The corner of his mouth twitched. His hand found mine beneath the blankets. Threading our fingers together. “I know there are things we’ll need to talk about.”
I nodded. There absolutely were a great many things, some of them more complicated than others. One of those things involved the fact that eventually he would grow old and I would not.
“We’ll get there,” he said quietly. His thumb brushed across my knuckles. “We don’t have to solve everything tonight.”
Relief coursed through me.
“I just know that...” He stopped and brought my hand to his mouth, brushing his lips over my knuckles. “I feel alive again.” Conrad swallowed. “I didn’t think that was possible.”
I knew exactly what he meant. After loss, people talked about moving on. Moving forward. Healing. They made it sound orderly, as though grief followed instructions. As though love politely stepped aside when it was finished. Real life wasn’t like that. It was messy and complicated. People carried old love with them while finding new love. The two things existed together. I had seen it happen countless times. Yet somehow Conrad still seemed surprised by it.
“I love Jade,” he said.
The honesty of it made me love him even more. “Of course you do.”
“I always will.”
“I know.”
His shoulders loosened slightly, as though he had needed permission to say it. As though he had worried I wouldn’t understand. If there was one thing two hundred years taught a woman, it was that love wasn’t finite. It didn’t run out. It simply changed shape.
“I don’t want to replace anyone,” I said.
“You aren’t.” His eyes met mine, and the vulnerability I saw there nearly undid me. “I just want to keep moving forward.”
I smiled. Then reached up and touched his cheek. “Then we shall.”
The tension left him in a visible wave. “I’d really like you to be my girlfriend.”
Laughter bubbled out of me. The words were so unexpectedly normal. So wonderfully ordinary. After everything we’d survived, his solution was boyfriend and girlfriend.
I adored him.
“I should warn you,” I said.
“Oh?”
“I have absolutely no idea how to date a human.”
He grinned. “Well, that’s good to hear because I’ve never dated a vampire.”
“Then we’re equally unqualified.”
“Perfect.”
I traced lazy circles on his bare chest. The steady beat of his heart thumped beneath my fingertips. “I’d like to try, though,” I admitted.
“Try what? The terrifying commitment of being my girlfriend?”
“Exactly.”
I nuzzled into him, inhaling his scent. Eventually my eyes grew heavy. Normally I was wide awake at night, restless and alert. I rarely found sleep outside of my casket. Yet tucked against Conrad’s side, I felt something I hadn’t experienced in a very long time. Peace.
Within seconds, I fell asleep in Conrad’s arms.
26
CONRAD
