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Lifting her off my length, I spin her around, pressing her steaming body against the freezing tile as I enter her from behind. Aurelia’s tight as a vise this way, and my release races down my spine. Reaching around, I clutch her lush breast in my hand and move my other down to play with her pretty little clit. Pinching her nipple and clit at the same time, I wrench a scream from her as she comes again, ripping my orgasm from me. My groan is muffled when I sink my teeth into the flesh at her shoulder, just shy of breaking the skin, earning me a shuddering whimper.
Gently, I pull out, turning her so I can kiss her soft lips. Then I do what I should have done before and take care of her. Thanking the Fates for giant water heaters, I leisurely help wash her hair and body. It takes all my effort to be gentle, because something is eating at me, and I figure we both know what it is.
Shutting off the water, I step out and pluck the fluffy towel from its hook. I dry her off, wrapping her in the thick cotton like I wish I could have last week.
You should have stayed with her, I scold myself as I roughly yank the other towel from its perch and wrap it around my waist. She got taken because you left her behind. What kind of soldier are you?
Who knows what happened to her in those seven days? We found her nearly naked, preferring to launch herself off a cliff than face whatever lay behind her. None of that could be good.
Aurelia was semi-manic after her brief flying episode, and it took nearly an hour to get her to phase back. Maybe it was the trauma, or maybe it was because it’s been forever since she’d last phased. In that hour, she told us everything—or what I hoped was everything, given the lack of clothing when she escaped.
As she rambled, she paced, her jittery hands flailing as she spoke, her flames coating her body as she burned the grass beneath her feet. All the while, I got my first good look at her clipped wings, and it took every ounce of strength I possessed to clamp down my rage.
I thought I knew everything there was to know about Aurelia Constantine, but I had no idea how wrong I was—had no idea that something so vital had been ripped from her, too.
And her wings aren’t the only thing Iva has stolen from her.
The way she told it, Iva was under the impression she could remove the Aegis side of Aurelia’s abilities. The mere mention of this had my blood running cold. Hell, it still does. Because if Iva did remove it, one leg of Aurelia’s protection is dust.
And if she didn’t?
Aurelia’s Aegis could return at any time.
She could hurt someone.
Kill someone.
But more? Neither of us know what it means for her visions.
I’m still working up the courage to talk to her about our next move when she puts a hand on my arm, halting my search for a blow dryer.
“Stop, baby,” she says, staying my hands as they raid the last cabinet. She knows something is still bothering me, and it doesn’t take a psychic to figure it out since I’m slamming the cabinet doors like an idiot. “If you want to know something, just ask. If you want to tell me something, just tell me. Whatever it is, I can take it.”
I can’t look at her. I don’t want whatever is on my face to make her lie to me.
“Did anything else happen in there?” I croak, not wanting to know but asking all the same. “Anything that you didn’t want to say in front of the others? Like why you escaped wearing only your underwear?”
Asking these questions is the most moronic thing I can think of. If her answers are what I fear, I’ll be going back to that compound to murder anyone who so much as touched her.
“No, baby,” she replies, squeezing my arm so I meet her gaze. “There was a soldier who tried to get frisky, but my last act as an Aegis fried him from the inside out. No one but Iva touched me.”
The anger that throbbed through me slides away. “My bloodthirsty wife. I like it.”
“It’s a part of my charm,” she says with a grin. “And wife, huh?”
Latching onto the soft cotton, I rest my hip against the counter as I pull her to me. “We’ve been bonded for a hundred and sixty years, Gorgeous. Might as well call you what you are to me. After almost losing you, I want it all. I want to call you my wife. I never want us to be apart. I am in it, and I need you there with me.” Moving my hands to her face, I cup her jaw and meet those beautifully odd eyes. “If you want the party and pretty dress, you can have it, but it doesn’t change the fact you’ve been my wife for a very long time.”
Lucien might have been her husband once upon a time, but our bond eclipses any claims they made to one another. In our world, that marriage was annulled the second I accepted those rites.
It’s just taken this long for her to join me.
And yes, it’s fast. Of course she might balk at the idea of us moving at warp speed.
But I have to be honest with her.
A tremulous smile stretches her lips, and Aurelia traces a finger down my scars. “I want the party and the pretty dress. And a ring. A big honking, sparkly, competes-with-the-sun-sized ring. But later. Deal?”
The joy that hits me at her easy agreement nearly takes my breath.
