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His words resonated deep inside the cave of my chest, flooding a heart I’d carefully put back together. I braced for the torrent to rip away the pieces, reopening wounds barely mended. Instead, they seeped into the thousands of cracks that webbed the organ, filling each fissure with a warmth that spread like molten gold.
Not breaking.
Strengthening.
“I have loved you since you came to my chambers that night.” Malyr’s tightly-paced breaths ghosted along the damp side of my neck as he slowly opened my braid, combing my strands out with his fingers. Then, they settled on my cheek with light pressure. “Loved you when I told myself I did not. Loved you when I told you that nobody ever would.” A tug on my cheek. “Please, look at me.”
The tenderness of his touch caved my lungs, choked my words, and froze my limbs. For a moment, I was trapped in what we’d been, everything we were now, and the tantalizing,terrifyingpossibility of what we might become.
I shook my head. “I fear that it isn’t real.”
“My love is not gentle, or tender, or easy. But it is real, grown from hate and pain deep inside a chest sullied by shadows. It is cutting and biting, leaving behind scars as unfading as my love for you.” His warm lips scathed my jawline. “And once we are gone from this earth, I will continue to love you among the stars. I will be the night, the darkest patch of sky around you, just to ensure that everyone can see how you sparkle. And once your light starts fading, I will take you into my black embrace, and that is where I will love you beyond death.”
A pulse of warmth radiated from my core, trembling through my soul before it washed over me like the first light of dawn. I had waited, hoped,longedfor this kind of love, a pledge of such unequivocal fortitude that not even death could impose conditions. Once again, it had been around me all along…
I breathed past the lump in my throat. “I… I don’t know what to say.”
“Youranoahas already told me everything I need to hear for now.Vinja a meh, shå,”Malyr whispered between kisses along my jawline, his damp fingers settling on my chin, urging me to turn my head. “Look at me, please.”
I turned in the frame of his embrace and looked into those eyes that seemed brighter than ever before, bringing out the gray swirls of his irises. The tension pulled taut between us, a palpable energy that begged for release but was too sacred to hurry. For a beat that stretched into eternity, his lips hovered mere inches from mine.
Hesitant.
Uncertain.
Asking for permission.
With my next inhale, as if guided by some unseen celestial pull, my mouth lifted just a fraction. And like the first brush of starlight across a night sky, our lips met. It was the softest of touches, a whisper against the roaring cacophony of emotions within me.
Malyr’s hand glided down my sides, fingers curling into my thighs before he slung my legs around his waist, trapping his hard length between us. “Tell me you want this.”
My head fell back as his mouth trailed down my neck, his tongue flicking and tasting, thickening the blood in my veins. “I do.”
We weaved and tangled together until the taut muscles of his abdomen pushed against mine. With uncontrollable need, he surged upward, entering me with an exhilarating force that sent a chill up my spine.
His groan rumbled through his chest, putting a little sway into his body before he tangled his fingers in my hair, pulling my mouth back to his. Our lips moved in trembling synchrony, each brush and retreat, each glide and pause like the mating breaths of two souls finally united.
My breathing quickened as we ground against each other in the watery depths, our movements sensual, our panting breaths matching our deep longing for each other. “Malyr…”
“Anoaley…”Clasping my thighs, he pulled me away from the edge. “Nothing on me is gentle anymore. However, I shall try.”
He waded toward a natural feature of the basin that I hadn’t noticed before—a gentle incline in the rock floor that formed an underwater plateau of sorts. It was as if nature itself had sculpted a cradle within the pool, subtly sloping upward where it melted with the edge, the water there merely a silken veil over the rock.
Malyr slowly lowered me onto the smooth rock, guiding my head to rest against the ledge, as if it were a carefully prepared pillow. Hot water lapped at my skin, washing into the valley between my breasts while my exposed nipples hardened against the chill of the air.
Until Malyr lowered himself down on me, bringing a wash of heat with him as his skin pressed against mine. Back hunched, his mouth moved hungrily over my nipples, sucking them, squeezing them between his lips, pulling them.
I grappled at his back, letting my fingers explore the contours of his strong shoulders, those shifting muscles beneath them. “I want you.”
“You have me. You’ve had me since I was born.” He pushed back inside me on a groan, his powerful thrust amplified by the smooth but ungiving stone beneath me. “Goddess help me, nothing compares to you. Nothing.”
He moved with a force that was both controlled and passionate, his powerful body brushing against my core as he thrust into me. His hips boldly rolled in a hypnotic rhythm that sent reverberations cascading across my quivering flesh, as if he touched me in a million different places all at once.
Because he did.
Shadows as thin as feather vanes billowed from his skin, sending icy fingers to whisper across my body, stirring up a sensation that left me breathless. Malyr’s kiss burned into me, more passionate than before. He nipped at my lips and tongue, sending jolts of pleasure and pain through me, spiraling me into a sea of pure euphoria.
“This is what happens when a shadow and void come together, my little dove,” he rasped. “I can only dare do this when we’re alone now. They will not tolerate someone else near you.”
