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Butterflies took off in her stomach. She turned in Charlotte’s arms, looping hers around Charlotte’s neck. The rest of the world dissolved until it was just them. In that moment, as Charlotte looked at her like she was the only good thing left in the world, she believed it was real.

“When things happen, good or bad, you’re the first person I want to tell.”

Moonlight danced in Charlotte’s irises, catching threads of palest blue, making them shimmer.

“Ali I⁠—”

But Ali was already closing the distance before Charlotte could finish, sealing their mouths together. The kiss was lush and she savored it, their bodies fitting together as if made for that exact moment. Every nerve in Ali hummed. She wanted to forget the stares, the relentless hum of her OCD and live inside this moment forever.

Pulling back, she smirked, peeled off her cover-up, and let it fall in a whisper at her feet.

Charlotte looked at her like she was a curiosity. “It’s a little late to sunbathe.”

Then Ali reached behind her back to untie her bikini top, letting it drop onto the pile.

“I’m going skinny dipping,” she said, voice low and daring, moonlight etching every freckle on her bare skin.

Charlotte’s eyes went wide, and she angled herself between Ali’s bare skin and the distant glow of the beach house. But no one was looking, it was late, most people were already heading to bed. The rest weren’t going to come looking for them after the hair fiasco.

“You really don’t mind that I touch your hair?”

Charlotte looked at a loss for words, all sharp logic and quiet control short-circuiting. Then her hand framed Ali’s face, thumbs sweeping over cheekbones with a reverence Ali wasn’t used to.

“You’re the only person in this world I want touching my hair.”

Ali’s smile burst bright and unconfined, dimples popping, making Charlotte’s breath catch. Before Charlotte could blink, Ali shoved down her shorts and bikini bottoms and walked out into the sea.

The water bit at her skin, cool for the season but nothing compared to the north. Small waves lapped at her thighs, then her hips as she waded deeper. She looked over her shoulder, catching Charlotte’s eye where she stood on the shore, hands planted on her hips.

“Are you coming?”

She waited, watching the war unfold as Charlotte talked herself into the idea, out of it, back into it, brows knitting and smoothing in rapid succession. Finally, with a decisive exhale and a look over her shoulder, Charlotte grabbed the hem of her shirt and tugged it over her head. Piece by piece she shed her clothes until she stood bare, clad only in moonlight. Her olive skin glowed, turning her to something holy that Ali knew she had to paint.

Ali held out her hand, heart stuttering at the sight of Charlotte stepping into the waves with quiet grace.

When their fingers laced, Ali tugged her closer, deeper into the water.

Charlotte hissed when the next wave slid up her chest, hand leaping to cover her breasts. “Shit, I’m cutting glass here.”

The sound of Ali’s delight filled the air. Her legs looped around Charlotte’s waist. “I’ll warm you up, babes.”

“My hero,” Charlotte rasped, hands sliding up the backs of her thighs to palm her ass.

Oh yes, Charlotte Davenport was an ass woman.

“You look so at home out here.”

“I grew up on the beach,” Ali said, resting their foreheads together as the current rocked them back and forth.

“Sometimes I forget you’re a California Girl,” Charlotte mused, hands squeezing the globes of Ali’s ass. “Do you miss it?”

“Sometimes,” Ali admitted, brushing their noses together. “I think I’d miss you more though.”

She whispered it and she wasn’t sure Charlotte heard. She could imagine the real confession along with a hundred different ways Charlotte might receive it. Fear kept it folded inside her.

Charlotte kissed her then, no hesitation or restraint. Their tongues met as their bodies molded together and the ocean swilled around them as all the noise in Ali’s mind didn’t just go quiet… it vanished.

Out there in the dark waves, wrapped around the woman she loved, Ali found complete and perfect silence.