And then the tears come flooding out. Big walloping fat tears come out in wails of shaking breaths that I can’t control.
“Oh shit,” he whispers more to himself than to me.
“Nyra’s fucking Vanitee and Grandma fucking Seelvie hates me,” I cry with a flailing wave of my hands at my sides.
“Honestly, that’s the first normal thing you’ve said all morning.” He holds my head against his smooth chest, and he just waits. He doesn’t try to sooth the pain he doesn’t understand. He doesn’t press me for more.
He just clings to that patience of his while I fall apart against his strength. And he uses that strength to instill a feeling of safety. A sense that everything will eventually be alright.
And it will be.
I hope.
The tears pass, coming quieter and quieter until they dry up completely, and still, he lets me lie against him. My messy thoughts sort and align one by one, until they seem in order and able to be spoken.
With a slow exhale, I do just that.
“My mother lied to our community. I’m not a shifter. I wasn’t blessed by Goddess Moon.”
I sniffle once more, and he gives me a minute before replying.
“You’re something, though. You’ve felt the beast inside you. And you don’t need the goddess’s blessing. You’re fucking gorgeous. As for the rest, you’re definitely anything but ordinary, Cersia.” The warmth of his calm tone eases the tangle of anxiety within me.
I smile against his damp chest. My fingers trace the soft lines of his abdomen, and I cannot believe how lucky I am to a man like him like him in my life. All three of them really. They’re a pain in the ass, don’t get me wrong. But they’re a pain in my ass in the best possible way.
“We’ll figure out your heritage, Cers,” he says just before pressing a sweet kiss to the top of my head.
My entire heart melts.
It’s a lovey-dovey puddle that I have never felt before in my life.
“Avian?” I say his name like a question, and he answers just the same.
“Yeah?”
My gaze lifts, and he stares deeply into me like he sees every part of me that even I myself cannot begin to see.
“You’re incredible.” My eyes are a bit wet all over again for a different reason now. But he doesn’t give me time to wallow in those crazy emotions.
His lips press to mine, and I feel the shy smile of his as he slowly takes me in: a gentle kiss. A tease of his tongue along mine. A deepening, mind-and-body connection of his mouth devouring mine.
“Avian?” I whisper like a question once more.
“Mmm?” He groans that retort along my lips before sliding his tongue along mine so perfectly that I feel it deep within my core.
There’s a hazy moment where I don’t know what I want to say. The emotions are hot and flooding and drifting and slamming all at once.
But then I speak before my mind even processes it all. “I love you.”
That smile pulls at his lips once more as his fingers thread hard through my hair. He kisses me slowly, intimately instead of primitively.
“I love you too,” he says so gently, I feel the warmth of his calming words all through my chest.
It’s the sweetest heartfelt moment.
And then his fingertips dig into my flesh as he grabs my thighs and tosses me back against the mattress. The gasp that escapes my lips is a sound of thrilled surprise.
But he’s always like that.
