Page 91 of Elanie & the Empath
He took a step closer, then another. When he ran his hand over his silver buzzcut, tiny droplets of star-lit water misted into the air.
“Are you wet?” I asked, my logic continuing to lag.
“A bit.” Without offering further explanation, he dropped to his knees in front of me. “I know Gol told you I’d left without saying goodbye. But I didn’t leave. He?—”
“Imprisoned you underground,” I said, wondering if I’d ever look anywhere but into his eyes again. Why would I, when everything that was good and sweet in the entire Known Universe existed there?
“You knew?” He pulled back, his brows knitting together. “You knew I was down there?”
Realizing my mistake, I shooed Grover off my lap and grasped Sem’s arms. “No. I didn’t know. Until today, I believed him. I thought you’d left me. I couldn’t even get out of bed until this morning. I kept thinking, how could he leave me here? What did I do wrong? Was our fight that bad? Was I that bad at relationships?”
A ragged breath escaped him, his hands rising to cup my face. “Saints, sweetheart. No. You are perfect. Our fight was nothing. And I’m so sorry. I would never leave you, Elanie. Never.”
“I know.” I grasped his face too, pressing my forehead to his. “I was so heartbroken at first, I couldn’t think straight. But once I came back online, I knew you’d never leave without talking to me first. And then I realized that Gol would never have let you leave Thura anyway. So I tracked Mal down?—”
“Mal,” Sem said loudly.
I covered his mouth. “Shh. Gol is always listening.”
His eyes narrowed to dagger points. “I’m sure he is. But I need to speak to Mal. I met someone down there.” He laughed softly, and I leaned into the sound I thought I’d never hear again. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you. But Mal is the key to getting us out of here. All of us.”
“Mal will be here first thing in the morning. We’ve made a plan. To get you out.”
“You made a plan?” he asked, his voice thick. “You were going to try to rescue me?”
His face turned blurry through a wave of fresh tears. “Of course. Because it’s you. It’s not Thura, it’s you. I’m not happy unless I’m with?—”
He silenced me with a kiss, his body pushing me down onto the bed as I opened my legs, an invitation to fit himself between them.
I’d missed him. But,stars, I’d missed this too. I’d missed the weight of him, the way the hard parts of his body lined up with the soft parts of mine, like I’d been custom designed to lie beneath him. But he was wet and shivering.
“I can’t stay long,” he said against my lips. “I have to get back before anyone down there notices I’m gone.”
“No.” I wrapped my legs around his hips, viselike, and raised my core temperature to warm him. “You can’t leave me again. Please, Sem.”
“It’ll be okay.” He kissed my neck, my throat. “We’ll be back together soon.”
Cupping his face again, pulling his gaze to mine, I said, “I need you. I need to feel you before you go. I need to remember. Please.”
He was already naked, and so was I. So when I reached for him, when he kissed me again, our bodies did the rest.
It was so quiet. Silent except for our breaths, the breeze through our windows. His eyes glistened above me, gazing so deeply into mine I wanted to cry every time he blinked. We moved together like we were one, breathing the same breaths, sharing the same space. The same heart beating inside our chests.
“Why is it so different this time?” I asked as the slow,heavy drag of him filled my body with heat and light. As my heart seemed to break with every thrust. As I closed my eyes and hot tears slid down my temples. “What is this feeling?”
“It’s different because this isn’t just sex anymore.” He kissed me so tenderly my chest ached from the weight of it. “This is more.”
“No,” I said, finally understanding. “This iswhy. This is the reason.”
“The reason?”
I sighed as he moved inside me, over me, everywhere at once. “When you first asked, I didn’t know the answer. But I do now.” Placing my hand over his beating heart, I told him, “Thisis why, Sem. This is why I installed the upgrade. This was what I was looking for. It’s you.Youare my reason.”
He closed his eyes against the same swell of emotion that rose inside me too, pressed his forehead to mine, and we didn’t speak for a long while after that.
There would beno sleep for me tonight. Terrified for his swim back through the pipe, I kept my ear pressed tightly to the floor of our hut for what felt like an eternity, not moving, barely breathing. Until finally, so faintly I could have convinced myself I’d imagined it, the first few notes of “Oops, I Kissed Him First” drifted up through the floorboards.
A smile cracked my face as I rolled onto my back and kicked my feet in the air. Which startled Grover into a few frantic laps around the hut.
