He is a miracle…
He stared into my soul, his cornflower-blue gaze magnificently disarming.
“Paris…”
He crushed his lips to mine, carrying me away on the happy clouds of his kiss.
Goodness. His kisses truly were an escape, a way out of this pain.
I could kiss you forever…
I had to tell him.
I had to confess these new feelings, the compulsion suddenly overwhelming. Honestly, I knew I should wait to understand my feelings better, to sit with them in case they were misplaced.
Sometimes lust and love skirted closely to each other, confusing the mind and the heart.
Yet I broke the kiss and counted to three.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, his hands dropping to his sides.
My right hand found the back of his head, fingers curling in his lovely silver hair. This was it. This is where everything changed.
Forever.
Hesitantly, my nerves butterflies trapped in a jar, I set the words free.
“I think I’ve fallen in love with you.”
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
PARIS
My mega pricked ears weren’t sure if they’d heard him correctly.
“What did you say?” I asked, ice in my veins.
His lips curled into a gentle smile. “I think I’m in love with you.” He pressed his forehead to mine. “I’m sorry, but I had to tell you.”
My tongue was tied into knots, nerves dragged over hot coals, I swallowed a ball of barbed confusion.
What the hell? He didn’t just say that, did he? The vampire king didn’t just declare his love to me? No. How absurd. He’d got himself confused by the things we’d done, by that kiss just now.
Stupid me. I should keep my lips to myself.
This thing between us was undeniably a form of attraction, as I’d come to accept. But not love. That was over in the realm of impossibility, not here in this palace or anywhere in this lifetime.
I wouldn’t allow it. I couldn’t, and I didn’t feel the same, even if it kind of burned me to deny it.
No. No love here, only attraction. They weren’t the same things. Loving anyone, let alone the vampire king, wasn’t in the cards.
Right?
“I ache for you,” he whispered, forehead still glued to mine.
Oh, shit. Oh, shit.
Oh. Shit.
