Chapter 16
Music drifts from hidden speakers. Soft Latin jazz with a steady rhythm that makes your hips sway without thinking. We dance barefoot on the terrace. The rain forest hums around us.
Zaria spins me.
Calil pulls us close. “I love you,” he says.
It’s not dramatic. Not performative. Not forced. It’s a man who’s finding himself being vulnerable.
“I’m in love with both of you.”
The words feel like 9.81 m/s2. The gravity of them grounding me in happiness.
“I want forever,” he says. “Not temporary. Not experimental. Forever.”
Zaria’s eyes shine instantly. My throat tightens as my body whispers its own quiet truth beneath it all. What if forever is impossible with me? My thoughts are twisting and folding in every possible direction.
Once the chef clears everything quietly and leaves, the villa falls into candlelit silence. The intimacy that follows is slow. The mood is prime for eroticism surrounded by love. Their hands are on my body dancing to a sensual rhythm meant to please me. They undress me like I am something sacred.
I lower to the couch and watch as they lower to their knees. My thighs pushed open as my chest rises and falls with anticipation. Zaria is kissing up one thigh and Calil the other. Just the thought of what’s to come causes my essence to pool between my puffy lower lips.
“Taste me,” I beg as my body squirms beneath their tasting and teasing.
Where I expected a response, I’m met with only action. One tongue lavishing my pearl. One lapping at the entrance to my wettest desires.
“Ooo please don’t stop,” I whined as my hips rotated to the rhythm of their oral strokes.
My body responds with eager anticipation for a release. Even measuring my breath carefully, I’m aware of the subtle ache in my bones. I refuse to let that stop me from an out-of-body orgasm. I’m already floating as my surrender to pleasure draws near.
“You can give us your release or we can take it from you Princess. You choose.”
I look down with defiance in my eyes. “Take it.”
And they do. They’re relentless in the pursuit of my undoing. I feel them everywhere. From my clit to my asshole. When I can’t hold out any longer—I gush—all over them until their mouths are covered in my cream.
When my breathing finds a sense of normalcy, I remember that I brought something for Zaria. She knows what it is the moment I reveal it.
Her eyes flash with mischief as she leans forward and gives me the perfect arch. The dangerous low dip in her lower back is accompanied by her perfectly round ass hiked in the air.
“I can’t wait to feel you stroke into me,” she hisses as she slides her own finger in her ass.
I fill Zaria completely and still. I turn on the vibrating dildo as I been to stroke her nice and nasty. I roll my hips into her and roll them back. she’s taking me like a good girl but that’s nothing new.
“Nasty little slut. Take this dick baby,” I praise as I smack her ass and watching it wobble.
“Don’t stop fucking me Baby,” she cries out.
Calil watches with rapt attention before positioning himself in front of Zaria. She wraps her lips around his manhood. She sucks him with a fervor so sloppy and eager that Calil's head falls back.
"Slow and deep, Z Baby,” he groans, his voice thick with desire.
She slurps and gags while fucking me back. I know saliva is running out the sides of her mouth. I’m trying to stave off my second orgasm, but my body and mind are stimulated beyond what I thought imaginable.
Calil looks down at Zaria lovingly. “I want you to take me. and I want to surrender all of me to you."
"Are you sure, my love?" Zaria asks, her voice a sultry purr. "Once I start, I won't stop until you're completely mine."
"Yes, I'm sure, Zaria," Calil replies, his eyes never leaving hers. "I want you to take me, completely. I want to feel every inch of you inside me."
I ease slowly out of Zaria as she instructs him to lie on his back— spreading his muscular thighs wide. Leaning down to let her tongue circling his entrance. I watched her rim him with an intensity so wet and filthy it made my clit thump.
"You like that, Daddy?” I asked. My voice took on a tone so low and dirty that it surprised me. "You like your Z baby playing with that tight little hole."
I watch as she works him. My own body aching with need. I take Calil's manhood into my mouth, my tongue swirling around his length seeking to draw out his moans.
“Princess your mouth feels so good," he gasps with his fingers tangling in my hair.
Zaria's fingers are slick with lube as she begins to prep him. One finger slipping inside. Then two to keep stretching him open.
"You're taking it like such a perfect boy, aren't you?" I murmur obscenely. "Such a good little slut for us."
"Yes, Princess,” he whispers breathless. "I'm your good boy. Claim my surrender.”
Zaria pumps into him gently—three fingers deep before she applies lubrication to her rigid shaft and Calil's hole. She positions herself at his entrance and pushes in inch by delicious inch. Calil cries out his submission. His body arching as he grips the sofa pillow.
"You're taking me so fucking good, Daddy," Zaria growls as her hips begin to move. "You're such a good boy for me."
Chasing my own euphoric release—I straddle Calil in reverse cowgirl. My body sinks down onto his length. Zaria leans over and her lips finding mine. The tongue-tangling kiss is filled with passion as she begins to rock into Calil with long, deep strokes.
“Fuck, Lena—Princess you feel so good wetting me up while Z Baby fills me up,” Calil cries out.
his hips bucking up to meet my movements and Zaria's movements grow more erratic. Her breaths coming in short gasps.
“I’m so close, Daddy,” she moans as her hips slam against Calil's ass. "I'm going to fill you up with every drop of me."
A final powerful thrust sends Zaria cover the edge. Her body shudders as she empties herself into Calil. The sensation of Zaria filling him up causes Calil to cry out his own release. I feel him pulsing into me and flooding my insides.
