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“You’re…you’re a—” He fumbled, shook his head, tried again. “You’re an aberration.”

“A fluke.”

“An exception.”

“An exception to what?”

“To what I thought I knew. To… everything.”

“You don’t believe in that.”

“I don’t know what I believe anymore.” His hand rose, his cool palm sliding to frame my face. “The only thing I do know is that it felt like something got torn out of me when you left. And that this—” His other hand lifted, cradling the other side of my face, “with here, with you, feels… it feels like something. And I haven’t felt something in a really long time.”

“I’m not sure feeling something is enough.”

“I can’t promise you forever.” He leaned in, his lips pressing to the side of my lips, then the other.

And he couldn’t, could he?

He was immortal.

I wasn’t.

“But we can have this.” His lips pressed to mine, quickly, softly. Once. Twice.

Would this be enough long-term?

My heart cried no.

But the rest of me melted into Silas.

This might be all I could have with him. The last time. Because there was no telling how he’d react when I confessed everything.

And if this was all I could have, just once more, I was going to let myself.

My lips sought his, soft, almost pleading.

He answered with hunger.

There were no soft edges left. No gentle unraveling.

It was just him, and me, and the desperate need to avoid the emotional with the physical.

It was all heat, lips, teeth, and hands.

The kiss broke only for him to whip off my shirt and for me to remove his.

Our bodies pressed close, moved together back toward the bed, where we fell, rolled, tangled.

His lips moved over me.

My hands raked over him.

Then he rolled us to our sides, his hand hooking behind my knee, pulling it up to his hip, then shifting inward and sliding deep inside me with one stroke.

It was all movement then—bodies sliding, hands grazing, fingers tightening, lips and tongues and teeth battling, our mouths muffling my cries and his groans as we drove together up toward that edge, then crashed down hard.

I didn’t know about Silas, but I felt in pieces after.