25. Sun Kissed

Sofi woke up in her own bed with an orange in her fist. She sat up slowly and went to work, peeling back the bumpy skin. She didn't think about whether she would ever see Amancio again or how she got back home. She didn't wonder if all of this was actually happening or if it was just another dreamscape.

    Soon she was kneeling before mãe's bed, feeding her the slices one by one. When she finished, mãe leaned back and blinked sleepily at her.

    "Sofia?"

    Yes, this was a dream. It had to be.

"You remember me?"

    Mãe looked at her only as a mother could. "How could I forget minha anjinha?"

    Sofi seized her.

    "Oh! Sofia – what's the matter?" Mãe was plump and healthy, holding Sofi like she had when she was a child.

    "Minha anjinha," She repeated as she stroked Sofi's back. "My Sofia."

    Sofi bathed in her warmth.

"Look at you. If only your papai could see you now. He would have something to say about that hair, but he would be so proud. I know he would have."

Sofi pulled back and smiled through the tears. "My hair?"

Mãe laughed fondly as she tousled Sofi's curls. "Yes. I've never seen this color on you before. It's so red, someone would think you walked straight out of the river."

~

Toni found Sofi at the shorehouse. She was sitting in the shallows, letting the calm waves lap against her chest. Something in his belly stirred when he saw her wine-stained hair spilling over her shoulders. It made him think of a creature, slight and strange, that had visited him once in his dreams.

    He joined her in the water and took a seat. "So, do you want to see where this goes?"

Sofi's voice was hoarse from crying. "See where what goes?"

"You and me."

"Toni," she made a sound between a sob and a laugh. "Toni, look at my hair. I'm one of them. I let them take your sister."

Toni met her gaze. "You made them bring her back. She's home, Sofi. She's safe. She doesn't remember the abduction or anything since. You did exactly what you said you would do. You saved my sister."

Sofi tried to leave, but Toni wouldn't let her. Her spine connected with his chest. Like the day they waited out the storm. Like the night of Carnaval.

He bowed his forehead against her crown. "You're an Encantado. I'm a human. I don't know how or why, but still . . . I want you." He exhaled. "God. I want you so bad, Sofia."

Sofi turned around and unfolded for him like an orange blossom.

Like the predictable butterfly, Toni gravitated to her, his mouth searching hers for nectar. There was a fluttering in his gut that he couldn't ignore. The sensation intensified as Sofi folded herself around him and squeezed his rib cage between her thighs.

Toni could barely concentrate. His eyes rolled back as he lost himself to a euphoric state that he could not explain.

Only when Sofi drew back and met his gaze did the answer come to him. It was right there in her sunlit hair and amber irises.

Paradise.

He pulled her to his chest once more, let her head rest there. They bobbed in the shallows of the Amazon and he was not afraid. Not while he held paradise in his arms.

END