roses & thorns

chapter 2

Cheryl hadn't felt this warm in a while. The last time she remembered feeling a warmth like this was when she was in her early teens, sitting with her brother in front of the large fireplace in their childhood home. The heat from the wild flames licked at her skin as she warmed her hands with a mug of hot cocoa. The tranquility she so rarely felt, mixed with the heat from the fire and warm drink had her feeling like her whole body was tingly warm.

She felt it now from her head to her toes, content in the unfamiliar bed. The morning light coming through the curtains had woken her up, causing her to blink her eyes open with a yawn. She had never felt more rested and relaxed. Especially not since starting college. And she couldn't help but smile at the one responsible for her euphoria, pink hair tangled on the pillow beside her as she slept soundly on her stomach. Biting her lip, she couldn't help but stare at the sleeping beauty before her.

She didn't know how, but she felt more comfortable with Toni after knowing her for a week than she did with some people that she'd known for years. Somehow that woman had managed to make her feel completely at ease, making her face her fears. Multiple fears at one time, even. And now she felt like a new person. Though she still bit her lip shyly as she reached across the small distance between them, tracing the outline of the wolf tattoo on her bicep with the tip of her finger, just barely touching her skin to avoid waking her up.

She guided her finger along the ink, curious about why Toni chose to put a wolf on her skin. She also recalled seeing a red rose wrapped in a thorny vine just below her hipbone last night. As well as a snake on the side of her ribs. Cheryl knew that more often than not, tattoos had meaning for people. And she was curious about the meaning behind Toni's.

Her eyes glazed over a bit as her fingers trailed from the wolf on her arm, up to her shoulder, and down over the her clothed side to where the plum colored comforter had pooled around her waist, landing on the exposed skin of her hips. Toni was so soft, it was too addicting to even try to stop touching her. Swallowing thickly, she let her fingers play along the caramel skin, biting harder on her lip as she dipped below the comforter. The rough lace of her boyshorts felt so intense against her trembling fingers before she moved them to the elastic waistband to sneak. But it wasn't until the pink haired girl stirred that she realized what she was doing. And she barely had time to retract her hand before Toni was picking her head up, turning to face her with a sleepy smile.

"What are you doing?" she yawned, her voice low and thick with sleep as she raised a hand to rake her pink hair back from her face. How could she possibly be so hot first thing after waking up?

'I-I was just admiring your tattoos..." Cheryl muttered, her cheeks flushing up. It wasn't a complete lie. But the way Toni picked her head up farther to look down at where her hand had just been practically groping her ass told her that she didn't believe her even for a second.

"Is that so?" she smirked, leaning up on her arms and shifting to lay on her side. She barely gave Cheryl time to respond before her lips were on the ivory skin of her neck, kissing along the line of her jaw.

"Y-yeah," she hummed, flicking her tongue over her lips as she nodded shakily. She knew she'd been caught and Toni didn't believe that she was just looking. But the way she was kissing her neck and running a hand up and down her side made Cheryl believe that she didn't seem to mind. "W-what's the wolf for?" her voice was almost silent as her head tilted to give Toni better access to her neck, but the pink haired girl pulled back, looking at her with what Cheryl could only peg as confusion. "What?"

"Nothing, just...no one usually asks..."

Cheryl felt her heart drop to her stomach, her face heating up with embarrassment. "I'm sorry. God, I'm sorry, it's probably really personal, I didn't mean to be so invasive," she shook her head, pulling back from where she was laying against her and moving to sit up.