Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 116263 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 581(@200wpm)___ 465(@250wpm)___ 388(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 116263 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 581(@200wpm)___ 465(@250wpm)___ 388(@300wpm)
There was only a faint voice at the back of my mind warning me that this was wrong. A voice warning that I was crossing a line that was only going to bring more destruction.
The rest of me knew there wasn’t a chance on this godforsaken Earth that I would deny her this.
So I carefully scooped her up and slipped off the bed. Laying her on the thin sheet on the floor, I stared down at the girl who stared up at me.
She searched me, like she might find the answer to this life written in the scars that marred my flesh. Find it hidden in the lines that dented deep in my brow.
I searched her, too.
Gaze tracing.
Exploring.
The sharp angles of her face were so striking. Unforgettable. This woman who was carved into every recess of my being. I got the sense right then that my heart had been woven with the fabric of hers.
I brushed my fingers through her hair and let my thumb stroke her cheek. “Are you sure?”
She reached up and set a trembling hand on my cheek. Right then, her pale eyes were the warmest thing I’d ever seen. “I’ve never been so sure of anything in my life.”
Inhaling a shaky breath, I leaned back on my knees and hooked my fingers in the band of her leggings. Slowly, I peeled them down, revealing her inch by inch.
I edged back enough so I could wind them from her ankles, leaving her completely bare and exposed.
A needy sigh pilfered from between her lips.
I took her in through the dim, hazy light. Her body was littered in scars, and I leaned in and started to brush my lips over each one.
Her legs.
Her thighs.
Her right hip.
I kissed up her abdomen where the bulk of them were engraved, the battle scars of the life we lived. Our fate. Our hope. Our demise.
She writhed and gasped with each gentle brush of my lips, and those fingers wound in my hair as I went.
As I adored her.
Worshipped her.
In it, I prayed she knew what I meant. This woman who made me recognize my true purpose in this twisted, messed-up life.
The one who’d become my reason.
I let my nose wander her collarbone, inhaling her scent.
Coconut and goodness and this power that I couldn’t come close to comprehending.
Then I dragged it up the delicate column of her neck before I planted both hands on either side of her head.
I gazed down at her in the wisping, murmuring night.
She never took those eyes off my face as she reached between us and started to push my sweats over my hips, and I shifted so I could unwind the rest of the way out of them, kicking them free of my feet.
Sparks licked across our naked flesh, and the energy that dragged us through two realities crackled in the space between.
I dropped to an elbow, careful not to crush her but wholly covering her with my body, wishing it to be a shield. Her protection. Her pleasure. Her everything.
Cupping her cheek, I murmured my one single truth: “I love you.”
Then I pushed deep inside her.
And Aria?
I swore she fucking glowed.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Aria
My mouth opened on a shocked rasp, and my head rocked back as the Earth cracked wide open beneath me.
Light burst behind my eyes, so bright I felt it streak through my veins. So bright it was blinding.
Though in spite of it, I could still make out every aspect of Pax.
The glorious edges of his severe, exquisite face. His slashed, brutal brow. The clench of his rugged, rough jaw. More than anything, it was the love that stoked the white flames in his eyes.
It felt like the moment was held.
A beat of infinity where I was lost somewhere between pain and pleasure.
This feeling of being split apart and pieced back together.
Crushed and made whole.
It was a staggering, beautiful devastation.
Pax choked out a delirious sound of restraint as he clung tight to me, covering me like a shroud.
Like solace.
Like peace.
Part of me wondered if I was still dreaming. Locked in a realm that shouldn’t exist. Or maybe I’d drowned and I’d awakened to my own perfect eternity.
“Are you okay?” His words were shards that sent ripples murmuring through the dense, mesmerizing air.
My nails scratched down his back, the tips of my fingers trailing over his pitted, gnarled flesh.
Coarse breaths raked from my lungs as I adjusted to the stunning feel of him. A long moment passed before I was able to speak. “I told you when I first saw you that I came alive that day. But I think there was still a piece of me that was missing. A piece carved out in the middle of me that longed to be filled. And that piece doesn’t ache anymore.”
He gathered my hand and splayed it across his heart, which was ravaging at his chest, his eyes pinching tight before they opened to me. “You’re right, Aria. It doesn’t ache anymore. Not in me, either. You are my beginning. My conclusion. My completion.”