Love So Hard #2
“I’ll just text him and tell him to take his sweet time.”
They smacked his shoulder. “No, then he’ll think we’re having sex.”
“Pretty sure he thinks we’re always having sex when he’s not around,” Dex said, dodging another one of their smacks. “Just jump in with me. We’ll cool off and get you unsticky.”
“Unsticky isn’t a word,” they said as he climbed to his feet, gathered both their clothes in one arm, and offered them his other hand. They took it, and he pulled them up, placing the clothes in their arms. “What are you—ah!”
Cya yelped as he scooped them into his arms bridal style and strode confidently out of the workshop and into the late August sunshine. He made a beeline for the pool, and they grabbed his chest fur and pulled threateningly.
“Don’t you dare.”
The Lupyn grinned but didn’t slow his stride.
“I’m holding both our phones,” they squeaked, lifting them up to prove it.
He paused, then set them down. They sighed in relief as he took their clothes and phones and placed them on a lounge chair. With a devious smile, he scooped them right back up and broke into a run.
“I just washed my hair!” they cried as they tried to scrabble over his shoulders to escape.
They were too late. He tightened his hold on them and leapt into the deep end of the pool.
Instead of taking a breath as they should have, they screamed a moment before icy water engulfed them.
They wriggled out of Dex’s arms and desperately swam for the surface, breaking through with a choking gasp.
Cya had never been a strong swimmer, and they swallowed half the pool as they struggled to the side and threw their arms onto the hot tile. They coughed and glared at Dex over their shoulder as he treaded water, amusement shining in his eyes.
“You asshole,” they spat.
“You’re so cute when you’re pissy.”
Clinging to the side with one hand, they flipped him off with their other, and he chortled as he leisurely freestyled toward them. “Leave me alone. I’m not a strong swimmer.”
“I am,” he said as he curled an arm around their waist. “Just hold on to me, highness. I’ll keep you afloat.”
With a whine, they anchored themself to him, wrapping their lower half around his waist several times so his legs were free to kick. Their arms clutched him about the shoulders, hands tangling in his thick, wet fur.
“Seriously, I don’t like the deep end,” they whimpered, and Dex backstroked closer to the shallow end, dragging them along with him.
“Better?” he asked as they floated in the center of the pool.
“I guess.”
Their grip on him loosened marginally, but they didn’t let him go. At this depth, they probably could have touched the bottom if they stretched their tail, but they kind of liked playing the damsel in distress. It meant Dex could be the knight in furry armor and protect them.
Like he knew their thoughts, he kissed their wet cheek and said, “Don’t worry. I got you.”
As they bobbed about, Dex using his legs and arms to keep their heads above the surface, Cya wiped their now drenched hair out of their face and did the same for him. He was growing out the hair between his ears, and it had started to curl at the ends in adorable little peaks.
When they kissed him, he smiled against their mouth and opened for them, letting Cya lick inside.
They traced his sharp canines, then twisted their tongue with his, and he rumbled.
One of his hands lowered and palmed their backside as the other cupped their breast, pad of his thumb twirling the metal piercing.
They moaned as their back met the pool wall, the kiss igniting fire in their belly anew.
It was crazy how easily he could stoke the flames of their desire, and Cya rolled against him sinuously.
Not in search of another orgasm, necessarily, but to simply feel him, his body against theirs.
To share in the pleasure of friction and touch and connection, even if they didn’t fulfill the demand.
Dex made them feel vibrant and alive. Every tangled, knotted part of them was loose and flowing, and they never wanted to be wound that tightly ever again. Not now that they knew what it was like to be free.
“I think I’m going to love you,” Cya whispered against his lips, and he pulled back enough to meet their gaze.
Eyes of blue topaz and tourmaline stared back at them in awe, and he smoothed their hair out of their face as he said, “You think so?”
Swallowing the sudden emotion strangling them, they nodded and signed, “I don’t think; I know.”
Dex smiled grandly at them, like they were a math equation he had finally solved. “I’m gonna love you too,” he signed back, speaking aloud when he added, “I’m gonna love you so hard; you don’t even know.”
And Cya kissed him.
They kissed him with every piece of themself.
Their tough scars and their icy defenses, their scared shields and their biting weapons.
Their vulnerable honesty and their soft heart and their warm, gooey center.
They kissed him with all of them, and he welcomed each piece, no matter how fragile or worn or ugly.
He took each one like a precious treasure in his steady hands, promising to keep them safe.
Cya wondered if this was what home felt like.
It tasted like love and acceptance and a family they’d never truly known.
It enveloped them in belonging and security, like they were finally where they were supposed to be.
It overwhelmed them with hope and courage, and it was theirs. It was real and true and theirs.
“Mine,” Dex breathed against their quivering lips. “Mine, mine, mine.”
Following each word with a kiss, he painted his promises across their cheeks and jaw and down their throat. He pressed his nose to their pulse point and inhaled deeply. Then he kissed them there too, hot and wet, with a hint of teeth.
“Mine,” he growled, and Cya smiled up into the sky.
“Yours.”
Distantly, they heard the front door open and close, and they knew they had to spoil this beautiful slice of eternity.
After he put away the groceries, Hemersyn would find them, naked and embracing, and Cya didn’t think they’d survive the shame.
But they wanted one more moment to bask, before this became just another memory.
Forehead pressed to Dex’s, they dragged a thumb down the side of his throat in the way he’d always done to his sister, like they’d seen Rusty do to Gem.
It meant home and love and pack, and Dex whined deep in his chest, breath hitching.
Massaging their scent into his neck, they kissed him again, and it was perfect.
Until something shattered against the veranda tile, followed by a horrified scream, and Cya wrenched themself out of Dex’s arms with a startled cry.
The blood drained from their face, along with every happy thought and spark of hope as the ground beneath their metaphorical feet began to tremble and crack.
“Mother?”