“I can’t take—” Her words break, entire body quivering and unraveling.
My vision goes white, bearing her pleasure and mine.
Doubling it back until I can’t breathe.
We break together. Tumbling through space, breaths intermingling. Kisses still seeking but softening.
Sealed.
I fill her as she fills me; we are the same pulse.
Locked together—mind, body, soul.
Afterward, we lie tangled, breathing the same air. Her hands trace the glow of my skin as I cover her face with kisses.
“Mine,” I say—not possession but promise.
Before I can wonder how deep she feels this bond, she answers. The hum lingers, but quieter now. Inside us, woven, certain.
“We can’t undo this,” I whisper, pushing a lock of raven hair off her cheek.
“Would you want to?” she murmurs.
“Never.”
She lifts my hand, kisses each callused finger.
I tuck a blanket around our bodies, skin to skin beneath its rough warmth.
The firelight dances across her glowing skin as I fall in love with her all over again.
Her laughter spills, light as wind in pine, caressing the shape of memories from my youth. Our emotions brush. She tastes the feeling before I can hide it.
Her eyes find mine, and the breath rushes from her lungs. “You went to school with my grandfather. You were young when he was.”
“Yes.”
“Does that mean you’ll live forever? Watch me grow old and?—”
The silence settles heavy between us.
“No,” I say, pressing a kiss to her temple. “Until the age of puberty, we grow like other kids. Then things stop. Arrest. Time freezes. Moving in increments. Almost unnoticeable.”
“Like Mags?”
“Yes,” I say. “Until the bond changes everything. But it hasn’t happened in a very long time.”
“What do you mean?”
I run my thumb over her thick bottom lip, tugging it down and kissing her again.
When we break, gasping, I admit, “It ties my life to the length of yours.”
“What?”
“Meaning, I’ll die when you do.”
Her chin trembles. “Really? You’d sacrifice that for me?”
