She unpinned her bonnet and carefully placed it on her dresser, where it had sat every evening for the past sixty years. He could not imagine a life that did not include her belongings sprinkled throughout.
He watched, mesmerized, as she slowly unwove her braids. Her small hands worked easily over her soft, brown hair, twisting and unraveling the strands into long, wavy locks. That was his prize. No other male had ever seen his Abilene’s hair. That was his privilege as her husband.
A sob lodged in his chest and his body buckled forward to smother it down. Once this was done, she would eventually move on. Eternity was too long to live alone, and Abilene was a female made for love. He should love her enough to selflessly hope she found happiness with another, but he couldn’t bear the thought of any other male touching her.
Once her hair hung loose, she pushed it behind her narrow shoulders and removed the pins of her apron. Her hair protested the action and fell back over her shoulder, framing her beautiful face.
She was still as lovely and timid as the night he made her his bride. She had only ever known his lips, his touch, his body. She had given herself freely to him and loved him beyond measure.
Memories of their wedding night, of that first time he took her, caused him to harden. He was starved for the taste of her skin.
Stripped down to only her shift, she faced him. Her breasts tightened beneath the delicate fabric, nipples darkening at the tips.
“My beautiful wife.” He could stare at her for centuries. “Will you come to bed?”
She crossed the room slowly, always his sweet, submissive wife when they were alone, but as a mother, she was a lioness.
Rising to sit on the edge of the bed, he parted his knees, drawing her into his space. As he lifted his hands to frame her trim waist, his fingers were trembling.
His thumbs rubbed softly over her tummy, where she had carried so many of his children. He leaned forward and pressed his face to her ribs as a tear trickled down his cheek.
She was there with him now, offering herself, yet the void between them remained. They would, in time, be severed apart.
He couldn’t stand the ache such distance had caused, couldn’t fathom a life without her. “I need to be absolved of my sins.” He pulled her close, weeping into her shift and breathing her familiar scent deep into his lungs. “Forgive me, Abilene. I beg you.”
Her delicate touch ran through his hair, and he dropped to his knees to the floor, wrapping his arms around her hips and refusing to let go.
“I can’t bear the thought of what this will do to you, to us, to the children.”
She lowered to the floor, kneeling before him as she cupped his face and pressed a soft kiss on his tear-dampened lips. “Jonas, you have always been a man of worth. Anything you have ever done, you have done out of love. For sixty years, you loved me fiercely. I’m grateful to have had at least that.”
Her touch was his undoing. His shoulders shook with the emotion he tried to contain. “I’ll never love another with the depth I love you, Abilene.”
“You lie to yourself, Jonas, but you can’t lie to me. Loving your mate will not be a chore. You must accept that.”
“I can’t.” For as sturdy and powerful as he was in all his maleness, this tiny woman was his strength. He hugged her tightly to him, never wanting to let her go.
She pressed a soft kiss over his heart and looked up at him with those familiar big, brown eyes causing the ache in his chest to explode into a million shards of glass. Unable to wait another moment, he lifted her into his arms and placed her on their bed.
Kissing her deeply, her body quivered beneath his touch as he trembled with pent-up passion. He anointed every bared inch of her flesh with his mouth, pouring his heart and soul into every caress.
Their bodies became one, rolling and intertwining, knotted so tightly together, nothing could ever separate them.
“I love you, Jonas,” she cried as he entered her. “I’ll always love you, even when I know I shouldn’t.”
“Never stop,” he begged selfishly. “Never stop loving me, Abilene, and I swear I’ll do the same. You’re in my veins. Our children were made from our love and bones. You’re the breath in my lungs.” Losing her love would be an excruciating death he could never survive.
“I won’t stop,” she promised. “I can’t stop. Loving you is all I know.”
He pressed into her, wearing his agony clearly on his face. “You are the other half of my soul, Abilene. You!”
When the stars burned out and the moon no longer shined, his soul would still hold the imprint of her heart. Her love would forever be a part of him, and he could not accept a future that took such an integral piece of him away.