I wake in Fernando’s arms, the faint scent of sex lingering in the air. Five o’clock shadow prominent on his face. His breathing is steady, still sound asleep as his morning wood pokes into my back.
I kiss the arm my head lays on lightly and think just two or three days ago this all seemed impossible the idea of finding a guy like him. Someone so sweet and loving who just let’s themselves fall head over heels in love. Not afraid of commitment.
Yet this is something different, as I remember that we are tied together now but something called a Tither that happens between him and the person he loses his virginity to. The idea of such a thing is so foreign to me yet it also brings a deep meaning for when we first made love after a night of talking and dancing when our souls just started to know each other.
People say that heaven is supposed to be that one moment you enjoy most of all in your life. I imagined it would be me helping my brother with working on his car’s engine. The mustang I promised to watch after. And now I can’t help but wonder if this will be the moment. Laying in the arms of Fernando, a man I can’t help but to love and who makes me forget about my brother’s death, my terrible family, and the rape that violently rocked my soul.
I notice a tattoo on the arm that wraps around and lays on my abdomen made of black ink. Tendrils make a moon that lays calmly on his upper bicep. I trace its outline and I feel Fernando chuckle.
“That tickles,” he breaths.
“Your ticklish,” I smile. “Noted. Does it have a meaning from where you’re from?”
“In Elsewhere it’s my family crest,” he says. “All in my family get it when they turn of age or marry into our family. It’s our crest but also a reminder.”
“A reminder?” I say, turning to face him. Snuggling into his folds.
“Of our heritage,” he says. “From when the moon goddess Silvia fell in love with Kova, the sister of the first Princess of Rosa. Silvia gifted Kova with our second ability so that she could always be close to Kova and her family. That is why our flame always runs blue.”
“Blue?” I ask. “But at the market it was red, like normal flames.”
“The first conjuring always is,” he says. “Blue tint always starts after as a reminder of where it came from. So we never forget. She is also why flames will never scorch our skin.”
Fernando takes my hand and a blue flame runs across the service of my hand. On point I jerk my hand away.
“What the heck?” I gasp, rolling away from him.
“Sorry, I should have warned you. But look at your hand. It’s not scorched, is it?”
I take in the surface of my hand and I can’t believe it. He’s right. My hand has no markings of any kind on it.
“Are you mad at me?” Fernando asks, eyeing me.
I can feel his worry and concern. His self-conscious fear of me leaving him even. “No,” I tell him. “I’m not.” And I lean in to kiss him softly.
Even in the morning after sex late at night he smells of pines and roses. I feel a stirring from my body and gasp. Blue flames whirl from under my body and engulf us with the bed, the crackling of the fire hitting my eardrums. Barrable warmth everywhere, driving the morning chill at bay.
I pull away from Fernando again and my body rolls onto the ground, away from the bed and Fernando laughing among the flames.
“We’re going to have to teach you control,” he chuckles as he extinguishes the flames. “Don’t worry about the bed, it’s an easy fix.” He rolls out of the bed and walks over to me, taking me in his warm embrace. “When my powers first manifested I accidentally set the banquet table on fire one night over an argument with my sister. Frankly I’m surprised it didn’t happen again sooner. It’s a simple fix with some training. Let’s shower. I want to show you around your home.”
“I’d like that,” I say, ending the embrace.
We walk into the restroom and into the glass shower. Fernando turns on fairly hot jets of water but it doesn’t hurt. My body knows they are scolding jets of water that I should be yelling under but I guess being flame retardant means that includes high scalding water temperatures.
Quickly we latel eachother with soap, shampoo, and conditioner. Limbs tangling together every now and then, laughter as we help each other in our cleaning ritual. Kisses being shared on and off.
When we are finished, I turn the water off and we step out. I grab a towel and begin to dry myself off when I feel a slight heat. Turning, Fernando has a big smirk on his face as steam radiates off his body and I can’t help but laugh.
Hanging off a rack are two robes made of soft crimson material. Fernando puts one on and hands me the other. Smoothly I drape it around my body and tie the cord around the waist shut. He takes my hand and pulls me in for a kiss, the front if his stuff open unabashingly.
“Let’s go explore,” he says. Fingers laced together, he pulls me out of the bathroom, through the bedroom, and into the hallway.
We walk maybe ten feet down the hall before we stop in front of a green door with a brass doorknob. Carved on its surface is a bird in flight, flowers of varying sizes, and trees with what could only be described as filled with longer for the spring winds. “Care to guess what’s on the other side?” he asks me.
“I wouldn’t even know where to start Fernando, “I say, admiring the beautiful door. “But if that last few days will tell me anything it will be that it could be anything from an endless library to a whole new world.”
With a big smile across his face, he simply says, “Open the door, Alonso, my love. And find something magical beyond what the books in your world hold.”
I grab the brass doorknob and turn it.
As the door opens my ears are assaulted with the sound of chirping birds and my eyes are blinded with bright light. When my eyes adjust I gasp at the sight before me of cedars and pines reaching to the sky. Oranges, bananas, cherries, and apples hanging from branches. Flowers scattered about without any form of organization. A fountain with a statue at its center of a woman holding a crescent moon.
“Would you like to go in?” Fernando asks me as I stand open mouthed at the doorway. He squeezes my hand and I feel tears well in my eyes.
“This kind of stuff just doesn’t exist,” I say quietly as I walk into what can only be called a garden, pulling Fernando in with me. “It’s so beautiful.”
To my right there is movement. I turn and catch a glimpse of a black deer eating what looks like a lavender colored lily. Its antlers are jagged and go every which way atop it’s gentle head.
The creature takes notice of our presence and walks over. Its body is as large as a bear.
“Hi Glenda,” Fernando says as he pets it’s main. “Are you doing good girl?”
The creature makes a high pitched musical sound in response.
“This is my love, Alonso, Glenda” Fernando says. “Can he pet you?”
The creature bends it’s head in my direction, careful with its horns. Shakely I reach my hand out and run it between the two antlers. Through fur as soft as cotton.
“What kind of creature is Glenda?” I ask, my eyes roaming the faint creatures’ contours.
The creature sniffs and licks my hand. “She is a deer from my world,” Fernando says. “From a place called the Forest, outside of my family’s home in Helena, the capital city of Rosa.” His words hold familiarity and comfort to them even though I have never been across the Vail to Helena. Longing is also there and my heart aches.
“I mixed both my world and your world into this garden,” he says, leading me away from Glenda. ” Our home, this compound, it has everything we can ever want because I also built it to be able to sustain up to fifty people at a time for a year if they could not go outside due to some danger. No one can open that front door and walk into this place. Only we can exit and enter. It’s also safe to do magic here too.”
“Safe?” I frown.
“Yes,” he squeezes my hand. “In here they can’t track us if we use magic. Out there they can if we use too strong a hex or bend too much fire. Natural fire and electricity though does mask Krystal use some but not much. When we move the house next we will have to conjure a lightning storm to cover our Krystal use. It shouldn’t take too much Krystal to coax the clouds for a lightning storm and the city electrical grid should mask our storm summoning. Your world’s advancements are quite handy due to this.”
“How long are we staying in Tokyo?” I ask.
“A few more days,” he says. “I’m debating on Paris or London as our next place to visit. Maybe even Mexico City. But let’s not worry about that this moment, Alonso. Come, let’s go see the rest of the compound.”
Source: reddit.com/r/eroticliterature/comments/sqb42w/forbidden_desires_part_20