Chapter 13 #2
Juniper felt her breath catch in her throat with a release that felt more like a near overwhelming rush. Her hands wrapped around Rowan’s neck, and she managed to steady herself before pillowing her lips back into hers and dragging their bodies back against the truck door.
She felt Rowan respond to her beckoning by brushing her tongue over her lips as she placed a steadying hand on the door frame beside Juniper’s head.
Juniper parted her lips further, and met Rowan’s tongue with her own.
Even after waiting fifteen years to feel this again, there was no rush in their kissing, only a patient, sweet exploration.
Each taking the time necessary to savor the other’s touch and taste, to learn what the other responded to.
A hint of strawberries still on their lips.
Rowan wove her fingers into the hair at the nape of Juniper’s neck and tilted her head just slightly enough toward the golden late-afternoon sky to place light kisses across her jawline and to that sweet spot where neck meets throat under the ear.
Juniper let the sun’s glow cast over her face as she slid her hands under Rowan’s shirt to pull her in even closer.
They kissed until Juniper’s lips went numb, and she wasn’t sure if it was because she hadn’t been kissed like this in so long or if it was because she had never experienced anything quite like this before.
After resting their foreheads together for a few moments, Rowan leaned back to look into Juniper’s eyes. “Should we go?” She asked, barely above a whisper.
Juniper’s eyes were transfixed on every syllable that crossed Rowan’s lips. She felt intoxicated by those lips.
“Probably,” she whispered back, finally.
She fluttered her eyes closed again for one last sweet kiss before she felt Rowan’s hand slide from her neck back to the door handle. She pulled the door open for her, and Juniper climbed inside.
She sat, rather impatiently, as she watched Rowan cross to the driver’s side.
She felt like she wasn’t going to ever be able to catch her breath.
Rowan slid in, and stared straight ahead, hands gripping at ten and two on the steering wheel.
She blinked a couple of times, before placing her hand on the gear shifter behind the wheel, ready to pull down.
“Wait!” Juniper interrupted through the breath she was still trying to catch and scrambled across the bench seat.
“Oh, thank god,” Rowan breathed in relief, into Juniper’s kiss as she straddled her lap.
This round of kissing was decidedly not a patient or sweet exploration. This round was a heated, fingers weaving through hair, lips and tongues familiarizing themselves with necks and collarbones, teeth pulling at bottom lips kind of exploration.
All of her former angst, their former iciness, and then paralyzing hesitation over finally admitting to themselves and to each other what they really wanted, had combined and were driving a white-hot iron directly into this moment’s passion.
If the intention was to leave a permanent mark, that’s exactly what the fuck it was doing to her.
Juniper ran her fingers down the sweat-slick skin of Rowan’s defined arms and shoulders. She salivated, literally, and she trailed her wet mouth across Rowan’s neck as her hands found their way underneath the bottom edge of her shirt again.
She felt Rowan’s hands dip into the waistband of the back of her shorts.
She had unknowingly been rocking her hips against Rowan, who had scooted them both further down the seat for a better angle to mirror Juniper’s movements back.
Rowan was gripping handfuls of her curves in encouragement, and Juniper was very nearly about to lose control.
She moaned into Rowan’s lips when her brain finally processed what was happening between her legs.
Rowan slowly ungripped Juniper’s ass and moved her hands to the small of her back. She leaned her head back on the headrest to look at Juniper. “Maybe not like this the first time?”
“Fuck your self-control,” Juniper breathed out in mock frustration, which elicited a quiet chuckle from Rowan.
Rowan pressed her hands into the seat beneath them to straighten them upright, then pushed a loose strand of hair out of Juniper’s face. Juniper knew the look in those eyes; she was gently asking her to be reasonable.
“Fine,” Juniper grumbled in response to the unspoken request.
She may have grumbled about it, but her heart beat even harder that she was being treated with such intention. She smiled at her recognition that Rowan was romantic, exactly as she’d imagined her to be all those years apart.
Juniper wrapped her arms around Rowan’s waist and buried her face into her neck. She could feel Rowan’s quick heartbeat drumming beneath her skin, and she smiled against it even harder. It’s not like she wasn’t feeling it too.
Rowan closed the connection between their bodies with her arms around Juniper’s shoulders and rested her cheek on top of Juniper’s head.
