I'm back! I know I've been MIA this past month and the blame can be all put on school! I've been slipping a bit so I've been spending my time trying to bring up my grades before the school year is over. Enjoy my new story "Burning Flame" I hope you all like it. It's been in my head for a while and it was just driving me crazy to not be able to put it up! My other stories will be updated SOON!

WARNING: The first part in italics is a little bit rated M so be warned!

November 11, 2006

"Where are we going?"

"You'll see."

"I hope you planned something fun."

"Trust me, you'll like this surprise."

"I do like surprises."

~An hour later~

"Just a few more steps."

"We've been walking for half an hour now! When are we going to get there?"

Holding his hands over her eyes, he let's go. "Here we are. Surprise!"

He had taken her to the woods located two hours away from the main city. He had set up a bunch of sheets, blankets, and pillows to form a sort of bed on the floor. Candles burning all around them on the floor or on nearby branches that had fallen from the trees. Beside the homemade bed, there was a basket clearly carrying their dinner and drinks.

Blinking a few times to regain her eye sight, she gasps, "Oh Helia! This is absolutley beautiful!"

"You like it?" asked 20 year old Helia.

"Like it? I love it!" She turned around and gave him a hug. Still in each other's embraced, she could feel the body heat coming from him. She looked up at him and saw a look in his eyes that she hadn't seen before. With one of his hands, he pulled her closer, closing the space between them. His fingertips starting at her jaw bone and rubbing right inter her hair line. His fingers entangled into her caramel-blonde hair, he held her face with a gentle but firm hold. She couldn't help but let her face mold with his hand. Due to their hieght difference, he gently pulled her head upward towards him as he slowly leaned in, pausing slightly with their lips almost touching before his lips kissed hers softly. Helia's lips were a little dry unlike her's whose were like flower petals against his.

Her mind was doing blackflips when they parted. Helia took a step back and looked at her in a whole different way. Sure, he has had a big crush on her since the first time he's laid eyes on her but he never believed it'd come true. That kiss was like taking your first breath after being underwater for so long, the first one is instinctual but the one's after that are rough, rushed, and frantic.

Helia pulled back in, kissing her so suddenly, she cried out in surprise. His lips melted her worries away and her hands on his chest. This was all the encouragement Helia needed, his tongue slipped inside her mouth and her tongue wrestled back with his. The kiss heated quickly which caused them to pushed back onto a tree. Helia thought about it, before he lifted up her legs around his waist. She pulled back, looked at him in the eyes before smiling and kissing him again giving him the nod of approval.

Her blood was pumping, for some reason being the daughter of one of the highest respected men in the entire city, usually turned guys away. She had taken a liking to Helia when she first met him and spent the whole night together getting to know each other and enjoying a couple of drinks. Helia's hand was slowly rubbing up and down her thigh as his lips brushed against everywhere he possibly could.

The both of them were heating up when suddenly Helia groaned in need and lust, continuing to kiss her every way possible, sending shivers through her body. He decided to take this to his little setup. He carried her towards the 'bed' and put her down so that they are both on their knees.

She leaned into Helia's ear and passionately whispered in an urging voice, "Shall I do the honors or shall you?" Her voice had a need that made Helia want her more. He took of his jacket and threw it towards a nearby branch, then he grabbed the edge of his white v-neck, pulling it over his head giving her a view of his muscles as they flexed. She also got a view of all the bruises and scars he had around his body. Helia threw his shirt towards his jacket, not really paying attention to where it landed, wanting to get back to her. She took this oppurtunity to also take off her jacket and pink tank top, throwing it toward Helia's clothes. Pushing him down and getting on top of him, she looked up and saw him getting comfortable. Using her right hand she followed the lines his muscles made in his stomach, gingerly touching his old scares and almost touching the bruises, tracing his rib cage with her fingers.

She looked up at him, "Do they hurt," she said with concern in her voice, "the bruises?"

He looked down at them, after being moved from family to family for so long, he stopped paying attention to them, they had become part of his fucked up childhood. "They did when they were new, but not so much now."

She looked truly concerned for him. She leaned close to one of them and gently brushed it with her lips. She moved all around his stomach, he had such defined muscles. While she was kissing him, she felt him go stiff. She leaned away and looked at him, "What's wrong? Didn't anyone ever kiss your wounds when you were little?" Helia didn't answer. She then suddently remembered his past, "I'm sorry. I forgot."

"No, don't be sorry. It's okay. I enjoyed your magical kiss, it may have not helped heal my scars but it did help my spirit. Nobody has ever been this kind to me before."

"What about your new family? Don't you like living with Codatorta, Riven, and Nabu?"

"Yeah, they're great and everything but they can't make me feel the same way you do. They can't come with me on these 'adventueres', they're trying to understand my love for art as you do, and they most certaintly can not kiss my wounds like you."

