When Annie finally retracted her hand from her panties, Jane was more than ready to get rid of the garment. She needed that free feeling of being naked, of not feeling constrained by any fabric. But instead of quickly stripping off her bra, she waited for Annie to do it for her. Annie, however, wasn’t done down there just yet. Light as a feather, she let her finger skim over the gusset of Jane’s panties, stroking her lips and even circling her clit with the lightest of touches.

Jane should have known that Annie would take her task of driving Jane wild seriously. That she would do her utmost to deliver on the promise she had made. Because never before had Annie’s devotion for her been in question. Perhaps that was why her falling for another woman had shaken Jane so profoundly. Never before had Jane had the slightest reason to doubt Annie’s love for her. Maybe it came with being the younger one in the relationship, but she had always known that, no matter what—even when Jane herself had fallen in love with someone else—Annie would always be there for her. If anything, the whole Beth Walsh thing had only strengthened that belief.

Jane knew it was unfair, and that she was judging her wife by a different standard than the one by which she judged herself. That complete devotion to one person was an illusion. Yet, she had believed in it. Maybe Annie’s crush on Kristin was the universe’s way of balancing everything out again. Of showing Jane that she shouldn’t take her wife for granted.

“I love you,” she whispered to Annie, as though those three simple words could make up for all the hurt she’d ever caused Annie. But Jane had to believe that, in that very moment, they could.

Annie kissed her on the cheek as she ran her fingertip over Jane’s clit a bit more persistently. It was her way of saying it back. But even throughout all if this Kristin business, Jane had never doubted Annie’s love for her. That was the thing about Annie—there was no other love than hers. Nothing could ever compare. Jane had known this when she told Beth she couldn’t see her anymore. Even though at the time it didn’t feel as though Annie’s love might be enough, Jane trusted that, in the end, it would. And it was. Annie’s love would always be enough.