CHAPTER 37 #4
When he pushed inside her at last, he was gentle, careful, watching her for the smallest hint of pain or doubt. She met his gaze with nothing but love and want.
“I’m okay,” she assured him.
This is amazing.
“Fuck, you feel good, Kara.”
Heat filled her at his words and she drew him deeper, bringing her hips up to meet him. “Sebastian–” was all she managed.
A rough breath escaped him as he cupped her chin, tilting her face so he could plant kisses along her neck. They moved together as though they had always belonged this way, wrapped in one another. Sebastian was everywhere, her body alive under his touch.
What is this man doing to me?
She felt his wonder at every sound she made, how her pleasure thrilled him, how his thrilled her. And when he looked down at her, with that particular look on his face, her mind stopped working entirely.
Never stop looking at me like that.
She wrapped her legs around him, pulling him closer.
“Fuck, Kara.”
“Keep going.”
He answered her immediately. The rhythm built, faster now, each breath and touch pulling them closer. Higher. She was getting close–
As they reached the peak, she felt his release combine in a wave with her own and their bond sang.
“Kara–”
Her name tore out of him as golden light spilled out around them. It felt like their magic had always known, had always been waiting for this. For them.
It was bliss.
Complete and utter bliss.
Sebastian rolled to his side, his chest heaving. Kara lay beside him, dazed and thoroughly satisfied. There was not one coherent thought left in her mind.
When she could move again, she reached for his hand.
“Kara, are you alright?” He gazed at her with that particular intensity. “I wasn’t too rough? I didn’t–”
“Sebastian Thorne,” she interrupted, grinning despite her breathlessness, “if you’re about to apologize for that, I might have to reconsider this whole Soulbond thing.”
He huffed a surprised laugh. But his eyes still searched hers. “I just – it was your first–”
“I’m aware. And I’d like to register my formal complaint that I waited twenty-five years for that.” She stared up at the ceiling. “What on Arcanthys was I doing?”
He laughed properly this time, the tension draining from his shoulders. “So... that was okay?”
“So much more than okay.” She leaned over and kissed him softly. “Perfect, actually.”
His answering smile was brilliant, relieved. “Good.” He fell quiet for a moment. “It’s never been like that before.”
She looked at him.
“For me,” he said. “Never.”
That’s what did it. Not anything else they’d done that night. That’s what made her blush.
“And I plan on doing that again,” he added. “Frequently.”
“I’m counting on it,” she laughed. “Although–”
“What?”
“The innkeeper’s daughter in Port Cerula will be devastated.”
“Kara–”
“I’m just saying–”
He pulled her close as she laughed, wrapping an arm around her waist. She snuggled into him.
There was no place Kara would ever rather be.
No safer place in all of Vallenna. Golden light still glowed on their skin where they touched, the bond settling, weaving itself permanently into place.
It hummed between them, and across it she felt his joy, his peace, sparking inside her.
“You know, if people knew,” Kara began.
“Knew what?”
“How good Soulbond sex is. Everyone would be doing it.”
“To be fair,” he said, “not all of that was the Soulbond.”
She looked up at him. The smirk was back in full force. For one moment, she was lying in the arms of the arrogant, insufferable soldier she met in the alleyway.
Kara didn’t mind. But she had to keep up appearances.
She rolled her eyes dramatically. “Sebastian.”
His expression turned smug. “You said perfect.”
She opened her mouth. Closed it again.
“...Fine,” she said. “It was perfect.”
He looked very pleased with himself.
She sent everything she was feeling down the bond, the love, the contentment, the completely embarrassing degree to which she meant perfect. His smugness softened.
“This is strange,” he said after a moment.
She frowned. “The bond?”
“No,” he assured her. “The bond feels natural. Like breathing. But the knowing you feel everything I feel. It’s, well, I’ve spent years making sure no one could do that.”
“Does it bother you?”
“No,” he said. “That’s the strange part.”
Kara turned into him and pressed a kiss to his chest, just above his heart. “Can you feel me right now?” she asked.
“Yeah.”
“What do I feel like?”
He considered. “Warm. Bright. Like sunlight.”
She blushed. Again. “That sounds nice.”
“It is,” he told her, kissing her forehead.
“You feel like lightning,” she said.
“Lightning?”
“Lightning,” she confirmed. “Powerful. Electric. Alive. That’s what you feel like.”
His lips skimmed her hair, her temple. His voice came in a rough whisper. “I love you, Kara Hale.”
Her heart leapt. She tilted her head to look at him. The bond pulsed with his certainty. “And I love you, Sebastian Thorne.”
He kissed her again, sweet and unhurried, and tightened his arms around her, pulling her more firmly onto his chest. Tangled together, happier than either had ever been, and bound by love and vow and soul, they drifted into a peaceful sleep.