by CJ England
“Satan overstepped at the end. When he drugged us, he broke his own rules. That’s when the Lord stepped in.”
Aithne turned to face him. “What I don’t understand was the pillar of blue flame. How could it keep me out and you in?”
“Ahhh…the flame refused you entrance when you were unconscious because you had to be allowed to make the choice to walk into the fire on your own. You also needed to be able to choose to stay, once you were there. You could have left at any time. Allowing a person’s free will is the cornerstone of all that Yahweh is.”
“So why couldn’t you get out?”
He held her tighter. “Simply put…it was because Yahweh knew I would immediately come back to you and he didn’t want your sacrifice to be in vain. You had sacrificed a life with me, because you knew without my immortality, I would slowly perish. You loved me that much.”
She pulled away from him. “You knew what Satan had intended?”
Milcham looked at her with steady eyes. “Yes.”
Hers widened. “You knew if you weren’t the Phoenix, you would waste away, and you still chose to stay with me?”
He brushed his lips over hers. “I am in love with you, Aithne. I could make no other choice.”
Her eyes filled with tears. “And that is why I chose to stay in the fire. No matter how frightened I was. Life without you was no life at all.”
“Assai…” His voice broke and he had to clear his throat. “Every day, I thank Yahweh that he has given me a woman like you. Loving, loyal, brave and true…I cannot even imagine my life without you in it.”
She looped her arms up around his neck. “It is pretty amazing to know he knew me even before I was born. He picked me for you, didn’t he?”
He nodded and pulled her beneath him, the warm water cushioning their bodies. “He chose you out of all the souls, as the one who would love me and be loved by me. He knew you wouldn’t say no.”
“Say no to you?” she teased as she moved her body slowly against his. “I don’t think so.”
“An eternity is a very long time to keep saying yes to me, Assai. I hope you are sure.”
“Of you? Of us?” She laughed and slid a leg up his muscular thigh, opening herself to him. “I never did tell you. I did a tarot reading after you left me that first night back at the carnival. All we would be to each other was in the cards.”
“It was, huh?” Milcham smiled as he slid with a groan into her welcoming heat. As a Phoenix, now she was even warmer. “And what,” he said hoarsely, “did the cards say we were?”
Aithne pulled his head down to hers and nipped his lower lip as he throbbed with life within her. “They knew before we even touched each other. They knew we would be… Lovers.”
“I always said you had a gift,” he growled as he began to move inside her. And as their bodies joined together in the immortal dance of love, the heavens rejoiced and the angels sang. Two hearts, so long separated, now beat forever as one.
And it was very, very good.
The End
