“Hold on, princess. Feel me fucking you. Remember us. Remember this.”
I moan out unintelligible words, a hurricane forming in my core, swelling to the rest of me.
My lips part, a silent cry perched at the back of my throat.
I thrash as he powers his hips—sharper, harder—like he can’t get enough, like we aren’t close enough.
His cock reaches a spot deeper than before. Spasms rack my body, the blistering storm reaching a breaking point.
“Elias, I’m going to come!” My teeth chatter.
“Yes, grip my cock. Give me your cum. Let me just feel you.” He reaches between us and pinches my clit.
The world fractures. Wetness spurts out, and I shatter, my mind blanking, vision whitening, a roar bellowing in my ears.
Ecstasy has me tight in its grasp when his rhythm falters. Hot lashes of cum bathe my core.
“Lana, I love you so, so much,” he whispers, forehead kissing mine.
We clutch each other, fingers intertwined, hips still meeting thrust for thrust even as shockwaves ebb and flow. Even as my body becomes too sensitive for anything more.
I can’t let him go. I’m afraid of letting him go.
When it’s over, we cling to each other, bodies trembling, breaths uneven. I rest against his chest, listening to the strong, steady beats of his heart—a heart that’s endured too much and still keeps going.
Seconds become minutes, which become hours.
Eventually, he reaches to the nightstand, picks up my favorite book, and begins reading, his voice deep and resonant.
“Despite the darkness swallowing him whole, he felt his heart giving, each second in her presence a borrowed heartbeat, a fragment in time.”
His finger glides over the lines, and my chest aches, thinking back to all the times I’ve seen him read, all the books in his library.
When we strolled in Hollow Gardens as kids, he laughed at me for loving this book but promised he’d learn to read it to me one day.
“You did it,” I whisper.
“I promised you,” he murmurs.
“Why did you buy Hollow Gardens?” I graze the scar on his cheek.
“It’s our place.” Elias takes my hand and kisses it. “I want a place where Elise and Kian can live…forever.”
“Elias,” my eyes mist, “can you take me back to the gardens? Visit our elm tree?”
His breath hitches. A vein pulses on his forehead.
“Someday,” he murmurs, “when this is all over.”
He presses a tender kiss on my forehead. Then another. Like he’s bestowing upon me his wishes I don’t yet understand.
The fear in my heart returns with a vengeance.
This moment feels like goodbye.
His mouth finds mine again. The world narrows to heartbeats and sensations.
“Will you tell me what’s wrong, Elias?” My voice trembles when we break for air. I’m afraid to ask, but I need to know. “Don’t lie to me. Honesty, right?”
