254: The Bond Between Us

The Bond Between Us

A long silence passed before his breathing finally calmed. "I didn't mean to make you worried," he said quietly and tightened his arms around my shoulders. "I wasn't lying when I said I have all the faith in you. But …"0

He nuzzled my hair, his voice trailing off to a sigh. I understood what he wanted to say. "But you don't want me to risk anything just to save you?" I asked. "Because you fear for the price I might pay trodding a path that I don't have to choose?"

The hush around us answered my question, and his firm embrace told me that he was still trapped in that fear. I wondered when was the last time I had felt him so vulnerable like this. "Bai Ye," I whispered. "Look at me."

He obliged. I met the uncertainty in those eyes and raised my hand, tracing the sorrowful lines furrowing his brow. "This isn't just about you," I breathed. "Every day that we leave Twin Stars the way it is means another day of dread. I don't have enough power to fully control it, and we both know that sooner or later, those swords will manage to bring us more surprises. I want to end this cycle … I want to take my fate into my own hands, instead of leaving it at the mercy of this unpredictable power."

A protest hovered over his lips. I stopped it with a kiss, a soft peck to ease his worries. "I know there might exist better solutions than the one you just found," I continued, "and we'll keep looking for them, keep trying them. But whichever one we end up choosing, I want you to remember that I'm doing this for myself as much as for you. And I will take no chances until we're ready for the challenge, because I love you too much to be able to put myself in danger and leave you behind."

His gaze wavered, the disquiet in it slowly giving way to something else. "Say that one more time." A small smile returned to his face.

I reciprocated a smile and brushed my lips over his again. "I love you, Bai Ye, and I can never be cruel enough to repeat that kind of tragedy between us. We'll find our way through this safely. Together. Like you told me before, we won't let anything separate us a second time."

I slid my arms around his shoulders and pressed myself tighter into his embrace, letting my presence soothe him with reassurance. The tension in his body gradually relaxed, and that brush of lips turned into a lingering kiss.

It started as an innocent gesture, one to calm him and rekindle his confidence to face that future with me. But it wasn't long before the kiss seemed to have rekindled something else. The tips of our tongues met, a bare touch at first just enough for a hint of taste. Then it turned into an intimate dance all too quickly, an entanglement that soon became inseparable. He suckled me gently as he savored me deeper, his breathing growing heavy once more, and his hand slid down the small of my back, pulling me closer into him.

That was when something declared its existence by nudging at my belly. I broke away, finally realizing the change in his body. He chuckled at the slanted look I darted his way. "You can't expect me to hear you say how much you love me and not react to it," he argued.

I raised an eyebrow. "It's not like that should be a surprise to you!"

He nibbled my lower lip and rolled me onto my back, leaning over me. "Every moment with you feels like a surprise to me, Qing-er. Like a dream that I wish will never end."

I stilled for a moment, unable to tell from his tone if he was jesting at all. Not until he parted my lips with his tongue and captured me in another deep kiss. The almost reverent way that he held me and caressed me told me the truth, and it made my heart ache. "It's not a dream," I whispered into his mouth, "and it will last for hundreds more years to come."

His lips curled against mine. His hand glided down my waist, traversing beneath the folds of my night robe to skim over my thighs, as if he wanted to make sure with his touch that what I said was real. "It is a promise then," he coaxed.

A sigh drifted out of me as the heat of his palm traced the curve of my body. His tongue tangled with mine once more, and those skillful fingers grazed over my skin, eliciting soft moans from me that he swallowed into his mouth. The ache in my heart soon turned into a throbbing, pulsing at his touch, shivering when he trailed a path of wet kisses down my neck and closed his lips around my sensitive tips.

I threaded my fingers through his hair, bringing him into me. "It is a promise," I breathed, hooking my legs around him in silent invitation. "Nothing will separate us. Feel me … Feel us together as one."

He obeyed. With a rustle of fabric, the throbbing heat of his own sank into mine, and we both moaned as the feeling of each other surrounded us, engulfed us. I clutched him tight, and our lips met again in a muffled exchange of soft sighs.

He made slow love to me, sliding at a measured pace as we took our time savoring each other with all our senses. It was a dance of lips and tongues, fingers trailing tingles and sparks in their wake, and the deepest connection that bound us together. That sensation of closeness and belonging would soon overtake us both, but it would not end there. Because that bond between us was what we lived for, and giving it up would simply never be an option.

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