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Her body tensed and she stopped breathing when I stepped up behind her, but her skin covered in goosebumps when I wrapped an arm around her waist to pull her close.
Lifting her right hand, I passed my lips across her wrist and said, “Darkness can only ever remain that way without light, Blackbird.”
“And what happens when darkness consumes the light?” she asked as she continued to stare straight ahead.
I tilted her head back so she was looking up at me and shook my head. “That will never happen.”
“That side of you is darkness incarnate,” she whispered.
“Then what does that say about how bright you are when you look at how much you’ve changed me? I may have . . . dimmed you, but you still have the ability to change the way I look at life.”
“Just dimmed?” she asked somberly.
“Dimmed,” I confirmed. “You can’t attempt to touch me with your light and not expect me to darken your soul. I’ll always try to consume your light just as you’ll always try to consume my dark. It’s who we are, but it won’t change who we are. It’s those pieces of colliding that make us incredible.”
Briar twisted in my arms and pressed her head against my chest, her arms wrapped tightly around my waist. “When I couldn’t get away from that man, all I could think about was that I would never see you again,” she admitted softly. “I fought so hard to get away from him, Lucas, but that thought—” Her breathing hitched, and she waited a second before she spoke again. “It was crippling.”
I gripped her closer and pressed my mouth to the top of her head. “I know, Blackbird . . . I know. I’ve never had fear devour me like that. I knew someone was coming after you, and I couldn’t get ahold of the driver. Those seconds before the driver called me back were torture. But when he called . . . the way he apologized made me think they had succeeded. It felt like someone had torn my life from my body.”
Briar’s fingers brushed against my jaw and down my neck slowly, like she was proving to us both that she was still there.
“I meant what I said this afternoon.”
Her fingers stilled on my chest, her eyes widening as they locked with mine.
“I love you, Briar.”
“I love you,” she whispered back as her eyes misted, her words sounding like a promise.
No, you don’t. And soon you’ll see why.
But I was selfish enough to take those last minutes with her when she thought that she did—when I thought that she could.
I pulled her back to the large island in the middle of the kitchen, caught her mouth in a teasing kiss as I lifted her onto it, and pulled her hips to the edge of the granite countertop. Lifting her shirt from her body, I let it fall to the floor as I tried to savor every moment, every look, and every touch.
I claimed her mouth again and swallowed her moan as she pulled me closer to wrap her legs around my hips. She loosened my tie and pulled it over my head slowly, but as the kiss heated, her hands started moving faster. My belt was off within seconds, and her fingers worked quickly through the buttons on my shirt as I pulled it out of my pants.
Her hand paused where it was pushing my pants and boxer briefs down, and a needy moan sounded in her throat when I trailed my hand up the inside of her thighs, pulled the lace aside, and slid a finger inside her. Her toes curled against my hips and her breath came out in a shuddering moan when I added a second. I pulled back to look at her, completely captivated as her eyes fluttered shut and she arched back.
“This skirt . . .”
“I know,” she breathed, and her mouth twitched up into the faintest of smiles. “Happy birthday.”
“Lean back,” I ordered and finished stepping out of my clothes as she did. Grabbing her thighs, I pulled her away from the island until only her back was touching the granite. “Hands under you.”
Briar’s eyes flashed and her cheeks filled with heat.
Once her fingers were wrapped around the edge of the counter, I placed her thighs on my shoulders and growled, “Don’t let go.”
Chapter 36
Haunted
Briar
We were sitting on the floor of the kitchen sometime later picking at the cake I had made for him, mostly dressed. Lucas was in his slacks, and I had managed to find my skirt that had come off at some point during the transition from the island to the hallway wall since we hadn’t been able to make it to his room. By the time I had finished putting it on, he had handed me his button-down shirt. Everything else remained scattered around the floor, and the sight made me smile as I stabbed a small forkful of cake. Lucas hadn’t bothered to cut a piece or get a plate. He’d just grabbed a fork for us to share and had brought the entire thing down here with us.
He pulled me closer into his body, and I curled against his chest as I handed the fork back.
