“Just promise me you won’t leave me in the dark anymore.”
“It’s for your safety.”
“Let me worry about my safety.” He pulled away, running a hand through her hair. There was so much love and adoration in his eyes. Love Eira didn’t know if she was worthy of after all she’d done and all that had transpired because of her. “Share your burdens with me. Let me lighten the load.”
“There’s a group of people,” Eira started carefully, “who are working against the Pillars. I’m helping them. If I tell you too much, you might have to be involved with them and listen—please—” she tried to speak over his hasty objections “—this is a group that I involved myself with knowingly. They’re good people. But once you know of them, you’re a part of them, forever.”
“Why do you give me more reasons to worry for you?” He sighed.
“Don’t blame me. You’re the one who decided to fall in love with me.” Just saying so aloud sent shivers up her arms. He was a streak of sunlight breaking through the grime and hardship her world was coated in. Eira was still certain she didn’t deserve him. But having him in her arms somehow made everything better, if only slightly.
“You have me there.” He grinned and planted a firm kiss on her mouth. “So this group you’re involved with, those are the ones you sneaked out to meet?”
“Yes.”
“Because of them you were kidnapped?”
“No, that was my own stupidity,” Eira said firmly. “I rushed in when I shouldn’t have.Iwas the one who riskedtheirsafety. Not the other way around.”
He sighed but seemed to believe her. “Tell me how I can help you?”
Eira made a show of mulling over the question. “Keep my secrets,” she started. “Continue helping me as you’re able, as I ask.”
“My heart and magic are yours.”
“Be an ear and a confidant.”
“Done and done.” He kissed her twice, once on each word.
“Two more things.”
“More?” He chuckled.
Eira pressed on, keeping the tone serious. “Firstly, I want you to keep us a secret.”
“What?” He narrowed his eyes slightly.
“For your safety,” she said. He went to object; she stopped him. “I know you can look after yourself. But you were already a target by being myfriend. I don’t want to think of what threats the Pillars might make if they know I love you. Don’t make me even have to hear them.” Eira’s hands balled in his clothes. The mere idea of the Pillars threatening Cullen twice over because she’d dared to love him was unbearable. “And your father… I believe you when you say you’ll handle him and his reactions. But we—I, if I may be selfish—have enough to worry about right now. Let’s cross that bridge when we have to and hopefully when our very lives aren’t hanging in the balance?”
He relented. “Very well. For the time being, we will keep our involvement with each other a secret. But as soon as all this business with these Pillars is settled, I will tackle my father and the world will know you are mine.”
There was a defensive and needy edge to the way he said the word “mine” that had Eira shifting in place and savoring the way their bodies brushed against each other.
“What’s the final thing?” he asked.
“Kiss me again.” She looked him in the eyes as she made her demand. “Kiss me until I’m breathless. Kiss me until we forget the lips of every other man and woman we’ve ever kissed.”Kiss me until I can wholly believe that you, magnificent creature, love me.
“That would be my supreme delight.”
This time, when he kissed her, it was clear he had abandoned anything that had been holding him back. Cullen kissed her as though he were trying to consume her. As though she would vanish if he didn’t kiss her hard enough, long enough.
Eira returned his fervor. He smelled of warmth, sunlight, and everything she’d ever associated with home and goodness in this world. He was everything she’d given up on ever having. But he illuminated the hope she’d lost. His touch made her feel more alive than she had in years.
22
By the time the sun rose, Eira had only dozed for an hour or two. The covers were bundled around her, a honey haze dripping from every corner of the room with the first morning’s light and the memories of the previous night. She raised two fingers, touching them gently to her still-tender lips. Who knew kissing someone could feel so good? Or that it was possible to do it for so long without tiring of it?
Rolling over, Eira stared at the other half of her bed, trying to imagine what it might feel like to see Cullen on the pillow next to her. Knowing him, he was as handsome asleep as he was awake. The perfect statuesque figure of a man in slumber.
