Eighth-Born Luna (Emily and Nathan) novel Chapter 76

Emily’s POV

I peered at the bag in his hand and narrowed my eyes. “Seriously? Marshmallows?”

“Don’t look at me like that,” he said, his voice light for the first time all day. “It’s a tradition.”

We sat on the edge of the porch.

I kept my focus on the marshmallow, rotating it slowly until the edges turned golden and bubbly. But I didn’t need to look at Nathan to know he was watching me. I could feel the weight of his gaze, heavy and constant.

“You’re doing it again,” I said, my voice barely more than a murmur.

“Doing what?”

“Looking at me like you’re trying to memorize my face.”

He didn’t look away. “Maybe I am.”

I looked back at the flames, the sweetness of the sugar filling the air. It was a dangerous kind of peace.

When the fire burned low, we headed back inside. The air in the cabin had changed; it felt thick, charged with a current that made the hair on my arms stand up.

I stopped near the center of the room, and he pulled up right behind me.

His hand finally found my waist. His touch was slow, his large palm spanning the curve of my hip, anchoring me to him. I didn’t pull away. I turned in his arms, looking up into his eyes.

I didn’t wait for him to make the first move. I reached up, my fingers tangling in the hair at the nape of his neck, and pulled him down.

The kiss wasn’t a question; it was a demand. It tasted like woodsmoke and longing. He groaned low in his throat—a primal, animal sound—and his hands slid down to my thighs, lifting me effortlessly. I wrapped my legs around his waist, my skin humming everywhere we touched.

He carried me to the bedroom and lowered me onto the sheets, but he didn’t break the kiss. He followed me down, his heavy frame pinning me into the mattress, his hands roaming over me with a desperate kind of hunger.

“Emily,” he rasped, his warm breath sending shivers down my neck. He gently grazed my collarbone with his teeth, and a jolt of electricity shot straight to my core.

He moved with such intensity that every touch felt like fire. As his thumbs brushed against my skin, I felt all my defenses finally give way.

I couldn’t hold back the soft moan that escaped my lips. I was completely lost in him, wanting nothing more than to be closer. I arched into him, my hands sliding under his shirt to feel the hard, rippling muscle of his back. He was all power, a storm contained in a man’s body.

3 …..

“I want you too, more than anything.” But even as my body screamed for him to finish what he started, the cold weight of destiny pulled me back. I had to pull away, my heart breaking as I whispered, “I can’t… the Moon Goddess said I must remain a virgin and pass all eight trials. If I lose that, I won’t get all my powers, and worse, we’ll lose the only chance we have to defeat the Rogue King.”

The silence that followed was suffocating, thick with the jagged, uneven rhythm of our breathing and the visible effort it took for him to unclench his jaw and force his raging pulse to slow.

Nathan closed his eyes for a moment. Then, he moved back. He lay down beside me, leaving a deliberate gap of cool air between our bodies. He didn’t try to close it.

“Then we will wait,” he said, staring at the ceiling.

I turned onto my side to face him. “What if I still want to be close to you?”

He shifted his gaze to mine. “I want that too, but I’m afraid of even the smallest touch—if I started, I couldn’t stop.”

It was the most dangerous thing he could have said because it made me want to give him everything.

“Then we can just talk,” I suggested.

“Talk?” he chuckled darkly. “Alright then, let’s talk, Emily.”

He pulled me closer, wrapping his large, powerful arm around me until I was pressed firmly against his chest. I couldn’t say another word, completely pinned in his embrace as he held me with a strength that was both overwhelming and incredibly tender.