by Jennie Dah
“Yeah, why don’t you keep her tonight and we’ll all decide what to do with her in the morning?” Charlie says hopefully. I'd like to see anyone try to take her from me.
“No doubt about it. She’s staying with me until she decides otherwise,” I grunt. Not that she will. I’ll do everything it takes to make her want to stay with me forever.
“I don’t think so. She should be in the hospital,” Owen says still trying to take her from me.
What the hell is his problem? I glare at him and he glares back. Something soft brush against my mind making me frown. I look around the room but no one’s looking my way or paying me any attention now. I try to figure out who might be trying to speak to me but I don’t find anyone around.
I jump slightly in my seat when it happens again and everyone glances at me with weird looks. This time when the thing brushes against my mind again it just slips through straight in and my head feels as if it’s been stuffed with cotton and then the feeling clears and my whole body feels like I’m floating on a cloud. It feels like I could easily float out of my seat right now.
I try to brush the feeling away but it clings to my mind like it’s always been there. I look down at the woman sleeping in my arms, more than a little spooked. What the hell? What is she? What’s her story anyway? I need to get out of here before they realize my predicament. I feel drunk already.
My body feels so damn sluggish. The guys seem to be involved in some kind of argument but I can’t seem to make myself pay attention. I have to get out of here. I look around desperately for a way to get out unnoticed but my mind doesn’t seem to be working.
In fact it has been rendered useless. I can’t believe this. I blow out a breath and fix my hold on Celia. I don’t want to hurt her in my current state. I’m the more experienced one at this but right now it feels like this is my first psyche merge. What the hell am I saying? This is my first merge. I didn’t think my first merge would feel this good or that I would be this useless when it happened.
“I'm taking her back to my place. I’ll see you in the morning.”
I get up holding Celia securely in my arms hoping I don’t drop her. Owen steps in front of me and I snarl at him. Michael pushes him back away from me. With what little functioning brain cells I still possessed, I teleport us to my cottage and take her up the stairs to one of the other bedrooms. I’d have loved to sleep with her in my arms but I don’t want to freak her out so we’ll just work towards that.
I set her down and pull the covers over her. I notice that her feet are smudged with dirt so I get a bowl of warm water and a washrag from the bathroom and set about cleaning her feet.
She sighs at the feel of the warm rag on her feet but doesn’t wake. I try once again to separate my mind from hers but no such luck. The feelings of euphoria intensifies and my vision grows fuzzy. I curse and try to forcefully rip my mind from hers but I rear back with a hiss at the shot of pain that shoots through my head.
Clutching a hand to my head, the pain quickly disappears and euphoria washes through my body once more. I sigh and look down at her. She looks so peaceful and fragile, like she could break with the slightest pressure.
I brush a hand down her cheeks and they feel so damn soft like nothing I’ve ever touched before. Might be the feelings rushing through me but I’m not so sure. She looks so innocent like the very source of the purest light. And damn can she talk. I smile at the thought.
I clean her up quickly, well as quickly as I can with my mind feeling like a marshmallow and then dispose of the dirty water. I head into my bedroom and go into the bathroom to take a quick shower to wash the day away.
Grabbing a towel from the rack, I wrap it around my hips and fall into bed exhausted. I really should get up and put some pants on but I feel so damn sleepy. My body finally succumbs to sleep and hopefully when I wake up the merge will dissolve. Hopefully.
Chapter 5
MAKAFUI
I wake up to the sun streaming into my room and I sigh contentedly snuggling deeper into the covers chasing the warmth they are exuding. My covers smell divine too like I’m back home but I know very well that I’m not.
I should really get up and head to class. I groan in satisfaction, stretch my arms above my head arching my back, kicking my legs out. I still when my legs connect with something warm and hairy.
I don’t have a dog or a cat so what the hell is in my bed?
