The confession hangs between us like a bridge neither of us is sure we’re brave enough to cross.
Dyfri moves, and I release him reluctantly, giving him space to breathe, to think, to run if that’s what he needs to do. But he doesn’t go far, just back enough to stare into my eyes while my hands rest on his shoulders like supplication.
He stares at me deeply. Intently. Searching my soul with the intensity of someone looking for salvation or damnation and not sure which they’ll find. I stand calmly and allow him to see the truth of me, every raw edge and desperate hope, just how much I mean every word.
The silence stretches between us, fragile as spun glass.
He blinks, and then he moves forward. His lips brush against mine and my heart goes completely mad,hammering against my ribs like it’s trying to break free and merge with his.
Dyfri kisses me.
The contact is electric, sending shockwaves through every nerve ending. It’s soft, careful, tender, and completely devastating. My soul lights up like a supernova and my toes curl in my shoes as every cell in my body recognises its other half.
He tastes of starlight and futures and everything I’ve ever wanted. Kissing Dyfri doesn’t feel new, it feels like coming home to a place I didn’t know I was searching for. Like finding the missing piece of myself I never knew was lost.
When he breaks away, I’m left gasping, the world spinning around us in slow, lazy circles. He watches me with bright eyes, pupils blown wide, his lips puffy and utterly irresistible. I lean towards them, pulled by gravity and desire and something deeper than want.
His hand on my chest stops me. I blink at him, dazed and wanting.
“Do you mean it?” he says hoarsely, his voice raw with hope and terror in equal measure.
My brows furrow in confusion. Mean what? That I want him? That I love him? That I’d follow him to the ends of the earth and beyond?
“Kisses are meaningful. Important,” Dyfri says solemnly, his eyes never leaving mine.
Understanding blooms slowly, like sunrise after the longest night. Relief surges in my chest, warm and overwhelming.
“Is that why you don’t let me kiss you?” I breathe. It’s not some personal failing on my part, not rejection or lack of desire.
A pretty pink tinge colours Dyfri’s cheekbones. He nods, suddenly shy despite everything we’ve shared.
“What do kisses mean?” I ask, though I think I already know. Can feel the weight of significance in the air between us.
Dyfri swallows hard, his throat working. “There isn’t a word for it in English. The closest is... devotion.”
Devotion. The word settles into my chest like a key turning in a lock. Of course. Of course it would mean everything to him, this gesture that I’ve been treating so casually.
I smile, slow and sure and full of everything I feel for this impossible, wonderful man. I nod, letting him see my understanding, my acceptance, my absolute certainty.
I lean forward. Dyfri’s eyes widen, then flutter closed like butterfly wings.
I press my lips against his.
And the universe explodes.
This isn’t the careful, questioning kiss from before. This is devotion made manifest, souls recognising their perfect match across space and time and dimensions. I wrap my arms around his back and kiss my Dyfri deeply, utterly, with all the passion in my soul and all the love in my heart and all the desperate need I’ve been carrying since the moment I first saw him.
He melts into it immediately, clinging onto me as if I’m his anchor in a stormy sea. His mouth opens under mine and suddenly we’re not two separate people kissing,we’re one entity discovering itself, galaxies colliding and forming something entirely new.
Magic sparks between us, not the careful controlled power I’ve seen Dyfri wield, but something wild and raw and cosmic. I can taste starlight on his tongue, feel the echo of his heartbeat in my own chest, sense the exact moment when his soul reaches out and tangles itself with mine in a way that feels permanent and perfect and absolutely right.
Time stops. The world stops. Everything stops except this moment, this kiss, this perfect joining of everything we are and everything we could be.
I kiss and kiss him, and I don’t think I’m ever going to stop. Don’t want to stop. I want to spend eternity right here in his arms, tasting his devotion and offering my own in return.
Chapter thirty-six
Dyfri
