She brought the glass to her lips, but he stopped her before she could take the first sip, his eyes turning serious.
“When was the last time you’ve seen the stars?” he asked softly.
“Honestly, I’m not sure.” Jaci shrugged. “The city lights always drown them out. I feel them, though. Their presence. Their magic.”
“Tonight you get to look at them, too.” He tilted his head back, and she did the same, taking in the view of the sky for the first time since they’d arrived.
Jaci gasped, her heart fluttering in her chest, her eyes watering at the impossible vastness of it.
The Milky Way splashed across the sky as if it’d been spilled from a giant bucket, every star glittering like ice in a vast sea of darkness.
She’d never seen anything like it. Not even the triple suns glinting off the black ocean could compare.
“It’s almost unfair that something can be so beautiful,” she whispered, a tear sliding down her cheek.
“It’s bloody heartbreaking,” he murmured, but when Jaci lowered her gaze, she found Gabriel wasn’t looking at the star-swept sky at all.
He was looking at her.
“Happy Solstice, Jacinda.” He touched his glass to hers, his tone soft and somber. “I won’t pretend to know much about it from a magical perspective, but I do know it’s the longest, darkest night of the year, and after seeing you cooped up for so long with the books and the stress and… I don’t know. I thought maybe, just for tonight, we could go somewhere where we could appreciate it.”
“It’s perfect, Prince. Happy Solstice.”
They sipped the wine, Gabriel clearly enjoying the taste, Jaci trying to hide the fact that she was about to cry. And laugh. And cry all over again. Her emotions were a rollercoaster tonight—all because an infuriating, commanding, impossibly sexy vampire had the audacity to fall in love with her.
“Thank you,” she finally managed. “I don’t think I even realized how badly I needed this.”
“The wine?”
“The darkness,” she whispered, as if the word itself were sacred tonight.
Gabriel’s smile faded, and he nodded, brushing his thumb across her lips. “I think maybe I needed the darkness too.”
They finished their wine in silence, gazing up at the stars until Jaci’s feet turned numb and the clouds swept through the sky, ushering in a cold wind and the first few snowflakes that foretold of the coming storm.
* * *
Outside their cozy cabin, the blizzard raged, lashing the windows with heavy, wet snow that quickly turned to ice.
But inside, encased in their own little snow-globe world, the vampire prince unleashed a different kind of storm.
Starting in the shower, where they took their time scrubbing each other clean of the the dirt and renegade rose petals, exploring every slippery curve—first with soap and water, then with hands and mouths.
Later, they moved on to the living room, where they stretched out naked on the bearskin rug before the fireplace, alternating between long, lingering caresses and the feral, devastating intensity Gabriel seemed to love most of all.
Jaci loved it too, her body electrified by his every touch—his hot mouth on her nipple, teeth scraping her sensitive flesh. His dark head between her thighs, devouring her with his tongue. His strong hands pinning her down as he plunged inside, fucking her until her shoulders burned raw from the rug, and the stars she’d seen in the night sky appeared behind her eyes.
She was driving him just as wild, dropping to her knees before him, worshipping his smooth, perfect cock with her mouth while he fisted her hair, desperate to hold on to his control as she stole it away from him one delicious stroke at a time. There were few things she enjoyed more than seeing the primal hunger in his eyes while he watched her sucking him, more than hearing the growl in his throat when he finally gave up that control, his body trembling as he came undone.
Forher.Becauseof her.
Gabriel made her dizzy and happy and gloriously, fiendishly horny, and for the first time in her seven years in this realm—tonight, on the longest, darkest of nights—she almost forgot about all the things she’d left, however temporarily, behind.
But later, as she snuggled into the embrace of the vampire she loved, their bodies exquisitely spent, the fire no more than glowing embers before them, the universe decided to remind her.
No matter how many roses bloomed at your touch, no matter how far out in the middle of nowhere you hid, no matter how perfectly the ice encased you in your pristine, snow-globe little world, the ghosts of the past wouldalwayshunt you down.
And they wouldalwaysmake you pay.
