The crisp air caused Eva's nipples to pebble as she looked around nervously.
"It's just you and me," Caden said.
Eva forgot her shyness. She forgot all the reasons why they shouldn't and only focused on why they should.
The rest of the world didn't matter in this moment.
He was right earlier. No one knew what tomorrow would bring. Maybe Fallon would arrive with reinforcements or perhaps they would fall before he could reach them.
Either way, she'd take what she could get of the present. Burn out the seconds in a blaze of glory as if every one might be her last. Because they very well might be.
Their lips came together in a crash of desire and need as their hands busied themselves exploring each other's bodies.
The moments passed in a haze of passion, fleeting and yet eternal at the same time.
Blink and Eva was fully naked. Another blink and Caden's bare skin touched hers. His fingers found her center, driving her up the precipice. Eva moaned softly, clutching at his shoulders.
Her skin felt too tight to contain everything she was feeling. Every breath, every touch a controlled violence.
She felt too deeply. Wanted him too badly.
She hissed as he plunged home, her legs coming up to squeeze his sides.
She reached between them, finding the small bundle of nerves right above where he was sliding in and out of her.
"Alea na. You are my everything," Caden said through gritted teeth.
There wasn't enough of Eva left to answer him.
He hit a spot deep inside, and she detonated, coming apart in his arms. He followed her with a shout seconds later.
She took his weight as he rested against her, taking in the glistening drops of light spread over the blanket of night far above them.
How about that?
Even at their most dire, there was a light in darkness. Beauty in the solitude.
Caden shifted his weight beside her, his head next to hers as he took in the side of her face.
"No matter what comes. I won't regret this moment," she told him in a fierce voice. "You are worth taking any chance."
He needed to know that.
All her doubts, all her insecurities, they burned to ash in the face of what they had. He was worth every struggle she faced.
He kissed her forehead, whispering into her ear. "I would abandon everything for you."
Eva reared back, knowing what such a promise meant.
Caden's nod was grave. "I know if you'd been alone, you wouldn't be in this predicament. The Kyren would have long accepted you into the herd. You tried to balance the Trateri's needs against their's and you're the one who got burned. When this is over and we're safe again, I'll follow you anywhere if you ask me. Find a safe place far from others where you don't have to worry about your mind being used against you—or hide parts of yourself so others won't ever think of using you."
Eve hadn't realized he knew she did that. Then again, he had always been far more perceptive than others ever realized.
Seeing her expression, he gave her a crooked grin. "I see you. Everything about you. I know you're more similar to the mythologicals than you're willing to admit."
Yet he'd never once mentioned it.
In his place, she didn't think she’d be so patient. She would have pushed long before now, seeing his quiet as him withholding a part of himself.
