Mia cocked her head and regarded Lou for a moment. What was she thinking? Lou wanted to know every tiny thought running through her head. The first time with someone was all about guessing—and second guessing—and exploring and trying this and that. She was glad she had put Mia in charge. From what she’d told her, Mia must have had many more first times with other women than Lou had. She was doubly glad she’d had the nerve to whisper those words to Mia because there was something about her that telegraphed her desire to do so, but that in this particular situation, deliberate permission had to be given. The words had to be said. Of course, it could also very well be that Lou was imagining all of this, that her mind was racing because her body was about to go into overdrive—and the body always follows the mind and vice versa.

Mia brought her hand to Lou’s neck and stroked the hollow of it with her thumb, then ran it over her collarbone.

“These shoulders,” Mia half-mumbled.

Lou barely understood her, but it seemed Mia hadn’t spoken those words with the intention to be understood. They were words meant to express desire and to bridge the gap of their current position to the next, which Lou was hoping fervently would be on her back on the bed.

Mia leaned in to kiss her again and Lou, with her hands still on Mia’s back, pulled her closer, making her intentions known again. Their breasts met with too much fabric in between them and Lou thrust a knee between Mia’s legs as a new swell of desire rose through her.

She had to draw back. Had to stop herself from flinging herself onto the bed, dragging Mia with her, pulling her on top, somehow tearing their clothes off in the process and getting to the next stage. Because she had dreamed of seeing Mia naked. Hesitantly at first, not fully allowing herself to give in to the image that was forming in her mind’s eye. But what good was imagining anyone naked? What purpose did it serve except indulging in a quick whim after dark? The difference between the idea of someone naked and that person standing next to you, skin and soul bared, was night and day. And Lou wanted it all. She had her hands on Mia’s skin. She no longer had to use her feeble powers of imagination.