38. Every Almost Leads to You #5
The sound Charlie made was quiet and wrecked and close to Reyna’s ear, Reyna answering with one of her own.
Skin pressed to skin. Chest to chest. Stomach to stomach. Charlie's thighs against Reyna's.
Charlie’s arms locked around her shoulders while Reyna’s hands spread across the warmth of her back, drawing her closer until there wasn’t an inch between them that could’ve been closed.
Reyna felt Charlie’s heartbeat against her.
For several breaths, they didn’t kiss, they just held one another.
Not because the need had passed. The truth was, it had never been stronger.
But this was the first time they’d been allowed to feel the whole of each other at once, and Reyna couldn’t rush past it.
Charlie’s skin was warm everywhere. Her breath moved against Reyna’s neck.
Her fingers flexed against Reyna’s back as though she, too, was testing the reality of what she’d been given.
They were finally here.
Charlie kissed Reyna’s shoulder, then again, nearer her neck. Reyna turned her face into Charlie’s hair and held her harder.
“Rey?”
“Yes?”
“I think my legs stopped working.”
Reyna laughed into her neck. Charlie laughed too, the sound moving between their bodies. Then Charlie walked them both backward until the backs of her knees met the bed.
Charlie drew her forward, and Reyna pushed flush against Charlie's body, pressing her lips to hers as Charlie wrapped her arms around Reyna, cradling her.
Then, in one gentle movement, Charlie lowered her gently to the bed, their lips never parting.
Charlie's kiss was electrifying, in any way Reyna was able to have her. As they lay together against the mattress, Charlie’s arms closed around her waist and pulled her in until their bodies fit together in an entirely new way.
Reyna’s breath broke just as Charlie’s did too.
They stared at each other from inches away.
Charlie touched Reyna’s cheek.
“Hi,” she whispered.
Reyna felt the laugh rise through her, tangled hopelessly with everything else.
“Hi.”
Then Charlie kissed her, slowly at first.
As though they had all the time in the universe, and they’d finally found the place they wanted to spend it.
CHARLIE
Charlie let the kiss stay slow.
And for three breaths, she even managed it.
Until Reyna shifted against her, just enough to settle more fully, just enough for her legs to seek Charlie's and entwine through Charlie's own and her body to press closer in places Charlie had been trying very hard to control.
Reyna Solas was bare in her arms. This is the woman Charlie had watched command a bridge, silence entire rooms, and hold herself steady through things that would’ve broken almost anyone else, and she was wrapped around Charlie as though she’d found the place she belonged and intended to remain there.
Her mouth moved against Charlie’s with a patience that kept breaking at the edges.
Each kiss began slowly, almost tender enough to hurt, and ended with Reyna’s fingers tightening in Charlie’s hair or Charlie pulling her closer than she’d been a second before.
Charlie held her tighter, one hand spread across Reyna’s back, the other curved around her waist, pulling her close enough that Reyna made a soft sound into the kiss.
Reyna' warm skin, the rise and fall of her breathing, and the quiet movement of muscle beneath Charlie’s palms each time Reyna leaned farther into her, made Charlie feel as though they had all the time in the universe.
Yet neither of them seemed capable of behaving like it.
There was so much of Reyna that Charlie had never been permitted to know this way. From the line of her spine beneath Charlie’s hand to the softness at her waist. The small, involuntary arch of her body when Charlie’s fingers moved across the rose, the markings brightening beneath her palm.
Reyna shuddered.
And then a heartbeat later, Charlie did too.
She broke the kiss.
“What?” Reyna whispered.
Charlie couldn’t answer her, but something had moved through the hand she had pressed against Reyna's rose markings.
Now, it lingered there, a low warmth beneath her palm, spreading inward from every place her skin covered the rose. It wasn't heat from Reyna’s body or the pull of Charlie’s own wanting, though there was enough of that to explain almost anything.
Charlie looked down, seeing the rose gathered beneath her fingers, brighter around every point of contact, the color deepening where Charlie was touching.
She ran her thumb across one of them.
Reyna’s breath broke, the rose flashed, and something spread inside Charlie in answer, a brief, aching pull low in her body, arriving a fraction after Reyna’s gasp and too close to be coincidence.
They stared at each other.
"Did you..." Charlie started. "Did you feel that?"
Reyna laughed softly. "Yes, Charlie, I felt it," she teased. "You're very good with your hands."
"No, that's..." Charlie said quickly. She actually leaned forward and looked over Reyna's shoulder to where her hand spread across her back.
"What is it?" Reyna asked, trying to look behind her.
