JM BENAVIDEZ

My heart shattered into a million rays of light as he kissed me. I didn’t care if Elijah was currently wrapped naked in Aureliana’s arms or if he was sitting at home waiting until he could be with me again. All I could think about was the fact that Lael loved me. I gasped, clinging to him as he pulled his lips back from mine so he could look into my eyes. “I love you too.” He touched my cheek, smiling. “I know.” I curled against his side, laying my head against his chest and sighing as he petted my hair. I replayed every word he had said, swooning again. He smiled, tilting his head so he could see my face. "What are you thinking?" I smiled tilting my head back to look at him. "About what you said." He kissed my forehead. "Yeah? What part?" I nuzzled against him. "All of it." I smiled. "That you love me and want to spend all of your time with me." He hugged me. "Is that alright with you?" I giggled, snaking my arms around him. "Are you kidding? You think I'm going to stop you? I'd like to see you try to leave." 

He nodded and I saw something flicker across his face again and I frowned. "What is that? That's the second time I've seen you make that face. It only lasts for a second but it's still there. What's wrong?" He looked deep into my eyes, brushing the back of his hand across my cheek. "Nothing's wrong love. It's very right." I sighed, only slightly satisfied with his answer. "So what is it?" His brows twitched as he looked from one of my eyes to the other. "I'm not sure you want me to be that honest with you yet." I brought my arm around to his chest, placing my hand over his heart. "We've spoken our hearts to each other, how much more honest could we be?" His lips curled up in a slow smile. "Sometimes you can be so naive." I wrinkled my brows. "What?" He blinked, wrinkling his brows. "How could you have spent so much time with Zuriel and Amadeus or even Elijah for that matter and not know what kind of an effect you have on us." My eyes widened as I realized he had been talking about physical honesty and he raised an eyebrow, looking at me pointedly. 

I giggled, blushing. "So spill." He held his hand up to me and I placed my palm against his, lacing our fingers together. "I would like to spend the night with you Meira. Tonight and every night after." He straightened his fingers and then curled them around mine again. "And at least a few of those nights I'd like to spend with you wrapped naked in my arms." My heart beat frantically as I labored to breathe and he looked up into my eyes. Every inch of my body seemed to turn to jell-o in his arms and I smirked foolishly as my eyes closed. He brushed his hand across my back, patiently awaiting some sort of rational response and I looked into his eyes and hummed. He smiled, laughing softly. "You doing alright?" I nodded, trying to make my mind or mouth do something productive. "Just kiss me, I can't think anyway." I managed and he laughed, rolling onto his side and tucking me against him as he kissed me. He ran his hand up my back and I giggled against his lips. He pulled back and I looked up at him. "Is that your way of asking me to make love to you?" He narrowed his eyes, seductively. "I think it was my way of telling you that I'd like to, yes." 

He kissed me again and I curled my ankle over the back of his calf. Lael leaned back looking down into my face. "How do you feel about that?" I smiled up into his face. "I feel like I might need a bigger closet." He wrinkled his brows. "What?" I kissed him sweetly. "You did say every night right?" He nodded, staring down into my eyes. "Is that your way of asking me to move in with you?" I shook my head softly, struggling to keep my heart from beating out of my chest. "No, it's me asking you to never leave my side." He nodded looking down into my eyes. "I'm going to only ask once and not because I want to, but what about Elijah? He might not appreciate that." I nodded looking up into his eyes. "If Elijah wants to love me, then he'll have to do it on my terms." Lael wrinkled his brows. "And what terms are those?" I ran my hands over his face, smoothing the wrinkles. "That I love you Lael and you are not negotiable." The look on his face was beautiful before he kissed me with his whole heart. 

When he pulled back, caressing my face sweetly I wanted to cry. "I have terms then too." I nodded. "Anything." He curled his fingers through a strand of my hair. "I will stay with you tonight, but in the same context you stayed with Zuriel and Amadeus. And tomorrow you can talk to Elijah. If you still feel the same way after that, then I will give you any and every part of me you desire." I smiled up at him, nodding. "On one condition." He laughed. "You're conditioning my conditions? Do we need a legal agreement for this?" I shook my head. "You have to promise that no matter what stupid, fucked up dreams we have, that you will wrap your arms around me and kiss me good morning. Reminding me how we got there to begin with." His eyes were tender. “That is a promise I will make with pleasure.” 

