Secret Heir (Dynasty #1)(79)
He sweeps the sunlight away, just as I coax the darkness forward, our powers perfectly in sync. The connection that I feel between us in that moment shakes me to the core. I’ve never felt so close to someone in my entire life, so connected, and I’m certain there’s no other feeling like this in the entire universe. The feeling is so alien, so new, yet at the same time, it feels as ancient as time itself, as primal as my deepest desires.
In that moment, with our powers fused together, it’s as if we’re one person. Like two halves of a whole snapping into place with such finality, that it’s almost frightening. It feels like I’ve been wandering through the universe for an age, lost, searching for something and in this moment, I’ve finally found that lost fragment of myself. It’s him.
In that moment, he isn’t the heir of the St. Tristan Dynasty and I’m not the heir of the Evenstar Dynasty, we’re nothing but the power of day and night breathing side by side. Breathing as one. There is no him, there is no me. There’s only us.
I watch through wide eyes as the last of the sunlight disappears behind the horizon, as the moon appears and as a blanket of stars descend on the now midnight blue sky.
Once night settles fully over the scene, we both let go of the connection. I don’t realize how much effort I’d been exerting until I hear my own ragged breathing as I try to catch my breath. But I know that breathlessness is from that universe shattering connection that I’d just felt with Raph, too.
I’m suddenly aware of my own body again. I can feel Raph’s eyes on me. When I turn to him, he’s looking at me with something like wonder and something else I’ve glimpsed before, but never allowed myself to acknowledge.
I don’t have time to, either, because my thoughts are jolted when I feel the pattering of rain against my skin. Raph is equally surprised and we both look up to see the heavens opening as sheets of rain blanket us both.
“Was that you?” Raph asks through the sound of the rain.
“No—definitely not. Maybe it’s Baron up there telling us to get our asses back home.”
We’re both laughing then, as the rain falls in thick sheets around us. The water soaks through my clothes and every inch of my skin is slick with rain. I tilt my face up to let the rain wash over my cheeks, and when I turn back to Raph, all laughter is gone from his face. Those vivid blue eyes blaze into mine and even though I’m now totally soaked and freezing, I can still feel the heat of his gaze and every inch of my skin burns under it.
He moves closer to me, brushing my soaked hair away from my face and I think I stop breathing altogether when I feel his breath against my cheek, against my lips.
The air is hushed, still, as if waiting for something. Time itself seems to have stopped and I feel the same stillness in my own body, every fiber hushed in anticipation. It feels like the universe itself is watching as we stand there, Raph’s lips a hair’s breadth away from mine, the rain falling around us.
“What are you doing?” I ask then, my words barely a whisper in the inch of space between us.
This time, he answers. I feel the words on my lips and they wrap themselves around my chest like a vice.
“I’m kissing you.”
Then Raph’s lips meet mine and whatever else I’d been thinking suddenly doesn’t matter anymore. Nothing matters anymore but this kiss. This moment.
Just like that day in the forest, it’s barely a kiss at first. Just his lips brushing softly against mine and just like that day in the forest, I feel the touch in every part of my body. White light explodes behind my closed eyelids and every pore in my body is awakened by the sensation.
Before I can even think, I’m kissing him back with an intensity that frightens me. His arms around me are both strong, yet terrifyingly gentle, as he slides his hand up my spine, in a caress that causes my body to tremble. He buries his hand in my hair, and I hear a moan escape my lips as he deepens the kiss.
Some part of me is terrified and I can hear the whisper of danger echoing through my mind. This kiss, this touch is taking me to a place from which I know I can’t return. But it’s impossible to think of anything other than the intensity of the sensations whirling around us in that moment, threatening to consume us both.
I open myself up to him, and he makes that low sound in the back of his throat as he explores my mouth, his tongue slicking over mine, moving against it in the most intimate caress. I realize faintly that I’m clutching onto him as tightly as he’s grasping for me.
My mind is swimming in the torrent of emotion that is carrying us away and everywhere we touch, sparks arch between us. I’ve never kissed like this before, never been kissed like this before—it’s insane and at the same time, beautiful in its intensity. Too frightening to contain, too fierce to control.
I can feel the fine tremor that has overtaken Raph’s body, the way the same tremor has taken hold of mine and neither of us seems to be in control of ourselves anymore. The kisses are too much, yet not nearly enough.
Raph’s hands travel to my waist, to my hips and the urge to be closer to him is irresistible, undeniable. He lifts me in an effortless motion and I wrap my legs around his waist. I hear myself gasp as he rolls his hips into the softest part of me and I’m whimpering as he crushes the center of me against his hard length. Heat flares in my core at the contact, and I can feel the shudder quaking through Raph’s powerful body. The rain pours over us, blankets us. But neither of us seems to care.