Page 5 of Say You Want Me
Something shifted in Taylor’s expression. Not pity. Not amusement. Just a slow, knowing curl at the corner of her mouth that made her knees feel suddenly unreliable. Taylor’s palm slid down to cup the side of her face.
“I think you really wanted to kiss me,” Taylor said, quiet, certain. Her thumb traced the curve of her lower lip with agonizing patience, giving her every chance to pull back, to step into the surf, to remember who she was supposed to be. “And I hate that you pulled away. Because I wanted to kiss you too.”
The words sank into her like warm oil. They didn’t argue with her age or her fears. They simply named the want that still hummed between them.
Charlotte’s heels slid out of her hands.
Taylor leaned in, close enough that she could feel the warmth of her breath against her own mouth. She didn’t close the distance. She waited—steady, confident, unbearably sexy in her stillness—until her own hand tightened on the front of Taylor’s shirt like it had a mind of its own.
The choice, suddenly, felt like it had never been a choice at all.
“Stop thinking for just one minute,” Taylor whispered against her skin.
The request slipped beneath her defenses before she could turn it into an argument. Thinking had always been how she kept herself intact. She could name the risks, identify the distortion, predict the regret waiting on the other side of this moment. She could explain every reason to step away.
None of it helped when Taylor’s mouth came closer.
Taylor closed the final inch, her lips pressing against hers.
The contact sent a fine tremor through her knees and into the hand she’d clenched against Taylor’s shoulder. An ache gathered beneath her ribs. Taylor didn’t take more than she gave. She waited there, barely touching, and that restraint loosened something she had held tight for years.
She turned into the kiss.
Taylor’s mouth softened beneath hers, and the small sound she made traveled straight through Charlotte’s chest. It carriedno triumph, no expectation. Only surprise, followed by a warmth Charlotte recognized with frightening clarity.
She had missed being wanted.
And she hadn’t understood how much until now.
4
Taylor closed the last inch, bringing her mouth against Charlotte’s.
The hesitation that had hung between them evaporated the instant their lips met. A sudden tremor ran through Charlotte’s body, followed by the tight bite of fingers digging into the fabric of Taylor’s shirt. That desperate grip anchored her. After the sting of Charlotte pulling back on the rock, this sudden surrender hit Taylor like a physical wave.
She didn’t push. She held her mouth soft against Charlotte’s, waiting, giving the older woman every chance to let her practical mind take control again. But Charlotte didn’t step back. She exhaled a shaky breath before her lips parted, yielding completely to the kiss.
A swell broke nearby, sending a spray of icy foam across the back of Taylor’s warm legs. The cold shock collided with the sudden heat of Charlotte’s mouth opening beneath hers, firing a bright spark straight down Taylor’s spine. She slid her hand from Charlotte’s jaw up into the dense, cool silk of her blond hair, her fingers winding through the strands to hold her steady.
Taylor deepened the kiss, her tongue tracing the soft curve of Charlotte’s lower lip before slipping past it, searching. The firstbrush of their tongues set off a sharp, electric shiver. Charlotte gasped, a small, surprised sound that vibrated straight through Taylor’s chest, into her ribs, her stomach, her bones. Taylor tossed her flip-flops a few feet away, out of the reach of the tide.
Charlotte’s hand slid higher, fingers pressing into the back of Taylor’s neck, not just holding her close but pulling her in, as if she was the only thing keeping Charlotte from falling, from dissolving, from being swept away by the tide. The grip was urgent, needy, and Taylor answered it by leaning in, letting Charlotte’s weight press against her, grounding them both.
Taylor tightened her grip on Charlotte’s waist, pulling the woman’s body flush against her own.
Charlotte didn’t pull back. Instead, her posture softened into the pressure of Taylor’s palm, her head tilting just enough to open her mouth wider, catching the angle with a smooth, deliberate shift that changed the whole momentum between them. The hesitation in her vanished completely. Her tongue slid against Taylor’s in a slow, rhythmic pull, taking control with a quiet competence that made Taylor’s thighs tremble. The slow, practiced rhythm unraveled every defense Taylor had spent years putting together.
Her manicured fingernails dug deeper into the soft waves at the back of Taylor’s head, her grip firm, scraping lightly against Taylor’s scalp in a hold that made a low hum vibrate in Taylor’s throat. Charlotte wasn’t just allowing the kiss; she was reaching into it, her pulse thumping wildly beneath the thin skin of her jaw where Taylor’s thumb rested.
The sharp bite of her nails sent a shudder straight down Taylor’s shoulder blades into the small of her back, making Taylor press in even harder, closing every fraction of an inch between them.
The taste of gin and ocean air on Charlotte’s tongue slid straight into Taylor’s blood, hot enough to make her stomachdrop. All that sharp, analytic distance Charlotte had carried all evening vanished into the dark surge around their feet.
Another swell surged up the shore, rushing past Taylor’s calves and swirling cold salt water around their ankles while Charlotte’s mouth burned hot against her own.
Something hard bumped gently against Taylor’s ankle.
Charlotte pulled back with a quiet gasp as the tide retreated, dragging wet sand out from under their feet.
