37. Chapter 37 #4
The intensity of his gaze used to make me shy away, fold inward from such attention, but now I felt emboldened under those heavy lids.
“No more hiding. No more doubts.” He scooped one of my hands into his and placed it on his chest. His heart felt on the verge of bursting out of his chest. “This is real, Ophelia. I am here and will not be moved from your side until you tell me to, regardless of what the giants think they have in store for us.”
With a movement of his hips, he slowly filled me. He knew he was torturing me with the way my hips were now pinned, unable to move to hasten his grueling pace. From the lighthearted look he gave me, I could tell he was enjoying my impatience greatly. “I am yours to command, to break, to keep…”
He knew how to read my soul and study the harsh words that threatened to break me.
“I know monsters, Ophelia. I am one. And you”—Peiro’s eyes were full of reverence, his voice raw—“are one of the purest things I’ve ever held.
A giantess I didn’t know I needed to worship.
” He shifted his body, lowering just a fraction but enough to make my world tilt.
“I see your battles and pain the same way you see mine. Tell me. Do you see a monster when you look at me? Even knowing what I’ve done? What I am?”
“No.” It came out strangled, desperate.
He filled me again in one devastating thrust, burying himself to the hilt. I shattered around him. Not just my body, but my very essence. The wreckage was put back together with each movement of his hips, each withdrawal a loss, each return a song worth singing.
“I hunger for you like darkness hungers for light.” His forehead pressed to mine. “The world says we are forsaken,” he murmured against my skin. “The world can try to cast us aside. But maybe…” His breath hitched. “Maybe the broken were always meant to find each other. And damn the world.”
This wasn’t an encounter to simply fulfill a carnal need.
No, this was more. This was a promise written in our bodies.
This was love and his way of showing his love for me.
The real me, flaws and all. A small tear escaped at the realization.
Peiro didn’t allow it to fall, claiming it with a soft brush of his lips, claiming my pain.
He continued to move deeper inside me, my body melding into his, becoming one.
Time and time again he had shown his devotion, and each time his proclamation etched deeper into my heart.
If he could see the worst parts of me but still view me as something complete and worthy, then how could I not?
As his body moved in time with mine, I made a vow to release the phantom bindings that drove me back.
To drown out the voice inside my mind and the self-depreciating whispers.
I was something to be reckoned with. Worthy.
With a new sense of liberation, I felt suddenly alive. Shadows that have loomed for years dissipated as I accepted the truth. No, we didn’t know the full depths of my magic, but I was so much more.
Instinct drove me to wrap my legs around his body as my arms softly held on to his shoulders.
Peiro claimed my lips as his pace slowly increased, but not enough to distract us from what this was.
I tilted my hips again, my inner coil threatening to snap.
Our movements lost their steady rhythm as we raced towards the end.
His tongue once again danced with mine, but this time it was a dance hidden in passion. Of a solidifying love.
His pace became unforgiving as I felt pleasure take over me. My body tensed in such a way that was evidence of his dedication. I moaned his name against his lips as I found my release. My body turned into stardust.
“I love you,” Peiro whispered as his head rested against mine. His body moved in a craze right before he found his own release with a roar, filling me.
Our ragged breathing found calm as my sweat-laden skin began to shiver from the vast coolness of the room.
He shifted his weight to lay beside me, pulling me in tightly, and wrapped me in his strong cocoon.
Light teal orbs glowed and rotated above us, so similar to that day in the meadow when he’d first kissed me.
Happiness. Pure happiness.
“I remember,” Peiro said, pulling me from my bliss.
“What?” I asked, turning my gaze over my shoulder.
“You asked me earlier if I remembered. I remember it all.” A pause.
“And none of this—what your sister or Sury is facing, what Fyom and his family see, or what you’re enduring—is your fault.
” He took my hand into his and pressed a small kiss to each of my fingers.
“The giants dealt you this hand, but you have braved each and every turn in such a way that has left me in awe. I’ve battled demons both real and imagined—and I’ll fight yours until my dying breath, one by one. ”
I turned over so my head could rest on the inner part of his arm, still encased in his warmth. My fingers danced lazily along the dark hair that feathered his chest and rested on the spot above his heart. “I love you,” I whispered into his skin.
My eyes fluttered closed as I finally found sweet peace.