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Once the last person was gone, Dahlia got up and locked the door behind them. Immediately, the tension between them ramped up. Not a word was said, but she moved around the room, picking up empty bottles and glasses without looking at him. Not that Thane was any better. While he made his way to his feet, he couldn't tear his eyes away from her. He also couldn't figure out a single thing to say. Sadly, Dahlia was done before he could get his brain in gear.
"So…" he tried, hoping she'd have some idea of what came next.
A crash of glass came from the kitchen as she threw everything away. "I don't have garbage bags, haven't bought a clock, and the only real furniture I have is the futon in here and the bed in the bedroom. Well, and my chair. Your stakes are in the corner of it, though."
He leaned over, and sure enough, they were laying there on the cushion. Picking them up, he carried them back to the bedroom to tuck them away in the pocket of his bag. Before he was done, she moved to crawl onto the bed, joining him. For a moment, they just looked at each other, neither one wanting to break the silence.
Thane finally gave in. "How are you honestly doing, Dahlia?" Kicking off his shoes, he moved to sit at the end of the bed, across from her. "I've only been here a couple of hours, and this feels like a lot. Is it too much? Are you trying to keep yourself distracted? Just… I don't know. I want to ask if you're okay after Mei, but that's about the stupidest thing I could ask. I know you're not okay."
"I'm not okay," she agreed, patting the mattress beside her. "A week ago, I had an entirely different future ahead of me."
He crawled his way up to lie on the pillow beside her. "I honestly didn't know what they were planning. That priest told me I needed to go with him for a possible sighting of you two at a coffee shop. Two, Dahlia. You ran; I figured she was in the bathroom or something and you were leading us away."
She just shook her head. "She had a date with a rich guy, and that was going to earn us the last bit of money so we could get out of Texas." Turning slightly, she shifted down the bed to lie beside him. "We were going to go to Utah. Our big dream was to finally be able to get our own place. For too long, we'd been living in hotels or sleeping with our dates. I wanted to put pictures of her on all of the walls, and now I don't have a single one left."
"I'm sorry," he breathed.
She laughed once. "You know, that's the best part about this decade. We were together for six hundred and twenty-one years, and finally, after all that time, people had started treating us like our relationship was real." Her voice cracked on the last word. "And now she's gone."
He didn't even think. Thane simply pulled Dahlia against his chest and hugged her close. "It's not fair," he said softly. "None of this is fair, but I'm hoping we can find a way to stop it. That maybe, just maybe, we can stop the Church, so that the next time you fall in love, it really can be forever."
She shook her head against his chest. Dahlia wasn't the kind of woman to bawl, and she certainly didn't wail, but he could hear the subtle hiccups in her breath and he was sure that the only reason she wasn't looking at him was to hide the tears. Her shoulders didn't shake with them, yet he could feel a slight tremble. This woman was so strong, and seeing her like this nearly broke him.
"And I'm sorry we have to get married," he breathed. "I just don't know any other way to change your name. Fuck, I don't even know if it'll work, but I'm willing to try, and they're too close to figuring it out. That's the only reason I don't think we should put it off."
"I'm not ready," she mumbled against him.
"I know," he assured her. "Shit, I'm not really ready either, but the Church isn't giving us much of a choice." He shifted his hand to smooth down the back of her hair. "At least you know I won't be in your way for too long. In fifty, maybe sixty years I'll be dead."
A little breath of air escaped her lips and Dahlia lifted her eyes to look at him. Sure enough, the tear streaks were visible on her face, and her eyes were just a little too red, but there was a weak smile on her lips. Like this, she was stunning. This woman had the kind of beauty that took his breath away, and most of it was on the inside.
"Are you gonna lose your hair?" she asked, the question seeming to come out of the blue.
Thane laughed once before he remembered that this really wasn't the time. "Probably. My grandfather on my mom's side had this horrible comb-over thing he did. No, it didn't really hide the bald spot. I figure that when mine goes, I'll just shave my head."
"You'd be cute with no hair."
His heart stumbled over itself in his chest. That was not what he'd expected her to say. He almost said something about her having a younger man by then, but couldn't bring himself to do it. He wanted to make a joke to lighten the mood, but couldn't think of a good one. The problem was that he wanted her to like him. Yes, he realized that the timing of this was absolutely horrible, and yet every fiber of his body kept hoping that this thing between them wasn't completely fake. He wanted her to claim him the way Roarke had talked about.
He also wasn't dumb enough to bring it up right now.
"Well, at least I know that my wife is going to stay young and sexy." It was the best he had.
Dahlia just rolled onto her back and wiped the tears away from her face. "She liked you, you know. Mei? She'd even figured out a way to get in touch with you after we were in Utah."
He blew out a heavy breath. "I should have given you the money."
Dahlia just shook her head, the back of her hair rubbing against the pillow. "You didn't know us. You had no reason to care about us. Thane, we were enemies. What you should've done was kill me. That was your job, yet I'm kind of glad you didn't."
"Me too." Moving a bit, he reached out for her hand, wrapping his palm around the back of hers. "I just feel like I got the chance to see what true love actually looked like, and it feels like the world lost something miraculous with her death. What the two of you had was amazing, and I could see it just by the way you looked at each other. Dahlia, you deserved her. You also deserved a hell of a lot more time with her. I fucking hate the Church for taking that from you."
She shifted her hand to reach for his face. "And that is why I will marry you." Slowly, she raised her eyes to meet his. "Maybe we can even make it something to remember."
Then she leaned in.
ChapterThirteen
DAHLIA
