As always, this is entirely a work of fiction. Any resemblance of people, places, and/or events is entirely coincidental.
Caged Bird
Thinking back now, I can scarcely remember the ride. All I do remember, though, was the anticipation. This was it, I remember thinking. I’m finally going to do this.
The hotel wasn’t pay-by-the-hour, but it wasn’t high-scale amazing either. It was convenient though, being only a few minutes away from The Offering. The lack of traffic may have had something to do with that, but at the time I wasn’t worried about particulars.
When we entered the hotel lobby, I had been so nervous that every front desk receptionist would know why I was there. I shouldn’t have even worried about it. There wasn’t anyone at the front desk when we walked through. There wasn’t anyone in the elevator either.
Abram pressed the button for the third floor and for whatever reason, may it be the cosmic lining of the planets or the Three Fates finally deciding to stop fucking with my life, Father Time and Lady Luck finally managed to work in my favor.
I turned to face Abram at the same time that he reached for me. He was a lot taller than me, but that didn’t stop me from invading his space, tugging on his shirt and eventually pulling him down to me.
Abram dropped the bag from his hands and wrapped long fingers around the wrist clutching his collar. The other left my waist to card his fingers into my hair, drawing my face closer to his as he leaned down from his height to meet me halfway.
I closed my eyes when his breath fluttered over my lips. For a second, he hesitated, the slight pause just enough to give me second thoughts. But after he pressed his lips to mine, my brain shut down completely.
He tasted like mint. His lips were warm, but his breath was cool. With a gentle press of the tip of his tongue, my lips split apart and his cool tongue slipped through to taste my mouth. The smell of Drakar and sweat and the scent of male assaulted my senses and fueled by my body’s desire, I responded equally to his.
Chasing his tongue back into his mouth, I became the aggressor. I ran my tongue along the sharp points of his teeth but pulled away before he could take control of the kiss again. I smiled against his mouth when he groaned from the back of his throat and gently sucked his bottom lip into my mouth before releasing it with a pop.
The elevator chimed and no sooner had the doors opened, Abram was pulling me out after him, a fire in his step as we half-ran, half-walked down the hallway. I chuckled as Abram mumbled hotel numbers under his breath, each number followed by an irritated fuck me! before continuing on to the next. When we reached 327, Abram turned around to face me and pulled me into another kiss. This time though, there wasn’t any hesitation. Abram claimed my mouth as his. His tongue stroked over my own and encouraged me to follow back into his. When I did, he groaned into my mouth and the fingers that had been searching for his room key were now digging into my back and hips, pulling me tighter and tighter into his frame until I almost couldn’t breathe.
We broke away when we heard the elevator chime and open again. I pulled the room key out from his back pocket and slipped it into the slot. The door lights flashed green and Abram shoved down the lever hastily before pulling me inside.
I didn’t have time to take in the room, not like it really had my attention anyway. I vaguely remember the gold and cream ceiling now, but mostly I remember Abram – and undressing Abram.
He definitely wasn’t a gym bunny – or a sun god, if I was being honest – but he was fit in a natural way that would make any girl happy. Colorful tattoos twisted and spiraled down his arms almost to his fingertips and picked back up again along his both of his ribcages, the very edges of them disappearing in his black jeans. I just caught a brief glimpse of two pierced nipples – kinky and kinda gay, my inner bitch thought – before Abram’s lips were pressing against mine demanding attention.
At the same time, Abram’s rough hands slid gently up my legs, tugging up the fabric of my dress until it bunched at my waist. He broke the kiss and slowly pulled away, the unspoken question in his eyes. I sat up and ignored the blush on my face and neck as he lifted my dress up over my head and up my arms before carefully tossing it onto the TV stand. My blush deepened when his fingertips gently ran along the freckles on my collarbone before dipping down to trace over the swell of breast. His moon eyes continued the journey down past my strapless bra to my navel where he traced over the four leaf clover tattoo that I had so rebelliously gotten on my eighteenth birthday. A smile tugged on the corner of his lips and remained there as he bent down and kissed the clover.
“For luck,” he told me with a wolfish smile. I rolled my eyes with a laugh, because speaking wasn’t really possible for me at this point.
Because he was there.
