Chapter 1500: "Make Us One" (r-18)

Phei remained quiet.

Catrina looked up again. There was vulnerability in her face now that had nothing to do with the dress or kisses.

Phei touched her cheek. "You are, my love."

Then he softened it before the words could become possession instead of devotion: "And I’m yours."

Catrina’s eyes shimmered.

That was what she had wanted.

Phei understood it then.

This was not only about desire:

She had dressed for him because she wanted him to desire her, yes. She wanted his eyes on her thighs, wanted his hands around her waist, wanted to feel beautiful beneath the hunger of the man she loved.

But beneath all that lived something quieter and much deeper.

She wanted belonging.

The private closeness between two people who stopped measuring affection in stolen kisses and uncertain tomorrows.

The warmth of waking beside someone she loved and loved her. The right to reach for him without wondering whether tonight was finally the night he would choose her completely.

Something almost domestic hid inside the hunger, strangely enough.

A little wife-like longing wrapped inside black lace.

Phei leaned forward and kissed her forehead.

The kiss changed when he claimed her mouth, the patience remained, but there was hunger beneath it now, warmer and less carefully hidden. Phei pulled her closer by the waist while she wrapped both arms around his neck, and the soft pressure of her body against his drew a quiet moan from somewhere deep in her throat.

She did not hide it this time.

Phei kissed her until her breathing grew uneven, he let his mouth wander back toward her neck while his hands traced her body with deliberate tenderness.

Her waist beneath his palms, the bare warmth of her back.

The curve of her hips beneath satin. His fingers moved down the side of one thigh before they returned upward and followed the lace hem until Catrina shivered and clung closer.

"Phei~" He lifted his head.

Her eyes were darker now.

Soft and wanting.

"You’re trembling."

"So are you."

He smiled. "That is slander."

Catrina touched his chest, his heartbeat immediately betrayed him.

Her lips curved. "Liar."

Phei kissed her before she could become too proud of herself for a mess she was making of him.

Her laugh dissolved into another soft moan, and this time she kissed him with more confidence and pulled him toward her as though she had finally grown tired of waiting for him to decide the pace alone. When their mouths parted, her lips remained close enough to brush his with every word.

"I’ve waited for you."

Phei’s hands stilled around her waist. "I know."

"No." She shook her head gently. "I don’t think you do."

Her fingers moved over his cheek. "I’ve waited because I wanted you to be sure. I waited because you were trying to protect me. Because there was always something else happening. Another danger, another family problem, another reason you thought tomorrow might be kinder than today."

Phei listened.

Catrina leaned into his palm when he touched her face. "At first, I loved that you were patient."

"At first?"

Her mouth curved faintly. "Then I started wanting to strangle you."

Phei laughed softly. "That seems unfair."

"You kept looking at me like you wanted me and then you’d behave even after what we did in the car."

"Terrible crime."

"It was."

He kissed the corner of her mouth.

Catrina’s expression softened again. "I don’t want you to behave tonight."

The words were quiet but they struck harder because of it.

Phei’s eyes held hers.

Catrina’s blush deepened, but she refused to look away: "I don’t want another almost," she whispered. "I don’t want another night where you kiss me, hold me and then leave because you think waiting is kinder."

Phei’s thumb moved slowly along her cheek.

"Catrina..."

She leaned forward and kissed him once.

A small kiss that was almost a promise.

"I want to belong with you the way a woman belongs with the man she chose." Another kiss. "I want to fall asleep beside you without wondering when I get to stop pretending I don’t want more."

Her voice trembled. "I want to starting waking up each day and find you still there."

That one nearly destroyed him; there was the husband-and-wife longing beneath everything else.

Not ceremony or titles:

’Home!’

Catrina wanted the intimacy of being able to reach across a bed in darkness and find him there.

Phei pulled her gently against his chest.

She rested her cheek over his heart.

For several breaths they remained that way and held each other while the curtains breathed beside them and the world beyond the balcony disappeared completely.

His hand travelled slowly down her bare back.

Catrina shivered.

"Still nervous?" he murmured.

"Yes."

"Still sure?"

She lifted her face immediately.

"More than anything."

Phei searched her eyes and there was no uncertainty remained there.

’Nervousness, certainly.’

Desire too. Love. And a strange quiet relief that he had finally asked the question she had already answered inside herself long ago. Catrina reached behind herself and gently caught his hand.

She guided it back around her waist, lower, and settled it over the satin-covered curve of her hip.

Phei’s breath changed.

"Stop treating me like I’ll break." Catrina rose from the chair.

