Page 279 of Eternal
What if he loves me back?
“I’m going to kiss younow.” His hand abandons mine, fingers tracing the edge of my cheek, down to my jaw, tilting my face like he’s aligning somethingprecious. “I’m going to kiss you and you’re going to kiss me back.”
I should say something.I don’t.
And then his mouth is on mine. Warm, insistent,slow.
A lip against a lip.
A tongue against a tongue.
A breath into a breath.
The taste of him seeps into my bones, dark and sweet, something that shouldn’t feel as much likehomeas it does.
The song becomes darker, it burns, it twists into something more desperate, moreconsuming.
And for the first time, I kiss someone back not because I should, not because I want to forget, but because I need to. Because kissing him feels like remembering something I’ve never been allowed to have.
But then.Air
He pulls back just enough for breath to slip between us. “Mybeautifulbroken partner,” he murmurs. His voice sounds like a prayer, like he’s saying something sacred and means it.
“The most beautiful heart I’ve ever seen.”
My heart?
That stupid muscle that’s been torn apart, stitched back together with rage and grief, a thing that’s beaten through bruises and abuse.Beautiful…
“Beautiful?” I whisper confused.
A slow smile tugs at his lips. He leans in, his breath warm against my skin. A kiss on my cheek. Another along my jaw. A third at the hollow of my throat.
“Beautiful,” he repeats, lips ghosting over my pulse. “Magnificent.” A kiss at the corner of my mouth. “Insane.” A brush of affection along my knuckles. “Devastating.” His mouth finds the tips of my fingers, pressing against them like a promise.
Then, against my skin, a final whisper, low, possessive,absolute. “Mine.”
“Damir…”
He didn’t answer right away.
Instead, he eased me down beneath him slowly like he was still trying to memorize everything that wasme. My leg curled instinctively around his waist, dragging him closer.
His breath ghosted against my lips. “You want this,partner?”
My answer came too easily. “I do.”
Yes I do, more than anything, more than I ever wanted anything.
He smiled, soft at first… almosttender. But then it changed, it weakened at the edges. “You know how much I want you to learn softness, right?”
I nodded.
“Good,” he whispered. His lips brushed my cheek, then my jaw, then my neck, his voice dipping lower,darker. “Remember that…” A pause. “…because nothing about what I’m going to do to you tonight is going to be soft.”
I grinned up at him, pulse pounding. “Promise?”
That was the moment it all changed, his smile returned, but it wasn’t gentle anymore. He leaned in, his mouth brushing mine. “Mmm,” he murmured, almost a moan. “Of course.”
