by Ali Merci
He felt air hit his naked chest when his shirt came undone, but Carmen’s eyes were still glued to his, and that made his heart race like never before. He felt her hands sweep across his shoulder blades, dragging down the sleeves until his arms were exposed. And then the piece of clothing fell to the floor.
Carmen didn’t make a move to step any closer, but her hands came to rest on his hips, and he felt her palms slide up his chest, her soft fingertips tracing every dip, dent and curve of his muscles.
It was when she dug her nails into his shoulder and raised herself on her toes to kiss his neck that Asa finally lost it.
Asa’s eyes flashed and within the blink of an eye, he stepped closer, one of his hands grabbing Carmen’s waist in an iron-tight grip and pulling her flush against his chest. The camisole she was wearing did nothing to conceal the raw feeling of both their torsos pressing into each other, every hard plane of his chest digging into every soft curve of hers.
His other hand slid up her back in an excruciatingly slow manner, the tips of Asa’s nails grazing her skin through the flimsy material, before his fingers slipped into the strands of her hair, tangling themselves into her long, dark locks.
“I could get used to this,” he told her in a rough voice, eyes flickering to her lips and then back to her eyes.
“So could I,” she breathed out, the edges of Asa’s abs carving themselves into her own body as he pulled her impossibly closer.
His voice dropped a few octaves. “I like the sound of that.”
Asa’s eyes fell on her lips again, and this time he didn’t look back up at her within a matter of seconds, allowing his heated gaze to linger on her mouth intentionally.
“Of course, you would.” She lifted her lips into a smirk, rolling her eyes.
“You speak too much, you know that?”
“And you’re not doing such a good job of shutting me up right now,” she told him breathlessly.
“No?” he murmured, tilting his head as his eyes continued to memorise the curves and dents of her lips.
The fire around them continued to roar and engulf the two of them as if it was burning away all the pain and the anger and the regret, cleansing them of the past few agonising months. They felt the heat seep out of their bones, trailing down their skin until it turned to smoke and dissolved into the air, getting carried away forever.
Carmen shook her head, feeling Asa’s fingers tighten in her hair. “No,” she whispered.
Asa started moving again, pushing her backwards as his arm clung to her waist like it was coming home after being away for far too long.
And then Carmen was being pushed past the bed and against the wall, Asa’s hand behind her back preventing the blow of the hard surface against her body. Carmen’s heart fell a little more right then, because even when caught in the heat of the moment and being driven by the intensity of their situation, he was still taking care of her.
“I don’t think I’ve ever told you how much I love kissing you,” Asa said hoarsely, curving his body further into Carmen’s. “Or how much I enjoy it when you run your fingers through my hair.” He dropped his forehead to hers, the side of his nose massaging hers, as his lips remained a breath away from her own. “Or how the curve of your hips are my hands’ favourite place.”
Fireworks. Those had to be fireworks—the things that were exploding in the pit of Carmen’s stomach, in the middle of her chest, and in every dark corner of her mind.
He pressed her further against the wall. “You drive me insane, Carmen West, and all I want to do right this moment is kiss you and kiss you and kiss you until you forget your own goddamn name.”
“I told you this on the night of that party,” Carmen mumbled. “But you’re just so whipped.” A light, silvery laugh escaped her lips.
Asa raised his brows. “You know, just for that comment, I’m not going to kiss you for the rest of tonight.”
Carmen hummed in response before she lifted her hands, sliding them up the hard indents of Asa’s chest, sweeping them over his broad shoulders and then lacing her fingers together at the back of his neck, playing with the strands of hair there. Leaning forward and dragging her chest up against his own, she rose on her feet and angled her face upwards, covering his mouth with her own in a knee-buckling, soul-satisfying kiss.
Asa clung onto his resolve to not engage in it for a few more seconds, before that resolve shattered and went up in the flames of the fire consuming them in that moment. Then he was responding to the kiss with just as much fervour, if not more, his chapped lips hungrily enveloping Carmen’s soft ones.
“Asa,” Carmen gasped as she pulled away mid-kiss, needing to do something before they got carried away. “Asa, wait.”
He groaned into her mouth. “Right now?” he grumbled. “What is it?”
“I need to give you something.”
Asa’s brows furrowed and he took a step back. “Okay?”
“Um” —she pushed herself off the wall and stepped around him— “it’s in my bag. Just wait here.”
Asa dropped down on the bed, resting his elbows on his knees, as he watched Carmen head towards where her bag was lying on the floor before she picked it up and dug something out of it.
“Here,” she said softly, seating herself down next to him on the bed, their thighs pressed against each other’s. He looked at her hands, where a deep red, leather-bound spiral book was.
“What is that?” he asked curiously.
“An art journal,” she told him, a tender smile lighting up her face.
Asa’s confusion only grew. “Your journal is blue. Did you get a new one?”
Carmen shook her head. “No. This one’s yours…” She paused. “At least, the one that you inspired me to create anyway.”
Asa stared at her with awestruck eyes, rendered speechless like so many other times she’d managed to do to him. “I… Carmen, I don’t—I don’t know what to say.”
