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He sighed, this time breathing a long exhale through his nose and sending a rush of air hot across my wrist. “The other day, when I awoke and you were…spiritually gone, it messed me up inside. For those few hours, I lived in a world you did not, and all I thought about was what could have been.” He closed his eyes and shook his head, dissolving the bad memories from his hindsight. “When you whispered my name, it was like I’d gotten a second chance. And I don’t want to screw it up this time.”
“This time? You were trying a first time?” I asked, plainly unaware.
“Very funny,” he teased, glowering at my retort. His gaze traveled to where we connected, to the casual way our hands found each other. “I have no idea how to treat you, how to care for you in the way you need me to. But I don’t want to hold back a single thing anymore, because I now understand how fleeting our time together may be.”
“What about the realm?” I asked, stroking the inside of his forearm with the soft side of my finger. “All those excuses you gave me yesterday about threatening the future of the world, my calling as the huntress, all we risk losing if we lose sight of what’s important—”
“Youare important to me, Arya.” He pulled my hand to his heart, spreading his palm over mine against his chest. “There will always be evil in the world to fight, there will always be a monster to slay and realms to save. But when I’m with you, I have my own story to live, and I want to see it to the ending and beyond if that’s possible.”
He swallowed as he waited for my thoughts, to see if I reciprocated his feelings on the matter. I didn’t know if I could promise him such a story, not one with a happy ending anyway. I never anticipated I would live past my twenties as a chosen. But when he flew into my life, all my expectations were torn apart in the best way possible. He was my first and only choice, and I would keep choosing him until our story ended.
My life was always meant to be short, but perhaps with Azriel, every brief second would count.
“I’m used to living fast, Azriel, so I apologize if I’ve been a bit forward.” I smoothed my palm against his chest and wrapped it around his neck. My fingers played with the soft waves at the nape of his neck. He leaned into my touch as his eyes fluttered shut. “But I want you very much. If you don’t want to hold back, then don’t.”
His head turned completely, running a careful eye over the teeth biting my lip and the desire coded in the language of tiny chill bumps written across my skin. “What did you just say?” he asked, voice dragging in his throat. Each word slow and glacial off his tongue.
My free finger ran along the center of his chest, dragging a nail across his bare skin in an attempt to tease him. Words would fail my intentions, but this would not. His breath hitched faster beneath my touch, and my own matched his speed and equaled his hunger, letting our lust grow with every breath. I ignored the protest in my ankle as I climbed on top of him.
“I want you,” I said, speaking each word like they were worlds apart. My face lowered to meet his, lips parting slightly to invite me in, beckoning mine with their warmth and every false promise I ever wanted to believe. Someone who really cared, someone who would stay by my side, someone with whom I didn’t have to be anything other than who I was. I didn’t need the promise of tomorrow or a pretty lie to cover an ugly truth—no illusion here to see through. Azriel was certain as the night and as genuine as the liking between us. I fell into this fantasy made real, this wish come true. And a lifetime of waiting for truth, for purpose, for something real, was complete as soon as my lips met his.
He pulled in a breath as our mouths locked, stealing it from my chest as if inhaling the essence of my soul. A sound slipped from his throat, guttural and wild, making the logical side of my brain shut down entirely and act from a more primal part. I slipped my tongue past the barrier of our lips, tasting heat and need in every passionately placed kiss. Centuries of pent-up desire laced every stroke of his tongue, saturating my mind with countless thoughts never properly articulated. I decided to show him instead.
My eyes were closed, but I’d never seen him more clearly. My hands brushed through his hair, the length skimming my wrist before diving down his neck to the joint centered in his back. Silky feathers slid through my fingers as I stroked the edge of his wing, feeling the thin bones and veins running rampant under downy protection. His breath hitched as I touched the sensitive skin underneath, twitching at my touch, silently demanding more.
