Chapter 208 In his kiss

Chapter 208 In his kiss
Mordaine teleported off the helipad without another word, and my brows jumped. Was he upset? What could he be upset about?

Hale led us back to the living room, using the service door below the helipad as a portal to the mansion.

“May I give you my gift now?” Finn walked beside me as I turned to the kitchen. I glanced sideways at him in surprise. This was the first time today that he had initiated a conversation with me. 

I gave him a small nod.

Those aqua-colored eyes regarded me a second longer, and then moved towards the sink. We loaded the dishwasher and organized the spotless kitchen, bumping into each other more than once, and offering hasty apologies.

Finally, he straightened, and gestured me towards the living room. I walked behind him, a little nervous but curious. 

He stopped by the piano, and then settled onto the seat. I remained standing, uncertain what he expected me to do. Finally, Finn lifted his gaze up to me, then patted the space next to him.

I ran my tongue over my lip, nervous, and glanced back to where Hale was now stretched out on a couch, his head resting on the dragon’s lap. The dragon leaned over him, and Hale was smiling as they whispered between themselves, lost in each other’s eyes. 

I turned back to Finn, who was still watching me, waiting. I slid into the space beside him, that scent of musk and cedar wood filling my lungs. It was painfully nostalgic. This was the only thing that remained of the boy I used to know. His scent.

He shifted on his seat now, and pulled out a sheet of paper from his pocket. My gaze dropped to find his hand shaking as he peeled the paper open. “This was the song you were supposed to perform in Japan.” His eyes met mine. “Remember?”

I blinked, momentarily confused. “I never…” My throat closed as I realized what he was talking about. Then my heart began to ache.

One side of his lip curled in a sad smile, and he turned his body to face the piano. “You kept having difficulty with this one line, and we only perfected it just an hour before your performance.” His voice was unsteady now, and the mask fell off.

Beneath the cold mask was the same old Finn who was sad and perpetually raging at the universe. “You… you never got to that line during your performance before the walls started to crack.”

“Finn,” I whispered, wanting nothing more than to throw my arms around him.

“I dream about it. Every night, I dream about it. The last few minutes of our lives the last time.” His shoulders were slumped, his eyes fixed on the piano keys. “So I thought… I thought if we close that chapter for good, maybe we could move to a fresh start.”

He leaned forward and slipped the note onto the flat tray of the music stand, then he relaxed and positioned his fingers above the piano keys, “Play with me, Astre. The note will make it easier.” 

I nodded in time to a duet. We started slowly, and my eyes stung at the realization that he must have been learning to play the piano all those months. Those months I wondered if he thought about me at all.

He learned so we could do this. So we could finish a song we did not in our last lifetime. 

Halfway into the note, the air in the room shifted. It was like we were in the Berlin apartment all over again. I could barely see the piano keys, my vision was flooded, but old instinct continued to guide my hands.

Was I making a mistake? 

I could tell Finn. He would stop the war for me. He would go as far as begging Grandma if he knew what was about to happen. I glanced sideways at him, and pressed my lips flat.

I could not do that to him. The vampires had been oppressed for years, and they did not start this war. They were merely defending themselves, fighting to be treated with dignity again.

Besides, there was no guarantee that it would stop the war. Someone else might just take his place, and things would worsen till I lost control, and then Mordaine…

I wiped my cheeks at the end of the tune. And the words slipped out of my lips, a whisper I did not expect him to hear. I love you.

But he heard. And he leaned closer till I could feel his breath on my cheeks. “Lys,” he whispered.

I shivered at the feeling of his fingers beneath my chin. He turned my face gently till I was staring into his eyes. Then he inched closer, his lips hovering above mine as if expecting me to reject him. 

And then our lips touched, lightly.

He paused, tilting his head a little sideways to gaze in my eyes, as if wanting to be extra certain. He saw what he needed to in my eyes, and caught my lips again.  

The passion in his kiss was the same. It was not greedy or possessive, but neither was it hesitant. He was the same man who made my toes curl after all, who burned his love onto my lips, and crested my first kiss in gold. And now, our kiss was a surrender to all that smoldering fire we have had to carry with us.

Not just in this lifetime but across all three. I never got to know the taste of his lips as Julien, or Konrad. And our passions months ago felt stolen, deceitful, like our love was something to be ashamed of when it wasn’t.

But not anymore.

It was with the tranquility of solid confidence that I explored his mouth now. A calm certainty that I was his as much as he was mine.

“I love you,” he breathed into my mouth, his hand moving up to my back. He pulled me gently to himself, like I was precious porcelain, a glass doll. 

I smiled as our lips moved, and his tongue skimmed over mine, sending delicious thrills to my lower belly.

“What’s funny, baby,” he whispered, and pulled back gently.

My cheeks were painfully hot, but I could not stop smiling. “You branded me all over one time, and now you’re scared to even hold me?”

I lifted my gaze to find him biting his lip, hard, a sharp glint in those lovely eyes. 

“Upstairs.” The dragon boomed in the background. We both turned at once. The dragon was moving quickly up the stairs, and Hale winked at me before he turned too.

My heart started to race.