As she takes her final steps inside, she waves back at me. The last thing I see before the gate closes is her leaning down to smell the wildflowers.
Alone on the roof, I collapse to my knees, all of my feelings breaking free. As tears drip down my cheeks, I text Callie, “Are you still free today?”
Almost instantly, she replies, “Absolutely. Save me from weekend homework!”
A hint of a smile pulls at the corners of my mouth. “I thought Felix and Nolan were supposed to do that.”
My phone buzzes with her response. “Sadly, neither of them has any academic understanding of plants. Now, where are we going and when?”
“Flying over now,” I type quickly, desperate to see her and feel her arms around me.
“See you soon!” The text is followed by three red hearts.
After tugging my shirt off, I send out another text. This one is to my mother, letting her know Abby passed on. Withoutwaiting for a response, I call forth my wings and shoot into the sky.
∞∞∞
Having no real destination in mind, I fly Callie to the overlook that has started to feel more and more like our private place, the sentiment taking over the childhood memories that once infused the area. When we land, I put her down on her feet, but I don’t let go. Instead, I pull her against me and wrap my wings around us. For a few minutes, we stand in silence, Callie holding me as tight as I hold her. In her arms, cocooned in my wings, I finally feel like I can breathe.
Her hands shift from squeezing me to making long strokes up and down my bare back, delicately kneading any stiff muscles she finds. I shiver when she brushes against the soft, downy feathers near the joints of my wings.
“Sorry,” she murmurs, her hands traversing back down my spine.
“It’s okay,” I reply, my voice rough with all the emotions locked inside me. With one arm still wrapped around her waist, I pull back far enough to cup her face with my other hand, my thumb brushing gently over her lips. “I like the feeling of your hands on my wings.” I lean down, replacing my thumb with my lips. “I always want your hands on me.”
I kiss her like salvation rests on her lips—tender, reverent, and with singular focus. I worship at the altar of her mouth, and every moan from her is a hallelujah. She is the calmcenter of my storm, and I want to live an eternity in this moment with her.
She welcomes me, wrapping her arms around my neck to pull me closer, and opens her mouth so I may taste her.
There’s a natural sweetness to her that I can never seem to get enough of. A low groan vibrates in my throat as I explore the recesses of her mouth with my tongue. My hand shifts into her hair, her wavy strands tangling between my fingers.
We break apart only long enough to catch a breath before I’m once again feasting on her lips. A molten heat burns through my veins, and I crave her more than oxygen. All the pain of this morning melts away, lost in the sea of my desire for her.
Reaching down, I pick her up by her thighs and guide her legs around my waist. Blindly, I seek out the shade and privacy of a nearby tree. Spreading my wings wide enough for Callie’s back to be pressed against the thick trunk, I lean into her, not wanting any space between us.
Using the support of the tree, I let my hands explore her perfect curves, while my mouth travels from her sweet lips to her neck. My kisses turn to love bites, eliciting surprised gasps of pleasure from Callie.
Her fingers dig into my shoulders as her head drops back. Between pants for breath, her words develop a husky tone filled with distraction. “As good as this feels—and I’m in no way complaining… Should we…” Her sentence fades into a moan as I suck hard on where her neck and shoulder meet.
After running my tongue up her throat, I nip her earlobe and drop my voice to a low rumble. “What did you want to say?”
“Never mind,” she rasps, arching her back as her fingers drag along my scalp. “Kiss now. Talk after.”
“Good girl,” I purr against her ear and smile when she shivers with a breathy moan.
I return to her lips, consuming and commanding. In this moment, she’s mine to please, and I want to lavish her with pleasure until she grows hoarse from moaning my name. Sheltered within my wings under a canopy of branches, all that exists is Callie and the things I want to do to her.
With one hand gripping her hip, I slip my other hand beneath her tank top. Looking into her pleasure drunk eyes, I instruct, “You say stop, and this ends.” My touch climbs up her ribs until my thumb lightly brushes the underside of her breast. Pressing my lips to her throat, I whisper, “Do you want me to stop?”
Callie shivers, digging her fingers into my shoulders, as she shakes her head. “Don’t stop.”
Keeping her pinned to the tree with my hips, I lift her top over her chest with both hands, and then I cup her breasts over her silky bra. While kissing her deeply and thoroughly, my thumbs circle her hardening nipples, teasing them through the soft, thin fabric. It’s only when she’s squirming and pressing her breasts more firmly into my hands that I reach around to unhook her bra. She moans when flesh finally touches flesh, her naked breasts filling my hands.
While rolling her nipples between my thumbs and forefingers, I press my lips to the underside of her jaw. “You are so beautiful, so soft and warm and perfect in my hands.”
“By the goddess,” she moans when I replace one of my hands on her breast with my mouth, sucking the hardened peak then flicking it with my tongue. “Don’t stop.”
“Not unless you tell me to,” I reply against her tender flesh, and then I switch to the other breast.
