A love like ours ✔️

♚33.Turned into a pawn

Rafael

It's at the break of dawn when Ray and I are finally exhausted enough that we can't go for another round. She's half laying on top of me, her head in the crook of my left arm, as I slowly trace my other hand from her underboob to her hip.

She plants a small kiss directly over my heart. "I've never told you what my tattoo is about."

"Haven't we established it's a representation of your strength, wife?" I inquire. The last word rolls naturally off my tongue. It's almost surreal that this is our wedding night, that she utterly and irrevocably mine.

"But it's not only about me. You see, it's a reminder us."

"How so?"

"Just like the mythical creature, a love like ours never dies, but comes back stronger from every one of its trials. We're both only human and we're bound to fuck up, to let each other down at some point or another. So this tattoo is my promise that I'll never give up un us. I'll always find my way back to you, no matter what. In this life, and in every other one that follows, I am yours and you are mine, my dear husband."

I flip us over so I hoover above her.

"You want more?" She giggles.

"I'm never going to get enough of you." I bend down to kiss her inked skin, then her I lick a trail up to her perfect tits, taking the right one into my mounth. Her hands come to my hair and she lets out a soft moan of pleasure, writhing beneath me. I graze her nipple with my teeth, while rolling the other one between my fingers.

"Kiss me, Teo." She requests, Closing my eyes, I bring my lips to hers to grant her wish. I reel back when I feel scorching heat burning me where our skin makes contact, and it's not the pleasant kind one, born out of passion.

She's on fire, but it doesn't seem to bother her. She's smiling at me. "Goodbye my love."

Before I have time to react she turns to ash, and her remains scatter trough my fingers.

No. No. No.

*
I wake up covered in cold sweat. My sleep is fitful whenever I manage to close my eyes, haunted by nightmares. It was all so fucking real. I can feel her in my arms, the ghost of her taste is on my lips, her sweet smell in my nostrils. The flames that swallowed her up are still burning my flesh. I want to scratch them from underneath my skin, but it's impossible so I pull at the roots of my hair instead, the slight sting of pain grounding me.

It's been a weeks since we've got Valeria on our side. She's gave us all the intel she could gather behind Mario's back. While I'll use that against him to take his kingdom from him when the time comes, it's still nothing of value when ot comes to Ray's location. It'a as if she doesn't want to be found, as if she'd vanished off the face of the Earth. and my hopes of finding her alive dwindle by the day. I'm furious at her. She fucking lied to me. She promised me forever but she left me, alone and empty, a shell of myself. I don't want to lose hope but it hurts more and more. There's a black hole in the place my heart once was. I feel like I'm being brought down to my knees, and without her I cannot stand up again. What if she's really gone? What if, what if, what if...

Tossing the covers aside, I get up from bed, and head to the kitchen. Nyx follows my tracks. Weak redish light from the sunrise filters trough the windows, the marble floors are cold underneath my bare feet, and the silence is almost too heavy to bear in this huge empty house. Dante's back at our parents' place, and I know it's because I've been unbearable company later, taking my frustration out on everyone and everything.

Turning on the coffee machine, I then fill Nyx's bowl. The panther only looks at the food but doesn't get near it. The fact that she barely even eats and she refuses to sleep anywhere else but in our room, where Star's scent still lingers speaks volumes about how much the big feline misses her owner. I run my hand trough her soft fur and she begins to purr.