Glow - Part Fifteen
This episode is part of a larger story, Soft Touch. If you haven’t yet, you can go back and read it from the beginning right here. The episode below is NSFW and contains mature content.
Soft, slow kisses travel down my inner forearm, until they reach my wrist and my fingers curl up.
The kisses make their way up into the palm of my hand, following my heart line, eventually going all the way to my thumb.
My fingers relax again, making more real estate for these lips to brush against. Intimate warmth does a slow roll down the length of my body, and I let out a quiet, shivering breath.
The kisses drift up my thumb. Gentle, precise attention paid to every joint and muscle. Then back to my wrist, over all the tendons there, before gliding to my fingers.
Am I awake, or still dreaming? I could probably tell by whether sunlight is filtering through my closed eyelids, or by what I can feel beneath me - bedding? blankets? - but the haze of sensation from whatever’s happening to my hand is too strong to let my brain focus on anything else. Each time I start to wonder, a kiss or a nibble sinks into my palm or my wrist, and I lose my train of thought immediately.
I do smell vetiver. That much I know. And with each kiss comes the pleasant tickle of a familiar, thick, well-groomed beard. But that actually doesn’t indicate whether I’m awake or dreaming. Aiden lives in my dreams, just as he lives in the real world.
Open your eyes, and you’ll be able to tell. It’s that easy…
But I don’t. If I do that, and I am dreaming, I might wake up. While I’m having trouble holding onto my thoughts, I definitely know that I don’t want this to stop.
I’m taking long, deep breaths. They seem to go directly to whichever place is beneath these soft, warm lips in a given moment. My whole arm is tingling, every cell of it charged up.
Floating in the world between sleep and wakefulness, I have no grasp of time, so I don’t know how long this goes on before I feel a big hand gently turn over my other arm. And now it’s all happening there, too, a mirror image of the sweet, decadent treatment I was getting on my left side. Lips pressed against my pulse.
Every brush of this mouth against me sends a message of love into my body.
I start to feel unknotted, serene, relaxed. All of my focus is fixated on the sensation rippling up into my body from the point of contact. Nothing exists beyond the bounds of it, so there’s nothing else to worry about. I’m melting into it, completely and fully. I’m aware that I’m smiling, though I don’t know when I started.
Every now and then the kisses stop, and I have the sense of being watched. But each time, just when I’m starting to regretfully think that whatever this is has come to an end, they start up again.
Warmth passes into me through each movement, each kiss and nibble.
The sensation swims up my arm, following the path of the mouth on my body. It lingers on the line of my collarbone, then begins spreading down my chest. Licking softly, tenderly down my sternum.
I part my legs a little - without thinking about it, a movement directly from my subconscious - and there’s another pause in the kisses.
Then there’s firm, sculpted muscle pressing gently against me, from my chest to my toes, settling over me like a warm blanket. A soft embrace, but full of heat. Accompanied by another drift of vetiver in my nose, a sweet scent-trail that I would follow anywhere.
I don’t open my eyes, but the smile on my face widens. I’d know this body in any state of consciousness. His weight, his strength, his warmth. Awake, dreaming, it doesn’t matter.
My Companion Plant.
Our bodies lay together for a moment, unmoving. Our lips meld together, too, but not in a kiss. More like Aiden is holding my mouth with his. He’s breathing like I am: slow, deep, dragging breaths.
His stomach against my stomach, his forehead against my forehead, his hips against my hips, the gentle tickle of his body hair - and then he’s gone again, and the kisses start back up, this time on my neck. My head rolls to the side, and I’m alternating between forgetting to breathe and taking long, heavy breaths that make me almost lightheaded with oxygen.
I’m being carried by waves of sweet sensations, a new one with each beat of my heart. The kisses move to my face. They brush against my cheeks, my nose, my temples, the corners of my smiling mouth.
The outflow of love from my heart starts to feel like a physical thing. Like if I opened my eyes, I could see it. I know that Aiden must hear it. Even if I’m dreaming, it must be reaching him in the real world.
He says that sometimes I sing. If that’s true, I’m singing with my entire self, right now.
The nibbles and kisses move all over my body, stopping on my thigh. Aiden’s hair falls forward and brushes lightly against my skin.
Now there are nimble fingers touching me, too, following his mouth everywhere it goes.
I get the sense of something being pent up in him, like it’s a battle to stay at this achingly slow pace, to not bite harder, move faster, lose grasp of his gentleness.
The only thought I can pull together is more, more, more, and it all feels so good, intimate enough to become almost abstract. Even as Aiden’s kisses start to turn hungrier and harder, they stay tender and loving, and he’s still going slow.