Standing brought her body fully against his.

Her arms slid around his neck; her bare thighs brushed his clothes while satin pressed warm and soft between them. Her eyes lifted toward his from only inches away.

"I want my husband tonight."

Phei went completely still.

Catrina’s face burned. She had obviously not planned to say it quite that way. Perhaps that was precisely why the words felt so honest.

Phei’s hand tightened gently at her hip: "Husband?"

"Don’t tease me."

"I wouldn’t dare."

"You absolutely would."

"Usually."

Her eyes narrowed faintly.

Phei kissed her forehead: "But I would not tease you about that."

Catrina softened.

She rested her forehead against his.

"I know we’re not married," she whispered. "I mean..."

"I know what you mean."

Her fingers tightened behind his neck. "I want that feeling."

Phei’s expression became unbearably tender.

"The staying?"

She nodded. "The waking up together— of course I know today is impossible for that but aside from today. Being yours without feeling like I’m still waiting at some door. You being mine without me wondering when you’re going to disappear into another disaster."

Phei smiled faintly. "I can’t promise the disasters."

"I know."

"They seem emotionally attached to me."

Catrina laughed quietly. "I’ve noticed. But the rest?"

His hands settled around her waist. "I can promise to stop making you wait for something you’ve already chosen."

Her eyes immediately filled with warmth. "Good."

She kissed him; the nervousness did not disappear but it transformed.

Catrina kissed him with the soft desperation of someone finally reaching the end of a very long wait, her fingers buried in his hair while Phei’s hands moved over her body with less restraint than before. His palm followed the narrowing line of her waist, traced the exposed slope of her back and returned to the curves of her hips, and held her there while her breaths broke quietly against his mouth.

Catrina tipped her head back, eyes closed, as another soft moan escaped her as Phei kissed the center of her chest just above the dress and felt her entire body tremble.

Her fingers tightened in his hair. "Phei..."

He lifted his eyes toward her without moving away.

The sight of him there nearly stole whatever remained of her courage.

Catrina swallowed.

"Don’t stop."

Phei pressed another slow kiss against her skin. Catrina’s hands moved over him with growing confidence now and traced his shoulders, chest and back as though she too wanted to memorize the man standing before her. The shy woman who had waited nervously upon the chair remained somewhere inside her, but another side was beginning to breathe around it, warmer and more certain, a woman finally allowing herself to want openly.

Eventually Phei slipped one arm beneath her knees.

Catrina gasped as he lifted her, her arms immediately tightened around his neck.

The black satin rode slightly higher along her thighs from the movement, and the lace rested against her smooth skin while her dark hair had begun to escape its careful arrangement.

She looked less composed now.

Much prettier.

More his Catrina.

Her lips were flushed from kissing, her cheeks warm, her eyes bright and soft with everything she had finally stopped hiding.

"Gods," Phei murmured.

"What?"

"You."

Catrina smiled.

"That’s not an answer."

"It is currently the best my brain can produce."

She laughed and buried her face against his neck.

Phei carried her toward the bed.

With every step, the room seemed to change around them. The amber lights became softer. The bed waiting ahead no longer looked like furniture. It looked almost ceremonial in its simplicity, the place where the distance between them would finally stop being carefully maintained.

Catrina turned her face toward him.

"Phei?"

"Mhm?"

"Promise me something."

"Anything I can."

Her fingers stroked lightly through the hair near his neck.

"When the next days comes—" She hesitated... Phei stopped beside the bed. Catrina looked into his eyes: "Don’t make tonight feel like something we borrowed."

The words went straight through him.

Phei bent and kissed her.

Slowly.

Deeply.

When he withdrew, his forehead remained pressed against hers.

"You’re mine from the day we kissed and for eternity to come."

Catrina’s eyes softened. "And you’re still mine?"

Phei smiled. "That’s how this works, my wife."

The word struck her hard enough that she simply stared at him; her face folded into the smallest, happiest smile he had seen from her all night.

"Husband."

Catrina kissed him once more before she whispered against his lips.

"No more waiting."

"No more waiting."

"Make us one."

This time her voice carried no hesitation.

Phei lowered her gently onto the bed.

Catrina’s dark hair spilled against the pale sheets as she looked up at him, black satin and lace against cream linen, her body warm beneath the amber light, and her hand already reached for him before he could create even a breath of distance between them.

Phei took it.

And when he leaned over her, Catrina drew him down into another long, hungry kiss with the quiet certainty of a woman welcoming home the man she had already chosen as hers.