Free Ever Fire by Alexia Purdy Page A

skin was so smooth she began to suspect that all Fey men were just as hairless. She let her eyes flow over his silhouette, suddenly realizing how much she had neglected to notice how extremely handsome he was, in a disarming kind of way.
    He stopped at the edge of the bed and watched her curiously. Shade felt her face flush with heat as he watched her. He seemed to enjoy the way she looked him up and down. All she could do was look up at him and press her lips together. Her heart raced in her chest as his eyes stared right back at her, and morphed from a crystal green to a honey-gold tone flashing like jewels. He walked around the bed to the edge where she sat and knelt down just in front of her. He was tall enough to be almost even with her nose while on his knees. She watched him reach up and slip his hands up her cheeks, stroking them as he pushed her hair back, which now hung, pouring over her shoulders.
    Shade sucked her breath in at his touch. She couldn’t help but wonder if he was using his charms on her like he had demonstrated when they had first met while walking along the forest towards her house. She recalled that he had told her that his magic was almost useless on her when he showed how he could charm people into doing what he commanded, but that did not stop the twinge of suspicion that lingered deep inside her mind.
    “Soap, don’t use magic on me, please, I..,” Shade stopped as he hushed her.
    “I’m not using any kind of magic, Shade,” his eyes floated with a dreaminess swirling in them. “I-I love you Shade. I’ve waited for you to feel the same, but I don’t know if you do. I don’t think you realize how much I have fallen for you, after all that we’ve been through together.”
    His eyes searched her face as she sat frozen and locked in his gaze, shocked at his words. “I have to tell you this before you say anything else. I asked you to be exclusive with me, like the mortal human guys do, but you hesitate to give me a straight answer. It’s torture waiting to see if you will tell me that you want to too, or if you just don’t feel the same. I have to know Shade. If you want me to go, I’ll go. If you don’t want anything to do with me, so be it. But I want you to know, that if you want me to leave, I will still stand by your side and still love you, still fight for you no matter what the consequences are. But I will not stand by any longer, just waiting to be told to go.”
    Soap paused, his eyes intense with heat and pain. Shade swallowed back the lump that filled her throat and caught her breath. Her mouth felt dry as she drank in his words. She knew that he liked her, he had said that much earlier, but in love with her? Do I love him back? Did she want him like that? Did he not make her heart race and her stomach flip with his burning eyes and his absorbing smile? Shade swallowed as her throat seemed to close up on her. He did, that’s what made her most afraid. He sure did. Having him so near was not helping her deny it either.
    “Soap, I–I like you a lot too. I don’t know if I love you though, not the way you want me to. I really don’t know what love is. I’ve never been in love before. I miss you when you’re gone; I ache to hold you when I see you. I feel happy to see you walk through the door when I’m miserable down to my bones, but I don’t know if I can be what you need, what you want. And there’s Dylan too, I..” Soap interrupted her.
    “Shh, Shade. I know you feel the same way I do. I see it in your eyes when you aren’t guarding them against the world. I feel your heart racing under my fingers. I just wanted to tell you that it’s ok. Don’t be afraid of me, Shade. I would follow you into the depths of blackness so thick that I would think there be no light to befall me ever again. I wait for you even now, my heart is already yours. Do you not understand?” Soap let his fingers trace her arms, sending a shiver down her skin.
    Shade nodded, taking in