She was falling asleep, lulled by the warmth of Scarlet’s body and the peace of their surroundings, by the sweet, exhausted, sated feeling inside of her. She knew she was smiling, but she couldn’t help it. She nuzzled against Scarlet’s neck.
Scarlet brushed back her hair, but she sighed. “I should go.”
Neera knew that she should indeed go, but she
nestled just a little bit tighter, held Scarlet that much closer, and gave a contended sigh of her own.
“Soon,” she whispered. “In a few minutes.” Her heart was beating all over the place, pounding too fast, even though her breathing had settled in. She’d dreamed of this, but she wanted more. She wanted to fall asleep with Scarlet. To spend the night with her. To be by her side until morning. She wanted to come home to her, to make a house with her, to make a life with her.
There was still so much to come. So much that they’d have to fight for. She just wanted to close her eyes and enjoy the beauty of their moment before the world came at them hard, throwing twists and turns and all the hard stuff their way that they were going to have to face.
When Neera thought about it, it seemed like an insurmountable obstacle, but she had yet to meet a hurdle that she couldn’t tackle, no matter how slow she had to climb it.
“Okay,” Scarlet agreed after a long time. “Okay. In a few minutes.”
Neera kept her eyes closed and breathed deep, forcing her body to map and remember every detail. Scarlet smelled so sweet, like warm peaches over vanilla ice cream. She loved the feel of her body against hers, the warmth and the heaviness of her limbs, the way she was also light as air at the same time. The tickle of a strand of her soft hair against her cheek. The more delicate tickle of her breath. She loved the way her curves fit against her own. There wasn’t a single thing about Scarlet that she didn’t love.
As Neera was pulled deeper and deeper into a relaxed state that threatened to become sleep, she knew that Scarlet was hers. She’d already fought so hard, for so many years against herself. She’d take on the rest of the world if she had to, in order to keep her, in order to have this moment and a thousand others like it. She wanted forever with Scarlet and if Scarlet wanted that too, Neera vowed that she’d find a way to make it work, no matter what came for them and how hard and how much.
Chapter 12
Scarlet
“Scarlet? Neera? I’m home.”
Scarlet jerked awake, adrenaline shooting through her veins like she’d just had a near miss with a car careening towards her. She felt like she was about to be run over, but that car wasn’t being driven by anything other than fate. Or perhaps fault was a better term. She’d made her bed and she was going to lie in it. Everything was going to go to shit.
Elodie was home. She was home and she was looking for them and they were tangled up in Neera’s bedsheets in her bed because they’d fallen asleep into a sweet stupor.
“Neera!” Scarlet hissed, shaking Neera awake. She blinked sleepily and stared at Scarlet in confusion.
“What? What’s going—”
“Your mom’s home!” Scarlet hissed. She raced around the bedroom, gathering up her clothes. She’d worn leggings and a sweater, but the leggings were suddenly tight as hell and refused to go on when she shoved her legs through them. She pulled and struggled, jumped, and nearly banged into the bed. She frantically grabbed up her bra and slipped it on as Neera threw back the sheets and started doing the same rapid routine.
“I locked the door,” Neera hissed as she flew by Scarlet. “Don’t worry.”
“Don’t worry?” Scarlet whisper screamed as she slammed her arm through one sleeve of her sweater. “Don’t worry? Your mom is out there and we’re in here, together, with a locked door.”
“She doesn’t know it’s locked. Just act natural and—’
“Natural? Oh, my God. Oh, my God, this is it. I’m done. I knew this would go down badly. I knew that this would be a disaster. I knew that this was a terrible idea. I can’t do this. I’m going to have a heart attack, Neera.”
“Hey.” Neera gripped Scarlet’s shoulders, forcing her to wrench her eyes up.
Somehow, Neera’s amber orbs were reassuring, and her face was composed. She was used to dealing with trauma and chaos. She was a nurse and she worked in the ER. This was nothing for her.
“Trust me,” she whispered. “We’re going to be fine. No, we weren’t supposed to fall asleep, but just act normal and when you’re gone, I’m going to talk to her. This is going to come out okay, because we’ll work our asses off and do what we have to do to make it that way, remember? Just take a breath.”
Scarlet tried, which resulted in a snort of air going up to her nose. She wanted to cough like she’d just inhaled water and threw a hand over her mouth.
“Oh, by the way. Your sweater’s on backwards.”
“Fuck,” Scarlet hissed.
Neera got dressed in a quick, methodical way while she turned her sweater around so it wouldn’t be a dead giveaway.
“You could always go out the window.” Neera pointed to the small window on the other side of the room. “Kidding. It’s freezing out and you don’t have your boots and coat and there’s no way you’d leave without them. That’s a summer only trick.”