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Alaric’s hands slide up my sides to my arms, lifting them, capturing my wrists and holding them above my head in one hand. He groans against my neck, warm breath skating over my skin.
My gasp is captured by his kiss as he seats himself fully inside, filling and stretching me with his thick girth. He pulls out then slides back in, sinking deeper, with long, gentle strokes.
We savor the sensation of our bodies moving together, and how our hearts beat in tandem. Soon, need takes over, and his hips move faster. I moan against his mouth as he thrusts in and out, again and again.
There will be a price for our actions tonight, but right now, I don’t care. Anything—everythingwe’ve been through—is worth it for this moment… worth having him inside me, being bound to him, owning his heart and surrendering mine to him—worth this man in every conceivable way.
Breaking away, I drag a series of kisses along his jaw. “I love you, Alaric,” I whisper.
He nips at my neck, fangs scraping my skin, as my core clenches around him. He continues to push me toward the feeling that’s been building and coiling low in my belly. My legs tighten around his waist pulling him closer.
Alaric whispers softly against my shoulder, but I don’t hear what he says, because I’m already falling. My orgasm crashes over me. He thrusts faster, driving himself harder and deeper, until he’s pulled toward his own climax. I feel him thicken, and with one more powerful thrust, he finds his release, and we fall into each other, wave after wave.
He lets go of my wrists, and I bring my arms around his neck, holding tightly to him. Gradually, our fevered movements slow. Alaric rests his forehead against mine, as our chests rise and fall with matching breaths.
Slowly, he unwinds my legs, holding me in his arms, then carries me toward the bed.
I throw my head back and laugh. “I can walk.”
Alaric grins wickedly. “Then I suppose I have not done my job thoroughly enough.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Clara
There’s somuch to take in it’s overwhelming. I knew this would make me live as long as he does. I knew it would mean forever. But I’ve never felt that word before like I do now. It’s a yawning field, stretching out with no end. I can feel time as if it’s a tangible thing.
“Do you regret this, my dear Clara?” he breathes against my skin.
Our limbs entwined, I cling to him, nuzzling my face against his throat, soaking up his warmth, and inhaling the musky, smoky scent that is uniquely him. He makes the world perfect. Even the bed isn’t too small, too lumpy, or crooked. Instead, it and everything else is perfect.
“Never, you ridiculous vampire. I should be offended you even entertained the idea that such a thing could be possible.”
He chuckles and trails kisses over my shoulder and along my collarbone, to the hollow of my throat. “Say it again.”
“Mmm?” I mumble unintelligently, my heavy eyelids closing as his lips travel ever more south. Exhaustion wraps around my mind, my body—but I don’t want to sleep, I don’t want to miss a second with him.
Alaric shifts, rising up, his arms creating a cage around me. Cold air brushes over my bare front. My eyes snap open to find him smiling down on me with a look on his face that I’ve never seen in anyone’s eyes before.
Love, I realize. Pure and selfless love radiates from him. He could never speak another word for the rest of our lives, and I would never doubt for a second how he feels.
Overcome by a sudden wave of emotion, tears spring up, prickling the back of my eyes, but I push them down. It’s almost too much at once, and still, I wouldn’t trade any part of it for anything in the world. My heart feels so full I don’t know how I can possibly contain the sheer amount of love for this man without something giving. Saying I love you opened a flood gate, and I haven’t been able to close it again or slow it.
“I love you…”
Alaric shifts to lay beside me again. I sigh, relaxing into him and wanting to soak him up. Strands of his mussed hair fall across his forehead. His long, dark lashes fan over his cheeks as his gaze comes to rest on my lips.
“I love you, Alaric Devereaux.”
Those words fill me with peace. I have never thought much of love, always considering it a hindrance. My parents married out of love, and it didn’t last. The lives they wanted were vastly different. They thought they could find a way around it, and their love ended up fading with their youth.
Once, I thought I loved Xander, but now it was something else—a familiarity in a small town with little to no prospects and a desire to escape. I never longed for Xander, never craved him. I was little more than a girl clinging to a future I thought I wanted, a future that would have been safe and easy, but it was never love.
With Alaric, it is entirely different. Nothing about being with him has ever been easy. With an uncertain future ahead of us, I will walk forward to whatever it brings as long as we’re together.
I will do anything it takes to protect it, to protect him, and I know he would do the same. He makes my heart sing and brings color to a world that was dreary and empty before he walked into my life.
It wasn’t until he sent me away without so much as a goodbye that I realized I wanted something more, something no one had ever dared to want before, something different. Adventure, risk, a friend who showed me what true kindness is… It was with everything, every action, every mark, that he well and truly claimed my heart.
