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He looked down at his bandage, regarding it without much concern, then asked, “Do you want me?”

“Yes,” I said. I always wanted him. “But...”

“Do you want this?” Bracing his palms against my hips, he pushed them slowly to his lap, still careful of his injured leg. Kalen sat up slightly, put his lips against the column of my throat, and pulled me towards him. My thighs trembled, heat singing through my center at the feeling of him through the thin silk of my robe. Tilting his chin, Kalen found the place between my neck and my jaw that had me melting.

“Yes,” I half-moaned, holding on tightly to the roots of his hair as lifted his hips and rubbed himself against me.

“It’s all I want,” he said. “To hold you, to feel you, to laugh with you at the end of the world. It’s all I’ll ever want.”

There was a coarse quality to his voice that grated against all my sensibilities. I stepped out of his embrace, needing to see if what he had said was true. Because I couldn’t read his mind, but the lines on his face I’d come to understand deeply.

Kalen stilled his hands which had already untied my robe and roved down my stomach. There was no expectation, no dark and fierce lust in his eyes. Just deep passionate love. It was in the curve of his mouth, the hard conviction in his jaw, the way he blinked heavily as he looked up at me.

“I love you,” I said because I would never find the courage or the bravery that I’d once thought I needed. Tomorrow, I would ask him to walk beside me, to walk beside inevitable death. To do something so reckless that neither one of us may see the Light again. And I realized that I didn’t need an army, or a dagger, or that last stone. I needed this man beside me, my friend, and the person who had believed in all that I was long before I ever knew. So, I said to him I love you because I meant it and because nothing scared me more than for him not to know.

For a moment, Kalen’s lips fell apart in surprise, but he quicklypressed them together again and swallowed. Taking a deep breath, he twined his fingers with mine and brought our hands between us.

“You always had my love,” he said into my palm, placing a kiss to cement the words. “My devotion,” he leaned forward into the slope of my neck. Guiding me backward into the cradle of his strong arms. His shallow breath tickled my chest where his lips hovered. I felt my skin chill in anticipation. “My heart,” he confessed, finally placing a deep kiss on the curve of my left breast where my own heart drummed. I let my head tilt as he drew me back to him, the tip of his nose sweeping up my body until it nuzzled against mine. Then he said, “You’ve always had all of me, Gwyn.”

Kalen grazed his hands down my spine lazily, and I whimpered when they palmed at the flanks of my backside. Both of us gasped as he focused on the soft skin of my inner thighs, his fingers trailing up and down the wet heat between my legs. The boat took on a wave, rocking me further into his hand. Kalen slipped two fingers inside me, stroking and curving. My moan ricocheted despite the stiffness in the air. Heat rushed from my center, and I let my chin drop to my chest, watching his thumb roll slow circles over me.

I clutched the muscle of his arm, for stability, for anything to hold onto as pleasure swept through me. “Kalen,” I breathed, “I want you. Now.”

His mouth formed a lazy smile, a near ruin. I groaned as he said, “I want to watch you.”

My head craned back, and he pumped harder, Kalen’s eyes never leaving mine, desperate sounds tumbling from my lips louder and higher as I rode his hand. Sweat dripped down my neck and onto my chest.

“Gods,” he cursed, “You’re so beautiful.”

Kalen’s unoccupied hand snaked around my waist, pressingflat against my back to hold me closer. He thrust his hips in time with his fingers, creating the most intense rhythm as I cried out into his shoulder, muffling the sounds with a bite of his soft skin.

Just as I began to lose myself in the salt and sweat and heady feeling of that building pressure, Kalen slipped his fingers from me, drawing back just slightly. I watched as he slicked the wetness of his fingers over himself, almost coming undone at just the sight of it. But there wasn’t enough time, not before he lifted my hips and pushed into me slowly, seated himself inside me, his forehead resting on my collarbone.

I grabbed his face and rolled my hips gently over him. His hands dug into the soft flesh of my curves, and I sighed when our lips finally met, coming together in a new way. This kiss was deeper, and softer, like it was the last time or the first time. I caught his bottom lip in my teeth, biting lightly, urging him.More, I said,if you can.

Kalen responded with a hard thrust and I lost count.

Of the breaths we shared in that small space.

Of the number of times his hips met mine.

Of the fingers I dragged down his back.

Of the ways he said my name and the ways I cried his. Until those names were the only two sounds left in the world, and we were the only two people left to hear them.

The cabin took on a sweltering degree, our skin slipping against one another as we met. Eventually, we’d come together so deeply, that I couldn’t hold the feeling, couldn’t stop it from ripping through me. I clenched around him as he spilled into me, his heart keeping time with mine.

“I love you, too, Gwyn. So much,” he said into my hair. His hands circled along my back until I fell asleep, dreaming of his laugh.

Dreaming of the end of the world.

I awoke late inthe morning, still in the hull of the ship, still undressed, Kalen’s body stuck to mine with sweat. I peeled myself away from him, to find him already awake, staring down at me. He gave me a piteous smile when I grimaced at my aching neck, wrapping his hand around it and tugging at the sore muscles for me.

I couldn’t remember leaning into him, couldn’t remember how our lips became entangled again. Nothing, nothing in this world was real anymore except for me and him.

That is until two Astralites began pounding on the cabin door and threatening to tear it down if Kalen didn’t stop plowing me.

The Preserver chuckled when I scrambled from his lap, hitting my head on the low ceiling. I swore at him, pulling out my leathers and shucking myself into them. It took a while for the two of us to strategize getting Kalen dressed, but once he was properly fitted, I’d had enough time to let the embarrassment wash from my cheeks before we stumbled up the stairs and onto the deck.