Page 281 of Sorrow & Strangers

I feel him tense at the sound of his name, and then he relaxes. I pull back to look at him, and he brushes his knuckles along my cheek.

“I broke up with him,” I say again, unsure why he’s not reacted at all, but I can feel his uncertainty, his tension.

“Why?”

I look down at where my nails are digging into my thighs. “Because you were right.” I meet his intense gaze. “He’s not . . .” I swallow. “He was a safety net.”

“A safe space,” he says, taking my hand and kissing my knuckles.

“Safer than you because I . . .” Fuck. “I’m feeling things for you. I have been for a very long time.”

“What now?” he asks, pulling me close.

I exhale. “Now . . .” It’s time to stop hiding. “I need an end date.”

He pulls me onto his lap, and I wrap my arms around his neck, loving how well I fit against him.

“A year,” he says, knowing exactly what I mean. “The last obstacle is the biggest one.”

A year . . .

“Then, all right.”

“All right?” he asks, tilting his head.

I keep my gaze locked on him. “I’ll commit to you.” The words spill out, and I’m expecting the nerves, the nausea, but there is none of that. There is only that warm feeling inside me. The one I always get when I think of him. Even when I hated him.

There is a loud snap, and we’re no longer in the forest. The chilly winter air is replaced with the warmth of a fire. I know we’re in his room, and I know he’s sitting on his bed with me on top of him, but I can’t pull my eyes away, not even for a second.

“You’ll commit to me?” he asks. “Even though you don’t know who I am?”

I know it sounds stupid, but it’s time to stop pretending.

“Yes, and a year from today, if you’re still not in a position to tell me, you tell me anyway.”

He nods once. “I’m going to kiss you now.”

“Stranger,” I say, though my stomach flutters at the thought, my lips tingle, my core stokes. “I don’t want you to kiss or fuck me until I know who you are. Until you can kiss me with your lips.”

He growls, and it’s so deep and feral that my resolve shatters to nothing. “I was going to kiss you with my lips.”

My breath shallows out at the thought, and while I know I should say no, I can’t. Not at this moment, and while I know this is going to be my end, I say, “One kiss.”

Chapter One Hundred Fifteen

The Stranger

Icover her eyes and drop my avatar completely, leaving me as myself, only me. The way her skin feels when there is no avatar or glamour between us is heady and already has my eyes rolling back at the sensation.

“Just one?” I groan. One kiss to seal our fates and our commitment to each other. One kiss to start our future. “Will that be enough?”

Her lips part, and her breathing quickens. I lean closer, inhaling her breath, my skin prickling with awareness. I am an old being, the tattered fabric of my soul and psyche held together by tangled knots. It has been years since I’ve been this close to someone, yet all it takes is Summer Tuatha De Daanan’s touch against my skin to unravel the tapestry of me, tearing it down in a mass of thread. I have no idea what it will become, but I do know that it is in her hands.

“You better make it count,” she whimpers, licking her lips in anticipation, coming so close to brushing mine with her tongue.

“You doubt I will?” I chuckle.

“Just fucking kiss me.”