“You don’t think we can do it?” I ask, willing my chin not to tremble. “That we won’t win?”
He sighs and looks away. “I don’t know what will happen,” he admits. “Only that it will be difficult. That it will test us both.”
His hand slides slowly down my arm.
“Idoknow how I feel, and that’s why I had to tell you.” He smiles at me, small and tinged with sadness.
His eyes trace my face like he’s trying to memorize every detail.
“You’re my mate. Our bond has no beginning and no end. In every world, I love you always.”
His hand comes up to cup my face, as if the words themselves weren’t enough.
I almost say it back,I love you too, but the words catch in my throat.
My mind rebels at the impossibility of it. The sheer absurdity of feeling something this big so fast.
I don’t know him. I can barely comprehend that he’s real. That his world is real.
How could I love someone so different from me?
And yet, something inside me already does.
I’m not brave enough to say those words, not yet, but I can show him how I feel. I reach up and comb my fingers through his hair. “If there’s a chance we won’t make it, if tonight is the last night we have together, then I want to be with you, Sorren.Reallybe with you.”
I take his hand and bring it to my breast. He sucks in a startled breath.
“Are you sure?” he asks. “We don’t have to—”
I don’t let him finish.
I kiss him hard, letting my tongue slide into his mouth. I wrap my arms around his neck and swing a leg over his lap, straddling him.
“I’m sure,” I murmur against his lips. “Give me tonight. No regrets. No thought of tomorrow. I just want to be here with you. Together.”
His eyes search mine with quiet desperation, like he’s trying to read my mind. “Nora…”
“Shh.” I press a finger to his lips, then replace it with my mouth. I test the bond, sending my need for him—the love I can’t put into words—down to him.
He kisses me back, his hand sliding up to cradle the side of my neck. His thumb brushes beneath my jaw as he tilts my head, deepening the kiss.
I press closer, my hands tangling in his hair, while his other arm tightens around my waist, pulling me firmly against him. Heat blooms wherever our bodies touch.
The kiss grows hungrier. Rougher. Soon we’re both breathing hard.
Clothing becomes an obstacle. We break apart long enough to drag at buttons and tug fabric out of the way. His fingers fumble at the hooks of my bra while I push his jacket from his shoulders.
We’re clumsy with it. Impatient.
Gasping, pulling, tugging at fabric, tripping over each other as we undress.
Once it’s all been stripped away, once we’re naked, there’s no hesitation left. No embarrassment. No wondering if I look okay or if he minds the shape of my hips, the softness of my belly. Sorren runs his eyes and then his hands over the length of me, murmuring about how beautiful I am, how lovely, how stunning, how he’s never felt like this before, and even though I know that we’re in danger. Even though everything in my world has been turned upside down.
I don’t think I’ve ever been this happy.
I’ve definitely never felt this adored.
Sorren spreads his shirt out on the hard floor with a frown. “I’m sorry. This doesn’t seem very comfortable. We don’t have to—”