Abram’s lips parted and without any sort of warning – which I felt I was obligated for warning, considering what he was doing – they closed on my mound through the fabric of my white lace thong. Instantly my legs snapped shut, but Abram’s broad shoulders came between them before they could close completely and his hands grabbed onto the back of my knees to push them back and out of the way.
Abram’s eyes locked onto me as his warm mouth suctioned my outer lips into his, the flat of his tongue massaging the swelling folds until my hips jerked in times with his licks. I nearly jumped out of my skin when his tongue slipped past my thong to taste the folds beyond it. Abram’s eyes darkened when I fell back onto the bed with a shuddering sigh and his fingers tightened their hold on the backs of my knees. I all but screamed when his tongue slid inside me in a shallow thrusting motion that spoke volumes of what was coming soon.
I clung to the bed covers as Abram slowly drove me mad with his mouth and tongue. It was like my body was an instrument and he was the conductor – Abram was striving for the perfect symphony, but we were just in the opening sonata. If this – this being the hot, tingling, ever-increasing madness – was just the beginning, I knew I would probably black out on the finale.
Before the tingling could take off con brio, Abram pulled his mouth away and took my underwear with him. His fingers rushed for his belt, but I didn’t want this to be a one-man orchestra. I batted his hands aside and nudged him onto his back before coming around to hover over him. The belt tinkled loudly as I undid the catch and pushed the black straps aside. I looked up into his eyes as I pushed the button through the jean eyelet and lowered the zipper.
Stormy eyes stared out of a flushed face, his chest rising and falling haltingly as though he was afraid to breathe. I grinned as I gently tugged his jeans down his hips, pleased with that reaction.
“Cayde,” he whispered, reaching for me.
Instantly the entire tempo changed. (Adagio, I thought to myself.) Abram pulled me up his body until I was resting on his chest. His long arms pushed his jeans and boxers further down after I could no longer reach, his mouth never leaving mine the entire time. I vaguely heard a phone going off somewhere – it sounded like mine, but I wasn’t sure – but Abram’s lips and hands made it so easy to ignore. In his arms, nothing seemed to matter – not my fears or insecurities, not my inexperience, not a single damn thing.
I felt Abram’s hand slip between my legs and I spread them further apart when two fingers pressed inside me. I bit my lip at the invasion, but soon Abram was proving to me that his mouth and tongue weren’t the only talented appendages he possessed. Abram thrust his fingers in counterpart with his restless thumb, endlessly circling the rough pad over my clit tempo guisto. Just when I was about to fly the fuck apart, Abram pulled his fingers from me and pushed my shoulders back so I was sitting above him.
“It’s all you, babe,” he whispered huskily.
Slowly I opened my eyes. Abram looked like something from the inner spread of a Playgirl magazine, alternative edition. My fingers itched to trace over his tattoos, but I didn't know where I would start 'cause everything looked so fucking pretty. I wanted to taste his skin, but that too put me in a predicament of "where?" But there was something else that caught my attention too, but it took me a second to put a finger on it.
Abram may be beneath me but I knew he was in charge – that confidence that he radiated on stage wasn’t just part of his persona, it was part of him. He knew that I wanted him; he had felt it and tasted it. Fuck, he had provoked it.
For the first time in my entire life, I wanted someone to want me as much as I wanted them…but I was afraid.
When I met Abram’s gaze, it must’ve clicked.
Gently, he scooped me into his arms and rolled me beneath him. A fresh flush tinged his cheeks a soft pink as his narrow thighs slipped between mine, the evidence of his want hot and heavy against my skin. I bit my lip as I lifted up my knees and Abram’s body rose above me to cage me in.
“We’ll take it slow, okay?” he whispered. I nodded, my eyes never leaving his chin.
Abram was having none of that.
He lifted up my chin with his fingertips and pressed a soft kiss to my lips. “I need those pretty eyes on me, Cayde,” he husked after he had pulled away.
Abram brought me back into his world with another kiss. My lips parted at the same time his hips pushed forward, his cock slowly and smoothly sliding home. For a brief second, my body struggled to give but soon the barrier broke and Abram was as deep inside of me as he could go. When I felt his thighs press flush to mine, a soft moan escaped from the back of his throat and he dropped his head to my shoulder, his breathing shallow.
