She swallowed hard, her throat dry. “I needed to see you. To speak with you.” Her confession hung in the air between them.
Gabriel’s jaw tightened. “This is dangerous.”
A moment passed in tense silence, her throat tightening. Her voice, when it came, was quiet but unshaken. “I cannot stop thinking of you, Gabriel. Your absence at my side stirs something fierce within me.” Her eyes searched his, raw longing laid bare.
At her words, Gabriel’s composure faltered. He ran a hand through his hair, black curls falling forward. “And your presence here stirs me, Eden. It ignites feelings I have struggled to control.” His voice was strained with emotion.
Eden stepped closer, her pulse racing. “Then why do you fight it? Why do you keep me at arm’s length?”
Gabriel’s eyes darkened. “My friendship with Thomas, the duties I owe…everything stands between us.” He took a breath, struggling for calm. “I promised your brother I would not pursue you.”
Her heart tightened in sudden pain. “He cannot dictate your heart’s desires, Gabriel. I refuse to stand by and watch you deny what is between us.”
His gaze softened, vulnerability shimmering beneath his guarded exterior. “You make me question everything I thought I knew.” He reached out, brushing a tendril of her hair back from her neck.
Her breath hitched. “I want you to trust me. Trust us.”
Gabriel’s eyes closed briefly, as though savoring her nearness. “Trust is not easily given,” he murmured. “It must be earned.”
Her heart ached with longing. “Then let me earn it.”
A charged silence fell. The maze seemed to hold its breath as the two stood just inches apart. Eden’s pulse pounded in her ears as she waited for his response.
Slowly, Gabriel lifted his hand to her cheek, thumb brushing gently across her skin. His eyes never left hers, deep pools of emotion reflecting her own desire. “You already have,” he whispered.
At his words, all her defenses crumble. She closed the small distance between them, lifting her face to his. Their breaths mingled in the cool night air, hearts pounding in unison.
Gabriel’s eyes slipped shut as he leaned in. Their lips met in a kiss that thrummed with urgency and the ache of too many unsaid things. A collision of longing and restraint, fierce and tender all at once, that sparked with barely restrained longing. At once reverent and urgent.
Eden responded with equal passion, her arms winding around his neck as she gave herself to the moment. The world around them faded away, leaving only the two of them bound together by longing and the promise of something more.
Emotions roared through them. Pleasure, relief, fear, and hope, like a tempest breaking against the shore, raw and unstoppable, all intertwined in that single, searing kiss. The sensation of his hands anchoring her waist, the press of his lips warm and unrelenting, scattered her last threads of restraint. Eden’s pulse thundered as she pressed closer, drawn irresistibly to the steady heat of his body, the only still point in a world that had begun to tilt.
Gabriel’s hands moved slowly, worshipful against her back, drawing her tight. His touch was warm and grounding, like sunlight filtering through morning mist, steadying her even as it sent a thrill of awareness skittering down her spine.
When he finally broke the kiss, his breath came ragged, eyes hooded with emotion. “Eden,” he murmured against her lips.
She trembled in his arms, tears of joy and relief sparkling in her eyes. “Gabriel,” she breathed back, voice soft and raw.
They remained locked together, wrapped in the stillness of the maze, until the sound of approaching footsteps shattered the spell. A distant laugh echoed through the maze corridor, reminding them of reality and duty. Their eyes flew open, panic and regret flickering across their features. A jolt of dread coursed through Eden, snapping her from the cocoon of their embrace. Was this the price of her defiance? The intrusion of a world that demanded she forget the fire Gabriel’s touch had ignited?
Gabriel straightened abruptly, stepping back. “We should not be seen like this,” he whispered urgently.
She nodded, smoothing her hair. “We must return before someone discovers us.”
Hand in hand, they hurried through the winding paths, adrenaline prickling their skin. Each step felt weightless, as though they stood at the edge of something unfinished, torn between the life they had always known and the future they might yet claim. A life of passion and truth.
As they neared the maze’s exit, Gabriel paused, pulling Eden gently to a stop beneath a swaying lantern. He searched her eyes, his own shadowed with hesitation. “Tell me something true,” he said, echoing the challenge she had once whispered beneath the linden tree that long-ago summer, when truth had felt simpler, and the stakes had not yet wrapped themselves around their hearts.
Eden blinked, startled by the earnestness in his voice. “What do you wish to know?”
“Anything. Something no one else knows but you.”
A smile tugged at her lips. “When I was a girl, I used to pretend I was a knight, not a lady. I would steal my brother’s fencing foil and duel shadows in the stables.”
Gabriel chuckled, his eyes softening. “I can picture it. You, charging headlong into battle.”
“I wanted to fight for something. To choose my own destiny.” Her voice dropped.
