Page 298 of Every Almost

Her fingertips found the rose along Reyna's jaw first, and traced it, slow. Charlie touched the bloom the way she touched every single thing that mattered to her, with her whole attention and nothing held back.

Her fingers moved from Reyna's jaw to her throat, following the light, mapping the constellations as they shifted under her hand, down to the collarbone where the rose ran warm enough that Charlie could feel it heat against her fingertips.

And the bloom answered her. It deepened where she touched, brightened when Charlie made a sound. It gathered to meet her fingers and collect around her specific touch, no matter where she went. Charlie could only conceive it as a conversation in light and skin, something she never thought possible.

Yet somehow, she was completely fluent.

"Does it feel different?" Charlie asked, barely above a whisper. "When I touch it?"

REYNA

Reyna could barely answer. Because it did. It felt like every nerve she had spent a lifetime keeping quiet awoke, one under each of Charlie's fingertips.

People had touched her markings before. Of course they had. But the markings had always been gold when they did it, held down, steady, giving nothing away. Reyna had learned a long time ago how to be touched without letting her skin say a word about it.

It had never once been like this.

Charlie was tracing a color Reyna had never worn. Her fingers followed the light across her skin as though it were precious, as though it was the most beautiful thing she had ever been allowed to see.

Reyna finally nodded, quickly, erratically. She couldn't speak. The bloom moved under Charlie's hand and she felt it in her chest, in her throat, in all the places she had spent so long keeping quiet that they'd forgotten they were allowed to answer.

Charlie kept going, along her collarbone, up the curve of her neck, in no hurry at all. She was intent on every change beneath Charlie's fingers, the brightening color, the uneven breath, the small betrayals Reyna could no longer call back.

But there was still a piece.

And then Reyna saw Charlie’s expression shift. She knew Charlie had seen the flicker of the last place Reyna still braced. Even now, with the rose open beneath Charlie’s hand and all their words and confessions already laid bare, some old part of her remained immovable around the full measure of what she felt.

Reyna felt Charlie's fingers move to trace the rose down the side of her neck, tracing the light where Reyna felt it most. Shetook a deep, staggering breath that hitched in her chest, closing her eyes against the sensation that was building so rapidly.

Then suddenly, Charlie's mouth was against Reyna's ear, her lips grazing across her skin, and the sudden want that raged through her was devastating. Then, the softest, lowest voice Reyna had ever heard Charlie use rippled across her flesh.

"I said stop holding it, Rey."

And Charlie's voice took that last wall, the one even the bloom hadn't reached, and broke it apart under her words.

Charlie pulled back to look at her, and her eyes were flooded with a fire Reyna had never seen before. The expression before her told ReynaI want all of you, you don't have to protect me from a single thing you feel.

But even more so, that Charlie wantedmore.

And Reyna wanted to give her everything.

So, Reyna let go.

CHARLIE

Charlie felt Reyna let go before she understood entirely what she was seeing.

Reyna’s breath broke against her, and the rose spilled across her skin in a rush down her throat, over her collarbone, beneath Charlie’s hand. The color no longer moved in careful increments, instead opening everywhere at once, bright and unguarded, as though it had spent a lifetime waiting for Reyna to stop calling it back.

The sight of it stole Charlie’s breath. Her hand stayed against Reyna's neck as she leaned forward to kiss her. Reyna answered without restraint. Every place she’d held still before movedtoward Charlie now, from her mouth, to her hands, the full press of her body until Charlie could feel the force of everything Reyna had stopped containing.

When they finally parted, Charlie kept her close.

She looked at the rose beneath her fingers, then at Reyna’s face, and understood that wanting her wasn’t enough.

Charlie wanted every answer Reyna's body gave her. Every place the light changed. Every sound Reyna tried and failed to keep inside.

Her hands settled against Reyna’s lower back, her question coming out softer than the wanting behind it.