That time the joke didn’t land with Juniper.
“Shit, I’m sorry. I didn’t think about how that would sound. I was trying to joke about being scared to see your Mom again. Which… I guess is all related just the same.”
Juniper slid her backpack and basket in through the open window and paused. The sheer number of emotions they’d cycled through in the last few days – even just today – was staggering. Would it always feel this raw? Would they ever be able to actually put all of that behind them? Would their future always be marked by this volatility?
But then again, how else would she expect this to go between two people with intense history, connection, and chemistry? Of course it was bound to get messy. It wasn’t time to be afraid, not if she intended to push herself past her vulnerabilities and really learn to trust her with her heart again.
She felt the sudden warm presence of Rowan’s body behind hers. She closed her eyes and breathed in deep before opening again.
“Junie, please turn around. Thisisme, pleading.”
Juniper felt her heart thudding wildly in her chest and answered its call to circle around before her brain could tell her not to. They were both breathing heavily, the rise and fall of their chests telling the truth in case they weren’t brave enough to acknowledge it. Her eyes slowly traveled up to meet Rowan’s, and she felt absolutely consumed by what swirled within those deep brown eyes.
This look contained so much more. They knew so much more. Theywereso much more.
It was different. It could all be so different this time.
Rowan’s eyes flickered to her lips. She brought her hand to cup Juniper’s face, shifting almost right away to trace herthumb down the center of her lips, parting them just slightly enough. Rowan’s other arm wrapped around Juniper’s waist to pull her body flush against hers, ribcage to ribcage. The crease between her brows reappeared, this time not signifying worry but the depth of the emotion Juniper felt she was conveying to her.
Juniper watched each syllable of the gentle question Rowan asked next as it formed on her lips.
“Can I kiss you?”
Juniper nodded quickly, and her eyes fluttered shut as she gave in to the final, undeniable pull toward Rowan’s lips. Their lips brushed together, barely at first, in the most achingly soft and tender of ways. Then their lips lingered, barely un-touching for a moment longer, basking in their recognition of what this moment held, what it meant. Rowan’s lips were just as soft and warm as she remembered. And while still gentle, her kiss was commanding, bolstered by time, experience, confidence, and what Juniper hoped was a confession of a lasting connection this time.
Juniper felt her breath catch in her throat with a release that felt more like a near overwhelming rush. Her hands wrapped around Rowan’s neck, and she managed to steady herself before pillowing her lips back into hers and dragging their bodies back against the truck door.
She felt Rowan respond to her beckoning by brushing her tongue over her lips as she placed a steadying hand on the door frame beside Juniper’s head. Juniper parted her lips further, and met Rowan’s tongue with her own. Even after waiting fifteen years to feel this again, there was no rush in their kissing, only a patient, sweet exploration. Each taking the time necessary to savor the other’s touch and taste, to learn what the other responded to. A hint of strawberries still on their lips.
Rowan wove her fingers into the hair at the nape of Juniper’s neck and tilted her head just slightly enough toward the golden late-afternoon sky to place light kisses across her jawline and to that sweet spot where neck meets throat underthe ear. Juniper let the sun’s glow cast over her face as she slid her hands under Rowan’s shirt to pull her in even closer.
They kissed until Juniper’s lips went numb, and she wasn’t sure if it was because she hadn’t been kissed like this in so long or if it was because she had never experienced anything quite like this before.
After resting their foreheads together for a few moments, Rowan leaned back to look into Juniper’s eyes. “Should we go?” She asked, barely above a whisper.
Juniper’s eyes were transfixed on every syllable that crossed Rowan’s lips. She felt intoxicated by those lips.
“Probably,” she whispered back, finally.
She fluttered her eyes closed again for one last sweet kiss before she felt Rowan’s hand slide from her neck back to the door handle. She pulled the door open for her, and Juniper climbed inside.
She sat, rather impatiently, as she watched Rowan cross to the driver’s side. She felt like she wasn’t going to ever be able to catch her breath. Rowan slid in, and stared straight ahead, hands gripping at ten and two on the steering wheel. She blinked a couple of times, before placing her hand on the gear shifter behind the wheel, ready to pull down.
“Wait!” Juniper interrupted through the breath she was still trying to catch and scrambled across the bench seat.
“Oh, thank god,” Rowan breathed in relief, into Juniper’s kiss as she straddled her lap.
This round of kissing was decidedly not a patient or sweet exploration. This round was a heated, fingers weaving through hair, lips and tongues familiarizing themselves with necks and collarbones, teeth pulling at bottom lips kind of exploration.
All of her former angst, their former iciness, and then paralyzing hesitation over finally admitting to themselves and to each other what they really wanted, had combined and were driving a white-hot iron directly into this moment’s passion. If the intention was to leave a permanent mark, that’s exactly what the fuck it was doing to her.
Juniper ran her fingers down the sweat-slick skin of Rowan’s defined arms and shoulders. She salivated, literally, and she trailed her wet mouth across Rowan’s neck as her hands found their way underneath the bottom edge of her shirt again.
She felt Rowan’s hands dip into the waistband of the back of her shorts. She had unknowingly been rocking her hips against Rowan, who had scooted them both further down the seat for a better angle to mirror Juniper’s movements back. Rowan was gripping handfuls of her curves in encouragement, and Juniper was very nearly about to lose control. She moaned into Rowan’s lips when her brain finally processed what was happening between her legs.
Rowan slowly ungripped Juniper’s ass and moved her hands to the small of her back. She leaned her head back on the headrest to look at Juniper. “Maybe not like this the first time?”
“Fuck your self-control,” Juniper breathed out in mock frustration, which elicited a quiet chuckle from Rowan.
