Page 52 of Moonflower
“My pretty Moonflower,” I mutter, kissing her on the cheek this time.
After a stop in the bathroom, I head to the kitchen to find that there’s coffee already brewing. I shoot Wilder a quick thank you text before rummaging through Cora’s cabinets. When I find her mugs, I pull out the two I was hoping she still had.
One is black with a cute, smiling ghost on it. It’s the first mug she bought for her apartment. The other is white with two crows sitting on a branch and text that reads, “Attempted murder.” Years ago, I saw the second one online and immediately bought it for her. It matches her horrible sense of humor perfectly. As I predicted, she loved it.
As I’m pouring creamer into her mug, Cora enters the kitchen. I immediately abandon her coffee. Sweeping her into my arms, I capture her mouth in a slow, sweet kiss. She tastes like toothpaste and feels like heaven.
She beams up at me. “I love mornings with you.”
“After we’re graduated, you’ll never have to spend one without me,” I say.
The reminder that we’re leaving today causes her smile to fade for a moment. But then I kiss her again, keeping her present. I want to make the most of this morning.
After finishing her coffee, I fix my own. When I look back to her, she’s perched at her little table by the window. She’s watching me with a content look in her eyes, sipping from her ghost mug.
She looks perfect. Her T-shirt barely covers her ass, and whenever she bends over, I can see the navy blue fabric of her panties. The morning sunlight illuminates her hair, almost casting her in some sort of glow. It’s the type of image you wish you could engrave into your memory forever. So real, so un-posed. Yet it’s one of the most beautiful sights I’ve ever seen.
She always has been, though, hasn’t she?
“I want to draw you.” I don’t make a conscious effort to say the words. They just fall from my mouth, almost like she pulled them from me with an unspoken spell. “Please?”
Hope sparks in her eyes. “Of course, Ez.”
Before she moves, I snap a picture of her in front of the window. My phone does nothing to capture the stunning image before me, but it’ll have to do.
She laughs. “What was that for?”
“I want to remember this. Forever.”
Her blush spreads across her cheeks as she finishes her coffee. Then we abandon our empty mugs in the sink and I lead her back to her room.
“On the bed,” I say, searching through my bag for my sketchbook and pencils. “Oh, and take off your clothes.”
She hesitates with her fingers on the hem of her shirt. “Naked?”
“I want to see every detail of your body, Moonflower. Every dip, every curve, every scar. It’s perfection to me, and I plan on doing nothing less than immortalizing it on paper.”
The tension leaves her shoulders, and her gaze softens, meeting mine. Then she pulls her shirt over her head and steps out of her panties.
“Beautiful,” I murmur. Then I drop my stuff on the chair I brought in from the kitchen and move to her. My lips skirt over her shoulders, down her arms, and then to her fingertips. Then I bend, kissing her full stomach before gently biting one of her breasts.
“Ezra,” she whispers.
I pick her up and toss her onto the bed with a grin. “I’ve wanted to draw you like this for a long time, you know.”
Cora’s blush deepens. “I always wished you would ask.”
It’s going to happen a lot from now on, if I have any say in it.
Settling in the chair, I flip to a fresh page in my sketchbook. The sunlight is hitting her skin in the most perfect way. She looks . . . fuck, she looks almost edible.
Cora lounges on the bed, propping her head up on one hand. A mischievous grin takes over her face.
“Don’t say it.”
She giggles.
“Don’t. you. dare.”