I’m floating above myself, spellbound, suspended in a dream of perfect feelings.
And then one long, slow lick of Aiden’s tongue on the only part of me he hasn’t touched yet snaps me right back into the physical world.
All at once, I realize just how much I’ve been responding to what he’s been doing.
A blazing, white-hot inferno of desire surges through my body, every cell of which Aiden has just spent who knows how long carefully and meticulously waking up.
My mind briefly whites out. My breath escapes in one heavy, shaking exhale.
A full-body shudder moves through me. The heat in my cheeks turns fiery enough to burn someone. I moan Aiden’s name before I know what I’m doing.
Whatever thin thread Aiden was holding himself back by snaps immediately.
He puts his hand where his mouth was, and I feel him move to lay down by my side, pressing himself up against me. Based on what I’m feeling, he’s just as turned on as I am, like I was the one doing this to him, and not the other way around.
I can hear him panting, sense his racing pulse.
Aiden brings our parted lips together again, then pushes his tongue into my mouth. I’m expecting a deep, searing kiss, but he keeps our mouths open. He touches only the tip of his tongue to mine.
At the same time, his fingers start to move, teasing me. The movements of his tongue sync up with the movements of his hand, creating an invisible current of heat and friction. A back-and-forth pulse that rolls down my body from my mouth, then back up again, over and over.
But not in a steady rhythm, and Aiden’s fingers stop now and then to roam to other places. I’m still being played with, tantalized, and he won’t go beyond that.
“Aiden,” I finally gasp, “Please...”
Apparently that’s all he needed to hear, because he pulls back as soon as I say it. He makes his way down my body again, leaving a trail of soft little bites in his wake - until he comes to a stop, and I let out a sharp, ragged exhale.
My fingers push into his glossy hair, my body burning so hot that I don’t understand how Aiden can keep his mouth on me, keep his hands gripping my thighs so tightly - but then I distantly hear something shatter and remember that he’s a Heliomancer, of course he can, and I’m so glad about that because, god, fuck, does this feel good…
And just like that, he stops, draws away.
I wait a second, in case he’s just taking a moment to tease me - but nothing happens.
Oh, my god, I can’t believe him, right now. What is he doing? It feels like he’s reaching over me for something - for the night table? I don’t know, I can’t think, and if he doesn’t get back over here soon I’m going to fucking scream with frustration.
I open my mouth to let out a hailstorm of profanity, but before I can say a single word, Aiden’s strong, warm hands take me by my hips, and flip me over.
He presses up against me, leans down over me, and puts his mouth to my ear. “Do you want to-?”
“Yes.”
Aiden flattens me to the bed.
It all becomes a blissful haze of sensation. I feel like I can barely breathe, but I know I’m gasping in huge, shaky breaths. I can’t hear the sounds escaping from my mouth over the thump of my own heartbeat, but somehow I can hear the ones coming from Aiden. His chest is against my back, his mouth to the nape of my neck, so I feel the vibration of his deep voice with every sound he makes.
He takes a fistful of my hair, pulls my head back, and kisses me. It’s a deep, intense kiss, smoldering hot.
I can feel myself starting to lose any semblance of control that I had left. Our mouths break apart as my body seizes up with pleasure, and I hear Aiden hiss through his teeth.
“Jamie,” he moans, directly into my ear, “You feel so good, I’m trying - trying not to-”
His words dissolve into a weighted, shuddering inhale.
“It’s okay,” I gasp, as waves of mounting ecstasy roll through my body. “I’m - I’m right there with you, I can barely stop myse-”
I break off mid-sentence, having finally opened my eyes.
My head is turned back towards Aiden, and his is bent down towards mine, so our gazes immediately lock together. I get a full look at the expression on his face.
My heart stops.
I had one hand wrapped around his bicep. Now, without meaning to, I sink my fingernails into it. Still staring right into his hazy, beautiful, love-drunk blue eyes.
Aiden lets out a breathless whimper, his eyebrows drawing together. His eyes flutter closed.
I know that there are only seconds left until he can’t take anymore. I feel it through all the language of his body, see it all happen on his face, hear it in the deep, husky sound that he lets out.
He goes over the edge, shivering and gasping, and takes me with him.
It feels like someone injected a life-altering dose of pure, concentrated pleasure into my every vein. I’m so lost in it that I don’t even hear the sounds that come from my mouth. Aiden muffles them by leaning down to kiss me again, like he wants to drink them in.
For a beautiful, perfect moment, I’m soaring.
