AllFreeNovel
Share Us
His scent soothed my blood. Home.
Tears fell from my eyes and I squeezed them closed. “I know something… terrible happened that night, with the Ongahri. Is it bad that I—” I could barely finish, my voice wobbling from the effort of holding back more tears. I took a deep breath and tried again. “Is it bad that I don’t want to know? Not yet?”
“No. It’s not,” he whispered.
I nodded as he held me tighter. After a moment I raised my head and looked at him. It was dark, but not dark enough for me to not see his eyes on mine. “Demos?”
“Yes?” he whispered.
I swallowed. I didn’t feel strong enough to ask him for what I wanted, but somehow he knew.
With a tender sigh that echoed around the room, he cupped the back of my head and pulled me closer. I kissed him. His lips were soft, his mouth tasting of sweetness. Our breaths mingled as our tongues touched. The kiss was slow, sensual, and comforting, different than the frenzy I remembered it usually being.
Feeling my confidence return, I touched his cheek. The hair on his face was scruffy from several days of growth. I liked it. “I need you, Demos. Please don’t shut me out.”
Even though I was frightened of his possible rejection, my lips returned to his, and I lost myself to him.
He groaned, and the sound of it had my heart soaring. He scooped me up and placed me on my back, lying down beside me. He lifted my shift, exposing my body to the cool night air. His warm hand traveled over my belly, my breasts, softly, tenderly, as if reassuring me I was here, not lost to the nightmare. He cupped my jaw and kissed me deeply. Tears fell from my closed eyes, and he kissed those as well.
“Sierra, we shouldn’t,” he whispered, his expression pained.
“Please,” I whispered, touching his face.
He shut his eyes briefly, leaning into my touch, then quickly undressed, covering my body with his. When he entered me, I sighed.
This time everything was different. We were softer with one another and took our time. Our hands explored, our bodies lost in a languid rhythm, until he held my hands tightly in his, above my head, our fingers laced together. He groaned above me, his blue eyes penetrating mine. I chased my pleasure on a moan as his hips thrust deeper, then stilling.
“Melos,” he whispered, followed by other foreign words I didn’t know the meaning of. Something filled my womb. His seed. He moved inside me, slick and full.
Once again, my body exploded in a wave of golden pleasure.
He stayed inside me, neither one of us wanting to become two again.
“Demos, is it always like this?” I feared his answer, as if my whole being were a long string tied to his, and with a word or two, he could cut it, leaving me untethered in a void.
His lips feathered mine with his breath as he answered. “No. No, it’s not.”
“So this is—”
As if he didn’t want to know what I was going to say, he took my words away with his mouth on mine, kissing me slowly with such tenderness that I knew it was a goodbye.
Afterward, he held me in his arms, my head on his chest, my body sated. This was where I wanted to be forever, I thought. In his arms, with his scent surrounding me. But I knew it would be for the last time.
He was not mine to have, and I was not his to take.
We fell asleep. This time my dreams were just ordinary dreams.
When I woke, Demos was gone.
Chapter 20
Fadon
Fadon raised a hand, signaling to the others to stop. The sun was setting on the horizon, and he knew daylight wouldn’t last much longer this far north. Besides, the horses needed a rest. They had worked harder than they ever had these past few days.
From atop Apollo, Fadon looked at the mount beside him. “How is he?” he asked Clay, who held Jon at the waist to keep him from falling off the horse. His Second looked as if he were at Death’s door. Clay didn’t look so well either.
Fadon gritted his teeth and glanced up the mountain. Tomorrow night, possibly the following morning, they’d be home.
