Page 41 of Lily In The Valley
Peace looks good on you, Lily-girl.
And when I walked up behind her, wrapped my arms around her shoulders, I felt the shift. Small, but real. She was letting go. And this time, I wasn’t alone in the bloom.
“Come on,” I said, pressing a kiss to her cheek. “Joi said there’s dinner under the main pavilion.”
I grabbed our bundles before she could overthink and led us through the winding path lit with soft lanterns and firefly glimmers. The stars were already blinking awake above us. Walking into the covered space, laughter and shared air consumed us, a stark contrast from the candlelit, intimate dinner Kelly and I shared the previous night. Long tables stretched across the width of the space, benches covered with pillow cushions, table runners covered with crystal candelabras and family style platters of food. Strangers from all walks of life sat together, as if they’d known each other all their lives.
Plates passed hand to hand. Bowls of roasted vegetables, warm bread still steaming, and chicken kissed with something sweet and sharp. Handmade balsamic vinaigrette. Kelly and I sat shoulder to shoulder, our knees brushing beneath the table. I served her first without asking. She deserved softness even in the mundane. And she let me. The sweetest part of all was the way she leaned into me while I talked endlessly with the guests around us. Her laughter rang loose instead of guarded, music to my ears.
Someone brought out drums. The sound bath woman. Hippie Auntie, as Kelly called her. She led a chant that turnedinto a full-on circle of swaying and humming. Kelly eyed them with suspicion. I caught the exact moment her brain screamedcult alert.
I leaned over, wine glass in hand. “Look at you. Being present.”
She rolled her eyes. “Be careful with that glass. You don’t know what they laced this wine with.”
I chuckled and slid my hand to her knee, tracing a small circle with my thumb. “Stay present, baby girl.”
“I am.”
“Nah,” I said, watching her closely. “You’re alert. Alert and present are two different things.” I slipped my hand under the table, settled it against the inside of her thigh. Not to tease. Not to start something. But to anchor her. To remind her I was still here.
That I always had been.
Later,after we’d slipped away from the crowd and the music, we ended up on the patio of our casita, sliding into the hot tub beneath a velvet black sky. The desert was still again, daring you to disturb it. Above us, a single cloud moved across the sky, slow and aimless. Stars blanketed in tiny clusters, secrets waiting to be spilled. The distant howl of a coyote rose, then fell, like a prayer answered too late. Sandstone cliffs loomed in the distance, dark silhouettes guarding our moment.
The steam from the tub rose around us. Kelly sank into the water across from me, her face flushed from the wine and heat, her eyes glassy with something heavier. She pulled her braids into a bun atop her head, but it’d already begun its own unraveling.
I leaned my head back, my arms stretching along the rim of the tub, trying to memorize this. Her. The way the lavender light from inside the casita haloed her profile. The way the dampness of her skin emitted an ethereal glow from within. The way she stared at me like she was seeing me for the first time, even though I’d been here all along.
“You like what you see?” I asked, my voice low.
“I do,” she whispered, the sound of the jets punctuating her words.
I moved toward her, slow and sure, letting the water fold around my waist. When I reached her, I didn’t ask. I just pulled her into me, walked us back until she was straddled on my lap, her arms around my neck, right where she needed to be.
She exhaled. That one breath told me more than her words ever could.
I kissed the curve of her shoulder, lips barely touching skin. “You good?”
“I don’t know,” she said, honest and raw. “But I want to be.”
I pressed another kiss atop the thumping artery in her neck. Let my lips linger there to taste away the fear held close. “Then let me help.”
Her fingers traced the tattoos on my chest like they were a map she already knew by heart. Her touch wasn’t rushed. It was reverent. And I let her take her time.
“Why do you keep choosing me?” she asked, her voice like smoke.
“Because I already did. A long time ago.” No fanfare. No pause. Just truthful reassurance she needed to hear.
She kissed me then. Soft, then deeper. Hungry. Her hands curled behind my neck as her body melted against mine. I knew she was done running.
“Take what you need, Lily-girl,” I whispered into her mouth.
And she did.
She let herself need.
The kiss turned messy and slow as it unfolded in the darkness. My hand slid along her back, then up to cradle her head, her braids falling around my fingers. She let out a sound I felt in my spine, and I held her tighter, like she might slip away if I didn’t. My hands dropped to grip her ass, pulling her closer to join us at the ribs. My thumbs loosened the strings of her bikini bottoms as I tugged them from her. Her hands tugged at the waistband of my trunks, freeing my dick. She slid down smooth and hot the most beautiful moan escaping her sweet lips. As she rocked her hips, I thrust into her, matching the rhythm she set.
