Page 41 of The Impact (Parachutes #3)

A Fever Dream

Tahli clung to her man, arms wrapped around his head.

The wool of his beard scratched her forearm, as her lips settled near his ear in a sweet serenade, accompanied by wave crashes and ocean water breezes.

There were many songs in the world, many of them good.

But a few were special, where each lyric built on top of the last. Spoken with art and poignancy that made the receiver close their eyes, feeling seen.

Special songs. Songs that moved souls. Tahli didn’t sing often but when she did, it was to her man, and it was one of those songs.

“We’re inseparable…’cause your soul’s with mine…

” she warbled the lyrics into Vin’s ear as he pulled from his blunt, blowing weed smoke into their private villa.

Private beach, tanning deck over the ocean, iguanas in the chair beside them, seemingly in the same kind of love, as Tahli rested on his left thigh. The air smelled like lemon and verbena.

Tahli finished the lyrics about how they could be on separate planets and still have no space between them.

As she vocalized to Vin how powerful their love was through Tweet’s language, she felt his body relax under the spell of her voice and quality marijuana.

Her man, shirtless, muraled, muscles bulging under brown leather skin when he moved.

Tracing her nails over the scribing etched into his skin, Tahli brushed her thumb over his right nipple lost in the intricate wings of the bald eagle—a tattoo symbolizing the freedom Vin had longed for behind prison walls.

She knew all the deep meanings behind his body art.

He wasn’t the man who sported it to look cool.

Vin’s temple told a story, like the Luxor and Karnak with ancient inscriptions.

They, like him, detailed royal narratives.

The Daniel verse about Prince Michael was the only one Tahli hadn’t found the explanation intriguing.

Just a verse he liked, he’d deduced it to.

Nothing like the Isaiah verses for his middle name.

“Stop,” he chuckled, dark shades hiding those onyx eyes.

“Why?” Tahli giggled. “You don’t like it?”

“Got me feeling like a bitch.”

“’Cause I’m playing with your nipples? But you’re not…you’re like the manliest man. So, if it feels good…”

He pulled her hand away, slicking her fingertips with his tongue before using them to graze her bikini top.

“See. That’s how it’s supposed to go.”

It turned her on even more than his body. Leaning down, Tahli brought her lips to his, starting a slow, creaming tongue-kiss. Between sucks of each other’s tongues, they spoke.

“I’m in love with you.”

“I would hope so, nigga,” Tahli giggled into Vin’s mouth. “I’m your wife.”

“But like…” More of his delicious kissing. “The shit just gets deeper. You keep blowing my mind.”

“I love you, baby.” Tahli caressed his face, wanting to crawl into him.

Vin’s erection grew on his thigh beneath his swim trunks. Just as Tahli reached out to stroke it, the sound of Munch’s voice let her know their privacy had been shattered.

“Nah… But we can get more into that when I get back…”

Munch spoke to most people curt, abrupt, and rude. By the tone and language, he was speaking to a woman. While his woman was off in the restroom.

“Why he gotta cheat on her all the time? That shit don’t get old to him?” As close as Munch and Vin were, she’d be lying if she said it didn’t bother her how unfaithful Munch was. It wasn’t an occasional slip. Tahli wondered if there was ever a time when Munch was monogamous.

“Can I tell you a secret?” Vin removed his shades and Tahli stared into his eyes as a response. “Some men don’t feel like men unless they have a lot of women.”

“Why?”

He shrugged, always keeping it real with her. People wished to marry their best friend. Tahli had married hers.

“All kinds of shit. How we’re raised…what we see. Society’s expectations.”

“Mm. And what makes you feel like a man?” Tahli had to know. It didn’t take him long to reply.

“Loving you. Making you smile. Taking care of my kids. Being dependable... Providing.” He kissed her knuckles.

Shutting her eyes, Tahli nestled into his cheek. Before they’d joined Munch and Wynter on the ocean deck, they had made love with the veranda doors open, blowing in a sweet breeze over their damp, naked bodies. Now, Tahli caught the faint scent of herself on his sideburns.

“Thank you for loving me, Dalvin Hayes.” Sentiment snuck into the airy moment.

“Thank you for never making me doubt your love. Thank you for protecting my heart. For…making my life sweet. For being gentle with me. For being patient with me. For not letting what you’ve been through turn you all the way cold.

For saving the warm parts for me. I love you. ”

“I love you,” passion loaded his deep tone as Tahli kissed his ear rim. Shifting on his hard thigh, she forced friction to her tingling pussy, rekindling the fire Munch had doused.

