Burning Moon (16 page)

But Damien wrapped his hands around my wrists and pulled my arms away. “I want to look at you.”

I shut my eyes tightly, not able to look as I felt my breasts tumble free into his gentle hands.

There was a slight breeze and the warm air caressed my nakedness.

“Open your eyes, Lilly.” Damien's voice was gentle yet commanding, and it gave me the courage to look at him.

That dangerous, hungry lust was gone now. Instead, he was looking at me the same way he'd looked at the stars.

Damien smiled at me. “You are so fucking beautiful, Lilly, and…” He looked so vulnerable right now. “…and I think, I think I'm falling in love with you.”

And with those words, I gave myself to him. Fully. I would let him take control and do whatever he wanted to do with me.

I felt safe and cared for and…and,
I couldn't believe he'd said it
, I felt loved.

The red light drenched us both and we melted to the ground kissing. He never stopped kissing me, not for a second, as his fingertips encircled my breasts and lightly touched my nipples. So lightly sometimes that it felt like a gentle breeze. I threw my head back as his lips left mine and worked their way down my neck to my breasts.

I could see the moon now. And I could feel the heavy bass of the party below, as the sound pulsed around us.

The air around us prickled my skin and I was lost in the moment.

His hands seemed to be everywhere all at once, and I was putty in them. The speed of the kissing increased again as he ran his hand down my stomach and then pushed my legs apart. I gasped as I felt the cool air rush between my thighs. His kissing grew deeper and faster still as he pushed my legs apart even farther and in one fluid motion, was inside me.

I could feel all of him. It was slow and deep and every movement was deliberate and purposeful.

“Are you all right?” Our eyes met, and the fact that he was being so gentle and considerate just made me want him even more.

So I wrapped my legs around him, bringing him closer and deeper still. I wanted him to claim me.

Our legs and arms and lips tangled, and I no longer knew where I ended and he began.

We moved as one.

The thick red light started to dim and blacken as our bodies moved faster and faster to the invisible beat that controlled us.

The shadow's black fingers were reaching out and leading us into their darkness as the moon began to slip into the blackness.

I could feel it rising up inside me and I knew it was totally out of my control.

It was not something I could stop, or temper or tame.

Damien's breath grew faster and louder as we dipped into the blackness together.

“Look,” Damien whispered in my ear.

I opened my eyes just as the moon completely disappeared into the void, and everything went black.

The darkness awakened us.

There were no longer rules or inhibitions.

I felt free.

I clawed at him, grabbed and pulled.

Our bodies writhed and thrashed and I opened my legs as wide as I could, hoping he would disappear into me.

We were now a singular entity, and we'd both lost control.

I threw my head back and arched my back as the sensation slammed through me, almost breaking my body in half.

I cried out his name over and over again until it was too intense to even speak.

The music from below grew louder and the crowd roared.

Damien lifted my hips off the ground and pulled me onto his lap.

He let out one long guttural moan in the darkness.

We held on to each other, shaking.

All I could hear was our panting and thumping hearts.

Our bodies went limp and he lowered me gently onto the ground and collapsed on top of me.

He put his head on my chest and I ran my hand through his sweat-drenched hair.

“Damien, I love you.” I hadn't even been aware that I'd said it until I heard the words. It felt so good saying them out loud. Better than it had ever felt with anyone before. It was different with Damien. This was real.
Damien was real love.

A lunar eclipse can happen only if a number of variables all come together in perfect symmetry, at the perfect moment in time. The full moon passes directly behind Earth and is swallowed up by its shadow. But for this to happen, the sun, Earth, and moon have to align precisely. This is known as
syzygy
.

And that's how my relationship with Damien was. So many things had to align perfectly, at just the right place, at just the right time, and in just the right order for this moment to have happened. For this moment to even exist. Look a little closer at the seemingly disordered chaos of the past few days and a pattern emerges. A pattern that is ordered, structured, and has a singular purpose.

Michael needed to leave me at the altar. I needed to be so distraught that I wore my pajamas onto the plane, thus attracting Damien's attention. I needed to enter the toilet at the exact moment that he was exiting so we could bump into each other and be introduced. I needed to get sick on the plane so that I would have a reason to talk to him later at the airport when I tried to apologize. We needed to be talking together and standing at just the right place and time for security to have seen and arrested us. We needed to be arrested so that Damien would lose all his money trying to save his dignity, and so that I would offer him a place to stay for the night. The following day we needed to be at the same restaurant, at the exact same time, and he needed to have brought me to Burning Moon.

It was all so clear now. Everything had happened exactly the way it was supposed to. Coincidence. Synchronicity. Call it what you like. But this whole time when I'd been cursing Karma for causing my life to fall apart, it was actually all coming together. I just didn't know it…until now.

In fact, you could say that my entire life had been orchestrated so that this moment,
right here
,
right now
, could happen.

The light from the sun crept toward us, bringing with it the early morning humidity. I opened my eyes and saw that Damien was up and sitting on a cushion staring at me.

“How long have you been awake?” I mumbled, still half-asleep.

