we show off our different scarlet letters
Flora’s laughter spills out like warm honey, bright and uncontained. Her gaze drifts over him, drunk on light and love, her eyes catching every flicker of blue that burns along his lashes and lips from the bioluminescence. "You know," she says between soft laughter, shrugging against the sand beneath him, "it’s very dangerous to go swimming in the dark."
Her fingertips wander along the solid line of Kaisel's shoulders, tracing the tension there before sliding down to rest against the branching pattern of scars across his back. "I was pretty sure that when you eventually dragged me off for your grand skinny-dipping plan we’d be near the main fire," she murmurs, grin tugging crooked at her mouth. "So if you’d tried to take me any farther than my candles, I was either going to have Spice move them—or just lead you back this way."
Her hips move in an unhurried roll against his, lazy and deliberate. The friction is electric, a reminder of the difference between them—his skin, bare and fever-warm under her hands save for his boxers, and hers still trapped beneath the thin, fabric of her trousers. Every brush of his palms against her waist makes her ache for the feel of the sea on both of them.
Then his voice hits her again, that low sincerity wrapped around her name, and all the laughter in her stills into something softer. The look she gives him is molten, open, her aqua eyes shimmering like sea glass lit from within. Her hands drift down over the firm plane of his stomach, up the rise of his chest, steadying herself as she leans forward until the firelight dances across both of their faces. "I’ve never been this happy," she breathes, the words trembling from her lips, because while he might not understand the significance of it, she certainly did. "No one has ever made me this happy before."
When he calls her strong, she rolls her eyes with mock severity, though the corners of her mouth betray her. "If you’d start running with me in the mornings, you’d be just as surprisingly strong in no time," she teases, the playfulness curling sweet and familiar between them.
She leans down until their noses brush, breath mingling, her smile breaking into something tender and wild all at once. "Ditto," she whispers, voice low as a promise, reverence wrapped around the childish word. The kiss she gives him is far too soft for what’s in her eyes, a touch that hums with everything it’s holding back. Her lips linger for a heartbeat before she pulls back just enough to grin against his mouth.
"Now," she murmurs, pulse thrumming fast and sure beneath her skin, "get me naked—and take me into the sea."
Her fingertips wander along the solid line of Kaisel's shoulders, tracing the tension there before sliding down to rest against the branching pattern of scars across his back. "I was pretty sure that when you eventually dragged me off for your grand skinny-dipping plan we’d be near the main fire," she murmurs, grin tugging crooked at her mouth. "So if you’d tried to take me any farther than my candles, I was either going to have Spice move them—or just lead you back this way."
Her hips move in an unhurried roll against his, lazy and deliberate. The friction is electric, a reminder of the difference between them—his skin, bare and fever-warm under her hands save for his boxers, and hers still trapped beneath the thin, fabric of her trousers. Every brush of his palms against her waist makes her ache for the feel of the sea on both of them.
Then his voice hits her again, that low sincerity wrapped around her name, and all the laughter in her stills into something softer. The look she gives him is molten, open, her aqua eyes shimmering like sea glass lit from within. Her hands drift down over the firm plane of his stomach, up the rise of his chest, steadying herself as she leans forward until the firelight dances across both of their faces. "I’ve never been this happy," she breathes, the words trembling from her lips, because while he might not understand the significance of it, she certainly did. "No one has ever made me this happy before."
When he calls her strong, she rolls her eyes with mock severity, though the corners of her mouth betray her. "If you’d start running with me in the mornings, you’d be just as surprisingly strong in no time," she teases, the playfulness curling sweet and familiar between them.
She leans down until their noses brush, breath mingling, her smile breaking into something tender and wild all at once. "Ditto," she whispers, voice low as a promise, reverence wrapped around the childish word. The kiss she gives him is far too soft for what’s in her eyes, a touch that hums with everything it’s holding back. Her lips linger for a heartbeat before she pulls back just enough to grin against his mouth.
"Now," she murmurs, pulse thrumming fast and sure beneath her skin, "get me naked—and take me into the sea."
