Page 294 of Every Almost

"Please open your eyes."

It took everything in Charlie not to actually whimper at Reyna's request.

So, instead, she opened her eyes.

And Reyna was there, her face inches away from her own, the amber of her eyes reflecting back on Charlie.

"Hi," she said.

And then Reyna kissed her before Charlie could say it back.

And every loud thought in Charlie's head went quiet at once.

There was no working it out in her mind, no active thinking to analyze every angle.

For the first time she could remember, Charlie's brain stopped narrating. She was able to focus entirely on Reyna's mouth on hers, and on the astonishing, unfamiliar patience she felt pressed up against her.

Reyna kissed her like she had all the time in the universe and had just discovered, to her own quiet amazement, that she was allowed to spend it on something she chose.

And Charlie would let her choose her until the end of time if it meant this woman would keep kissing her like this.

Charlie's hands came up on their own. They brushed up Reyna's arms to her neck, where she wrapped her fingers around the back, holding her tight and pressing into the kiss.

Reyna made a sound against her mouth, roughened by something perilously close to pleading, and it caught low in Charlie. The fingers at her neck tightened as though Reyna had forgotten, for one breath, how carefully she had been holding her.

Her left hand slid farther around Charlie’s neck, fingers threading into her hair, while the hand against her cheek tightened gently and drew her closer, angling Charlie’s face until the kiss deepened between them.

Charlie kissed her back, a sound of need slipping out of Charlie before she could stop it, small and helpless against Reyna’s lips. Reyna shuddered, her fingers flexing against Charlie’s skin as the last fragile thread of her restraint came quietly undone.

Charlie had spent months telling herself she was reading it wrong. That the warmth was ordinary. That a person like Reyna could not possibly mean it toward a person like her. She'd built the whole careful argument because the alternative was hoping, and Charlie Wickett had learned a long time ago exactly what hoping cost.

She had been wrong.

She had been so fucking wrong.

Their mouths found a rhythm. Slow presses deepening, Reyna’s lower lip sliding between Charlie’s. Charlie caught it softly before letting her go. When Reyna’s tongue brushed hers, the first touch was careful, almost a question, and Charlie answered by opening to her, meeting her once, then again, until whatever caution remained between them gave way beneath the quiet insistence of wanting more.

They kissed through uneven breaths and quiet sounds Charlie could no longer tell apart, lips parting only long enough to find one another more surely, each return deeper, softer, and somehow more desperate than the last. When Reyna drew back the smallest fraction, Charlie followed without thinking, unwilling to let even that sliver of distance remain between them, and when their mouths met again, she could no longer tell which of them was trembling.

For once, nothingalmosthappened.

It finally did.

Eventually, they pulled apart, but neither of them went far. Reyna's hands stayed where they were against Charlie's skin, while Charlie moved one hand tight against Reyna's waist, theother resting against her neck. Charlie made no move to change any of it.

Charlie looked at Reyna. Her eyes were wet with tears. But she didn't wipe them away.

Charlie opened her mouth, and the only thing in it was the smallest word she had.

"Hi."

Charlie watched it all just surface. She watched everything Reyna felt come up onto her face without a single thing holding it back. It was all there, easy and unguarded.

Then Reyna smiled. "Hi."

Charlie's heart beat so fast she was pretty sure Reyna could feel it against her.

Against Reyna.