Page 118 of Fury

I licked my lips. “I—”

He lunged at me, pulling me in his arms roughly, and crushed my mouth to his, smashing me up against the wall. Our bodies crashed together, and my breath jammed in my lungs. The scents of aged leather, dull metal, and the faded cinnamon of his taste took over, and I sucked them all in, wanting more. My hands dug into his hair, and I opened my mouth to his, knowing I’d be lost.

I was lost. I was damned.

Yet I was set free.

The two of us slid down the wall to the floor. The demand of his tongue, the sound of his hard breathing, the press of his body against mine, a stronger, harder, more developed body, made me greedy, satisfying the need I had put on ice so long ago. My soul cried out for him, for his touch with a sharp urgency that built and built. Memories clashed with sensation, with desperation. I ached.

My dress ripped, my underwear was yanked to the side. Fumbling, tugging, whimpers, groans. His grip tightened on my flesh, and he was inside me.

“Serena...” that husky, scratched voice filled my ear and uncoiled that intense rough desire that only he inspired in me. I clung to him.

His forehead slid to mine. “Baby.”

We both gasped, our skin damp. My body trembled.

I miss you.

I miss you.

The dam I had erected with the heavy stones of agony and necessity cracked and burst open with every fiery pulse of his powerful body inside mine, with every rasp of his jumbled words. Desperate words. I embraced them all, wrapped them around me, clutching him to me. I flew, charged on our hungry emotions, our hungry bodies. On the high that was us, on our absolute need to be together.

He throbbed against me, and a piece of me, that piece that was his, whisked away with him to somewhere else, somewhere beautiful and unfettered. Breathless, soaring. My fingers dug into the edges of his leather jacket, brushing over a stitched patch.

And I dropped back down to earth.

My heart filled with lead. My limbs stiffened. “We shouldn’t have done this. It’s not—”

“It’s been a long time. I know it has. But we’re so good together. Always will be, no matter what.” He nuzzled the side of my throat. “There’s never been a goodbye between you and me. Never will be. I love you. I’ll always love you.”

I pushed my hands against his chest, against those sweet hopes, and pulled back from him. His brow knit together as he slid out of me on a grunt. A chill raced up the base of my spine at the sudden hollowness inside me. At what I’d done.

I’d opened my Pandora’s box. How would I ever shut it closed again?

Finger adjusted himself. I sat up straight against the wall, my knees bent and pulled into my chest, pressing my shaking legs together.

Before Finger I’d never believed I was strong, not enough, not enough for the real world. And now he’d torn through any lines of defense I thought I’d built around myself these past three years alone. Crossed the moat, scaled the wall, battered down the gate.

I shoved my tattered armor back on.

He spoke. The sounds muffled in my head.

“Baby, none of that matters,” he said. “I get it, I don’t get it, I don’t give two fucks. I’m out, you’re free, you’re coming with me and we’re gonna be together.”

His words clattered to the floor at my feet.

“Finger.”

His eyes were full, shiny. “Yeah?”

I braced. “I’m getting married next month.”

His jaw stiffened, his eyes flashed. “Married?”

Yes, yes, fling your flaming arrows in our grey sky. I deserve every single one.

“Married?” he repeated.

---