Flame’s face flashed with apprehension. “Just focus on me, Flame. No pain is needed. No fear. Just us, remember?”
Flame groaned and then shifted, one hand holding my waist. When I felt him at my entrance, he stilled, muscles tensed. I watched as his eyes squeezed shut, reliving whatever picture was holding him back. But I lowered down. Flame’s eyes snapped open as he filled me so impossibly full.
“Maddie,” he groaned as he filled me to the hilt. I sat above him, my hands holding his face, and his arms holding my waist.
We both breathed.
Then I felt it. The peace and love that Lilah told me she had experienced with Ky. And I knew nothing this precious could be wrong. I knew that nobody as caring and as loving as Flame could be a sinner. No flames ran in his blood. Just love for me, and that was enough, always enough.
Lifting my hips, I began to move. The beautiful sensation of him inside me ignited my soul. Flame began to meet my movements with his own, the pained-with-pleasure expression on his face making me burn for his touch more.
Moving my lips to his, I melded our mouths; Flame’s warm tongue immediately pushed inside. And it went on from there. Our bodies moving in perfect unison, Flame’s mouth owning me.
And before too long, tension built at the base of my spine. Flame’s mouth ripped from mine. He expelled a long moan, his warm seed heating me inside as a blinding light splintered me apart. I held onto his neck, worried I would float away if I lost his hold.
Fluttering my eyes open, I fell to his chest and breathed in the fresh scent of his skin. Flame’s hand immediately came around me, pulling me close. I felt him relax as he whispered, “I love you.”
Smiling into his chest, I replied, “And I you, Flame.”
Flame sighed and murmured, “Mine.”
And I smiled even more.
Minutes passed as we lay in the aftermath. Then something I had been thinking of came to mind. My finger traced the tattoo on Flame’s chest, when I asked, “Flame?”
“Mmm?” he replied as his hands lazily combed through my hair.
“What happened next?”
Flame stilled and I knew his silence meant he did not understand my question. Tilting my head up to look up to his face, I asked, “After your father left you, and… and your brother died… what happened next?”
Flame’s eyes narrowed. I knew he was trying to remember. “It’s not real clear, but someone came and found us. I think we’d been in that dirt hole a while. And I remember it was someone we knew, but I’m not sure who, my mind is real foggy about that day. They took my brother out of my arms. I remember trying to keep hold of him, because I didn’t want to lose him, but I had no strength to fight. Then they put me in a car. We drove for a long time, but I was too tired and hungry to remember much of the journey.”
My eyes closed imagining him holding onto his brother’s corpse, refusing to let go. And Lord only knows the state they were in. What state his little brother would have been in, held in Flame’s thin weak arms.
Flame’s hand began stroking my hair faster. Instantly, I knew something was hurting him. I knew he stroked my hair when he needed strength.