Shine - Part Two
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.
Ralph must have stopped by City Hall like I suggested, because I can tell the moment I lay eyes on Aiden that he already knows what happened.
He’s walking slowly and silently up the road from the bus stop, one hand resting on the strap of his work bag where it falls across his broad chest. His blue eyes are thoughtful and distracted, but there’s a small, subtle smile turning up his lips.
His shirt is open at the neck, the topmost buttons undone.
I watch him from the entrance of the green passage, amazed all over again at how just the sight of him can take my heart and hold it fast like this. I find myself staring at him with my fingers pressed tightly over my mouth.
Aiden looks up and sees me, comes to a stop. I remember abruptly what I’ve been waiting to talk to him about all day.
He’s got his brothers back.
As soon as my eyes meet his, we both break into matching, relieved, radiant smiles. Aiden huffs out a soft laugh as he comes over to me. He ruffles my hair, then drops his head to press a kiss onto the top of mine. I lock my arms around him, breathing in vetiver.
“Thank fucking god,” Aiden sighs, his shoulders drooping in relief. “I’ve been trying to listen all day, but it’s hard to pick out specific notes, and last night they were both on such a rollercoaster that I could barely keep up. It just sounded like - a lot, if that makes sense.”
“Yeah, well, it was a lot,” I mutter, and Aiden laughs again.
I close my eyes, savoring the sweet, huffing laughter in my ears. How full and deep and quiet it is. I hold Aiden a little tighter.
“You know what?” I tilt my head back to look up at him. “I think those two can worry about themselves for a bit. In fact, I think this is where we leave things up to Raj and Mel and Calla.”
“Yeah, I think so,” Aiden says firmly, and my laughter mingles with his as I take his hand to draw him into the passageway.
Flocks of birds are coming back as spring ripens, leaving feathers in the garden, singing in the mornings. But at night, we're starting to hear the soft chirping of crickets. I can hear them now, mixed in with the whispering of the leaves.
Aiden and I walk slowly in the warmth of the lights that Noah put in, our fingers intertwined. Grateful for a moment of calm and quiet together.
I intend to shatter that in a second or two, but it’s nice, so I let it go on a little longer than I planned. I glance up at Aiden’s unsuspecting face, biting back a smile.
“Nobody better need us tonight, man.” Aiden lifts my hand to his mouth, brushes a kiss onto my knuckles. “I want some time alone with you. I know we live together, but-”
“God, same. Actually, I had some thoughts about what we should do tonight.” I shrug at Aiden. “Just an idea. You can say no.”
Aiden’s blue eyes drop to look down at me. Smiling, waiting.
I stop, turn around, and seize a tight fistful of Aiden’s dress shirt. I wrench him down close to me, then hold him there, so I can speak right into his ear.
Aiden listens as I pour out my soft, whispered words. His cheeks slowly begin to turn crimson. He’s blinking rapidly, dark eyelashes fluttering. I feel his pulse pick up and begin to race beneath my hand.
I draw back, smile up at him innocently, and pop a kiss onto his nose. Then I set off for the house again, now walking at a brisk pace.
Aiden blinks at me, startled, then lets out an indignant laugh and rushes after me.
“Are you f-? Keane! You can’t just say that! Get back here!”
“Say what?” I ask, casting a bright smile at him over my shoulder, picking up my speed.
“Oh, don’t you dare,” Aiden laughs, easily catching me just inside the door. He closes it after us, then pushes me up against it. “Talk like that was getting you somewhere, you know.”
I bite my lip, smiling up at him. “Was it? Well, in that case.”
I lean up to speak in Aiden’s ear again, this time stroking my fingertips up and down the smooth, supple skin of his neck. His breath hitches, and he starts slowly moving closer to me. I let him, although I back up until the door stops me.
When Aiden has his palms flat on the door on either side of my head, I stop speaking, draw back, and kiss him.
I have just a second to see the red-hot, sparkling glow coming to life in his eyes before I close mine. I tease his parted lips further open, then slip my tongue into his mouth.
Aiden grasps me by the back of my neck, sinking us even deeper into the kiss. Pressing his body against mine in maddeningly slow, teasing, movements. I find myself reciprocating, our clothes and hair getting all fucked up as our hands start to steal through them. Pathways of goosebumps race up my arms, my pounding heart stumbling.
