“I didn’t think you believed inmeant to beor any higher power,” she managed to point out. Her voice was barely above a rasp, but she was utterly unable to help it.
She saw Charlotte shiver at it.
Fuck.
Charlotte tilted her head up, swaying closer into Sutton’s space. Too close. Close enough to cloud her senses entirely.
“I don’t,” she declared, shaking her head with a dismissal so certain. “I’m not talking about any of that.” Charlotte’s tongue flicked over her lips, and Sutton tried not to stare but was entirely helpless to stop. “I’m saying, biologically, physiologically… you and I…” They both watched as Charlotte’s hand reached out and tucked Sutton’s hair behind her ear. Her fingertips were so lightit was hardly even a caress.
She felt it, the warmth and the knowledge of that touch, echo through her, and she was the one who shivered now.
She knew Charlotte saw it, too.
“We were simply not made to be just friends, Sutton Spencer,” Charlotte finished as she dropped her hand.
Charlotte stared at her, gaze searching Sutton’s, though she didn’t step back.
There was such an openness and honesty there that it sent a shock wave right through Sutton, even if she was becoming familiar with it. It didn’t matter that this had been the way Charlotte had been with her since they’d returned to one another’s lives; it just—it was so hard to mix the Charlotte in her mind with this woman in front of her.
The Charlotte of the past had been teasing and all-knowing and charming and in control but so rarely vulnerable or earnest—and rarely intentionally so. Meanwhile, the woman in front of her gave apologies about the past and made declarations that they were notmade to be just friends.
And Sutton felt it, the lurching of her heart in her chest, the strength of which only Charlotte could bring out in her.
Still, though, she felt paralyzed as her emotions ran amok through her. There was surprise at where this night had turned, wonder at who exactly Charlottewasnow. And there was… sheer desire.
“I didn’t mean to put you in an uncomfortable situation with this,” Charlotte said quietly after a long moment. “I just wanted to be honest with you about what I’m… feeling. I think, after our history, you deserve that.”
Sutton could only stare, frozen, as her heart pounded.
Charlotte’s lips ticked into a small smile as she stepped back, giving Sutton room enough to draw in a breath without it taking over her senses. “I’ll leave you to it, then.”
Sutton’s spinning thoughts hadn’t caught up with her yet, but—butno.
She reached out, wrapping her hand around Charlotte’s wrist. “You can’t—” She had to pause to swallow, hard. “You can’t just say those things to me and then leave.”
No, that couldn’t be the way this happened. Maybeshewas thinking about the past too much, now that Charlotte had mentioned it, but Charlotte had been the one to call them off all those years ago. Charlotte had been the one to bring their sexual relationship to an end when Sutton had felt like it should have only just been beginning.
That was all she could think about as thewantstormed through her, landing between her legs, making her throb with the sentiment behind Charlotte’s words.
“You were the one who stopped us back then,” she pointed out. Her heart pounded in her chest as she stepped even closer to Charlotte. She kept the hold she had, firm but not gripping, on Charlotte’s wrist, keeping her there.
But Charlotte wasn’t pulling back. Instead, she leaned against the counter and nodded. “I know.”
“You were the one who wanted to beonly friendsback then,” she reiterated.
“I know,” Charlotte confirmed, her voice soft, and this time, Sutton’s eyes followed the column of Charlotte’s throat assheswallowed hard.
Sutton didn’t even think as she stepped up even closer, boxing Charlotte in against her counter. She stared down at her, unable to even properly place the feelings raging through her if she tried.
“I didn’t want to stop sleeping together. I only everwantedyou,” she confessed, not even able to find a shred of her youth’s embarrassment at the words. “You drove me crazy, and I thought about you constantly. About the way you made my body feel. About how much I wanted to touch you. You can’t say you don’t believe we were meant to bejust friendswhen you were the one who ended that.”
Charlotte angled her chin up at Sutton, melting against the counter, against Sutton’s body. She could feel the press of Charlotte’s chest against hers, how fast her heart was beating. Or maybe that was Sutton’s own heart. She didn’t know.
She just knew that… shewanted. She wanted clarity, she wanted to be able to see this –them– clearly, and she desperately, deeply wanted Charlotte.
“I know, darling. It was never because I didn’twant you, though,” Charlotte explained, her voice hardly a murmur and an octave deeper as she flicked her gaze from Sutton’s eyes down to her lips. “You know I wanted you. From the very first day I saw yourpicture, Sutton, I wanted you. And it was never sated. I?—”
That was enough.
