They hadn’t done this the night before. They’d come close, sometime around two a.m. when Tilly had taken her hand just like this and pressed her fingers tightly against her, but Kate had pulled away, resisted. Tilly’s hesitance earlier in the night had made her cautious.

“Are you sure?” she asked.

Lips slightly parted, Tilly’s back bowed. “Oh,” she breathed, her eyes drifting closed in pleasure as Kate’s thumb settled against her. Kate pushed the sheets back roughly. Jaw set hard with barely restrained desire, she curled her touch, and Tilly sighed peacefully.

When Tilly began to respond, fervent and quivering, Kate dropped her head to the juncture of Tilly’s neck. It was all building to a crescendo too quickly. She felt dizzy with fulfillment. All she wanted was to take Tilly apart, again and again until Tilly couldn’t stand it. Tilly whimpered into the kiss, hips giving half-hearted movements as she came closer and closer. Kate’s arm tightened around her waist. “The window’s open,” she rasped. “You have to stay quiet.”

At the demand, Tilly keened, moving hard, faster on Kate’s hand.

Kate was surprised. She’d unlocked something. “You have to be quiet,” she said. “So quiet.”

Tilly came hard, crying out into Kate’s kiss and collapsing in her arms.

Kate drew her closer against her body, pressed her lips to the corner of her lips, the curve of her jaw. “That was beautiful,” she professed. “You were beautiful.”

Relentless, impassioned, Tilly undressed Kate in a daze. The night before, in the cabin, the soft light had fuelled their lovemaking with gentleness and wonderment. Now, in the dark, each touch was marked sharp with intent. Tilly pushed her back to lie down and crawled over her.

Kate burned. Touching Tilly had left her almost quaking with need. Roughly, Tilly’s fingers raked through her hair, and as Tilly’s lips found her breast, a noise pulled from the back of Kate’s throat. Her mind escaped her. “I want your mouth on me,” she whispered brokenly.

Tilly’s frenzy slowed to a standstill, her lips barely moving against Kate’s skin.

Oh God. Kate’s heart pounded, her eyes squeezing closed as the enormity of the confession pulsed between them, untamed. That was too much. Too, too much. What have you done? She shivered as Tilly lowered her forehead to rest on her sternum, breath hot across her flushed skin.

“I’m sorry,” Tilly murmured as she pulled back to sit astride Kate’s hips, “I just need a minute. I can barely feel my legs.”

A bright flash of lightning lit the sky and Kate caught Tilly’s glassy, apprehensive gaze. It took another moment for her eyes to adjust to the darkness again. Reaching out, she kneaded Tilly’s hips.

“You okay?” Kate asked softly. Tension swung like a pendulum in the breath of space between them.

Tilly exhaled slowly. “I’m fine,” she said. “I’m just trying to figure where to start. Because I want to. I do.” She paused. “It’s all new,” she said, and there was something unsettling stitched to her voice, a patch of shame as though she felt the need to explain her inexperience. “I don’t know if I can do that yet,” Tilly said, voice wavering as she lowered her trembling body. “I don’t know if I’m ready.”