Exhale

Chapter 31: Sweets

A big shoutout to @nacho for helping me write. <3







The next day, 5:00 am

Zuri

I took a deep breath and another. Marley didn't come home after school yesterday, and she didn't text.

I take another deep breath and let it out. I just wish she wouldn't do this; isn't she tired of Vicky?

I open my eyes to the realization that I'm not going back to sleep. I look at the clock on the wall above the fish tank. It's five in the morning, and I turn on my right side to find Roman inches away from me.

Maybe sharing the pull-out bed was a mistake. His chest rises and falls so slowly. He deserves so much, putting up with Mars and me. It hasn't even been three months, but it feels like he was meant to be here.

This past year, I couldn't figure out what that was or who.

I reach out to him, my hand resting on the side of his face, caressing his cheek, and a low hum escapes him.

I whisper as low as I can, moving my head closer to his lips.

"I'm bothered by everything lately, and I'm scared for the first time in a long while. I don't know what will happen next."

Part of me wants to be done with everything; this feeling of uncertainty is overwhelming.

I slowly pull my hand away, turning on my left side.

It'd been five hours since we stood on the balcony, the sound of rain started hitting the windows, and the smell of wet pavement swept through the balcony door.

I was about to get up and close it when I felt an arm slide under my pillow before I could sit up. My head hit the pillow, and he pulled me closer, resting his face in the nape of my neck.

"Leave it." His voice is low and raspy. He wraps his right arm around me, pulling me closer,

"The floor!-"Will be fine."

He interrupts, trailing kisses along my jaw. He pulls me in closer, fully spooning me now.

"Sleep." He sighs, resting his head on my pillow.

I turned around to face him, "We have to get up soon anyway."

He takes a deep breath, letting me get comfortable. I lay my head down, looking up at him. He rested his arm around my waist, pulling me closer.

"You waited until I was asleep to open up. Do you think I'm tired of you?" He ran his fingertips up and down my back, tracing infinites at the base of my spine.

He's never stared at me with so much need before.

"I don't want all our moments to become sour. No more drama or anything that isn't us." I wrap my arms around him, pulling myself closer. He grins, batting those thick eyelashes.

I slowly pick my leg up, wrapping it around him, his smile drops, and his eyes get hazy.

"Your sexiness can't distract me from your feelings. I will never see your fear or worry as drama. I'm not gonna pretend to know what'll happen next, but you don't have to face it alone. You have me and Mars, your mom, and Jack."

I roll my eyes, "I know." Every time he says something like that, I fall harder. My hands entangled in his hair, not once did he take his eye off me, and I felt a tight squeeze on my thigh.

When I jumped in surprise, he chuckled. I gripped his hair in one hand, pulling his head back slowly. His grip on me tightens, and I repay his many kisses from earlier.

His breathing heaved, and I feel him growing as he presses himself into me. Before I could kiss him, he pinned me beneath him, his hands above my head.

He stares at me more intently than before. "Do you know? I mean, really. I need you to stop pretending."

I feel myself sink into the mattress, the sudden weight of his words pinning me down. "Pretending?"

"Stop pretending to understand, no more 'I know' or 'I'll be alright,'" he says, his voice dropping to a soft, rough whisper. He reaches out, his thumb gently tracing my cheekbone. "I need you to hear me, sweets."

"I hear you." I let out a sigh of surrender, letting that part of my defenses slip away.

Reaching up, I cup his face, my palms catching the warm, familiar line of his jaw. As I pull him down toward me, he hesitates for a fraction of a second. He looks at me with a tenderness so raw it gives me butterflies, clearly trying to keep himself in check, before he finally lets his lips fall on mine.

The kiss starts incredibly soft, a sweet and cautious brushing of lips that feels like a quiet relief. But as he deepens it, the underlying gravity of how much he cares breaks through. It is a slow, melting heat—deliberate and intoxicatingly thorough. 

He lets his weight lean into me, a heavy, anchoring comfort that presses me gently into the mattress, making me feel completely safe and entirely enveloped by him. He kisses me as if I am the most fragile thing in the world, yet with a quiet desperation that shows he cannot let go.

With a soft, reluctant hum against my mouth, he pulls away just enough to breathe. He rolls to his side on the mattress, but the distance lasts only a heartbeat. He hooks his hand beneath my knee, tenderly guiding my leg up around his waist to pull me right back against him. 

His strong arm wraps securely around my middle, tucking me flush against his chest so there is no space left between us.

Holding me close, he rests his chin against the top of my head, his chest rising and falling in a steady, calming rhythm. He tilts his face down, planting a row of soft, lingering kisses across my forehead and into my hairline. 

Each press of his lips is light and sweet, but he leaves them there for a long moment, his warm breath fanning over my skin—a silent, heavy promise that he is right here, and he isn't going anywhere.

.

.

I was so scared to take it there. 

Any Thoughts?

See you later.