27. Recovery #2
Driz was immediately in front of her, and Pearl reached, seizing her face and kissing her the way she had dreamed of for days. She pressed their mouths together, letting her tongue slide to Driz’s fangs, and then past them, seeking. She would’ve climbed all the way inside Driz if she could.
Driz kissed her back for a tantalizing moment. “What can I do?” she asked, far too sweet.
“Fuck me. And don’t be careful about it.”
It was the wrong thing to say. Driz pulled away fully, and Pearl cursed her human eyes for not being able to see well in the darkness. “I thought you said you were hurt.”
Driz’s tone should have cautioned Pearl, but she was reckless tonight. “I am.”
“Then we should not mate.”
Pearl reached for the buttons on her shirt, popping them open violently and baring her chest.
Driz let out a low, quiet growl.
“I am hurt. In here.” Pearl skimmed her fingers down between her breasts. “Won’t you kiss it better for me?”
Driz stared but didn’t do anything. So Pearl closed the gap between them and curled her stinging palm around one of Driz’s horns.
It worked, as Pearl had desperately hoped it would.
Driz pounced on her, gathering Pearl into her arms and kicking into the sky.
Pearl didn’t wait for Driz to reach wherever it was they were headed.
She trusted Driz would support her as she used her free hand to open the two remaining buttons on Driz’s tattered shirt, pressing their bared chests together.
Needing to be closer to her. She ran her palms along Driz’s horns again and bit at her neck, earning another growl.
For the first time in days, Pearl was where she belonged. She was happy.
Until Driz landed in their ravine and scrambled away, leaving Pearl on her back, panting and partially clothed.
Driz collided with the opposite wall, sending a shower of pebbles and dirt raining down on her where she crouched, huddled in a defensive position, wings curling around herself.
“Driz?” Pearl sat up, the sudden chill of the night overwhelming her.
“What do you want from me?” Driz asked. She sounded pained.
“To see you.”
“Do you?” Driz let her wings fall. Despite the darkness, Pearl could feel her anger, and the tiniest shiver of fear ran through her. “For nights, I have been driven mad by worry over your sickness. And after everything, the first thing you say is to fuck you.”
Pearl cringed at the echo of her crude words from Driz’s polite, thoughtful mouth. “So you don’t want me anymore?”
“Of course I want you!” Driz wiped at her face, looking away again.
Pearl’s lips quivered obnoxiously. “I just…I miss you.”
“I miss you too,” Driz whispered.
“You’re right. We should talk. I wanna talk. How are you?” The hollow words were so inadequate.
“I do not know,” Driz finally answered, and it did nothing to ease the tension in Pearl.
“I’m mostly recovered,” Pearl offered, sounding both desperate and wretched.
She needed to do better. Be better, for Driz.
“I shouldn’t have said that. I wasn’t thinking.
I was just…trying to get you to stay.” Pearl had to swallow a few times to make her throat work to finish the rest. “I’m scared you’re gonna leave again, and that you won’t come back. ”
Driz was silent for several awful heartbeats. “You want me to stay?”
“Of course I do. I just told you so. At least, that’s what I’m trying to say. I’m sorry.” Pearl hoped the poor words would be enough until she could come up with a way to prove to Driz she meant them.
“Have you been staying with Molly?”
Pearl froze, the question closing around her throat. “Um, yeah. Why?”
“You smell like her.”
Fuck. Pearl definitely should have led with that. How was she supposed to explain now?
“I like her,” Driz added, still sounding sad. “I am glad she is your friend.”
Double fuck. Driz was far too sweet. “She’s the best. And she’s only a friend, nothing more. But I should tell you—we’ve mated before. Before you and I met. But we don’t now. I don’t desire anyone but you.” Pearl held her breath, heart in her throat.
Driz just stared at her, and then nodded.
“Are you angry about that?”
“Why would I be angry about that?”
“I thought you might be jealous.”
“You just said you do not desire her. Was that a lie? Should I be jealous?”
