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She smiled at the feeling of Zann’s lips brushing against her cheek, and snuggled deeper into her embrace with a contented sigh. “This is nice.”
“It is,” Zann murmured. She dragged a kiss to Lydia’s ear and hummed contentedly. “I love holding you.”
Lydia closed her eyes as Zann’s hushed words tugged at her heart. “I love the way you hold me.”
“Mm?” Zann’s lips bowed into a smile against her ear. “How’s that?”
Lydia caressed Zann’s forearms atop her stomach. “Like I’m something precious,” she whispered. Her breath caught at the little whimper that broke in Zann’s throat at her confession, and she echoed that quiet, wanting sound when Zann’s right hand moved her waist to press against her chest, right over her heart.
“You are,” Zann insisted, her voice hushed with tender conviction.
Lydia reached back to wrap a hand around the back of Zann’s neck as she turned just enough to be able to kiss her. Her throat tightened as Zann’s lips melted against hers, and she clung to her as the hand on her chest pressed and pressed and pressed, as if trying to push every last ounce of affection that pulsed between them directly into her heart so she could carry it with her, always.
And then, when her heart was so full she was afraid it might burst, Zann whispered her name like it was both a prayer and an answer to one at the same time, and it cracked wide open.
“Good Christ, you two!” Kit’s laughing voice rang out. “Don’t you know it’s illegal to look more loved-up than the actual fucking brides?”
Lydia whined pitifully against Zann’s lips. She should have expected the interruption, given everything, but she had been so wrapped up in the moment that she’d completely forgotten that they weren’t alone. “Make her go away.”
“To do that, I’d have to let you go,” Zann murmured, her voice thick with emotion. “And I don’t want to.”
“God, I don’t want that either.” Lydia spun in Zann’s arms so they were chest-to-chest and tucked her face in the crook of her neck. “Can I just put you in my suitcase and take you home with me?”
“Oh, baby.” Zann’s hands splayed across her back and tugged, fusing their bodies together as she kissed her temple. “I don’t think I’d fit in your suitcase.”
Lydia squeezed her eyes shut. “I know.”
Zann’s arms tightened around her waist as she whispered against her ear, “But I’m not against the idea.”
Lydia smiled hopefully. “Yeah?”
“Y—”
“Yo, let’s go! It’s time to head back to the boat!” Kit yelled. “Stop playing tonsil hockey and get your fine asses in gear!”
“We’re not even kissing!” Lydia shouted.
“I love her, but I may kill her,” Zann muttered.
Lydia huffed a laugh. “I’ll help.” She kissed Zann’s throat before regretfully pulling away. Her heart squeezed at the way Zann’s hand found hers, and she dragged her thumb over the side of Zann’s hand. “You’d really come to New York?”
Zann squeezed her hand as they started walking toward where Kit and the rest of the group were waiting for them. “If that’s what it takes to keep you—to keep this, then yeah. Like, I get that TAG is in New York, so you don’t have a lot of flexibility, but I do, so…” Zann lifted her hand to kiss the back of it. “I can come to you. Spend a weekend or a week or whatever at a time and just…explore this more. And probably, like, FaceTime a lot in between.”
“That’s—“
“Not terribly romantic, I know.” Zann shrugged apologetically. “But—”
“It is, though,” Lydia insisted. In the little bit she’d thought about it since that morning, she’d followed the same logic, but it had seemed unfair to ask Zann to come to her. “You’d be willing to upend your life, and—”
“Upend?” Zann looked at her like she was completely ridiculous. “First, I travel all the time—it’s not a big deal to hop on a plane to come see you. And, let’s be honest, this is, like, the easiest way to see if we would work long-term, when real life isn’t just an annoying phone call but something that’s there, twenty-four-seven.”
Lydia pulled a face. On the one hand, she appreciated that Zann recognized how all-consuming her obligations at TAG were, but on the other… She didn’t like the idea of her job being the thing that might come between them. “Yeah…”
Zann’s hand tightened around hers. “And secondly, when we decide that, yes, this is for the long-term, moving to New York wouldn’t be ‘upending’ my life; it’d enhance it. Like, okay, giving up the weather here would suck, but getting to hold you every night? That’d totally be worth it.”
Lydia took a deep breath as she let herself truly imagine the future Zann alluded to, and smiled as she let the breath go. “I’d like that.”
“Which part?”
