“I’m very touchable,” she breathes, and pulls me into another kiss.
“I know.” My hands slide up her thighs, slowly, deliberately, pushing the shirt higher. “It terrified me. Because what I saw looked like goodbye.”
Her hands frame my face, forcing me to meet her eyes. There’s something fierce in her expression, something that makes my chest tight. “Then stay with me now.”
Something in my chest cracks open.
I kiss her harder this time, one hand tangling in her hair while the other grips her hip. She arches into me, making soft sounds that drive me insane. I kiss down her jaw, her throat, finding that spot that makes her gasp.
“Tell me what you want,” I say against her skin, feeling her pulse racing beneath my lips.
“You.” Her breath hitches as my teeth graze her pulse point. “All of you.”
I pull back just enough to look at her, making sure she sees the hunger in my eyes. “Once I start, I’m not stopping.”
Her answer is to pull me back into another kiss, deeper this time, her tongue sliding against mine in a way that makes my vision blur.
That’s all the permission I need.
I yank the shirt over her head in one smooth motion, tossing it onto a nearby chair. She’s bare underneath—of course she is—and the sight of her steals my breath.
The lantern light catches on her skin, making her glow. The Ether responds to my attention, silver mist beginning to curl around us both, warm and almost alive.
“Do you have any idea what you do to me?” My hands map her skin, reverent but possessive, learning every curve, every place that makes her breath catch. “How many nights I’ve dreamed about this? About you?”
Her skin is impossibly soft beneath my palms. I trace the line of her collarbone, down between her breasts, feeling her scars, her heartbeat quickening. When I cup her breasts, thumbs brushing over her nipples, she arches into my touch with a sound that goes straight to my cock.
“Then stop talking,” she says, voice breathless, “and show me.”
I lean down, taking one nipple into my mouth, sucking gently before letting my teeth graze the sensitive peak. She gasps, hands fisting in my hair. I give the other breast the same attention, alternating between gentle and rough, learning what makes her moan, what makes her grip me harder.
The Ether pulses brighter with every sound she makes.
“Theo—please—”
“Please what?” I kiss my way down her stomach, feeling her muscles jump beneath my lips. “Tell me what you need.”
“You. I need you.”
I drop to my knees between her legs.
Her eyes widen, pupils blown with desire. “Theo—”
“Shh.” I press kisses along the inside of her thigh, working my way higher, taking my time. “Let me worship you properly.”
I can already see how wet she is, and the knowledge that I did this to her—that I make her this desperate—nearly undoes me.
“Look at me,” I command softly.
She does, and I hold her gaze as I press my mouth to her center.
She gasps, head falling back, but I grip her thigh firmly. “Eyes on me.”
She obeys, and I reward her by dragging my tongue through her folds, slow and deliberate, tasting her. She’s sweet and perfect and I could spend hours here.
I work her with my mouth, learning every sound, every shiver. When I suck her clit, her thighs tremble. When I fuck her with my tongue, she moans my name. The Ether responds to every touch, silver mist curling tighter around us, pulsing with her pleasure.
I can See it—flashes of light behind my eyes, fragments of our future tangled with the present. Her magic recognizing mine, weaving us together in ways that go beyond physical.
