Page 18 of Blood from the Marrow
Marisol had never known someone so protective. She was sure that Zuri would fight herself to the death before hurting her. It made her believe she shared the same enormous emotion. The one making Marisol’s heart pump so hard it was trying to tear free from her arteries and veins.
She cupped Zuri’s face with both hands and let one true thing escape the tangle in her chest. “If there is a way for me to get closer to you, both of you, I want that. There is no doubt in my mind that I am exactly where I belong. That I want you… and this… as unexpected and unusual as it is. In my life, I have never felt like a piece designed to fit, but now…” Emotion claimed her words and cleaved them down the middle. “I realize I haven’t been some misshapen key… I was just trying the wrong locks.”
Zuri’s eyes, big and dark and devastating, watered when her lips parted but no words tripped out until she sighed. “Fuck, Bambi.”
There didn’t seem to be any point in keeping the entire sentiment confined. Marisol was so tired of holding back. “And it’s probably too soon. And I’m going to embarrass myself, but I don’t know that I care anymore about what I should do or should feel or should think…” Her pounding pulse and dry mouth and trembling muscles made the confession sound so small. “But I love you.” She moved one hand and placed it over Elena’s on her torso, gripping it hard. “I love you,” she repeated, each syllable a mountain climb while she turned her head to look at Elena. “Even if that’s?—”
Elena’s lips cut off her worry that she was alone in her feelings. Locking her in a python’s squeeze, Elena’s kiss was shockingly gentle. It was a brand pressed to the seam of her lips. A quiet promise punctuated by arms that didn’t let her go.
The warmth from Elena’s kiss blazed through Marisol’s body until it joined with the heat from Zuri’s hand in hers. Tugging her close until Zuri’s chest was pressed to hers, she was in a euphoric haze when Zuri’s lips replaced Elena’s.
Zuri’s kiss was even softer. Even more devastating. Sure that she could feel Zuri’s heart racing against her own sternum, Marisol deepened their kiss before Zuri broke away, forehead resting against hers.
“You’re killing me,” Zuri whispered like it hurt. “It’s like you were made to break me.”
“Then break,” Marisol said, an unstoppable smile tugging at her swollen lips. “You’ve already shattered me in every way that counts. Maybe we’re supposed to break a little. To leave all of our old stuff behind so our shards align.”
“Like Kintsugi.” Elena rested her chin on Marisol’s bare shoulder and reached out for Zuri, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “The Japanese have a practice of mending broken pottery with gold. At the end, you end up with a new piece more beautiful than the original.” She let her hand dropto Zuri’s shoulder and down her arm. “The beauty is not in the breaking but the coming back stronger than before. Scars dipped in gold.”
Zuri’s gaze darted between them for so long that the hope in Marisol’s heart curdled. Her dark eyes, wide and conflicted, betrayed a hesitation Marisol wasn’t expecting. Zuri wasn’t the freest with her emotions, but Marisol had been so sure that they were there.
Instead of speaking, Zuri stood. The sensation of her hand back in Marisol’s stopped the anxiety taking root in her gut. She pulled Marisol to her feet.
“Take off your suit,” Zuri said to Elena. “Blood is a bitch to get out of white linen.”
Stunned, it took Marisol a second to register what was happening. To process that Elena was undressing and following Zuri to the bedroom.
Adrenaline raging, heat rose in her chest like a tidal wave. It filled her lungs to bursting before spreading through her limbs. It pushed at her skin and made it at once weightless and too tight.
“Coming?” Zuri asked with a glance over her shoulder, her single word restarting Marisol’s brain.
Standing at the foot of the bed, Marisol didn’t have time to get nervous. The three of them stood together, arms entangled and skin brushing, Zuri’s scorching and Elena’s cool. Everywhere they touched was gold filling in the spider cracks they couldn’t see.
The tidal wave energy roared back to life, pushing at Marisol’s skin again, but this time it gathered in her back and pushed at her shoulder blades. When Elena ran her fingertips along Zuri’s jaw, Marisol held her breath. When Zuri closed her eyes and tilted her head to one side, Marisol bit her bottom lip. When Elena’s fangs flashed an instant before she buried theminto Zuri’s neck, a curtain of shadow surrounding them, Marisol gasped.
She’d watched Elena bite Zuri before, but it had never been so visceral. At the sight of blood rolling down Zuri’s skin and over her clavicle, Marisol reached for the energy gathering at her shoulder blades with her mind.
As if tugging on a string, she released her wings. This time, she didn’t just feel them like a distant buzz; this time, she sensed their mass. Saw the translucent edges in her peripheral vision. Felt the flex in her muscles when she curled them around Elena and Zuri.
Elena looked up, mouth on Zuri until her gaze drifted to Marisol’s wings. The ones growing heavier and more substantial with every second. When she released Zuri from her bite, Zuri’s eyes struggled to open but her gaze was distant.
“You’re incredible,” Zuri whispered before pulling her in, arm around her waist. She kissed her so deeply and so slowly that Marisol was sure she was telling her everything she felt with the pull of her lips and the curve of her tongue.
Holding her close, Zuri didn’t let go when Elena slid in at Marisol’s side. She held her tighter when Elena pushed her hair away from her neck. Kissed her harder when Elena’s mouth grazed her skin. Broke their kiss when Marisol froze in anticipation.
“Breathe, baby,” Zuri whispered.
The moment Marisol exhaled, lungs aching with relief, Elena’s fangs were in her neck. Pain burned on her skin for a fluttering heartbeat before time stopped. Before Marisol’s senses exploded into a kaleidoscope of sound and color and sensation.
Clutching at Zuri and Elena, Marisol dug her nails into them to keep herself from floating away. Zuri’s voice was a steady current, reminding her to breathe while Elena’s bite pushed her to the brink. But Marisol couldn’t follow her good advice. Shecouldn’t do anything but drown in a connection so deep it was primal.
She was in Elena’s body, feeling her slow pulse and unquenchable thirst. She was in Zuri, heart racing and desire overwhelming. She wanted to go deeper. To know more. To feel everything.
Marisol let go, trusting Zuri’s embrace, Elena’s touch, the intoxicating pull of their combined affection. Time was meaningless for so long, they could have been tangled in each other for hours or minutes or days. They’d had sex countless times, but this was unlike anything she’d ever experienced. She tasted colors and breathed music and found a higher plane of existence in their bodies and in her own. Zuri had been right. She was hopelessly hooked.
When the electric high ebbed, Marisol was lying on her side spooning Elena who was strewn across Zuri’s flushed chest. She’d kept her wings extended, watched them turn a near opaque white until her energy faded and it was hard to keep them from disappearing.
It was the first time she’d ever fully seen them. The first time she’d ever had the slightest bit of control over her own damn body.