For a long minute we lay there, breathing in time as he waited for me. The pain was dull, but still I didn’t want him to move. For some reason I felt like once he did, the moment would be over and this peace would be lost in search for the grand finale.
After a while, Abram’s leg muscles bunch and gave in uneven bursts, and I knew I couldn’t hold him back any longer. I turned my face into his neck, smelling Drakar and the soft bite of sweat. “Slowly,” I whispered against his skin. Abram shivered after my lips brushed over his ear all the way down to his toes. I closed my eyes as Abram slowly pulled back through the raw muscles and focused only on the feeling of his lips against my neck and the fingers delicately stroking down my skin. Soon, the sweet, slow glide was absolutely delicious. Pain long gone and forgotten, I felt nothing but simmering heat and gentle bliss as Abram stoked in and out of me in long, deep drags. His lips and teeth worried the curve of my shoulder as he slowly thrust into me, the slight sting of his teeth a bittersweet accompaniment to the heated pleasure of his thighs.
But the slow sweetness didn’t last. With each thrust, he was bringing something closer, something that started low in my belly and swiftly began to grow to overtake everything else.
“A-Abram,” I stammered as the tremors began, digging my nails into his back. Abram nipped at my ear, his ability to speak shot. I knew then that he was just as swept up in the storm as I was.
Abram suddenly lifted up my left leg and angled my hips just a fraction higher. His hips never once missed a beat as he plunged into me mercilessly over and over again, though they were coming faster and faster with every pass.
The thread that held me together rapidly began to thin. My entire being was so totally focused on breaking it that I didn’t realize Abram was talking until he moaned my name.
“Cum for me, Cadye,” Abram whispered against my ear, the words like a loving caress. “Let me feel you shatter.”
Three thrusts later, I took a shuddering breath as my world exploded in a single, wild, wet burst. I dug my nails into Abram’s back as my body soared, screaming out his name as everything in the world ceased to exist, everything except Abram and the exponential feeling that the world was perfect. I felt…free. So free.
I stared in awe up into Abram’s face as he quickly whipped back his head, my name leaving his lungs in an abrupt yell. With a thrust sharp enough to take my breath away, Abram pulsed inside me, his arm muscles trembling as he fought to keep himself upright.
Abram’s head fell forward against my collarbone afterwards, his breath hot and ragged against the swell of my breast. I closed my eyes as I tried to catch my breath and wrapped my arms tighter around him, determined to keep this euphoria and Abram anchored close to me for as long as I could. For long seconds, we stayed just like we were, unhurriedly waiting for reality to kick us in the teeth.
Reality kicked in a few minutes later when we took a deep sniff and realized how terribly we smelled between the two of us.
Abram smiled at me as he carefully pulled his body from mine. His cock was still at half-mast when he stood beside the bed, his hand extended to me, and it only grew firmer when I scooted down the bed and walked towards the bathroom solo.
No sooner had I started the water did Abram walk up behind me, his arms low on my waist and his erection, slick from our juices, ground into my back.
“What have you done to me?” Abram whispered against my neck. I closed my eyes as his mouth closed on my throat and a soft moan escaped as he slid inside me again. This time when Abram took me, there was little patience and a lot of bruising. By the time the water ran cold, the bathroom tiles were imprinted on my back and Abram had left a score of hickies on my neck, shoulders and chest. Not a single part of me had been left untouched. When we came back to bed, Abram shucked the top cover and tucked me into his chest, his toned inked arms wrapping loosely around me like a blanket.
“Stay,” he whispered, his eyes turning half-lidded with sleep.
I tucked my head under his chin and pressed a kiss to the spot above his heart. “I will,” I lied.
Abram’s arms tightened around my back, as though he knew. Closing my eyes, I waited until Abram’s breathing went shallow before I carefully unwound his arms and slid off the bed, grabbing my clothes as I went.
I dressed quickly, ignoring my tightening gut and rising guilt as I did everything in my power to not look at the lean body that seemed to spark heat in all the right places just by being there. My hands trembled as I reached the hotel door and pressed slowly down on the lever, making the tiniest space between the door and the doorway before squeezing myself through. As Lady Luck would have it (obviously those three old hags were fucking with me again), I stubbed my toe on the door in my escape.