“A while.” He smiled at me, and his face looked completely different this morning. Or maybe I was looking at him through cheesy rose-tinted lenses of love. “I've been watching you sleep.”

This was one of those true Hallmark moments. The soft-focus final scene in the Hollywood romance where the music swells and the characters declare their undying love for each other. It was butterflies in your stomach and a whole new world of beautiful possibilities, and the anticipation of tomorrows spent together.

It was all that and much, much more. The night before, I'd opened myself up to him and he'd filled me with love.
God
, I actually blushed at that thought. It was official, people: I'd been reduced to a puddle of corny sentimentality. A whispering-of-sweet-nothings, swooning, sighing, heartbeat-quivering kind of gal. And looking at him looking at me, I could see he felt the same way.

Big sigh.

“What are you thinking about?” I asked as the staring intensified.

And,
oh my God
, Damien blushed.

“Now I
have
to know what you're thinking,” I said, perking up.

The blush again. “Honestly, I feel a bit overwhelmed actually. Probably like someone who suddenly finds out they won the lotto or something. It almost feels too good to be true and it's all happened so quickly. This has never happened to me before.”

“Me neither.” Now it was my turn to blush. “I…I…also feel the same way,” I managed to stutter.

“I'm glad,” he said with a smile that lit up his whole face.

“So, Lilly, what to do today?”

“What is there to do?” I said, holding my hand over my mouth for fear of morning breath.

“There's usually a big breakfast, followed by some more swimming, more partying, some more partying, and then a little more.”

“Sounds good to me.”

But then his eyes suddenly darkened. “You're so sexy in the morning, I think I'm going to have to do something with you first, though.”

I was suddenly a coy schoolgirl. “What are you going to do with me?”

“Everything. Absolutely everything I can think of.”

He leaned over me and pushed me into the hard ground. He wasted no time and I felt his hands move down my body, pushing my legs apart. I gasped as he moved aside my bikini bottom and touched me. I surrendered to the feelings. Michael and I had done all this before, but never with the same kind of physical intensity I was experiencing now. Damien knew what he was doing, and with only the soft touch of his fingers, he broke me in half again. But this time I felt more comfortable with him, and all the shyness and modesty I once possessed were gone. My sexuality had lain dormant up until this moment, and it felt like Damien had turned on a tap that was not going to be closing anytime soon. I wanted him to show me and teach me everything I didn't know. I wanted it all.

And he gave it to me. He explored every inch of my body with his hungry hands, mouth, and hot tongue.

When he finally gave me what I was now loudly and repeatedly begging for, I cried out instantly as he pulled me on top of him. He was strong. Stronger than I'd thought, and I felt like a rag doll in his arms. His hands gripped my waist so tightly that I was sure he'd leave bruises. I hoped he would, because I wanted to walk away from this with his mark on my body. I wanted to be branded by him. His possession.

Sometimes he was slow and deep, and other times fast and forceful. All inhibitions were gone now and I told him what I wanted, how I wanted it, and when it felt good. I never thought that I'd be the kind of girl to do all that. But Damien made me feel like the sexiest woman on the planet and with him, I was alive. More alive than I'd ever been.

There was nothing tender or gentle about what we were doing now. It was about fulfilling a desperate need. And we couldn't get enough of each other. I'd never imagined that sex could be this good. Mind-blowing.

The pace built, and during the heavy breathing and moaning I heard Damien say, “You're amazing, Lilly.” I wanted to say something back, but I couldn't speak. We were racing toward the finish line now. Damien had somehow managed to get me up against the wall; I can't even tell you how or when he'd lifted me up, but I was pinned. The cold wall felt hard against my back, and Damien had wrapped my legs around him.

As he was coming, he grabbed my face between his hands and stared into my eyes. I watched as they glazed over and it was beautiful. He was beautiful. He kissed me when it was all over. “I'm so fucking in love with you, Lilly. And I don't think I'm ever going to get tired of saying that to you.”

My heart screamed in my chest, every neuron in my brain fired and was flooded with intoxicating dopamine, and every nerve ending stung.

No words had ever meant so much.

Breakfast was a rowdy affair. Partygoers were still drunk and happy after the night's festivities. Damien and I were in high spirits, too, walking around like a young couple in love—which we were—holding hands and whispering sweet nothings. I felt so proud to have him on my arm. He was my guy. Mark and Francoise also seemed pleased, judging by the wolf whistles we got.

Jess and Sharon were a bit worse for wear when we finally found them in a tent on the beach with hoodies and sunglasses on. Jess was cursing those red-and-yellow cocktails, and Sharon was cursing the fact she'd mixed them with a brownie obtained from the Rastafarian contingent. They both declared that this had been the best Burning Moon ever and, much to my delight, Damien had jumped in quickly and said that it had been not only his best Burning Moon, but also probably the best night of his life.

Of course this made me flush a deep crimson that didn't go unnoticed by Jess.

“Best night, huh?” Jess teased.

Damien reached forward and pulled her dark glasses off, exposing her vampire eyes to the blinding sun. She winced and threw her hands up in defeat.

