Shadow & Flame - Part Two: The Collective - Season One, Episode 9

by Elias Raven

  “Fuck no, I wasn’t complaining. You were determined to get every drop, honey,” she said, grinding herself against my leg.

  We both laughed. Misty leaned up on one arm and started teasing my nipples. I let out an appreciative moan. “Damn, I thought I had worn you out already, baby,” I said and let out a small gasp.

  “Oh, I’m tired alright, but fair is fair, Misty said and slid her leg between mine, flipping me on my back. She kissed me hungrily, her tongue sliding between my lips. I savored the moment, enjoying that kiss. It was passionate, hot, and most of all, it had a lot of heart. I loved making memories with her. She reached over to the nightstand and pulled out a small vibrator. She grinned at me and looked down.

  “Hey, no fair! I went natural on you?” I said, causing my girl to laugh.

  “Quit complaining. We still have to get Chinese food, but you're going to get rid of some of that stress. It’s not up for discussion,” she said matter-of-factly.

  She slid between my legs, and I heard the hum as she turned the toy on. My whole body shuddered as she began using her talented lips and tongue on me. The toy was just an added bonus. The coup de grace so to speak. Misty knew my body better than any lover I had ever had. She could make me climax with just the right look and touch. I surrendered myself to her and let her work her magic.

  My own moans were soon slipping into the room as she increased the tempo. My own fingers clutched the sheets as she gave the command, and I grabbed her head, grinding my wetness against her face, wanting her to take everything I had. I moved faster and faster, bending my legs and pumping against her as her tongue darted and explored. The toy moved as if it had a life of its own. She dialed it up one more level and that was it. I pin dotted as the orgasm washed through me. My back arched as I let go of her head and exploded all over her and the toy. I couldn’t even speak after a moment it was so good. She wouldn’t back off either; she kept pulling more and more out of me. I lost count of how many times I had climaxed before she finally stopped.

  I remember sobbing even as she went to the bathroom to get towels and clean me. I just knew how I felt and at that moment everything was right in my world. She was gentle as I shook. We fell into each other's arms and just held each other. After a while we laid side by side, touching and exploring. I knew after dinner all bets were off. That was when we were going to really get down. As if on cue, our cell phones went off. We both laughed and grabbed our phones. Misty had pictures of Abel and Gia, and I had pictures of Elias and Genevieve. Our friends were waiting for us. I slapped her ass and told her to get a move on. Misty laughed and grabbed me and we both got up together.

  “Let's catch a quick shower. Text them that we will be right there,” she said. I grabbed my phone and sent the message. She smiled from the bathroom as I followed her in. We wouldn’t have time for another round, but foreplay could be just as fun as the actual act. Anticipation could do delicious things to your head, and mine was already planning our desert.

  Chapter 3

  ~Burnt Norton~

  Words move, music moves

  Only in time; but that which is only living

  Can only die. Words, after speech, reach

  Into the silence. Only by the form, the pattern,

  Can words or music reach

  The stillness, as a Chinese jar still

  Moves perpetually in its stillness.

  Not the stillness of the violin, while the note lasts,

  Not that only, but the co-existence,

  Or say that the end precedes the beginning,

  And the end and the beginning were always there

  Before the beginning and after the end.

  And all is always now. Words strain,

  Crack and sometimes break, under the burden,

  Under the tension, slip, slide, perish,

  Will not stay still. Shrieking voices

  Scolding, mocking, or merely chattering,

  Always assail them.

  Excerpt from Four Quartets by T.S. Elliot

  Elias~ God my head was still pounding from the party the night before. Royston really brought the party to Rhianna’s house. I don’t think I have ever eaten that much Mexican food or drank that much Tequila and beer in one sitting. Well that’s bullshit! Let me rephrase that. Since, I was in college with Abel. It was one of those wake ups the next day, when you look around to see if you are home or not, who’s in your bed and then you get up to take a leak and stagger out of the bathroom, you just stand there looking at the living room with your mouth open at the destruction everyone had wrought from the night before.