They sat that way for a while, content to be in each other’s arms, no awkwardness, just joy.
The kind of joy that revels in silent acknowledgement first. And then laughter.
Juniper started giggling, softly at first, trying to stifle it.
“What?” Rowan said through her own laugh, pushing Juniper’s body back to look at her face.
“Did we really just make out in your Dad’s truck like teenagers sneaking around?”
“Oops,” Rowan laughed then shrugged, putting her hands on the sides of Juniper’s face and bringing her in for another kiss, then a second, and a third. “Guess I should take you home now before your Mom starts worrying,” she added before one last kiss they both smiled into.
Juniper swung her leg back over Rowan’s lap and moved back to the passenger seat. Rowan caught her eyes as she put the truck into reverse and threw her arm over the back of the seat to look out the back window. Juniper wanted to crawl across the seat to settle underneath that arm.
After buckling herself in, she took notice of the formerly dried sweat now glistening again on her body. “Damn, it’s already getting so hot out.”
“Sorry, the A/C in this thing absolutely sucks.” Rowan fiddled with the knobs before putting the truck back in drive.
“Well thank Creator for this old blanket on the seat so I don’t have to sit right on the leather.”
“Indian interior decorating must-have, especially in every truck.” Rowan looked over at her, and they laughed together.
“It’s such a throwback. I love it. Snagging blanket.”
“When I get a truck of my own, I’ll make sure to add it.”
Juniper couldn’t help herself as she narrowed her eyes at her. “Who are you snagging in this truck?”
Rowan flashed her eyes over to her before looking back at the road. “The last person who was on this blanket with me was you.”
Juniper swallowed. They had been together on this blanket in the field after foraging that afternoon.
Juniper had wanted to push her back onto it then.
She crossed her legs and looked out the window.
Her foot jiggled against her leg, fighting the urge to make her pull the truck over and push her down on it now.
“Hmm,” she hummed instead, while tucking her left hand between her crossed legs.
When they finally reached Juniper’s house, Rowan pulled onto the barren patch of the yard where grass used to grow and parked. They sat in silence while the truck finished its rattling cool down.
Juniper looked over at Rowan and felt at least a little sympathetic. “Ready?” She grimaced as she waited for the answer.
Rowan turned to her and searched her eyes for a few moments. “Yes, actually. I am.”
◆◆◆
Rowan shuffled up the wooden steps behind Juniper, not out of reluctance – she was ready to be held accountable – but out of a near overwhelming feeling of contrition. She hadn’t seen Anita in even longer than she’d seen Juniper.
She noticed that the old mesh crank-open window that sat in front of their kitchen table was ajar. A shuffle of curtains caught the corner of Rowan’s eye, and just as suddenly, Anita was in front of her, opening the screen door.
“I’ve been waiting for you girls.”
Juniper pushed past her in a mad dash to the window unit across the living room. “Mama, I told you don’t sit in here without the A/C on.”
“It’s only May. I’m not wasting my money on that yet. I’ll waste plenty of it in July and August.”
The thought of even making it to June in this weather made Rowan want to gasp for air as she took a step into the living room.
“I told you I have money to run the air.”
Rowan caught how Juniper refused to make eye contact as she passed by her to walk down the hall toward her bedroom. Then she looked back to the shorter but no less formidable woman standing in front of her.
“Hi, Anita.”
Anita squeezed her into a tight hug. She was short enough, and Rowan tall enough, that her head fit perfectly under her chin.
Anita leaned back from her hug. “Oh, you can’t call me Auntie anymore?” She teased in a soft voice.
“I didn’t know,” Rowan said, unsure, her eyes barely meeting Anita’s.
“Always. Don’t be silly.” Anita beamed and hugged her again.
Rowan pressed her chin into the center part of Anita’s hair and for the second time in as many days, she had to blink away tears as she held onto someone she loved as they overwhelmed her with the unconditional nature of the way they loved her back.
This time her effort to stop the tears was unsuccessful.
She sniffled as she brought the back of her hand up to her eyes to wipe them away.
Anita let her go after another tight squeeze.
“I would tell you ‘don’t cry it’s okay,’ but I’ve been told that’s not the way parents are comforting their children anymore. Wren never stops getting on me about that.”
Rowan chuckled through her tears. “The ‘it’s okay’ part works, if it is okay?”