Bastien’s eyes hung heavy on mine, lips inches away and pressing closer as his chest grazed, layers of puffy warmth doing little to douse that fire that ignited between us. “I’ll be reliving this night with you more times than I’ll ever admit.” A half smile cracked my face, and that cocky grin he reserved only for me twisted his mouth. “Thank you.”
Bastien’s thumb, the thumb he’d used to bring me to my knees, swept the seam of my lips.
I shuddered, recognizing the taste of me clinging to his flesh. I shifted my thighs with the memory of his deft fingers.
“Don’t do that,” he husked, tortured eyes darkening.
“Do what?” I could hardly croak.
“Those eyes beg me to forsake all that’s holy and succumb to everything sweet that isyou.” He traced the pad of his thumb over my eyebrow with a wry smile. “I want to bring you home and take care of you. Maybe in another life, we could have, but in this one, my job is clear. In my worst moments, I wish it weren’t so. But in my best, I know my greatest good is spent—” He nodded to the small neighborhood of homes that surrounded us.
“They need you.” I knew it was true with all of my heart.
They needed Bastien’s love much more than I did.
And that was why I was leaving.
“They need me.” Bastien’s gaze surrounded me, eyes drifting to the hollow of my throat and then up to the heavens. “I’m good for them.”
You’re good for me, I screamed.
I screamed it over and over until my inner voice was raw and ravaged.
And like a chant on my lips, I prayed for him to feel the true meaning when I said my next words.
“They love you, Bastien.”