Heat and electricity build and burn around our breathless bodies. I can almost feel it rolling off the both of us as we lose ourselves in each other. Smoking from Aiden’s skin, and from mine. The air between us is teeming with it.
It’s a serious effort to stop myself, but I break off the kiss, seal it with a hard, sudden bite on Aiden’s lip. He inhales sharply, his already crimson cheeks blushing deeper. Then he blinks as I slip out from his arms and head for the stairs.
“What-?” Aiden races up the stairs behind me, his eyes huge with indignance. “Jamie!”
Tempting Fate, I think to myself, and suppress a laugh.
I can’t help it. Sometimes I love to make Aiden get wild. Get him so worked up and desperate that when he’s unleashed he practically explodes - then simply place myself in his hands, and let him do whatever he wants with me.
Earth feels a whole lot like heaven, when that happens. Amazing, all the different ways Aiden can make things feel like that for me. This is one of many. One of my favorites, though.
I think my strategy is working, because Aiden lets out a growl of agonized frustration as he catches me. He spins me around and presses me up against the wall of the upstairs hallway, his eyes two flames hot enough to burn blue.
“Kiss me like that again and see what happens,” he warns me, his rich voice already starting to turn all rough and husky.
I look up at him with glowing eyes, bite my lip, and drop my hungry gaze to his mouth. I break into a little smile before I lean up and kiss him like that again.
This time I don’t hold anything back. I’m helpless to, anyways. I sink into Aiden’s arms, winding mine around his neck.
Heat is accumulating in my heart and spilling out through my every vein. My breaths are cut up, and I’m gripping two tight handfuls of Aiden’s soft, glossy hair. Something is awake in my chest, panting within me.
I suck in a sharp breath as Aiden’s roving hand finds me straining against my jeans. He stops, his breath catching, and drags his thumb up and down slowly. I hear myself start panting against his mouth.
Desire slides like warm syrup over my limbs and down my body, then - detonates into wildfire flames all at once. Suddenly it’s unbearable how bad I want Aiden, so I can only hope that I already got him to where I wanted -
Without warning, Aiden lifts me off of my feet and slings me over his shoulder like a caveman. He strides the rest of the way to our bedroom, his free hand undoing the buttons of his shirt as he goes.
I let out a little happy laugh, and Aiden roughly throws me down on our bed.
Before I can even bounce on the mattress, he’s flattened himself on top of me, kissing me hard and deep, crushing me with his weight. I moan softly into his mouth, my cheeks scaldingly hot, my entire body seeming to leap towards him at once. I clutch tightly to his biceps, come up from the kiss gasping.
My hands instinctively move to wrench his shirt the rest of the way off. Aiden falls back and stands up again, letting his shirt drop to the floor. He stands there looking at me for a moment, his chest rising and falling fast, his pupils huge, eyes on fire. Shimmering Guardian light glows softly from his skin.
He takes a handful of my shirt and tugs on it.
“Off,” he growls, then goes to shut the door of the bedroom, kicking off his shoes on the way.
I instantly toss aside my Converse and my socks, but that’s as far as I get before Aiden gets back to the bed and decides to do the rest for me. He has my shirt over my head in seconds, my belt buckle undone. He bends down to kiss me deeply again as he unzips my jeans. His warm hand slips beneath my boxers for a teasing moment, drawing a gasp from me before he pulls both my boxers and my jeans away with a swift, hard tug.
Then I’m on my back on the sheets, looking up at him, shivering with desire and anticipation. Breathing hard.
Aiden stops to stare at me again, looking like pure seduction, his chestnut hair all fucked up, blue eyes glazed over with heat. He sucks in a sharp breath through his teeth as his eyes roam over my body.
He gets himself out of his own clothes. I watch with huge, hungry eyes as the moonlight slides over his taut muscles, the rippling movement of his ribs beneath his bronze skin, those divots at his hips, and wow, does my body react to the sight.
Aiden staggers the rest of the way out of his boxers, like he can’t wait any longer. He drops down between my parted thighs and crushes our mouths together in a fierce, urgent, fiery kiss. Working his bare body against mine, sinking me down into the mattress.
An immense surge of mind-numbing pleasure whites everything out for a second, and my head falls to the side. Aiden buries his face into my exposed neck, then gives me a hard, sharp bite, rolling his hips against me.
