Page 76 of Born of Ice

“Do you have your lipstick with you?” I ask her and she frowns.

“Huh? No, I don’t. Why?”

I purse my lips and turn to Luna. “Do you?”

“Sure.” She smiles with amusement, clearly feeling where I’m going with this and leaves to the back room, coming back holding a red lipstick in hand. “Here.” She hands it to Electra right away.

“Um, okay?” She’s still frowning. “Now what?”

“Well, I’m guessing he wants you to paint your lips and kiss that paper,” Luna muses as Electra’s jaw drops.

Well, looks like she finally got it.

“Exton.” She breathes out but before she can deny me or tell me how stupid it is or something else along the lines I interrupt her.

“Please.”

Electra’s eyes bore into me, a million silent questions tearing through her mind but in the end, she uncaps the lipstick, paints her lips and leaves the kiss mark on the paper. With flushed cheeks she hands it to Luna.

“Where do you want it?”

I roll up the sleeve of my shirt and point to the exact spot, on the inside of my upper arm where Electra kissed me last night. “Right here.”

Electra gasps as Luna nods and gets to work.

I can’t tell you if it hurt or burned or how long it took to tattoo her lips on my skin because I was lost in her eyes that were so loud.

Why?

Because I need it.

Why?

You’re not ready to hear it yet.

21

All with me

Exton

It’s been about twoweeks since I got that tattoo on my arm, and it should scare me how fast those weeks flew by. It should terrify me that I’m not feeling any of my usual restlessness at being cooped up in one place for so long. It should…yet it doesn’t, and I know why.

Because these weeks have been spent with her. To wake up snuggled into her body every morning, despite going to bed as far away from each other as we can be.

I don’t know how, but I do know when it happens. There is always a moment during the night when I feel the chill descend upon her and it draws me to her ice right away, plunging into the darkness and fighting it off for her.

But the thing is, after a few minutes of holding her, I feel her breathing even out and sleeping peacefully, so by all means, I should move back to my spot. Only I don’t. Duh.

After the fifth morning of “enjoying” my morning wood against her low back, Electra simply sighed and didn’t waste her breath on complaints anymore. She stated that she gives up and went back to sleep as I silently chuckled and did the same.

She also gave up on asking why I got that tattoo done or telling me I’ll regret it. For now, at least. But what she doesn’t realize is that it’s my favorite piece I’ve gotten.

Every minute of every day and night is spent with Electra, and for reasons still unknown to me, she is enough. Just one little touch of hers fuels me for days. One smile lights me up for hours. And the never-ending teasing, bantering, and taunting keeps me on my toes.

If the weather permits, we wake up to watch the sunrise, talking about what it makes us feel in that moment and every morning she opens the door to her soul a tiny bit wider for me. And I do the same. But never once veering into the deeper end of these conversations and for now it’s enough.

It’s enough to see her starting to live, to breathe more easily, to smile. It’s enough to see her happy whenever Aurora and Emett come over. Their last visit still brings out a smile to my own face.

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