I sighed, wrapping my arms around his neck and holding him. “I hate dreams.” He laughed, looking down at me. “That’s not what you said about my dream.” I giggled. “That was because I woke up orgasming.” He lifted up onto his elbows looking down at me. “Excuse me?” I blushed and giggled again. “I think it’s about time we talked about this dream, in great detail.” I shook my head laughing. “Oh no. I’m not discussing it with you. It’s something you have to experience in real time.” His eyes danced as he lowered back down onto me. “Are you offering to show me then?” I relaxed on the couch beneath him, feeling all of the places where his body met mine and I raised my arms above my head, stretching casually. “I think that goes against your terms.” Lael groaned deeply and laid his head against my chest. “Damn me and my terms.” I giggled and blushed again. 

"Hey, let me up, I want out of this sweater." He rolled over onto his side, propping his head on his elbow and letting me sit up so I could take off my sweater. I laid it over the back of the couch and then lay back down beside him. He wasn't a runway model like Amadeus or a heart throb like Zuriel, but Lael was beautiful in his own right. He reminded me of a lion, with his dark mane, brown eyes and calm, watchful demeanor. I smiled up at him and he tapped me on the nose. "I always wonder what runs through your mind when you get quiet." I wriggled closer to him and wrapped his free arm over me. "It's always you. What you've said or done. Sometimes it's what I want to do to you and others it's just me marveling over you." He nodded, running his fingers down my arm. "And what was it this time?" I grinned. "The last two." He smiled. "Is that so?" I looked up at him through my lashes and he pulled me closer to him. "And just what exactly do you want to do to me now?" I softly caressed his cheek as I looked up at him seductively. "I want to test your resolve on your terms." Lael narrowed his eyes and pulled in his bottom lip, running his tongue across it thoughtfully. But I thought it was sinfully seductive and pulled him closer to me, running my tongue across his lip as he did. "Just a little." I added in a whisper against his lips.

His hungry eyes met mine as he brushed his lips against mine. "As long as you respect them, I'll let you push them." I wrapped my lips around his bottom lip and pulled on it gently. "Only let me?" I asked trying to bring out more of his desire for me. "Would you have me beg you instead?" He whispered in a deep lust filled tone against my lips before suckling my bottom lip in the same manner I had just done to him. I smiled up at him as sensually as I could. "I might, if you sounded like that." He closed his eyes, lowering his head so that it rested on the couch next to mine. "You are going to make me test my own terms." He whispered against my ear and I turned towards him. "I don't want to make you uncomfortable. I just want to lessen the curiosity and starvation I feel for you." He placed a kiss on the edge of my jaw. "I'm starving you?" I nodded, smiling as he placed another kiss under my chin. "That will never do." He murmured against my throat and I smiled even bigger. "So what should we do about it?" 

He leaned back on his elbow again, smiling down into my eyes. "You were the one thinking about testing me, so why don't you tell me?" I reached up and ran my hand through his hair and brushing it back from his face. I caressed the side of his face and neck, sliding my hand down under the collar of his shirt as I ran my fingers along his throat. I reached up with the other hand and unbuttoned the next button on his shirt. When his eyes met mine but he didn't say anything, I unfastened the next one as well. His breathing quickened as I unbuttoned two more. He tilted his head, watching the way my eyes ravished his newly exposed skin. His shirt hung open, now unfastened just below his breastplate and I hesitated at the next button. I looked up into his eyes encouraged by the expression on his face. "Lael?" He blinked. "Yes?" I started to speak and then exhaled softly as I struggled with the words to express how I felt. I closed my eyes as I repeated the process several times and my breaths felt more like pants. He brushed his lips against mine. "Take your time love." He breathed against my lips. 

My chest rose and fell rapidly as visions of my dream flooded my mind and my body ached to belong to him. I fisted my hands in his shirt, pulling his chest down against mine as I pressed my lips against his. His touch on my cheek was gentle even though my grip on him wasn't and I whimpered against his lips in frustration. When I opened my eyes, his were closed tightly, pressing his dark lashes against his cheeks. I opened my mouth, intentionally panting against his lips. When his lashes fluttered I closed my eyes, biting my lip and tilting my head back as I curved my body up against him. Lael placed a firm hand on the ribs of my upper back, pulling me harder against him. I could feel his thumb curled about an inch below my breast and I ached to have his hands on me. I lifted my head pressing my forehead to his. "You have no idea how badly I crave you." He smiled down at me. "Oh love, I think I do." I clamped my eyes shut, quivering at his words. 

