Page 39 of Presence

I try to explain how I feel like a tiny dot in a vast expanse of swirling colors, like the aurora borealis dancing around the stars. But if I were a star, I’d be alone in the sky, outshining every other being. But he’s here with me, fueling this rising, threatening energy within me. He’s making me burn brighter than ever.

I feel powerful. Strong, amazing, blinding.

And then, right before the light spills over, something happens. My knees lift off the mossy ground, and air whooshes around me.

“What is... Oh my god.” I can’t even ask Echo what’s going on because he brings his other hand into play, pressing his thumb against my clit. He starts rubbing and caressing my swollen bundle of nerves, and it’s all I need to tip over the edge.

The weird sensation becomes less important as the orgasm hits me like a waterfall, shaking my body. My eyes roll back, and a raw, primal cry escapes my throat, echoing in the distance and startling a flock of birds high in the canopies.

But wait... the canopies aren’t as high as I thought. Just as Echo growls and grips me hard enough to leave bruises, I manage to open my eyes amid my ragged, gasping breaths.

We’re… flying. We’re actually fucking flying.

What the hell?

It wasn’t just something that I thought I felt—we’re literally lifted into the air by some unknown force, like a flower petal caught in the wind.

“Echo,” I call to him. He’s still lost in the moment, his movements more frantic than ever. “Echo, wait.”

At first, he doesn’t seem to hear me, so intense is his focus. But slowly, his pace eases, and his eyes meet mine—wild with confusion and sudden realization. He licks his lips, his pink tongue gliding over his front teeth, as he comes back to the present.

“We’re in the air,” I manage to say, my voice trembling with a mix of pleasure and awe. The ground below has blurred into streaks of green and brown already, and the trees around us thin rapidly.

I should be scared. I should panic over the weightlessness in my bones or the fact that gravity isn’t pulling my hair down but making it float as if I’m in space, not a humid rainforest. But I’m far from it. Instead, a sensation of lightness and happiness pulses in my chest, like my heart has transformed into pure bliss.

“Did you do this?” I ask as he rises from between my thighs and floats up to meet me face to face. His skin still glistens from my release, and he casually brushes his thumb over it, licking it off. Just watching him gives me tingles all over.

“No,” he replies, his eyes hungry yet intensely bright, completely different from the weak, faint gleam they had when I found him—like a match flame next to a wildfire. “You did.”

“What?”

“You felt like you were flying, didn’t you?” he says, a thrill in his voice that matches the thrill in my heart.

His gaze sends a shiver through me. His eyes are squinted, and there’s a tension in his jaw that makes my heart flutter with something, an intense anticipation perhaps. Or at least, that’s what I think. It’s… strange.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” I ask. But instead of answering right away, Echo grabs my hand and pulls me close until our chests are flush and our noses nearly touch. I can smell a faint scent of musk on him. My scent.

“Thank you for saving me, Claire,” he whispers. “I never imagined that nearly dying could lead to something so pleasant.”

My blood turns hot. Embarrassment heats up my cheeks so much my skin is surely a bright crimson. But even though his words are setting me on fire, that weird look in his eyes isn’t fading at all. If anything, it’s getting even more noticeable.

“Of course,” I mutter, caught off guard. A cold shiver runs down my spine, each vertebrae feeling the icy touch from the nape of my neck to my lower back.

Echo lifts my chin with a finger, and for a moment, it feels almost romantic, but the energy he exudes tells a different story. I don’t know what’s going on. I’m confused.

“When I was so weak,” he whispers, “I couldn’t get into your mind. I didn’t know how bad of a girl you were to me right before feeding me your delicious energy.”

His words send another wave of chills down my spine, this time mixed with fear. I don’t know why this fear arises, but it does, mingling with the excitement of being suspended in air, defying gravity.

“What are you trying to say?” I ask, trying to keep my voice steady. But his closeness, his dark and raw look, and that touch of unhinged intensity do weird things to me.

His grip on my chin tightens slightly, and his gaze sharpens. “I’m just grateful, Claire,” he murmurs, voice dropping lower. “Grateful, yet curious... curious about the thoughts you hid from me, the feelings you harbored while I was vulnerable. That ugly, hard truth you kept from me. It’s nearly the same as lying, my Little Soul. Lying by omission.”

“A lie…” I repeat, swallowing hard.

I didn’t tell him the shadows had gotten to me. I didn’t mention how much they messed me up because I didn’t want him to worry or blame himself. Honestly, I was even ready to lie just to give him some peace of mind.

But I forgot one detail. Echo can read my mind. He can sift through my thoughts as he pleases, uncovering things I’d rather keep hidden.

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