Late Friday afternoon finds Jane and Maura on the beach enjoying an unseasonably warm, early fall day. On their bellies, on the giant beach blanket Maura had brought, Jane reads a crime novel while Maura pages through the glossy pages of Vogue.
Truthfully neither is really reading, both thinking on the other.
The last day and a half had included the traditional Jane and Maura things: runs, talks, food, drinks, shopping, sleeping wrapped up together, holding hands and a host of other things which spoke of a new intimacy that they had hesitated to explore or talk about.
Jane had finally laid her head down facing Maura on stacked hands as Maura still read propped up on her elbows. They'd had an energetic day of boogie boarding, a long walk to get ice cream, paddle ball and a bit of kite flying. Maura reaches out to gently tuck a curl behind an ear, letting her knuckle drag along a bronzed cheek. They share a small smile.
Eyes still closed, a lazy smile grows on Jane's face. "Good day, Maur?" She asks softly.
"The best." Maura lets her eyes trace the curve of an eyebrow, a nose, a prominent clavicle, along a shoulder, and down a strong back. Moments later she lets her fingertips trace the same path.
Jane's eyes flutter open. "Maura?"
She doesn't say anything but leans down to press her lips softly, definitively against Jane's for many quiet moments.
Jane kisses back, raising up, pushing at Maura's shoulders until she is hovering half on top of the other woman. Maura's arms wrap around a slender neck. Sun kissed skin slides as legs tangle together.
"Maura?" Jane whispers.
Maura doesn't answer, instead leaning up for another kiss, deepening as tongues tangle and eyes flutter shut.
Many moments later they part, color high, breathing heavy.
Rearranging themselves so they can face each other, wrapped loosely around one another they look into the other's eyes.
Maura leaves a kiss on an eyebrow and settles her hand on the delicate skin of the small of Jane's back.
Jane sighs a hum of contentment into a warm neck.
"Jane, will you go on a date with me tonight? There's a place I'd like to take you."
"Sure. Maura?"
Maura tightens arms around the warm detective, "hmmm?"
"Are we really going to do this? I mean…I really want to do this-be with you, for you but…" a nervous detective trails off.
"But what?"
Jane raises her head from her new favorite spot of Maura's neck to look her in the eyes, brown to green.
"But, I'm scared."
"Jane, me too. But we are good at talking things out and/or waiting each other out. You are so good at knowing what I need sometimes with me ever saying anything. We need to trust this – us."
Jane nods and lowers her face back into the warm curve of Maura's neck.
"I'll screw up," comes the muffled response.
"I'm bossy." Maura answers.
"I have atrocious eating habits." Jane murmurs on a grin Maura can feel on the sensitive skin just below her ear.
"Hmm." They both chuckle. "Let me take you out anyways?"
"Of course."
