Again, expectation shone in her glassy eyes.
“You deceitful wench,” I growled, even as I warred with myself on what to do. My lust demanded I force her to fall apart under me, finishing what we started. But I knew she must die for her transgression against a god.
The expectation in her face gave way to sorrow, as if I’d dealt her a killing blow. Her lips parted, then closed. She accepted her fate. She knew I couldn’t let her live. Not when she drank of a god’s blood. It was forbidden.
The position I’d trapped her in made her last words raspy. “I’m sorry I couldn’t fix this. I love you, Grim.”
Feeling flooded my body, though my mind didn’t understand. First, a staggering sense of relief, followed by an intensity that made my heart nearly break through my chest.
My gaze fell to the small cupcake charm that lay between her bare breasts. Something about it niggled at the back of my brain. Then the scarred-over, mangled patch of flesh between her neck and shoulder first pulled, then pushed me. New memories mingled in with the years of old, the years filled with sand and blood. It felt like floating into a dream.
The scent of leather, sugar, and her skin.
How I slammed her against an elevator, infuriated, aroused, and needing so much more.
My thumb brushing sugar and flour off the tip of her nose.
The inviting softness of her lips as we writhed against silken sheets, drowning in need and pleasure.
The sound of her small gasps to her keening screams for me. Not for some self-reflective death wish, but the true me.
Sea-green eyes straining for more, even as we pushed and challenged each other.
Love poured through me as our life together returned to me in taste, touch, and sound.
“Vivien?” I asked.
Relief swept across her face. “I love you,” she choked out again.
A shudder ripped through my body. I’d waited so long to hear those words from her. Vivien had given me her body, gifted me her will not once, but twice, and at last, I possessed her heart.
I released the tight grip I had on her hair and leaned over to brush my lips against her so gently. “I love you, Vivien, beyond eternity.”
Then I kissed her deeply, knowing what a precious being I held in my arms now. We began rocking again until we found our rhythm. The hot friction of our naked skin nearly drove me back to madness. Fire ran through my body as I tried to hold my release back.
I loved her. I left her. I hadn’t meant to. Soon we were both gasping. She begged to pitch over that cliff, while I did everything to last just a little longer.
With her will mine once more, I sunk my power into Vivien’s skin, letting it caress her inside and out.
“Come for me,” I said into her ear and her body arched, knees bending as she succumbed to my command, quaking with impossible tightness around me as she screamed. At another time, I might have been able to hold back, but not now. I let go. Power flared from me in a cacophony of darkness and thunder without sound as my hips stuttered.
When my faculties returned to me, I registered Vivien mumbling into my neck, clinging to me even as I’d collapsed on her.
“I’m sorry, I’m so so sorry,” she mumbled in a continuous stream.
“What are you sorry for?” I asked.
“I didn’t say it back.” Her eyes were shiny with unshed tears. “I knew I loved you when you said it the very first time, but I was afraid. I couldn’t be brave then, but I am now. I’ll say it a gajillion times to make it up to you. I love you. I love you, Grim. I’m so sorry I hurt you and made you wait. I love you.”
My fingers trailed along her jawline, gratitude imprinting into my being.
I’d almost killed her. The difference of a moment could have meant losing her forever, and there would have been no undoing it.
When I finally returned to myself, I would have scoured the earth for the Blade of Bane and run myself through rather than greet the next day without her. But Vivien pulled me back and there was no safer place than in my arms.
“Shh,” I hushed, trying to calm her down. “I’ve got you. And we’re together now.”
Vivien’s expression turned stony. “You’re damn right. And we’re going to make sure nothing changes that.”
