“I agree,” he said and sighed as we leaned back against the booth. He leaned his head back as his arm came around me. He seemed pretty happy and relaxed even though we were about to tell my dad that we were getting married. “I’m not worried,” he said in response to my thoughts. “Your dad likes me. He knows I’ll take care of you.”
“You’re awfully cocky,” I said playfully looking at him. “What makes you think he won’t freak? He is my father and I’m his only little girl.”
“Betcha five bucks.”
“Deal,” I said with a laugh. “He is gonna freak and I’ll take your money and buy a honey bun with a diet cream soda and I won’t share with you,” I sang.
“You’re going to be singing a different tune in a little while. I hope you’re not too full on omelet to eat crow.”
I laughed and leaned against him. I hoped he was right. I didn’t want to disappoint Dad or fight with him. I just wanted to be with Caleb and everyone be happy. Who cared if I was being a little fairy tale naïve about it. A girl could dream couldn’t she?
We ate our omelets and after hugging everyone and promising to come back soon, we took off and made the ridiculously short ride on Caleb’s bike to Dad’s house.
Caleb parked the bike in the garage because it looked like it might rain and we went in but Dad nor Bish was there. I decided to grab a few things from my room for the trip the next day. I was going through my closet, looking at dresses and clothes to take to London when I felt Caleb’s hands on my waist.
I turned to him and looked in his blue eyes. The dresses fell to the floor from my fingertips. He was sucking his lip in and out and thinking about what I’d look like in a red dress on our wedding day.
“Did you find what you were looking for?” he asked and looked at the dresses on the floor.
“Yes,” I whispered. I reached up and put my arms around his neck, bringing him down to kiss me.
He made a little surprised noise but my mind was wide open and he knew exactly what I was doing. I reached one arm to the side to my door and turned the lock. His eyes popped open and he stared at me, his breathing heavy and loud.
I want this, you know that. You’re not just doing this because of the engagement are you?
No, but who cares if I am?
I pushed his chest so he’d go backwards toward the bed.
I do. I want you to do it because you want to, not just because you know I do. I want you to want it as much as me.
I am and I do.
His legs stopped at the mattress side.
You have no idea how much I need to do this with you right now.
I have a pretty good idea. I thought and giggled.
I’m not just talking about that. My body is twitching on the inside. My blood is about to boil out of my skin with the demand to consume you. When you look at me like that…it’s like kerosene on a fire. You have no idea what you do to me.
I felt a pull in my chest, an ache so good, and I knew it was the exact match to Caleb’s. It was my body saying finish this, do this, be together, be consumed and do the consuming, feel everything there is to feel between each other, know everything, learn everything, take our time, create a frenzy and focus on nothing but our significant.Caleb put his palm on the middle of my chest.
Your heart beat is my favorite thing to listen to. When you look at me and your heart rate jumps… He smiled. “It’s the best feeling in the world to know that I’m in the heart of the most important person to me and the proof of that is literally right under my fingertips.”
I licked my lips as I fought for breath, my chest rising and falling dramatically under his hand. He placed a warm palm on my cheek and I turned my face to kiss it. His heart beat made its way into my chest and it was just as erratic as mine, in a good way.
He continued to caress my jaw and cheek, letting the pad of his thumb swipe my lips. I closed my eyes and let it all wash over me. The way I felt, the way he felt and the way he was everything in every way. I was no longer one person; I was a half to make a whole. And my other half was making me feel scorched and jagged on the edges.
Don’t be scared of this. I won’t hurt you.
I know that without a doubt.
Jagged on the edges doesn’t sound so good.
Oh, it’s good.
I pushed him to sit on the bed and turned the light off with a flick of my fingers and my over stimulated mind. Even though we were mostly in the dark, it was like I could see him. I could sense him and knew exactly where to put my hands to touch his arms, his neck, his lips. Without any bumbling or error I found his mouth and pushed him down to the bed.
His breaths seethed between us and his hands found my waist in a second. He let me have control for a moment. He let me feel the rush of commanding and dictating someone who was utterly at your mercy. Someone who would do anything you wanted.
