When you hear the word intimacy you probably think of sex. While sex is an intimate act that is not the only part of intimacy.

When I think of intimacy I think of the most beautiful and innocent parts of a relationship. The parts of the relationship that still gives you the butterflies in your stomach and makes your cheeks blush a faint shade of pink. Intimacy is not strictly a physical state, but an emotional state preserved for one person.

I picture the moments right before and after sex. The moments where you can’t even remember what it felt like to be laying there with someone else in your most vulnerable state, completely opening your heart like a fresh wound ready to be mended. You don’t even want to imagine lying there with anyone else because you just know this is the one.

You know that this is the one person who brings out every beautiful quality within you. The person lying next to you is the person who knows all the baggage you come with, accepts it, and still pulls out the brightness within you.

Intimacy is when your name in their mouth sounds like violins are playing when they say it out loud. You’re staring into each other’s eyes, breathing heavily, and they oh so gently press their lips to your forehead then smile as they pull away. This small and innocent gesture will burn into your skin and you will feel it for weeks. Then that chilling feeling when they run their fingers so smoothly through your hair and call you beautiful, you feel nothing but the soft goosebumps now creeping up your neck and arms. And their gentle touch on your hips that pulls you in as close as possible. They will trace their fingers up your ribs and kiss your stomach as they go.

Your skin will never feel the same at that moment.

Your skin will crave that affection every moment from now on.

Moments of pure intimacy with the right person will make you feel like the ground is moving in rhythm with the ocean, and the air has its hands wrapped around you. Intimacy isn’t always about who you are having sex with, it’s who you share the innocent parts of a relationship with. The soft touch and the darkest thoughts.

It’s the beauty of love with or without clothes on.