She had been waiting for this day for a long time. They had reached the apex of their hike and had stopped to admire the setting sun. His hand glided towards the small of her back with explicit intention. Its palm rested on her, there, for several seconds. With her back still facing him, she shifted her weight from being primarily on her right foot to a more even distribution between her feet.
She glanced back at him over her shoulder, urging herself to slowly draw her eyes up to eye contact level. With her chin tilted at a small upwards angle, she was enveloped by his gaze. She felt an excitement that had been missing from her physical interactions for quite some time. Upon explicit examination, she could vaguely sense something else; his touch had imparted a feeling of safety in her.
This touch was exceptional, it was the first romantic advance that had ever simultaneously communicated feelings of passion and protectiveness to her. The emotional content of this physical gesture was abundant. She might have been able to predict this level of intimacy before ever being touched by him, it mirrored the keen way he listened to her, and how he remembered small details from her life.
In this moment, he was in tune with her body language, and she could see in his eyes that he recognized the significance in which she slowly lifted her eyes to his. He tilted his chin down slightly, as if to absorb the shock of her reciprocated eye contact. As she turned to face him, he slipped his other hand around her waist. Perfectly in tune, she leaned against him, with her elbows bent and her palms resting lightly on his chest. She could not bring herself to break eye contact. He smiled slowly, his eyes were searching her face for a cue, for permission.
She answered his question by sliding her arms around his neck, then letting her hands come to rest at the back his neck.
With unchecked eagerness, she leaned in to meet his lips with hers. She could sense his surprise in the way that his lips paused, frozen in a small O shape. Soon he was kissing her back, with his tongue firmly passing between her lips, into her mouth. She was struggling to stop herself from gasping at the feeling of his fingers sliding up her back.
They had both sensed the escalation of the situation to a more serious and intense level, and had hastily decided to return to the parking lot. This escalation was apparent in the way her breaths were coming out slightly heavier than expected, with a wheeze on the inhale. He was walking faster than before, and as they approached the trail head, he fumbled in the pocket of his sweater for the car keys with a nervous energy.