Page 143 of Scars Like Wings

“So, I might be meeting everyone else soon? That isn’t terrifying at all. Especially with Cooper’s tomfoolery.”

“Oh, Aunt CK is… a lot in her own right. But my mom is all that matters to me. You don’t have to worry about anyone else, so no reason to be nervous. Besides,” Quinn leaned up and gave me a kiss on my cheek. “My mom fucking loves you.”

My heart fluttered. “Really?!”

Quinn smiled. “Yes! She only talks like that with people she likes, and I can just tell that she loves you so much already. She is going to try to smother you to high heaven, you have no idea.”

“I honestly cannot wait. I’m kind of excited for it. Do you want to know something crazy?”

“Always.”

“As soon as she hugged me, I just felt… I felt like a mother’s love, you know? It just felt so right and like home. I think that’s why I don’t mind calling her Mama. It feels right in a weird way.”

“It isn’t weird at all. It makes perfect sense. I was so scared that my mom was saying that was going to bother you or step on your toes. I never want to infringe on your mom and her memory.” Quinn’s hand not tracing up and down my spine came up to play with my locs in their ponytail. She twirled one around her fingers. “It kills that you lost her how you did; that it affects you like it does. I wish she was still here. I wish I got to meet her. I wish I got to see you two together and understand how much of you came from her. I’m so sorry. I know my mama could never replace your mom, and she would never want to. She’s one-of-a-kind. But Mama just wants to cook you good food, go shopping with you, come in unannounced to binge watch trash television together, and fold our laundry to help us get our lives together. If she can do that, she’s happy.”

I chuckled, my tears starting to sting my eyes as they spilled over. “I would love that.”

Quinn lightly wiped away my tears. “Good.”

Quinn’s finger stayed on my cheek, hovering there for a moment longer than maybe it needed to. Her eyes went from mine down to my lips. I watched the bronze glow in her eyes darken to that smoldering ember that I loved, that set a low flame alive within me.

Quinn leaned up the same time I leaned down, and our lips collided. The warm softness melted away what happened with Cooper, my questions, my anxiety. It was only this moment and the taste of her. We were in our own bubble, and even the water seemed to quiet itself as it lapped at the glass edge of the pool and our bodies. My hands tangled into her damp curls. One of Quinn’s hands was on my back, trying impossibly to pull me even closer. The other hand touched the side of my neck?—

Grazing a patch of scales there.

As soon as her fingertips made contact with my scales, a bolt of electricity shot from my neck and down my spine. It mademe rock my hips by accident in her lap and deepen the kiss, but I couldn’t hide my moan or my grip tightening in her hair. I suddenly wanted to taste her more, to feel her more, to be consumed by her and have her consume me. I wanted to have her take me here and now all of a sudden.Where the hell had this come from?

I wasn’t the only one who had noticed. Quinn leaned back a little, breaking our kiss. Her slitted eyebrow was raised as she breathlessly asked. “¿ Que demonios acaba de pasar?What was that? What just happened?”

“Uh… it’s my scales, I think? Simone said they are kind of sensitive. I just didn’t realize how much until just now.”

“Oh, and here I thought they were just beautiful.” Quinn’s eyes sparked as her smirk became devilish. “Now, I know they can be fun, too.”

Hummingbird

The next day, I had just turned over to sleep more because, you know, vacation, when the tantalizing aroma of breakfast meats and something sweet drifted from downstairs. It easily made me change my mind. Rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I stretched and went to the bathroom to do a quick version of my morning routine before making my way downstairs.

Rounding the corner into the kitchen, I was met not with the chef who usually was the one to cook for us, but Quinn bustling around the kitchen. She cooked some French toast on the griddle, checked the doneness of some sausage sizzling in a pan, and expertly flipped a pancake in a pan with just one hand almost all at once. She moved with a confidence and sureness around the kitchen that was incredible to see, and her energy was infectious at such an early hour. I couldn’t help but grin at the sight. Quinn, with her tousled curls and mischievous smile on her lips, looked like a picture-perfect chef straight from a Food Network show. The fierce beats and lyrics of Megan Thee Stallion wafting low in the air from the kitchen’s built-in overhead bluetooth speakers was just the icing on the cake.

A girl truly after my own heart.

“Oh, don’t tell me I’m dating a morning person. I might have to rethink this whole relationship then,” I joked.

“Oof, I might have some bad news for you,” Quinn flashed me a grin, her eyes bright with humor. “Good morning, sweetness! Can I get you some juice or coffee?”

“Morning! Ooh, coffee sounds magical.” I came around the counter. “I can get it since you are cooking?—”

“Absolutely not!Iserveyou.”

“But—”

“The only butt I care about is—” Quinn looked up from her cooking as she was making a quip, but it died on her lips instantly. Her hazel brown eyes darkened to a dark honey shade. As if they were made of real heat that I could feel, I felt her eyes like a caress as she took me all in. My feet bare, but with a fresh black-painted pedicure. My naked legs were short and thick, like the rest of me, but shaven for this trip. My hips, waist, and belly were hugged by my high-rise thong that she couldn’t see from under my oversized, thrifted LeAnn Rimes shirt falling to my mid-thigh. My scales shone in the light of the morning sun from the skylight and windows. Half of my locs were in a haphazard bun and the other half down in a cascade of pink. Her eyes roamed my body, as if I was the meal on a plate and she hadn’t eaten in a very,verylong time. But I was far more than a snack. No, Quinn looked at me like I was a feast that would sustain her for centuries. I couldn’t blame her. I was just as hungry for her in her t-shirt and boxers under her apron.

Gods, she just looked so fine in the most normal shit.

“What was that about my butt, sugarloaf?”

“Huh?” Quinn asked, her voice husky already. I loved the power I had over her.

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