She clenched.
The specific, involuntary, full-interior clench of a woman whose body had stopped consulting the brain about its responses and was filing them directly — the comprehensive, warm-water-amplified clench of Core Formation Peak cultivation and five days and the hot spring and everything.
Her hips drove down.
The specific, forward-rolling, full-weight, everything-committed drive of hips that had stopped being managed.
CLAP CLAP CLAP PAAH!
"—'AAAHNN~!!! HAANN~!!! AHN~!!!'—AAAANGHHH~~!!!—"She threw her head back.
The full, complete, everything-at-once throw of a head going back on a neck that had released all management — her dark hair landing at his shoulder with the flat, heavy, wet weight of hair that had been in the water.
The tears ran sideways down her face.
He watched them run sideways.
He watched her face — the amber eyes at the realm's sky, the specific, wide, wet, present, going-somewhere-else quality of her face in this moment — and he noted:
