by S. K Munt
Hunter had to admit that he was having fun. He couldn’t pinpoint a part of the evening where laughter hadn’t hung in the air like their frigid breaths. Marnie and Nick were getting their flirt on, though he doubted anything would come of it when Marnie’s head snapped around like a meerkat every time Ryan so much as spoke in her vicinity.
Hunter smirked as he pulled himself up onto a rock and snatched a chip from the bag Rathe had, sweeping it through some Philly cream cheese, watching Marnie squeal as Nick tried to wrestle her under. Ironically, Marnie was a tough bitch if he’d ever met one, and had the athletic ability to not only break Nick’s grip, but climb on top of his head and do a perfect backflip to a safe distance away if she were so inclined. But she was feigning vulnerability, half-heartedly trying to break the hold and probably praying that he’d cop a feel underwater and get some actual action going before Ryan could distract her by doing something fascinating, like inhaling again.
Hunter smiled because he understood Marnie’s angle; and sensed it was because they’d both had their emotional growth stunted by an unsatisfactory high school career and therefore, resorted to the kind of flirting that was poking fun and the kind of games that were completely transparent. But Hunter was cheered that someone like Marnie, who had seen everything she’d touched turn to gold, still had the heart of an adolescent to shelve with all of her life victories. He’d think they ought to hook-up, like-minded as they were, but then again, she’d probably drop him for passing a note to a girl. And it would be Ryan she dropped him for, and Callie he’d passed the note to.
Callie. Just thinking her name was as satisfying as holding pitch to a difficult song. He glanced to the right just in time to see her swing off the topmost branch, the one they’d once fallen from together, but land inches from Ryan, instead of gripping Hunter like the first time. Callie barely made a splash as her ballerina’s feet sluiced into the deep green water and Ryan made no move to get out of her way. Instead, he fished her out a second later and brought her to surface inches from the perfect nose Hunter should have broken in warning on the way there. They floated there for a moment, nose to nose, their breath puffing out in a mist in the cold twilight and Hunter bit the chip wrong and cursed before to chew it down to a manageable size, looking away.
Who cares if I get an ulcer? Not like anyone’s gonna hear me over Ryan tomorrow night anyway! Hunter had stopped complaining about who got to sing the lead, as Callie’s diagnosis had put stuff into perspective for him. And so long as Callie remained alive and smiling- he was okay with everything. The gig would be amazing, and if the talent scouts coming to check him out tried to whisk Ryan away instead, he had to have faith that his best friend wouldn’t go far without him.
‘Just let it happen man.’ Rathe said. ‘Once they get it out of their system, she’ll probably come crawling back. Ryan’s cool, but I backed you the other day because you’re the one man.’
Hunter looked up, making a swift surprised swallow. ‘Not… not you’re ‘the one’ right? I mean I like you but-’
Rathe bent and sent a palm-sized wave of water rushing Hunter’s way, who had to move the chips and got soaked for his trouble. ‘No dick. And I mean- no dick. Not for me.’ He shook his head wryly. ‘You’re the one who’s either going to launch us somewhere worth getting, or leave us in the dust.’ He nodded towards Callie. ‘And any groupie worth a spit goes for the lead in the end. Which will be you.’
Hunter’s ego was rudely sobered by Rathe’s smart remark. ‘Callie’s not a groupie, man. She’s our mate- who we both happen to be in love with.’ The song changed from What about me? to Push Up by The Freestylers, shifting Hunter’s mood up a notch at a pivotal moment. ‘She’d never throw herself at Axl or Lars or even friggin P. Diddy.’ He glanced over at Callie again who thankfully, was swimming away from Ryan. ‘She belongs with us. She just doesn’t know which half of us she belongs with the most.’ And she’s probably not going to have the chance to find out, he added silently, feeling that all-consuming ache in his chest bloom again.
‘If you say so...’ Rathe said, rising to his feet, his tone conveying that Hunter was deluded. But he was wrong. Callie was not playing them. In fact Callie was more herself that day than she had been since she’d returned, or for the six weeks before she’d initially left.
‘Hey Rathe… what do you call someone who hangs out with musicians?’ Hunter asked, standing also.
