gwen made when she kissed her back.
The first brush of their mouths might’ve ended as a stunned, fleeting thing, but Gwen didn’t pull away.
She kissed her back. Harder this time, with a sound caught low in her throat that Maggie hadn’t heard in years but recognized instantly, like an old song coming on a new playlist.
Maggie gasped against her, and Gwen used it, tilting her head and deepening the kiss until Maggie’s knees threatened to buckle. Gwen’s hands left her face only to find her waist, sliding down, anchoring her with a grip that made Maggie tremble.
And then her back hit the wall.
The warm brick scraped through her thin dress as Gwen pressed her there, not rough but certain, her body solid against Maggie’s. Maggie’s fingers clutched at Gwen’s shirt, pulling her closer, greedy, aching. “God, Gwen,” she whispered against her mouth, desperate.
Gwen swallowed the sound, kissing her deeper, teeth catching at her bottom lip before soothing it with her tongue. One hand braced beside Maggie’s head, the other still hot at her waist, sliding just a fraction lower, enough to make Maggie shudder.
Maggie arched into her, letting the wall take her weight, clinging like she could crawl inside Gwen and finally be whole again. And for the first time in months, maybe years, she wasn’t thinking about why it wouldn’t work. She was only thinking:more.
The kiss turned greedy fast, the kind of kiss that had no business happening in public. Gwen pressed into her harder, her thigh sliding between Maggie’s, pinning her against the brick.
Maggie gasped, the sound again swallowed instantly by Gwen’s mouth, and then her own hands were moving without thought — up Gwen’s chest, clutching her shoulders, fisting the fabric of her shirt like she could keep her there forever.
It wasn’t neat. It wasn’t polished. Gwen kissed like shewas starving, like she’d been holding this back so long it hurt. Their teeth knocked once, Gwen muttered something low and guttural against her lips, and Maggie laughed into it — half-crazed, half-ecstatic.
Gwen’s hand slid lower, gripping Maggie’s hip, her fingers digging in with enough force to make Maggie arch, reckless, every nerve in her body screamingyes.
The glow from the street barely reached them, just enough to paint Gwen’s jaw in pink and blue as she pulled back for half a breath, eyes dark, lips swollen.
“Still sure?” Gwen rasped.
“Shut up,” Maggie said, tugging her back in, kissing her harder, needier, like the years apart had been erased in an instant.
Her back scraped against the brick as Gwen pressed her deeper into it, their mouths clashing, Maggie’s fingers sliding into Gwen’s damp hair, tugging, pulling. Gwen groaned — god, that sound — and Maggie felt it roll through her like heat, pooling low, making her want more, more,more.
More of Gwen’s mouth, Gwen’s body, the press of her thigh, the taste of her.
“Oh my god, get a room,” Kiera’s voice cut sharp through the night, higher than usual, the teasing tone undercut by the obvious awkwardness lacing it.
Maggie jolted like she’d been doused with ice water, scrambling to tug her shirt back down where it had ridden up. Gwen stepped back instantly, expression shuttered, as if she’d been caught in something illicit — which, technically, they had.
Kiera stood a few feet away in the alley glow, arms folded but smile plastered on, not quite reaching her eyes. “Hey,” she said, overly bright. “Just wanted to give you the heads-up we’re about to do a group song. Danica said to get you for the lower harmonies.”
Maggie’s pulse was still thundering, her breath coming inuneven bursts. Her mouth tasted like Gwen, her body still humming from the press of her hands. She managed a crooked grin, trying for casual, though her cheeks burned. “Lower harmonies. Got it.”
“Yeah.” Kiera’s gaze flicked between them, lingering a beat too long.
Maggie nodded, pushing her hair off her face. “Be right there.”
As Kiera turned and slipped inside, Maggie exhaled hard, pressing her back to the brick. Gwen was still there, inches away, silent.
Her whole body buzzed with want, with humiliation, with the sick thrill of having been caught.
Neither of them moved.
The door had swung shut behind Kiera, leaving them in the dark, but whatever spark had been igniting them seconds ago was gone — snuffed out by the real world crashing back down around them.
Gwen adjusted the cuff of her sleeve, eyes on the ground, her breath still uneven but her expression composed again, maddeningly so. “We should… go in,” she said finally, quiet.
She straightened fast, forcing her arms down, her face into something neutral. “Yeah. We should go,” she muttered, already stepping toward the door before Gwen could say anything else, before Gwen couldlookat her like that again.
Inside was chaos, yes. But at least it was safe chaos.
