Free Finding Alice (Alice Clark Series) by Andrea DiGiglio

large stretch, cracking his back. I flinched from the sound; it reminded me too much of the sound of his bones breaking just two days earlier. He let out a huge laugh, breaking our two days of silence awkwardly, similar to laughing in the middle of a funeral. “We should probably talk about this,” he said.
    I continued my blank stare in his direction. Did he just say that? After two days of nothing, now we could just talk about it like it was a scheduled topic to discuss in class? He stood us up and backed me into a wall. He reached up slowly, brushing against my waist until he reached my face. His lips rested on mine in a way that could only be explained as thirsty; so was I. I latched my legs around his waist. We can talk later . I just wanted to feel him against my skin.
    He carried me upstairs to our room and we fell to the bed almost in slow motion as I attempted to catch my breath. He lifted my shirt above my head, only unlocking from our kiss for the second it took to get it past us. I imitated his move, removing his shirt as well. Everything that had happened in the last few days disappeared to the wastelands in that moment. I rain my nails down his back, which I knew makes him crazy. He kissed me down my neck to my shoulder. I attempted to hold in a moan. I opened my eyes to see a blanket of feathers once again hovering above us. He flipped me at a speed so fast, only I would have noticed I wasn’t straddling him a moment ago. He looked up at me and we stopped moving, completely still, staring now in each other’s eyes. I felt our souls intertwining as if they needed each other to survive. I fell next to him and we stared at the feathers. I smiled in amazement, taking in the beauty of it. I turned to him and watched his fears start to bubble up to the surface. I interrupted them with a wild, passionate, “Take me now” sort of kiss. The feathers fell as if there were an endless supply in my ceiling. He did just that—took all of me. We let ourselves get lost in each other.

    I lay still in a field of golden grass. I looked around and shivered at the sight of the dark woods ahead. An electric current rushed through my fingertips and I felt Cole’s hand tangle into mine. We knew this wasn’t real and worse, we knew we would have to deal with the darker version of this place soon. He pulled me on top of him with one of those breathtaking smiles. I forgot that just a moment ago, we were in this same moment in our bed; but here we were in a field of luscious, golden grass that smelled like cinnamon. The voices lingering behind us became less daunting when our laughter filled the endless field. He ran his hands through my hair, keeping my face as close to his as he could. I could taste the breath escaping his lips. I closed my eyes as he came in for the taste of my tongue.
    I opened my eyes and found us lying in my bed partially covered by my sheet, trying to catch our breath. I watched as the last of the feathers fell gently around the bed. I could feel his smile. I was sure he could feel mine too. I wished we could have stayed in that moment of heaven forever. There in that bed, there in that field. Either, really. We lay still together until our breaths regulated. I lifted my arms into a stretch and felt the weight shift on the bed as he got up. When I turned to him, he already had his boxers on. Looking at him in his boxers still made me blush, even after that. He leaned down and kissed my forehead. “Coffee?” he asked.
    “It’s like you are reading my mind,” I teased. He left the room and I sat up, pulling my pillow into my lap and hugging it. The rush began to slip away and the lingering memory that was so distant gnawed at me. We did need to talk about all this. Well, except what just happened. I couldn’t stop grinning. I stood up, a little more wobbly than expected, and got dressed. Just as I buttoned my jeans, he entered with two steaming cups of delicious coffee. I saw him bite his lip as he