She shakes her head. Not now. Not yet. But I feel it. Something happened. Something she’s punishing herself for.
I want to ask, to drag the truth out of her, but she’s already drowning in enough pain to swallow a city whole.
So I let it go. For now.
But a cold thread of fear coils under my ribs. Whatever she’s hiding… it’s about him. It has to be.
And it makes me want to burn the world down. “Peach.” My voice cracks, matching the pain in her eyes.
“I’m not used to feeling jealous.” She whispers to me.
Taking her face in my hands, pressing my body against the bed so she feels me. Looking deep into her eyes that look like rain falling on a gloomy day. So much sadness inside, so much beauty, it’s disarming.
“Can you give me twenty seconds of you Penn, just you. Not thinking, not analyzing, not worrying, not pushing me away. Not talking about Blake at all. Just me and you here in this room as the dawn of a new day kisses the dark night away. Can you lay it all down just for me. Can you do that Penn?” “I’ll try.” She stutters out quietly I watch her eyes search mine. I get lost inside her rain cloud orbs and just pray in this moment between us, the one coming and the ones after this that I don’t lose her. She’s been my lifeline for so long. I don’t know how to survive without her.
“Not try. I want you to do it.” “Okay.” She slowly smiles at me.
“But only if you get me a salted caramel latte after and cuddle me till the jealousy leaves my body.” “Shhhh . . .”
Before she even has a chance to think, I press my lips to hers, so soft and lingering. Touching, then not touching.
“Oh, God. Don’t think, don’t think Penn.” I feel her mummer against my lips, so I take the kiss further, pressing deeper into her, wrapping my fingers in one hand in her hair, pulling slightly, and caressing her cheek with my other hand. I need to anchor her to me. She pulls away slightly, but I lean forward and press deeper into her. To meet her full soft lips again, and that’sall she needs to kiss me deeper, her tongue slowly sweeping over mine.
A small gasp escapes her.Don’t think.My mind begs her to let go further. To melt away all reason and just give in to this. I become breathless as she does, drowning in this kiss. Pulling my body from the floor and up over hers, straddling her, she twists under me. Our lips never leave each other’s. It’s been far longer than the twenty seconds I asked her for, and I have no desire to stop. Her hands go up to my neck underneath the hair tied at the back of my neck, holding me to her. I need so much more of this, so much more of her.
Moving my hands, I grab hers and pin them both down on the pillow over her head. Her hair fans over the bedding like wildfire, licking at the dried fall leaves. She drives me crazy. My eyes search hers as they flutter open for any reason to stop, for any flicker of regret, for any shard that this maybe scaring her. But all I see is lust and hunger driving me wild for more. I move my lips closer to hers as her tongue pops out and licks my taste from them. A small groan of delight growls inside her throat as my cock reacts, as does my heart. I’m made for her, and she’s fucking made for me.
Finally, I have her attention, her desire and I vow to never let her ever feel any emotion other than desire again. Never loneliness, never pain. I won’t be the one to make her sad or cry. No, I will forever make it my mission to make her happy and feel love. Lowering my lips to hers as she lifts her hips to meet mine, a feeling I never knew I wanted to devour till now. I kiss her wildly, devouring her mouth with mine. Pulling away slightly, I stare down at her, breathing heavily. I have to stop as she wiggles under me, begging without words for me. To take it further to allow her to feel me and forget, but I can’t do that, not today, not in this way. When I take her, it will be for us both, notfor her to replace pain with a fleeting feeling of euphoria. I keep my hands wrapped around hers, holding her in place.
“I’m going to stop now,” I say between heavy breaths. “But I want you to do one more thing for me.” I mouth into her lips as I kiss her softly again and then pull back. “I want you to think about the idea of us. But not until I leave. I’m going to stay here today with you and tonight. I need to tell you so many things and I need you to be ok with it all, so for today and tonight, I need you to be open-minded and not overthink. I also need you to know, Penn, that I want you more than I’ve ever wanted anything in my whole life. I will not kiss or touch you.” Looking down at her enormous eyes swimming with emotions and questions. The ocean meets the rainforest. Her eyes change with her feelings and fuck me, I can get lost for eternity and never would I complain. I can’t help myself, just one more. I lower my lips to kiss her neck, my teeth grazing her sweet flesh. My cock quivers in response to the way she moans, and I know I’m fucked.
Penn
Dane rolls from my body and pulls me back against his chest. His legs wrap around me, as his arm pulls the blanket up and over us, cocooning us inside this heaven of our breaths and each other’s smell. He smells of scotch and tarmac meshed with my vanilla and jasmine. My eyes close, delirious with pleasure from Dane’s kiss, his words, his silent promises to me. My heart soars and I can feel a strange feeling of love cells growing for Dane, for him, his words and his kiss. This is what I want, finally smacking me in the face, him, Dane, in my bed, wrapped around my body.
My eyes grow heavy, and the warmth from his body lulls me into a slumber.
In the haunting depths of the night, my world twisted into a kaleidoscope of torment. Dreams shattered into shards of heartache, the ache of losing Grace, the haunting spectre of Blake’s departure, leaving me stranded in a house constructed upon the fragile scaffolding of our love. Its once-solid walls now echoed with the hollow whispers of betrayal. Tears cascaded down my cheeks, each droplet a testament to the anguish etched upon my soul, staining it with a searing agony.
My body convulsed, ensnared within the merciless grip of the nightmare’s clutches, then like a lifeline in the darkness. Warmth enfolds me, lips tenderly kissing away the tears that mark my cheeks. A steady voice, like an anchor in a storm, penetrates the chaos within. “Penn, wake up, Peach. It’s just a bad dream.” The voice soothes, though my heart races like a thundering stampede. Everything feels achingly real.
Then, like a celestial whisper, warm hands enveloped me, tracing delicate patterns upon my skin, lips brushing away the rivers of sorrow with a tender, soothing touch. “Peach, come back to me. It’s just a dream,” his voice, an anchor in the storm, steadied the frantic palpitations of my heart. But it all felt too real, too raw.
“Dane,” I whispered as my eyes fluttered open, lashes heavy with the residue of saline despair. His gaze, a sanctuary, met mine, his lips edging closer to my jaw, igniting a fire within me that banished the remnants of the nightmare to the periphery of my consciousness.
“I wish I could shield you from this pain, Peach, but some wounds must bleed and seep through the carved marks left from such pain.” His fingers combed through my hair, drawing back the wet strands, peering into the depths of my desolation. “Thisis one of those sorrows. But Peach, believe me, I will be there to gather your broken pieces and kiss away every tear.”
“I’m so lost just floating above it all because he was home, he was what home felt like for so long. He was home…” My chest tightens, the memory clawing its way up my throat like it wants to drown me from the inside.
“Dane…” My voice cracks. “There’s something I didn’t, didn’t tell you earlier.”
His arms stiffen around me, just for a second.
Enough.
I look away, shame burning my cheeks.
“Blake… he invited me to that masked party,” I whisper, the words trembling. “But he didn’t inviteme.He invitedPandora.He didn’t even know it was me. Not until…”
