“Yeah,” I breathed and leaned down to kiss her again, just to ground myself.

“Can this come off?” Noelle asked when she leaned back, tapping my tie.

I nodded, still a little breathless after the kiss, and watched as her nimble fingers quickly undid the knot. Meeting my eyes again, she tugged at the col ar of my sweater. “And this?”

“Uh-huh,” I said, raising my arms so she could get it over my head, unable to hold back a breathless chuckle when she tossed it somewhere behind her without looking where it landed.

“Lots of layers to this uniform,” she commented, lifting her gaze to grin at me. I could have kissed her again just because of that attempt to make me feel less nervous. A moment later, her voice was almost achingly soft again. “How about this?” she asked, tapping the button at the top of the white dress shirt I had worn underneath.

With the way she was looking at me, there wasn’t a single thing I wouldn’t have done for her. “Yeah,” I whispered. “Go ahead.”

I wasn’t sure if I was imagining it or if her hands really were trembling just a little bit as she slowly undid one button after another, until I could shrug the shirt off. Left in only my bra, I suppressed the urge to cross my arms in front of my chest.

Noelle seemed like she could tell I was getting nervous again because she gently pulled me down for another kiss, sweet and unrushed. Somehow, the familiar territory gave me the courage to reach behind me and unclasp the last item of clothing, letting it fall to the mattress just as she opened her eyes again.

In the silence, I could hear her breath catching in her throat.

“Look at you,” she muttered, reaching out to trail a finger from my shoulder down to my col arbone, a whisper of a touch that was that much more intense against my naked skin. “You’re so beautiful.”

I swallowed thickly, my heart pattering in time with the rain thrumming against the window, heat lapping at my body everywhere she touched. Tugging at her shirt, I softly asked, “What about you?”

At that, Noelle leaned back with a grin and unceremoniously pulled it over her head before moving on to the shirt underneath, not a trace of self-consciousness in any of her movements. Meanwhile, I suddenly found it very hard to breathe as I watched the silhouettes my hands had spent so much time memorizing through cotton and wool get revealed.

I wasn’t going to survive this. Noelle was going to be the death of me, but it would be the sweetest one I could ever have wished for.

When she was undressed and there was no fabric left between us, she looked at me again and leaned forward, carefully lowering me onto my back, the pillows cool against my overheating skin. She was the one straddling me now, a pipe dream pressed against me, one hand splayed across my rib cage. Her hair tickled my face when she leaned down, her lips brushing against my jaw as she whispered, “You’re shaking.”