Alex laughed, that slow, deep chuckle of his as he grabbed me right before I landed on him, my arms around his neck, legs around his waist. He didn’t rock, he didn’t move, grunt, nothing. I would’ve worried if he had.
“I meant in my arms, but this works too. Reminds me of old times,” he huffed into my ear as I squeezed the crap out of his neck, burying my face into the curve of his shoulder. He smelled so good. Was that an Atraxian thing too? “Ready?”
“I’ve never been readier for anything in my life,” I told him, joy boiling in my fucking veins, incinerating everything bad that had been in them before.
He was going to take me up!
I squeezed him that much harder, tipped my head back, and pressed my lips to his cheek before putting my face back where it was, chin on his shoulder. Breathing him in all over again because why the hell not?
The hands that were on my thighs moved up even more, settling low on my butt, and he pulled me up even higher on him, the cradle of my hips pressed to his lower stomach.
I felt it, I felt the energy in his cells right before his knees bent just a tiny bit and we wentup.
Slowly, not at all like when he took off to go somewhere, our ascent took its time, and three feet off the ground turned into ten, then twenty, and pretty soon, his big house looked like it was a foot wide, we were so high.
I couldn’t even fucking talk as I peeked over his shoulder, taking in the world, the land, the trees; the lights getting smaller and smaller.
Oh my god.Oh my god.
My earspopped.
I should have been scared. I knew I should’ve. The only thing keeping me from falling to my death was Alex. We weren’t harnessed together. I didn’t have a line connecting me to something stationary. A parachute? Fuck a parachute.
I was just there, in the air, with The Defender.
And I thought,My heart is going to burst.
I was in awe.
I couldn’t fucking believe it.
His huff was soft in my hair. “I know you’re having fun when you aren’t running your mouth.”
My great comeback was a simple “uh-huh” that made him huff some more.
“I don’t want to go too much higher. Want to stay here or go around?” he asked.
“Around, please,” I told him all meekly, still just… shocked.
I wanted to stick my hand out and see if I could actually touch a cloud. Could you imagine?
“I don’t know if I like you quiet, but I know you’re having fun, I can feel it.”
All I could do was nod, and I felt his breath again before we started moving. This wasn’t the position he normally flew in. Usually he was belly down, going as fast as possible—for aerodynamics, I’d seen some people guess—but I knew why he was doing it this way. So I could see without him having to take his arms away from around me. It felt like we were free floating.
I ate it up.
Every single second as he flew slowly, still in an upright position, I clung to him, and I looked down at the twinkling lights of homes from over his shoulder.
I was fuckingflying.
“I like it up here. It’s quiet,” Alex said out of nowhere. “There are some places where the clouds hang low, and I used to go out there when I was tired. It reminded me of why we do this. It’s to protect humanity, but it’s mostly for this planet. We’re here to take care of her too. Some day we won’t exist, and we won’t be able to help, but we have to try while we can.”
I pressed my mouth to the spot on his neck closest to me, and I felt the arm around the middle of my back give me a gentle squeeze.
“For someone who said he’s never taken care of anything before, it sure does sound like you’ve had a whole lot to take care of,” I told him.
His breath was slow, slow, slow. “Nothing that was ever just mine though. Nothing that ever really mattered to me.”