She smiled and kissed her way to his torso letting her body rub against his. She used her body to pin him down and passionately kissed his collarbone, moving around his neck, kissing up until she could nibble on his earlobe then moving back to his lips and kissing him again, letting of her passion flow out through her. She let her mind become flooded in the moment. All of her thought and inhibitions seems to melt away in the heat of her lust.

In between the kiss, Helia grinned at her. "My turn..."

Present Day; August 15, 2014 (8 years later)

"Good morning Gardenia!"

Now 28, Helia jumped at the wake up call from Gardenia's local radio host. Helia, his two foster brothers; Riven and Nabu, their best friends of all time; Brandon, Timmy, and Sky had agreed to enjoy the last few weeks of summer together in Gardenia. All of their jobs had expandable hours which allowed them to take this road trip. Helia is the CEO of his own company, Riven is a tattoo artist, Nabu is a mechanic, Brandon is a lawyer, Timmy is an engineer for Helia's company, and Sky is a doctor. They had decided to take Nabu's van he has for emergency road trips like this one.

"Someone shut that thing off!" yelled Riven.

"I've got it!" called back Brandon who was sitting in the front passenger seat.

Sky sighed in relief, "Thank goodness it had an off button."

"Yeah, I don't think I could handle Hilary's voice for much longer," agreed Riven.

"Where's Nabu?" asked Timmy seeing the driver's seat empty.

"Back here."

They boys turned their heads towards the voice and saw Nabu's head pop up from the trunk. The boys jumped from their seats and screamed. When they realized it was just Nabu, they continued to scream but this time more angrier.

"What the hell man?!" yelled Riven.

"What were you doing back there?" asked Helia.

"Yeah man, what's the big deal scaring us so early in the morning?" questioned Brandon.

"To answer all of your questiones; 1) Do you know how uncomfortable it is to sleep with a steering wheel on your lap? And 2) I knew the radio was going to go off, I don't want my hearing to fade."

"Tell me about it," growled Brandon.

"My point exactly!" exclaimed Nabu.

"We need to start sleeping in hotels," said Helia.

"Why didn't you say so?" asked Nabu.

"What do you mean?" questioned Timmy.

"Take a look for yourselves," answered Nabu pointing across the street to a hotel.

"Ugh," groaned the boys.

~Hotel Aces~

"Welcome to Hotel Aces, how may I help you today?" asked the receptionist, looking up, mouth slightly opened, in awe of the guests that she'd be helping today.

"Uh, yeah. We'd like two rooms with six beds," answered Sky.

Remembering her job, she checked her computer for their rooms, "We have the rooms you're looking for. Would you like to pay in advance?"

"Helia, buddy! How 'bout you whip out that credit card of yours, CEO brother of mine," said Riven, wrapping an arm around Helia's shoulders.

Squirming out of his hold, Helia walked up to the receptionist and handed her his credit card, "Put everything under 'Helia Knightly'."

"Yes sir."

"We're going to pay you everything back," said Timmy.

Helia put his hand up, "Don't even think about it, we're family. Family doesn't pay family back no matter what the situation may be. Right Riven?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Oh really?"

"Really."

"Who was the one who paid half of the money for your tattoo shop?" asked Nabu.

Riven didn't reply and just looked away.

"That's right, it was your generious brother Helia." answered Nabu.

"Here are your room keys," interrupted the receptionist.

"Thank you," mumbled Helia, grabbing the keys from her hands, with the rest of the guys following him to the elevator.

"What floor are we on?" asked Brandon.

"We're on the twenty fifth floor," answered Helia.

Timmy, who was the closest to the buttons, hit number twenty five.

"So, what was going on between you and the receptionist while we were waiting?" inquired Riven.

"Nothing. I didn't pay much attention," answered Helia.

"It didn't look like nothing to us," said Sky.

"Well it was nothing."

"When was the last time you had a relationship Helia?" asked Brandon.

"A normal one or a serious one?"

"Both I suppose."

"I had a normal one about three years ago."

"And the serious one?" asked Timmy.

"Eight, almost nine years ago."

"And what happened with your normal one?" asked Sky.

"Hold on a minute!" interrupted Nabu. "Why are we asking my brother private questions?"

"It's okay. It's no big deal."

"Are you sure Helia?" asked Brandon. "We should've thought about how you'd feel about it before we started asking."

"It's fine," said Helia. "My last relationship ended because she found something important of mine in one of my drawers."

"Let me guess, from serious girlfriend?" asked Sky.

"Yeah."

"What did she find?"

"She found an old letter she wrote to me when we had moved to San Fransisco."

"Man, that's cold. Good thing you dumped her," said Brandon.

"Yeah, she wasn't worth the trouble," answered Helia. "Besides, she wanted something more out of the relationship that I couldn't offer."