“Don’t say anything.” She smiled.
Asa swallowed and looked down at the book in his hands before flipping it open. His eyes landed on the first page, sweeping over the calligraphic writing engraved into the rough texture of the paper;
To Asa,
Who is the definition of warmth,
And the memory of a sunrise,
And proof that nightmares end because morning comes.
Heart thumping wildly, Asa turned to the next page. His breathing faltered when he realised it was the same painting he’d accidentally seen from Carmen’s own art journal back when he’d met her.
But, it wasn’t the exact same. The moon wasn’t cracked, and its brilliance against the night sky almost stole his breath away. The sun wasn’t frozen, and the gold that was splashed across the paper seemed to crawl up Asa’s skin. And the flowers. Oh, the flowers were no longer dead, but full of life and rich in every possible colour.
And then his eyes fell on the girl right in the centre of it. She was still torn between both halves of the page, a part of her belonged to the daylight and the other claimed by the darkness. But this time, the girl wasn’t faceless. She had a pair of eyes, a nose, eyebrows, and a mouth. This time, the girl had an identity.
Carmen was telling Asa she’d found herself.
He was about to turn the page, when Carmen’s hand covered his own, stopping him from doing so.
“Later,” she said, tilting her head to the side. “I want to tell you something now.”
Asa closed the journal and placed it on the bedside table, before turning his body around to face her and giving her all his attention. “Sí, mi amor?”
Carmen shuffled closer, lifting her legs and placing them on the bed until her kneecaps were resting on top of Asa’s thighs. “I’m still learning,” she mumbled, and Asa saw a faint blush spread across her cheeks. “So I’m probably going to trip and make a lot of mistakes…but just bear with me.”
Asa’s lips stretched into a smile, curious and amused. “I’m here, Carmen. Just go ahead.”
Carmen inhaled deeply, pressing her lips together before letting out the breath and clearing her throat. And then in a voice as soft as a spring breeze, she spoke to him. “Eres el sol de mi vida.”
The smile was instantly wiped away from Asa’s face, his breath hitching and eyes widening, every single word in both English and Spanish failing him. “You are the sun of my life,” she had said.
“Con sólo escucharte, con sólo mirarte, mi día está complete.” She smiled, running her fingertips along his jawline as she told him that just hearing him and seeing him made her day complete. “Tú enciendes estrellas en mi interior…” He lit up the stars inside her. “Y nadie me mira como tú.”And nobody looked at her the way he does.
She leant forward and brushed her lips against Asa’s, who was stunned into absolute silence. “Te amaré para siempre.” Caressing his cheeks, Carmen promised to love him forever, and she believed she just might.
Asa continued to stare at her, blinking occasionally as his mouth kept opening and closing in an utterly bewildered manner. Again, the mix of emotions flitting across his features was impossible to read, and the silence stretched on.
“Asa?” Carmen laughed gently. “Say something.”
That seemed to snap him out of his trance because within a heartbeat, his hands were cupping her cheeks again, and Asa was kissing her: rough, and hard, and insanely passionate. Carmen’s back hit the bed and Asa hovered over her, not breaking the kiss, craving her taste more than air in that breathless moment. He tilted his head, angling his lips to deepen the kiss, his tongue grazing her bottom lip before slipping into the warmth of her mouth. Carmen’s hands slid up the length of his bare back, her nails digging into his skin as she dragged her fingers upwards and tangled them in the dishevelled locks of his hair.
And then the heated kiss dissolved into a sensitive one, his inability to put into words what he was feeling seeping through his frantic movements into every caress, nibble, and pull of her bottom lip.
Slowly, but eventually, the urgency of the moment melted away, too, and surrendered to the one emotion that bound both their hearts together, the one feeling that worked as a tether between the very core of their beings. It spread through them like the dawn of a new infinity, the beginning of another lifetime, flushing their insides with a warmth so pure, so beautiful that it was heartbreaking and soul-mending at the same time.
It didn’t matter that they were going to different colleges, that they were going to have to work in great distances. Nothing else mattered in that single heartbeat, in that breathless cluster of seconds, but the fact that it was now turning into yet another one of their infinites. Yet another painting to be hung on the walls of the museum Carmen had built in her mind for the boy who was a thousand shades of brown and gold.
They were a forever kind of love, and no amount of distance could take that away.
Carmen laughed breathlessly, the genuinely happy sound startling her for a second. “What’s my name again?” she murmured, closing her eyes for a brief second.
Asa chuckled, the sound reverberating through his chest and seeping through Carmen’s skin, tugging at her heartstrings in the most achingly pleasurable way possible.
“Mi amor,” he whispered, his ragged breaths fanning across Carmen’s skin as he kissed her forehead. “Mi cielo.” A kiss on the bridge of her nose. “Mi sol.” He rested his forehead against her temple before pulling away and gazing intensely into her eyes. “Te amo,” he promised. “Te amo mucho.”
“I love you too, Asa San Román.” She grinned, brushing her thumb across his cheek and seeing the raw emotion flickering in the depths of his eyes. Carmen wanted to keep that look in his eyes forever, to see genuine and heartfelt happiness light up every inch of his face forever. She’d fight for that, she knew she would, and this was a battle she wasn’t about to lose.
