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“And then there was Noc.” I didn’t know where the words were coming from, why they were finally flowing, but I didn’t dare stop. “I loved him, too, but it was…different. Deliberate. Because of his curse, his inability to love, I knew he was safe. Hecouldn’tlove me, so he couldn’t hurt me. Not the way Jude had.
“But you, Gaige.” I forced a hard swallow. “You were someone I could actually be with. And therefore someone who could actually break me. I put up a wall because it was the only way to protect myself from that heartache.”
“Kost…” For a moment, that was all he said. Even now, I savored the way my name sounded coming from his lips. “Thank you for sharing that with me. You didn’t have to; I would’ve waited just the same.”
Gingerly, I slid the spectacles up the bridge of my nose. “I know.”
Gaige stared at me long enough to stir a quiet heat beneath my skin. “You still haven’t told me if you like them.”
“I love them.” Something fractured in my chest. Something beautiful and wonderful and terrifying, but it was such an intense feeling that I never wanted to let it go. Nothing had ever felt more real in my life.
Gaige remained perfectly still. “Good. I’m glad.”
“I loveyou.” A tear finally slipped down my cheek, but I didn’t dare brush it away. I wanted him to see. I held his gaze and watched as every muscle in his body tensed. As his breath caught and his eyes widened.
“I love you so much it terrifies me.” Slowly, I walked toward him. “And I have for quite some time now. I was so afraid of what would happen if I said it out loud and still lost you somehow.” I dropped to my knees and grabbed his hands. I stole his strength, his compassion, and his way with words as I pressed my lips to his knuckles and allowed all my emotions to keep flowing. “I can’t endure something like that again. So if you’re going to love me, too, it needs to last forever.”
In one swift movement, he snaked his arms beneath my shoulders and yanked me into his lap. Once I was pressed tight against his broad chest, he slanted his trembling lips across mine. I tasted salt and thought that errant tear had finally made its way to my mouth, but when we broke away to breathe, I noticed a wet sheen beneath his eyes.
He pressed his forehead to mine. “I suppose this means I lied to you.”
“How so?” A flicker of panic shivered through me.
“I planned on courting you before calling you myanam-cara.” A wry smile claimed his face. “But you caved after one small gift. I must be good.”
Anam-cara.That one phrase completely eliminated my fears, and warmth infused my body, straight through to my soul. He wanted forever with me. Hepickedme. And I’d picked him. I’d choose him every single day of my life, good and bad, so long as he’d have me.
I couldn’t keep myself from grinning—and I didn’t want to. “I suppose I failed you as well.”
“Dare I ask how?”
My fingers trailed over his collarbone. “You asked for a full-hearted confession, complete with flowers, chocolate, and I believe wine.”
His baritone laugh, so deep and sultry, shook me to my core. When it quieted, he rounded on me with soft eyes full of love. “This is enough.Youare enough.”
Pure euphoria surged through to my fingertips, and I pressed my lips to his. He answered with a groan and pulled me closer, pressing our bodies together so that all I could feel was him. When he broke away, his eyes burned like molten steel as he toyed with the waistband of my trousers.
“I think I also asked for a sinful display ofthis.”
“I can accommodate that,” I said.
Pushing his back against the bed, I undid the buttons of his tunic and discarded it to the side. I ran my hands over his chest, exploring the tantalizing shape of his muscles. Gods, he was beautiful. I brought my lips to his skin so I could taste every inch of him, from the base of his throat down to his navel. He moaned as I neared his trousers and dragged a single finger along the outline of his swollen cock. He twitched against me, and I smiled.
“I feel like you’re taking an unnecessarily long time to get to thedisplay.” Gaige rolled his hips into my hand for effect, ensuring I palmed him in entirety.
“You didn’t set any parameters to begin with.” I undid the buttons holding his trousers in place, and then curled my fingers along the waistband. “That feels like an oversight on your part, and entirely not my problem.”
“It’s about to be your problem.” He arched into my touch and bit his lip, swallowing whatever complaints were still waiting on his tongue. I removed his trousers and stroked the length of his impressive cock, pleased with his string of heated curse words.
“Indeed it is.” I went to remove my glasses when he stopped me with one heated look.
“Leave them.”
Nothing in this world or the next could have pried them from my face.
When I placed my mouth on his length, his language grew even more colorful. I reveled in the velvet slide of him, in the unique scent that was a mixture of lust and something unique to Gaige. I got lost in it, wrapped in the scent of us and our future, and it wasn’t until he forcibly pulled me up his chest that I was able to stop myself.
“Something wrong?” I murmured, my lips wet and swollen and eager for more. He stared at them with such hunger that my insides nearly exploded with desire.
