Page 55 of Echoes and Oaths
She arched against him, desperate to feel every inch of him, desperate to banish the fear clawing at the edges of her heart.
"Yours," she whispered, fierce and broken. "Always yours."
He lifted her and carried her toward the bed with a force that stole her breath. But when he laid her down, he wasn’t rough anymore. His hands and lips transformed into something like a prayer. Soft, honest, a voiceless conversation of his hope, and their future.
She realized this, tonight, was everything he couldn’t say in words. This night was all the love, guilt, need, and promises crashing into her as he covered her body with his own.
She spread her legs open for him, inviting him closer, needing him inside her. As close as two humans could become. Their mouths found each other again, slower now, the fury fading into something deeper, more powerful in its tenderness.
When he finally moved inside her, it wasn’t justtheir bodies that spoke. It was as if their past, present, and future formed anew in that moment. The past, their loneliness, and the pain of separation were gone. The fear of tomorrow and the days they’d be separated was forgotten. Their future as a family was a dream yet realized. There was only them. There was only this moment. She shattered under him. Her core clenching so tight she ached. The spasms continued as he peaked inside her. She gasped as she shattered again.
When she managed to sense something besides the orgasm, she smiled. The room smelled like him. Warm skin, sweat, something wild and fierce she couldn't name. Eira buried her face against his chest, breathing him in, trying to memorize everything, like the way his heartbeat thudded strong and steady under her palm, the rough scratch of his beard against her body, or the way his fingers traced lazy, absent-minded circles against her spine.
She never wanted to leave this moment.
Mateo shifted slightly beneath her, pulling the blanket higher over their tangled bodies. His other hand slid up her back, threading into her hair and cradling her head like he couldn’t bear to let her go.
"You’re not sleeping," he whispered.
“Neither are you,” she hummed back.
He grunted, low in his chest. "I can’t waste a moment."
The words were so rough, so broken, she felt them crack something inside her.
She tilted her head up, and he was watching her in the dark, his eyes softer than she’d ever seen them. The enforcer he portrayed was gone. All that was left was Mateo. The man she knew before.
"I have to leave in the morning," she said quietly, the words like knives against her tongue.
His hand tightened slightly in her hair. Not enough to hurt. Just enough to say he hated it, too.
"Yes," he murmured.
"You …" She swallowed, her throat thick. "You’re going to kill Tomás and the other one you’re looking for." It wasn’t a question.
His jaw flexed, the muscle ticking hard enough she could feel it under her palm. "I have a job to do. I have to finish it, " he said, voice low and grim.
She blinked fast, trying to chase the tears back. She didn’t want him to see her fall apart. Not now. Not when there was so little time left.
"You’ll come to us," she whispered fiercely as if, through sheer willpower, she could make it true. “You’ll be careful?”
He cupped her face, brushing his thumb under her eye.
"I swear to you, baby. I’ll come to you." He leaned in and kissed her forehead, her cheeks, the corners of her mouth, like sealing the words on her skin. It was reverent and intentional. He whispered between kisses, "Nothing’s keeping me from you again. Nothing."
A tiny sob slipped free, but he stopped it with his kisses, absorbing her pain with a slow, tender, heartbreaking connection.
They didn’t speak again. Words would only make it harder. Instead, he shifted them, tucking her fully against his side, his arm heavy around her waist, his hand splayed protectively over her hip. She curled into him, resting her ear over his heart, listening to the steady, grounding beat.
Mateo murmured something against her hair. It was something low and Spanish and too soft to understand. She let it wrap around her like his protection, warm and unending.
Tomorrow, she would take Teo and run.
Tomorrow, he would become the man everyone said he was, and he would start his hunt.
The sun was barely skimmingthe horizon when they left the farm, mist curling low over the fields like ghostly fingers trying to pull them back. She held Mateo while he held Teo. The little boy was still asleep in his father’s arms. The plane scheduled to retrieve them was going to be earlier than expected, and Raven had arrived with the information, waking them and sending her into a rushed packing of Teo and her essentials.
“My mom can come to us after my aunt gets better.” She looked up at Mateo, silently begging him to let her mother come.
