“Good,” Juniper declared, with a little ego-driven shoulder bump to the sky.
She quickly threw off her t-shirt and revealed a strappy bikini top. She pulled off her shorts and kicked them with one foot toward Rowan’s face to expose the similar bottoms. Rowan grasped the shorts and clenched them into a ball before setting them beside her.
“You’re staring again, Birdsong.”
“Junie, I’m going to 100% stare at anything you show me.”
“Good,” she declared again.
Juniper took several steps into the water and untied her braid before she dove in. She emerged from the cool water and swept back her long hair, turned black from the water. She turned back to the shoreline to find what she expected to find, Rowan tracking her every movement.
“Come in,” she called out.
Rowan smirked and leaned back on her palms. “I don’t have a swimsuit.”
“Ok, and? You have on something underneath, right?” Juniper flicked her finger up and down in the air sizing up Rowan’s body.
Rowan stood up and moved right to the edge of the water. Crossing two arms over her waist, she pulled the hem of her shirt up and over her head revealing a sports bra.
“Today’s the day you decide to wear a bra,” Juniper tutted.
Rowan chuckled and looked down the shoreline as she pulled her baseball cap off and scratched the back of her neck. Juniper was transfixed on her lips that morphed into a smirk so smug, so sexy, she was barely controlling the impulse to climb back onto the sand and pull the damn bra off herself. Along with the rest of her clothes.
Rowan’s eyes darted back to Juniper’s, and she quipped, “Are you trying to get me naked, Juniper Banks?”
“Absolutely. And you can’t swim in those anyway,” Juniper quipped back as she now pointed at Rowan’s basketball shorts, “or you’ll drown.”
“Really?”
“Yes,” she responded innocently, “that’s just too much fabric. It’s a matter of science.”
“Ah. Science is it. You’re advising me on the buoyancy of basketball shorts now?”
“Mhmm.” After a pause, a coy smile crept across Juniper’s face. “I’ll throw in this added variable. For this experiment in how I finally get you undressed.”
Juniper swam toward Rowan’s spot on the beach until she could kneel in the water in front of her. Without breaking eye contact, she moved her hands behind her back and untied the bottom strap of her top and lifted it over her head. She flipped the wet top over to Rowan, slinging water down her half-dressed body. This time Rowan didn’t even bother catching the article of clothing Juniper launched at her. She just let it hit her body and fall to the beach in front of her.
Looking up at Rowan from this point of view, who was now standing almost directly over her, with water dripping down her bare stomach, made her heart beat against her rib cage.
“Don’t be shy now, Birdsong.”
Rowan’s eyes narrowed coyly. Juniper loved the way the outer corners angled up when she did this, like they were kissing the sky.
“A lot’s changed in fifteen years. I think we both know I’m not shy anymore.”
Rowan slowly untied the cinched waist of her shorts, and they fell on the sand of the beach.
“You’re staring again,” Juniper whispered.
This time her voice had less resolve, more lust. She bit her lip as she treaded backwards in the water.
“I am,” Rowan husked, in a tone that Juniper briefly closed her eyes to fully take in.
Juniper treaded out to chest-high water with Rowan wading out, inches away in front of her. Her heart raced when she felt Rowan’s hands slide around her waist and then down her hips to pull her legs around her. Juniper let out a surprised gasp asshe slid her arms around Rowan’s neck for balance. The slide of slick skin against slick skin was almost too much to hold back from exploring. Juniper throbbed as she kissed Rowan, who deepened it to the point Juniper fully surrendered to its power.
Rowan’s lips left hers so her smoldering dark eyes could travel down Juniper’s face, drinking in the brown freckles on the tops of her cheeks, the slope of her nose, to the curves of her plump lips. Juniper had never felt assessed in this reverent sort of way, and she felt heat flush across her face.
“The salt air makes your hair wavier.” Juniper traced her finger through the half-loops of almost curls that snuck past the brim of Rowan’s hat and above her ears.
