Corwin would never be able to hide the fact that he was sexually turned on again. I would always be able to tell just by looking at the intensity of the energy swirling around his body.
He trembled for a moment as he fought to contain his desire. Then he exhaled in a harsh jagged breath, as if he'd forgotten how to breathe.
He gently lowered me back onto the floor and opened his sparkling blue eyes.
Whispering a single Completion Command, he released the both of us.
"Mashangzhurhu."
With a soft click, the soul-bands uncoupled, leaving me feeling bereft as before.
I reached out to touch my soul-band instead of my lips. As explosive as the kiss was, it truly was just the final icing on the cake compared to the soul-shaking soul-bonding that I had just experienced.
Corwin was silently standing there clutching his chest as if he was in pain.
"You're in pain!"
He shook his head.
"The pain is not because of the soul-bands fusing," he breathed. "It's because of my intense joy to be reunited with you again. My soul misses yours every moment of every day."
"Are we," I paused, looking away. "Are we really married, Corwin? Connor told me the soul bands make us married."
Corwin gazed at me with tender blue eyes that spoke volumes...if I could only understand what language he was using.
He nodded once.
I bit my bottom lip, not quite sure what to say to him.
I felt overwhelmed.
"We—um" I cleared my throat, suddenly feeling choked up.
"We barely know each other. It's hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that we're suppose to be married when I've only started talking to you within the last two weeks."
"Two weeks?" Corwin shook his head. "I haven't stopped thinking about you for almost two years," he rubbed a shaky hand through his hair.
"What I told Connor before is true. I was attracted to you right from the start. In fact, I was the one who met you first."
He laughed shakily. "Do you remember the first time we met?"
I nodded. How could I forget.
"You walked in first. If I remember correctly, Connor was talking to the professor. You just ignored the man completely and went straight to the back of the classroom where I was seated."
"Yes. Why would I care about talking to the professor? You were the target, not him."
"You said something like…"
"You're in my seat. Mind moving up one?" We both said at the same time.
I laughed.
Corwin chuckled. "I needed to sit behind you so I could observe you, but you had already taken the last seat. What choice did I have? I had to ask you to move up a seat."
"I nearly spat in your eye." I laughed.
"What stopped you?" He grinned.
"You were tall and muscle-bound. And you looked scary."
Corwin sighed with regret. "Had you done that, I would have grabbed you and kissed you right there and then."
I laughed. "You would have gotten us kicked out of school."
"It would have been worth it. I would have stolen you away so no other man could have you."
I turned my head away to hide my dismay.
I had gone from having zero boyfriend to having one failed betrothal and two 'husbands' in the span of a single week. When it rains, it really pours!
Corwin would not allow me to turn away. He reached out and turned my face back to him.
"I actually met you first, but Connor spoke up first and claimed you, so I had no choice but to keep everything buried inside."
His dazzling blue eyes were fixed onto mine. "I love my brother. I would never do anything to hurt him."
He smoothed a finger over my cheek with barely suppressed longing. "That's why I tried so hard to push you away."
"I did everything I could to ignore you and to reject my attraction for you because we all know that only one of us can be with you—-if you were even willing, that is."
He gave me a sad smile. "You can see how well I did," he raised his arm, revealing his soul-band.
"I honestly didn't think that we'd be Soul-bonded. I had the soul-bands made a long time ago because my heart kept crying out to be bonded to you."
"I just always thought it would be something that could only happened in my dreams."
His blue eyes grew misty.
"When we were alone at that outcrop of rocks in the middle of the desert, it wasn't as if I had planned anything ahead of time."
He pressed his lips onto my forehead and mumbled against my head. "My heart just took over."
"Then when I asked you if you would be willing to accept my soul-band, I was expecting to be rejected right off the bat. I couldn't believe it when you agreed."
He gave a sad little laugh. "I should have known that you had no idea what it was. You're such a virgin."
He gave a short terse laugh. "But I jumped at the chance to make you my wife, the gods help me. I just—I just couldn't stop myself."
I chewed on my lip as I thought about what Corwin said. "So you weren't using these soul-bands as a way to make sure you could locate me if something were to happen to me?"
"That is one of the unintended functions of a soul-band, yes. As I told you before, there are other...less intrusive methods of locating a lost person, but they all have their drawbacks and don't quite work in all cases."
"Soul-bonding is irreversible, but it works without fail. I will always know where you are because you are holding a part of my soul, and it will always be a beacon, calling out to me to come to it."
"So what happens now, with you and Connor?"
"I don't know. I was hoping you could guide us through this."
"Me?"
"Yes. You know how we feel about you, but we don't know how you feel about us.
"As you can see, I'm helpless when it comes to you. The first chance I get and what do I do—I run to you and soul-bond with you like a starving, thirsty madman because I need you so badly I can barely stand it."
I gripped my soul-bond bracelet. "Well, I'm here for you. If you need to soul-bond, just let me—"
"But Nana…a soul-bond is not going to be enough to quench my thirst for you."
"What—"
"I want all of you. Everything."
I held up both hands and push against his chest.
"Time. Give me a little time."
He nodded and pressed my hands into his chest with his own large hands.
"We're still young, Love. We have time."