But I found myself under him without even realizing I’d been put there. He repeated his earlier actions and brought his hands down to grasp my wrists, placing them over my head and pressing them to the mattress. His mouth continued on mine with a sweetness that reassured and made me feel more than loved before he eventually settled his forehead to mine. I felt him press into my mind, no longer asking permission but taking what was rightfully his; all of me. I opened my mind as far as it would go. He didn’t have to press, I’d give it to him.
His protective barrier was ever strong and at attention. As I passed everything that made up him, his love, his adoration, his need for my happiness, I saw things I’d never seen before and began to feel the melding of our minds taking place as the energy ribbons came in full force.
I saw him with Vic at a party, just wanting to go home more than anything. I saw him and Kyle talking about me after we’d imprinted, Caleb asking all sorts of questions and Kyle rolling his eyes.
I felt Caleb’s skin as if it was my own just like before. It felt like I was looking down at myself and feeling the opposite touch and then I was me again, wading in a sea of everything Caleb.
He moved one of his hands in his mind to my leg and then back up my side. I moved mine in my mind to grasp in his hair.
Then I saw Caleb the day Maria was born, the look on his face of pure wonder as he looked at the baby in his hands. I wanted to see that look on his face again…one day. I felt a zing go through my entire body, a strange hot and cold that jolted from one side to the other before I even had a chance to realize it. I felt Caleb’s surprised breath on my face and knew he was feeling the same.
I saw us together, bits and pieces and jumbles of us kissing, him watching me when I wasn’t looking, him catching me watching him, him feeling my heart beat for no reason at all except that I loved him.
I made my leg move against his side in my mind and felt him retaliate with a hand in his mind to my cheek and jaw and it rubbed a caress that made me shiver.
I felt another zing and felt every inch of my skin burn and tingle. I gasped at the pleasure of it. It burned me in places I never thought about and even my eyelids felt super sensitive and super alive. Caleb leaned down to kiss each eyelid slowly, like each one was important, and then groaned into my skin when another zing came. Caleb’s skin was freezing cold but cooled me in a sensual way and then it was as if we traded places.
My skin and veins were ice but Caleb’s hot skin was the perfect match to mine and when he kissed me again, it was like imprinting. All those strong sensations of being jolted with electricity and tingles were a full force assault on our senses and minds. I heard my breathing take a turn for uncontrollable and then I held my breath as the fireworks stared, so to speak.
The energy ribbons were non-existent when I opened my eyes, as the entire room was aglow. Blue filled the air and then zings filled me, making me curl my fingers into my palms. Caleb coaxed my hands open to lace his fingers with mine as the cold and hot zings mingled in us and between us and built into something we could no longer stop nor control.
Caleb released my lips only to moan softly against my mouth as the end neared and the pleasurable zings became almost painful as they consumed us. Then the burst of fire in my veins made me shriek with the force of it and the blue around us turned blinding white as everything was drowned out but my significant. I could taste him, smell him, feel him, his every thought, his every want and every need from me was available for my taking. And I took it.
I had just experienced something no other human but a handful would ever know about. It was better than anything I’d ever felt and couldn’t see anything being better. It was better than chocolate! It was better than honey buns! It was better than kisses and touches and sweet words combined. I was enraptured.
When I finally settled back into myself, I realized I was still holding my breath but Caleb’s blasted fast and loud against my cheek. He lifted his face to look at me and I saw his cheeks were flushed as if he’d exerted himself but we were still right where we had been the whole time.
He unlaced our hands and brought his to my face. I noticed they were shaking slightly.
“Breathe, Maggie.”
It was so much like that first day, the first time he said my name as his significant.
I took a deep shuddering and when I let it out it came as a moan of utter happiness and satisfaction.He continued to look at me as we fought for breath and shared the little bit we had between us. In the minuscule light from my curtains I saw his face and it spelled satisfaction too and love. The corner of his mouth rose. Then the rest joined it in a genuine smile that told me everything. It was good for him too.