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My ears rang as I shuddered and jerked, my cock rippling with instinct to fill up my chosen one. Jet after jet of my cum, ensuring she might be able to wash that part of me away, but she’d never erase the spiritual connection. The part of our union that only burrowed ever deeper, sinking into our blood, scribing permanent promises into our souls.
Only once I’d endured the final throes of my climax did I blink back stars and realise what I’d done.
“Shit.” With a wince, I let her jaw go, and just like every time I lost myself in Neri, I buckled beneath horrendous shame for being so rough. “Iyi misin?”
She stretched and practically purred in my stranglehold of a hug. “I love when you talk to me in Turkish. I’m going to learn everything about your heritage and language. I want to be fluent. And one day, when your asshole of a father dies—hopefully tomorrow by some helpful twist of fate—you’re going to take me home with you.”
I groaned and nuzzled into her hair. “I would love nothing more than to take you there, safely.”
“Then we’ll make it happen. One day. You’ll see.”
She snuggled against my pillow, my cock still inside her even as her eyelashes danced on her cheeks and sleep crept back into bed with us.
“Neri...” I shook her gently. “Do we need to talk about what we just said? The fact that we’re still messed up from yesterday?”
“We lost each other for three hours, Aslan.” She shuddered and buried closer. “That’s the longest I ever want to go. And, as long as we make smart choices and look out for each other, then there’s no reason it can’t be the only separation we’ll endure.”
I did my best to trust her.
I did my damnedest to believe that the loss we felt would be a one-time thing. But as I relaxed behind her, those nasty black whispers were back.
I couldn’t stomach the thought of withdrawing from her. I didn’t have the strength to separate. While I was still inside her, we were linked and joined as one.
“I love you, Nerida.”
She gave me a sated moan. “How do you say ‘I love you with all my heart’?”
“Seni bütün kalbimle seviyorum.”
Snuggling against me, she whispered, “Seni bütün kalbimle seviyorum.”
I smiled and kissed her neck. “I’m keeping you forever, Neri. I hope you understand that.”
“I understood it the moment I found you.” She yawned and closed her eyes. “Rest now. Then we’ll go for a swim.”
I watched over her as she drifted back to sleep.
I closed my eyes, chasing her into dreams that I hoped were happy.
But those black whispers found me again.
They twisted dreams into nightmares.
We were together.
We were officially engaged with her parents’ blessing.
Nothing would go wrong.
It wouldn’t fucking dare.
So why did my nightmares scream that something terrible was coming?
Chapter Six
*
Aslan
*
(Heart in Vietnamese: Trái tim)
“NEE...ARE YOU HOME? OH, CRAP! SORRY.”
Nerida launched out of my arms, pushing me away as she dove under the water, her body rippling with crimson and sunlight as she swam to the other end of the pool and grabbed her towel from one of the boulders.
My ribs still ached from Jack’s kicks and parts of me remained stiff with healing, but the cut on my lip and temple had thankfully knitted together enough that swimming felt good instead of stinging.
“Zara?” Neri leaped out of the pool, raining droplets everywhere as she quickly snapped her towel around her blood-red bikini—the same bikini she’d worn when we’d slept together for the first time on Low Isles.
Quit it.
Remembering fucking Neri on that beach definitely did not help deflate my erection.
The erection Neri summoned by kissing me when she should’ve been practicing her breath hold.
“Hi, Neri.” Zara hunched her shoulders.
Wringing out her hair, Neri blinked as if she couldn’t believe her eyes. “Wh-what are you doing here?”
Zara folded deeper into herself, her blonde hair catching bright sunshine, her sunglasses huge and round, hiding most of her face. “I-I didn’t mean to interrupt.” She threw me a look, standing stiff and furious in the pool. “Hi, Aslan.”
If I had a knife, I’d probably throw it at her. “Zara,” I snapped.
She flinched and looked away.
Neri marched bravely toward her ex-best-friend who stood on the threshold of the garden, her hands wrapped firmly around the handlebars of Neri’s bike.
The bike that Neri had been clinging to, fighting nausea and the aftermath of rape, when I’d found her at the party. The bike she’d completely forgotten about as I’d yelled at her for being drunk, then taken her to The Fluke, not knowing what she’d just endured.
She’d replaced her phone from losing it that night but had never mentioned going back to get her bike, almost as if the thought of returning to where Ethan had hurt her wasn’t worth it.
“You came to return my bike?” Neri asked.
