Relief plays across her face and she smiles. “I’ll find a way to fix it,” she says, trying to sound confident and bright. “I can fix it.”
I nod, even though I can’t share in her optimism. Verity bites her lip as silence grows between us. I see her cheeks heat and wonder what she could be thinking; if she can sense my trepidation and defeat. I swallow thickly. Every day, hope seems more impossible.
I close my eyes, fighting against the desperation welling in my chest. Since I found Verity months ago, I never questioned that she was mine. When she broke my curse, I never doubted that eventually we would come together as we were meant to. But now, it’s as if my own world has spun like a gold coin, out of control and wild.
I don’t stop myself from dropping my lips to hers and tasting her lips. She belongs to Sadal until we find a way to part the two of them – if we can find a way. And until then, I belong to my people. And I have to do what I must.
I lean her back, sweeping my tongue through her mouth, feeling like a flood has exploded inside me. All I can taste is her, all I smell is her honeyed breath. Her arms wrap around my bare back, clinging to me, and I relish the drag of her nails over my skin. I move my lips to her neck, to that perfect crook of flesh. My teeth graze over her sensitive skin and she shudders with pleasure. The subtle movement is enough to send me deeper into my keening for this woman.
I unlace the top of her shift, exposing the milky, smooth skin of her collarbone to the soft light of the room. Her breath hitches in her throat but she doesn’t stop me from slipping the dress over her head and tossing it aside. Verity is naked beneath me, draped over her Bloodbane cloak, looking for all the world like she’s lounging in a pool of blood. She stares up at me, eyes hooded with desire. My eyes drift over her, from her perfect lips and down to her silky breasts. I stare at them hungrily and Verity’s nostrils flare at the sight.
Heat washes through me, burning like a wildfire as my fingers play over her bare skin. I groan, biting down on my bottom lip hard enough I’m afraid I’ll draw blood. Logic is screaming at me to hold back – that come tonight, I’ll belong to someone else. But I know what my heart wants. I know what it has wanted for months.
My lips fall on her breast, caressing it gently. Verity cries out as my tongue laps over her stiff nipple. I can feel my muscles trembling with desire. I nip at her softly, experimentally. My thoughts flash to the night I saw her with Sadal, but I force it from my mind. This moment is ours.
We fall into each other with an intense need that tugs our bodies together like two magnets. I’m gentle with her, savoring the moments between us as if they’re my last alive. We take a deep breath in tandem, our eyes locked on each other. I stare into her pale blue orbs as I move inside her slowly. Her lips are parted slightly, and her hands rise to trace the shape of my cheekbones.
I brush my lips over hers as I feel the pleasure escalate like a cascading river after a heavy rain. Verity whimpers softly, eyes fluttering closed. Her back arches and she takes a ragged, long breath. Her body is frozen, suspended as I pleasure her. The silence between us is broken only by our moans or sharp breaths. It’s as if nothing else exists but this room and this bed and this woman.
I drop my head to her chest, holding her closely as I thrust a final time. Pleasure explodes inside of me, so intense I lose all sensation except the reality of Verity in my arms. She wraps her arms around me, holding me close as we breathe together. I sigh, savoring the moment. It may be our last. It likely will be the last. The thought is almost too much to bear and I have to turn my face away so she can’t see the pained twist of my lips.
“Altair,” Verity whispers, brushing my lops of hair to the side. I press into the palm of her hand instinctively. “I don’t know if I should tell you this, but I think I understand now.”
“Understand what?” I ask, finally turning to face her.
“How I feel.” She looks at me through long lashes, a hint of pink in her cheeks.
Suddenly, my head falls through her chest and onto the plush blankets of the bed. I snap back up, panic welling in my chest. “Verity?” I ask, staring into her wide eyes.
She lifts a hand, studying its transparency. “The ether,” she says, looking pained. “I have to go.”
“No,” I breathe, before I can stop myself. Just a little longer. Only a little.
“I love you,” she says, her airy fingers stroking my cheek.
I choke with emotion, brows furrowed sorrowfully as I watch her fade into nothing in front of my eyes. The last thing I see are her pale blue eyes, open wide and smiling. When she’s gone, I can feel it. The air that was charged with electricity before is bland now. I sigh, rolling onto my back and dragging a hand over my eyes.
I close my eyes against the afternoon light. I wish I could trade our first moment for another that could have last longer; one that wasn’t marred by what our futures hold. I throw myself into the fresh memory, searing it into my mind. A thousand years from now, I want to remember it as clearly as I do now.
A thousand years from now, my love for her will burn as bright as it does now. No
