I suppress a smirk as I guide her down the shadowy corridor, the sound of the storm enveloping us. “I chose Orion for myself,” I tell her honestly, seeing no reason to keep secrets at this point. “After the accident, I wanted a new start.”
As we approach the observatory, my thumb settles over her inner wrist, brushing the stars inked there. I tap a soft rhythm against her pulse, each measured beat of my obsessive count syncing to the accelerating tempo of her heartbeat. My cadence, attuned to her melody.
Pausing just inside the entrance, I turn her way. “My legal name was Ryan before I changed it, but old habits die hard with Leo. He still uses his nickname for me.”
A spark of realization ignites within her eyes, a single glimmer of gold captured like a lone star. She blinks twice, breaking the spell, and then a beautiful smile unfurls across her lips.
I tilt my head. “What is it?”
She shakes hers gently. “Nothing.” Her free hand settles on my bicep, her warmth bleeding through the fabric of my sleeve. “Somehow, I just expected something more complicated. But I like this more.”
Control strained beyond its threshold, I pull her inside the facility.
Once I have her trapped in the dome, rain battering the sealed shutter overhead, the darkly lit interior bathing her in the softest glow, the last of my resistance snaps. And in the seconds it takes to strip her of her jacket, I have her backed against the telescope pier, my gloved fingers speared into her hair.
I swipe my gloved thumb across her nude lips, hunger stirring the frenzied energy in my veins. I tilt her face up toward mine, a low growl emanating from deep in my throat.
“Every time I have you close, I can’t help but count the beats of your heart.” I edge another fraction closer, my free hand drawing her skirt higher as my knee presses her thighs apart. “Like how right now, your pulse is speeding past one-thirty, the beat climbing until your heart skips.”
Collins swallows, the broken cadence of her heartbeat accelerating wildly against my palm in defiance. She licks her lips slowly, seductively, a daring taunt. “Are you going to kiss me, Orion.”
My nostrils flare, the ravenous hollow inside waking. It takes all my fucking willpower not to collar her throat and seal my lips over hers, let gravity have its way.
When gazing into a nebula, you find these dark lanes—dense bands of cosmic, light-blocking dust, creating dark paths within the luminous cloud. Staring into the depths of her eyes, those shimmering blue-green hues that reflect dust and starlight, I find those dark lanes there. Veils of shadow that obscure her light.
I graze the leather along the delicate skin beneath her eye, across the faint scatter of freckles. My voice lowers into an unyielding demand. “Remove your contacts, Collins.”
Her breath catches audibly, an involuntary sound that sends another surge of heat through my blood. For a brief moment, uncertainty and fear tangle within her. Then she reaches up, breaking my hold.
Her fingertips slip between her lashes, carefully removing one lens, then the other. She blinks to clear her vision, and when her unfiltered gaze connects with mine, it steals the air right from my lungs.
“There,” she says, rolling the lenses between her fingers before discarding them to the floor. “Does that satisfy your curiosity, Dr. Night?”
She blinks again—once, twice—long lashes fluttering in a mesmerizing pattern to pull me deeper. I’m lost to the slate-gray depths, flecked with gold like the sky between dusk and twilight. In the liminal space around her pupil, a vein of shadow is spun through the molten light like a coronal flare.
A ragged breath escapes my aching lungs. “Very,” I say, my voice a gruff rasp as I capture her face, possessively tipping her head back as my lips defy the remaining span of air daring to keep us apart.
“Did I say you were beautiful,” I murmur, my body all but fused to hers. “I meant you devastate me, Collins.”
I study her like a fine work of art. The interplay of frail light and shadow washing her skin, captivated by the delicate contours, the intricate reliefs of her beauty. Nothing on this planet nor beyond has ever captivated me more.
“Were you happy these past months, even for a moment?” I ask her.
Those fleeting moments before the end—fuck, they’re beautiful. Every second spent with her has been breathtaking. I can only hope she’s felt even a fraction of what I have. That for her, it’s been enough.
She smiles, nodding slightly. “Yes, of course. I’ve been happy, Orion.”
I swallow down the aching chord that threatens to choke me. “Good.”
I know intimately the sounds she makes when she breaks with pleasure. The way her thighs tremble, the slow, erotic tilt of her hips, the degree her spine arches in surrender. I know the exact amount of tension to place at her throat to bring her to the brink, and how fragile she feels when she shatters in my arms. I know how seamlessly her body molds to mine when we lie on the floor beneath artificial stars, the breathy awe in her voice as she gazes on them. I know the fury and sorrow she holds at bay. The quiet desperation in the curl of her fingers when she begins to lose the fight against both.
I’ve memorized every moment, all of them, great and small. Every stolen second, every shared breath, every radiant smile, every wince of pain, every devastating frown?—
every every every
—and I can’t be without them.
Withouther.
