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“We cannot always be the one to save others. Everyone needs to be saved sometimes. That doesn’t make you weak—it makes you real.”
“Is that the only reason?” Alaric’s breath is warm against my lips.
I can’t help the warmth that tugs the corners of my lips into the beginnings of a smile. “Don’t you know?”
He starts to shake his head, then stops. “Perhaps I need to hear it spoken aloud.”
“Because I love you.” The response is immediate, without a breath of hesitation.
Alaric sucks in a breath and holds it. The way he looks at me with awe and surprise flitting across his features as if he thought I wouldn’t say it. The intensity in his eyes has heat rising up my neck.
“It is a bit terrifying to think I might never regain what I have lost… but I find you infinitely more terrifying. Because only when I am with you do I feel as if I am more than a monster.”
“You are no monster.” I flatten my hands against his stomach, the hard plains of his body tense beneath my touch. “I chose you and would do so again because I love you, every side of you, every version of you—your every strength and flaw because they are all part of you.”
Alaric takes my chin between his thumb and forefinger. “You should forget about me. If I can never go back to being the man I used to be, I may never be able to return your love with my own… not in the same way.”
I freeze. It’s hard to breathe. My throat tightens with emotion. I lower my gaze to the knot of his cravat. Before my thoughts can turn sharp and cutting, I force myself to speak. “It would not be love if I thought you owed me your heart, or anything else, in return.”
Strong arms encircle my waist, and I cling to Alaric, inhaling the comforting scent that lingers on his skin. I lean my head against his shoulder, and his cheek rests atop mine.
He rubs my back absentmindedly. Small circles become longer, then wander to my hips, my waist, then ribs, pausing when he grazes the bottom of my breast.
I turn my gaze up to look at him. His fingers slide to the center of my back and then up my spine. His touch is warm, brushing over the bare skin of my shoulder, tracing a path up my neck. Alaric cups my face, his eyes searching. Studying.
I am hypnotized by the way he looks at me, touches me. The pad of his thumb traces my bottom lip, and my eyes slide closed at the caress.
His lips skim across mine. Tentative and uncertain. He stills for a moment, giving me a chance to pull away, and when I don’t, he kisses me again. His mouth moves over mine and I respond, matching his fervor. Each time he claims me with his lips, is more confident than the last.
When I sigh, he loses the last thread of uncertainty. His tongue sweeps over mine. I slide my hands up his chest and around the back of his neck, curling my fingers in his hair. He shudders against me when my nails lightly scratch his skin.
It is so easy to get lost in him.
Alaric tightens his hold on me, moving the hand cupping my face, around to the back of my neck. He holds me tight, as if he might refuse to let me go. His other hand inches to my low back, ridding even the smallest space between us. Need for him ignites my blood. And pressed against him as I am, I can feel he is equally affected.
He breaks the kiss but lingers, tongue dragging across my bottom lip. “You taste of peaches and honeyed wine.”
A moan escapes me. “Yes,” I say. Though it makes no sense. All the wine in the world couldn’t do what this man does to me. Our chests press together with each of our ragged breaths.
“Would that I had another hour or three alone with you in that cave.” His voice is low and gravelly.
Suddenly, my clothes feel restricting and cumbersome. I let out a shaky breath. “What is stopping you now?”
He groans. “If you continue to test my restraint? Nothing.”
I nip at his bottom lip. “Damn your restraint to the Otherworld.”
I’m about to lean into him again when a howl breaks through the fog. An unpleasant reminder that we are not as alone as either of us would like.
Surveying the revel, I note that no one is paying us any attention, too busy in the celebration’s chaos or finding their own hidden corner of the world. No one stands in the way between here and my tiny cabin. I waste no time and tug him along.
After a few steps, he tugs my hand to get my attention. “I was told to stay where I can be watched,” he says grudgingly.
“Then my watch will have to suffice,” I say.
That is enough for him to relent. His hands skim around my waist, flattening against my stomach, and his mouth dances over my neck and shoulder as we walk. We end up stopping several times in the shadows, pressing against walls as his tongue traces the vein in my neck. The distance to our destination is too far to go without the feel of each other.
Finally, we make it, fumbling our way inside. The latch clicks into place, and we are alone. Truly alone.
