Bittersweet (Book #1 Evening Wings Trilogy)

Chapter 22

22

It was Friday.

I threw my duffel bag onto my bed shuffling over to my dresser. I yanked a pair of pajamas, a few camisoles and band T-shirts, an unspecified number of dark wash jeans and my toiletries into the familiar duffel bag.

Then I kicked the bag to the floor, kicking off my jeans and shirt, the attachment that refused to go away fluttering out around me. It seemed darker green in some places at the bottom and it sparkled faintly. I rolled my curls into a messy chopstick bun and swept my towel around my body. Then I trudged to the bathroom.

When my skin was clean, the droplets glistening like diamonds against my skin, I slipped into my bedroom, toweling hastily before pulling on a gray sweater and a pair of jeans. I tugged a pair of funky sapphire low-heeled boots out of my closet and picked up a wide toothed comb from my dressing table, to somehow manage my extra springy curls and roll it into a neat bun.

When I was finished, I opened my cell phone, and pressed the number one button. Zaria picked up the phone on the third ring.

“Hey Liz,” she said cheerfully.

“Hey,” I said, more halfheartedly. “I’m leaving right now.”

“Kay,” she chirped.

“See you later,” I said, but she had already hung up.

I picked up my duffel bag and headed downstairs, picking up my key fob from the entry table and closing the front door behind me. I pushed the house key into the lock and jiggled it to lock it properly.

I heard a faint passage above my head and a half second before it disappeared, my head snapped up. I could feel my eyes zeroing in on the offender, my body tensing for battle.

A desultory chuckle greeted me from above, and it was only then did I notice Xander perched, like an archangel of the sorts, on the roof. A sprinkle of snow fell and melted on my nose, but I was too busy staring at him to notice.

“Hey,” he said weakly, breaking the silence.

“Hey,” I said with a deep throbbing of remorseful longing beating far inside me.

He swooped down off the roof to land behind me, and I watched as his gorgeous wings folded into the porcelain like skin of his spine. He showed no pain whatsoever, but his eyes were soft and full of the longing I too shared.

His midnight colored hair flopped lazily over his ears and eyes, just reaching beyond the nape of his neck, and had I not understood the mesmerizing supremacy of his eyes, I would have yearned to see them.

My eyes skimmed over the jeans he wore low on his waist with the very familiar all black canvas sneakers on his feet. His chest was bare, his muscles toned and well sculpted and was a strange contrast to the wintry atmosphere. He shook his head of hair and his eyes glinted underneath the charcoal strands.

“I had to get away…” he tried to explain.

“I know,” I replied.

He gave me a gaze that made my bones feel like sponge and my blood like warm cider. His irises swirled a multifaceted ocean of blue under an eclipse of pure obsidian pupil. He walked over to me slowly, carefully, his eyes measuring my stance, his shoes crunching the ice on the ground. Then he leaned toward me, just enough that I felt his sultry breath on my lips, his long hair on the bridge of my nose. His lips to mine, an explosion of sultry tastes that I could not identify. All I knew was that it tasted like him and that was good enough for me.

He crushed me to his chest and my fingers smoothed against the skin of his chest. Xander’s lips were slow building but harsh against mine. As if he had longed for my presence—a desiccated man feeling the scorching, torrid burn of the desert, going without water for miles.

His hand slipped down to the small of my spine, closing me into his body like a wild predator. As my arms wrapped around his neck, I felt his muscles ripple and a thirsted moan escape his lips. It was quickly hushed by my own, kissing his sorrow away.

Only for a moment.

His hands braided into my hair, fingers loosening it from my bun so the straight ends fell down, splaying over my spine and chest. Still, he refused to remove his unyielding lips from mine.

I knew that all too soon, this moment would end.

A world of constant pain and regret would crash down on me once more. Yet, I refused to think of that now because his kisses were deeper, more intimate.

A slight tear rolled down my cheek, an orb of uncertainty, and splashed his lips. I had to face the fact that he was still not mine, even though I wanted him and he wanted me. Like a storm cloud penetrating a perfect day, Naida rolled back into my thoughts. Her innocent beauty was like a mask hiding the evil she contained. Whatever spell she had cast on Xander would be broken—I was sure of it.

The cadence of my lips moving with his faltered, breaking away with a heavy gasp. He rested his forehead against mine, his hair once again brushing the skin of my nose, his swirling blue eyes staring deep inside me, as if to see directly into my soul. He no longer seemed weak and fragile, for there was a certain air upon him that had not been there afore.

“I’ve missed you,” he said, his piquant breath fanning across my lips.

His thumb brushed across my cheek, littered with droplets of scattered tears. Oh how I had missed him, yearned for him.

“I’ve missed you too,” I admitted, feeling the truth sparkling beneath my eyes.

I reached up to cup his face with my hands, enjoying the feel of his smooth skin under the soft membranes, closing my eyes to savor the moment.

“Xander,” I began my voice soft and barely recognizable. “I don’t know what I’m going to do when you’re gone… to her again.”

He sighed. “I really wish it didn’t have to be this way, but she’ll kill me if…”

“If?”

“If I don’t give her what she wants.” He sighed. “I’ve never really known Naida. I was familiar with her because she gave me what I wanted… she was a silly, unknowing Seelie girl with an infatuation for the dark side, and I gave her to them. I’ve regretted doing that for years now…”

He closed his eyes as the guilt and deemed sorrow seemed to grapple us.

I closed my eyes and wallowed in our silence.

“We’ll get through this,” I determined. “I will save you Xander.”

“I hope so,” he said softly, ducking to press his lips to mine once more.