“You’ve been sleeping for three hours.”
“Three hours? You should have woken me as soon as we got back.” Didn’t he realize how long three hours is? It’s a huge chunk of time lost when it should be carefully spent now.
He was grinning, enjoying my distress. “But you were babbling. I didn’t have the heart to wake you and deprive you of your…what do girls call it? Beauty rest?”
Oh, no. Babbling.
I put my face in my hands.“What was I saying?” I couldn’t look at him.
“Well, for starters, you said you loved me and then there were a few things I couldn’t quite understand.
Like I said, you’re prone to babbling.”
Okay, I can look up now.
“Is it true that you love me?” he whispered, leaning closer.
“Yes. It’s true.”
Then, leaning even closer, he placed the sweetest, softest kiss his lips could possibly allow on my lips.
“You did mention Hadrian’s name a few times. Not many, but a few.”
“And?”
Do I really want to know?
He looked away for a moment, taking his light with him.
I felt left in the dark in more ways than one.
Oops, what have I done?
“Garreth?”
He turned to me, the dim glow of his skin illuminating my face.
“It was the way you said his name. As you slept, there were moments when you sounded downright terrified. I almost woke you up. I feel so guilty for leaving you to face him. And then, when your panic subsided, you…I don’t know. You sounded almost as if it was Hadrian you wanted.”
He took my hand, carefully cradling it in his own, and looked at my mark, putting an end to that conversation.
“Does it still bother you?”
“No, it’s all right.”
His finger traced the scrolling embedded in the skin of my right hand, then let it follow the tender flesh of my wrist, trailing it ever so softly up the inside of my arm. I shivered at the warm, prickling sensation it left behind.
I watched, amazed his touch didn’t leave behind a visible trail.
When Garreth raised his face to mine, I was weakened by how blue his eyes were even in the dim light of my bedroom.
“Thank you for saving me,” he whispered.
“You’re welcome.”
“I didn’t realize until now that we’ve sort of come full circle with each other.”
“What do you mean?”
He tilted his head to the side and gazed at me. “I’m so used to being the one to help you that when I was the one in need of help, I… I’m just very grateful.”
I smiled back at him. He was right. It was amazing how things had changed over the last few days. How both he and I had changed.
“It makes me feel sort of…human.”
“Is that a bad thing?”
“No. Not at all. Now that you seem to be well in charge of things, perhaps becoming earthbound isn’t such a foreboding idea.”
“But you wouldn’t be able to save me from anything anymore.”
“Ahh, that’s where you’re mistaken, my dear.” He planted a warm kiss on my lips. “I can save you from the persuasive dark angel in your dreams.”
“Are you jealous…of a dream?”
“Very,” he answered.
Without warning, his hands were cupped at my jaw and his lips were on mine, only this time his kisses were hard, urgent, wildly human. His hands dropped to my shoulders where he let his thumbs slide the fabric of my shirt away from my skin. I tore at the buttons of his shirt but he stopped me, capturing my hands in his. He let go only to smooth away a lock of hair that had fallen against my neck. When I felt the soft warmth of his breath there, kissing the exposed flesh of my collarbone, it brought goosebumps and odd tremors to my skin.
Soon my hands were in his hair and with the moonlight streaming through my window I saw he was perfectly disheveled when he pulled himself away. His shirt was practically ripped from his chest, revealing the smoothness of his skin. His eyes were so blue and wild that it almost hurt to look at him. He was flawless.
Something I would never be, especially after what I allowed with Hadrian. Yet, I had just reduced Garreth to this breathless state. Perhaps there was a bit of power in me after all.
“What was that?” Garreth asked me.
As my own breathing became more controlled, I was pleasantly surprised to see he was still struggling.
“Wow. Do I have the same effect on you?” I couldn’t hide the smile forming.
“What do you mean?”
Was he really blind?
“You make me feel like this all the time,” I admitted softly. I was finding it easier to tell him how I felt.
“Do you mean to tell me I make you feel as if your breath has just rushed out of your chest all the time?”