There is no happy ending for this.
Something within him knows that.
Knows that he is careening toward an ending that will only spell heartache for the both of them. Because he is incapable of giving her what she deserves, even though it’s the only thing that he wants in this very moment. He wants to give her children and stability and a life filled with warmth, but you can’t plant flowers of stability in the soil of despair. He can’t start that life when he is so broken beyond repair.
Still, he doesn’t stop the forward momentum.
He doesn’t pull himself back from the way that he plants kisses down her neck and under her mane. The way that he lingers on the sensitive skin behind her jaw, nipping gently at the tender skin of her lip. “Okay,” he agrees, smoke building in the back of his throat. “I missed you so much,” he whispers and despite everything, this is true. He has always missed her—always loved the thing that he let go.
“Let me love you then,” he whispers as he trails kisses down her neck and down her sides. He bites softly, always following it with a kiss—trailing lips and teeth and tongue down the body he has known so well. It blurs the pain in the back of his mind with need. Buries it underneath the desire and he nearly sighs with relief as that floods his veins instead, as she dulls everything else into a roar of need.
He comes to her hips and lingers, feeling heat explode in his chest.
“Anonya,” he whispers into her flesh, waiting for that final consent, that final word.
PLUME
but my heart, it don’t beat, it don’t beat the way it used to