36. Gemini
36
GEMINI
A fter Veil’s back tattoo was completed and carefully protected by an adhesive barrier, I saw the faint exhaustion in her eyes and brought her right back to the house so she could rest.
She resisted going back to our bed, saying she’d rather nap on the couch. She didn’t ask, but I could tell she wanted me to stay close. And although the anger was still simmering beneath the surface, I acquiesced with no hesitation, but made us change into comfortable clothes first and foremost.
She’s been napping for a few hours now, lying flat on her stomach as I read beside her. Her head is close enough that I can reach over and caress her hair. This time, when I do, she rouses and lets out a moan that sends a warm shiver down my spine. Pushing herself up onto her elbows, she looks at me with owlish eyes, and I smile at her sleepy, slightly off-focus expression.
“How long have I been sleeping?” she asks, her voice low and raspy.
Gods be damned. She’s divine.
“It’s almost evening,” I quietly answer. “How are you feeling?”
She sits up fully, her eyes lifting to the ceiling, as if thinking. “Sore,” she says. Her smile is soft but roguish. “Nothing I haven’t experienced before.”
Her smile falls, and before I can decipher what she’s doing, she’s crawled up into my lap and circled her arms around my neck. Her actions inexplicably leave me speechless as her head falls onto my shoulder, her warm breath tickling my naked chest. I wrap my arms around her waist, making sure not to touch the sensitive skin of her back.
“I don’t think …” she says, her words stuttering, as if she’s figuring out what she actually wants to say. “I don’t think I want to apologize for what I said this morning.”
I have no choice but to laugh; it rumbles deep in my chest, but I don’t speak, wanting to hear what she’ll say next. She gives my arm a small slap, as if finding the situation somewhat amusing too.
“But … how can I fix this?” she asks quietly.
“This?” I say, slightly teasing and intentionally echoing our earlier spat.
“Us,” she presses as she burrows the cold tip of her nose into my neck. “You ignoring me. I hated it. I hated knowing you were angry with me.”
“I wasn’t …” I trail off, not finishing my sentence because when she called me a monster, I was angry. Confusingly upset. And ignoring her was the easiest way for me to evade these uncomfortable feelings.
I’ve never cared what people thought of me before. And to be described as a monster? In any other context, I would have been pleased by the descriptor and beamed at the implications.
But Veil is not people .
And suddenly, the word monster tasted as foul as a handful of excrement.
“I wouldn’t want your apology in the first place,” I reply softly.
She’s still hiding in the crook of my neck, so I carefully pull her away, my hand slipping into the sleep-mussed hair near her nape while my thumb rests on her cheek.
As she watches me, her eyes are so wide that I’m almost convinced I can glimpse the entire universe between two blinks. Her throat works around a hard swallow, and I forget the very meaning of anger.
“Then what?” she whispers, her fingers slowly curling around my waist as she waits for an answer, her nails lightly digging into my warm skin.
I let the silence spill into all the cracks between us until the air is so thick with it that I have no choice but to speak. “I want your devotion, my beloved.”
Her cheeks flush, and my heart grows thrice the size.
“I want you to bare yourself so entirely to me that I can see every single atom that has the honor of creating the person I’m holding on to right now.”
I emphasize my words by tightening an arm around her waist and stroking her cheek with my thumb. Her mouth falls open, just enough for me to have to fight the urge to reach over and suck on her parted lips.
Her brown eyes turn misty, as if she’s barely containing the magnitude of her emotions.
Her voice is a near whisper when she speaks. “Give me time.”
I grit my teeth at her answer. “Again with that nonsense?” I retort. “Slave to something as trivial as the tick of a hand on the clock.” The grip I have on her face tightens. “Don’t you understand? We are beyond such a boorish construct. We exist outside the linear … do you not feel it?”
Even though I yearn for her to agree, it still surprises me when she does.
“I do,” she says, her piercing gaze steadfast. Her pause is loaded, carrying as much weight as the next words out of her beautiful lips. “But if you can see our future so clearly, then why balk at allowing this simple ask? Please , Gem, for once, give me something without the price of a compromise.”
Her voice is strife with desire. It’s all-consuming, but nowhere close to being carnal. Instead, it’s bursting with aching melancholy, the tang of angst as tart as a large sip of wine down my throat.
I pull her into a kiss, a fleeting urge to know how such an emotion tastes on her lips. She melts into me, and I drag my thumb down under her chin to find her racing pulse. My tongue slips inside her mouth, finding hers, and our kiss deepens. Still, I can feel Veil holding back, and I know she’s waiting for my answer.
Reluctantly, I break our embrace, seeking her gaze once again. I idly lick my lips as we silently stare at one another, hoping I can still find the essence of her lingering there.
I smile softly and delicately trail my fingers down her bare arm before speaking.
“Time,” I rasp with a nod.