Swearing under my breath, I danced out one-footed into the hall and delicately shut the door behind me.
“You’re leaving?”
“HolyfuckingMaryofGod!” I hissed, spinning around on the heel of my undamaged foot.
Instantly I felt the color drained from my face as I stared up into Perry’s pretty one.
I watched her cross her arms over her chest and cock an eyebrow, as though to say, “Well?”
Clearing my throat, I eyed the closed door to room 327 and looked back at her. “Yeah,” I answered finally.
Perry’s dark eyes dropped to my exposed neck and shoulders, a smirk crossing her lips as I cupped my palm over one particularly large hickie on my neck.
“Unless you have twelve hands, sista, you can’t hide those hickies for shit,” she laughed, shaking her head.
I dropped her gaze as a blush took over and shifted my feet like a fucking four year old.
“This is awkward,” I mumbled out of the corner of my mouth.
“Totally,” Perry laughed. “I’ve never seen a girl sneak out of Abram’s room before. He usually tosses them out.”
I gave her a sharp look. “I’m not sneaking.”
Perry snorted. “No? Then you’re just copping out.”
I bristled at the truth, but I still vehemently denied it. “In a few hours he’s going to kick me out anyway,” I spat. “Excuse me for just making it easier for the both of us.”
Perry shook her head with a sad look on her pretty face. “I’m so sorry that you’re that insecure about yourself,” she said slowly. “You can’t even see the big picture.”
If she had just slapped me in the face, I think I wouldn’t have been as surprised or as fucking hurt as I was in that very moment.
After two seconds for scrambling for a response, I finally found one and it was as lame as fuck. “The ‘big picture’, Perry, is that he wanted to fuck me. He got that and now I want to go home so get the fucking hell out of my goddamn way!”
Perry was just starting to turn her shoulder when I pushed her aside and stomped towards the elevator, punching the down arrow over and over again until the doors finally opened with a ding.
When I turned around, Perry was staring at me with her arms still crossed over her chest. The blue-haired keyboardist stood at her shoulder, his brow furrowed.
“You’re going to regret this,” Perry told me.
Swallowing hard, I pressed the button for the doors to shut.
What she didn’t know was that I already did.
It wasn’t until I got to my apartment forty-five minutes later that I realized one very important things: at some point during my “walk on the dark side” I had left behind my clutch that carried everything vital to my existence, being my phone, my wallet, and my apartment keys.
After quickly realizing that my only way in was to break in, I climbed the fire escape to my third floor apartment and used my wedges to beat the shit out of the living room window until it gave in. I got cuts and a floor full of glass for my trouble – and probably a terrible bill to pay when I reported it to maintenance – but fuck it.
Without even turning on a light, I beat the familiar path to my bathroom and rinsed off the evidence of the Night That Shall Not Be Mentioned, pushing each and every second of it into the very back of mind. I locked the memory away in the mental cabinet I deemed, “The Bad Shit” and made a solemn vow to never go back to The Offering for as long as I lived. After, I crawled into my bed, but sleep did not come easily.
*^*^*^*
It was like the fucking fairytale, Abram thought as he stirred his sugar into his coffee. She showed up out of the blue, dressed for the ball in a dress no one else would have even thought of wearing, looking every bit like an angel on earth. She tasted like heaven too, and when he had been inside her, she felt every bit like the transcendent escape. There was that comfort, he supposed. He didn’t have to die to see heaven, but if he ever saw Cayde again, he’d kill her for leaving him.
Not looking up from his untouched breakfast, Abram brought his coffee cup to his lips.
A soft thud and the sound of the booth across from him creaking under added weight brought the whole nonchalant façade he had put on this morning crashing right down.
“Perry found her clutch,” Orion rumbled in his deep bass, his comment as casual as though he had been talking about the weather.
Abram said nothing, but that was only because there was nothing to say.
I told her if she stayed or if she left, it wouldn’t matter to me, he thought.
What a foolish thing to say. He realized that now. He knew the moment he saw her that he wanted her, but he should’ve ran the moment he realized he had to kiss her. He hadn’t kissed many girls before and Sonya hadn’t been an exception to that, not like she had minded.