My roommate must have let her cat into my room again. One of these days she’s really going to hear it from me or I could just cook the thing and be done with it. It does look like it’ll taste good with light soup and kokonte. My gums tingle at the thought and my stomach growls softly.
My eyes pop open and I feel my heart sink. I bolt up in the bed and look around. A bed that’s obviously not mine. I look up at the beautiful ceiling and there’s no way this is my roommate’s room either.
Oh my God. I didn’t go home with some strange man, did I? I’ve been feeling strange lately and I’ve been waking up in really strange places too. I hadn’t thought anything of it because I usually wake up in some strange part of the house. But this is definitely not the dorm apartment I share with my very weird roommate.
I look around but nothing looks familiar. I gingerly touch my face then trail it down to my chest while biting my lips in trepidation at what I’ll find. I sag in relief when I touch my shirt and blow out a loud breath. I push the covers away from my legs and find my legs in soft strange blue pants that I know I do not own.
I search my body for any sign of aggression but nothing. I do feel a little sore but thankfully my vagina is fine which means I didn’t lose my virginity to some useless pimpled face pasty white skinned boy.
“Ahemm!!” someone says loudly and I jump clutching the sheets to my chest. My heart is thumping so damn hard in my chest, it heaves with the force of my breaths. I scramble away from him and feel my back connect with the headboard.
“Who the hell are you?” I ask my voice breaking.
The man in my bed well I guess it his bed, stares at me with a little frown on his face and his head cocked to the side. My heartbeat calms a little and I look at the man in bed with me.
I mean really look at him. Where the hell did I find him? I ask myself. He is gorgeous. The word doesn’t even begin to describe this guy’s beauty. Is he even real? Smooth golden skin with sprinkling of dark hair on his chest and forearms. I stare in surprise at his size. He is huge. What does he eat?
My eyes dart all over his face and he is perfect. I mean really damn perfect. Gunmetal grey eyes and perfectly straight nose and the fullest lips I’ve ever seen on a man framed by a neatly trimmed beard.
Hmmm, nice. Even his eyebrows are perfect. Straight and just on the right side of bushy. Is that even right? He blinks and it looks like it happened in slow motion.
Damn his lashes are long, I think to myself. I blink a few times to see if he’ll disappear but nope he’s still here. My eyes slowly trail down his face to his chest and oh my God.
How is he even this big? Well defined pecs that leads to the most prominent pack of abs ever. Is that eight? Is that even possible? My eyes trail lower and my jaw drops at the big tent in his towel. The scrap of material isn’t doing much of good job hiding anything. I really should look away but my curiosity won’t let me.
I mean I’m seeing my first real life penis or almost anyway and I want the full experience. He yanks the sheets away from me to cover his erection. He jumps up from the bed and I raise my eyes to look at him. Damn this man is perfect. Am I dreaming? Because if I am, I so do not ever want to wake up. He looks like a freaking Viking.
“Is Goliath your father or somehow related to you?” I mumble still drinking in the ethereal beauty of the god in front of me. He grunts and I shudder my body going crazy.
I feel something wet trail down the side of my mouth and I touch it with a finger. I quickly wipe the drool away from my mouth with the bottom of my shirt and hear him groan making my eyes fl
y back to his face. He’s eyes are fixated on my chest and he moves closer to sit on the bed. I look down and quickly push my shirt back down to cover my breasts.
“Where am I?” I ask to break the tension in the room.
“My cottage. I'll take you back to the Castle today,” he says huskily and everything south of my body reacts and clench deliciously.
I look at him like he’s lost his marbles which I’m pretty sure he has when his words register in my mind. Castle? Cottage? What the hell? Why do the handsome ones always have to be crazy or gay? Wait, he’s not gay right? Because I’m pretty sure I have a chance if he’s crazy but not so much if he’s gay.
“You’re not gay, right?” I ask looking at him quizzically and he goes red in the face, his lips stretching into a thin line. He looks up at ceiling and then back at me with a strange look on his face. What? Why’s he looking at me like that?