“No, but…” Pearl couldn’t help the small laugh. “I’m not used to people with hearts like yours.”
“How long have you known about my birth mother?”
Pearl swallowed, dismayed by the terrible change of subject. She hated to answer, but she wouldn’t lie. “My mother told me about it when she saw the necklace you gave me. It was hers. That’s how you had it. You got it the night you met. The night it all happened.”
“Why did you not tell me?”
“Because I thought you might get angry. At me. Or at my mother. I’m pissed at her, but I couldn’t stand it if anything happened to her.”
“You still do not trust me.”
“I do trust you. But it’s not a nice thing to learn.”
“No. It is not.” Driz had her arms wrapped around her own torso. Not used to having anyone else to hug her, she must have learned to hug herself.
Pearl’s eyes stung. “I wanted so much to hold you that night. I hate you had to be alone, for all of it. Will you let me hold you now? Please?”
Pearl held her breath, the fear of Driz refusing making her ill again.
Driz nodded, and Pearl walked the five paces to her. Driz uncrossed her arms and Pearl climbed into her lap, folding around Driz’s neck and shoulders. Simply hugging her.
They were still partially undressed from Pearl’s desperate attempts earlier, and Driz’s shirt gaped open, revealing the new bullet-wound scar that her body had healed but not fully erased. Pearl traced it lightly with her fingers.
“I was trying to stop this,” she whispered. “You know that, right?”
“I do not know what I know anymore.”
Those words hurt. But Pearl couldn’t be mad at them. “I’m so sorry, Driz. I’m so, so sorry. I know it’s not enough. But d’you think you can forgive me? Again?”
She pressed their foreheads together, drinking in the severe lines of Driz’s face and the regrowing hair on her left half where the fire had burned it away, the new growth already long enough for Pearl to run her fingers through.
“Does it matter?” Driz finally asked. “Your people will never accept me, will they?”
Pearl swallowed. “I don’t know if they will,” she answered honestly. “But I do. Please know that I’ll always accept you.”
Driz was everything Pearl had never dreamed of. Every part of Driz, from her giant heart to her fierce features, was beautiful. And Pearl, who didn’t care about anything, loved her.
That terrifying, world-breaking realization didn’t send her running as it should have. How could she run when Driz held her so gently? When she kissed her so tenderly, even now?
“I cannot quite remember what I am meant to forgive you for,” Driz whispered against her lips.
“Quite a lot of things, I’m afraid.”
“Oh, right. Very well. You are forgiven.” Driz smiled and Pearl’s insides melted into a puddle. “Do you need to go sleep?”
“I should. But I’m not ready to leave you yet.”
“I can take you home. May I?”
Pearl stole Driz’s lips in one more lingering kiss and then refastened their buttons. “To Molly’s.”
Driz flew her the short distance back to town, landing behind the house.
Molly was rocking in her chair, the glow of her cigarette bright on the back porch. She grinned broadly at them.
“What’re you doing up?” Pearl asked.
“Heard you leave. So I’ve been waiting. Evening, Driz.”
Driz nodded. “Hello.”
“I figured you might come around. Here. It’s not warmed, but it’s still decent cold.” Molly held out a slice of peach pie.
Driz perked up at the sight of it. She glanced at Pearl before she approached and carefully accepted the plate. “Thank you.” She shoved the entire piece in her mouth at once.
The interaction broke something in Pearl’s chest. A tender, painful hope filled it. Perhaps this wasn’t as complicated as it seemed.
Pearl took the plate from Driz and grabbed her nape, bringing her face down and kissing her, knowing Molly could see. Claiming Driz. So Driz would know that Pearl wasn’t hiding her. “Will you be in the ravine tomorrow?”
After a long, heavy pause, Driz answered, “If you want me to be, I will.”
“I do. I’ll meet you there.” Pearl kissed her once more. “Good night.”
“Good night.”
Pearl slipped from her arms and climbed onto the porch.
Driz lingered, an unfathomable expression on her face. Then she turned, the beat of her wings flattening the scrubby grass beneath her.