I should’ve left her at the door, Abram thought irritably. It would’ve been easier, for the both of us.
“Cain saw her leave.”
Abram put his coffee down as gently as his anger would allow and bunched his hands into fists to keep them from wrapping around Orion’s neck.
“Why are you doing this to me?” Abram asked in as level as a tone as he could manage. He glanced up at his soon-to-be-dead friend and saw the stupid fucker smiling.
“You kept me up for three hours fucking her silly and now you’re trying to act like that doesn’t mean anything.” Orion shook his head with a soft laugh when Abram gave a dismissive sniff.
“Because it doesn’t mean anything.”
“Oh, it does,” Orion said, chuckling after. “You have always had a problem admitting you actually like people.”
“Between you and Perry’s meddling, I’m surprised I have any problems,” Abram replied airily.
Orion’s smile faded some. “If it wasn’t for me and Perry, you wouldn’t have anyone,” Orion pointed out coolly.
“Did I touch a nerve?” Abram asked, lifting his chin to meet Orion’s glare head-on.
Orion’s nostrils flared. “If I wasn’t your friend, you’d have a very physical answer to that question.”
Abram picked up his coffee again, firm in the knowledge his walls were back in place. Years under the tyranny of his drunken mother and emotionally absent father had made for quick practice.
Orion sighed heavily. He knew exactly what Abram was doing, and he knew talking any further when Abram was in such a mood was pointless.
“Go find her,” Orion said after a few minutes had passed and the blood had left his face. “Even if it’s just to give her clutch back.”
He slid out of the booth before Abram could make a comment, leaving Abram alone with his thoughts…and the clutch.
Against his will, Abram looked at it. The clutch wasn’t anything special, just a small white rectangular thing with a golden clasp and a small wrist strap. He swallowed hard as his fingers smoothly glided over its surface, his thoughts racing as he studied it further.
Last night he hadn’t taken much of a look at it, his head had been spinning with Cayde’s closeness, with her dress, her legs, her tiny little feet and the freckles on her chest that he would’ve given his left nut to trace with the tip of his tongue. He had traced them when they had been in bed, but he hadn’t been able to dedicate as much time to them as he would’ve liked. And he really would’ve liked.
In that moment, a sudden insane need swept over him, the wave so fierce in its intensity that it made his head spin.
He needed to see her again. He needed to understand why she had said she would stay, then just bail. He needed to know why even now, the image of her breasts filling his hands or her shy kisses made his cock stir like no previous one night stand had ever made it before. And, if he was being completely honest – and wasn’t he all about honesty? – he needed to taste her.
One.
Last.
Time.
“Then it’s back to the usual,” he murmured as he signaled for the check. He tucked the clutch into his jacket pocket, but his fingers never left the leather. He stroked the smooth, supple surface in slow circles, the same slow circles that had tightened her pretty pink nipples and had almost made her come for him.
His jaw tightened at that. This next time, there would be no almost anything. She would come for him on his fingers alone. And she will explain herself, down to the letter if he was angry enough. The image of her apologizing, down on her knees with tears in her hazel brown eyes was almost enough to get him hard.
Shaking that thought aside, he tossed down a few bills and left the restaurant. After signaling for a cab, he opened Cayde’s clutch for the first time. Tucked inside were a few bills (mostly ones), her driver’s license, and a small key ring adorned with two golden keys and a Hello Kitty keychain. That was definitely unexpected.
Pulling out her driver’s license, he eyed the photo and fought from laughing out loud. The picture had been taken on her eighteenth birthday and she looked every year of it. With a bright smile, flushed cheeks, and hair cropped short like a pixie, Cayde looked almost fey. Last night, she had been that plus tenfold, as beautiful and unrestrained as—
The driver cleared his throat and Abram shook his head free of those thoughts – again.
He gave the driver Cayde’s address and quickly put away the clutch, trying to force his thoughts as far away from last night and from that girl as he possibly could.
But when he found himself studying models on the store windows and billboards and comparing them to Cayde’s naturally pretty face, he knew he that it was a lost cause.
You’re a fool, his inner genius snarked.
