Page 140 of Claimed In Darkness

She kisses me like she is still fighting it.

Like she is still trying to convince herself that this is the right path.

Like she does not want to lose me any more than I want to lose her.

And I almost believe it.

Her hands become warm against my chest.

She still gasps when I press her against the crumbling stone, when I nip at her bottom lip, when I drag my teeth along her throat.

This time, she feels like mine.

I want her to be.

Even now.

Even when I know better.

But when she pulls away, I’m back to reality.

Her breath is uneven, her pupils blown wide, her body still pressed against mine?—

But the Naira I know has disappeared.

She is not looking at me.

Not really.

She is looking past me.

To the ruins.

To the world she has already chosen.

To the thing that has already stolen her away from me.

She does not apologize. Never a word of sorry.

Not for making me love her more than I should have.

Not for making me come here just to watch her walk away again.

I feel it in the space between us.

The truth she will not say, what we both know.

That I will not see her again.

Not as my Naira.

Not as someone who still looks at me like I am something to hold on to.

Not someone who still remembers what I meant to her.

I swallow, voice rough, raw, hollow when I finally speak.

"Is this the last time?"

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