“Well. I suppose I should be going,” she said thickly.
For the space of several breaths, he didn’t reply.
“That’s probably best.” His voice was hoarse with sorrow.
She willed her body to rise.
It simply wouldn’t respond. It was as if she’d commanded it to do something that was fundamentally unnatural to it, like flying.
Here is where I belongwas its silent protest.Wherever he is.
But her body would need to learn to do without him.
Her heart would need to learn to do without him.
Sitting with him now, it suddenly seemed dizzyingly inconceivable to ever be without him. The future yawned like a chasm.
It’s all too much for any of us, he’d said.Life is.
He blurred as her eyes filled with tears.
She was scarcely aware that she had dropped her face into her hands until she felt the tears slipping through her fingers.
“Guinevere.” It was an aching whisper. “Oh, sweetheart. Ginny, don’t cry.”
He leaned forward. She felt his hands gently cradle her face.
She lifted her head. His eyes had gone glittery with tears, too. She saw herself reflected in his pupils.
He collected her tears with feather-light strokes of his thumbs.
He leaned forward and pressed whisper-soft kisses on her damp eyelids. One at a time.
He laid his lips lingeringly on her forehead.
And when she tipped her face up, their lips brushed.
She could feel the resistance in him, the uncertainty, as well as the tamped need that made his limbs tremble.
She shouldn’t tempt him. But her will was not quite as strong as his, and fierce need had sovereignty over sense.
She parted her lips.
He moaned softly when she touched her tongue to his.
And as they spiraled slowly, deeply, irrevocably, hungrily into the kiss, she hooked her hands in her bodice and dragged it down to her waist.
She gently reached for his hands and drew them up to her bare breasts.
He drew in a sharp breath.
“Ginny.” His voice was shredded with yearning. “Are you sure?”
But he’d already filled his hands with the satin weight of her breasts.
“I’m sure.” Her voice was still rough from tears. “But no bargains. I just want you. It’s just me and you.”
When he dragged his thumbs hard over the stiff peaks of her nipples, she gave a little wild cry of stunned pleasure. He half groaned, half growled, like an animal at last unchained.