Chapter 413: Back With You
"Maggie is back?" Graeme whispered the question, the answer to which didn’t seem possible after all this time. Maggie was truly back?
"Yes. She should be back there now," August smiled then, feeling the effect this had on him as his thoughts ran over his past memories that revolved around Maggie, memories she had shared—all of his guilt and anguish at having failed the alyko who he assumed to be lost forever. Now they were all returned, including his and Greta’s dearest family friend.
"I can’t wait for you to see her," August squeezed his hand under the water that they were both still sitting in.
"You did this," he breathed, looking once again in awe at the beautiful female who had changed his whole universe and brought the missing pieces of his past back to him. "You did all of this. You brought them back—all of the alyko. They are finally home."
"Well, I think it’s more complicated than that..." she smiled, but then he was pulling her into his lap and kissing her.
She wanted to protest that there was actually much more to it—that Zagan had decided to set the rest of the alyko free for some unknown reason and that Sage had shattered the glass of the containment cells with just the simple touch of his hands. There was much more to it than simply her role in how things had unfolded. She couldn’t take responsibility for sending Maggie back, not really.
But while those protests were attempting to formulate in her mind, Graeme was coaxing her into a different mindset with his hands that were rediscovering her again, running up the length of her back before drawing her closer—pressing her against the firm warmth of him that was home, regardless of where they were. He was home.
"Wait," she said, pushing softly against his chest to hear the soft rumble of possession there that protested being made to wait. "There is more I need to know. Who is Neoma?"
"I don’t want to talk about it," he replied gruffly, urging her with his hands and his head that dipped, seeking her mouth again.
"But I will be left with so many questions if we are separated again," she whimpered, maintaining the small distance between them with her hands still on his chest.
Graeme groaned and nipped the spot on her neck that made bolts of electricity cascade down to her toes. If she truly desired answers, of course he would stop and give them to her, but he was going to at least trying making her reconsider.
"Goddess," she mumbled, shivering in the aftermath of that soft bite—so simple and yet so profound in its implications regarding the mate bond that tied them. "Do that again," she whispered.
Graeme smirked, having succeeded at distracting her and slowly... so slowly bowed his head over her neck where he licked that sacred area that held his mate mark before teasing it again with the sharp points of his teeth.
Her fingers climbed his chest from where they had been pressed against him, now seeking to feel the flesh that she had been separated from for entirely too long despite the fact that it was barely any time at all. The few days or hours that separated them were made longer with the uncertainty and risk they held... there was always the threat of separation forever, and this surprising reunion at the expense of Graeme’s injuries was a chance to appreciate what could conceivably be the last time they were together for awhile.
"I missed you," she whispered, threading her hands around his neck. "Goddess I missed you. I forgot you," she choked on the truth that should have been impossible. "She made me forget you."
"I know," he breathed against her, his stomach turning at the truth he shared. "It happened to me, too. It was the worst thing I have ever experienced—the absence of you. I was lost and nothing around me made sense without your memory. You were the missing piece to bringing it all together again. If you hadn’t sent that talisman when you did..."
"I am so sorry," she shook her head, an overwhelming grief for what he had been through welling in her eyes. She could feel the emotions behind what he was saying as if they were her own.
"What are you sorry for?" he asked sincerely, tilting her chin up once again and drawing her into the depth of his eyes. "You are the answer to everything—every question, everything lost within me... all of it is found with you. Never be sorry, Moon. You are everything."
August’s fingers ran along the pearlescent mark on his neck that she was responsible for, and she felt how it affected him—just that simple touch. It sent the same jolt of electricity through him as it had her.
"Will you come back soon to me?" he asked, his head bowed once again toward hers where his lips hovered so close that she could feel them quiver, betraying the vulnerability that she brought out in him that was in such sharp contrast to the powerful Alpha male everyone else saw.
"I am here now," she whispered back.
"Yes, but," he swallowed, wetting his lips and gazing down at the chest of his mate that was just above water level, her shirt clinging to every soft curve and swell like a second skin.
He wanted to devour her right here and right now—with his hands first and then his tongue and then his teeth—grazing them over her skin with the threat of their pain that would never be fully delivered, only teased to cause her to writhe and squirm with pleasure, soft moans and whimpers coming like prayers from her lips. But the threat of goodbye was ever present in this place. How long did they truly have?
"I want nothing else but to be back with you," she breathed against him, running her fingers over that mark again and making him shiver.
