The lightning ripped once more through the sky overhead. I could see it even through my closed eyes. We looked up, it struck again, and the rain turned to a downpour, thick drops coming down in a fury.
Lucas took my hand and we ran off through the orchard, reached the garden, hurried into the house. The lights in the vestibule and the stairway were off. The power had gone out. We walked upstairs carefully and reached our door.
The living room was pitch-black and silent apart from the sound of our breath and the storm beating the roof and shaking the shutters. I couldn’t move… I didn’t know what to do. I was scared. Timid. As if my determination had stayed behind on the edge of the cliff. But Istill wanted him, more and more as my eyes adjusted to the darkness and I saw his outline standing still before me.
We were in our element. We, too, were two raindrops on a window, coming together, one now, blind, in need of each other. Unable to see that they were on opposite sides of that window, that something invisible separated them…
Lucas leaned in, pushed my hair out of my face, and grabbed me by the nape of the neck. I opened my mouth again. One second. Two. Three…
I leaned back, and his lips found mine. Our tongues weaved together and our longing grew, as if each caress were kindling, the beginnings of a bonfire. We were hungry, we were wild, we were tender, we were soft. I tugged at his T-shirt, and he stepped back and pulled it over his head.
He turned me around and pushed me against the wall, unzipping my dress and pressing his chest into my back, warm and firm. His hands gripped my stomach as I felt his teeth on my shoulders, my neck, my jawline. He kissed me and spun me back around. My dress fell to the floor and I shook off my sandals. All too anxious. All too alive.
Unable to stop touching each other, we made it to his bedroom. I ran my fingers through his hair. I had wanted to do it for so long…to see what it would feel like.
“I need to ask you,” he said breathlessly. “How far do you want to take this?”
I smiled. Licked his lips. I thought it was obvious. I unbuttoned his pants and pulled them down.
“As far as you’re willing to take me.”
He bit my lip, making me hotter.
“Then get ready for a long trip.”
We fell into bed, I pulled him close, and I arched my hips, readyfor him. I felt his hands all over me, his lips, his teeth, impatient, groaning, thirsty.
I could hardly stand it when he paused to open the nightstand. Every few seconds, lightning exploded across the sky. Then I could see him, his shimmering skin, his tense muscles, his firm stomach, those eyes I loved so much fiery with desire.
Lucas pressed one hand into the mattress and had the other around my neck, and was tracing the outline of my lips with his thumb. I shook, tried not to show how badly I needed him, kept my eyes open because I didn’t want to miss a single detail.
His hips pressed into me, his rhythm was soft, and I let myself be dragged away as if by the tide. I pushed into him… I wanted to feel him deeper. We were two waves dancing. Breaking on the same shore. Turning into foam.
“You know why I asked you to say here?” he whispered. I nodded, incapable of words. “Because I want you, Maya. I need you. Bad. You’re the most gorgeous woman I’ve ever seen.”
I closed my eyes, hyperventilating.
“Because you drive me crazy, the way you look at me,” he went on, “and I can’t take my eyes off you.”
“Lucas…”
I felt so full of him as he told me how he’d spent days and days trying to imagine holding me like this. And he went faster. Harder. Deeper. “This is incredible,” he said.
Our lips joined, I felt myself rising.
I let myself go.
We let ourselves go.
Together, trembling.
Then we lay in silence, listening to the rain.
And eventually, we fell asleep, legs weaved together, weariness overtaking us.
Late at night we felt each other again, like a calm sea.
And the next morning, I was on top of him, looking down.
