There were moments like this when he fell newly in love with just the sound of her voice, with just one little syllable. That low, husky drawl never failed to creep inside of him, stimulating his senses like an intimate touch, even without any real nuance. Beautiful in her rough, intense, special kind of way, just like her face, her body, and God, he needed to stop staring at her.

With a small, helpless laugh, he closed his eyes and tried to get his fluttering heart under control. For heaven's sake, he wasn't a lovesick teenager... He was her partner, her best friend, her lover, everything she needed him to be and she gladly took it. There was no reason to flush like a teenager at the first date.

But that still was how she made him feel, after all these years. Maybe it was just the sun playing in her hair so fascinatingly in this very moment, or their feet accidentally brushing underwater, soft tenderness laced in warm salt. Or the simple fact that they were lying here side by side in a place he sometimes called home and had nowhere to be, nothing to do. Just relax and enjoy.

Whatever it was, he suddenly felt like he would die if he wouldn't roll over to her and kiss her, so he did just that.