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“Do me proud?”
“Always.”
She smiled, I heard it in her voice, and that smile cleansed me somehow. Better than confession. It madeallof this right. All of it acceptable.
I was doing this for my woman, for my boy. What other purpose was there for a man like me other than to defend his family? Other than to make the enemies of that family pay?
“I’m sorry you’re spending the first night in the brownstone alone.” I’d been looking forward to fucking her in the big four-poster in the master bedroom.
“I’m sorry too, but I’d prefer you to be doing what you’re doing.” When I started to smile, she murmured, “Guess what I found.”
Wasn’t hard to guess.
A little sheepishly—which was ridiculous because she couldn’t see me—I ducked my head. “What did you find?”
“Master of Dawn.”
My nose crinkled. “You know how long it took my broker to find that?”
“My first work of art? Christ, I don’t even know. It’s good to see it again.”
“I should have realized you’d immortalized me in art a long time ago.”
“My way of trying to get closure.”
“How’s that working out for you?” I joked.
“Badly,” she teased. “I like having it back home.”
“I paid for it.”
She laughed. “Good to know, cat burglar.”
I could feel my eyes twinkling. “You going to be all right?”
“Of course I am. Make her pay, sweetheart.”
“Don’t worry, I will,laoch.”
A sigh drifted from her lips. “I love that you call me that. I don’t always feel like a warrior, but when I’m with you, I do.”
“You were born to reign at my side, sweetheart.”
She fell silent at that, and I let her. I let her process how much I meant that, and then she sealed the deal perfectly by whispering, “I love you, Declan.”
“I love you too, Aela. This is the first night of the rest of our lives, okay?”
“Without destruction, there is no creation,” she murmured.
And while I could have joked about her turning all poetical on me, I didn’t.
Couldn’t.
Instead, feeling a little choked, I murmured, “Aela? Does that mean what I think it means?”
Her laughter tinkled down the line, but at that exact moment, Dunbar began to moan.
“Shit, I have to go. We’ll talk later.”
