Page 156 of Visions of Darkness

Exploring.

The sharp angles of her face were so striking. Unforgettable. This woman who was carved into every recess of my being. I got the sense right then that my heart had been woven with the fabric of hers.

I brushed my fingers through her hair and let my thumb stroke her cheek. “Are you sure?”

She reached up and set a trembling hand on my cheek. Right then, her pale eyes were the warmest thing I’d ever seen. “I’ve never been so sure of anything in my life.”

Inhaling a shaky breath, I leaned back on my knees and hooked my fingers in the band of her leggings. Slowly, I peeled them down, revealing her inch by inch.

I edged back enough so I could wind them from her ankles, leaving her completely bare and exposed.

A needy sigh pilfered from between her lips.

I took her in through the dim, hazy light. Her body was littered in scars, and I leaned in and started to brush my lips over each one.

Her legs.

Her thighs.

Her right hip.

I kissed up her abdomen where the bulk of them were engraved, the battle scars of the life we lived. Our fate. Our hope. Our demise.

She writhed and gasped with each gentle brush of my lips, and those fingers wound in my hair as I went.

As I adored her.

Worshipped her.

In it, I prayed she knew what I meant. This woman who made me recognize my true purpose in this twisted, messed-up life.

The one who’d become my reason.

I let my nose wander her collarbone, inhaling her scent.

Coconut and goodness and this power that I couldn’t come close to comprehending.

Then I dragged it up the delicate column of her neck before I planted both hands on either side of her head.

I gazed down at her in the wisping, murmuring night.

She never took those eyes off my face as she reached between us and started to push my sweats over my hips, and I shifted so I could unwind the rest of the way out of them, kicking them free of my feet.

Sparks licked across our naked flesh, and the energy that dragged us through two realities crackled in the space between.

I dropped to an elbow, careful not to crush her but wholly covering her with my body, wishing it to be a shield. Her protection. Her pleasure. Her everything.

Cupping her cheek, I murmured my one single truth: “I love you.”

Then I pushed deep inside her.

And Aria?

I swore she fucking glowed.

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Aria

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