‘I dunno know,’ Rathe was peering over the edge of the rock, assessing the danger. ‘What?’
‘A bassist.’ Hunter’s hands shot out and shoved Rathe off the edge, laughing hysterically when the other guy yelped and then landed with a massive splash. ‘No girls!’ Hunter cupped his mouth to yell when Rathe surfaced, spluttering, eyes wide at the shock of the freezing water.
Rathe gave him the finger.
‘You still on with that sexist bullshit?’ Callie asked, pulling herself out of the water near his feet and wringing out her saturated black hair. ‘Didn’t I teach you anything?’
‘I told you- I’m the one schooling you.’ Hunter tried not to look at her cleavage when she bent and turned up the stereo.
‘Oh yeah!’ Callie did a silly little dance without moving her feet, complete with dopey facial expressions, while clicking her fingers and bouncing her head, giving the impression that Penelope Cruz had swallowed Steve Urkel and was now grooving accordingly. ‘This is more like it!’ She clicked again and then poked her tongue out rock star style while forking her fingers and a laugh tumbled out of Hunter that almost became a sob.
‘You could be at a wedding in the seventies with moves like that,’ he said, brushing flecks of rock off the seat of his pants and daring to approach her for the first time all night.
Callie laughed. ‘I probably was.’ Then she stilled, frowning as though lost in a memory.
‘Um, Callie?’ Hunter was afraid that he’d just witnessed one of her mental malfunctions. He waved his hand in front of her eyes. ‘How about you stay here with us instead of going down the past life track, hmm? How many West Coasts have you had anyway?’
Callie blinked, then looked at him and smiled. ‘Um, like three. You don’t need the smelling salts yet either Hunter so chill.’ She rested her hand on his forearm and smiled. ‘I’m not going anywhere tonight.’
He smiled weakly at her. ‘Can you tell me that every five minutes for the rest of my life? I’m already missing my heart beat.’ He dropped to eyes. ‘I’m afraid it won’t keep time without yours...’
‘Oh Hunt…’ Her eyes were velvet as she stepped towards him. ‘If I could choose how my life was supposed to go, I know I would have ask-’ but she was cut off when the strumming of a guitar could be heard over the pulsing rhythm from the portable stereo. Hunter turned with her to see that Rathe was now scaling the diving rock towards the flickering flames of a fledgling fire above. Marnie and Nick were already on their way up, and Nick was helping Marnie by the hips a little more than required.
‘Nobody knows what it’s like…’ Ryan crooned softly from above, his voice haunting, throaty.
‘Oh for fuck’s-’ Hunter went to mutter, but no one would have heard him. Callie was already three feet away and rising steadily, leaving him in the dark alone where at least, she couldn’t see his pain.
28.
Callie wrapped the blanket tightly around herself, pausing while Marnie popped a marshmallow into her mouth. She chewed and smiled a puffy smile, grateful for her kind friend. Grateful for the warmth of the blanket, and for the delightfully sweet male voices in harmony around her, filling the gorge, rising to the treetops in the blackening sky above.
In fact, Callie had had so much to drink that she was grateful for dew on trees, shine on stars and firelight on bronzed skin. She rested her head on Marnie’s shoulder and took another drunken moment to absorb the beauty of life while her eyes appreciated the shadows sculpting Ryan’s skin. He looked so at ease with a guitar, like James Dean with a cigarette or Marilyn with an air-ve
nt. It was funny how she’d been drawn to ‘her guys’ for the music but had fallen for them for the smallest things; the way Ryan’s knuckles flexed when he shifted gears, or the way Hunter’s silver chain rested against his collarbone. Those were the things that she’d miss the most. And those were the things she was bound to forget when she ceased to be human, and became a Muse once more. And so she peeked a toe out of the edge of her blanket and grazed the damp hem of Ryan’s board shorts with them, wondering if she’d find things like that to love about Ardos, or if Oblivion would make her miss music so much that she’d be back raising hell on earth again the second she was able.
Ryan’s eyes flickered towards her, and he smiled as his fingers deftly wound their way through Isn’t she lovely the acoustic version. Only Hunter could hit it, and was- perfectly. Hunter’s voice was as smooth as champagne butter, utterly effortless and rolling in a perfect glissando as he kept the beat on his thighs. He didn’t look at her though, seemingly lost in the song as he stared into the fire. And when his voice croaked ‘making love would be’ Callie’s own breath caught. He hadn’t pitched out. He was trying not to cry.
