Page 37 of Bound

I breathe through the sting, through the ache, through the ugly truth and the beautiful one waiting behind it.

“Yours.”

For a second, he doesn’t move.

Then his mouth crashes down on mine.

Hard. Possessive.

Exactly what I need.

I kiss him back with everything I am. Every lie. Every shame. Every ruined beginning.

Lucian lifts me from the rug and carries me to the bed. I’m feather-light in his arms. He lays me down on my stomach. My face is pressed into the soft covers. His clothed body grazes my naked one.

He presses a kiss to every place the belt kissed before him. Each one softer than the last.

My eyes burn into the sheets. His palm smooths over me one last time.

I turn my face enough to look back at him.

The room is blurred at the edges. He is not.

“Thank you,” I say.

His expression shifts, heat returning, deeper now. Darker.

He crawls over me, his body covering mine, his mouth at my ear.

“You were never just one night.”

I close my eyes. “No.”

“You were our first night. First night of our forever.” His lips brush the back of my neck.

There’s that word again. Beautiful and bloated with that dangerous poison: hope.

I’m starting to believe that we’ve left behind the battles of our past—that the messy, fairy-tale ending where I become a mafia queen and he is forever tied to my family might actually come true.

I lean into him, pulling him closer. “I’m ready for forever, our forever.”

“Me too, baby,” he responds with a strained laugh. “First, we just need to conquer a monster.”

“Good thing I know a dragon slayer,” I reply, “someone who could tame me.”

“Tamed,” he says, shedding his clothes. “And ready to claim.”

He gathers me into his arms with a growl. Despite everything, a giggle escapes me as he nips at my neck, nuzzling me with his chin. “I’ll slay any dragon that comes between me and my princess.”

I wrap my arms around his neck, locking eyes with him so we’re connected in every way possible. I close my eyes, turning my head with a gasp as he fully enters me.

If he can conquer my demons, what else can’t he overcome?

CHAPTER SIX

Lucian

I want all this to be over. I want Erin in my arms; our house filled with laughter and the chaos of her family. The brooding boot steps of mine.