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“Let’s talk after we do something…” I say.

I take Eustace into my arms, then release him to the ground. We’ve seen each other enough in the past week for him to trust me. Valeria watches her dog’s claws scratch against her wooden floor with a sort of raw awe in her expression, as though no one has taken her dog out of her arms to do what we’re about to do.

“Let me put him in another room,” she says.

I shed my dress as she moves Eustace. A miracle, really, that I manage to get the dress into a heap on the ground. I eye the living room, this stark black-and-white space centered by a ten-foot shag carpet, which transforms the floor into a white field. Maybe we don’t have to move. If this were a shot in a film, I’d pick this over a bedroom in an instant.

When Valeria returns to the room, she stops dead, mouth falling open.

“Jesus, you look amazing,” she says. She eyes her own look. “Like I said, you’re the star here and I’m the garbage friend.”

“We just got different memos.”

I cross the room, pulling her into my arms, my mouth on hers with a hunger I can’t quite explain. It’s a pull that feels as urgent as air. Valeria is perfectly in sync with me too. The kiss is rough, our grip on each other white-knuckled, and our nails dig into each other’s skin. We’re clutching each other like it’s life and death, like we’re both on a log in a rushing river. And when she takes my bottom lip between her teeth, for the first time I genuinely crave the hiss of pain with pleasure.

I drag us to the floor, ripping off Valeria’s robe as we go. It hits the ground with a soft thud as our bodies sink into the carpet. Valeria grabs me and rolls us over, pinning me down. My stomach rolls like I’m on a roller coaster.

“I want you inside me,” I blurt. “I want to have sex. Do you?”

She laughs. “Yes, Luna, I do.”

My hands tingle. “I haven’t done this before.”

I wince, waiting for her to shy away. But I get barely more than a nod. “Okay. I’ll keep you informed of what’s going on. You tell me at any point if you want it slower, more gentle, or if you want me to stop. There’s seriously never a wrong time to say no.” She gives me a tender kiss. “Thanks for trusting me.”

I cup her cheek and grab another kiss. “It’s gonna be fun, though, right?”

She smirks. “Oh, don’t worry about that, darling.”

She trails kisses down my neck, onto my shoulders, and down the thin lace of my plunging neckline. The sensitive skin on my chest is electrified, and as she slowly peels away the shoulder straps, exposing my breasts, it’s like my nerves are coming alive for the first time. She kisses and licks and bites, but it’s the feeling of her breath on my body that gets my insides twisting.

“This teddy is so fucking nice,” she says, giggling a little. “Not something you just rip off.”

“Oh my god.” I smile, grab on to her soft T-shirt. “How about you just match me?”

She lifts her arms to let me remove her shirt. It lands on the couch. I push her to the shag carpet, onto her side. And god, she truly is gorgeous. There’s an almost artistic beauty to the flow of her curves. Her rising and falling chest holds my gaze, and when I move to touch and kiss her, all I can think about is how my mouth and fingers rise as her muscles move.

Touching her, it all just feels natural. It’s the source of calm I so desperately need right now.

Then Valeria slides her hand down to the crotch of my lingerie. She slides her hand down and all my concentration on her selfishly seeps out my brain through my ears. One moment she’s art, and the next she’s the fucking artist. She’s drawing the moon, the sun, the circle of eternal life. Teasing it out with feathery strokes. I buck into her hand, hold myself up on shaking muscles. Whines are suddenly the only language I know.

I buck one more time, and she holds me down with her free hand. Smirks up at me. “You like that, darling?”

Please say “darling” again. She speeds up the strokes, and the muscles in my abdomen grow taut.

I chuckle. “You gonna make me beg?”

“It’s an idea.”

She stops for a moment, and I spring up, gripping her wrist. It only makes her grin wider.

“Oh?” she asks, her mouth forming the shape around the word. “You want it?”

I’m desperate for her to keep touching my prickling skin.

“I want it,” I say.

She quickens the pace again. “How much?”