affectionate - Chapter 23: Chapter 23

FALLON
The plan was Washington, specifically Renton. I had an Aunt and Uncle there who I trusted enough to confide in. They were the only ones who sent me a card on my birthday every year, I snagged the one from last year before leaving my parents house. Their address was scrawled across the top in cursive writing. Luckily they were on my mother's side, and I desperately needed help figuring out this whole heavenly restriction thing, preferably with someone who was a witch or had relatives who practiced. I don't remember them much but I hoped they remembered me.
Lucius was skeptical about the whole thing and honestly so was I. I didn't know if my parents mindset extended to the entire family or if it was just an Everskies family exclusive thing. I was hoping for the latter.
It was morning now, a couple hours before the sun rose and got Melrose ready for the day.
Lucius and I were on our way out his cottage. I wanted to be gone from Melrose before the afternoon, if I stayed any longer there was a chance I'd change my mind. I was worried about the cottage too, we weren't going to come back but I didn't want anything to happen to it while we were gone. It was cute and held so many memories and honestly I was more sad about leaving the tiny home than I was sad about leaving Melrose. Lucius told me not worry about it and I tried but either way the guilt would eat at me.
As we walked through the woods back to my car, Lucius's hand occupied the space on my lower back, guiding me through the woods while he walked beside me. The warmth passing through him into me added to the warmth of my puffer and it was almost as if it wasn't even cold out. I glanced sideways at him, taking in his eyebrow piercing and steel blue eyes. I almost melted at the sight. His face was serious as we walked his hand didn't waver on my back once. He was wearing what he wore when we first met all those weeks ago: maroon short sleeve shirt with black jeans. The thought of it made me laugh. We'd come such a long way and I was glad Lucius was still by my side.
He was so loyal and good to me despite saying that he never wanted anything to do with me. I knew it was because of the bond but if he really didn't care about me in some way then he wouldn't be here right now. That was just the type of person he was.
My car sat parked perfectly on the street, untouched and windows frosted from the early morning dew. I walked up to it and ran my hands across the glass to make sure everything was still how I left it. I turned around to face Lucius and leaned back against the car as he took the last couple of steps towards me. His hands fit so perfectly around my waist, it was like they were made to do this and only this; hold me against him so I could breathe in his scent and gaze into his never ending eyes.
"I'm so glad it's you coming with me, I always thought that when I eventually left Melrose it'd just be me and my car." He hummed and leaned down to kiss me on my nose.
"Wherever you are, I am too." He murmured. I looped my arms around his neck and tugged him even closer. My lips found themselves in the crook of his neck, coincidentally hovering over the same spot where he marked me on my neck. I breathed him in one more time before kissing the spot and feeling him shudder underneath me, his hands tightened their grip on my waist and my heartbeat picked up in speed.
"Fallon," He sighed out. I was too far gone to hear slight growl in his voice.
"I love you, Lucius." I murmured into the skin of his neck.
It was dizzying almost, how in a second instead of my back against the passenger side door it was now pressed flush against the hood of my car and Lucius was pinning me down with his body. His lips were devouring my neck and his leg forced my own apart, the friction making my mind cloud with lust.
"Say it again." He choked out in between kisses. I moaned after he kissed a particularly sensitive spot on my collarbone.
"I love you, Lucius. Only you." He grunted and continued to leave kisses all over my exposed neck. I mewled every time he licked over my mark. It was his hands fumbling with the zipper of my puffer and the cool early spring air nipping at my collar bones that finally made me realize where we were and what we were doing.
"Lucius, we can't—ah—we can't have sex on top of my car in public." He heeded my warning and stopped undressing me, opting to zip my zipper back up and remove the leg between my thighs. His lips, however, continued their assault. Everywhere they touched, my skin grieved in their absence and turned blue once realizing they wouldn't be back to soothe the delicious left over burn. The marks would stay for days, sore to the touch and filled with memories of teeth and lips and Lucius's warm breath.
He mouthed at my jaw now, slowly making his way to my mouth and muttering sweet nothings that were doing way more than nothing to my pounding heart.
