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A small step. A breath.

Maybe she’d leave him lying there on the floor while she went to her father. Maybe he’d never see her again.

He’d be alone.

Cursed and alone.

Another step then another. Arianna stood before him. He could feel her, but Rion refused to lift his head. He didn’t want to see the rejection in her eyes. He couldn’t bear it.

She knelt and his breath hitched when her fingers brushed through his hair with so much tenderness, Rion was certain he was dreaming.

“I meant,” she said, her gentle voice cascading through him like water. “I don’t want you to go away.”

Slowly, not believing, Rion looked up. Her blue eyes glistened with unshed tears and her body was shaking. “I need you,” she admitted.

Needed him. Needed him, yet—

“You’re afraid.”

Arianna didn’t deny it, there was no point when her fear filled the entire room. Instead, she settled herself on the floor, knee to knee, and studied her hands. “Then I guess it’s your turn to convince me.”

Rion remembered those first days. The first time she’d helped him. Healed him, thus revealing who she was. He hadn’t been sure what to make of it then. He’d waited for the blow, for her to try to kill him under the cover of darkness, but it had never come and when they’d gone to the cabin—

Ever so slowly, Rion inched his hand toward her and wrapped his index finger around her own. A smile crept to her face even as a silent tear slid down her cheek.

“I’ll never be able to apologize enough,” he said. “I can’t begin to tell you how—I’m sorry.” His voice broke again. “I’m so sorry. Mates are supposed to know. I should have known and—” He cut himself off again. “If you’ll let me, I’ll spend the rest of my life making it up to you.”

“Niall deceived you.”

Rion shook his head, but Arianna pulled on their bond and breath left him. A thread, so tiny and frail, wound its way up that single strand and braided together. He almost wept when another did the same. Then another.

“You came for me when you thought I was in danger. You’ve always come for me.”

Rion glided his hand up and rested it on the back of hers. “This time,” he said. “It was you who came for me. Thank you. Without you—”

Arianna’s jaw clenched and Rion stopped. The wounds were too fresh and the danger still too near. Right now they had one another. Right now they were safe.

“Tell me what you want,” Rion said instead. “If there’s a line, I’ll stay firmly behind it. Just tell me what you need.”

“There’s no line.” She turned her hand over and interlaced his fingers with her own. “I just want you the way I had you before all this happened.”

Rion offered her a weak smile. It wouldn’t happen overnight; even now, her heart was racing and it wasn’t for the right reasons. She was terrified.

Even so, he wanted to be just a bit closer. “Can I kiss you?”

She released a shaky breath and a ghost of a smile tugged at her lips. “Yes.”

Rion moved with aching slowness, as if the small space between them were as fragile as a piece of glass. Arianna watched him, her breathing quick and shallow. One spike of fear and he’d pull back, content to simply hold her hand for the rest of time.

But that spike never came and as Rion’s lips grazed hers, another strand braided together. He could feel her again. His stomach knotted and the sensation stole the breath from his body. She drew closer, the same need driving her, and both rose up on their knees.

Rion dared to wrap one arm around her back and pulled her body flush against his own, all the while still watching for any sign that it was too much.

She gripped his shirt in a fist and he was lost.

It had been so long. So, so long since he’d felt her, and she tasted every bit as perfect as he remembered. The bond braided together, forming between them as their lips and hands drank the other in. He could hardly control himself, but he did. For Arianna, Rion would strangle every instinct his body screamed for. Demanded.

They broke apart yet Rion pressed his forehead to hers, desperate for the contact. This was enough. Just to be able to touch her was enough.