Her hips jerk into you when your breath teases dark curls, and it’s all you can do to keep the slow pace. Your tongue traces slick folds as your fingers find their way into her wetness. But as good as she tastes, this is about something more important, and you want to be up there with her when she comes.

The heat of her body burns into yours through your clothes as she moves against you, pulling your lips to hers for brief kisses alternating with sharp gasps and low moans. Her blunt fingernails are digging into your back, and you may never be able to wear this shirt again, but it’s worth it to see the look on her face as she climaxes, trembling violently as she rides out her *****.

Then suddenly you’re no longer in control, and she’s tugging at your clothes, stripping you as bare as she is. And she’s returning the favor, and you’re wondering if you would have teased her this much if you’d known how blissfully frustrating it was. Beneath the haze of *****, you can feel tears dripping onto your skin, but when she meets your concerned gaze, you can see that she’s anything but sad.

Her mouth closes around your nipple, tongue swirling and sucking and teeth scraping. Then you’re so wet and her fingers slide into you like they belong there, her thumb circling your ***** as her face buries itself in your neck, teeth nibbling and lips gently caressing. Then her tongue in your mouth and her fingers thrusting hard and ohfuckIloveyouAl and you don’t think you’ve ever had an ***** this intense before.

When the shaking subsides, you snuggle into the orange creamsicle sheets and sort of gaze at each other in that mushy, cheesy way you both have always made fun of. You’re seeing your best friend, a woman you’ve known for years and know inside and out, and at the same time you’re seeing this amazing person you’ve never gotten a chance to see before. You wonder, not for the first time, what took the two of you so long to get to this place, but you figure everything has to have some sort of reason to it.

She curls into you the way she always does, her legs tangling with yours as her head rests in the crook of your shoulder. As you drift off to sleep, you murmur quiet affirmations into her hair.

And you think maybe you know why it took so long to get here. It’s that same lesson you never learned all those years ago- that sometimes taking it slow can be more rewarding than anything else.