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  Prix 14 was the perfect way to say hello to Andromeda Galaxy.

  Imagine a romantic candlelight dinner sitting on a tiny round platform on the edge of a tree limb with a private chef serving course after course of soup, thin-sliced veg, meat dishes, and fruits that looked like art. And then, my favorite, a dessert shaped like the tree we were in.

  A white chocolate beauty without any leaves, its trunk was anchored in a pink mousse that tasted faintly of strawberries—so delicious it was beyond words. The chocolate was melt-in-your-mouth creamy, and we broke the limbs off the tree, scooped up fruity mousse, and savored every bite.

  After dinner, Cora and I meandered up the branches of the behemoth tree to our cabin—a scene that would’ve been hard to picture in my life on Earth. The treehouse was so spectacular it felt like it was a part of a “this is a miracle” scene.

  Everything about our rental was made to seem like it was carved out of nature, as though the home were a part of the tree, grown as a living, breathing limb, not something built and done to it.

  I only had one word to describe it: magic.

  We had our own place, but there were seventy additional buildings elsewhere in the tree, and we could neither see nor hear them.

  That’s how massive the tree was.

  Cora headed for the bathroom, so I made my way to the edge of our wooden balcony at the top of a tree so high it made skyscrapers seem like nothing.

  And what did I see beyond that balcony and those sturdy limbs? An endless night, black and starry. It didn’t matter that we were in a new galaxy; the sky still glittered with tiny lights.

  I smiled in wonder. All those worlds out there, eight other galaxies, full of life and people and miracles just like the tree I was standing in.

  Soft footsteps approached, and Cora’s arms wrapped around my waist, breasts pushing into my back. Heat bloomed, and I wanted to turn around, but she held me firm.

  Already, the night was looking good. Lips traced my neck from my earlobe down.

  “You look so pretty standing here in the starlight, Sam. Just a silhouette against the sky. Like you could reach out and bind one to another, joining the stars at the seams.”

  Heat turned into fire, and my body tightened. It sounded like my favorite voice in the Cosmos was making love to me with poetry, but I could barely hear it; the want rushing through me drowned out all sound.

  She whispered against my ear. “You need me, don’t you, Sam? You gonna be good for me tonight?”

  I shook my head.

  A chuckle was my reward. God, she made me so crazy.

  Cora was getting better. We’d had to practice a bit since it wasn’t exactly her nature to be pushy with me, but she knew I craved it, and every single time it got hotter and hotter.

  Tonight she’d probably make me combust.

  A hand found the hem of my turquoise skirt and traced up my thigh. “You’d better be wet for me, Sam. You know what I do to girls who aren’t ready.”

  I whimpered, knowing what I wanted her to do to me. Dear god, I just—inch those fingers higher, Cora.

  Her right hand found my belly, teasing at my underwear.

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  I was on fire.

  I could feel Cora’s chest behind me, her breaths faster than mine, if that was possible.

  Please, please, please, I thought. And it was all I was. Everything about me was focused on that one hand and what those fingers were doing drifting down my skin.

  I groaned, head pushing back into Cora’s shoulder.

  “Nuh uh, Sam. Not a peep from you. I want you quiet and silent. You hear me?”

  Oh god, I wanted to beg and scream. If she didn’t touch me, I’d die!

  Light fingers trailed up my sides, pulling the turquoise dress over my head and baring my body. The underwear hit the balcony, and I was displayed in the cool breeze of night, Cora at my back, hands roaming everywhere.

  Had she really meant for me to be quiet? God, I did not want to.

  Fingers grazed a nipple, and I groaned, pushing against her.

  “God, you’re so beautiful, Sam. Sorry, babe, I have to tell you. You look so good like this, and I want you so bad,” she whispered against my ear.

  “I’m on fire, Cora. You really want me to be quiet?” I whispered.

  “Is it working?”

  “If you don’t touch me, I’m gonna die.”

  “I’d say that’s a ‘yes, ma’am,’” she rasped.

  “Yes ma’am,” I repeated, and she chuckled against my neck. “Will you take your clothes off, Cor?”

  “Shouldn’t you say that submissively or something?”

  “I can’t think. Tell me what to say, and I’ll do it,” I begged.

