“Youhave told me that. Several times.”
The hands are cupping her ass. “I’ve always thought you’re sexy, Rosemary. Will you let me make you feel sexy?”
Words are both her profession and hobby, but they’ve completely escaped her at this moment. All she can do is nod.Enthusiastically.
Logan takes Rosemary by the hand and leads her to the edge of the bathtub. Rosemary dips in one toe, then quickly submerges herself. “How’s the temperature?”
“It’s a little cold,” Rosemary admits as she tries to hide herself in the water. “But it feels good. I was—” She coughs. “A little warm.”
“Did I make you hot?” Logan tilts her head to the side with feigned innocence.
“Oh, shut up and take my picture already!”
“You need to pose for me first.”
She attempts to situate herself for the photo, but every part of her body feels stiff and foreign, exactly like a meat suit disconnected from her brain.
“Relax, Rosemary,” Logan whispers. “Think about new calligraphy pens, bullet journal stickers, the smell of warm lamination.”
“Oh, fuck you!” she snaps, but she also relaxes a bit, her shoulders easing under the surface of the water. Logan raises the phone and takes a photo. She feels herself stiffen again.
“I can delete that if you want. Or you can delete it yourself if you don’t trust me.”
“I trust you,” Rosemary says automatically. “How does the photo look?”
“Sexy as hell,” Logan growls.
For the first time in her life, shefeelssexy as hell. “Take another one.”
LOGAN
She knew seeing Rosemary naked would do something weird to the fourteen-year-old part of her brain. She knew that letting Rosemary take a nude photo of her would feel vulnerable and scary, and she knew that taking photos of naked Rosemary would feel exciting in that way all reckless things were exciting to her.
But Logan isn’t even remotely prepared for what it feels like when Rosemary saysI trust you.
Just like that. No pause, no hesitation. RosemarytrustsLogan to have these nude photos on her phone, and it’s the most intimate thing that’s ever happened to her. It feels like she’s stripped down deeper than her clothes, like Rosemary has seen all her sinew and bone, and still finds her beautiful.
“What are you thinking about?” Rosemary asks as she throws an arm up over her head like Rose posing inTitanic. Logan takes another photo.
“I’m thinking about how this might be the best impulsive decision I’ve ever made.”
Rosemary giggles as she poses with a hand on her soft thigh. She opens her legs a little wider, and Logan’s whole body floods with lust. She moves up and down the length of the tub, taking photos from different angles, getting ridiculously turned on by the sight of Rosemary unabashedly feeling herself.
“Let your hair down.”
Rosemary undoes her braid, and Logan can barely contain herself at the sight of pale hair over pale shoulders. In this moment, there is nothing icy about Rosemary’s blue eyes. They look like the desert sky—endless and open and full of new things to explore.
“Can I join you?” Logan croaks. She sounds nervous.
Rosemary doesn’t seem aware of Logan’s sudden anxiety as she shifts in the tub to make room. It’s too small for both of them, and Logan struggles to pretzel her long legs in place as water sloshes over the rim. But Rosemary moves her legs to one side, and Logan stretches hers out on the other, and their bodies lock into place like puzzle pieces in this hotel bathtub.
They sit across from her, hair down and bodies bare.
Rosemary wets her lips with her pink, pink tongue. “So. What now?”
Slow, Logan reminds herself. Rosemary deserves someone who will go slow with her, someone who will make her feel safe. “Will you touch yourself for me?”
Rosemary reacts like Logan asked to fist her. “What? Why? No!”