"So beautiful, Fallon," I whined as the compliment ran its course through my body, starting in my head and ending nestled under my rib and poking at my heart every time I breathed.
He finally made it to my lips, his own parted, red, and swollen from all of his fervent kissing. I looked into his delft blue eyes, glowing with a feeling I expressed only moments before and the realization made my heart crawl into my throat, wanting to be as close to his as possible.
"I love you, Fallon. You are the only thing that I will ever want or need in this life, and in the next." My body was buzzing with so many emotions that I couldn't settle on which one I wanted to feel. Two months ago Lucius would've never even thought about saying something as sweet as that.
"Lucius—" He shushed me, lips colliding with mine and giving me the most softest, tender kiss he's ever given me. I wanted to cry at how much emotion I felt behind it. When we broke apart, he dipped his head into my neck and kissed over my mark a few times, which looked like an orchid now and I thought it was cute that Lucius's mark was a flower.
"Say it again, one more time." I laughed into his hair at how clingy he was being with me right now. When my laughter died down, I pressed a few stray kisses into his head.
"I love you, Lucius." I whispered, making him groan into my skin.
"Perfection, Fallon. You are perfection." He mumbled before sitting up and settling his gaze onto me again, my face sizzling under his hot eyes. Speaking of hot, the sun was rising higher in the sky, chasing away the morning chill and bringing back that pleasant spring time warmth. I didn't want to move, the feeling of Lucius on top of me was almost enough to put me to sleep, but we had an incredibly long drive ahead of us.
"If we don't leave now I'll convince myself to stay." I rubbed my hands over the expanse of his shoulders, subtly trying to get him to get up. He took the hint, not without rolling his eyes and giving my mark one last kiss, and pushed himself up off of me. I got up too and readjusted myself, my puffer was halfway up my body and my pajama pants were twisted awkwardly around my torso. When I was done I realized I didn't have my car keys and panic settled in quickly.
"Lucius, have you seen—" The sound of my car unlocking and Lucius opening the driver side door melted away my panicky feelings. But confusion quickly took over my expression.
"I'll drive. I want you to rest." Rest from what? I had no idea. My sleep last night could've been better but I was more than okay to drive.
"You can drive?" He scoffed and hopped in the car, slamming his door loud enough to send its echo running through the woods and waking up the wildlife. Irritated, I slipped in the passenger seat and put my seatbelt on. Next to me, Lucius fixed his seat and the mirrors to his liking before starting the car. I tried not to think about how good he looked driving, his side profile illuminated by the morning sun and making his eyebrow piercing sparkle, the way his hands gripped the wheel as he maneuvered us onto the main street and away from the woods.
I also tried not to think about how sad I actually was underneath the transparent mask I was wearing for Lucius. My fear of leaving grew stronger as we drove through the town, past the grocery store and the college. It was liberating, finally being able to leave and see the world myself with the person that I loved. Years of being trapped here and I was finally getting out, on my way to find out who Fallon really was and find those answers I was looking for.
It was scary too. Even though I was with Lucius and I knew he'd never leave me, I was also on my own. My hand was no longer being held by my parents and it was scary knowing that. But it was also long overdue. If I wanted change then I was going to have to take it, I knew that now. Unfortunately I learned that the hard way and relationships, important ones, were severed. I hoped that in the future things between my parents and I could be fixed, I didn't want them to resent me I just wanted them to accept me—the me that was bloodmates with a vampire—not the me they created.
Lucius's palm fell on my thigh and pulled me out of my thoughts. He was still driving, eyes focused on the road ahead but still sensing my feelings. My thigh tingled under his touch and I grinned at the feeling of it. I closed my eyes and laid my head against the window, watching as the trees flew by in a blur of green.
Two months ago, if I had known Lucius was going to be the reason I left Melrose, I would've kept chasing him that night he fled from the store after we touched for the first time; followed him into the woods where I now know he went, only to never look back and keep chasing him until Melrose was nothing but a distant memory.