The Girl with the Fire Heart
Chapter 41

Finally, her hand drops into her lap of its own accord and she finds that she need not say what she feels because her element has already spoken for her. Between them reads the words, “I am in love with you,” with a heart replacing the word love. It’s corny, cheesy even. Valentina knows this and yet she can feel the blush crawling up her neck, the strength of her power at the acceptance of her confession pressing against every fiber of her person. She hesitates in looking up at Damon, too unsure if the words torched into the ground are the same ones she believes he feels for her.

Slowly, she tilts her head up to look at Damon beneath her lashes. She fully expects Damon to back away from her, to ignore her sudden declaration, but instead she finds that he is looking all too intently at the letters her element has carved out in the dirt. Slowly, he looks over at her, and stares deeply into her eyes. Valentina feels something in her necklace tug, like a pull towards him she wants so desperately to follow. Valentina, however, stays put.

From the corner of her eye, she can see the sky begin to darken, the tell tale signs of rain beginning to form. She looks down at Damon's necklace and sees the water swirling around and around, almost tempestuously. A small nagging in the back of her mind makes the connection between the change in weather and the current circumstance at hand. But the two stay frozen in time, staring at each other as if the horses and the food and the weather and all the pressures of the world seem lost to them at this moment.

Valentina isn’t quite sure when Damon started to move but she registers, suddenly, that he is a lot closer to her than he was before. In the background, she can hear the horses huffing and shifting, sensing the shift in the atmosphere. Neither Damon nor Valentina pays them any mind. All too aware of his proximity now, Valentina realizes that she could kiss him and put an end to the drawn out torture of loving someone so much you want to touch them and hold them and kiss them senseless but being unable to because of society and all of its rules.

She could lean in and touch her lips to his. She could finally find out what those full lips feel like pressed against hers, what they feel like meeting her for every press and touch that she gives him. But the instinct to move away is much greater and before she realizes what’s happening, she is on her feet, moving towards the horses and to the edge of the creek. She doesn’t have time to process her own actions because she feels Damon moving towards her quick as lightning before she feels him grasping her wrists, forcibly spinning her around to face him and his face leaning into hers without regard for any of the consequences. Her eyes shut of their own accord, feeling his lips touch hers without grace and yet with all the sincerity and intentionality in the world.

And then she feels it. The splash of water against her skin, the heat crawling around them, the acute awareness that both of them have lost absolute control over their powers and yet helpless to continue discovering the taste of each other. His arms lock around her waist in a tight embrace, forcing her body impossibly closer to his while her hands tentatively grasp his shoulders wanting to pull him closer and away from her all at once. Something in her gives way when she feels the full weight of his feelings being seared into the kiss, the way he asks and assumes her answer to his silent question with every coaxing of his lips.

Valentina's internal dilemma dissipates and she winds her arms around his neck, placing a hand at the base of his neck and her other hand climbing into the strands of his hair at the back of his head, tugging him closer. The need for oxygen rings somewhere in the recesses of her brain but she refuses to listen, too intent to keep his lips on hers, too desperate to keep fighting a wordless war with his tongue.

She feels a vibration against her chest, the only indicator that he made a sound before she feels those same vibrations reverberate through her own mouth. Damon wrenches himself away from the intoxicating kiss and it is only then that Valentina becomes aware of the environment that they are in. She turns her head to the side just enough to see the horses standing stock still in the rain, their ears tilted towards the couple but their heads bent down towards the slowly filling creek granting them a privacy they didn’t know they needed.

Valentina feels the slickness of her skin for the first time since she felt the first droplets of rain hit her skin. She looks up at Damon and sees his hair matted to the top of his head, except for the place where she ran her fingers through. His hair sticks up, molded by the rain and her searching fingers while they kissed. She feels a small blush begin to creep up her neck and she unsuccessfully tries to hide her embarrassment at their wanton display of affection.

Her chest rises and falls in brutal beats, matching the fast pace of Damon's own relentless breathing. He presses his forehead against her own wet one, some of the strands of her hair from earlier having fallen out of the half up-half down hairstyle sticking to the sides of her face and the rest of her hair sticking to the base of her neck. Damon closes his eyes, reveling in the feel of her in his arms before gently releasing her and taking a forceful step back. Valentina chuckles lightly. She drops her arms from around his neck, letting them fall unceremoniously to her side when the nobleman’s son reaches for her left hand, interlocking their fingers before walking them back to the discarded and now soaked picnic. Silently, they pack away all the food and untie the horses from the small tree nearby.

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