They swallowed it, tasting how much she wanted.
Tilly pulled back just enough to look at her. Flushed. Breathless. Eyes wide and wrecking.
“Savannah,” they murmured, voice rough from restraint.
Her fingers tightened in their shirt, tugging them just slightly closer — not demanding, just asking without words.
“Tell me to stop,” they whispered.
Savannah shook her head, breath trembling.
“I can’t do this again if you don’t want—”
“I want this,” she said, cutting them off, quiet and certain.
Tilly froze.
Her words hit like heat to the chest — sharp, stunning. She trembled under their hands, wanting, wide-eyed, looking at them like something would break if they stepped back.
Tilly swallowed hard. “Savannah…”
But she was already leaning in, her breath brushing theirs, her lips parted, wanting everywhere.
It shattered the last piece of their restraint.
They kissed her again — not rushed, not forceful, but full of the hunger they’d kept buried for weeks. Savannah inhaled sharply, her fingers curling tighter in their shirt.
Tilly slid a hand along her waist, feeling the give beneath her sweater. Savannah shivered — a small, involuntary tremor that Tilly felt under their palm. They wanted to touch her everywhere, to feel every place she reacted to them.
Their thumb stroked her ribs again, asking. Savannah gasped into their mouth, her hips shifting a fraction toward them before she caught herself against the counter.
Tilly’s breath broke.
She wasn’t pulling away. She wasn’t hesitating. She was meeting them, wanting them, trembling and certain all at once.
They deepened the kiss, guiding her closer with a hand at her ribs. Savannah melted into it, breath shaking, lips soft and open under theirs.
Her hand flexed at their chest, trembling and intent.
Tilly pulled back just enough to see her — really see her.
Her lips were swollen.
Her breathing uneven.
Her eyes were wide and glassy.
She was the most beautiful thing Tilly had ever seen.
Thirty Eight
Savannah couldn’t breathe.
Or maybe she was breathing too much — short, shaky inhales that made her ribs ache, and her head feel weightless. Tilly was still close enough that she could feel their breath brushing her lips, warm and unsteady, and the space between them felt charged in a way she didn’t know how to handle.
Her mouth still tingled from the last kiss.
God.
