Chapter 26
Wes is just through that thin wall.
I want to beat my fists on the sheetrock. I want to scream in his face; shake him until his bones rattle.
I just want to hold him, but he’s no longer mine to hold.
Do I even have a right to claim him as mine anyway? We’d only had six weeks together. Yes, he and Donovan had loved me and made me promises, but I can’t demand his love or affection; it's his to give or withhold.
I blink and realize Donovan is gently undoing the buttons of my school blouse. “Sit,” he says, pushing the polyester off my shoulders—shoulders so stiff, they could be made of concrete.
“Oh, babe,” he murmurs, stroking the tense muscles with his huge hands. “You look done in. Let me take care of you.”
“That’s ridiculous,” I mumble. “You’re the one who needs pampering; you’re the one who has been…
.lost.” Donovan ignores my words and unhooks my bra, then kisses the back of my neck and down my spine.
His gentle touch makes me drowsy. “You’re so beautiful, did you know that?
Like, er, the face that launched a thousand ships—Cleopatra, right? ”
“Close,” I say as he turns me. I’m as pliant as a rag doll. Donovan swipes a thumb across my cheekbone. I’m sure I’ve tear-smudged makeup all over my face. “Sweet, Tee. How can you be so strong, yet look so tiny at the same time?”
When he tucks a lock of hair behind my ear, I feel my heart explode with love for this man.
Leaning forward, I pull him down. He captures my mouth with his, gently at first, then more fiercely. His hands continue to stroke my back and shoulders, but then travel south, sliding my skirt and panties down my hips.
“Stand for a second.” He works the clothing down to my feet. I keep standing, naked apart from my knee socks. “I’m the luckiest fucker in the whole world,” he mutters, eyes raking over my body. “Come here, baby.”
Donovan sits on the edge of the bed and pulls me onto his lap. He’s still fully dressed, the denim of his jeans rubbing against my bare skin.
Curling against his chest, I feel tiny, fragile, as Donovan circles his hand around my back and shoulders.
“That’s it, Tee, let your worries go.” My muscles unknot and it’s bliss.
But it’s not enough. “Lower,” I tell him. “Touch me.”
“You’re exhausted, Tee.” His voice is filled with concern. He’s not wrong, I am wiped out, but Gods, if he doesn’t touch me within three seconds…
“Please,” I moan.
He groans in return, sliding a calloused hand further down, finding my slit. When his fingers brush against my clit, I let out a massive sigh. “Ooh.”
“Yes?” he asks, his lips brushing the outer edge of my ear. The contact sends a shiver of pleasure down my spine. “You want me to make you come, sweet Tee?”
“Yes. Yes, please.”
The next second, Donovan picks me up and maneuvers me onto my back. “Open your legs for me, baby. I need to see you.” I do as he commands, and he groans. “So fucking beautiful. Fucking Heaven is Theo-pussy-shaped.”
I close my eyes, and his face pushes between my thighs.
—I’m going to give you the sweetest orgasm of your life—
“Yes, please,” I whisper.
When Donovan starts to move the pad of his tongue in long, strong swipes over and around my clit, it takes barely seconds until my orgasm explodes. For a blissful moment, this pleasure is all that exists.
Donovan and I, tumbling through space in the bubble of ecstasy.
Absolute perfect harmony.
Eventually, the bubble sinks back to earth, and I sink back into the mattress.
“Theo.”
He says my name like it’s precious, like a prayer.
“I’m not great with poetry and words, but you have to know I love you beyond any love that’s ever existed ever before. Like, ever.”
“I’d say you are perfect with poetic words,” I tell him, rolling over to capture his face. As I press my mouth against his, I taste myself on his lips. Fuck, that makes me want more. And more.
As I slide one leg over his chest until I’m centered above him, Donovan moans. I tease my entrance against his cock, and then it’s both of us moaning.
“Baby, I’m sorry, but I can’t wait.”
“Then don’t.”
He circles my waist with his hands, then pushes me down, filling me with his iron-hard cock. Without giving me time to catch my breath, he pulls me up again, using my body to pump his length.
It’s deep and brutal and exactly what I need.
Even though I’ve just come, the tingling deliciousness of pre-orgasm starts to build in again. As he slides me up and down his shaft, the way he’s using my hole, desperate for it, makes me feel like a queen.
Donovan’s cock swells impossibly fuller, oh fuck.
As he yells out my name, hot cum pouring into me, my spine prickles, walls contract, and then…over the cliff I fall again— diving wildly through stars and bliss.
When I come back to reality, I’m collapsed on Donovan’s chest, and he’s peppering soft kisses on my head.
“I love you,” he tells me between kisses. “I love your scalp. I love this hair strand, love this hair strand, love this one…”
I want to reply, but already my eyes are closing.
