Chapter 43 #2
But sometimes things did not crash and burn—they soared.
Tol cupped my face, one thumb tracing my cheekbone. Hesitantly, he leaned in, kissing the space beneath my ear so gently I shivered. It was different than any reverent kiss he’d placed on my cheek before. This one was laced with the desire he’d hidden for years, and it awoke the one I was stifling.
His smile widened against my neck as he traced it with kisses. I let my eyes fall closed, relishing in how soft his lips were.
With each open-mouthed press of his mouth against my skin, I was becoming weaker beneath him. My body melting into every touch, every breath. That heat turning demanding.
Brushing my hair behind my ear and ghosting his lips up my neck, he whispered, “Tell me what you want.”
The sentence—command—shot through me, and I struggled to rein in my breathing. I had even less control of my thoughts. I arched into him, fingers curling around his arms as I tried to remember how to speak and do what he said.
Tell him what I want.
There were many things I could think of—things that would undoubtedly be pleasurable—but what was it I wanted after this? Because I knew that while Tolek would do anything I needed right now, I wasn’t willing to risk the aftermath without certainty.
My head dropped backward as his lips outlined my collarbone. Slowly. Torturously. Waiting for me to say the word.
My hands tangled in his hair, messing it into the disarray I loved so much.
I thought of how many times I had almost said goodbye to Tolek for good—the ax, the Undertaking, Aird…
and the hole that always wedged itself into my stomach returned.
The one only his presence could fill. Each touch flooded it now, sending sparks through my body.
They landed on my heart, igniting it, and I knew without a doubt what I wanted.
I wanted my moonlight on the darkest night.
I wanted the tether that tied me to sanity.
I wanted him. My best friend and so much more.
I was too blind and broken to notice before, but now, as his lips worked their way back up my neck, my body and my heart knew.
I wanted Tolek Vincienzo, and I wouldn’t let anything—no Angelcurse, no wicked queen, no shattered soul—stand in my way. My heart pounded wildly, heated desire and a bounty of adoration unfurling with each stuttered beat against my ribs.
Tol nipped my ear. “Tell me,” he whispered, as breathless as I was. His hands trembled on my hips.
Restraint. He didn’t dare explore my body further until he had permission.
I lifted my head, eyes opening to look directly into his heavy-lidded ones. The amber shone like embers buried in the dark hues. His hair drooped forward over his forehead, every inch of his appearance a sign of the control he was longing to lose with me.
Carefully, as if moving too quickly could shatter whatever precarious bridge we were daring to cross, I traced his jaw, the rough stubble soothing and familiar under my fingers. He exhaled, lids drooping.
“Eyes on me,” I instructed.
He listened.
I dragged my thumb across his bottom lip, and the world went silent. Waiting for me to shatter the glass.
“There are a lot of things I’m unsure of right now.” Walls snapped up behind his eyes, one hand pulling back from my hip.
I reached down, holding it in place, and he swallowed. A tangle of patience and lust burned in his gaze as he waited for me to finish, but his other hand fisted the fabric of my dress.
“But I know the only time I feel whole is when you’re here.
” Jezebel’s words from the night I left came back to me.
How right she’d been. Tol was the source of my brightest beads of happiness, the receiver of my most genuine smiles—the ones I didn’t even realize were sewing my heart back together.
Through dark nights, he’d done that. A stitch for each laugh, steps toward a happier future.
“You want to know what I want, Vincienzo?” I pushed onto my toes, pressing him against the door until our bodies were flush, and slowly brushed my lips across his. “I want you—in every way.”
My words snapped the restraint holding him back, embers in his eyes flaring to roaring flames. He spun us so quickly, I barely had time to take a breath before I was pressed firmly between the door and his body.
“Thank the fucking Angels,” he breathed, and his lips crashed into mine. His hand cupped the back of my head as his tongue slipped into my mouth.
It was passionate and full of promises, speaking a language only we seemed to know. I wanted to memorize it, become fluent in Tolek in a way no one else could.
He ground his hips against me, every hard inch of him ready.
Fucking Angels, I’d never wanted anything more, but I was also content to remain right here, exploring his mouth and his body slowly.
It was a way I’d never thought I’d get to know him, but when my nails dragged through his hair, and he groaned into my mouth, it was the most enticing sound I’d ever heard. I wanted to own it, to make him mine.
He deepened the kiss, tilting my head back. Pressed against the door with his solid form shrouding me, I was completely consumed by him. He brushed a hand over my breast, down my side, coming around to grab my backside and pull me against him.
Our tongues explored each other in perfect tandem, as if we’d been doing this for years, each sweep of our lips like a match being struck within me. That fire was ready to burn the world down, forging my broken pieces back together as it went.
I bit down on his bottom lip, sucking gently, and my new favorite sound rumbled from the back of his throat again. Even the sheer fabric of this Spirits-damned dress was too heavy.
My hands ran up his chest and down his back, feeling the muscles through his shirt and wanting him even closer.
Tol’s hands were firm—assured—as they slowly pulled down my dress.
“Fucking Angels,” he muttered, ducking his head to kiss my neck. “You’re devastating.” One calloused finger dragged over my nipple, cruelly teasing me. His lips closed around the other, and now I was the one cursing the Angels, watching him through heavy-lidded eyes as he looked up at me.
Greedily, I reached for his shirt, undoing the buttons.
But Tolek shot up, grabbing my wrists and pinning them above my head.
“Undressing me, Alabath?” he said against my lips.
“Should I not be?” I hooked one leg around his hips and pulled him to me, eager for friction.
“I’ve waited years for this, Ophelia, and we don’t have time for the kind of attention I want to give you.
” He kissed me roughly, hand gripping my neck, thumb tipping my chin up.
“When I finally have you, it’s not going to be up against a door with hundreds of warriors waiting outside. I’m going to take my time.”
Heat gathered between my legs at those words, and I rolled my hips against him in argument. With a groan, Tolek’s lips took mine again, one hand still holding my wrists above my head.
This felt right, like it was what we should have been doing all this time. Every breath, every touch, I wanted it all—
But before I could take it, the mountains beneath us shook with the force of the earth cracking in two.