The driver turned a corner and parked close to the sidewalk of what looked like a long row of white townhouses, their numbers hidden by the heavy thicket of manicured bushes and trees.
“We’re here,” the man said unnecessarily.
Abram swallowed rocks as he surveyed a world that looked entirely out of his element.
“Fool,” he whispered under his breath as he pushed open the taxi door.
*^*^*^*
“Thanks, guys,” I called down the hallway, waving with the best smile I could at the maintenance crew. They held up their hands and quickly beat a path down the hall to the stairwell, wanting as far away from me as possible.
I seem to have that effect on people.
Shutting my apartment door with a sigh, I turned back to my apartment so I could better inspect the recently installed living room window.
To make a long story short, I had let The Night That Shall Not Be Mentioned escape the Bad Shit filing cabinet and ruin my morning. My conscience had taken over, predictably, and had harped endlessly on how shitty I had been to leave, on how irresponsible I had been, on how ridiculously great Abram’s kisses had felt…but mostly on how shitty of a person I was. And man, I really felt shitty. Whisky, vodka, and losing your virginity all in one night is probably not the best way to go about starting your weekend, I’ve come to realize.
Anyway, after getting the front desk to call maintenance for me and making up this ridiculous story about how annoying this stray cat on the ledge had meowed nonstop, how drunk I had been (always tell a lie with a grain of truth, my grandmother had always told me), and how I had proceeded to beat the shit out of my window to scare away said cat and broken my window instead; maintenance had a nerve to question my story.
I know, what nerve right?
Well, they did and I ended up forgetting that it had been a cat (it turned into a large African Gray parrot) and I had used my wedges to break the window (apparently fly swatters have great potential as weapons for home defense and glass-breaking), and I had to pay a fee. A very large fee.
Lady Luck hates me. We all know that by now, don’t we?
Which brings me to the now: freshly showered, freshly flowered, and freshly in a funk. Breakfast had gotten cold thanks to maintenance’s interruption and I wasn’t in the eating kind of mood. I had just started to walk in the direction of the couch (bed was off-limits until That Memory was gone for good) when there was a brief knock on the door.
Closing my eyes with a groan, I pushed myself up off the cushions.
“Who is it?” I asked the ceiling.
There was a brief pause. “Maintenance.”
I opened my eyes and quickly looked around the room. Had they left something? I quickly peered around my couch and at the window for a tool cast aside, but there was nothing, except for a lone screw. They wouldn’t come back for that, would they?
I pulled open the door and looked over my shoulder at the window. “I don’t see any tools lying around,” I said slowly. “And you wrote me up – twice. Did you forget to tag on another hundred for repairs or something?”
Instantly something in my subconscious clicked. I jerked my head around fast enough to make my neck crick and looked up at a tall, slim body dressed entirely in black and into…moon eyes.
For five long seconds, I stared up into Abram’s face in absolute shock, my heart beating somewhere in my throat as I studied the harsh, angry expression that seemed to radiate off of him like nuclear waste.
“Abram?” I whispered when it became obvious that he wasn’t going to speak – or couldn’t.
His name seemed to stir him into action – and moved he did.
Slamming the door shut behind him, Abram advanced on me, his nostrils flaring with every breath. I felt a hand wrap around my throat and squeeze, but the other arm came around and held up my clutch.
“So that’s where that went,” I muttered.
Abram’s moon eyes narrowed into slits. “What in the fuck is wrong with you?” he demanded.
I cringed at the venom in his voice, but what could I do when I deserved it?
“I’m sure my sister will tell you there a lot of things wrong with me,” I said slowly. Surprise instantly flickered across his face and the hand on my neck loosened. Taking a slight step back, I crossed my arms over my chest and backed away from him again.
“I shouldn’t have left,” I told his chest. Hot pinpoints pricked at the backs of my eyes, but I quickly blinked back the tears. I’m sure Abram didn’t want those. “I just…didn’t want my first time to end with me getting thrown out,” I finished. My face felt hot at the admission, but it was true. And wasn’t Abram all about honesty?
When he said nothing, I barreled on. “Perry saw me leave and…and she said I would regret it. I did – regret it, I mean – but she doesn’t know what happened, you know?”