I let out a little cry that melts into a moan. Aiden shudders when he hears it, lets out a stuttering rush of breath into my neck. The pulsing heat between our two bodies is growing stronger and more all-consuming with each passing second. Aiden is so tensed and rigid with desire that I can feel the drumming of his pulse anywhere I put my trembling hands.
Every nerve and cell of my body is increasingly, desperately peaked towards him.
I could nearly cry with frustration when Aiden pulls away, but then he drops his head between my parted knees, wraps his huge hands around my thighs. The protests I had lined up dissolve into a sharp gasp, my hands flying up to tangle in Aiden’s hair.
He’s relentless, when he does this. He knows exactly what to do to make my body jolt, to make me gasp and pant and hold tight to his hair. He’ll do it over and over again until I’m practically writhing in the bed, my entire body throbbing, my breaths stumbling over each other. He’ll keep going until I’m helpless, in a frenzy, like he could keep me constantly high on that feeling for however long he wants.
Torturous. Excruciating. Perfect.
I try to prop myself up on my elbows to watch Aiden. I get one glimpse, then let out a ragged sound and fall flat onto my back again. Aiden lifts his head, begins brushing nibbling kisses up the sensitive skin of my inner thighs. My muscles all twitch desperately wherever his mouth goes, and he knows it. I feel him smiling against me between each lick and bite and sucking little kiss.
I let out a soft, begging whimper.
Aiden draws back and takes a long look at me, blue eyes blazing. I sit up, staring at him with pleading eyes, breathing hard and fast, my legs still spread apart.
He stares back at me, then suddenly surges forward, takes a fistful of my hair, and wrenches my head back. I’m locked into a deep, searing kiss for a breath-stealing moment.
Then I’ve been flipped over onto my stomach before I can so much as blink. My breath picks up even more as Aiden presses me down flat into the bed. He slowly drags a fingertip all the way down the length of my spine. I feel it trace down my back like a line of little flames. I shiver hard, aching for him so badly that it hurts.
I lift my hips to Aiden, and he grips them tightly in his huge, warm hands. His thumbs stroke the dimples on my lower back, his touch saturated with love.
Silence sweeps over the moonlit bedroom, aside from the sound of our mingled, hard breathing. My breath breaks into tight, short gasps, and then a shuddering cry escapes from my throat. Aiden lets out a sharp rush of breath, followed by a soft, half-moaned curse.
My fingers hold tight to the bedding. My body is trembling, my vision blurred with pleasure, my toes curling. I gasp again as Aiden rocks teasingly against me, then let out a sharp, thin cry as he begins to move. Rough, hard movements.
His bronze skin slides against mine, streaked with a light sheen of sweat. The heat of him is all over me, as if his hands are stroking me and teasing me everywhere. I’m twisting and rearing beneath him, helpless to stop myself, but his heavy body easily keeps me pinned in place.
A deep, husky groan of pleasure rises up from his throat and resonates through me. I turn my head, then choke on my breath when I catch an eyeful of the sight. Aiden’s slightly open mouth, his closed eyes, his eyebrows knitted and drawn up. His chest is heaving against my back, so I can feel every ripple that rolls through his muscles as he moves.
“Aiden,” I moan, then gasp when I feel the jolt of pleasure my single whimpering word sent through him.
A bolt of Heliomancer lightning flashes past my hazy vision. Then another.
I can hear Aiden’s breaths growing deep and fast. I push my hips up against his, and he gasps out a sharp curse, then starts to go faster, harder.
I’m panting hard into the bedding, lost in pure ecstasy. Fighting hard not to let myself go over the edge just yet. Not sure how much longer I can stop myself. Feeling myself spread my legs more to feel him better, which doesn’t slow me down at all. But I’m helpless to stop myself.
I turn my head and bury my face in the sheets to smother the moaned words torn from my mouth. “Oh my god, Aiden - oh - my god-”
Aiden must have heard me anyways. I feel his pulse instantly kick and stutter. He hisses through his teeth, then suddenly takes my jaw in his hand. He turns my head, leans in, and melts his mouth against mine, fusing our lips together. A rough kiss, intense and deep and white-hot. Not slowing down at all, but speeding up, rocking us back and forth.
Sending me flying to the top of the unstoppable tidal wave of ecstasy that had been building in me. I’m moaning and gulping with every single movement of Aiden’s hips, and he’s starting to shiver uncontrollably, Heliomancer lightning snapping and sparking over us again, the heat of him unbelievable -
I cry out into Aiden’s mouth, my back arching, my body convulsing and spasming with heart-stopping pleasure. He gasps instantly, lets out a deep, hoarse groan, and locks our bodies together. I moan beneath him, lights exploding before my eyes, my body trembling violently from head to toe.