“Aight now. You waking that sleeping giant, baby love,” he muttered on her lips.

“Maybe that’s what I want to do,” Tahli hummed in his ear. “Maybe after lunch, you take me back to the villa for another round?”

“Maybe I toss your ass over my shoulder right now and have you for lunch,” his mannish talk made her pour.

“You are so nasty,” she punched his arm, and Vin tapped a finger to his perfect lips. She obliged, floating.

“You so fine and manly and cool, daddy-o,” Tahli mumbled into his mouth. “What did I do to get a man like you?”

He reached for his lemonade, and Tahli felt it—the melancholic shift from his discomfort with questions as such. Like he was unworthy.

“Ayo, let me holla at you, nigga.” Vin jumped up as Wynter returned, her bare feet slapping the wooden planks covering the ocean, and Munch promptly ended his call.

Tahli was certain Vin reprimanded Munch in some way. Less about the cheating, but more about the openness in front of Tahli. She could tell from their body language. Not an argument, but a heated exchange.

When he returned, Wynter had just taken her seat.

“They said the food will be here in 10 minutes,” she informed. “They setting up right by the water. Lobsters and oysters and all that shit. This shit real nice, Vin,” she complimented Vin’s vacation choices. More like Vin’s assistant’s expertise.

“Are they bringing fruit–Ah!” Tahli yelped before her question fully left her lips. Vin had swept her up, draping her over his big shoulder with no permission.

“Y’all knock yaselves out. We having ours in the bed.”

“Nigga, you leaving? Y’all asses just left the bed,” Munch griped. Vin didn’t answer. He was annoyed with Munch, Tahli could sense it. “Man, fuck y’all, then.”

“Bye, y’all!” Wynter called out, and Tahli knew all Wynter needed was her liquor.

Dangling upside-down from Vin’s shoulder, she watched Wynter sip from her colorful cup, as the two of them drifted farther away.

Wooden planks turned over to marble and air-conditioned air, letting Tahli know they’d reached the villa.

The crisp scent of tropical flowers that Vin had filled their rooms with upon their arrival greeted her.

Tahli giggled. A second later, landed on the fluffy bed in a flop, bouncing up twice. Giggled some more. Giggled insanely, until Vin fell down on top of her.

He spread her legs with his bullying knee.

Her laughter slowed as his gaze intensified, but she couldn’t stop smiling.

It looked like he wanted to say something, but he didn’t.

At least not out loud. He put it in his eyes.

Tahli responded with hers. Love for love.

Lust for lust. Crave for crave. Devotion times two.

Parachutes. Then his lips brushed hers, tenderly and quick.

Then returned for a suck of her bottom one.

A breeze blew in from heaven. This moment was so sweet, Tahli could cry.

With a finger to her chin, her husband kissed her like he wasn’t her husband.

Like he was a lover. Like she was a stranger he’d been aching for.

Those needy kisses traveled down her body.

When they landed on her cleavage, Vin unhooked her bikini top with skill.

Tahli was unaware it was off until his mouth covered her left nipple.

She moaned as his arrogant fingers slid inside her bottoms. Birds called in the distance.

Unknown animals sang them tunes of nature.

Tahli gripped his head, her fingers raking through the soft hair on his scalp.

When Dalvin let himself unwind in vacation mode, he let his hair grow out for a few weeks.

The hair on his face grew a little wilder. Tahli loved it.

Nestled in the bosom of paradise, his tongue awakened every nerve on her body and quieted every tension. He brought her legs straight up to remove her bikini, then spread her again, strong thumbs pressed into her thigh bones.

“Tropical Tahli ain’t nothing to fuck with,” he professed in his guttural tone, longing in every dropped word. “Fucking Pina Colada pussy.”

She threw her head back, then gasped before she could laugh. Her back arched as his mouth met her wetness. Jokes were over. Tahli’s foot scrubbed up and down those soft bed sheets until her body locked at the joints, and her clitoris throbbed in Vin’s hungry mouth.

“Fuck, Daddy, yes…ooh.”

He did it until she begged him to come up. Until she was tipping a third release.

“On vacation, we got time. Let me take my time wit’ this body.”

But Tahli was ablaze. She grabbed his shaft, guiding it to her soaking center. Scooted down to meet it, desire begging him to oblige.

When Vin pushed into her, Tahli cried out.

Every inch filling her, massaging her walls, made Tahli cream more and more.

By the time the base of his dick met her pussy lips, her mouth was stretched open, fingernails scraping his sweaty shoulder.

He kissed her neck. Then kissed it again. Tahli shook in his arms.