? DISCONTINUED ? Between the Perennial Blooms || Paul Lahote

Thirty Two | Narcissus

It was a wonderful feeling indeed.

Paul's sudden chuckle vibrated through his sternum and into Bailey's and pulled her from her daze. He slipped his left arm under the back of her neck so that her head rested in the crook of his elbow and leaned down to press a sweet kiss to the corner of her mouth. "You've got that look in your eyes," he commented, tilting his chin up to rub his lips across her forehead.

"What look?" Bailey breathed, body alight with a comfortable sort of tingling that had her curling her fingers at his hips into the waistband of his pants. The feeling of his lips was distracting — that paired with his hot, bare chest pressed against hers and his stubble tickling everywhere he touched. His body felt so good above her own; his unnatural warmth enveloping her small body like a blanket while his weight pressed down on her heavily into the mattress. Bailey had never known intimacy like this: where two bodies could fit together so perfectly and feel as if they were created to do so all along. In all her years, she had never put much stock into boyfriends and lovers and future partners simply because she had always believed herself content with what she had. Because she had her Gran and old man Jodie, and for the most part she had Charlie, and when Renée wasn't acting significantly more horrible than was her norm, Bailey had Bella too. But now, with the memory of Paul's kisses on her lips and the feel of his hard muscles pressed into the soft ones of her own, she realized she had never been more content in her life. Paul was it for her.

She just never knew how much she needed him until now.

"That look like you're just waiting for me to kiss you."

Bailey blushed and pouted, staring into his glimmering mahogany eyes with the mesmerizing blue of her own. She tried to muster up any inklings of courage left over from the night before as her mind whispered its coy reply, but as she spoke the words aloud, there was no mistaking the trembling of her voice. "W-well what if I am?" She stuttered, and Paul's reaction was instantaneous.

The mahogany in his eyes darkened in time with the growing of his smirk, and in a move so swift Bailey lost the breath in her lungs, Paul flipped them so she lay on top. "If you are-" he started, voice a deep, dark grumble that had her squirming against his chest. "-then I guess I'll just have to give my baby exactly what she wants."

Then as his lips finally lowered down onto hers, the two Imprints lost and found themselves in one another's embrace for what felt like the first time but would most certainly not be the last.

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(For those of you interested in reading the mature scene that follows along with this chapter, head over to my profile and add Beneath Silk Sheets to your reading list. For all you babes asking for the more saucy aspects of Bailey and Paul's relationship, I promise you won't be disappointed!)

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It was late into the afternoon by the time the Imprint pair had showered, eaten, and gotten dressed. The weather outside was surprisingly pleasant — not too warm neither too cold — and permitted for yet another trip to the beach. Charlie had long ago called and asked what time he needed to get her, asked whether she still wanted to be picked up at all or if she planned to spend the day with Paul, and though her answer would have undoubtedly been a trembling 'yes, please' the night before, after taking a bath wrapped up in her Imprint's embrace and waking up just the same, all thoughts of leaving him disappeared from her mind. His hand held hers tightly as they traipsed along the sandy shore, and as seagulls cawed overhead as they dived in and out of the beams of sunlight peaking through the clouds, a peace settled inside her that had never been present before. Despite all that had happened in such short a time, Bailey had never felt happier in her seventeen years. She had a father who loved her, a best friend and sister who felt the same, a new set of shifter friends and vampires alike, and to put the icing on top of the cake, she had a beautiful boy who towered over her and kissed her freely throughout the day. There was nothing more she could have asked for, she decided as she tilted her face up to bask in the sun. And as the light highlighted the flushed skin of her cheeks and nose, Bailey swore it felt as if her Gran were standing right there beside her.