Hunter had found his lyrical tears, at last. How far off could he possibly be from unlocking his potential?
When the song ended, they all clapped, and Ryan put down his guitar, tugging down on the blue woolen beanie he’d donned which was just too adorable for words. ‘We better save the tunes for now,’ he said, ‘I think we have a gig or something tomorrow right...?’
‘I will never stop singing!’ Hunter cried, scrambling to his feet and grinning at Callie. ‘Or acting completely irresponsibly! And if you don’t like it, y’all can eat my wake!’ He spun to the edge of the rock, lifted his arms and cried: ‘I am the king of the gorge and a bloody rock star!’ And then he leapt into the darkness hanging above the gorge below and vanished from sight crying: ‘They all want to wear Hunter’s hat!’ Everyone was laughing and cheering as the splash erupted from beneath.
‘Call me the king of the mountain!’ Rathe got to his own feet. ‘I’ve got moves you’ve never seen Marks!’ And then he vaulted into the air, curled into a ball and flipped out of the glow of the firelight. After his splash resounded, Nick and Marnie stood as well.
‘They are so on!’ Marnie launched herself into the blackness at a running dive Calliope was glad she couldn’t see because it might have actually given her a heart attack. Then Nick was flying off the edge too screaming: ‘Lonesome October is gonna kill it!’
Callie glanced at Ryan when she caught his silhouette rising in her periphery. ‘Got something cool to holler out as you jump?’ She joked, knowing she’d had too many wine coolers to take the plunge herself. ‘Or are you going to go with ‘I am the lizard king?’
Ryan chuckled and extended his hand to her. ‘Actually I’m not going to jump.’
‘You’re not?’
‘No.’ How Ryan managed to load that tiny word with so many meanings was beyond Callie. ‘And neither are you. I have this whole plan, remember?’ His hand clasped around hers and tugged her to her feet, steadying her with fire-warmed limbs that snaked around her and made her breath catch as he whispered into her ear: ‘And in this fantasy, the only thing you need to scream, is my name.’
Callie was instantly light-headed. She looked up at Ryan, wanting to be coy, wanting to say something equally sexy but coming up tongue-tied. Those eyes were too blue. His body too carved. His scent too heady. ‘You make it sound like I don’t have a choice in the matter.’
‘Of course you have a choice.’ In one quick movement, Ryan whipped her hat off her head and retreated towards the dense foliage behind him, grinning wickedly, bending only to snatch up the picnic rug from the ground. ‘You can choose to get your hat back, or not.’ He raised his eyebrows. ‘But know if you follow me into this forest Callie Clay, know that you’re not going to be coming out for a very long time…’ Ryan pivoted and broke through the screen of trees, leaving his threat dangling in the air- a promise that she followed into the forest like a trail of breadcrumbs.
Callie ran after him more recklessly than she ought to have, trying to only graze the ground on pointed toes as she tracked him deeper into the forest, feeling every pump of her legs pump the alcohol in her blood more quickly to her heart. Ryan’s legs and strides were long, but Callie was lighter on her feet. The rainforest tumbled past them and with every second, she was gaining on him. Ryan leapt over a fallen trunk and Callie’s first foot landed as his second did, her feet bouncing off the moist, cool leaf litter beneath. They had probably covered one hundred meters before Ryan suddenly stopped, swerved around and caught her hand.
‘This is far enough.’ He pulled, almost swinging her, slowing her strides and bringing her back to face him again as he backed against a tree and dropped the bundled hat and blanket at his feet. Callie’s legs were shaking from the exertion, and her thoughts muddled by her now woozy mind, when Ryan jerked Callie indelicately up against his body. His skin was hot and lightly sweaty against hers- his muscles trembling. ‘They won’t hear us here.’
Callie knew what he meant. She knew that she’d been chasing him for reasons that had nothing to do with Hunter’s hat. But still she asked: ‘Hear what Weaver? You panting so hard because of those nasty cigarettes you and Hunter keep puffing away on?’
