“You would have,” he said without hesitation. “I’m not worried about forgetting you, Velvet. You’re in here.” Through the corner of my eye, I saw him tapping his temple. “I see you sitting there by the lake. I hear you breathing. As long as you’re in there, I’ll never forget. I’ll always be grounded.”
My eyes closed and I hadn’t realized they were full oftears until they slid down my cheeks and cleared the view of the dancing fairies.
Slowly, I leaned to the side, put my head on his shoulder and breathed. March wrapped an arm around me and pulled me all the way to his lap with ease, as if I weighed nothing. The stone had indeed gotten warm, just like he said, but his lap was so much better. He sat cross-legged and positioned me so that I was between his legs, and it was like that place was made for me. I fit perfectly—and between his arms, too. He wrapped me up like a blanket, held me to his chest, and the smell of him, of rain and roses, filled me from head to toe. I wanted to close my eyes, to get lost in the feel of him, but I also wanted to see the dancing fairies.
“I never want to forget this,” I said and tried not to feel the dread of knowing I might.
“We won’t.” March kissed the top of my head, my forehead. “As long as we’re in each other’s minds, we won’t forget.”
And I believed him. I did. I was thankful even for the memory of him being stabbed in the arm, too. It didn’t scare me, not right now. It was him, and I would always remember.
He continued to kiss my forehead, and then I raised my head a little bit, and his lips fell on the bridge of my nose. Then I raised my head a little more, and his lips fell on the tip. I turned, and he kissed my cheek, then the other.
Then I raised my chin, and his lips fell on mine. It was perfect. The perfect sensation. The perfect position.
We kissed slowly. We took our time to explore one another, licking, biting, sucking gently. I wanted to know every inch of him like the back of my hand. I wanted to know how he felt, how he smelled, how he whispered, how he moaned, in every possible scenario.
My fingers were in his hair, and I’d sat up withoutrealizing it. We were chest to chest, and he helped me move, carrying me with ease until I was straddling him. My ankles locked behind him, and his arms squeezed me to his chest harder. The kiss became more urgent with every passing second, as the shadows of the dancing fairies slowly faded away.
My body was on fire. Now that I was no longer terrified of forgetting him, I wanted to remembermore.My hand slipped underneath the collar of his shirt and down to his naked back. He moaned into my mouth and my hips moved faster, rubbing against him, my center against his hard cock.
Holy Hour, I never wanted to stop doing this. It was better than anything I’d ever felt, and with everything he gave me, I wanted more.
His hands were on my ass, and he guided my grinding against him. We were a mess of moans and soft cries, biting and tasting each other on our tongues like we were suddenly in a rush.
“March,” I breathed, and it felt both odd and natural to call out his name. “I need you,” I said as he bit the side of my neck and went lower. “Ineedyou right now.”
With a groan, March moved us, and suddenly we were standing. The fairies were still dancing inside that lantern, but he was taking us to the other side of the balcony. My legs were locked around his hips, my arms firmly around his neck, so he didn’t even need to hold me up. I wasneverletting go.
Then March slowly lowered to his knees, and I felt his magic vibrating as it came down his arms. I let go of his lips for a second to see what he was doing. “What are you?—”
Red slipped from his hands, and he aimed his magic at the wall covered in green. The roots, the ivy, the leaves responded. They began to extend from the wall and to the stone floor right beneath us.
“March,” I warned because it took a lot of minutes to make something grow this size, but March didn’t seem to care how much magic he spent. Instead, he lowered me to the floor slowly, except it wasn’t stone anymore—it was a bed made of leaves and glowing flowers and soft roots.
They were spreading over as well, not just under. They were extending from the top of the wall on our side, creating a canopy over us before they slowly descended halfway toward the floor, while the roots from below reached out to meet them, too. They’d wrapped us in a green cocoon almost completely, leaving only a few inches of space before closing completely to let the light from the lantern, and the shadows of the dancing fairies through.
“Is this comfortable for you, Velvet?” March whispered, standing on all fours over me, searching my eyes, waiting.
I grabbed his face in my hands. “It’s perfect.”
March smiled. “Good. Because your bed is way too far,” he said and leaned in to kiss me.
The gears and the cogs in my stomach turned and turned. He was right—the beds were way too far, and I was glad, because this was better than anything I could have imagined.
I pulled him to me harder, wanting to feel all his weight on me, but March still wouldn’t come closer. He kissed me slowly and moved one hand to my neck, down to my chest to cup my breasts, then lower. He pulled my tunic up and slipped his hand under, and I cried out to tell him that I needed him to move faster.
He chuckled when he let go of my lips to sit up for a moment. “So impatient,” he whispered, pulling his shirt over his head. He took it off in one swift movement, and then he was naked from the hips up, and I was salivating. “So greedy, Velvet…”
His eyes sparkled like precious jewels. He wrapped his shirt into a bundle and leaned closer again, put his handunder my head and pulled me up gently, put his shirt underneath as a pillow. Kissed my forehead, nose, lips and chin, all the while pulling my tunic up higher.
“Faster, Heartling. Faster,” I begged, and that widened the smile on his face even more.
“I want to take my time with you, though. Savor every second you give me. Let me take my time, Velvet,” he whispered, then pulled me up again to take my tunic off. I eagerly held up my arms, and when I lay down again, the roots and leaves and flowers underneath me were softer than I expected—or I just didn’t care.
“I promise I’ll make it worth it,” March whispered, his eyes on fire as he undid the button of my pants, then pulled them off me together with my panties.
I wanted to be shy. I wanted to cover up, but the way he looked at me didn’t let me. He was in awe of every new inch of skin he revealed, and he looked completely entranced by the sight of my naked body. And while he pulled off my boots and pants, I reached to unclasp my bra and take it off, too. I didn’t want clothes between us, not a single thread. This time, I wanted to feel all of him on all of me, because the trial was tomorrow—thelasttrial. And who knew when we’d be together like this again, when we lived across the realm from one another?
