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“Oh. Does it mean the same?”

“I’m not certain. But we can come back to that. I want to know what made your leaving different.” Soulara took Autumn’s hand and wrapped their fingers together, as if they were on a date. But this wasn’t that.

Was it?

“How?” Autumn narrowed her eyes. “Why would you think it was different?”

“Well you said not technically, but then your fellow soldiers were sent. So I suppose I assumed there must have been something different.”

“Oh.” Autumn relaxed and let herself mentally scold her thoughts. She had definitely been around the untrustworthy far too long—all her life she supposed. “My family didn’t care what I did. So long as they still got the perks of having me there.”

“The perks of having you there?”

“Our population is dying, and if you have a child, the world pays for you to live a better life.”

“But you didn’t live a better life?”

“No.” Autumn shuddered, and before she knew it, she was telling Soulara some of the darker events that she had lived through. “My world was not better.”

“I’m sorry.” Soulara rested her cheek on Autumn’s shoulder, comfort passing between them. “Family should make your life better, not worse.”

“Does yours?” Autumn asked as she caught a flash of darkness cross Soulara’s features.

“Most of the time. But family isn’t always related. Family can also be those who become so much more than friends.”

“I don’t have friends.” Autumn’s breath caught in her throat, waiting for Soulara to see and hear the pathetic tone in her voice, to realize what everyone else knew the moment they laid eyes on her.

“Yes, you do, Autumn. You have me.”

Tension pulled in Autumn’s stomach. She didn’t want Soulara just as a friend. She wanted so much more, to lean in and press their mouths together, to know the weight of Soulara’s perky breast in her palm, the slide of her damp skin. Autumn blinked and pulled away slightly.

Silence settled over them as the lights continued to wink off of the water. Autumn never imagined water could be so beautiful. Not in this way. The beauty had always been in its discovery, in its ability to keep her people alive. But what she saw in front of her held a beauty she had never imagined.

“Will you teach me?”

“Teach you?” Soulara asked.

“To go in the water?” Autumn asked, surprised at her own fear that the request would be denied.

“I would love to.” Soulara stood and offered her hands.

Autumn looked at them, guilt warring with her desire to experience this world so different from what she had always known. Autumn allowed Soulara to lead her toward the water’s edge. They walked slowly into the waves. A cold sensation took Autumn’s breath away. While Soulara had spoken of it as warm, its touch sent goosebumps all over Autumn’s skin.

“Oh.” Autumn couldn’t hold back the sound, and as Soulara’s laughter filled the air, she was glad she hadn’t tried too hard.

“I’m not sure what it must be like to have never felt the water’s embrace and then to suddenly feel it for the first time. Can you describe it?”

“I-I can try,” Autumn stammered. Words weren’t her strength. They never had been, but the eagerness in those beautiful pale blue eyes. “It’s like clothing but without the weight. But it’s not quite that either. A tickling like feathers you can’t see or hair that brushes ever so gently over your skin. Does that make any sense?”

“Yes.” Soulara’s smile could have set the world on fire with its beauty. “Yes, it makes sense.”

“Good.” Autumn’s own smile seemed stuck on her face. Each step into the water felt like the beginning of change, the beginning of a whole new world. It was silly, she knew that, but for now she wanted to just enjoy the experience because she might never get it again.

“Let me dive in, and I’ll come back for you.” Soulara looked intently at Autumn’s face until she received a nod.

Autumn watched as Soulara turned her back, silver hair cascading down her naked body and brushing along the swell of her ass. Autumn’s heart rate ramped up, that coil of arousal tightening even more than before.

Soulara disappeared under the surface, and for a moment, the enjoyment of the experience slipped from Autumn’s lips. The weight of Autumn’s clothes made her legs fight against the water trapped in the material as well as its pull around her body. She never would have guessed that would happen, and Soulara probably hadn’t known since it was clear her people didn’t wear clothing. She struggled against what felt like a straitjacket, chains on her body.