Page 76 of Betrayal and Vows

We move room to room and then into the backyard. She shows me the tree out back where she carved her name.

There’s a bench that faces what would have been a nice garden. Now, it’s nothing more than weeds and shrubs that have taken over the space.

She sits on the bench and I follow suit.

She doesn’t speak for a while. Neither do I. But I can’t stop looking at her. Learning her.

“You should stop looking at me like that,” she says.

“Like what?”

“Like you’d burn the world down just to kiss me.”

I shift closer. My thigh brushes hers. She doesn’t move away.

“I would,” I say.

Her eyes drop to my mouth.

“I’d burn it all, just to be the one you look at when you’re scared. I want to be the only man that looks at you. The only one that knows the sounds you make when you’re climaxing.”

“We shouldn’t,” she whispers.

“I know.”

“We can’t.”

“But we will.”

She climbs into my lap, straddling me and hiking up her skirt.

“We don’t have much time,” I say.

She nods. “I know.”

“If we run, they’ll come for both of us.”

Another nod. “I know.”

My hands frame her face and force her to look at me. She’s looking at me like I'm her salvation and her damnation all at once.

And I am.

"Lena," I breathe against her lips.

She silences me with her mouth. The kiss is desperate. Hungry. Like she's trying to memorize the taste of me, the feel of me, before they drag us apart forever.

Her fingers tangle in my hair, pulling hard enough to sting, and I groan into her mouth. She tastes sweet. Something that's purely her.

I kiss her like I'm dying.

Like these stolen moments are the last oxygen I'll ever breathe. My tongue sweeps against hers, claiming, possessing, trying to brand myself into her memory so thoroughly that no matter what happens next, she'll never forget this.

Never forget us.

Her hips rock against me, grinding against my cock.

"I need you," she gasps against my mouth, her voice breaking on the words. "I need to feel you inside me. Just once more."