  It was like a frat party on steroids, total Animal House, there were empties and food containers everywhere. I stepped out into the living room and could see the TV was paused on an old episode of Saturday Night Live. Speaking of Animal House, there was John Belushi on the flat screen dressed like Joe Cocker with the real Joe Cocker singing next to him. I had to laugh at the scene. I grabbed the play button on the remote and sat on the couch watching the two of them go at it on stage. Those were some good times.

  The house was still quiet, everyone was still crashed. I walked into the guest room and found my Genevieve sleeping peacefully. There is something seductive, yet simple in waking up someone you love with a kiss. The anticipation as you lean in and your lips brush across theirs. Realization from the sleeping party and the return pressure as their lips push back hungrily, then the soft moan and those beautiful blue eyes fluttering open. Fuck yes it was perfect and just like that.

  I leaned in and kissed her again and let it linger letting her wrap her arms around my neck. There are no words to describe what it is like to lose someone you love. When I thought my brother Qaylin had taken her life, it was a feeling of utter desolation that ripped right through me and tore me open to the core.

  It is a grieving that consumes all light like a black hole in the center of your universe. It pulls down at the edges of your soul, ripping and tearing grief that is all consuming. It is a pain that is completely indescribable and at times indecipherable.

  My heart still raced when I touched her, felt her, and loved her. All the little things were amplified a million times more, and I held onto those moments like they were diamonds sitting in the palm of my hands. She was precious and she was mine. Nothing would come between us, and I would defend her with my last dying breath. I loved her completely. Looking into those beautiful eyes, I wanted to sit at a piano with her on top and just write beautiful music and pretend the world was not a shit storm, and that we are not sitting right in the eye of the maelstrom. At that moment, she was a rock ballad waiting to happen, and I was the man that loved her. I don’t know if that makes sense, but that was how I felt.

  We all make mistakes and look back at those forks in the road when we realize we fucked up. There was no third time around for us, we’d both decided that. She wore my engagement ring proudly, and we would get to Paris to go see her folks soon enough to get their blessing. For now we had this time together and it was bliss. Genevieve just smiled at me and I returned it. Drinking her all in and crawling next to her in bed, we just laid there enjoying the moment, but reality, of course, comes knocking at the worst times.

  My phone started buzzing as Genevieve started laughing.

  “I would guess that is Abel calling?” she whispered and smiled at me.

  Sure enough, it was a text message from Abel.

  Hey, are you done camping at Rhianna’s? You ready to hit the town? I am loading up the caravan and if your head isn’t pounding like someone is slamming a double bass drum on your skull like mine, you will recall that Rhianna and Misty have to go meet those detectives for breakfast over at Ava’s place anyways. Let’s go fuck around man. The ladies will get a kick out of it and we can see what they added since the last time we were up here. I don’t know about you man, but it’s been a minute since I have been here except for touring and those don’t count. We blow in and out so fast; fuck my manager is a prick sometimes!
>
  I smiled and showed G the message. She started laughing and held her head.

  I quickly typed in a reply:

  “Yeah, we're getting ready. Give me a minute and we’ll be right there. I’ll have to redline the Vette since you’re such an impatient fuck this morning!” I replied.

  After a moment my phone chimed with his reply.

  “Ha ha asshole! We’ll see you in a minute!” he said.

  Fuck I loved him, he had a hair up his ass this morning, but he was right. We had time to kill. I checked on Rhianna and Misty and found their bedroom door open. Probably took their bikes and headed to Ava’s. That’s what I would do anyways. I pulled G out of bed and stripped her down quickly letting my eyes wander along the curves.

  I pulled her to me and kissed her hard. She didn’t bother resisting melting into my arms. My hand found her hair and pulled back as my tongue darted against her lips. She opened and met my assault full on leaning backwards as I tugged then released as I wrapped her in my arms. We broke the embrace and I smiled at her.

