Elodie’s breath shook, wordless. Gabriel’s eyes grew heavy.Slowly he kissed her, a deeper, more intense kiss than ever before, as if he needed her in order to sustain himself. He began moving inside her, and it was just like Elodie had remembered, strong and steady, proving that he’d always belonged there. A tidal wave of sensation overwhelmed her. She moaned against his mouth, and he chased the sound with his tongue, and everything grew hotter, faster, desperate, as a long, miserable year of pining compressed into passion then barreled toward what the trembling, steaming floor promised would be an abrupt end.
Still holding her, Gabriel turned, pushing a wicker basket of plums off a sideboard before setting her down in its place. As her bare skin met the wooden surface, Elodie felt like she was being electrified. She tipped her head back so she could gasp a breath, and at once Gabriel seized the opportunity to kiss her throat. But just as her pulse rushed to meet him there, he stopped, and he withdrew altogether from her, leaving her feeling more bereft than she’d ever been in her life. She murmured a protest. Not answering, he lay her back gently on the sideboard.
It was not the most comfortable of beds, and Elodie considered making a polite complaint—but then Gabriel began kissing the soft curve of her naked belly, making a scintillating course southward. Elodie promptly decided that backache (and what felt awfully like a splinter in her hip) was a small price to pay for such delight.
He was so tender, and yet it seemed like he was igniting wildfires in her blood. Elodie didn’t know whether to laugh with joy or cry with overwhelming wonder that she lay naked beneath Gabriel’s mouth. As he arrived at the secret place she’d never allowed any other man but him to reach, his kissesgrew more elaborate, and Elodie pressed one hand over her eyes, the other against his head to ensure he did not stop what he was doing. All the while, the sideboard quivered beneath her and dust showered from the ceiling, but Elodie didn’t care. Let the world explode! Life couldn’t get better than this moment anyway.
Then Gabriel lifted his head again, leaving her on the brink of something that felt like everything, and she swore at him. He calmly raised her up and guided her to the edge of the sideboard, where they reunited in one swift and thrilling movement that took Elodie’s breath away. This time, Gabriel escalated matters by also using his fingers in the same way his mouth had so profitably been employed, and Elodie’s breath returned like a tempest. She was ablaze; she was going to perish before any thaumaturgic explosion had a chance to kill her. It would be an undignified way to go, but God, so worth it.
“Wait for me,” Gabriel whispered, half command, half plea.
A wry laugh shook from Elodie’s throat, that he should say such a thing after all these years, here at the end when they’d no time left to them. “Hurry,” she urged.
“No.”
Stubborn, arrogant sod. She caught his face between her hands, and their lips met with painful urgency. It felt like both a reunion and farewell, and the poignancy of it fanned Elodie’s internal flames to such an intensity that she was forced at last to break the kiss with a sob. Still Gabriel would not hurry.
“You’re mine,” he growled. “I won’t let time take you from me.”
“Such a tyrant,” she complained, and kissed his jaw, his temple, and all the places on his beautiful face that she’d spent so long dreaming over. Fear and grief faded away. The disastersurrounding them became a mist, a rattling song. They cared for nothing but each other. Gabriel’s movements quickened at last, and he gazed with such reverence into Elodie’s eyes, it was as if he saw her soul. She felt it shine for him.
I love you,she thought, and came apart in a billowing of bright, singing stars.
At the same moment Gabriel went still, gasping. Elodie could have sworn magic poured through her, every nerve lighting up in response.
A soft, tremulous quiet followed (which is to say, clattering and rumbling followed, and the smash of glass as jars fell from shelves, but that was in the universe beyond their hearts). Gabriel drew her against him, enfolding her in a strong embrace. They held each other tight, eyes closed, pulses throbbing heavily, fingers digging in as they awaited the end.
BANG!
They hugged even tighter, every muscle tensed.
But it had only been the door slamming open. “Are you still in there?” came Mr. Parry’s shouted voice from above.
It was as though a map had been flipped over, showing a whole new world on the other side. Instantly, Elodie pushed Gabriel back as she scrambled down from the cabinet, her boots sending up clouds of sparking blue dust as they hit the floor. Gabriel, blinking rather dazedly, positioned himself in front of her as a shield against Mr. Parry’s view—never mind that his own nakedness made it clear what they had been doing. But Mr. Parry, on the landing, only called out once more, “Hello, are you there?” and Elodie realized the shadows and the rising thaumaturgic mist concealed them from sight.
“Where the hell else would we be?” Gabriel shouted up to the innkeeper. “You locked us in!”
“Yes, sorry about that,” Mr. Parry answered contritely. “You were right after all. There will be a discount on your bill, as an apology. But now we’re getting out. Hurry!”
Elodie’s nervous system imploded with hysterics. She did not know whether to laugh or scream. She’d just had desperate, urgent sex with her husband by way of farewell, and nowthe bloody door was open!
Which was, of course, a good thing.
Maybea good thing, part of her responded darkly as Gabriel half turned away from her to restore his clothing. Death by thaumaturgic explosion would have been more comfortable than the certain demise from panic that she was about to experience. What had it all meant? What—what—what what?! Had it merely been incited by the danger and the banging and the impending death? The absolute in nervous overexcitement? Or had it been as heartfelt for Gabriel as it had been for her?
Actually, thank goodness the doorwasopen, because she intended to run away as soon as she got her knickers on.
They dressed hurriedly while the room filled with a heat that was not due entirely to their mutual agitation, considering the smell. “Sulfur,” Elodie said, wrinkling her nose. “I knew it.”
Suddenly, a high set of shelves toppled, its load of jars smashing to the floor in a violent explosion of glass. Gabriel yanked Elodie protectively against him, their heartbeats crashing together. Flames were igniting from the broken glass, and cracks widening in the floorboards, and hot steam began to belch from within the tormented earth.
“Go!” Gabriel shouted, pushing Elodie toward the stairs. They raced up, even as the steps behind them caught fire and spilled fruit transformed into twisted black trees. Reaching the corridor above, they stumbled on trembling floorboards.
“I’ll clear the building,” Gabriel said, steadying himself with a hand against one wall. “You begin evacuating the village.”
Elodie nodded. “Be safe.”
“You too.”
