I Walk the Line ♤ (gxg)

chapter 26: merry christmas

"I love you, August."

Her heart fluttered in her chest at the woman's words. She was taken aback, wondering if she only said that because she just orgasmed on top of her.

Willow wondered the same thing herself, her eyes wide as she laid frozen on top of August with her head resting on her collarbone, her still heavy breaths fanning on the girl's bare chest. But she thought about the way she felt while she had been inside the brunette. She had watched her usual innocent facade break and saw the lust in those cobalt eyes. She felt the girl grab at her as she reached her climax. More importantly, as she reached her own and then fell onto the girl's warm body that immediately hugged her back, it was the best feeling she had ever felt. It wasn't just sex like she had had with multiple women.

It wasn't just feeling that sexual release or enjoying being between the girl's legs and feeling her beautifully soft body beneath her. It was the heart that beat along with hers when she pressed her chest against the girl's and felt her heartbeat make music with her own—the loveliest song she had ever heard.

"Do you mean that?" August whispered, her breathing much slower although her heartbeat was going two hundred beats per minute.

Willow leaned up, meeting those deep ocean eyes that stared up at her with vulnerability and inquisition to whether the woman really meant her words. She softly smiled, thinking of the memories they had made together—from the diner in Colorado, to meeting her gang members, being at the cave in Utah, attending the ill-fated party, and slow dancing with her at the Christmas ball. She thought about every time August smiled, every time she laughed, every time she matched her sarcasm and won an argument. She thought about how August's eyes alone could calm her down, but her arms around her seemed to always squeeze her broken pieces back together. Willow had changed so much since she met August. She went from being cold and distant, to caring so much about someone and even trusting them. She had made herself so vulnerable to August in so many ways. She knew she couldn't have done that with just anyone.

So as she stared down at the girl and trailed her finger across her eyebrow and down her cheek, she smiled. "Yes."

August grinned and watched the woman's green eyes light up. She leaned up to give the woman a kiss on the lips, pulling away afterwards as she stared into those green eyes that completely owned her heart. She never wanted to be in anyone else's arms. She never wanted to be known by anyone else the way Willow knew her that night. All she wanted in the world was for everything in the universe to disappear and it just be her and Willow in the state they were in—nakedly pressing their bodies together, skin to skin, smiling and giving soft kisses.

"I love you, too," she whispered, sliding her hand up Willow's cheek as she looked closely at her.

Willow grinned as she looked down at the girl who had warmed her heart and broken her walls. She felt like a new person with a different perspective of life—a life with August. She took the girl's hand in her own and kissed the back of it before pressing it against her cheek. "Merry Christmas, by the way."

♠

August was so grateful that she had locked her door before her and Willow fell asleep the previous night, because she heard Daisy pulling on her doorknob as soon as it was daylight, and her and Willow were still laying nakedly entwined with each other.

She sharply inhaled, sitting straight up and yelling, "I'll be down in a minute!" to her sister who she heard run down the stairs to see her presents under the tree.

August turned to see the beautiful black-haired woman still sleeping peacefully on her side, facing August. She smiled, admiring the way her ebony hair fell across her face, her beautiful eyes hidden under her soft, closed eyelids and long eyelashes. She licked her lips, remembering the previous night.