  “Never mind,” she giggled as her pants hit the floor. Then there was skin all around me and nothing but Cora. I sank against her.

  “Fuck, Sam. You are wet, baby. God, you feel so good.”

  I gasped as her fingers finally found the spot that needed them. But it wasn’t enough. I needed so much more.

  “Cora,” I begged.

  “I got you, Sam. Don’t worry.”

  I whimpered as she kept teasing me, those fingers working magic.

  “Cora, please!”

  “I know you don’t like to come standing up, Sam. You’ve been good for me, so this is for you.”

  And I was on the balcony cushion, face down, ass in the air, her hands still roaming my body.

  “There’s my girl. So good for me, just the way I like it. You can take it, I know, Sam. You’re so ready. You need this, so I’m gonna give it to you.”

  Slick firmness filled me, and I stopped caring about being quiet. Was it Cora’s body? No, but she took the time to lube it and warm it. Her fingers kept teasing the spot that set me alight.

  I let go and thought of nothing— filled to overflowing with Cora, one hand on my front, the other in my hair, pulling me into surrender.

  When I was gasping and ready to beg for more, she paused.

  “Not yet, Sam. Wait. You hold on.”

  I smiled, she moved, and everything broke.

  I wasn’t Sam. I wasn’t there. I was everything and nothing at all.

  I collapsed on the cushion and rolled over as Cora let me go, crawling on top of me. Pulling her to me, I whispered in her hair, “You’re so fucking amazing, Cora.”

  “You better believe I am.”

  I laughed and pulled her mouth to mine, slaughtering it with hungry kisses, but her tongue was slow on mine, her body tense, but quiet.

  I pushed her back, sensing her mood.

  Peppering her face with gentle kisses, the tips of my fingers caressed her shoulder, traced down her hip, and over, then down her thigh.

  Lightly, gently, kind.

  Cora loved adoration, and that was something I could do with ease.

  “You’re so beautiful, Cor. You’re all I want in this world or any other. Every day, every night, all I want is this.”

  I kissed my way from one nipple to the next, wishing I could keep telling her sweet things while my lips worked and my fingers feathered over her skin.

  My adoration was rewarded with her saying my name on repeat, sometimes moaning, often groaning, and always longing for more. I knew exactly how Cora liked it.

  Tender, sweet, gentle, like harp song in sunlight. Like a new day beginning.

  Slow, peaceful, deep.

  My tongue found her favorite spot, and she hissed as two slick fingers slid the way she needed them too. Deeper, slower.

  Her hands twisted in my hair, and my name on her lips became a plea. She broke, and it was like a song.

  No, it was something more, and my heart raced when I heard the desperation in her voice. I knew what my love needed, and it was more than sex.

  Fingers calming her as she came back down, I pulled her to my chest, saying the words we’d both avoided, but that were everything.

  “Cora, I love you, my darling, my love. I love you, and I’ll never leave you alone again. I promise it. Every sunrise, every starry night, I’ll be here, loving you. You’re all I want in this life and all others. I love you.”

  She sobbed into my shoulder, arms clinging desperately to my waist. Our hair twisting into each other just like our legs, I kept saying what she needed to hear: the truth.

  I’d grown up without parents, but I wasn’t the only one, was I? Sometimes those with living parents knew a lack of love that others did not.

  I’d had my Nanna to tell me how much she loved me, but who had ever loved Cora? How many times in her life had she heard those precious three words?

  I pulled back, resting a hand on her cheek, thumb stroking beneath her eye.

  “Cora, open your eyes, love.”

  Brown irises looked at me. “I love you, and you’ll never be alone again.”

  Her eyelids closed, as though it were too much to take in. Then they opened again, and a soft smile lit them from within.

  “Sam, I love you too. I think I always have, and I know I always will.”

  I smiled and touched my forehead to hers. “Then we’re gonna be okay, Cor.”

  She nodded, smiled, and pressed her lips to mine as the stars bore witness and the gentle breeze kissed our skin.

  [Cultivation] [Progression] [Fantasy] [Action] [Anti-Hero]

  

  Synopsis (Click to Expand)

  Two paths define the world: The Arcane and the Auric. Damon walks a third: The mind.

  But a unique power is not a gift. It is a curse.

  “Pain is the chisel. Will is the hammer. Mind is the stone.”