Before I can find out, he chuckles, crooking my chin and lowering his mouth to mine. Each kiss is long and lingering. “You have no clue how much my body begs for you. But I can’t stay.”
“When will I see you again?”
“I don’t know.” His voice is thick as he swallows down that truth. Like he hates it as much as I do.
“Will I have to wait until next winter?” My heart sinks, a heavy stone landing in my gut that has me nauseous.
“I will find a way, Tempest. One day, we will have the rest of time.”
“One day.” It feels like a brittle promise, but it’s all I’ve got, so I cling to it.
“Kiss me until I have to leave?” he asks. Considering he just gave me the best orgasm of my existence, his tone is wildly unsure.
“Of course.”
He strokes my cheek, then kisses, commanding my mouth. I nip his bottom lip, and he groans. I love drawing that sound from him. His cock rests between our stomachs, the deep-purple tip eager for release. I desperately want to feel its texture against my palm, but instead, I just savor how much he wants me; wants us.
Seconds or minutes later, he finally pulls his lips away, swollen from our kisses and this stolen time. The weight of his body recedes, skin becoming more translucent with each passing second. “It’s time, Tempest.”
“No.” My lip quivers but I fight the tears. Fear begins to close in, ready to choke me. “Can’t you hold it off a little longer?”
“I can’t,” he says ruefully. “But I’ll find a way to you in any season, Tempest.”
It’s the last thing he says before he disappears, leaving me naked and in a post-orgasm haze. When I glance at the previously frosted mirror, the final flecks of white slowly vanish. Like it never existed.
And once again, I’m alone.
26
JAX
Ifought Nivea’s pull as long as I could, not wanting to leave Jolie, especially not during a time meant to be intimate and soul-changing for us.
Uninterrupted.
Being able to bring Jolie some relief before I was taken brought me a small measure of solace. How beautifully she collapsed against me in pleasure. Her whimpers, her scent, the smoothness of her skin in contrast to the ridges of her mate mark—I’ve replayed them over and over the last two days. Those morsels have been my sustenance through my first mated solstice. I’m starved for her, and I’d thieve that time away all over again.
The problem for Fate and my fathers, in their capacity as Lead Albiduses, is they know that no punishment they deliver will make me regret my actions. I almost chuckle when they scold me.
“No frost marks for this winter’s work.”
“Very well.”
There was a time when that consequence would have been a dagger to the gut. Prolonging my time from earning my place as an Albidus—it was the worst thing that could happen.
Nothing like finding your mate only to watch her die in the same breath to put things in perspective.
I still want to earn all my frost marks, but I want her too. The pulse of her heart thudding in my chest is a constant reminder that she’s out there, that she finally believes in me and craves me like I crave her.
Thump-thump. Thump-thump.
My palm trails over her rhythm until it rests on my mate mark.
She hasn’t tried to summon me since I left. Is she still thinking about our time together or was it all so fleeting that she won’t think on it until I can get earthside again?
No.
I refuse to believe that. After everything we’ve been through, the weeks of messages, the things we’ve shared, she can’t stop believing in me. In us.
