Page 89 of Between Earth and Eternity
A couple of people inch closer to us, swaying to the rhythm in fluid motions.
Here goes nothing. I rock back and forth, matching their speed as I try to mimic them. I feel ridiculous, but I close my eyes and let the bass vibrate through me, hoping that maybe focusing on the feeling will make my body move in a way that doesn’t look absurd.
I’ve spent years getting lost in songs, but never like this before. It takes on a life of its own, like I truly am part of it.
I am the music, and the music is me.
I open my eyes as the beat changes again, and that’s when I see him.
Vallen and a cluster of the usual entourage looking for his attention follow him into the club. I’m not the only one who notices; the sea of people part like it always does for him, a force of nature that cannot be denied. I turn away quickly, trying to lose myself in the music again. The lights in the club are now shades of violet and indigo. I think that maybe I can slip out before he sees me, but as I look back toward the bar, I find his gaze already focused on me. Somehow, even wearing all black, he stands out in the crowd.
I search for Ori, but she has been swept away in another group, dancing and smiling. She doesn’t need or notice me. Even through the noise and pool of bodies, I feel his stare on my back, the lights above dancing and flashing around the room.
My plan is to run, but before I take a step, a hand—hishand—grabs mine. I don’t turn to face him; instead, he slowly pulls me until my back hits his hard chest. The pulse flowing through me isn’t just the music, but my heart as it beats erratically.
We haven’t spoken in weeks, yet we’re familiar with one other, like we’ve known each other for an age, like we’ve never been apart. Slowly, he lifts my arm and hooks it around his neck, and I don’t hesitate to rest my hand there, letting my fingertips weave into his hair. His fingers skate down my arms to my waist, where he holds me securely to him.
The song is evocative, ebbing and flowing, hypnotizing our bodies in tandem, pressed into each other like magnets. Vallen guides me—at leastheknows what to do. His fingers touch me softly but steady me as if to saymove with me. He’d have to yell over the music to tell me what to do, so instead, he uses his hands and body, and I let him.Like thisthey say, gently squeezing my hips.
Everyone around us is a blur of heat, but despite the company, all my senses are completely enveloped by him. It might as well be only him and me in this club—on this ship.
His hand splays across my stomach, fingertips grazing the sliver of skin now exposed with my arm still slung around his neck. I still haven’t glimpsed his face, but when I turn . . . it’s like looking into a beautiful dream.
The multicolored lights make him appear as a dark angel sent from the heavens, an aura of light surrounding him in a halo, divine and sanctified compared to us mere mortals. The shadows highlight his sharp jaw and full lips, hair askew and damp. I run my fingers through his hair, twirling the ends of the strands on the back of his neck with my fingertips. He closes his eyes, leaning his head back into my touch. The motion exposes his neck, and it’s completely insane, but I’m transfixed on the sweat shining there.
Without a single hesitation, zero thought, I lift my mouth to his pulse and lick the sweat off, slowly dragging my tongue across his skin to lap up every drop. The saltiness of him makes me nothing short of feral. It’s the most provocative thing I have ever done. It is lunacy, but I can bet that falling into madness never tasted this good.
It suddenly dawns on me what I did. I think he must be disgusted, but when I pull back and see his throat bob before looking into his face, his eyes are wide and a bit frantic. He wasn’t expecting it either, but he enjoyed it as much as I did.
The next thing I know, he seizes my hand, hauling me behind him, navigating us through the crowd of bodies until we turn down a dark hallway in the back of the club. Vallen slows his pace once we’re farther away from the noise and finally drops my hand. He keeps his back turned for a moment, running his hands through his hair, pushing it out of his eyes before he turns to face me, eyebrows furrowed as he glares.
“Why do you keep torturing me?” he asks, his chest rising and falling quickly. “Must you be everywhere?”
I glare back with my own frustration. “I’ve tried to avoid you. But seeing that we’re stuck on this ship together, I don’t have a lot of options,” I scoff.
“I don’t just mean on this ship, Skyler,” he snaps back. His face is more anguish than anger now. “You’re everywhere. In my dreams, my thoughts . . . They always travel back to you. And when I am near you . . .” He bites his lip, doing whatever he can to stop himself from speaking. The fact that he has dreamt about me makes me woozy and weak at the knees. “I’m not sure I can stay away anymore,” he says.
The last few minutes are catching up to me. I don’t know what I’d been expecting him to do when he pulled me away to get me alone, but it’s clear as an evening sky that we want the same thing.
“Then don’t,” I say.
My own words startle me, even if they are nothing but truth. I hadn’t even dared to admit these feelings to myself.
He steps forward, so I step back, still in a dance with one another. I take another step until my back hits the wall at the same time Vallen stops inches in front of me.
The low vibration of music tickles my palms, changing to a synth beat. My heart thumps chaotically, about to gallop out of my chest. It pounds like it means to bruise me.
“Tell me to stop.” His commanding voice is low and dark to match the song blaring around us.
“No,” I say, shaking my head slowly.
“I am begging you, Sky.”
Vallen Mannox begging? God help me.
“I’m begging younotto stop. Please, Val,” I say, swallowing nervously. I guess he’s not the only one willing to beg right now.
A sliver of a smirk tugs at his lips before he leans in, the heat of his breath brushing against my ear. “You have such a wicked mouth, Skyler. Always getting yourself into trouble.” He pulls back and rubs his thumb along my bottom lip, pulling it down slightly, and it takes whatever will I have left to not lick it. I like licking him, I guess.
