Vitality (Vitality Series #1)

Chapter 26 Night Sky pt.2

The sound of rain starting again woke her from sleep. Ava took a deep breath before opening her eyes to the growing storm outside of her ceiling window. Her body was sore when she turned. To the side of her, Layton lay with his head half-propped up against the dresser, an arm laid over his forehead lazily, his partially open eyes on her. He looked just as quietly confused as she was.

Ava rolled to her side and looked him over as he watched her. She poked her finger into his chest to make sure he was really there.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"Making sure you're real."

Layton's eyebrows arched, and he turned on his side. "Are you real?" His finger made an exploring path down her cheek.

Ava groaned, rolled over, and reached for a blanket to pull over her.

"Nuh-uh." He grabbed her arm and tumbled over her. "Can't I be left to look at you whenever I want?" His arms rested on the sides of her head. There was a constant grin hidden under her features, winning its fight to surface. His face lowered until his lips were almost touching hers and his deep eyes were close, with so many questions spinning in them. "And kiss you forever?" His lips came over hers softly. "I want to take you like that again, every night until your heart gives out." Her cheeks burned and he kissed those too while still watching her, waiting to smother any protest. "Look at you every night." He kissed her throat and nestled his face into her neck, wrapping his arms around her so that she felt safely enclosed inside his embrace where she slipped away from the world.

Her lips found his again. Their fingers wound together. They rocked back and forth, laughing under their breath. Their bodies moved in euphoria from each other, making no sense, feeling as if they were building a liminal space, where they'd have forever, unchallenged, undecayable, unbreakable.

There was a knock on the door. Ava could barely hear it as their mouths devoured each other. "Ava," Dahlila called. "Did you want to watch a movie tonight — since you missed the dinner you wanted to have?"

How long had they been asleep?

Ava gasped, breaking away from his kiss, his lips finding her cheek, and then her neck. Ava couldn't think. "God," she gasped as she found his lips again headily.

"Do you have company in there?" Dahlila sounded surprised. They must not have been home when she and Layton were shaking the house then. And now it was nearly impossible to separate.

Layton brought his hands up on the sides of her face and pulled his lips away to look at her. "Let's go somewhere — where it's just you, me, and the night sky..."

She grinned and nodded, and he pulled her off the ground.

Ava and Layton threw clothes on hurriedly and ran out the back door. They ran into the frightening storm like lunatics. Their laughter echoed through the trees as they raced through, feet mired in mud, and down to the lake waters. Soaked hair hung wildly over their moon-filled eyes as they splashed at each other, even though they were already soaked. Ava unrelentingly provoked Layton to wrestle with her, the energy of a child stimulating her. He grabbed her up and took her down to be swallowed in the water with him. Each time she tried to prevent it with all her might. This made him laugh so hard that sometimes he couldn't even put his hands up, and she'd pounce on him sending them both into the water again.

She didn't feel the cold. She didn't feel numb either. She looked at him sometimes, and she didn't think she had ever felt so alive before, and somehow, so much like herself.

The profoundness hit her, and she blurted out when they were floating near each other in the water, "Why were you gone so long?" Her voice cracked, and her face was sad, but she was exceptionally too distracted to hide it. Could she really have a need for him that strenuous — could she really have a need like that for anyone? Or anything?