The slow caress of Killian’s fingers against my spine leaves tingles in its wake. He’s unhurried, mapping every inch of me with his calloused thumbs in silent reverence. I can’t move my gaze away from his; those onyx depths are an abyss in which I fall, again and again. His sage irises burn with more than just desire. It’s a raw, open flame that reflects in his dark gaze, like black embers of hunger.
Hunger for my body, sure, but more so, hunger for meas a whole.
The silence between us is unsettling, peaceful yet heavy with all the things we don’t want to leave unsaid.
The water sloshing at our backs as he glides toward the edge, seating himself on the mossy bank, is lulling me into a serenity I wouldn’t have thought possible mere moments ago in the castle.
I chuckle as a thought crosses my mind. “Who knew my most blissful moments in life would be at your side. The demonized Vampire King that made an entire realm tremble for centuries on end.” I press my feverish lips against his stone-hard jaw. “My kidnapper.” Another peck on his brow as his breath tickles my chin. “My captor, my jailer.” My teeth catch his earlobe gently, tugging the flesh as a shiver courses through his body underneath me. His erection is jutting against my core, and it takes all my waning restraint not to grind against it. “My sweet tormentor.”
“You were never in any real danger with me, umbra,” he answers, kissing just above my collarbone. “I would have never…” he trails off, incapable of uttering the words.
“Oh, I know. My soul knew it long before my mind understood it. The real dangers have always been much closer to home.” I slide my hands up his chest, feeling every ridge and hard line along the way, then up the column of his throat until I let them rest against his stubbled jaw.
“I tried so hard to hate you, to see nothing past your cruel reputation, but all along the echoes of our past lives were chipping away the deceit. Our shadows recognized each other even when I had none.”
As if summoned, my ebony shadows curl around my fingers, blackening them completely before they seep into his skin. My lips part in silent awe as his crimson mist travels up his neck, pulsing with need as it breaches the barrier of his flesh, leaping from his body to mine. We are mirrors of each other, mere vessels that carry our ancient souls.
Killian moves, pressing a rough palm just above my breast. My heart thuds loudly in my chest, fluttering like a dove that’s been caged too long, yearning for freedom.
“You will forever be my truest one, Aimee. My only one. No matter what name you’d go by, what flesh would house your essence. Male, female, itdoes not matter. If you’d be a flower, I would be the bee resting on your petals, begging permission to drink your nectar. If you’d be a tide, I would be the shore you break upon, only to help you find yourself again. I would be the night to your day, the curse to your blessing. You’ll forever be the blinding star to my unwavering void.”
He slips inside me gradually, letting me revel in his fullness, inch by delicious inch. This is not our usual clash of passion, all teeth and fevered thrusts. His movements are slow, devout, like a worshipper praying at the shrine of his one true God. He interlaces our fingers, placing open-mouthed kisses on my knuckles, one by one. I follow his sensual rhythm, rolling my hips to meet his push and pull.
Pleasure is unfurling in my body steadily, not like a tidal wave, but a perilous, slow burn that conquers every nerve ending until I feel like an eternal flame.
“Umbra,” he breathes against my neck, fangs grazing the sensitive skin.
“Killian,” I moan in return, closing my eyes for a heartbeat, letting the sensations wash over me languidly.
“I did not believe I was capable of such love, my umbra.” His voice is quiet, yet it reverberates through my muscles, my bones, finding its way to the farthest corners of my being. “It was an abstract concept reserved for others, never for me. One thousand years of existing, but I had never truly lived. I know now my soul was lying dormant, awaiting your reawakening. To say I love you would not be enough. It’s much more than that. Youconsume me, Aimee. Youown me. I exist only for you.”
With my eyes tightly shut, focused only on his words and the erotic motion of our conjoined bodies, I fixate on the strange inflections of his voice. A feminine layer surfacing, a shadow of a second voice echoing his confession.
Akaori’s voice.
When he says my name, her echo chants Aeon instead. And when his name falls from my lips like a strangled plea, a hoarse masculine lilt chorales Akaori instead.
We’re both ourselves and them, forever intertwined.
Memories unlock like a cage shattering its hold on me. Image after image, they spill from their vaulted prison, filling me like an amphora that’s always been two inches short of being whole.
The most beautiful female I’ve ever come across, with wild dark curls and eyes the color of a storm unleashed, bleeding into effervescent crimson.
A male with chestnut hair streaked by auburn, cropped on the sides and gathered in a bun, fierce hazel eyes, and a scar slashing from the top of his left eyebrow to the middle of his chiseled cheekbone.
My eyes snap open to the soft glow of our shadows pulsing on our skin, lighting up the surrounding air in hues of incandescent black and scarlet.
“Dragoste,” I whisper Aeon’s moniker for Akaori, “before you, I was so adamant to steer clear of emotions, fleeing at the first sign of anything more than casual sex. My trauma was my shield and my confinement, keeping me from ever connecting truly to anyone. But it wasn’t just that, was it?”
I trace his cheekbones with my fingers, committing every little detail to memory. The cool touch of his skin against my own, the prickle of his stubble, the way his nostrils tremble with each exhale.
“They were not you, Killian. You’ve always been the only one capable of shattering me and putting me back together.”
I kiss the corner of his lips, inhaling his dangerous scent—blood, leather, and my total undoing.
“We are two sides of the same coin. The only two parts that could make a whole. With you by my side, I will face whatever is thrown at us. For you, it’s all worth it.”
Killian captures my mouth in a fiery kiss, lust, love, and frenetic desperation pouring out of him as he bites my bottom lip until blood fills mymouth. His tongue sweeps in, devouring me, licking the blood that coats my teeth, eyes blown wide as crimson swallows his pupils.