“Okay, it’s been nice whatever this is but I have to go. I have class today.” I crawl back over to him and then climb over him to get out of the bed. Even his bed is huge. I shake my head and head for the door.
Suddenly, my feet leave the ground and something flashes through my mind. He turns me around and stares down at me searching my face for a long time like he’s waiting for something. I stare blankly at him and push his hands off of my shoulders when it looks like his staring isn’t going to end anytime soon. I have things I have to get done.
“Celia, are you okay?” he asks slowly his eyes darting over my face peering.
“How do you know my name?” I ask and then roll my eyes at myself. Of course, I must have told him. “Don’t answer that.”
“What’s wrong with you?” he shakes me slightly and images flash in my head. I grab my head to stem the dizziness but no such luck. The images flash rapidly through my mind and I fall into him unable to hold myself up anymore.
No way. I thought that had been a dream. I had hoped it had been a dream. He lifts me off my feet and I cling to him and cross my legs at his back. I bury my face in his neck and the familiar smell brings me comfort. His rubs a large warm hand down my back and I hum low in my throat.
“Are you okay?” he asks worry heavy in his voice and I nod into his neck, my lips brushing his warm skin.
I really should be worried about my situation but I can’t find it in me to care at the moment. What is it about this man that makes me feel like I’m floating? I squeeze him tighter and sigh heavily.
“Why don’t you get in the shower? It might make you feel better.” I don’t want to let him go but I think that shower might help. I pull back to look at his face and he has a little frown on his face. I press down on his shoulders and lift myself up to kiss the frown away. When I settle back down he looks at me in surprise and smile softly at him motioning for him to put me down.
Once on my feet, I head to the door on the opposite side of the bed. There’s another door but something in my mind tells me that isn’t the bathroom but rather a closet. How I know that I do not know.
But whatever, I shrug. Opening the door to the bathroom, the smell of home hits me and I close my eyes and breathe it in, stepping inside. I push the door close with my foot and walk over to the sink running my hands gently down the marble counter.
Why does it feel like I’ve been here my whole life?
I look in the mirror and everything still looks the same. Though my skin does look a little pasty, it looks smoother and softer than it was and my face looks thinner. Have I been getting spa days in the hospital?
I sigh and take off my clothes. I step inside the shower and hit the button for hot water. I crank it all the way up to as hot as it’ll get and throw my head back with a satisfied groan. A sense of melancholy hits me as I remember how my grandmother also used to say that I had a crocodile’s skin.
She said it explains why I can stand to bathe water that hot. But anything below boiling and I come of the bathroom with a serious case of the itch. I really miss home. The water pounds down on my sore muscles and I moan.
When was the last time I had a shower?
Seven months. I feel my eyes tear up but I hold my breath until it stops. I don’t have a dryer here and I probably shouldn’t get my braids wet but I’m pretty sure my hair hasn’t been washed in all the time that I was asleep.
I won’t delude myself into thinking it looks soft and shiny like in the movies when the heroine wakes from a thousand years slumber with hair as soft as silk.
I let the water soothe my soul and I scratch my hair with my nails. I reach out to grab a bottle of shampoo from the shelf and dump the whole bottle on my head. It isn’t much anyway. I wash quickly and get out of there before the water even shows signs of cooling down. I look down at my clothes and there’s no way I’m putting those back on. I grab the towel from the rack and secure it around myself before heading back into the bedroom.
Nicholas is already dressed in a pair of washout blue jeans and a plain black t-shirt. Hmmm. He looks good. Really good. I feel something coil in my stomach and I rub at it. Nick hasn’t noticed me yet and I take the time to really look at him.
His skin looks really beautiful. The golden hue that glows when the light hits it just right. I'm thinking he’s half Indian or maybe African. I wonder where he’s really from? What’s his story? Why the hell am I so curious about this man? No other has ever rouse this kind of curiosity in me before. I can’t wrap my head around the way I feel around him. Strange.
