Nightmares | ✓

Chapter 16

"Are you almost ready to go?" Vanessa smiled as she popped around the corner at the bottom of the stairs. Her light blue dress flowed around her legs as she walked over to the kitchen. Talon's breath slipped from his body, forcing him to remind himself he needed to breathe.

"Uh... Yeah, almost ready." Talon stuttered, too dumbfounded by how beautiful she looked in that little blue dress.

"Everything okay there?" Vanessa teased. She slipped around the counter and tried to peek into the basket, but Talon snapped the lid shut quickly.

"No sneaky looks from you!" Talon shook his finger in the air. "You need to wait until we get there to figure out what I packed for us."

"But what if I'm hungry now and wanted a little snack before we got there?" Vanessa shot him with her puppy dog eyes, nearly making him collapse. His legs were melting away from him, and he wasn't sure if he'd be able to stand much longer.

"Looks like we better get going then." Talon tried his best to hold it together. All he wanted to do was take her back upstairs and rip everything off of her, kissing every inch of her body.

When they got to the park, the sun was shining; the lake was busy with families, joggers covered the pathways, and random sunbathers had their towels sprawled across the lawn. It was the perfect spring day and because of this, they would have to walk further away from the parking lot to find a more private spot.

Talon pulled out the blanket and Vanessa grabbed the edges to help him set it up. Once the blanket was placed, Talon got to work on setting up the food. He pulled out a nice wood board and quickly started putting fancy cheeses in a line and trailed it with meats.

"This is some kind of char-cooty board. I think that's how you say it, but I'm not sure. When I was looking for ideas on the internet, the only thing I could remember was that it was really hard to spell, but everyone was in love with them right now."

"You mean charcuterie?" Vanessa chuckled as she watched Talon carefully place more crackers and other random items.

"Holy shit, is that how it's said?" Talon looked at her with pure shock in his eyes.

"YES!" Vanessa shouted, bringing her hand up to slap him in the chest. Talon shot off his elbow and fell backwards onto the grass.

"Uh, you got me." He groaned, holding his chest to feign injury.

"Okay okay, come on stop messing around, I'm starving and the food you packed looks so good." Vanessa teased as she peeked into the basket. Talon shot up and slammed the lid back down, nearly catching her fingers.

"Don't make me blindfold you." Talon muttered, holding the basket protectively against his chest.

"Do it." Vanessa said in the most alluring voice and it took everything in Talon to not cancel the picnic and rush back home.

Kisses were very quickly becoming not enough and Talon wanted even more of Vanessa. Yet the fear of pushing her away held him back, especially after he had to convince her to be his girlfriend.

Knots began to form in Talon's stomach, both from pent-up desires and nerves of how today would go. He meticulously placed things on the board, trying his best to distract himself from the raging war of emotions going on within him.

"Man, today is such a beautiful day." Vanessa smiled, leaning on her arms, looking out towards the lake. Families were splashing and ducks were swimming towards whoever had bread and snacks to share.

"It is, isn't it?" Talon asked as he placed the last cheese onto the board. He looked up just in time to see Vanessa's body tense. Her whole demeanor shifted from cool and fun to scared. More than scared, Vanessa was terrified!