Page 110 of A Curse of Hope and Shadows: Part I
“He seems charming and affable. I more like thatyoulike him. I’ve never seen you so at ease with someone before.”
“Apart from you.”
Adeline grinned.
“I like you more,” he added suddenly. “I don’t want you to think—I just… Gods.” He scratched the back of his neck. “You’re special,” he added, spluttering the words. “In case you didn’t know.”
“I do know,” she whispered. “And you… you’re special too. To the world, a little, but particularly to me.”
Dimitri’s right cheek flushed crimson, burning against the darkness of his fur. “Do you mean that?”
Adeline paused, fingers still against the spine of the book she was stacking. The words fell to fuzziness around her, insubstantial and disorderly. Nothing clung to place, like she’d unstuck the world with her confession. “I never say things I don’t mean,” she whispered, her words phantoms.
“Adeline.” Dimitri’s voice drifted up the ladder, softer than the fuzz of a dandelion. She felt like she could wish on it, and her heart beat like a drum in her chest. “Please come down here.”
She wasn’t sure that was wise. Her words had been a step too far as it was. If she came down, if she stood beside him—
But he was calling her, and his words tugged her down like magnets.
Her descent seemed to take an age, as if each rung were some great obstacle in a story, another adventure inThe Trials of Adeline,another warning of danger.
And yet she did not stop.
On the second to last step, her foot slipped out from under her. Dimitri’s arms rushed out to steady her, catching her before she could fall. For a second, her entire weight rested against him.
She steadied herself, but he did not let go. Her face hovered above his, inches apart, so close that his breath brushed the loose strands of her hair. Something flickered in his eyes, eyes that held hers with alarming, indescribable intensity. His blue eye burned like fire or sapphire, his red one like ember.
She loved them, both. They were both his, both—
“Adeline,” he whispered.
A fraction of a second later, their mouths slid together, and suddenly, finally, blissfully, horribly, Adeline was kissing Dimitri Von Mortimer.
“You’re special too. To the world, a little, but particularly to me.”
Her words thumped in his heart, a pulse of meaning. It was ridiculous to suggest he held any relevance to the world, but even more ridiculous that she could possibly hold him in such regard on a personal level.
And yet awkward, sickening hope flushed into being at the mere notion of affection, and all he could think about was bringing her down to his level.
“Do you mean that?” he asked her, sure she’d revoke the words.
Adeline paused, fingers still against the spine of the book she was stacking. For a moment, he thought she’d ignore him. “I never say things I don’t mean.”
“Adeline,” Dimitri said, his tail twitching, “Please come down here.”
A year passed in the time it took her to descend, each step an awful, agonising weight. Near the end, she tripped. He lurched towards, steadying her in his arms, trying to work out if his heart was pumping so fast with the fear of her fall or the fear of her proximity.
Her eyes met his.
How was it that they were so warm and lovely and could cut right through him, sharp as a knife? Her name thumped in his heart, and he was conscious of her own, of the slight increase in breath, the surge of her chest.
He did not know what he was doing when he closed the gap between them and pressed his lips to hers, only that he felt he would break without doing so, and then he did anyway, the moment she kissed him back. His body hardened as his soul shattered everywhere.
Her lips were soft and light at first, and when he pressed into her, responding to her quiet eagerness, her hands slid to his chest as if trying to gather him closer, as ifshewere the one who couldn’t get enough ofhim.
His tail lashed out behind him, snapping back and forth as if hoping to twine itself around her. He was aware that he was trembling, hardly caring, hardly caring about anything other than the fact that he waskissing Adelineand it was every bit as warm and wonderful as he’d imagined. His thoughts blurred, his body buzzed, and he felt nothing, nothing but her as he bent her into the ladder and her hands slid round his neck, into his hair, lips and tongue still hot on his.
It was everything he imagined and more, his insides turning to hot, molten liquid and the swirl of her touch, undone and remade in an instant. His hands travelled from her waist to her back, searching for other parts of her to hold, explore, revere. She let out a quiet, wonderful sound, half moan, half something else, and he felt like if he didn’t kiss her more, he would split apart at the centre.