  “That was to let you know that I am going to have a lovely day with you and everyone, but the first chance that I have to keep you to myself, I plan on doing unspeakably sexy things to your body in the hopes that you will unintelligibly moan my name during the course of said events.” I whispered to her.

  The comment had her laughing as soon as I said it. She knew I was being playful even as I slowly started to reassert my control. I had to watch it, the doctors had told me it would take time and I had all the time in the world with this woman. We went and showered together, I kicked on the side jets and rain head and we both slid under the hot water. Genevieve stood still while I soaped her body and teased the hell out of her. Fuck, it was sexy as hell. I was enjoying the intimacy as my hands moved across her skin. Her nipples were rock hard and standing at attention from my ministrations with my cock following right behind. I wanted to take her hard in the shower, but we were fucked for time and we both knew it. As she turned around and started to rinse off, I brought my hand down firmly with a loud crack against her ass cheeks. She let out a yell and pushed her fists up against my chest and kissed me again under the running water. We broke the embrace and shut off the shower and dried quickly, then headed into the bedroom. I slid on a pair of 501’s and put on a black V-neck T-shirt and slid on a set of low cut boots and my pewter skull belt buckle to complete the look.

  Genevieve slid on a matching black silk bra and panties set.

  They were fucking delectable. I was going to tear those off later you better believe it. A set of denim jeans and black spaghetti strap top with the words Attitude emblazoned across the front completed the look. She looked hot and I loved every minute of it. We grabbed our leather jackets off the hat rack. My wallet was still in the pocket and Genevieve grabbed her purse and we headed out. We didn’t have a key, but Rhianna would hook up with us later. We locked the door and found the Corvette waiting patiently in the driveway. I hit the remote FOB and started the engine and unlocked the doors. It was a nice car, not as nice as mine, but for a rental it fucking worked. We both jumped in buckled and I pulled out of the driveway and headed up the street. According to my bro he was literally right up the street.

  Fuck me if we weren’t there in like less than five minutes. When he said it was right up the street he wasn’t kidding. He was already loaded up and waiting for us with his SUV running. I had to laugh, the prick. He wanted me to know that he was waiting on us and not the other way around. I pulled up alongside him and he rolled the window down. Gia leaned over waving at Genevieve. I knew that Mia and Chance were in the back. Abel would not go anywhere without them. This was farther than five minutes so they came too. I liked seeing he was easing into family life. Nothing was easy for my buddy, but Gia was a perfect match for him. We didn’t talk about it, but Mia had her daddy’s heart in full lockdown. I hoped when G and I had our first child it would be the same way for us.

  “Damn that was the longest fucking five minutes of my life!” he exclaimed. I could see the shit eating grin on his face.

  “Hey you know how women are; they take forever to get ready. I was practically going out of my mind,” I replied.

  I felt a set of fingers pinch against the muscles in my chest. The move didn’t escape Abel.

  “Are you bullshitting me? Next time, I’ll bring a makeup artist from my tour along so we can have you ready on time!” he said laughing and waved us forward.

  He pulled out off the curb and I gunned the corvette's engine and quickly shifted gears as we slid in behind him. Traffic was heavy, but it always is in the Bay Area. It doesn’t matter what side of the bridge you're on. It seemed like it only took a few minutes and we were crossing the Golden Gate Bridge. The sunlight made the bridge pillars that much more brilliant. You could see across the whole bay. Cargo ships and freighters moved below us on the sparkling waters, the white wakes from their engines making white lines against the water as they churned forward toward the open sea.

  Abel was headed toward the streetcar stations. We had talked about it the night before as the easiest way to get around the city. It was a smart move because parking was going to suck ass. Abel guided us over to Market Street and we finally found parking. We hopped out and locked up the cars as Abel got Chance and Mia together along with all of the things a young baby needs. I smiled at G, but made sure Abel didn’t see me checking it all out. Gia caught me out of the corner of her eye but didn’t say a word.