“Nick!” I say excitedly a big smile on my face at remembering his name. His head finally comes up and he grunts low in his throat.
The sound travels straight to my tummy and a tingle shoot through my nether regions and I jerk. I clamp my thighs together to stop it from happening again my eyes rounding in shock. My face warm at my reaction to him and I shift a little on feet.
He gets off the bed and stalks over to me. The look on his face has me backing away from him. Soon my back connects with the wall and he crowds me. I try to move away by sliding through the side but his arms come up to cage me in.
I gulp at the feelings rushing through me. I raise my eyes to look at his face and the look of intense heat on his face has a gasp leaving my mouth. His nostrils flare and his pupils dilate making his eyes appear darker.
He takes advantage of my parted lips and leans in with his lips resting a breath away from mine, occasionally grazing when I take a breath. He stays like that keeping my lips parted so that we are sharing the same air.
My heart tries to climb out of my chest and tingles travel from where our lips touch to between my legs. I go to rub my thighs together to ease the ache growing in my sex but he pushes his leg between mine, parting the towel his leg making direct contact with my sex and I cock my hips with a soft cry.
My breaths come out in soft pants and Nick isn’t faring any better. A large hand splays on my waist and pushes my back more firmly into the wall. I look into his eyes with half lidded eyes and gasp. His eyes are glowing a soft fiery blue.
I must be seeing things. Unable to take it anymore, because I’m not brave enough or experienced enough to start anything, I pull away from him but not by much with me trapped between him and the wall. I feel his hand move round to my back and he yanks me to him, closing the distance between our lips.
He slants his head to the side and devour my lips. He bites down softly on my lips and I hiss at the tug in my sex. His tongue brush against my lips and I open for him my curiosity driving me at this point.
His hand moves down to my hips to pulls me up on his leg and then trail down to grip my ass to grind me down hard on it. I throw my head back with a soft gasp tearing my lips away from his.
His lips move down to the arch where my neck meets my shoulder and I tentatively move my hands up his stomach, up his delicious pecs and then grip his shoulders fascinated with the thick corded muscles underneath my fingers.
He bites down on my shoulder and a million lights bursts behind my eyelids. I cry out into the room and Nick growls l
oudly. He sounded almost animalistic and the sound rushes through my system intensifying the feeling of euphoria rushing through my blood. My body pulls tight and then relaxes after a while and I bite down on my lips to keep from crying out. Nick pulls my head back and captures my lips again.
Slowly, my body comes back to this plane of existence again and Nick softly nips at my lips slowly pulling me back from whatever that was. I feel heat rush to my cheeks while I stare at Nick in shock. He slowly moves his legs from between mine and I pull the towel closed.
“Celia—” Nick starts to says but someone bangs loudly on the front door.
“I—” the knock comes more impatiently this time but the person doesn’t stop and he growls ferociously making everything below my waistline throb in a soft pulsing rhythm.
I jump away from Nick shock running through my system at what just happened and how my body is still reacting to his close proximity. I touch my mouth with my fingers and it sends pleasurable zings down my spine.
I snatch it away and grip my towel tightly. Nick moves away from me and curses loudly. I take the opportunity to move away from the wall and head straight to the bathroom without looking at him. I push the door closed and lean my back against it and stare up at the ceiling.
What have I done? I know that wasn’t anything related to sex and that ending definitely wasn’t an orgasm. That had felt more like the satisfied feeling I get when I overdosed on my favourite chocolate cake and what had been that clicking sound in my head when his teeth sunk into my shoulder?
No sense worrying over the past. It happened. Let it go. I tell myself.
'And you enjoyed it.' An amused voice whispers through my mind.
'Get out of my head,' I snap sullenly.
‘You should have seen your face. It was quite awkward for me. A heads up would have been nice.'