She couldn’t speak. Instead, she traced her fingers clumsily across his back, writing out what she couldn’t say aloud, as they had for so long. A-T L-A-S-T, she wrote. A-T L-A-S-T.
“Entreat me not to leave thee,” he whispered, “or to return from following after thee.” He flicked open the top button of her shirt, baring a small patch of skin.
There was a wild feeling in Emma’s blood, the desire to seize Julian, to do something, crush his hands in hers, put her arms around him, cause them both pain, make them both taste the same seeking desperation. She couldn’t understand it, and it terrified her.
“Believe me, there is nothing hotter than you in one of my shirts,” he said. “I’ve always wanted you. Even when I didn’t know it.”
“Even during our parabatai ceremony?”
“Especially then.”