𝐎𝐍𝐋𝐘 𝐀𝐅𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐍𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐅𝐀𝐋𝐋 | 𝟏𝟖+

𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐑𝐓𝐘-𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑 | 𝐍𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐅𝐀𝐋𝐋'𝐒 𝐄𝐍𝐃

ততততত

𝐈 𝐌 𝐎 𝐆 𝐄 𝐍

Goodbye should've meant goodbye.

He should be over the hills, and I should be ridding the thief from my bloodstream as if he were poison. He infects me, weakens every defense that protects me from fracturing into glass shards. Now, all I am is a vessel he can pour his heart into. With every kiss he lays against my skin—my lips, my cheeks, my throat, my shoulders and collar—he builds a monument for himself. I am the altar, and he is here to worship.

We find ourselves tangled on the quilts of my bed: our safe haven. I lay beneath him as he rests on his knees, sitting up and stripping from his shirt before I can request. He's a tease, playing every card in his goddamn book to make sure I never forget who Tobin Parias is. He's a thief. A heartbreaker. A man fighting to save his bloodline.

Tonight, Tobin is a lover.

I gulp, eyes dancing over those muscles and scars etched into his physique. He's a sculpture of everything masculine, a god to be bowed before in full reverence. Every dip and ridge found on those tanned planes speak of his creator's mastery. He's chiseled in all the right places, a diamond cut from the rough. My wandering gaze falls lower to beneath the horizon of his pants. I long to be the one to remove those trousers, to feast my eyes upon his erected length that throbs in need of a release.

Gods, what is wrong with me? My mind rarely trails into the territory of broken chastity, and yet I wait at its door.

No man will ever compare to the view he gives me now.

He begins to descend for another kiss when I stop him. "Wait."

Tobin sits back up, his face twisting into this cute scowl. "Princess?"

Instead of answering, I observe my thief until this image of him becomes embedded in the depths of my memory. When I sleep, I want to see this: an image of a vulnerable Tobin. I want to remember that once upon a time, I fell in love with a boy who stole my heart. A petty predictable thief dressed in beautiful scars.

I reach up and clutch the pendant strung around his neck: a crescent moon, a symbol of the night that brought us together. With one tug, Tobin falls against me, and I drown in his kiss. Soft cautious kisses share between us, testing the waters of what boundaries we wish to cross.

This is the last night. Our final nightfall.

I want everything from him, and yet I'm terrified to serve my heart to him on a silver platter. It's a prize he's earned and neglected in a matter of days.

Yet, here we are.

I only let the thief indulge in our kiss for a moment longer until I wriggle my way from beneath him. With a giggle, I leap from the bed and dash across my bedroom.

"I must say, you're terrible at goodbyes," I grin. "You were only gone a matter of seconds before you waited at my heels."

He rises from the bed, stalking in my direction with slow steps. His once kind brown eyes have completely gone black from his dilated pupils, and his lips curve in this delicious smirk.

"If you want to call me terrible, then do it," he steps closer to me, heat blazing like fire between us. "I'm. Fucking. Terrible."

"The worst."

"A motherfucking fool."

He corners me into the vanity, and I brace my hands against the surface's edge. With a lick of his lips, he lifts me up on top, scattering my hairbrush and other cosmetics and creams across the wooden floor. I attempt to calm him, but the creature lurking beneath his skin is a greedy beast, demanding to be in close proximity until my heart synchronizes with his own.