She’d lost Asa once, and she wasn’t about to let him slip through her hands the second time around. Because when you found that certain someone whose soul was able to spark a fire in yours, you held onto them with both hands, and you never, never let go.
THE END
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Here is a sample from another story you may enjoy:
Prologue
Samantha sat across the cafeteria eating with all her friends. They were all huddled around her waiting for her to talk, like she was God, and they were her disciples. It made me gag. With every word Sam spoke, all of her friends fell further in love with her. Sam would giggle out a saying and then flick her blonde hair. And at that, everyone would swoon.
Everyone except me, that is.
I sat alone which was the usual. The three friends that I had didn’t have the same lunch schedule as me, so that meant I ate alone while I watched my sister enjoy everyone’s company. I hated her for being liked by everybody. She was the prettier twin. The more liked twin—not according to Quinn and Rebecca, of course—but to me it was so.
If she was the head cheerleader, which she was, I was the water girl.
I couldn’t stand Sam. Ever since middle school, she has done nothing but push her way up the social ladder using her looks and charm. With her rise in popularity, you would think that I would have climbed up with her, but nothing could have been more wrong. I was stuck at the bottom, forced to endure endless torment. At school, Sam pretended as if I didn’t exist. When we were home, sometimes we would hang out, but somewhere along the way, that stopped, and I was thrown to the wolves.
Chapter 1
Hey Sis
I hated parties.
Parties were probably my least favorite things. But Sam loved them. She threw one practically every weekend our parents went out, and this weekend was no exception.
I could already feel the bass from upstairs in my room. The floor shook beneath my feet, making it difficult for me to apply my eyeliner.
“It’s only nine!” Quinn shouted from behind me. “Why is the music already blasting?” She covered her head with my pillow and fell onto the bed. “How many people can actually be here already?”
“Explain to me again. Why are we going to Sam’s party?” Becca asked from the bathroom linked to my room. She was applying her makeup there since I was taking up the full-length mirror in my room.
“I’m tired of having to ditch my own house almost every Friday night,” I said and threw my eyeliner into my makeup bag. I had given up applying it and decided that my brown eye shadow was good enough. I stood up and examined my outfit. It wasn’t much. A black dress that hugged my skin and a flannel to cover my arms. A pair of black sneaker pumps completed my outfit. It wasn’t every day I got to dress up. Usually, I just wore soccer clothes, so this was a treat.
“We could be watching America’s Next Top Model right now.” Quinn moaned and lifted the pillow from her face. “Did you know there’s a marathon tonight?” It was clear they hated parties just as much as I did. I guess that’s why we’re friends
“Fine,” I said, spinning around. “If you want to watch that, go ahead. I’m going downstairs,” I hissed. They both looked at each other in alarm.
I flicked my blonde hair over my shoulder and strutted over to the door.
Before I could leave, the door swung open.
“Let’s go party, bitches!” Caleb shouted in the doorway and ran over to my bed, landing on it with a soft thud. Caleb jumped around Quinn who sat in a ball in the middle, screaming. “We’re going to a party! We’re going to a party!” Caleb sang as he jumped all around. For whatever reason, he loved parties, but, unfortunately, our group never got to go to any. It was usually because Sam was there. It was already bad that I had to live in the same town as her, let alone in the same house. Caleb would always say that we should throw our own party or that we should go to more, but
us nobodies never went to cool parties, so that was out of the question.
Him being six-feet tall, I was sure he was bound to hit his head on my slanted ceiling. Each time he jumped on my bed, his blond hair bounced closer to it.
“I swear, if you hit your head and die…,” I began. I grabbed a towel that was hanging on my door and threw it at him. He flinched a little but continued to jump, wearing his usual goofy grin. “…I am not cleaning up your blood stains!” I shouted. Caleb only winked at me.
“That looks like fun!” Becca shouted and ran over to the bed, too. She crawled onto it and stood, holding Caleb’s hands and jumping with him around a now very panicked Quinn.
“I hate you all.” I sighed and turned to leave my room for the second time.
In my doorway, though, now stood the mega bitch. She glared at me with her emerald eyes. Her perfectly waxed eyebrows were pinched together. Her curled blonde hair was perfectly placed over her shoulder as she crossed her bony arms.
It was Sam.
It was my twin sister.
Yay.
“Hey sis.” I smiled and leaned against the wall in the doorway. Sam frowned at me. While I just strongly disliked her, she despised me. Twins were supposed to be closer than normal siblings, but it was different for us. It seemed normal for siblings to fight, but twins? I always saw twins as siblings who’d always hang out together. They shared the same group of friends, and they always got along with each other. A twin was like a permanent best friend, but for me and Samantha, it was more like the bane of our existence.
“Ah, welcome to the real party, Samantha!” Caleb shouted from my bed. He was smiling like crazy. I wanted to laugh at his funny face, but contained it. Sam cringed upon seeing him.
“No one invited you here, Caleb.” She sneered. There it was. Her nasty attitude. It was honestly amazing how people haven’t caught on to her act yet.
