Page 51 of Awakened Light

“You are so beautiful.” He kissed his way back up my body, collapsed beside me, then pulled me against him.

With a sigh, I pressed my head into his chest and slung my arm over his toned stomach. I fit perfectly under his arm like he’d been made just for me, and me just for him.

The sun had just set, and Thorne and I had spent the entire day walking around the estate in the sun and sneaking back to his room hour after hour for more of the touching and kissing I couldn’t seem to get enough of. Each time we made love, it seemed our connection deepened, and each time it became harder to accept that things with him were only temporary. Next week I’d have to pull myself from his side and force myself back to my island for a life he could never be part of. But I tried not to think about that and instead relished every second we got to spend together.

“Well, shit,” he mumbled against my hair. “The sun went down. I wasn’t ready to stop enjoying it for the day.”

“It will rise again tomorrow, and we’ll spend all day outside by the pool again.”

Thorne let out a sigh and hugged me tighter. “As much as I would love nothing more than to spend the day at the pool with you, Aiden, and Emilia, I promised you I’d show you more of the world while you’re here. And there is a lot more to this world than just our estate.”

“I’m happy here.” I shrugged and kissed his chest. “I’m happy right where I am.”

“Well, I think we could be equally happy and show you some wonders of the world. I think we need to go on a vacation.”

“A vacation? What’s that?”

“A vacation is a getaway from your regular life. We can go somewhere warm and sunny so I can soak up the rays while I can, and somewhere unlike anything you could have imagined. Maybe something tropical. There’s nothing like the Caribbean in Scotland.”

“I don’t even know what that means.” I laughed.

“Which is exactly why we need to go somewhere so you can see it. Get dressed.”

He kissed my head and whooshed out of bed, dressing faster than I could process.

When he stood fully clothed at the foot of the bed, I furrowed my brow. “Slower next time. I want to soak in every inch of that body while I can.”

His deep, infectious laughter flooded the room, and he lifted the bottom of his shirt, giving me a peek of those incredible abs. “Better?”

“Much.” I grinned, then got up and pulled on the comfortable soft dress Emilia had lent me after we’d left the pool.

“Come on. The rest of my family should be up by now, and we need to tell them the news of the sunlight curse. Then you and I are leaving on vacation.”

He took my hand and tugged me down the hall behind him, his excitement palpable as he called for his family to meet us in the living room. They all arrived in seconds, taking their places in the chairs I’d noticed they had seemed to claim as their own.

“Catrain! You’re still here!” Annella smiled. “I thought you went back last night.”

“That was the plan.” I looked at Thorne to finish the rest.

“Last night, I went to take Catrain back to her island where she’ll ascend at the end of the year to take her mother’s place... and powers. Since she’ll be spending the rest of her life there, I convinced her to stay with me for one week and let me show her some of our world.”

“Very cool!” Mark grinned. “You’re gonna love it.”

“And there’s more,” Thorne said with his growing smile. “Catrain already has some pretty cool magic.” He looked at me with a glint in his eye, and I knew he was referring to the way I seemed to glow with every orgasm. “She won’t get full strength to remove our curse until she takes over for her mother, but after Catrain heard what really happened to our clan, she has agreed to lift the sunlight curse from us as soon as she takes power.”

Their eyes widened one by one as they glanced between each other.

“Are you saying we’ll be able to go in the sun again?” Lothaire asked.

“Yes.” Thorne smiled wider. “Next year, our entire family will no longer have to hide from the sun.”

“Holy shit,” Grizella said.

“Oh my God!” Mark squealed. “I couldn’t have picked a better time to be a vamp! Wait.” He held up a finger. “I’m family, right? Please tell me I’m part of the family and get the curse lifted.”

“You’re family,” Aiden said with a nod. “You’ll always be family.”

“Oh, thank God.” He slumped back. “I’d have just died if I still had to live in the dark and you bastards got to play in the sun.”