Page 50 of Where the Light No Longer Follows

Tears clung to her lashes when she forced a trembling smile on her face and climbed onto his lap, her smile uncontrollable for finally being able to do as she’d wished despite grief turning her corpse into a catacomb filled with helplessness. “Please,” she begged, guiding his weakened and lifeless limbs around her own and burying her face in his chest as she had dreamed of doing so many nights. When his scent of lavender filled her lungs, a strangled cry left her lips.

“Why do you cry, my sad girl?” he said, his fingers still shaking as he touched her face and leaned to kiss her tears away.

“I’m happy.”

With a finger under her chin, he tipped her head up and pressed his lips to hers in a crushing kiss. There was no time to brace at the impact of that one kiss. Or the more that were to come.

Silene finally gave away to the sea.

And the sea did not drown her.

After one detailed session on how to properly prepare tea which had included him clinging behind with every step she had taken, baking him a few cupcakes with her special buttercream which she had made sure to leave behind a detailed recipe for, chasing Tommy around and playing with every possible toy of his before nearly cuddling him to death, they’d finally settled quietly on the sofa.

He’d laid her on top of his naked chest as they both mindlessly watched some strange documentary on the television, neither paying any attention to it, he was entirely too preoccupied tracing his fingers everywhere he could on her body while she was entirely enthralled by the sound of his heart as she pressed her ear to his chest.

“Gabriel?” she asked, smiling when she heard his pulse quicken.

“Yes, my beautiful ruin?”

She pushed herself up onto her hands, caging him between her arms as she stared down at the eyes she could swear changed shades every once in a while. After she was satisfied with her close observations, she poured about a thousand pecks down his face that had him chuckling like a fool.

His arms banded around her, hands sneaking under her shirt and settling against her naked back. “There were so many places I wanted to take you,” he said, moving his palms up and down her spine. “Let me take you.”

“This is the only place I wish to be. Nothing else matters. I’m scared nothing else will ever matter to me.”

“I want to make this mean something.”

“It means everything.”

He shook his head. “This doesn’t feel enough. It isn’t enough. I wanted to give you everything. I have everything to give, it was going to be yours to take. Not like this, my ruin, not like this at all.”

“I just want you,” she whispered, trailing a finger down the hard panes of his stomach down to the deep muscle ridges on his hips that disappeared under his trousers.

“I’m all yours to have,” he breathed.

She pulled her hand back when he let out a pained groan. “What’s wrong?”

“It feels so good, Silene.”

“Oh,” she whispered, continuing to trace the lines of his stomach, watching the myriad of expressions cross his face and the way his chest rose faster and faster each time.

He pulled her to his chest, kissing the crown of her head repeatedly and hugging her nearly to suffocation. “Let me make you feel good, too.”

“I don’t know if I can,” she murmured. “It has never felt good before.”

“You can, my beautiful ruin,” he said, hooking a gentle finger under her scarf and slowly pulling it off, the scalloped edges of the lace material kissing her skin as it slid over it.

He sat up with her on his lap, his strong fingers weaving into the back of her head to grasp her long hair and angle her head back as he pressed his mouth to her scar, licking the length of it and then the column of her throat before he grasped her lips again. “Can I see what’s under the tablecloth?”

She could not help but smile against his mouth as he kissed her. “You might want to take Tommy to another room.”

“I’d rather have a witness to my murder.”

“I’m going to get you very naked, Gabriel.”

“I’m pretty certain he’s somewhat deaf and partially blind.”

Her giggles filled the room, and he grinned up at her, eyes flashing so many shades of blue.