His hands moved as we intensified the kiss, one cupped behind my neck, the other climbing to the top of my hip, pulling me toward him. There was no space found between us. My body melted into his like iron ore set over the hottest flame. I squeezed my thighs around his waist, seated in his lap with his hardness pressed firm underneath me—the very flame setting me on fire and smoldering my core into pure liquid desire. I let a stray hand fall across his shoulder, down his chest, and slowly down his center, feeling out his boundaries.
“Az…” I whispered into his mouth; his teeth nipped my lower lip. We never talked aboutthis,this situation building between us, this extremely hard place growing between our legs. There was a raw part of my heart that wanted to take, wanted everything from him and to give him everything in return, to steal his heart like he had stolen mine. I became unleashed as he touched me, set free from the invisible bonds I’d once restrained myself with.
“Arya?” His voice dragged my name a mile long, the longest mile I ever traveled. His desire was a solid affirmation beneath me, and I replaced the hand I used to explore with my hips, gliding my body up and down his length. “I’ll give you everything if you let me. I’ll let you have it all if you’ll have me.” His words moved to my neck, where he kissed away the salt still coating my skin.
“Yes,” I breathed, arching into his mouth. “Touch me, Azriel.” At my consent, he pushed my legs wide. His fingers lightly brushed the apex between my thighs, a light tease of what was to come, and pushed aside the thin cloth separating all of me from all of him. His name spilled from my lips as his thumb rubbed small circles. His opposite hand grabbed my hair to keep me in place. I suddenly was numb to any other touch, any tangible feeling besides his fingertips and how I nearly fell apart with the small movement. I bit my lip to silence the hungry sound my chest was aching to cry, a habit the night had forced into me.
I arched into his hand, letting his fingers slip where I needed them. My fist gripped his neck for support, feeling the blood race with his pulse. His breath brushed my chest in a heavy rhythm, enjoying the way I rode his hand and breathed his name. His palm smoothed over the ache growing with intensity from my center to my heart.
“Azriel?” I phrased his name into a request. “I need more.”
“You’ll have to be more specific, darling.”
I moaned, tugging his hair as frustration built inside me. “I needyou, all of you, if you’ll have me.”
He withdrew his hands and snatched my face to his. His thumbs, slick with my desire, skimmed my jawline as moonlight dove into the depths of a cerulean sea. “I’ll have everything you give me and more. When I’m through with you, darling, you’ll never wonder of your worth again. Because I’m going to worship you until you understand just how beautiful you are.”
My hands smoothed the back of his neck, his need growing beneath me with every teasing stroke of my fingers. He was pushing his restraint, proving incredible control despite the wild look in his eyes. I shuddered a breath against his lips as they moved closer to mine. “I don’t deserve you, Azriel.”
He sat up then, standing us straight before pinning me to the wall we were just lounging against. His eyes never left mine though his hands continued to trace every inch of my skin. His touch alone was enough to send me over the edge. His body pressed mine between him and the limestone. “No, Huntress, it is I who does not deserve you. Tell me you're mine, Arya, and I’ll be anything for you.”
“I’m yours,” I whispered, slipping from his waist. And I meant it. “All yours, Az.”
My declaration drove him mad, unleashing whatever was holding him back. “And I’m yours.”
With adept fingers, he stepped away and slid off the rest of my clothes, which weren’t seeing much use anymore, before moving on to himself. I stared at him as he stood before me, keeping him an arm’s length away to study every detail burning my blood hot with want. My pulse roared in my ears as I watched him, bare and perfect, toss our clothes across the room.
His hair was a tangled mess from my hands. The striations outlining the muscles in his chest caught shadows established by the firelight. My gaze dropped to his hips, and a fresh ache bloomed between my legs. I stepped away from the wall I'd been using as support to grab him in my arms, the absence of his touch too long, too unbearable to endure for another second.
He lifted me, spreading my legs around his waist, before pressing me back against the wall. “Tell me to stop and we’ll stop. Tell me you want this, and I won’t hold back, darling.”
“Gods above, Azriel, if you don’t take me right now, I might literally die,” I moaned into his mouth as he kissed me, the sound swallowed by his lips.
