His gaze drifts back to taking me in as I get myself dressed. “I wasn’t too rough, was I?” he asks.
I glance at an indention of my teeth still on his arm and flush. “Nope.”
“I feel like my heart is going to explode. It won’t stop hammering. I want nothing more than to stay here with you, catching brief moments of lucidity in between passion and passing out. I want my days and nights to be nothing more than holding you and learning you and talking to you until my throat is raw. I want to kiss every inch of your body and beg you to tellme everything that has ever happened to you in your entire life from the instant you gained consciousness.” He grips his hand to his chest, noticeably blushing. “I love you. I…is this what loving someone feels like? When every last wall disintegrates and there’s no more space left between?”
A shiver rocks me, and I melt back down onto the bed, taking his face in my hands. “I…think it might be. I don’t know. I’ve never…liked someone this much before.”
Teardrops gather in his eyes, and one slips free. “I don’t know how I lived without this. I never want to take another breath without it.” He scoops me up in his arms, holding tight. “Thank you for choosing me.”
Emotion threatens to choke, but I manage to return his embrace and whisper, “Thank you for believing I could.”
Chapter 22
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Wow, what a perfectly normal family breakfast.
Kyran
I’m smiling. Just getting that out there, so everyone knows. I amsmiling.
In the morning.
In front of my entire family.
Which has them all noticeably on some kind of edge.
Well, except for Crisis and Kaleb, who I suspect possess the rare ability to put two and two together.
Settling my wife into her seat beside me, I take my chair and beam at the marvelous spread laid out before us. Toast. Eggs. Bacon. Hash browns.
Why, there are the tools to make a whole entire sandwich here!
What a beautiful day.
I reach for a slice of toast, and my wife smacks my hand, hissing, “You arenotabout to do what I think you’re about to do.”
Ah, where are my manners? “Do youalsowant a breakfast sandwich, dearest?”
Heat sprays itself across her pretty cheeks. Her eyes flick toward our family, which is abnormally silent and watching us, then back to me. Shrinking, she nods.
I get four slices of toast and begin my assembly by mashing a few slices of avocado on top of two. “So,” I broach, conversationally, “what’s up?”
Viktor’s expression blackens as he rises from one head of the table. Looming above everything, he stalks to my back and slaps a yellow envelope down beside my place setting.
I glance at it.
At the capitals. At the bold.
THIS ENVELOPE CONTAINS: MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE
PLEASE DO NOT BEND.
A thrill shoots through me.
Beyond my beautiful wife, I hear Maelin whisper, “Mora, you’re glowing.”
Then Viktor stabs my marriage certificate, leans down against the back of my chair, andgrowls, “What, pray tell, isthis?”
