Page 65 of Magic Touch
"Lucky to be alive and thankful to you for keeping me in this world." It's not what she was asking, but I want to make sure she knows how much I appreciate her saving me.
Propping herself against the headboard, she studies me. "You look much better."
"I'm fine." I swing my legs to the floor and receive a grumble from Simon, who jumps down from the bed, onto the windowsill, and with a leap, lands in the tree a few feet away.
Esme's hands touch my shoulders, and her body presses to my back. "If I had known how losing you would feel before, I would never have ended our... I don't even know what to call what we had."
"Romance?" I suggest loving the feel of her, the scent of her. I never want to be apart from her.
"Is that what it was?" She presses a kiss to my back.
I take her hand from my shoulder and turn as I kiss her palm. "It's what this is, Esme. I know you think I will abandon you as soon as we return to town." I hold up a hand to stop whatever she's about to say. "I have no idea how what we have works in the world where we live. If I'm honest, I don't care. What I do know is that I have never felt for anyone what I feel for you, Esme O'Dwyer. I'm learning magic, and that's impossible. How hard can it be for us to stay together?"
Worry crosses her expression before her lips lift in a smile. "I don't have any more answers than you. I know that in the moment you were gone to Goddess, I was in a place far worse than Hell. Perhaps facing the wrath of society and coven is worth the risk for what we have together."
Worry returns to her eyes even as joy rushes into me like a giant wave. "What are you thinking?"
Her moss-green eyes and the most kissable lips in the world make it hard to concentrate. "I was thinking that my mother and father may have said the same thing so many years ago."
My heart expands so that it fills my chest. Just the knowledge that she's thinking about a couple who made a life together is wonderful. "Were they wrong?"
Lifting her shoulders in a shrug, she says, "She suffered daily after he died. She never recovered from the loss."
"My mother suffers in the same way. Would you deny yourself love to avoid a broken heart?"
Her eyes shift to the floor. "I don't know. I thought I would never have to make that choice."
Taking her in my arms, I drag her into my lap and kiss her cheek. "I have not said it because you would not hear it, but I love you, Esme. I have from the moment I first saw you, and even when you made me glow like the moon. I shall never wish for a day when I did not know you. Do you think your mother would have preferred a life without your father, to save her from her despair when she lost him?"
She shakes her head. "I think she would have endured a thousand years of sorrow for the ten full of love and joy that she had with him."
"And you?" Waiting for her reply, I hold my breath.
Taking my head in her hands, she presses her forehead to mine. "I fear for my heart, but it does not change the fact that I love you, William."
Air rushes back into my lungs, and I press my lips to hers.
She opens for me and presses her tongue against mine, and gripping the back of her head, I deepen the kiss. Unable to get enough of her, I lay her back on the mattress and cover her body with mine. I have so many things I want to say, to tell her, but this kiss seems more important at the moment.
Someone knocks on the door.
We freeze.
Esme giggles.
"Who is it?" I am uncomfortably hard, but it is full morning, and Esme probably should have left my room hours before. The house is awake now.
"It is Dove," Henry says as sternly as any schoolmaster.
Wiggling out from under me, Esme stands and pulls her dress from the day before over her head. She's tying the bodice when I give up any hope of ravaging her this morning.
I pull on my robe, tiptoe to the door, and check to make sure she is decent before I slide the bolt. "Good morning, Henry."
Henry scans me from head to toe. "You seem little worse for wear, sir."
There is little point in telling him to call me by my first name, but I still jab. "I am Will when I'm near death, but back to sir in the morning."
"So it would seem." Henry carries a stack of clothes in one hand and a pitcher of wash water in the other. "Good morning, Miss."
