7
The rideshare ride home felt unreal.
Chloe sat in the back seat with her forehead lightly against the window, watching the city slide by, body still humming with the deep, pleasant ache of everything that had just happened.
She kept replaying it in fragments: the first moment the sheet came off, the way Vespera’s mouth had felt between her legs, the slow grind of their bodies, the quiet conversation in the tub afterward.
I’m not as straight as I thought I was.
The realization didn’t feel scary. It felt…
bright. Like a door she hadn’t known was there had swung open.
Every time her mind drifted back to Vespera—the low voice, the dark eyes, the way those strong hands had taken her apart so carefully—a soft flutter started low in her stomach.
She pressed her thighs together and felt the pleasant leftover sensitivity, and a small, private smile tugged at her mouth.
She had walked into Serein wound tight and lonely and half-convinced that good touch was something other people got to have.
She was leaving with a phone number in her contacts, a secret that still made her cheeks warm, and the bone-deep knowledge of what it felt like to be completely, thoroughly released.
The car pulled up in front of her building. Chloe thanked the driver, stepped out into the early evening air, and stood for a moment on the sidewalk with the sun on her face.
She felt hopeful. Soft. New.
And already, quietly, she was looking forward to the next time she would see Vespera again.
The End!