—I love you too—
◆◆◆
I don’t know what wakes me.
The room is completely dark, and I’m still on Donovan’s chest.
Oh, wait, I need to pee.
Should have done that earlier. I softly roll off my love, trying not to disturb him.
“...catch your lucky charm…” he mumbles in his sleep, making me grin as I tiptoe to the bathroom.
There is so much that is wrong right now, but this? This is something to smile about.
I’ve just finished peeing, with much relief, when I hear something, someone, moving around in the living room. Probably Maximus.
But then there’s a sob. A gasping, shuddery breath.
My body acts on autopilot. I pull on Donovan’s discarded tee shirt and open his bedroom door. The living room is dark, but, in a shaft of moonlight, there’s Cosmo. He’s leaning against the kitchen counter, fists clenched, and when he turns and looks at me?
The agony in his eyes knocks every breath I’ve ever had from my body.
The unfathomable look of pain screams ‘danger’.
But instead of running away, I’m drawn closer like a mosquito to an ultraviolet light. “Cosmo?”
He clutches his face, and that’s when I see a ring of smoke circling his wrist.
Or am I hallucinating?
I blink and it’s gone. I put on a side lamp so there’s at least a little illumination in the room. “Cosmo, can you hold your arms out in front of you?”
I know I should be terrified, but something innate inside me has kicked in. I don’t know how or why, but there is something I have to do. “Cosmo,” I say again.
“H-h-help m-me..” he croaks, weakly moving his arms out, like they weigh a million tons.
Oh. I didn’t imagine it; around Cosmo’s left wrist is a living, writhing ring of smoke. It changes from black to blood-red and back again, like a heartbeat.
Cosmo looks at me, and in his gaze I see a fear so intense, I can almost taste it.
And it’s not fear for himself.
“Can you see that, Cosmo?”
With bloodshot eyes, he tries to hold my gaze. “See what?”
“On your left wrist.”
He moves his head like it hurts. “Nothing there.” Cosmo looks at me again. “But I feel wrong. I don’t know how long…”
“How long, what?”
“How long I can fight it off.”
◆◆◆
Alexis is fast asleep on the far side of campus, but my telepathy brings him awake immediately.
—Pulu! What’s wrong?—
—I need you. Cosmo’s apartment—
—On my way—
As Alexis runs towards the tower, the two of us keep communicating. I tell him what’s happening with Cosmo, and I can tell by the tenor of his thoughts how worried he is.
—Get Ludo too— he tells me. I don’t question why. It seems instinctively right to gather all my…my loves around me for this.
—Lu?—
—I’m on my way….felt you, Nymph—
Alright. Breathe.
I stay close to Cosmo. My presence seems to be calming him—or maybe numbing the pain—it’s hard to tell.
Ludo and Alexis arrive at the same time. I let them in, and Alexis goes to wake Max and Donovan.
I continue to hover around Cosmo, not taking my eyes off the swirling smoke.
“We left Wes to sleep,” Donovan breathes in my ear. “But I’ll wake him if you want?”
“No. I think that’s the right choice.” I swipe at my forehead, a thumping pain developing inside my skull. “First question: can any of you see something around Cosmo’s wrist?”
Cosmo keeps his eyes on mine, as though our locked gaze prevents him from tumbling into the abyss. Ludo and Alexis stand on either side of me, while Donovan and Max move to flank Cosmo.
“You mean his watch?” Donovan asks.
“No, something else.”
“I take it you can see something that we can't. Can you tell us what it is?” ” Alexis asks gently.
“Smoke. A ring of smoke that moves like it's alive. It’s circling his wrist.” I get closer and hover my hand over his arm. Cosmo startles, then his breath starts coming out in pants.
“I’m remembering,” he croaks. “What happened earlier, I’m remembering.”
“Breathe, Cos.” Max rubs circles on Cosmo’s back.
“What happened earlier?" Alexis frowns. “What’s been going on?”
“Cosmo saw his father,” Donovan supplies. “He came out of the meeting looking like a zombie. Then we took him to a healer; he had a migraine or something.”
The pain inside Cosmo is not a migraine. “Tell me what you remember.” I keep my hand a couple of inches above the swirling smoke.
“It was, it was...” A shudder ripples through his skin. “It was…oh Gods.”
The room is silent, all of us waiting in dread to hear what horrors Cosmo has witnessed.
He turns his head towards Donovan. “Your parents were there, with Father.” Cosmo moves his eyes back to mine, “It’s blurry, but they had a child with them—a little girl.
She couldn’t have been more than three or four.
” His voice cracks. “They cut us both, and a hurricane of something flooded out of her into me.”
He coughs. “Fuck, I’m going to puke.”
Someone puts a bowl before him. Ludo.