Death was bursting with life.
He lowered his mouth to mine once again, and I pulled him all the way on top of me. A single touch was no longer enough to anchor me here. I needed the weight of his body against mine, the solidity, the realness. The heat.
Liam had no more words of wisdom for me, only kisses, deep and passionate and sensual, as if he were tasting chocolate and wine and all of life’s most delicious flavors for the very first time. I felt him growing hard against my thigh, and I shifted and arched my hips, gasping as the firm ridge of his cock pressed against my aching clit.
He let out a soft moan, the sound of it vibrating across my lips.
“You’re beautiful, Gray,” he breathed, and nothing else mattered. Not the realm, not the gateway, not my eternal soul.
Only this.
When the sky turned dark, we finally came up for air. As we broke apart, a tiny spark danced across my lips, and a dozen bolts of silent lightning raced across the sky.
“Does it always do that?” I laughed, pressing my fingers to my mouth. Everything inside me was buzzing and alive.
“I was about to ask you the very same question,” he said, then lowered his eyes. “I don’t… I’m not… I’ve never done this before, Gray.”
“Never?” I bit back a smile. “Not even once, borrowing a human vessel?”
Liam—older than time, vaster than the skies, etcetera, etcetera—blushed as he shook his head.
“Well, you shoulddefinitelyget more practice, then.”
“Why?” He sounded alarmed. “Was that not… satisfactory?”
“Oh, it was quite satisfactory. But you don’t want to get rusty. Use it or lose it, right?”
“I’m not sure I understand what—”
“Liam?”
“Yes?”
“Can we go back to the kissing part?”
“Oh, right. Of course.” He smiled, then took my face into his hands, another spark tickling my lips as we leaned back onto the sand. He’d just lowered his mouth to mine when the tide surged, dousing us both.
We sat up with a jolt, both of us laughing, our clothes clinging to our bodies, hair dripping into our eyes.
“Well,” Liam said, rubbing the water from his hair. “That felt rather ominous.”
The tide had returned to normal, shushing softly against the sand several feet in front of us as if it hadn’t just reached up and slapped us. But the sky overhead was nearly black, flashing with lightning even though Liam and I had stopped kissing.
“I don’t like the looks of that,” he said now.
“Yeah, I guess it’s time to go,” I said, but I felt optimistic. The wave may have cooled things off between us, but it didn’t feel like an ending.
Just the opposite.
There was so much more to Liam than I could’ve imagined. So much more I wanted to know. To share with him.
I was his first kiss. What other simple human pleasures had he missed out on? Had heeventasted chocolate and wine? Had he ever put a bathrobe on fresh out of the dryer, all warm and snuggly? Had he ever fallen asleep on the couch, only to wake up covered with a blanket that someone tucked around his shoulders? Had he ever heard blues music or run around the grass in his bare feet or gotten a back rub? Had he ever blown bubbles?
I looked at him now through new eyes, my heart beating strong and solid, a smile stretching across my lips.
I felt light. Airy. Almost… happy.
Liam stood up from the sand and held out a hand to pull me up. Despite our soaked clothes and the dark sky, the air still felt warm, carrying with it the clean, salty scent of the sea.
