Chapter 1569
He passed under a thick canopy, vines weaving like fingers above him, shadows dappling the forest floor. The scent here was softer - lavender and crushed leaves. He found her sitting at the base of a tree, arms around her knees, her hair falling over her face.
She didn’t look up when he approached. But she knew.
"I thought I’d be the last," she said quietly.
"You weren’t."
She glanced up then, eyes glistening. "I feel it too. All of it. But it scares me."
He knelt before her and touched her cheek. "That means you understand it more than you think."
Her breath hitched.
She leaned into his palm.
And when he kissed her, it was the gentlest one yet - like a promise whispered between heartbeats. She melted into him, her arms winding around his neck, her lips trembling as they deepened the kiss. He laid her back slowly into the moss, their bodies sliding together like two halves finally aligned.
She wept as he entered her, not from sadness, but from release. And he held her through every breath, every tremble, his touch reverent, his rhythm gentle. They made love in the hush of leaves, wrapped in shadow and light, surrounded by the scent of old wood and new growth.
When she came, she gasped his name and clutched him tightly, and he followed her into that quiet fall, both of them unspooling into the moss together.