Her eyes meet mine, clear and certain despite the tears. “Then don’t.”
I strip slowly, every movement deliberate despite the urgency thrumming through my veins. She watches me with an intensity that makes my skin burn, her gaze mapping every scar, every line of muscle, like she’s memorizing me.
When I’m finally bare before her, she reaches out to trace the shadow mark that curves along my ribs—the royal brand that marked me as heir to a fallen realm. Her touch is reverent, careful, like she understands what it cost me to let her see it.
“You’re beautiful,” she whispers, and I have to close my eyes against the force of hearing her say it.
I lift her from the water, carrying her to where the boulder extends above the surface, creating a natural shelf warmed by the day’s sun. She shivers as the cool air hits her wet skin, but I’m there to warm her, my mouth finding hers as I lay her back against the smooth stone.
“Let me be yours,” I whisper against her collarbone, tasting lake water and something uniquely her. “Just for tonight.”
Her fingers thread through my hair, tugging my mouth back to hers. “You already are.”
I worship her with my mouth first—the hollow of her throat, the peak of each breast, taking time to lavish attention on the sensitive spots that make her gasp and arch beneath me. When I trail kisses down her stomach, she trembles, her hands fisting in my hair.
“Malrik,” she breathes, and the sound of my name makes my chest tight with want.
But it’s when my shadows join the exploration that she truly comes apart. They wind around her thighs, cool and weightless, caressing places my hands can’t reach while my mouth finds more sensitive territory. The contrast of sensations—warm lips and tongue, cool shadow-touch—has her crying out, her spine arching as pleasure builds.
“I need—” she starts, but the words dissolve into incoherent sounds as my shadows tease and my mouth worships. She’s trembling, so close, her magic responding by sending her own shadows to twine with mine in patterns of pure sensation.
When she breaks apart the first time, it’s with a cry that echoes across the water, her body clenching around the shadows that have been driving her to madness. I hold her through it, kissing her inner thigh, her hip, working my way back up her body as the aftershocks fade.
“More,” she whispers when she can finally speak, her hands reaching for me desperately. “I need more. I needyou.”
The first press of her body accepting mine steals both our voices. She’s slick and ready from her first release, but still tight around me, her body stretching to accommodate me inch by inch. I have to still completely, buried halfway inside her, fighting for control.
“You feel incredible,” I groan against her neck, my entire body shaking with the effort of not moving. “So perfect around me.”
She rolls her hips, taking me deeper, and we both moan at the sensation. “Don’t hold back,” she whispers, her nails digging into my shoulders. “I want all of you.”
We find our rhythm in the gentle current—slow and deep at first, learning the feel of each other. I angle my hips, searching until I find the spot that makes her breath stutter, and I focus there, each thrust deliberately driving her higher.
Water swirls around us as we move together, our shadows dancing beneath the surface like extensions of our pleasure. The bond builds between us with each movement, each kiss, each desperate touch—not overwhelming, but inevitable.
“Touch yourself,” I whisper against her ear, my voice rough with need. “I want to feel you come around me.”
Her hand slips between us, fingers finding that sensitive bundle of nerves while I continue to move inside her. The sight of her pleasuring herself while I’m buried deep makes my control fracture, my movements becoming more urgent.
“That’s it,” I breathe, watching her face as she climbs toward release. “Let me feel you.”
She comes apart with a cry that cuts through me, her body clamping down on me so tight I follow her over the edge, spilling myself inside her as the bondlockswith quiet certainty. The sensation overwhelms everything else, not just physical release, but the perfect fit of our connection finally settling into place.
I draw her into my arms like she’s always belonged there, our bodies spent and breath still shallow. Her shadows drift around us lazily, no longer chaotic but content, swaying like they’re singing lullabies I can’t hear.
“Are you all right?” I murmur against her temple.
She nods, pressing a kiss to the hollow of my throat. “Better than all right.”
I hold her tighter, memorizing the weight of her in my arms, the way her breath feels against my skin. Whatever hell is coming for us—whatever forces are moving in the dark—I’ll carry this moment into the fire.
She chose me. Not fate, not ancient magic, not bonds forged in desperation.
Me.
If this is the only time I ever get to be hers completely, then it’s enough. I’ll hold this night like a treasure, proof that once, in the space between one heartbeat and the next, I was exactly where I belonged.
And she was mine.