“Princess, I'm cumming." he shouts, his body convulsing beneath me.
"Fuck, yes, Baby,” I moan, my voice breathless. "Fill me up, please. Give me every last drop of your seed."
I ride him through his orgasm until my own body convulses with waves of pleasure.
We collapse together in the afterglow. She reaches for Calil at the same time. Sweat-slick skin. Tangled limbs. Slow breathing.
“I love you,” Zaria whispers.
“Always,” I echo. “Forever.”
He kisses both of us gently. And I cry silently.
Because for me, this doesn’t just feel like joy.
It feels like finality. Like I’ve been given something so complete, so consuming, that my fragile body doesn’t know how long it can hold it without breaking.
Outside, the rainforest breathes. Inside, so do we.
In this moment I’m fulfilled in a way that I’ve always dreamed of. But I know happiness this deep feels almost too beautiful to last.
The wheels touch down in Winston Hills just after sunset.
The landing is smooth. My body is not. The ache that’s been whispering all week is screaming now. It started as pressure in my chest mid-flight. A heaviness in my lungs. My bones felt like they were being wrung out from the inside.
I held it together because I refused to let my body be the reason Costa Rica ended in a hospital room. But the moment we stand to disembark, my vision blurs.
Calil reaches for my hand. “You good?”
I try to answer. The words don’t come. The pain hits like a wave—crushing. Suffocating.
“Take me to the hospital,” I manage to whisper.
Zaria’s face drains of color.
“Now.”
The ambulance ride is loud and bright and cold.
Voices overlapping. Oxygen mask pressed to my face.
Needles. Monitors. I hear words like severe vaso-occlusive crisis.
Compromised lungs. Infection. Then a new one.
Sepsis. I know what that means. I know before they confirm it.
My body has been fighting or years. Tonight it’s losing.
My Parents make it to me first. Mommy is the first face I see clearly. She’s holding my hand like she used to when I was little. Sitting beside hospital beds that felt smaller back then.
Daddy stands at the foot of the bed with his Bible in hand. His body trembling.
“Bean,” Mama whispers, tears falling freely. “We’re here.”
“I know,” I breathe.
Daddy leans closer. “You gave em hell Bean. You fought well,” he says softly. “Better than anyone could have asked.”
“I’m tired,” I admit.
Mama nods through her tears. “Then rest.”
Daddy’s voice cracks when he prays. “Father God, thank You for the gift of this child. Our child. Thank You for every day we had. If it is Your will to call her home, receive her gently.”
Mama presses her forehead to mine. “You are not leaving unloved,” she whispers. “Do you hear me?”
I nod weakly. “I hear you. I love you,” I make sure to say as tears fall down my face.
Ajaih and Amiyah come in next. Ajaih tries to be strong when she walks in. She fails immediately. She crawls into the bed beside me like she always does when I feel bad and wraps her arms around me carefully.
“You stubborn heifer,” she sobs. “You been dramatic since God and love brought us together.”
I laugh faintly before a coughing spell takes over.
“I’m proud of you,” she whispers. “For loving. For living. For choosing joy.”
Amiyah stands on the other side—trying to be okay even while wiping her face.
“You showed all of us what courage looks like,” she says. “Even when you were scared.”
“I was always scared,” I admit.
“But you did it anyway,” Ajaih replies.
They both kiss my cheeks.
When my brother walks in, he’s wrecked.
“Lena,” he chokes. “What am I supposed to do without you?”
My heart breaks more for him than for myself.
“Live,” I whisper.
He shakes his head violently. “I can’t.”
“You can,” I insist softly. “Live. Be free. Be happy in every way possible.”
He grips my hand so tightly I feel it through the fog. “You don’t get to leave me.”
“I’m not leaving,” I murmur. “I’m just… going first.”
He buries his face against the mattress and sobs.
Calil & Zaria come in together. They look tired. Sad. Exhausted. You’d never guess they just spent five beautiful days living, laughing, and loving in a Costa Rican rainforest. Calil looks like he’s been split open and Zaria’s face is wet with tears.
Calil kneels at my bedside. “You can’t do this,” he whispers, shaking his head. “We just started. I need more time to love you.”
I reach for him. My fingers feel like air. “You loved me,” I say. “Fully.”
“Not enough,” he chokes.
Zaria leans down and kisses my forehead softly. “I will love you for the rest of my life,” she whispers. “You loved me so openly. So fiercely. You gave me the courage to love myself the same way.”
That makes me smile. “Good. That was the point.”
I struggle to get my next words out. “You two… need each other.”
Calil shakes his head. “Don’t.”
“I knew,” I whisper. “We all needed each other. And in my absence… you’ll need each other more.”
Zaria’s breath shudders.
“You’re a perfect fit,” I manage. “Don’t waste that.”
They both cry harder.
“There’s a letter,” I whisper. “At my place. Read it together. When you’re ready.”
Calil presses his forehead against my hand. “Don’t apologize,” he says fiercely when I murmur I’m sorry. “You fought with tenacity. With vigor. You earned your rest.”
Zaria nods through tears. “No apologies.”
I exhale slowly.
My body feels lighter. Less pain but more distance.
“I love you,” I whisper.
“We love you,” they answer together.
And for the first time in my life, my body is quiet. Not fighting me. Not aching. Just still. I close my eyes and let go.