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“Will you still call me tough stuff if I say yes?” I was barely able to keep my voice steady as panic gripped my chest.
He laughed softly. “Always,” he said. A dozen tense heartbeats later, a light bloomed in a small solar-powered lantern, illuminating the space. There was nothing here but us and a few large canvas packs set against one wall, which I assumed contained the supplies Fin’s people kept stashed here.
Fin stood, his focus latching onto the lone tear that streaked down my cheek. His brows bunched together, and he searched my eyes. “I didn’t realize—” He shook his head, raising one hand to brush away the tear with the pad of his thumb. “I didn’t mean to laugh at you.”
I closed my eyes and swallowed roughly. “Hepreferred the dark,” I said, hoping Fin wouldn’t need any more of an explanation than that. Even saying that much about Alastor dredged horrible memories closer to the surface, and I didn’t want even that much of him here with us.
“Del, we don’t have to—”
My eyelids flew open. “Iwantto,” I said, speaking over Fin. “Ineedto.” I inhaled shakily, attempting to steady my breathing on my exhale, even as tears welled anew. “Will you help me remember what it feels like to be loved?”
Fin’s jaw clenched, and his nostrils flared. Rage burned in his eyes, but then his expression softened. “Del...” He leaned in, pressing his forehead against mine. “You have always been loved,” he whispered. “You have no idea how much.” And then his lips were on mine, and I was drowning in his kiss. Inhim.
It was a slow but desperate kiss. Passionate but gentle. A kiss that roused every fiber of my being—parts of myself I hadn’t acknowledged in years were suddenly brimming with need.
“Fin,” I breathed, the ghosts of my past all but forgotten.
“Hmm?” His lips were featherlight against the sensitive skin beneath my ear, and his fingertips trailed down the column of my neck, brushing a loose curl from my face.
“More,” I breathed. “Please.”
Fin stilled long enough to pull back and meet my gaze in the lantern light. His eyes danced like mischievous green flames, and he was all too happy to hear the plea in my voice, but his smirk faded as he stared into my eyes. Maybe, like me, he couldn’t believe we were here. That this was us. Together. Finally.
This time, when Fin’s lips touched mine, his kiss wasn’t gentle. It was ravenous. It was ten years of wanting and waiting. His lips and hands were greedy, sending us both into an impassioned frenzy as he backed me against the wall.
Without breaking the kiss, I pushed his coat off his shoulders, letting it fall to the floor, and he did the same with mine. He tugged at my tunic, but it was trapped under the weapons belt slung around my hips. I hastily unfastened the buckle and dropped the belt with its pistol and knife to the floor.
Unhindered, Fin drew my tunic up my torso, and I broke the kiss just long enough for him to drag it over my head. I twisted my arms behind me to unfasten my bra while he pulled off his own shirt, and those clothing items quickly joined the rest of our discarded things on the floor.
Fin trailed the lightest of kisses down my neck and along my collarbone as his fingers teased the laces at the waist of my leather leggings. His lips blazed a path down the centerline of my body, moving between my breasts, which rose and fell with each shaky breath, and down my belly. I leaned back against the wall, my legs suddenly unsteady.
I wondered if he could feel the stretch marks etched into my skin from my pregnancy with Liam. They had faded a little over the years, and I had at first found them ugly, but over time, I had come to love them. They were the only marks Fin had ever left on my body, however inadvertently, scars of love rather than those Alastor had branded into my skin.
My heart skittered when Fin hooked his thumbs into the waistline of my pants, and my breath hitched as he dragged them down over my hips, pulling my underwear along with them. He unlaced and pulled off my boots, then guided my leggings down over first one of my feet, then the other, and tossed the rest of my clothing away.
His hands glided up the outsides of my thighs, settling on the curve of my hips, and he leaned in, bringing his face closer to the core of my being.
Fin gazed up at me, his stare molten. “Let me help you remember, princess.” He trailed the pads of his thumbs along the crease at the tops of my thighs, using gentle pressure when he reached my sex, opening me up for him.
I didn’t stop him when he leaned in the rest of the way. My fingers tangled in his hair, and I gasped at the first touch of his lips against my most sensitive flesh, at the first sweep of his tongue. Blissful warmth flooded through me, soothing all the aching parts of me. I couldn’t remember ever feeling anything so wickedly delightful. With each stroke of his tongue and press of his fingers, my legs trembled, my knees quaked, and I gripped his hair tighter. “Fin...”
He chuckled, low and rough, the sound filled with knowing promise. “Yeah, tough stuff?” he rasped.
But I couldn’t answer him. All I could do was squeeze my eyes shut and hold on to him as his tongue moved faster. As he held me tighter. As his mouth worshipped me.
“Fin—”
He groaned, kissing my inner thigh, and his hands fell away from my hips and dropped to his belt buckle. “I swear I will finish what I started,” he rasped. “I swear it. But—” He rose onto his feet, pushing his trousers down and freeing himself, his desperate need for me more than evident. “You’re making it impossible to wait any longer.” His hands returned to my hips, and he pinned me against the wall, his body pressed against mine as he buried his face in my hair. “Ineedyou, Del.”
I groaned as his erection nudged my belly, and suddenlyIwas the one who couldn’t wait any longer. I wrapped my arms around his neck, my legs around his hips, and shifted forward, sinking onto him.
Fin hissed in a breath, his hands clutching my backside, his entire body going rigid.
And just like that, we were back in Fin’s bedroom, ten years younger and filled with idealistic hope. I had given myself to him then, knowing we had little chance of a future. And yet, here we were, ten years later. Together.
“Show me, Fin.” I rocked against him, watching his face with each slow shift of my hips. “Show me how much you need me.”
Once again, he gripped my hips, guiding my movements, taking me harder and faster. He shifted his right hand, his thumb dipping to press against the point of aching need at the crest of my sex, and I moaned, my eyelids fluttering shut.