  I bet she was thinking. “Yeah asshole you're next and then you’ll see!” or something similar with lots of Gia attitude.

  We headed over to a kiosk and bought day passes to the streetcars and before we knew it we were heading up the Powell Mason line and heading toward Fisherman’s Wharf. We ate and drank and made like tourists, we would stop and send pictures to Rhianna and Misty. We even were able to get on the tour of the Rock in the middle of the harbor.

  It was a great day full of clam chowder, cioppino, clams and mussels, sourdough bread and most of all time with each other. Abel and I hadn’t bonded like this in years. Maybe it was the years in-between, maybe it was that looking back at shit and realizing things were different now. I knew one thing we were getting our friendship back and it really did feel like old times.

  The girls window-shopped and we offered destinations to one another off of our phones on different places that were must see. Shit we rode the cable cars everywhere they went. We even went to the Cable Car Museum. About mid afternoon, we sent a final set of pictures over to Rhianna and Misty. Rhianna told us they were done with their interview with the police and were getting ready to come out. They would meet us over in Chinatown for dinner. Abel and the girls seemed up for it, so we told them we would see them there and hopped back on the streetcar and headed toward Chinatown.

  Fuck that was a mistake! The girls went into a shopping frenzy, checking out new outfits for Mia, which Abel shot down half of them, but there were a couple that he couldn’t say no on. I didn’t say a word. I knew it was my turn next and if I gave him shit; he would either punch me in the throat or mercilessly fuck with me until we started brawling. Friends and brothers are like that sometimes. We took our time walking through the shops and made our way toward Begoni Bistro. We walked up just as Rhianna and Misty were texting us and Royston slid in behind them.

  “I have taken care of the reservations and our table is waiting.” He said walking up to us.

  I grabbed the front door and we slid inside to a very spacious and modern Chinese restaurant. The place was clean and the staff was very helpful. We were quickly seated and drink orders taken. The girls all ordered wine and the guys grabbed cold beers. We sat taking in the ambience as Rhianna explained the Dim Sum menu to us and recommended different dishes.

  Everything looked fantastic and we quickly waved the waiter over and started ordering Tapas to start and main courses to follow. You could see some of the dishes had a French influence but the overall main dishes were authe
ntic. Everything that was brought to the table was absolutely delicious. Abel actually loosened up a bit for dinner and was as easy going as Abel could get, which wasn’t a lot, but I had to hand it to him he was relaxed. Small plates were removed, main dishes slid onto the lazy Susan.

  I think everyone was getting stuffed. Somehow we managed to plow through all the food and the waiting staff had Egg tarts and Durian Pastry’s ready to finish off any last vestiges of hunger that we had. Coffee was served or tea if so desired.

  It was a magnificent meal and a superb choice by Rhianna. Everyone was at ease, even Royston was telling us stories about growing up in England and where he got his start in the music business. He even mentioned the time he went to my parents place in Mesa doing some research on a Sherlock Holmes story he was working on.

  Somehow he had learned that my family had quite an extensive collection of Sir Arthur’s stuff and he traced down the owners and contacted my family. I took a pull on my beer thinking of the irony of that. I was away at UCLA at the time, so I didn’t know about it until years later when Royston was working with Rhianna and Misty and he told me the story. My old man remembered him and confirmed the story. What a small world we live in.

  The plates were cleared and we were left with our drinks. The sun had already set. We were going to have to catch a ride back with Royston and the girls to the parking area. Abel got up to use the restroom and I waved the waiter down to pay the bill. Before anyone could object I waved them to silence and handed the waiter my credit card and he quickly ran my card and brought us the bill. Abel came out of the bathroom as the waiter walked by him with a large smile on his face. I had of course given him a fat tip equal to the bill. I know I had made his night. Abel came walking up.

  “What’s with the waiter?” he asked.

  “Nothing, I just picked up the check and gave him a fat tip. I figured you wouldn’t mind?” I said.