The Torn, Book One of the Holding Kate Series by LaDonna Cole Read Free Book Online Page A

maneuvered us to where we were lying out straight like sky divers, and then moved his arm to direct us. I mirrored his motion with my arm and we actually started directing our fall. We quickly learned how to spin and flip and whirl in a circle. It was amazing as though we were playful seals and the sky was our ocean. We danced on the sky waves for what seemed like decades. No, I literally mean, we did this for decades, twenty or thirty years passed, maybe more, I don’t know for sure. We were outside of the normal passing of time. We had entered the realm of eternity.
    Sheer joy bubbled up inside of me. I couldn’t stop laughing. Corey’s blue eyes twinkled and his blond hair buffeted in the wind. We laughed until our sides hurt, then Corey wrapped me in bear hug and dove to the side and we began to tumble head over heels. We leveled out and he held me tightly with one arm and touched my face with his other hand. We smiled into one another’s eyes, lost in the eternal moment of joy and love and purity. He turned so I could lie along his body. I propped my elbows onto his chest and we talked for hours, days, years, decades as we fell through the sky and fell in love. He had the most pure heart I had ever encountered and the most startling revelations about life. The sound of his voice became my hiding place and I crawled into it and lived there, anticipating the next words he would say.
    He was engrossed by my menial thoughts and expressions. He hung on every word I said as though each syllable were a priceless jewel to cherish. I spoke of things with him that I could never share with anyone else, completely safe in his arms. I had no fear that he would reject me. With each word I spoke, his love encircled me, drawing me nearer.
    Eventually, I noticed something whirring past us and broke eye contact to see what it was. Pink fluffy stuff, like cotton candy, sparse at first, flew past us. I looked over Corey’s shoulder my hair flying out behind me.
    I pointed and he adjusted our fall so he could see beneath us. The pink fluffy clouds were gathered in a dense net and we were falling toward it very quickly. As we penetrated the thickness we began to slow until the fluff was so heavy it stopped us completely.
    We were entirely blanketed in thick pink down. All around us, above us, below us, we were resting at the center of warm pink comfort.
    I was relieved that we did not end up a splat on some rock below and I was exhausted. I snuggled against Corey’s comforting warmth and he stroked my hair until I fell asleep. Wrapped in his arms, I felt security and peace like I had never felt in my life. I sighed and pressed against his strength. He locked his arms around me and hummed in my ear the most content sound anyone ever made.
    We breathed as one.
    We dreamed as one.
    Time was fluid.
    It trickled around us…
    through us…in ebbs or drifts,
    …slow and languorous,
    …caressing our senses,
    …defining our memories.

    “Is this a dream?” I murmured in a timeless haze.
    “Mmmhmm.”
    We had held each other for an eternity, basking in sheer joy and deep abiding love. I stroked his smooth arms and chest. “I like it.”
    “Mmmhmm.” He touched my hair, my cheek, my lips and ran his finger down my jawline to my ear lobe. He traced my neck, my collar bone, my shoulder. I turned my head to accept the tender gestures. We had always been like this, together. I couldn’t remember a time in my life that did not consist of floating in bliss with Corey.
    “I have loved you for a thousand years, Corey.” My half lidded eyes gazed into his.
    “I will love you for thousands more, Kate.” His smooth voice seemed connected to something deep inside of me. When he spoke, I quivered in response, as though he plucked a string that vibrated at my core.
    “Do you hear the singing?” I spoke into the crook of his neck and traced the line from his ear to his collar bone with my breath.
    “Mmmmhmmm.”
    “Can you make out the