Cupid's Bow
Chapter 14
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It was my penultimate day working as a deliverer to Hush when I saw something I never had before. I'd reported to the front desk, as usual, but rather than shooing me over to the main lobby, I'd been beckoned closer and asked to take it out back.
Back? I'd inquired then, as I'd never been told to do that before and I was dreadfully curious and cautious.
Their reply had been an impatient stare and a vague gesture towards a door I'd never noticed before. Be quick about it, they'd snapped, he's waiting.
The unknown behind that door had made me uneasy; a low, thick tide of foreboding washing over me. But what could I do? Not go? It was my job, so not bloody likely.
With little choice, and hesitant steps, I went.
Once I reached the door, I tried the handle but it wouldn't budge. So very quietly, my palms sweating a little bit, I knocked.
The silence dragged on for a little while, and I was just about to knock again when the door was yanked open. My gaze froze with my rising fist, not on the person before me but on the scene, the thing, behind him.
Hello? Yes? he'd asked impatiently. And I still wasn't looking at him.
He must have grown tired of my gawking, because eventually he'd just stepped into my line of sight – blocking my view.
Um, I had stammered, just seeing the roll of water drip-sliding down his nose.
He'd gestured down to the parcel in my hands. For me? he'd asked slowly, like I was slow.
I had just nodded and, after a minute, thrust the package at him. But before I could even ask for a signature, he was already slamming the door in my face.
I had walked out of there in a daze.
It had been the first time I'd seen water like that.
It hadn't been the last, though. For about a year after that, I had immersed myself in books about the sea – which, I had deduced fairly quickly, was not what had been present out back. But I liked the idea of the water, and before I had grown content I had wanted to learn how to be in it, to swim.
I had never been in or seen anything like the pools on Cupid's Bow before arriving, or anything concerning reams of water period.
On Earth, we only learnt to sink, not swim.
OoOoOo
OoOoOoOo
OoOoOo
After a long time of gaining my breath back – eyes closed because I'm used to the dark – sense and rationality flood back in, and I almost wish they hadn't because they make me realise –
I'm naked.
Naked.
Well… not naked naked, not like… not like Edward. But still, pretty naked. Naked enough for me to start another round of panicking.
Yanking my eyes open – because I've only just learnt that it's really not a good idea for me to keep them closed – I grip the soft underneath me and scuttle backwards, dragging my water-clogged body out from underneath his.
He grips my ankle before I can get too far.
Flinching, I give my leg a good tug but if anything, his hold only tightens. I curl in on myself at his refusal, winding my arms around my chest and waist like a make-shift shield. I pull my free leg with me, and I could get my other one to come in too if I moved a bit nearer to him, but as already mentioned, I'm naked so that's obviously not going to happen.
On the green and soft I tremble, though I'm still not even close to being cold.
He hums low his throat as he approaches; a soft, almost lulling sound. I just stare down at the top of one bare knee as he closes in, wishing the rest of me was covered, wishing he couldn't see – for more than one reason.
No one's ever seen me like this – excepting when I was a baby but that doesn't really count. I didn't have these… things then. I wasn't sloped and shaped and looking so obviously with my clothes gone like one of Them.
My body was lumpy and rounded and stuck out too much.
My skin was veined and ugly, and scarred.
So I just drop my head and stare at my knee so hard, wish wish wishing he'd just let me go.
But of course, he does the opposite.
His hand slides up my leg and grasps my knee – like he did before – but now it's all skin on skin and it feels like my heart is going to beat out of my chest. Warmth from my blood pools to the surface and puddles beneath my skin, highlighting blue veins and white silvery scars.
But it's like he doesn't even see.
"Bel-la," he whispers, as quiet and gentle as the tickling breeze. My gaze wavers on my knee, at his touch, his voice, the heat of his gold-green. His thumb draws slow circles on the skin just above my knee and I shudder-shake. He won't hurt me, I think desperately, not knowing if I think or want or know it to be true. He won't he won't he won't.
His other hand is suddenly just there, turning the tilt of my chin up until he's looking at me, right at me.
My breath catches as I take in his shining-bright eyes, his so red lips and sparkling facets of his high, sharp cheeks, his strong, cut jaw.
"Edward help," he continues softly, his fingers sliding to my neck and feeling my pulse. His eyes watch mine all the while, not my skin or my body, and they're precious metal rain and soft-sinking sun, spreading warmth but dousing aching, and thirst.
His left hand drips down to mirror-image his right. His fingers feather and spread, and then he settles himself between my now suddenly parted legs.
Arms still around me in my make-shift shield, I simultaneously freeze and shiver.
Heart in my mouth, eyes wide now and unable to leave his, I wait for his next move.
He smiles, slow. Then his hands go flat as he glides his palms up up up my thighs, over my hips – cupping just for a second – before settling on my waist, fingers spread and holding.
And I feel it all. It burns and fills and tingles and spreads and makes me feel like I've just been zapped with electricity about a hundred and one times. My nerves are in my blood, chasing sensation, making me hot and feeling everywhere.
I try to get air in and then realise I'm sort of panting.
And all I can think is: oh my god!
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A/N: *wiggly eyebrows*