“Sera—fuck—” Icroak, finally managing a breath. “I’m fine. Just—what the hell did you just say?”
Her brow furrows, completely innocent.
“If we don’t…consummate the marriage, it won’t be valid. Not in God’s eyes.”
Sounds like a transaction.
Her words hang in the air, pure and devastating.
She looks up at me, lashes trembling, but determined.
“It’s just that…that’s how I was raised. And I don’t know if it matters to you, but it matters to me. I don’t—” She swallows hard. “Do you want to?”
Every muscle in my body tightens. My glass clatters against my plate as I set it down. Her question isn’t seductive—it’s painfully sincere.
The room feels hotter, heavier. Her bare legs shift beneath my shirt, the hem rising high on her thighs, and I swear my sanity slips an inch.
“Seraphina…” I whisper her name. She looks up at me through her lashes, waiting.
God fucking help me.
She has no idea what’s she’s asking. I rise slowly, every step toward her deliberate, the air between us electric. Her breath hitches as I stop in front of her, so close the heat between us hums.
“Dove, it doesn’t sit well with me that you are wanting to do this out of obligation. Or Necessary-ness, if that’s a word. If I touch you, it won’t be because of some rule in a book.”
Her lip’s part, “T-that’s just it, Trey, you have told me to choose... T-this is it. I choose you.”
Chapter twenty-six
Seraphina
Meddle About – Chase Atlantic
Trey moves around the kitchen in silence, his back to me, sleeves rolled up, veins flexing in his forearms as he stacks the dishes and wipes the counter. The low hum of the fridge fills the quiet, the only sound between us besides the uneven rhythm of my heartbeat.
I should move. Speak.
But I can’t. I’m frozen—watching him, the way his hair falls over his forehead, the way the muscles in his shoulders shift beneath his shirt with every motion.
When he closes the cupboard he turns slightly, light catching the silver ring at his lip, the words fall out of me before I can stop them.
“I want to,” I whisper. My voice trembles, but the truth of it rings clear. “I want you.”
Trey stills, his hands on the edge of the counter, his knuckles tightening.
“I know that I shouldn’t.” I go on, the words spilling faster now, like water breaking through a dam. “But I do. And I have this…hot feeling inside me that I’ve never felt before. It’s like fire. It’s…it’s whenever I look at you. Or you touch me. Even just a gentle touch, I feel—”
He turns then, that slow, devastating smile spreading across his lips, dimples cutting into his cheeks.
“—and those dimples,” I breath out, helplessly, shaking my head. “Those stupid dimples make me almost lose my mind.”
He takes a step toward me, eyes darkening.
I swallow hard, my voice barely a whisper. “I don’t know why my body reacts this way around you. I just…do.”
Trey looks at me like he’s trying to find the will to breathe. Then something in him snaps. The space between us disappears in an instant. His hand slides along my jaw, his fingers threading into my curls, holding me still as his forehead drops to mine.
“Seraphina…”