Abram cleared his throat. I glanced over at him to see that his arms were crossed over his chest, mimicking my position almost exactly. I started to drop mine, but I realized then I wouldn’t know what to do with myself if I did. I ended up in this stupid half-up, half-down crossed arms position that somehow managed to bring a smile to Abram’s face.
“You were scared,” he told me, the anger in his voice almost completely gone.
I felt my shoulders drop and I bit back a sigh. Abram certainly had a gift about boiling things down to the simplest factor. Why couldn’t I do that?!
I nodded in response to his sort-of question and gestured for him to sit. Abram picked the middle of the couch and when he saw me still standing, he patted the cushion beside him. Instantly, my hippocampus protested and sirens went off.
I gave him an easy smile and sat in the armchair next to the couch, adjusting my baggy tee so I wouldn’t look so...easy. After I had arranged my holey, disgusting hand-me-down sweats, I looked up at Abram.
Abram had unfolded his long limbs while I had been preoccupied with myself, exposing all the lean muscle and sheer mass of his rather perfect body. His head was reclined against the back of the couch and his eyes were closed. Without his makeup on, I could see a scar in his right eyebrow and his lips were actually dusky pink. He had a smiley face tattooed on the underside of his chin and two small oblong bruises on either side of his neck and another one on his collarbone shaped like a heart.
The blush that had disappeared just a minute ago came back in a rush, shooting all the way from my head to my toes. I dropped my gaze to my feet when his eyes opened but I saw out of the corner of my eye that he was watching me closely.
“This morning before I realized you had left, I thought about what I’d do when you woke up,” Abram said softly.
I glanced at him quickly. “And?” I prompted.
Abram suddenly half-smiled. “I was convinced that you’d be small enough to tuck away on the bus and nobody would notice.”
I gave him a dark look. “That was your plan?” I asked flatly.
Abram shrugged. “Honestly? No. I didn’t know what I was going to do with you. I knew I was going to make love to you again, maybe even twice, eat breakfast, make love, shower – cleanliness is important – make love in shower, maybe sleep…” Abram trailed off as he looked at me.
“Cayde, I don’t know what’s next,” he said huskily. He leaned forward on his knees and I watched his lids narrow over now-smoky eyes. “All I do know, however, is that if you ever leave me like that again, I might have to throttle you.”
For a second, I thought he was making a joke. But the intense look that came over his face – shit, over him in general – and that same fucking intensity that had drawn me to him now gave my heart palpitations that felt less than healthy.
Abram wasn’t fucking kidding, I realized two seconds later.
Oh.
Shit.
“O-Oh, is that all?” I asked breathlessly when I finally got my voice back, fighting the urge to fan my face.
Abram’s grin suddenly turned into a satisfied smirk. “No, it isn’t. I think you have an apology to make.”
I blinked in surprise. “I didn’t say…?”
“No,” Abram prompted, his tone suddenly light. “You didn’t say ‘I’m sorry’, which I find rude.”
“I’m sorry,” I said immediately.
Abram wagged his finger before gesturing for me to come to him with all ten. When I didn’t move, his eyes flashed heatedly.
“If I chase after you, you’ll regret it,” he warned, though even I could tell he would enjoy the chase.
I grinned and shot off the armchair, racing for the hallway towards my bedroom. I easily spun out of Abram’s grab and darted into my bedroom, leaping up and over the bed to the other side. When I turned around to face Abram, he was staring at me from the bedroom doorway, an unreadable expression on his face.
“What?” I asked him as I self-consciously smoothed down my holey shirt.
Abram walked forward one calculated step at his time, his moon eyes never leaving mine. “I’m waiting for you to ask.”
I frowned, stumped for a second.
But when Abram peeled off his coat and tossed it off to the side, it clicked.
“Stay,” I whispered, crawling back onto the bed.
Abram met me halfway, his hands catching my wrists and pulling me close. He stopped when his lips just barely hovered over mine and a half-smile lightened the sharp features of his face.
“There’s no other place I’d rather be,” he murmured, soft and low.
And when he kissed me, I couldn’t help but think that I felt the exact same way.
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*sigh* I think my heart may have fluttered a bit. Wonderful story.
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