If I have your love to hold,
I need nothing else at all.”
The song ends. The music stops. My ragged breaths fill the silence. I don’t turn to look at him until I hear him murmur, “I need nothing else at all.”
The tears my eyes have been holding since the beginning spill down my cheeks. I don’t see what expression he wears or what his eyes are saying, I just close my eyes and press my lips to his.
Hunter
I don’t remember ever learning to play this piece, nor do I remember playing it with her, but now, as my hands move with hers, it all feels like it has happened before. It feels like it’s not the first time I’ve sat this close to her, breathing her in, feeling so drawn to her that my soul wants to leave my body and fuse with hers.
I don’t know how I’m playing, and I don’t know why the words leave my throat when the music stops. “I need nothing else at all.”
It’s true, though.I don’t need anything but her.
Her glassy eyes meet mine, and the tears they were holding slide down her cheeks. I don’t get to admire her beautiful face any longer because she leans in and presses her lips to mine.
An image flashes behind my eyes for a split second. This exact scene, but in another place. A place with roses. I don’t pay it any attention because all of it is drawn to one thing: she’s kissing me.
It’s not really a kiss; she’s just pressing her lips to mine, but it hits my bloodstream like a ruinous relapse of a drug I’ve beencraving for what feels like eternity. It sets my blood on fire. I’m so drowned in the high that I don’t even respond until she pulls away, but I’d burn in this fire she’s started if I let her go.
I grip the back of her head when her mouth is barely an inch away and crash my mouth to hers, this time in a real kiss. My other hand moves around her waist to pull her closer. Even with her flush against me, it’s not enough. I need more. So I pull her onto my lap, crushing her against my chest while my mouth devours her sweet lips and tongue.
A low groan vibrates in my chest as she reciprocates, kissing me back just as fiercely, biting my lips, sucking my tongue, and I do the same. The taste of blood fills my mouth. I don’t know if she drew it from me or I drew it from her. It’s still not enough to make me stop. I only let her go when she pushes at my chest, but I don’t pull back completely. Her rapid breaths fan across my mouth, our foreheads pressed together.
I’ve known her for less than a month, but it feels like I’ve been waiting for this moment—for her—for ages. The longing she’s filling now feels old enough to have become part of my existence in all the time she wasn’t in my arms. Now it feels perfect.Now I know why I’m alive.
“Salvario,” she breathes, then buries her face in my neck, wrapping her arms around my shoulders. Her tears soak my T-shirt. “You’re Salvario,” she says between sobs.
I’m not.I push back the sting her words create and hug her tightly. It’s just a matter of time, soon she’ll forget about him. I just have to bear it until then.
She pulls back and holds my face in her shaking, cold hands. Her tear-filled, red-rimmed eyes lock with mine. Even through tears, she’s smiling, the happiest I’ve ever seen her.
“Never leave me again.” More tears spill from her eyes.
I wipe the tears from her face. “I’ll never leave you.” I can promise her that. “Stop crying.”
She nods, smiling, but the tears still don’t stop. She lets out a wet chuckle. “I’m just too happy.”
Once the tears subside, she grabs my hand and asks, “Do you know about it?”
“That I’m Salvario?”
She nods.
“No. But it makes sense.”
She nods again, watching me with eyes so full of love and pain. Guilt flares in the center of my chest—the same place that’s no longer empty. I know this love isn’t for me, but my heart and soul don’t understand that. My darkness doesn’t understand it either. It’s feeding on her light, relishing the fact that even though it’s because of a lie,she’s now mine.
She cups my jaw in her small hand, her thumb brushing over my stubble as she smiles. “Salvario.” She whispers the name like a prayer. My jaw tightens, though I try to stay unaffected.
“Don’t call me that,” I keep my voice steady.
“Why?”
“I don’t remember being Salvario. When you call me that, it feels like you’re talking to someone else.”
She thinks for a moment, then nods. “I’ll call you Hunter until you get your memories back.”