“That will teach you,” Damien said, waggling a finger at her.

“I know the perfect cure for that.” A loud voice startled us and we all turned. The voice was coming from a young, cool-looking guy who seemed very pleased with himself. He was flanked by a small group of eager-looking followers. They looked as if they were there to recruit people, like a cult might.

“The best hangover cure in the world,” he said again, and then looked down at us with a sly smile, the kind a charismatic cult leader might have just before he talks you into skinning your granny's cat. I was trying to imagine what kind of “hangover cure” this guy was peddling when Damien chirped up.

“Oh yes. I think I've heard about this, too,” Damien added with an equally sly smile, followed by a knowing, mischievous look. Why did they look like they were sharing the world's biggest secret?

“What?” I asked abruptly.

“Come. We're all going there now.” The guy beckoned for us to follow him and his little group. Damien immediately shot up, pulling me with him. Jess and Sharon seemed more reluctant, though; that is to say that Damien had to practically pry them off the sand with a spatula.

Our strange little group strode across the sand. I had no idea where we were going or what the hell we would be doing. And every time I asked Damien, I was met with a blanket “you'll see.”

With each step, I was starting to feel more and more suspicious. Not to mention I had the distinct impression that I wasn't going to like what lay ahead. We marched past Francoise and Mark and, not being the kind of folk to be left out of an adventure, they joined in.

“It's like following the pied piper!” Mark added with sheer delight as he skipped next to me. A few more stragglers got up and followed us too when the words
hangover cure
were mentioned. This guy clearly had some kind of animal magnetism that drew people toward him. Perhaps he gave off a pheromone? We walked all the way across the beach to the edge of the thick tropical jungle. Our pack leader paused for a moment. He turned and looked at us with a satisfied smile.

“Let's go!”

But it soon became obvious that this was turning out to be
far
from a hangover cure. It was more hangover-inducing. The terrain had gotten very rocky and the walk had become distinctly vertical. A few followers threw their hands up in despair and mumbled expletives before turning back. Jess and Sharon had almost done the same thing, but Damien had mysteriously insisted that it would be worth it.

“Damien, where are we going? It's sort of getting very high and steep and the path is getting very—”

He placed a finger over his lips and silenced me, then slid an arm around my waist and whispered in my ear, “You look so sexy when you're worried.”

Well that about did it; I almost forgot where I was for a dizzying second and my fear of heights seemed to magically disappear.

The climb continued until we finally broke out of the vertical thicket and walked onto a flat plateau. I got the sense we were high up, and my suspicions were confirmed quickly. The plateau ended very abruptly. A steep white cliff face plummeted a million miles down into still, dark waters below. I looked from the waters to Damien and back again, and that's when I got it.

“Nooooo.” I backed away from the edge of the cliff. “I don't even have a hangover.”

“Jesus!” Jess suddenly exclaimed when she caught on a second or two after me. And then gasps and curses and exclamations rose up from the small party as they also began to realize what was afoot. Surprisingly, some people seemed excited by the prospect of throwing their bodies off a deadly cliff.

“It's totally safe. Just keep your arms and legs tucked in,” our fearless leader said. He gave us all the thumbs-up and then threw himself off the ledge. Everyone rushed up to the edge and looked over. I crept there, slowly. The cliff was so high that it looked like he was falling in slow motion.

If it were so safe, I wondered why the hell he was screaming at the top of his lungs as he plummeted to what could be his death. A few more gasps and shrieks rose up from the audience as he hit the water with an almighty bang. He went under and everyone held their breath until his head finally popped back up. He gave a loud victory cry that reverberated around us.

“No fucking way!” Mark was backing off, pulling Francoise with him. But Francoise had a little twinkle in his eye that I'd never seen before. All of a sudden he broke away from Mark's protective grasp and jumped off the cliff.

“You're going to die!” Mark screamed after him as he disappeared over the edge. “Fine! We'll die together.” And with that, he dramatically flung himself off the cliff. Their bodies disappeared into the water. I held my breath for a few tense moments until they bobbed back up and proof of life was confirmed. The shouts of adulation and excitement that rose up from the pool below were earth-shattering. They whooped and screeched and this just caused more bodies to go flying. They reminded me of lemmings.

“Hangover cure, hey?” Jess asked, tentatively gazing from Sharon to Damien and back again. What was going on, was everyone out of their minds? Jess looked at Sharon meaningfully and they both nodded at each other.

“And in one, two, three…” I watched in horror as they too flung themselves off the cliff. There was no way I was going to do this. But the crowd around me started to dissipate, as one after the other went flying over the edge. And soon it was just Damien and me.

“No, no, no, no!” I backed off as if I were retreating from a blazing inferno. “There is no way,
no way
, none, no!” I had expected Damien to have an amused smile plastered across his face, but he didn't. Instead he looked at me very solemnly and held out his hand.

We stayed like that for what seemed like minutes, my eyes fixed on his hand as I tried to decide whether or not to take it. The thought was totally terrifying in that way that paralyzed my entire body from top to bottom. My stomach rose and fell a few times, giving way to a slightly nauseous feeling.