Page 50 of Mine before Dawn
“James!”
“What?” he asked innocently. “I’m bein’ realistic.”
“You cannot say things like that!”
“Why not? Sounds nice to me.”
She tried desperately not to smile and failed completely. Her heart felt as light as a feather. And James looked at her then like a man seeing sunlight after weeks in the mines.
She did not resist when he peeled the layers away.
There was none of that fear and grief which had broken her last week.
But there was also no patience in either of them now.
Asha fumbled with his clothes just as desperately, fingers clumsy against buttons while James cursed softly under his breath trying to drag his shirt over his head.
The tiny room filled with their mingled breathing and skin against skin and the frantic sense of two people terrified this might somehow still vanish if they stopped touching.
When he pushed her down onto the bed, she welcomed him immediately. James groaned roughly against her neck the moment he pushed inside her with none of the usual foreplay. But this time, she was as desperate for him as he was for her.
This time there was nothing slow, nothing restrained.
The week apart had stripped all the barriers away.
Asha wrapped herself around him tightly, fingers digging into his shoulders to leave bloody scratches while he moved against her with desperate intensity, like he was trying to convince himself she was really still here.
It did not last long. James buried his face against her throat with a strangled curse before going still above her, breath shuddering hard from his chest.
“Sorry,” he panted roughly a minute later. “Christ, ah—”
Asha laughed breathlessly beneath him. The sound made him smile.
“Don’t laugh,” he muttered against her skin.
James glared weakly before immediately reaching between them with stubborn determination.
“Alright,” he muttered. “My turn t’fix it.”
And soon enough his rough clever fingers had her gasping helplessly into the pillow instead, the tension inside her snapping apart so suddenly she was shaking. Afterwards, they lay tangled together breathing slowly in the dim little room.
They were perfectly in accord.
James’s hand drifted lazily along her back while Asha rested against his chest listening to his heartbeat.
For the first time in days, the tightness beneath her ribs gave way to light.
Eventually James sighed and carefully disentangled himself.
“Don't get up,” he said sleepily.
Asha made a sleepy noise of protest, making a show of holding onto his hand before letting him slip away. The room felt warm and heavy afterward, her limbs pleasantly loose as exhaustion finally crept over her.
She knew they needed to collect her son soon. But for just a few more minutes she wanted this.
This peace.
This impossible happiness that was theirs.
