Through Fire

Chapter 3 - Wings

"You better," he growls with a chuckle as he kisses my chest, and I wrap my legs around his waist for leverage. Once in the shed, he lays me down on my back, across a work table. I love the way he looks at me when he's... in the mood. So captivatingly steady, filled with desire and all the love in his heart. He pauses to lean over me and push various tools and scraps of wood away from around me, and my own craving drives me to sit up against him slightly to run my hands over his bare chest. He gives a low groan in my ear as my touch glides over his slick skin, and I kiss and nip at his neck.

This boy drives me crazy.

---------------------------*-----------------------------

After our steamy moment on the work table, Roman and I hold one another lovingly, soaking up the bliss. The way he makes me feel... The way he returns those feelings...

It's the perfect amount and combination of everything. Every ounce of physical desire and pleasure is coupled with twice the amount of deep, deep love. It's the kind of love and relationship that I've only ever dreamed of, not really thinking I'd find it someday.

"I love you so much, Aleithea," he whispers into my hair as he sits up and holds me close on his lap. With my arms draped around his sweat-dazzled shoulders, I run my hands lovingly through his tousled locks.

"I love you, too, my Rome." His sigh heats my neck.

We sit like that on the work table for a long time, wordlessly relishing in each other's love through gentle touches and deep kisses, and the feel of just holding each other so close. All of our make-out sessions are like this, I can't even imagine what making love to Roman will be like when we decide it's time after we properly equip ourselves with protection.

It's an absolute dream being with someone who mirrors your every want, your every emotion. Through Roman, I've come to the conclusion that real relationships actually work when the two people in them want the same things. And so far, that's exactly how Rome and I are. He's grown to be everything to me... And for once in my entire life, I know and see and feel and trust that I've grown to be the same for him.

He's the vibrancy that lights a world that used to be dull and colorless. He's the spark that turns me into a giddy, hyper little thing, sick on the immense amounts of happiness that he makes me feel more often than not every day, and at the same time, he settles me with his own maturity.

Above all, he's my strength. Roman gives me so much confidence in everything I do nowadays. Though, it's not like I lacked a ton of confidence before him... He just strengthens it so much because of how comfortable I am with him, and from that, I'm more comfortable with everything I do. He centers me, grounds me in a wonderful way, and I lift him up.

He's my anchor, I'm his wings.

Naturally, after we hold and love each other for a while, Roman hoists me off the table to go for a refreshing dunk from the dock. I only protest because it eggs him on and makes him throw me farther into the water, which is awesome when you're expecting it. I make him toss me in a good couple times whenever we come swimming here.

Thoroughly cooled off and dripping wet, we set to work on placing the boards Roman had cut onto the skeleton of the canoe. I set and hold the panels, and he hammers them to the frame. I'm freaking lucky to have been paired with him- not just for the obvious reason- because he really knows what he's doing with this measuring-and-building stuff. When I ask him where he learned to be so handy, since I knew his dad was never a positive presence in his life, he tells me that most of it comes from his grandfather, Amy's dad, and some of it comes from Rob.

As we work, he tells me a lot of cool things about Papa Spade. He tells me he flew planes in the Vietnam War, and how he built his mom's house from the ground up with his sons, Roman's uncles. I realize as I listen to him tell about how amazing his grandfather is, while he hammers the sheet of balsa wood I hold steady, how much Papa Spade means to him. It makes me really want to meet the man.

"I think we'll only have to come down here a couple more times, this thing's almost done."

"Lucky us, we're close to being out of balsa wood," I add with a chuckle as I wipe my brow and take a look at the grassy yard surrounded by steep hills. It was getting pretty late in the day, the sun was low and the shadows were long.

Roman chuckles. "I know what I'm doing, thank you. Just look at our mighty craft, babe." I nudge the side of the light-weight wood structure we have going.

"Are you sure it's going to hold both of us? That's one of the requirements, hon." I like it when he calls me pet names, I do. But babe's probably my least favorite after 'baby.' I absolutely love it when he calls me darlin'. His favorite to use is 'my angel,' though.

"Trust me when I say yes, for the fifth time."

"Just making sure. Let's call it a day, Rome, you're starting to get some color." I approach him, pressing my finger against his rosy bare shoulder to leave a stark white line that fades back to red.

"Damn it..."

The poor guy has such a fair complexion; he's already been burnt several times throughout the summer. He absolutely hates sun burns. But he hates sun screen even more, and is way, way, way too stubborn to use any, ever. I stopped feeling bad for him after the last silly argument we got into about easy skin protection. Now I just do a lot of brief I-told-you-so's, relish in me being right, and then rub aloe on my lobster. I even fan him with a book, that lucky bull-headed boy.

Roman drags the canoe-in-progress to the shed, stowing it in its usual back corner where no one really pays any mind to it as I pick up the unused sheets of balsa wood and tools to stow them on a vacant shelf. This shed's here for anyone to use... so we've been snapping pictures of our progress just in case the random hooligan or three decide to be assholes and mess with our project. We'll just have to filter through the silly kissing pictures and the like if it ever comes down to that.

We're soon bumping down the road back to camp, where we had parted ways with Sage before going to Mazie's so I could wish my dad a happy birthday. He took his dad's jeep back home to begin his own project with his AP Physics partner for a few days, he wasn't due back to camp until later in the week. It was weird not having our group of three all the time... but it was still nice to be just Roman and me. Plus we didn't have to make excuses to disappear together, though Sage isn't stupid. He doesn't care, anyway.

A particularly deep pothole causes me to wince, and Roman looks over at me as I press my hand against the lowest part of my abdomen.

"What? What is it?" I think he's a tad on the overprotective side. But I kind of like that.

"You... have to be the tiniest bit gentler next time, sweets," I chuckle, my face screwing up at the tenderness of my lady parts. His hand moves to hold my legs where they sit tucked up on the seat.

"I'm sorry," he whispers, and he pulls me closer to give me a kiss, "You wind me up so much, I just get... excited," he laughs, rubbing the outside of my thigh lovingly as I wrap my arms around his. His head drops against mine as I lay it on his shoulder.

"Don't be sorry," I chuckle, kissing his neck, "You're perfect."