Page 54 of Monster's Secret Baby

I sit beside him, leaving a sliver of space between us. The night air smells of river moss and distant rain. Neither of us speaks. The silence stretches, taut as a bowstring.

Adellum's eyes remain fixed on the water, silver irises reflecting moonlight like twin mirrors. His face is a perfect mask, but I can feel the storm raging beneath it. He closes his eyes finally, lashes dark against his bronze skin, and the gesture breaks something in me. He looks like a man awaiting execution.

My hand moves before my courage can fail me.

I reach across the space between us, my fingers trembling slightly as they find the sharp angle of his jaw. His skin burns hot beneath my touch—it always has, like he carries a furnace inside him. Gently, I turn his face toward mine until I can see the raw pain etched into every line.

"Harmony," he whispers, my name a prayer and a plea.

I don't answer with words. Instead, I lean forward and press my lips to his.

The kiss is gentle at first—tentative, questioning. A relearning of something once known by heart. His body goes rigid with shock, and for a heartbeat, I think he'll pull away. But then something breaks in him. His hands come up to cradle my face with a reverence that steals my breath, his touch so careful, as if I might dissolve beneath his fingers.

"Little bird," he murmurs against my mouth, voice breaking.

The familiar endearment unravels me. I press closer, one hand sliding around his neck, feeling the rapid pulse beneath my fingertips. The kiss deepens, turning desperate, hungry. His wings unfurl partially, instinctively creating a shelter around us.

"I don't think you are a monster," I whisper, but he swallows the words with another kiss.

"But I am," he says, pulling back just enough to rest his forehead against mine. "I'll always be whatever you need me to be.

The river babbles beside us, a constant whisper that takes me back to stolen moments in New Solas—nights when we'd slip away from Lord Arkan's estate to the secluded bank where the trees dipped their leaves into the water. How many times had we lain there, learning each other's bodies by moonlight, making promises neither of us knew if we could keep?

"We were right here once," I whisper, fingers threading through his cropped hair. "Different river, same us."

A broken sound escapes him, something between a laugh and a sob. "No. Not the same." His hands tighten on my waist. "I'm not the same man who let you slip away. That man was a fool."

"And I'm not the same woman who ran." I trace the sharp line of his cheekbone with my thumb, feeling the slight dampness there. "That woman was afraid."

"Are you still afraid?" His question hangs between us, weighted with all our history.

I kiss him again in answer, tasting the salt of tears—his or mine, I can't tell anymore.

My breath catches as Adellum rises to his knees, moonlight casting silver shadows across his face. The intensity in his eyes makes me tremble—not with fear, but with a longing so deep it hurts. His powerful hands slide beneath my thighs, and before I can draw another breath, he lifts me effortlessly into his arms.

"I need to see all of you," he whispers, his voice rough with emotion. "No more hiding. No more running."

He carries me a few steps away from the riverbank, to where soft grass forms a natural bed beneath a canopy of stars. The weight of five years hangs between us as he lowers me onto the ground, his movements careful, deliberate. His wings extend slightly, creating a shelter that blocks the night breeze, enclosing us in our own private world.

I watch, mesmerized, as his fingers work the laces of my dress. Each movement is unhurried, reverent. He unwraps me like something precious, something sacred.

"I dreamed of this," he confesses, his gaze never leaving mine as he slides the fabric down my shoulders. "Every night for five years. I dreamed of finding you again."

The cool night air kisses my skin as he peels away each layer. I should feel exposed, vulnerable, but under his gaze, I feel worshipped. His eyes track each inch of revealed skin with a hunger that makes my heart race.

"You're more beautiful than I remembered." He lowers his head, pressing his lips to the hollow of my throat. "And I remembered everything."

His mouth traces a burning path down my body—across my collarbone, between my breasts, over the soft curve of my stomach. Each kiss is a declaration, each touch a promise. When his lips brush across the stretch marks left by carrying Brooke, I tense slightly.

"Beautiful," he murmurs against my skin. "Every mark, every change. All beautiful."

My fingers find his hair, gripping tightly as emotion threatens to overwhelm me. "Adellum..."

He rises up, hovering above me, his massive wings creating a cocoon around us. Slowly, deliberately, he begins to shed his own clothing. First his shirt, revealing the dusky bronze expanse of his chest, the lean muscle that speaks of power carefully contained. I reach up, tracing the familiar patterns of scars across his torso—evidence of a childhood harsher than he ever fully explained.

"I thought I knew your body by heart," I whisper, fingers mapping the new marks I don't recognize. "These are new."

His jaw tightens. "A lot happened in five years, little bird."

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