Page 20 of Lost Passions (Timeless Affection)

When she relaxes, murmuring her appreciation, I lose myself in her body, bucking wild, deep frantic thrusts that drag the heat down my spine and expel it in a rush of hot, desperate satisfaction that threaten to tear me apart. I collapse on top of her, spent and thoroughly taken by the woman I never thought I would see again.

I could care less about the state of the Kingdom, about anything else at all beyond the woman that’s underneath me. We’re tangled up, sweaty, and perfect.

“Let’s stay like this forever, with you on top of me,” she says, scraping her fingers through my hair. “And with me loving you more than I did when the sun met the sky this morning.”

I lean up to find her mouth, threading my fingers through her curls and pulling, kissing her with what I hope is a lasting intensity.

“I begin and end with you, Juliet. There is no separation from my soul to yours. Even if you wake alone, I am with you,”

I murmur into her lips.

“Don’t underestimate the power of my love.” She hums and runs her nose along mine.

I just want this to last forever. I’ll never be satisfied with anything, or anyone else.

* * *

The whisperof my dream tickles my mind. In it, a gaping hole grows bigger until I can’t see James on the other side of it. The memory suffocates the happiness out of my lungs, and I wake up with a gasp, a sense of uneasiness rushing all over me.

James wraps his arms around me, his chest to my back with his chin resting on my shoulder as we’re tangled together.

“What’s wrong, my sweet Juliet?” he asks in a rough, sleep clogged voice.

“Just a bad dream,” I whisper. “I have a lot of those.”

“Go back to sleep. Everything is alright, my love,” he says, his words fading out as he drifts back into a deep, satisfied sleep.

I wish everything was alright. Tonight was perfection, but I want more. It’s an enticing thought, the word more. And it’s also problematic; who I really am, and the fact that I also love four other men is currently a complication I’m not certain how we can overcome.

I turn around so that I can watch James sleep. When would the end come? He opens his eyes as if he can feel me watching him. He stares back at me intently. He inches closer until our lips are just a whisper apart.

He’s truly a beautiful man.

But beyond the chiseled godlike masterpiece of his face and body, he’s the real deal. Under the crown lies a sweet vulnerability that the world doesn’t see, but I do. Looking into his eyes, my heart shreds into pieces because I’m not certain that I see a happy ending for us, not matter how much I want it, or how much I try... My curse and my past will ruin the possibility of more with James.

“Juliet,” he sighs, reaching for me. I fall into his chest and my nose meets his neck. Breathing him in, I melt into his hard lines.

“Don’t leave me.”

His whispered words are a mirror of my thoughts. I might not have a choice.

Chapter 7

Iwake up, my body feeling a languid laziness that speaks to a soul that is slightly more put together than it was before. It’s the same feeling I had when we made love. Like pieces of myself have left my body and latched on to his. It’s an otherworldly sensation.

His eyes are open when I turn to look at him.

"I'm ready," he murmurs to me, brushing a kiss across my eyelids as we face each other, only an inch apart.

It takes me a second to understand what he’s saying. I quickly come back down to earth when I realize that he’s ready to talk. At last.

Nervous energy shoots across my body as I remember Liam's reaction. The phone call that really set all of this in motion. I take a deep breath.

"What if I told you that it hasn’t been six years since I left you. What if I told you that it’s actually been hundreds of years and several lifetimes?"

"What are you saying, my love?" he asks gently as he softly pulls a piece of hair away from my face.

"I'm saying that I was taken from you, not by someone, but by time itself," I respond as I begin to tremble, my voice begging him to believe me.

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