These Twisted Bonds (These Hollow Vows, #2)(108)

“Me neither.” He traces my lips with his thumb, and I can’t get over the awe in his eyes, the adoration. How could this beautiful, powerful, kind male be so grateful to be here with me?

Pushing up onto one hand, he slowly unlaces the front of my shirt, letting it fall open and exposing my breasts before dipping his head. The air is cool, but his mouth is hot as he flicks his tongue over my peaked nipple. I arch my back up off the hard ground and moan as heat and pleasure zip through my blood.

“Do you have any idea what it was like to know you were sleeping in my bed at the Unseelie palace? To see you there when I’d imagined it so many times? I can’t wait until I can have you there again. I’ve dreamed so many times of holding you there, having you in my arms as we sleep under the stars together.” He nuzzles my neck, and I arch into him, loving the feel of my breasts against his bare chest, needing more pressure between my legs.

“Finn,” I breathe, dragging my hands up and down his back. “I love you.” I just want to say it over and over again. Until he feels it in his heart, until he believes it and believes he’s worthy of that love.

“I love you too.”

“Do we have . . .” I bite my lip. “Is there a tonic we can take once we return to the capital—to prevent pregnancy?”

“Yes.” His mouth sweeps over mine so sweetly. “But we don’t have to do anything tonight. We have our whole lives ahead of us, we can—”

“Please?” I shift under him, pulling my knees up on either side of his hips and urging him to settle between my legs. I groan at the feel of him through the layers between us. “I don’t want to wait.”

He grins down at me in the darkness. “I don’t either,” he says, “but I would. If you really plan to swim in the Waters of New Life, we’ll have all the time we need, and every opportunity to—”

I thread my fingers into his hair and pull him down to me. He smiles into the kiss, and his hands begin a leisurely exploration of my stomach, my sides, my breasts. His thumb skims across my pebbled nipples.

I lift my hips, rocking into him and showing him with the rhythm of my body just where I need this to go. But Finn won’t be rushed. He trails kisses down my neck, across my collarbone, nipping at my shoulders and the curve of my breasts and down over my stomach. He trails his tongue down my stomach to just below, where he sucks lightly at the sensitive skin beneath my navel. I gasp.

He nudges my thighs wider and nuzzles his nose between my legs. “Let me kiss you here.” He opens his mouth, pressing his tongue against me through the fabric.

I can’t breathe. His big hands trail down my sides, and his fingers hook into my pants and peel them off me. I barely have time to catch my breath before his mouth is on me again, big hands on my inner thighs, holding me open for him as his tongue dances along my most sensitive skin, his mouth alternately teasing and demanding until I’m whimpering and incoherent.

Every inch of me is hot and alive and needy, and I tug on his hair, needing him closer but also needing more—more of this, more of him, more of this night. He stays put, worshipping me and murmuring his love and his desire until I’m finally flying over an edge like I never have before.

Flying and falling and not even a little afraid because I know he’ll catch me. I know we’ll catch each other.

When he kisses his way back up my body, I slowly settle back into myself. I’m breathless and sated as his mouth finds mine again, but I slide my hands down his sides and shove his pants down his hips.

He grunts approvingly into my mouth and helps me peel away the last of his clothes. When he finally settles back over me, I shift my hips, urging him to slide into me. Instead, he props himself on his elbows and studies my face. “I didn’t think I’d ever feel this again.” Dipping his head, he sweeps a kiss across my lips. “I didn’t think I could.” He pushes up and looks down at me. “I was fighting for my people but barely living. Until you entered the portal. Until you looked me in the eye and asked me to dance with you. Nothing’s been the same since. I hope it’s never the same again.”

I hook my legs behind his back and pull him down. “I love you, Finn.” I tuck my hips and find him between my legs, slowly leading him into me.

His breath leaves him in a rush and his eyes close for a beat. I revel in the feel of our connection.

There’s no room here for doubt or fear of what’s to come. No room for anything but hope. Anything but love—and I feel so much of it I close my eyes to revel as we move together.

“Abriella,” he breathes. “Abriella, open your eyes.”

I obey, and find starlight shining all around us, bright and luminous, as if the cave has become the night sky itself. As if there weren’t a storm raging outside. “Beautiful,” I murmur, but my gaze leaves the stars to lock on his eyes.

He slides a hand down my body, to my hip, squeezes, before he drives into me again, deeper than before. “Stunning,” he says, but he isn’t looking at the stars either. We’re locked onto each other in the middle of the mountains before the most dangerous day of our lives. We have only each other, and it’s more than enough.



“The stars are gone,” I whisper later. We’re tangled up together under the blankets, both on our sides, staring at each other. We’ve been in this position for so long, I’m not sure when the stars disappeared from around us.