House Of Gods 9 - Samantha Snow Page 0,15
longer than it was absolutely necessary.”
“And is it necessary now?”
“No.”
Leif’s mouth opened, and his eyes darted back and forth between hers. “So, you aren’t leaving?” he asked as if he couldn’t believe it could be true that she would stay.
“I am not leaving. I will not leave you ever again, I promise.”
Leif smiled and laughed and lunged forward to kiss her all at the same time. His tongue pushed between her parted lips, and the happiness between them radiated off their bodies like fervent energy. There may have been others walking through the apartment, but if there were, Leif and Norna didn’t notice. He pulled her thighs around his torso and stood up with his arms holding beneath her. He walked with her to the bedroom; he didn’t even know which bedroom he went into, only that it was an empty one. And he closed the door and hit the lock which his elbow as she kissed him with a longing that she had been holding in far too long.
As he laid Norna down onto the bed and crawled over her, she did not hesitate to pull the shirt over his head and undo his pants as quickly as her fingers could manage. In a tangle of hands and limbs and bodies that refused to separate, their clothes came off and were strewn wildly across the room as they focused only on being inseparable. The feeling of their skin against each other was ecstasy, and it felt as if they would both implode if there was to be a moment longer to wait before having each other. But yet, Leif pulled on his last thread of restraint.
“I love you,” he said. “Never leave me again.”
“I won’t,” Norna answered. “I love you too.”
There were no words after that, only the primal moans that escaped their lips as Leif pushed himself into her yearning body.
CHAPTER FIVE
When Cai and Tara left in the morning, it was bittersweet. Cai was happy that he would soon be reunited with Astra, and Tara was happy that she would get to go back to the magical forest, which she adored. But they were also both sad to leave their friends.
“If you need anything at all, you reach me, okay?” Cai said to Celeste as he told his sister goodbye.
“We’ll be fine,” she said with Lopt standing at her side. She hugged Cai long and hard and then rustled her fingers in the top of Tara’s hair. “You keep him out of trouble, okay?” she said to Tara.
“I’ll try,” Tara replied. “Boys sure seem like way more work than girls.”
Celeste laughed. “I agree.”
“Tell Astra we said hello,” Lopt said to Cai. “Your sister and I will leave soon to go back to Alfheim.” He kneeled to speak to Tara. “And we will watch over your brother there until you can see him again. Is there anything you’d like me to tell him for you?”
“You can tell him I miss him and that Button says hi too.”
“You got it.”
After tearful hugs and the promise to visit each other soon, Cai took Tara by the hand, and Lopt used his power to send them to the forest. The only person who didn’t seem to show any reaction to their leaving was Brandt. But considering he didn’t even remember who Cai and Tara were, that was understandable.
Brandt sat on his bed with a sketchbook and piece of black charcoal in his hand. He looked out the window at the city, but there was so much to see that it was kind of like seeing nothing. He hadn’t remembered that he used to like to draw, but Brenna had told him that he did. She showed him the sketches he had done and suggested he try to draw from his imagination to see if it helped trigger his memory. But whenever he put the charcoal to paper and tried to draw something, it always ended up looking the same—like a big, black puddle, or a dark hole in a sky of white. That was how he felt, as if there was a huge hole punched right through him, and he didn’t know why. It was more than just having his memories missing that caused the feeling; it was something deeper, something more important. He had a feeling that it was Brenna, but he couldn’t remember her or any of the feelings he once had, which just made it all the more frustrating. Whatever it was, it was eating him up from the