The boys knew what Helia ment by 'she wanted more'; marriage. Helia had decided to never marry about six years ago when Sky's parents wanted Sky to marry this girl named Diaspro when he finished college. Of course, after a lot of begging and promising, Sky was able to get out of the marriage.

The elevator came to a stop and the boys stepped out.

"Hey, check it out!" called out Nabu. "Our rooms are the only ones on the floor."

"Here are the keys."

Nabu took the keys from Helia's hands and unlocked the room he was going to share with his brothers. Stepping into the room, the boys followed Nabu in. Everyone, besides Helia, stared in awe.

"Damn it! We're never going to be able to pay Helia back," complained Timmy.

"You guys don't have to pay me back. Besides, you guys look like a bunch of train wrecks, you need the rest and relaxation."

"Thanks Helia. We owe you big time," said Sky.

"Anything for my friends."

Riven gave out a big yawn, "I don't know about you guys but I'm gonna go take a shower and then take a nap."

"We could all use the rest," said Timmy grabbing his things and heading towards the room across the hall.

"Let's all freshen up and meet later?"

"Later guys!" waved Brandon and with Sky, left to rest.

About an hour later, everyone was showered and now napping all but Helia. He couldn't go back to sleep after the dream he had earlier. If he went back to sleep now, he knew he'd just dream about her again. He hadn't thought about her for years. Why was he suddenly having those dreams again? Helia pulled out the letter from his jean pockets and started re-reading the letter. After reading it for another ten times, he picked up the envelope and stared at the returning address. Looking back and forth between the address and his brothers, he finally made up his mind.

Exiting the elevator doors, Helia made his way up to the receptionist.

"You have rentals here don't you?" asked Helia.

"Yes sir!" jumped the receptionist.

"Get me a car in the next few minutes."

"Yes sir!"

The receptionist had called Helia a dark grey Audi R8. Inside the Audi, Helia punched into the GPS the address on the envelope. After driving for about twenty minutes, Helia pulled into a suburban neighborhood. Looking for the right house, Helia pulled over and started walking towards the front door of a big, green suburban home. Hesitant, he knocked on the door and waited. Opening the door, a teenage boy who looked to be no older than sixteen had opened the door.

"Can I help you?"

"Uh, do you happen to know if a girl lives here?" asked Helia

"A girl? Sorry man. Me and my folks just moved in about six months ago."

"What happened to the previous owners?"

"I think they moved to a bigger home or something? You know, how old rich people are."

"Thanks for your help."

Helia started walking back to the Audi with his head lowered.

"You're looking for the girl that used to live there?"

Helia looked up and saw a small old woman wearing a purple pencil skirt with a white long sleeve and purple vest standing next to the white fence.

"Well are you?"

"Uh, yes. Do you know where she moved?"

"Follow me. I have her address back home."

Helia followed the woman to her house a few houses down. Inside looked way different than the outside. Her sitting area was very vintage as was the rest of her house.

"So how do you know where she moved to?" asked Helia as she was looking for the address.

"Her parents kicked her out when she was around twenty. I let her live her for a few years and when she finally had enough money, she moved out."

"Do you know why?"

"I don't think it's best for me to say."

Helia didn't respond and continued to walk around, he stopped to look at the pictures on top of the fireplace. There were three pictures, the one on the left is a single picture of her smiling, it looks like she's in the middle of a laugh, the picture in the middle is a single picture of a baby boy who looks to be around one, and the last picture one the right looks more recent than all of them, it was a picture of her, the old woman, and possibly the boy from the previous picture just older.

"Here it is. She moved to this new neighborhood called Sunlight Hills, her friend got her a good deal which she couldn't refuse. I know I wouldn't say no." said the old woman giving Helia a card with the address on it.

"Thank you, uh I never got your name."

"Faragonda."

"Thank you Faragonda. You have no idea how much this means to me."

"Please, I think I know. She struggled these past years, don't be upfront about it when you see her."

"Of course. I just need to see her again." said Helia and starting walking towards the door.

"Oh, and don't tell her I sent you!" called out Faragonda.

Helia stopped and looked back, "Why?"

"I don't want her to say anything without me being there. I'll be over there in a little while."

"Do you want me to give you a ride?"

"No, I've already got a ride."

"Okay. Thank you once again."

Helia made his way back to the Audi and started to make his way towards Sunlight Hills.

'We're going to see each other again.'

I'm going to start posting all the outfits and other pictures from all three of my stories on my Instagram. Please tell me what you think so far about this story in a review or PM me. I'm pretty sure you have all figured out who 'she' is, if not then re-read if you must or just wait till the next chapter. If you are confused about anything just ask. My other stories will be updated later this week. I was planning to update yesterday but yesterday was my birthday so I had no time. Thank you for sticking with me and not giving up on me just yet. I know I haven't given up. I have exactly one month left of school then I'm on summer vacation! All of my accounts are on my bio so follow me everywhere!

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