Dark Ocean

Part 18

Part 18

Valentina pillows her head on her forearm and watches Juliana quietly, still feeling the warm waves quiver between them like electricity. She gently brushes the hair away from Juliana's damp forehead, then traces a slow line down toward her jaw, barely grazing her heated skin. Long, dark lashes flutter at the touch. She absorbs every detail of the other girl's profile, so pure of line, so perfectly formed, her blue eyes caressing.

Juliana's lips are parted and swollen, her breathing still heavy and uneven, and her skin flushed and glittering in the low light. Valentina watches, transfixed, as a lone droplet of perspiration slides down the side of Juliana's neck before reaching the pillow. Her hand instinctively reaches out, tracing the tip of her finger along its path, marveling at the softness of the other girl's skin. There's a faint mark forming on her neck and Valentina's entire body aches in the sweetest way at the sight of it.

She never wants to stop touching Juliana. Not even for a second. She has a feeling she's going to be the clingiest person on earth for the next month, at the very least. But she can't bring herself to feel guilty about it because Juliana's lying next to her, in her bed, all heat and distraction, so painfully attractive, and Valentina never wants to move away.

She hopes she never gets used to this feeling, and she means it in the best possible way. She wants to always feels this energized, alive and almost reborn. Every day in Juliana's presence she feels like a snake shedding its old skin- something new and raw underneath, but infinitely better. It's such an overwhelming experience for her and it makes her feel amazing, liberated somehow.

But most of all, Valentina feels privileged that Juliana wants to share this experience with her. She's still stunned that this is even possible- that Juliana is attracted to her, that they are caught in a mutual, passionate attraction they are both unable to resist. Because truthfully, she's never felt this way about anyone. She's never felt this kind of love before. She loves her brother, sure, and Eva, and she loved her parents, but romantic love seemed like a thing that was made up for the moves. That desperate, almost giddy feeling always felt like a lie. She didn't believe in a perfect kind of love; it was fabricated and manufactured by Hallmark to sell greeting cards. She believed it was something to validate something pointless like Valentina's day.

But right now, she believes. She believes in past lives and soul mates, and she believes in eternal love for another human being. It's an overwhelming thought, but nobody has given her the same giddy happiness and energy that Juliana's mere presence has filled her with.

It's an addiction she never anticipated. She wants the soft and shy smile that curls Juliana's lips whenever she feels nervous. She wants the slow blink of Juliana's eyes every time they look at her. She wants the way that the simplest touch makes Juliana tremble, always. She wants the look of relief that softens her features as she comes down from her high. She wants the power she feels at being the source of Juliana's pleasure.

She feels hungry for Juliana's body in a way she isn't used to. She has slept with a few boys before, but she never particularly cared or felt as protective of their experience as she has of Juliana's. She wants it to be good. She wants her to be able to remember everything with happiness. She wants her to know that she's safe. She wants her to know that she's loved.

She also wants to make Juliana come as many times and in as many ways as she can because she doesn't think she's ever seen something so beautiful. Making Juliana come somehow becomes one of the proudest moments of Valentina's life. She wants to do it more. The thought lights her on fire, and she curses every single day she spent not knowing that this was something she could do.

And when Juliana finally glances up at her through her lashes, her eyes half-closed and a new shade of brown, a pretty flush dusting her cheeks, she looks so perfect that Valentina almost isn't sure what to do with her.