Millie turns to him and grasps his chin, and in that moment, he’s taken back. Taken back to the last time it was good. To the last time he felt that true happiness. The happiness that he only ever found with her.
~
“Forgive me,” she whispers, “for I have sinned.”
John’s fingertips trail the dip of her spine, smirking at the goosebumps on her skin. She’s draped across his chest, and she’s so warm and soft. As the moonlight filters in through the window, pouring over her alabaster skin, she almost looks like she’s glowing. He smiles at that. This, above all else, is his favorite place to be. And perhaps there is sin in that, but he can’t seem to find it. “No,” he says softly, and she lifts his head to look at him. His hand cradles her jaw as he admires her beautiful face. “Nothing about you is sinful, my love.”
Millie smiles warmly, though John can see a hint of sadness behind it. He pulls her in and tries to kiss it away. He’s always been able to kiss it away… and he hopes he always can. “Above all,” he murmurs, “love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.”
John shifts, turning Millie to her back as he leans over her; her soft giggles melding with the quiet crackling of the candle’s flames; the wind against the old clapboard siding. Her hands skim his sides and she’s moaning under his touch; her breaths heavy against his ear. He wishes he could make a recording of those sounds. It’s a symphony to him. A masterpiece.
“I love you,” she gasps as they break together, and he buries his face against her neck, breathing her in.
John presses his lips beneath her ear, along her jaw, across her cheek. He presses his forehead to hers and closes his eyes. “Oh, I love you, Millie.” He transfers his weight to his forearm, burying his fingers in her soft hair. “I love you more than anything in the world.”
He kisses her again, deep and languid, like she’s an oasis in the desert. He rolls to his side, his hand smoothing over her hip; gently squeezing her thigh as she presses against him.
“I wish,” Millie says softly, her nose brushing his, “I wish we could stay here forever.” Her hand is on his chest, her lithe fingertips tracing slowly over his skin.
And oh how he wishes they could. He would stay in this bed with her forever. He would forsake all things for her. Only for her. He has never known love and completion the way he has with her. “I do, too.”
“For tonight, let’s just pretend.”
His hand closes around her jaw, and she lifts her eyes to him. God, they’re beautiful. She is so beautiful. “For tonight, it’s only you, my love. It’s only us. For tonight, this is forever.”
Millie lifts her fingers to his chin, leaning in to kiss him, and the earth around them burns.
And here it is, our final night alive… as the earth burns to the ground…
Their daughter lay in his lap, peaceful in death, and together they go quietly into the sunrise. Into their forever.
