Page 280 of Eternal
And then he kissed me.Not softly.
It was the kind of kiss that stole the air from my lungs. The kind that said:you asked for this.
And I had.
82
AZRA
“Speak Softly Love” by Andy Williams
Present
Iwanted this.Him. Like this.
“I’ve been waiting for this…” he murmured.
“You always this dramatic when you get laid, Damir,” I managed between kisses.
He pulled back just enough to meet my eyes, his lips were swollen, his smile lazy. “You haven’t been laid by me yet,” he replied.
“Confident.”
“Desperate,” he corrected, voice rough now. “You sure, right?”
It’s him. It’s him. It’s him.
Close your eyes. Breathe. Remember.
“I trust you,” I whispered.
His hand paused on my cheek, then slid to my neck, holding me like something precious, not breakable, justreal. Solid.
“Don’t talk to me like that,” he said. “I just want this to be good for you. Onlyyou.”
I tried to smile, I did, but I could already feel it.
That old shame pressing down on my chest, the hum in my ears, the part of me that started counting seconds before anything even began, the way ithurt.
I swallowed hard.
Please don’t think about it. Please don’t see the ghosts.
“Damir… Don’t… think about it.”
“About what?” His voice was careful, like stepping through glass.
“My past. This isn’t the first time since…everything.” My voice shook. “But it’s the first time Iwantto feel it.”
He closed his eyes for a second, like the words hurt and healed him all at once.
“I don’t want you to think Ineedthis to want you,” he said. “I wanted you when you laughed the first time you bruised my lips during our first fight. I wanted you when you couldn’t look me in the eye because I was shamelessly flirting with you. When you were angry. When you were okay. It was never your body.”
He wants me when I’m okay. He wants me when I’m more than just pain.
“I think… I think I’m healing,” I whispered. “And I want to remember this. Not forget it.”
He didn’t move, he stayed there, his thumb brushed under my eye like he knew a tear might come or maybe already had.
