Epilogue #2
Joon steps back and takes my hand, holding my wrist in his gentle grasp. The familiar hum of energy dancing over my skin tingles against his cool touch. A shimmering thread appears above our clasped hands, lengthening. The ends elongate, undulating gently as they wait for the bargain.
“For your heart and your hand, I give you mine. I bind myself to you willingly in this life and beyond,” he says. An echo of the promise we made so long ago.
As he speaks his vow, one end of the glittering thread knots around his middle finger. It is the same as it was the first time, only now it’s brighter. Brilliant and warm.
“For your heart and your hand, I give you mine.” As I repeat after him, the other end ties in a knot around mine. The thread catches the light, shimmering a mix of silver, black, red, and cobalt with its movements. “I bind myself to you willingly in this life and beyond.”
The words have barely passed my lips before his mouth is on mine. My hands snake their way up his arms and around his neck. He lifts me by the waist, my legs wrapping around his.
The desire I feel for him is intensified by all we have overcome together. When I try to say as much, his tongue slips past my lips, stroking mine, and all thoughts leave my mind. All that is left is our need to claim each other.
Joon pins me against the rough bark of a tree with his body.
One of his hands finds my breast and caresses, squeezing gently before trailing down and over my thigh.
He finds the hem of my skirt and slides his palm underneath, then back toward my hip and curving around to my ass.
He does the same with his other hand, continuing until he reaches my core.
He strokes me. Once. Twice. I moan as two of his long fingers plunge inside me with no more warning than that.
My body has missed his touch—hungered for his, the feel of him on me and in me. It’s as if I wandered a desert in search of the one thing I needed to feel whole again. Never finding it until now, and I am ravenous.
“Perhaps I should make you summon the entire town with your cries?” he murmurs darkly.
My fingers dig into his shoulder as he nips and licks at my neck, while he continues to work me.
Then, his hand is gone in a too sudden movement, pulling a whimper from me, leaving me empty with a need to fill that space with him.
With those brief touches, he already has my body aching with desire.
I don’t have to wait long. He frees himself from his trousers and guides the tip of his cock into position.
My breath catches in anticipation as he grips my waist and holds me in place as he pushes his hips forward, stretching me in a single, achingly slow thrust until every inch of him is in me.
“Yes, just like that,” Joon murmurs, peppering my jaw with kisses between words. The sensual way he speaks sparks something within me that demands he make his claim.
Joon leans back to gaze at me. “Violet, I—”
“If you wish to claim me, then claim me.” I rasp. I need him to move, though I am on the verge of coming undone just like this.
A low rumble emanates from his throat. He pulls back, then thrusts forward, hard and fast. A sound between a cry and a moan escapes me as I gasp at the unexpected strength. He does it again and again and again. Each movement is deliberate and forceful as he obliges.
“Otherworld, take me, I have missed the way you feel.”
I try to smother my sounds as he threatens to follow through on his earlier words.
“Moan all you want, Wife. I will take them all for myself.”
With that, his mouth is on mine. He swallows my cries of passion with his kiss that claims me just as fiercely as he fucks me against the tree. Raw and primal. Each thrust is a possessive claim that marks our hearts and souls, solidifying the vow we made to each other among the trees.
We move together, proving that we are made to fit together, to move in tandem, and ensuring every inch of me will crave him for eternity.
Every touch, every breath, is an expression of our emotions.
The sorrow, the longing and regret, the worry, and the relief.
But most importantly, the joy that our hearts are finally whole now that we’re together again.
It’s as if we were born already knowing each other’s souls—as if the saints created me for the sole purpose of having him command my heart, and his for me. Our hands grasp and grip, fingers tangling in hair. We hold tight as we explore the maps of each other’s bodies.
Joon growls and bites my neck hard enough to leave teeth marks but not to bruise. His mouth licks and sucks where he bit, soothing the area that is now just tender enough to send bolts of pleasure to my core, making it all the sweeter.
The fire within me coils, winding impossibly tight. And with one more thrust, it breaks. Wave after wave of pleasure washes over me. I cry out, and he consumes the sound with his mouth just as he consumes my body with his. And then he moans as he finds his release, his pleasure, mixing with mine.
We chose this connection, first out of desperation, then gladly once more, because it is what we want—a decision made without the influence of outside forces.
We cling to each other as we always have, but this time we will not let go.
Our paths were never intended to cross, but by some twist of fate, they did.
I faced more danger helping Joon break the curse than anything else I’ve done in my life, but I have never been safer than every second I have been at his side.
We were always capable of surviving. Fear blinded us for so long, but together, we were able to become who we needed to be for ourselves. To embrace our strength and determination, and face the curse head-on.
Neither the bargain nor the bond was ever necessary. Only the chance to offer kindness and treat the other as equals, to approach with open hearts and open arms, wrapping each other in compassion that was freely given, not needing to be earned.
Our paths have merged into one we will walk together. Both of us stronger than we could ever be apart. Together, we can overcome anything.