SWOON Thursday (#10): Darkness Falls by Cate Tiernan

Hosted by YA Bound

From the book you’re currently reading, or one you just finished, tell us what made you SWOON. What got your heart pounding, your skin tingling, and your stomach fluttering. Shout it out on Twitter with the hashtag #YABound, post it here in the comments, or grab the adorable button above and share it on your blog! We want to know :-)

Here's mine (this one's kind of long, but it was just so hard to shorten it):

"Kiss me, Lilja," he said softly.

"You kiss me, Eileif," I whispered. And then our arms were around each other and we were kissing as if we'd been apart for centuries. To me he felt as solid as a cliff in Iceland. Before this I would have said I wasn't a very physical person--not snuggly, not demonstrative, not affectionate. Not in centuries. But all I wanted at that moment was to be enveloped in Reyn's warmth.

I squirmed to get closer to him and he fell backward onto the hay, pulling me with him. He rolled, holding me in place with once hand, and then his weight was on me, comforting me, exciting me, welcoming me home. We kissed again and again, unable to get enough of each other, pressing ourselves together as tightly was we could, considering that we were still fully dressed in a relatively public barn. My hands tangled in his hair as he kissed my eyelids, my forehead, my cheeks, my chin, my nose. I laughed because it tickled, and opened my eyes to see him smiling down at me. I pulled his head back to me and found his mouth, remembering how much I had wanted to see him, to talk to him, while I was gone.

This was a choice I was making. I thought it was a good choice. I wasn't letting myself get swept away by what Reyn or anyone else wanted.

"I want this," I murmured against his lips. He drew back, breathing hard, his eyes glittering. "I want you."

"I want you, too," he murmured, kissing me again, pushing one knee between mine. And then my mind whirled with sensations and emotions and the drunk feeling of being completely caught up in him, desperate to be with him, hungry for him, his touch. It was as if I had summoned magick with our kisses--that same intense white light filling my chest, the burst of almost painful joy, the feelings of both power and curiosity. This passion was very strong magick.

-Darkness Falls SWOON #YABound

NOTE: Lilja is Nastasya's name given at birth, and Eileif is Reyn's name given at birth. It's a highly personal thing to share their given names with another immortal.