‘No.’ Ryan grinned and spun her in his arms, lifting one to the side, up near his shoulder, and held it there. ‘Me…’ He kissed the inside of her wrist. ‘Playing….’ His arm wrapped around her, two fingers pressed against her pulse where he’d pressed the kiss, and then agonizingly-slowly traced down the inside of her arm, under her armpit and then over her breast. Her nipple stiffened under the fabric of her damp bikini and then those fingers slanted down her swelling ribs, across the sensitive skin of her stomach and finally, to the string at her hip. ‘You.’ He finished. There was a tug, and her bikini bottoms skittered down her legs and landed on her feet.
Callie had been holding her breath as his fingers skated over her skin so softly, so provocatively. But that jerk, that feeling of her last remaining boundary with Ryan falling away, made fire tear through her. She craned her neck to find his lips, but his found hers first and slanted across them hungrily. It should have been an awkward position but Ryan’s shoulder was just the right height for her to lean against, their necks long enough to meet with force. Their tongues met, circled, teased and then darted deeper, his lips worked against hers, parting them, then trapping them shut only to part them once more and delve deeper again. Callie sighed a tune that sounded sweet to even her own ears and Ryan moaned in response and deeper they sank, their gaits stooping to cave in to one another, to kiss more fiercely until Callie was gasping.
‘Got any requests?’ His voice was velveteen and raw and it made her ache. Every part of her body not touching his was intolerable. The hand that had tugged off her panties was still clamped in his hand and she wanted it elsewhere.
‘Yes,’ she rolled her hips against his groin and Ryan shuddered. ‘Fuck me, Ry. Now.’
Ryan made a slightly strangled sound before cupping her sex in his hot hand and used his grip to force her hips against his erection again, bending to kiss her at the same time. Callie lapped at his tongue desperately; her nerve endings were singing but she needed more still, needed to feel him inside her and he responded with a growl deep in the back of his throat. Proving his dexterity further, Ryan’s upper hand slid down her arm and she felt his thumb thrum her bikini top out of the way, exposing her to the cool night air for just a moment before his thumb circled a second time, catching her nipple between it and his index finger and tugging it gently.
‘Perfect. Mine. God Callie… Oh Callie you make me so fucking hard I’m afraid that once I start riding you, I’m never going to stop.’ He captured her mouth once more and suckled fiercely on her lower lip and Callie felt herself begin to float from her own body. Pressure was mounting inside her. She was throbbing, pulsing, aching from head to toe, wanting so muc
h but not knowing how to articulate anything that would bring her respite from it. Ryan’s touch was so tentative- the warmth of his hand was still gently curved over her mound and hadn’t even penetrated her yet, so how was he doing this to her?
‘Touch me Ryan!’ She begged, almost in tears for want of him.
‘Where?’ He whispered between kisses. ‘Here?’And then it happened, Ryan glanced off the tip of her clit with one gentle strum and Calliope was torn apart from pleasure.
‘Oh!’ The initial crash of the orgasm slammed every cell of her body with the force of a tidal wave, and when her knees buckled Ryan cradled her, tossed the blanket onto the cold grass and gently lowered her onto it- kissing her navel before burying his head between her thighs.
‘Mine,’ he declared, before roughly nuzzling her legs apart with his head, his hair tickling the delicate skin if her inner thighs intimately before his lips were suckling on her, every flick of his tongue in beat with every pulse of her sex.
Calliope bucked, vaulting up, catching his head, wanting to push it away because it was too much. Too much everything. Tears ran down her face. ‘Oh!’
Ryan’s hand clapped over her mouth, silencing her, and he eased her back down while his tongue continued to probe every last drop of pleasure from her pulsing sex. Calliope was mewling, writhing, bucking beneath him until the overwhelming panic subsided and anticipation was rising again and then her hands were ripping off his beanie so she could tug on his damp hair. ‘Please!’ But he couldn’t hear her muffled words so she nuzzled the hand silencing her, suckling on the tip of his index finger and then drawing it deep into her mouth, sucking hard, shivering when he hummed in pleasure against her sex, straddling her leg, grinding himself against her as he slid up her body- hot and hard, panting.
