“I want to take you in a way no one else has,” I breathe.
His eyes shine. “I want to give you that.”
Elation surges through my chest, and a genuine smile appears on my face. This … This is safety. This is home.
“Let’s take it slow, yeah?” Dayton says. “I want to enjoy every piece of you tonight.”
We fall back together on the chaise, me on his chest, and we take it slow. Kisses long and languishing. Hands feeling skin as if for the first time. His hard length presses against my stomach, and bursts of nervous anticipation bubble through me, even though it’s Dayton. My Day.
We spin so we’re both lying on the chaise, arms wrapped tight together. Needing to be closer, I press my leg over his hip. I can see it all in my mind’s eye as we kiss: the sand and sea, long days spent in the Summer Realm, that cocky grin that turned so serious when I showed him too much of my heart. I knew it, I think. We’ve always been that special time between the turn of summer to fall when the leaves change as bright as the beaming sun that hasn’t yet been chased away.
How’d we end up here? A cursed castle, our realms in disarray, a demon lurking at our doorstep.
And yet … Would I trade it? It brought him to me. Brought me Rose.
“Doesn’t it matter to you?” he says slowly.
I turn to look at him, his blue eyes shimmering like a sea before a storm. So much emotion bubbling beneath the surface. I graze his jaw with the back of my knuckles. “What matters, Day?”
“That Rosie and I aren’t mates. She was… disappointed, I think. But you haven’t said anything.”
“Who says you’re not mates?”
He gives a humorless chuckle. “If there was a bond there, it would have awoken already with how much we’ve been through. With how much I—” His voice cracks. “With how much I love her.”
I sit back and stare at the man below me. A year ago, would I think this man a stranger? Physically, he’s the same, long golden hair splayed around his chiseled face, the cord of muscles in his chest, those plush lips. But the vulnerability etched into his features, the words of love so easily offered on his lips… That is all new.
No, I decide. I would know him anywhere. I always knew this version Dayton lived within him though he only showed me fractured glimpses of it through all the long years.
“No, Daytonales, it doesn’t matter to me.”
He shakes his head. “Why not?”
“Because this is something I can actually prove. When we make love, when we made love with Rosie, when Rosie speaks of being with you—it’s different than anything I’ve experienced before. It’s magic. It’s enchanted. It’s golden.”
Dayton doesn’t say anything, but shimmering tears pool in his eyes.
“You’ve always been mine. Mine to chase. Mine to love. Mine to lose.” I kiss him softly. “And I’m not going to let that happen. I’m never going to lose you.”
“Fare,” he says, “we can’t control the fate of the stars.”
“Who says we can’t?” A growl ripples through my words. “I know in my heart, in everything I am, that you belong with Rosie and me. And damn, I hope the stars are watching because I’m going to show them how much.”
He pulls me into a devastating kiss. “Finally, something I know how to do.”
He grabs for my cock, running a firm thumb from base to tip, then sits up, dragging me with him.
I suck in a deep inhale and emulate his stance from before, arms out, legs spread. He sinks to his knees before me. I’m reminded of the legend of sirens peering up from the ocean, ready to ensnare sailors.
I would gladly sink to the bottom of his sea.
“Oh Day,” I say, a rough edge to my voice that sounds foreign to even me.
Dayton never takes his eyes off me as he engulfs me entirely. I groan, hands grasping for purchase on the chaise. Ecstasy ripples up my core.
He pulls back, and I expect to see that self-satisfied look on his face. But there’s something else.
Devotion.
So slowly, he laps the head of my cock, his teal gaze shining. His tongue runs over my pearling tip, and he groans. I close my eyes, the sight too fucking beautiful to bear.
“Deeper,” I grunt. I feel his mouth curve into a smile. “Good boy.”
Fire shoots through my body as he sucks me into his throat. I grip his hair and rock my hips. His mouth is so fucking good, it would be easy to lose myself here.
“Hold on.” I push on his forehead, so I don’t accidentally fill his entire mouth.