Reyna’s voice had changed.
Charlie had heard her startled before, even angry, amused, and afraid, though Reyna would’ve denied that one until the ship fell apart around her.
But this wasn’t any of those.
Charlie ran her thumb across one of the markings and watched.
Reyna’s breath hitched and her body moved in Charlie's arms, and Charlie watched as the rose flashed brighter beneath her hand. But then it happened again, this brief, aching pull that belonged to Reyna’s gasp but moved through Charlie like fire.
Charlie leaned back and stared at Reyna. This time, Reyna eyes were wide.
“Did you—” Charlie began.
“You feel something too?” Reyna asked.
Charlie nodded. “I feel something.”
Charlie touched the marking again and Reyna’s head fell back, a quiet sound leaving her, and the answering pulse moved through Charlie before she could prepare for it.
“Oh my god,” Charlie whispered.
Reyna looked at her.
"What am I feeling?" Charlie asked.
Reyna began to shake her head. "I... I don't even know."
"Really?"
Then Reyna’s mouth curved, barely.
“You’re smiling,” Charlie said.
“So are you.”
“I am not.”
“Oh, yes you are. Right...” And Reyna lifted her hand to touch the corner of Charlie's mouth before placing a chaste kiss against her. "Here."
"That doesn't mean anything," Charlie teased.
"It means that what I'm feeling, you're feeling, and that's..."
"Different."
Reyna laughed. "Different is not the word I would have used."
"Oh?" Charlie asked. "What word would you have used then?"
"Plenty come to mind."
"Is that so?"
"Mm hmm."
"Like what?"
"Like..." Charlie watched Reyna ponder the question. "Like 'mesmerizing.'"
"Mesmerizing," Charlie deadpanned.
"It seems to be a very popular word among this ship as of late," Reyna quipped. "Before it was 'incredible.'"
"I kept telling you the ship was impressive. Incredible was the best word to have on hand!"
Reyna laughed in Charlie's arms. "So defensive," she teased.
"You still seem to be tracking my vocabulary with impressive exactitude," Charlie retorted.
Reyna's laugh escalated, and Charlie felt it vibrate through her whole body.
Charlie kissed her to end the argument. Reyna laughed once against her mouth, but the sound disappeared when Charlie’s fingers moved again.
The rose felt different beneath her touch without being raised from the skin, a faint change Charlie couldn’t have measured or mapped, almost a pull against her fingertips, as though the markings were beckoning her hand closer.
Charlie followed them. Over Reyna’s shoulder, down the curve of her side, back toward the light burning above her heart.
Everywhere Charlie touched, Reyna answered with a catch in her breath, fingers tightening in Charlie’s hair, her legs drawing Charlie closer as though even the smallest distance between them had become unbearable
She’d wanted Reyna for so long from a distance. Across consoles and tables and the narrow stretches of corridor. She’d built an entire private language out of glances and accidental touches, then spent months convincing herself she’d invented instance.
But despite all of that preparation, none of it had primed her for how Reyna responded to her, the woman who held entire rooms steady trembling beneath Charlie’s hands, coming apart in small, beautiful increments and letting Charlie feel each one.
Charlie kissed her harder. The rose flared where their bodies met, and Reyna’s need moved through Charlie again, stealing her breath, enough to know it was deeper than wanting alone.
“Does it always do this?” Charlie asked against Reyna's mouth.
Reyna shook her head.
“Has it ever before?”
Reyna pulled away to look at Charlie. "No."
Charlie waited for the part of her that should’ve wanted to stop and understand, to ask Reyna seventeen questions about physiology and neural pathways and whether shared sensation between species required immediate medical supervision.
But it didn't. There was only Reyna’s breath breaking against her lips, only the rose brightening beneath Charlie’s hand, only the extraordinary fact that Reyna had never felt this before.
Charlie touched the marking above her heart.
“Tell me if it becomes too much."
“It won't” Reyna whispered.
“You answered very quickly—”
“Because it won't."
Charlie’s thumb moved slowly through the light and Reyna gasped, her entire body tightening against Charlie and bowing as Charlie felt the touch move through her a heartbeat later.
“That looked like a lot,” Charlie whispered.
“It was.”
Charlie’s hand immediately stilled, but then Reyna caught her wrist before she could draw it away completely, looking into Charlie's eyes.
“But I didn’t say it was too much.”
Charlie turned her hand beneath Reyna’s and linked their fingers.
“No,” she said softly. “You didn’t.”
Reyna kissed her again but the kiss was changed. The need was still there, pressing at the edge of every touch between them, but something deeper was with them now.