AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I give you my word, Aslan. Right here, right now, I’m okay. I’m more than okay. I’m married to the best man in the world, and I feel so cherished and cared for. I can’t promise that I won’t have moments. That I won’t have nightmares of what he did, but...I vow to you, I’ll talk to you if I need to, and I’ll seek help if it gets too much.”
I touched his mouth with trembling fingers. “And in return, you need to talk to me. You can’t keep running from what happened that night in the storm. You have to forgive yourself for your family’s death. I understand now why that’s so hard. I get the depth of guilt you carry. But...I can’t stand to see you sad, Aslan.”
“I’m not sad. Not anymore. I have you.”
“And you can lean on me. You can tell me things. Just like I know I can lean on you. I want to know who you are. I want to know what you loved about Turkey before everything went so wrong.”
Nuzzling his nose with mine, he whispered, “Okay, Neri. Next time the darkness comes for me, I’ll find you. You have my word. As long as you come to me in return.” Kissing me deep, his tongue stroked mine with lazy possession.
Words fled from my head as I drowned in his eternal affection.
His hips rocked up, his body hard and ready.
His arms banded around me in the tightest embrace, and I gave myself over to him.
We sealed our bargain with another release, another magical moment...
Another perfect consummation.
Chapter Forty-Seven
*
Aslan
*
(Moon in Samoan: Masina)
IT WAS OFFICIAL.
Neri had collared, leashed, and made me hers to the point of embarrassing domestication. I couldn’t imagine living a single moment without her by my side. I didn’t want to be apart from her. I slept on a damn beach for her, covered in horrible sand, and highly aware that as dawn crept closer, people would encroach on our little slice of paradise, and our wedding night would be over.
She’d not just broken me last night, she’d broken me all over again this morning when she cuddled into my side, kissed me good morning, and murmured, “You turned the worst night of my life into the best, Aslan. No nightmares. Only dreams come true.”
I’d rolled on top of her.
I’d been so fucking close to slipping inside her, sand be damned.
But then the sound of a boat engine growled in the distance, and I reached my limit of beach tolerance.
As much as I still despised the sea, I yanked her to her feet, snatched up her discarded bikini, and dragged her into the ocean.
We didn’t speak as we rinsed away the night and swam side by side to The Fluke. It welcomed us back onboard with an innocent rock as if it hadn’t been an accessory to attempted murder last night. Streaks of Ethan’s blood clung to the side where he’d sprawled. Puddles of darkened crimson hadn’t fully dried from where I’d shot him in the leg, and two morbid fingers floated in a sad ruby puddle.
The plastic ties Neri had cut off his wrists and ankles rested unwanted, and the can of Coke had rolled through another bloody mess, painting its way across the deck before coming to a stop against the opposite railing.
Jack would kill me if he saw.
Then again, he’d never know.
Never know what happened to his daughter or what I’d done in her name.
All it’d taken was a shared look, a raid of the spare clothing box below so we both weren’t naked, and Neri and I got to work. I hauled buckets of seawater to do the initial rinse down while she put on rubber gloves and scrubbed with bleach.
I tossed the fingers overboard.
I tried to take the brush off her.