I loosened my grip on his shirt and as I kissed him, I freed the rest of the buttons. I ran my hands up his bare stomach to his chest, curling my nails softly against his flesh. When he inhaled sharply, I ran my hands around to his back as I pressed my breasts against his chest. His fingers curled on my ribs, digging into me as he fought with his own desires. I gasped against his mouth as I wrapped my thigh around the outside of his and curling my ankle around the back of his knee. "Meira." He spoke softly against my lips and I opened my eyes, looking at him. "Yes Lael?" He shook his head. "I think that's my breaking point." I tilted my head looking up at him. "Really?" I knew I had gone further than that with Zuriel, but I wasn't sure that he wanted to know that. He smiled, shaking his head. "Hell no. I want to ravage every inch of your beautiful body until you are covered in both sweat and tears as you whimper my name. But if I don't stop you now, I don't know that I ever will." 

I pulled my arms from around his waist, wrapping them loosely around his neck and smiling up at him. "So you do know what my dream was about." He closed his eyes, gritting his teeth and I lifted my hips, pressing them against his. I felt his desire hard against me and I curled my leg up around his hip so that he fit snugly against my womanly need. He clamped his eyes shut tighter for half a second before releasing my ribs and sliding his hand around my back and cupping my ass in his palm, pulling me even tighter against him. I moaned softly and his eyes met mine. "If you were trying to get me to break, you have succeeded." He breathed against my lips. I looked up into his eyes, nervous about sharing the truth. "Your terms were that you would spend the night with me in the same context I had spent with Amadeus and Zuriel was it not?" He nodded and my heart pounded. "Have you forgotten what Zuriel is like?" He closed his eyes briefly before looking down into mine. "When I said that, I meant that I would sleep beside you, nothing more." I nodded, wrinkling my face sheepishly. "Well, all of this happened much earlier in the day." 

He pulled his hand from my ass and slid it up my back, supporting himself on his elbows as he looked down at me. "What's that face for?" I shrugged. "Are you upset?" His shoulders slumped as he exhaled in what could almost be seen as laughter. "Honey, I told you I'd love you no matter what. So no, I'm not upset. Actually I'm a little relieved. I've been trying really hard not to push you too far, too fast." He shook his head. "I don't want you to think that because I'm older I should set the pace or that you should be doing things you aren't. I just want things to come naturally between us." I frowned and he lifted my chin. "Baby, what is it?" I sighed. "I did feel that way with Zuriel, but not with you. I feel the opposite with you." He wrinkled his brows. "How so?" I pouted up at him. "I feel like I'm the one rushing you." He sat back, rolling onto one elbow and laughing heartily. "Seriously? You've been holding back on my account?" 

I dropped back on the couch, running my hand back through my hair. I turned my head away from him, feeling exceptionally foolish and even more so when my eyes welled with tears. Lael turned my head towards him and I closed my eyes, letting a tear slip down my cheek. He sighed loudly and pulled me into his arms, cradling my head against his chest. "When I said I wanted you whimpering and crying, this wasn't what I had in mind." I nodded my head, snuffling. "I know but I can't help it." He lifted my chin, kissing me sweetly. "Don't cry my heart." He brushed my cheek with his thumb, wiping away the tear. I sighed, snuggling against him. "Why are you so sweet to me?" He smiled, leaning his cheek against the top of my head. "Because you let me." I raised an eyebrow, looking up at him. "Is that all it takes?" 

He tapped my nose. "Now don't you go getting all riled up. I'm not going to fight with you; you're emotional enough right now." I nodded. "I really am. Maybe we should go home for the night. It's getting colder and I'd really just like to be curled up with you in bed." He smiled down at me. "Are you sure you still want to open that invitation to me? You saw how easy it was to break down my defenses." I smiled up at him, suddenly feeling very drained. "Yes I do, because I made a promise to you that I intend to keep." He looked into my eyes, seeing the fatigue creeping in. "I'll get us to shore and get you home before you pass out." I smiled, tipping my head back. "Kiss me again." He smiled before kissing me several times. "Why don't you just curl up here, while I get us to land?" I yawned and grabbed a pillow, curling up around it. He draped my sweater over my shoulders and then went to get the pole to push us back to shore. I watched him for a few minutes, before sleep took me.