Beneath the cosy covers, the tips of their noses brushed against each other's so gently. The subtle friction of it incited the curly-haired girl who was being held tightly by her fiancè to suppress a giggle until it found a way to escape, leaving a tingle on her lips once it subsides.
Both girls laid on their sides in the middle of the bed, arm in arm, the exposed skin of their thighs and arms touching beneath the covers. Raye held her girl close, basking in the contemporary serenity that prevailed.
Ever since they'd gone home after spending some well needed time at the girl's parents a few days ago, they confined themselves to the quiet square of the apartment. They wanted desperately to rid their minds of the heinous affairs that unfurled in the recent days: the death of Craig, Brienna's kidnapping, and all of them nearly dying so they took a step back.
The mental and physical exhaustion had hugged itself around them like a thick blanket, cradling their welcoming bodies, inciting an inert feeling to swaddle them both.
Intimacy and support Raye had flooded Brienna with. She'd apologized a million times for bringing such bitterness and ferocity into her and her family's life and she promised for there to be an end.
The sight of Quinn on the former afternoon bound up like an animal ready to be slaughtered confirmed that they would have some amount of peace again in the coming days. Raye couldn't necessarily reassure that something of that gravity wouldn't happen again but she swore to protect them and ten times more because it was what needed to be done.
For a moment, Brienna had gazed off into the distance and Raye knew that her mind was working in overdrive. She'd spent a few days talking to the girl about everything but gradually at a time. There were still so much that needed to be said between them, so much moving on that was foreseeably tedious.
"I can't believe that my dad really did all that." The girl's sweet-sounding voice is heard, drowning out the silence.
"I always knew he was an opaque man but never would I have guessed he had connections and those connections would literally give Quinn to you guys. My money had always been on Craig for some reason ya know?"
"Life is full of surprises,"
"But my dad?" Brie whispers, running her thumb across the deep cleft within Raye's chin. Her skin was smooth to the touch, almost like the finest silk there ever was in the universe and in such close proximity she saw the tiny cluster of moles that were scattered down the length of her neck. She reached out and brushed them with the back of her fingers, feeling as a well-defined throat wobbled up at down beneath her touch when Raye carefully swallows.
"I'm sorry that you had to find out about his past like this,"
"And you know what," The curly-haired girl rose up in bed, resting the weight of her body on her left arm that acted as a pivot. "I should've seen it because what parent allows their child to openly date someone dangerous? No offence baby."
"You think I'm dangerous?" Raye questions feigning innocence as if she had not murdered a young man in cold blood two years prior. The girl behaved as though she didn't break a man's jaw for trying to hurt her sister in law only weeks before and better yet she acted as though she had no affiliations or experiences in the smuggling of drugs and other illegal things. Sometimes she did her best to forget those memories. Sometimes she didn't want to define her character on the basis of those inevitable encounters but people usually did it for her.
"You are," Brie replied, gazing into her eyes with a seriousness, leaving Raye to drop the playful smirk. "Sometimes it scares me to think of what you're capable of."
For the millionth time, Raye caresses her girl's face, cupping her cheeks and wetting her own lips before she said what she needed to. "Everyone but you should be afraid of me." She responds, her jaw hardened due to her clenching it.
