I want to rip the damn thing off, but he takes his time, sliding it off my shoulders, his hands following the armor’s path down the outside of each of my arms as the water swills around us.
Finally, he slides my armor to my waist but his eyes remain on mine. I crave his hands against my skin. As if he hears my thoughts, his palms graze my ribcage, his fingers splaying out against the curve above each of my hips. His hands are so big they reach from my hipbone all the way up my ribcage.
It’s not enough. I take both of his hands in mine and shift them upward to cover my breasts. Baelen blinks at me in surprise. Then he breaks into a smile, kissing me fiercely as my skin burns with every movement of his palms and his thumbs and…heavens…
He takes a deep breath and disappears under the surface, drawing his hands all the way down my body, making me shiver. He pulls my armor off my legs at the same time and I dip in the water to release the garment from beneath my feet. My clothing floats to the surface but Baelen stays under for another few seconds. Sensation floods me everywhere that he touches my calves and thighs before he emerges, his hair slicked back, water rushing off him as he breaks the surface. He shakes his head side to side, splattering me with water droplets.
I gasp in surprise. His scar is gone. The scar I gave him the night I became the Storm Princess. It’s… completely gone. The springs have healed it.
“Baelen, your—”
He doesn’t let me finish, pulling me to him. I forget whatever I was going to say as my body responds to the intensity in his eyes and the demand in his kiss.
I tug at his shirt.Off. It needs to be off.
He helps me pull it over his head, helps me remove his armored pants, pushing them away across the surface. Our clothing now dots the surface of the springs like multi-colored lily pads. I expected to see a myriad of scars across his chest and back from the battle he fought in the arena in what feels like a lifetime ago, but it looks like the deep springs have healed those too.
He gathers me toward him and I’m not prepared for the swell of emotion I feel now that I’m finally able to touch all of him. I shiver as my body presses against his, skin to skin. We’ve been through so much to get here. Almost lost each other so many times. Almost didn’t make it…
His expression becomes very serious as he draws back with a question in his eyes: the question he never fails to ask me. “Marbella Mercy, may I have your permiss—”
“Yes.”
I take advantage of the water to lift and wrap my legs around him and draw him to me. He doesn’t wait and I don’t want him to.
Our bodies join and my world spins.
The entire time we’ve been in the springs, the heartstones have remained quiet above me and Baelen has kept his storm power in check. Now, both ignite.
The air above us glows with diamond light and the water blazes crimson red. Lightning and deep magic clash in the sudden swell, water droplets rise, and lightning curls around us in ribbons. Baelen holds me tight while I wrap my arms around him, neither of us moving, both waiting to catch up with everything we feel.
I can barely form words, but I need to tell him... “We waited such a long time to be together. No matter what happens, I will never let us be torn apart again.”
In answer, he whispers, “We will have this again. Not just today.”
Finally, he moves. He ignores all the power crashing around us, focusing only on me and our joined bodies, kissing every part of me that he can reach, pulling me closer every time. Sensation floods me and every emotion I’ve felt for him rushes at me: every cry, every laugh, every battle, every time Baelen protected me, every time I protected him, all of it slams into me. Baelen senses my emotions and in response, power builds in his eyes. Water suspends around us. Droplets hover mid-air. I was already drowning in all the sensations he’s sending through my body but now he lets go. Thunder thuds through me. My world shifts.
Our bodies crash against each other and that’s all it takes. My world explodes in waves that threaten to tear me apart. Baelen holds me together as he crashes against me, sending lightning rippling out from us. I cling to him in the center of the pond, shaking with the force of what we created.
He holds me tight as we descend, both of us breathing hard, his lips finding mine as he kisses me over and over. “Marbella, you are everything to me. I would wait a thousand years to hear your voice, kiss your lips, walk beside you.”
I kiss him back, sighing against his mouth. “I love you, Baelen Rath.”
A smile breaks across his face, lighting up his eyes. “I love you, Marbella Mercy.”
We stay that way for a long time, floating in the water, tangled up in each other, before he shifts me so I rest in his arms. I stretch against him, already missing the connection between our bodies. Before now, he was always in control. Always careful. But for the first time, here in this place with me, he truly let go. I smile, grin actually. “Promise me you’ll lose control like that again.”
His answer is to run his fingers across my shoulders, my collarbone, and all the way down to my hips underwater. “Without a doubt.”
The water begins to settle around us. The storm we created slowly calms and loses its force. Baelen catches my armor as it floats past us, helping me pull it back on before the water pulls it away again. I catch his clothing but toy with the idea of refusing to give it back.
He grins at me as if he reads my mind. When we were connected by the storm, we could talk to each other without speaking. I have no idea what he’d say to me right now but he distracts me with a kiss and the faintest brush of his hands across my ribcage. He steals his clothing right out of my fingertips.
Once dressed, he pulls me against him, adjusts my legs around his waist, and strides from the water, taking the steps at the side. Water streams from our bodies as we emerge into the cool air.
“Baelen, you have all the storm power now.”
“It’s not mine to keep. Part of it belongs to you. I can feel it trying to pull away from me and get back to you. I’m not sure how, but you will get it back.”
