Coralyn stared back like she resented everyt
hing about
Giana. She resented being there. Having married her. Who she
was. She resented that she wanted her despite all of it. It was
there. That want. Burning when her eyes fell to Giana’s lips
and raked over the rest of her because she couldn’t stop
herself. When her eyes returned back to Giana’s face, some of
the anger was replaced with a blaze that was pure desire.
The urge to go to her, to wrap her up in her arms, was so
strong that Giana almost moved. She couldn’t. She needed
Coralyn to choose this. To choose her. She wanted so much
more than that. She did want her secrets. She wanted to eat
them as they spilled from her lips, lick them up and swallow
them. She wanted to bruise those sinfully beautiful lips.
Coralyn was so beautiful, even in her wary, exhausted state,
that it was criminal. Giana wanted all of it. She wanted all of
Coralyn. Her secrets. Her mind. Her body. Her heart.
But she wanted it offered to her. She wouldn’t take it. She
wouldn’t hurt Coralyn again.
Something sharp and painful shot through her like she’d just
been stabbed. It was the way Coralyn was studying her. The
way she seemed to see clean through Giana, see all the things
Giana wanted seen and the things she didn’t. She knew all
those things. All the things Giana might never know about
herself again because that was the past.
Something kicked at the inside of her chest, beating her
from the inside. A wall of pain. A wall of black. She blinked
and raised her hand again.
“Come here, Coralyn.” I want you to be my wife. I want it so
much that it hurts. I don’t want to be alone either. I’ve been