Chapter 1497
Jude didn’t know how long the glow lasted. It pulsed through them like a second heartbeat, their bodies tangled, spent, sated - and still craving.
The pool in the center of the chamber rippled, reflecting the golden hues of their skin, their markings, the soft laughter and breathless moans that lingered like perfume.
Every surface held a memory now: a back arched in pleasure, lips parted in ecstasy, fingers slipping through sweat-slicked hair. It wasn’t just lovemaking.
It was a transformation. A ritual. A communion with the island and with each other.
Lucy curled against him, her chest rising and falling slowly, golden light tracing her curves in delicate spirals. She brushed her lips over his shoulder, then looked up, her eyes half-lidded but burning with something deeper.
"She wants more," she whispered.
Jude’s brow furrowed. "Who?"
Lucy didn’t answer. She only turned her gaze toward the tunnel they had entered from. And when Jude followed her line of sight, he saw her - Sophie. Standing just beyond the threshold. Her arms crossed, her breath visible in the sudden shift of cool air. She hadn’t come in. She had watched. Her jaw was clenched, her expression unreadable.
Jude sat up slowly, disentangling from Emma’s embrace, from Layla’s fingers tracing circles along his chest. Sophie didn’t move as he approached. She didn’t flinch as he stepped into the mouth of the corridor where the warmth began to fade, the air turning dense with mist. But her eyes - God, her eyes burned.
"You didn’t stop," she said.
He shook his head. "I couldn’t. None of us could."