My elbows slide out from under me. I collapse completely down into the sheets, and Aiden falls on top of me. He’s panting hard, right into my ear. Soft, residual little noises escaping with his breaths.
He’s heavy, but his weight feels good. I need something to hold me to earth, anyways.
I can’t tell who’s shaking harder, me or him. The waves of heat radiating from my cheeks feel powerful enough to singe the sheets, so they must be a ridiculous shade of crimson.
Aiden slowly lifts his head, gets a look at them, and growls out a low, affectionate, breathless laugh.
He rolls off of me - coaxing one last shudder out of my body with the movement - and lands by my side, still breathing hard.
“Good morning,” he purrs, leaning over to plant a sweet little kiss on my lips.
I burst into dazed laughter, my body still humming in that sublime way that only he can make happen.
“Oh my god, Aiden - what - what the hell…?”
He smiles at me, his face snuggled up close to mine on the rumpled bedding. He actually looks a little shy, somehow.
“I, um. Woke up before you, and you looked really cute. You must’ve kicked off all the blankets in your sleep, because nothing was on you, and... I didn’t mean for it to go that far, I was only gonna give you some kisses. I don’t know what happened, I just…” He shrugs his broad shoulders, biting his lip. “I just love you.”
I let out another staggered laugh. I try to lift my hand to his face, and discover that I still can’t move.
“You - you...” I stop to take a breath, to remember how to speak. “You, um - that - so, that was - I can’t even - oh, my fucking god - I’m, um...”
Aiden’s smile breaks into a full-on grin. The corners of his eyes crinkle up, and the rumble of his laugh meets my ears.
“This feels like a high form of compliment,” he says, and I press my face into the pillow, let out an embarrassed groan.
Snickering softly, Aiden gathers me up into his arms. My cheek ends up resting against his bicep, and I trace my fingers slowly over his chest, enveloped in his warmth. I can’t tell if he’s glowing from happiness, or from heliomancy, or both.
Every time I think I’ve reached the summit of loving him, I discover another trail to follow, a higher place to go.
~~~~
Very slowly, I start to absorb my surroundings.
We’re in Aiden’s room, in his bed. Flakes of half-melted snow rain flick gently against the windows, making a soft tapping sound. Some of them fall through the window that we left open.
Early, pale-blue light falls through the panes. The two mugs of tea we forgot on Aiden’s dresser last night are piles of glittering shards. Shimmering ceramic dust is still drifting down onto the floor.
I see it all as if from a distance. I’m still on the cloud of loving Aiden, relaxing peacefully in the heaven of our own making.
He brushes a kiss onto my wrist, then leads me to the shower.
The hot water on my skin guides me back towards real life. I let myself float down at my own pace. I think that Aiden is doing the same thing. My face is resting against his chest, and his hand is buried in my hair, holding me still.
We sway a little, in tandem, taking long breaths, descending from the place we just were together.
Eventually Aiden tucks a knuckle beneath my chin and tilts my face up, pushes a little kiss onto my lips. I make it last, and he smiles against my mouth, his fingertips trailing down my back.
“I love waking up with you,” I sigh, snuggling my face into his chest again. “Like - not just because of this morning. Every time.”
I can’t see his expression from here, but I know that he’s still smiling. “Yeah?”
“Mhm, I really…”
I fade off, suddenly deep in thought.
It occurs to me that we don’t have to dive directly into the conversation about moving in together. Like - it wouldn’t hurt for me to drop a hint or two, right?
Maybe it would. Maybe Aiden doesn’t want to move in with me, or with anyone, or just not yet. I don’t know. Sometimes I have to remind myself that we’ve only been together since the summer.
But the way Aiden touched me this morning, love imbued in every gesture and action and breath… it seems possible. That he would want that, too.
And this is a perfect opportunity to say something about it. I’m feeling so close to him right now, our souls so open to each other.
“I really love it,” I say slowly. “I wish we could wake up together every morning.”
There’s a silence. Aiden’s fingers pause in their movements against my spine. “Do you?”
“Yeah, I do.”
Another silence.
“Hm,” he says softly.
When I draw back, Aiden is looking down at me with thoughtful, searching blue eyes, which quickly blink away.
Just you wait, Companion Plant, I think, cuddling up against him again. This stuff makes me really nervous, but I’m gonna get there, one step at a time. I’m gonna work up the courage to ask you.
Unless he asks me, first. That - would be cool. I definitely wouldn’t hate that.
I sink into Aiden’s arms, taking deep, vetiver-scented breaths.
Beautiful, hopeful visions of the future arise in my mind with each and every one.
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