After a stunned, silent moment, I lift my head to look at Aiden. We gaze into each other’s eyes, shivering and speechless.
Aiden gently eases us apart, then lets his weight down onto me. I let out a long, slow exhale, then smile into the rumpled sheets, cozying up beneath him. Listening to his ragged, happy breaths in my ear. I nuzzle my nose into his arm, and he unfolds it for me automatically, letting out a dazed laugh.
“You’re cute now, huh?” he stammers breathlessly. “You were giving me one hell of an evil smile before, Little Demon.”
I let out an affectionate laugh, and Aiden lets one out too when I reach back to stop him from rolling off of me.
I close my eyes, soaking in that sweet huffing sound. The heat of him, a nighttime sunbath in my bed.
Here my heart is again, flying thousands of feet above the place where it thought the unreachable part of the sky began.
Aiden turns onto his side next to me, hesitates, then reaches out and gently turns me over. He traces his fingertips slowly up my chest as my breath begins to even out. Then down to the line of red body hair on my lower stomach, which he smooths his fingertips over.
Even now, I feel myself lifting to his touch. Aiden smiles, the corners of his eyes crinkling up as I reach over to stroke my knuckles over his chiseled, stubbled jaw. Some of his chestnut hair has fallen forward into his face. He peeks out at me from behind it, suddenly -
Shy?
This comes as a surprise, given what just happened. I stare at Aiden, then lift a questioning eyebrow.
He hesitates, bites his lip. Silence falls over us for a long moment as Aiden tries to find the words he wants. I take him in my arms and wait, letting our shared warmth flow back and forth between us. Watching him glow. The crickets chirp softly in the garden outside.
“Jamie, living with you-” Aiden suddenly blurts out, then stops, struggling. “I just - want to tell you, so far it’s been - it’s - and I’m not just saying this because of-”
He gestures to our rumpled-up bed, our naked and intertwined bodies.
“Not just because of that,” he goes on hastily, wincing, blue eyes increasingly fretful. “Although - that’s definitely a part of it, um - maybe this was the - the wrong time to bring this up…”
Aiden fades off, looking at me with obvious alarm, apparently afraid that he’s done something wrong. He takes a deep breath, blushing and self-conscious and unsure.
“I’m - I’m just trying to say - that - living here with you, for me, it’s already been, like - I…”
Aiden stops, looking helpless and mortified, his cheeks reddening.
“I love you,” he mumbles awkwardly, avoiding my eyes. “S’just… yeah.”
I stare at Aiden, a smile slowly turning up my mouth and spreading from cheek to cheek. Oh, god. I can’t believe how embarrassed he gets when he can’t put what he’s trying to tell me into words. I know he wishes that this was easier for him. But it does something to my heart to watch him doggedly and stubbornly try as hard as he can, making such a fierce effort to get it right - for me.
It’s amazing how he doesn’t realize that most of the time he doesn’t even need to struggle like that. Aiden has some instinctive, deep knowledge when it comes to communicating while using no words at all. It’s an implicit gift that he has, and he’s exceptional at it. He can talk to me in realms beyond words. He speaks in feelings.
He can tell me anything he needs to with the look in his eyes, with the way his hand touches me, with the way he kisses me. I can’t even count up all the beautiful things that Aiden has told me through closed lips.
And I know what he’s trying to tell me right now.
My heart full to bursting, I wrap myself around my Companion Plant and kiss his nose. He looks at me uncertainly, a little shamefaced, his cheeks still deep crimson.
“Yeah,” I sigh happily. “I feel the same way.”
Aiden blinks, staring at me, then huffs out a very quiet laugh. His blue eyes flood with relief. He hides his face in my neck, his stubble tickling me.
I laugh, winding my arms around him.
“We’re singing,” Aiden murmurs, smiling against my neck.
I close my eyes, bury my nose in his messy hair.
Things have been wild, lately. Aiden and I have been busy, dealing with hectic thing after hectic thing. But for me, everything always comes back to this. This is what’s always at the center. What my heart is always turned towards, no matter what I’m doing or where I’m going, like the point of a compass.
My roots, my anchor, my foundation. My safe haven, my home. My Companion Plant.
My Aiden.
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