Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 116263 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 581(@200wpm)___ 465(@250wpm)___ 388(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 116263 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 581(@200wpm)___ 465(@250wpm)___ 388(@300wpm)
Coiling and binding.
Rising and lifting.
Heightening to a boiling point.
The whole time, Pax watched me, never looking away as he brought me to a place that I knew could only exist with him.
Because when I split apart, it was so much more than a mere sensation that I’d never experienced before.
It was truth and light.
It was rapture.
Pure ecstasy that stretched out to touch every corner.
Heart and body and mind.
It was death.
Because there was a part of me that would never be the same.
It was an ending.
It was a beginning.
It was life.
Energy erupted as my body blazed.
An inferno of white, disorienting light.
My mind spiraled through time and realms. Thoughts flashing to when Pax and I had been young. When I didn’t understand our design but still knew he would be the most important person in my life.
And it had never changed, who he was, even though it felt like everything had right then.
Walls were toppled as new obstacles were built.
His rigid jaw was clenched as he worked over me, the man so ferociously gorgeous as he thrust and rocked and consumed.
Every sinewy muscle in his body was stretched taut, coiling and flexing beneath the feverish drag of my fingers.
Then he dropped his chest to mine, clinging to me as he drove into me so deep, and he stilled as a roar ripped from his throat.
Those tense muscles bowed as his body tremored, and a shock wave of bliss rolled through us both, rushing high to take us over and pull us under.
My body arched as his name chanted as a whisper from my lips again and again.
“Pax, Pax, Pax.”
It was prayer.
My claim.
He swallowed it with his mouth, shooting me high once again with the gluttony of his kiss.
I could taste it.
His love for me.
“Fuck, Aria. Fuck.”
Our bodies twitched and jerked and spasmed with tiny aftershocks, and he held me through them until they had completely faded.
Eventually, the bright glare that had blinded my eyes ebbed, and the inferno that had blazed dimmed to embers as his kiss slowed and became languid.
Soft, featherlight whispers.
I relished the feel of him as he exhaled in the deepest satisfaction, then sagged against me.
His beautiful body a blanket that covered mine, our hearts thudding hard against the other.
For a little while, we lay there listening to the impact of it. To the way the thunder of our hearts was the loudest thing in the room. The way they beat in sync, a thrum, thrum, thrum that hummed of completion yet still sped up in relief.
His forehead dropped to mine, and when he spoke, his words were hoarse. “A long time ago, I gave up on the idea of there being any beauty in this life. Gave up on the idea that I would ever experience any of it. I was wrong. So fucking wrong. Because there’s you, Aria. There’s you. And there could never be anything more beautiful than that.”
Chapter Forty
Pax
I eased back onto my knees, taking Aria with me, and I scooped her trembling frame into my arms as I pushed to standing. It seemed crazy that she could feel so fucking light in my hold.
Delicate.
Fragile.
A distinct contrast with the way she oozed an implacable vibration of strength. It climbed into the dense, thick air like the whispering of wind that spoke of a great, haunting power.
I curled her tight against my chest as I carried her to the bathroom. Her slight shape was slotted against my body like we were notches of the same mold that fit perfectly together.
My mind raced and my spirit spun with what we’d done. With the boundary we’d crossed and the decree we’d defied.
The mandate we’d shaken.
It might have been our greatest rule, but I couldn’t find a place inside myself that could regret it. I got the sense that maybe we’d been here all along and had only been giving in to what was already done.
Valeen was wrong. I knew it in my soul. There was no chance Aria and I weren’t meant for this. No chance she wasn’t supposed to be mine and I wasn’t supposed to be hers.
And I might have been standing right then, but I was on my knees.
An offering.
She had those arms looped around my neck, holding on to me like I was some kind of savior.
I’d give it all to be.
Her savior.
The one who would see her purpose through. Stand behind her while she rose.
My insides twisted with the fear of whatever had happened that had led to this. To the girl drenched and choking in her sleep.
Anxiety clambered through my insides as I angled into the tub and turned the water on full force, still holding her in my arms like they might be strong enough to protect her.
But how the hell could we stop this wickedness when we had no idea it was coming at us from every direction?