Page 346 of Hateful Games

Our eyes lock across the room and I’m pinned by their intensity.

The world disappearing when his voice grips me in a trance.

“My beautiful Rose, don’t look so surprised. I could never miss the most important day in your life, especially since I’ve been waiting for a very long time to see you shine like this. But I’m also here for a selfish reason,” he admits with a small smile, making my breathing pick up. “I wrote something for you. Though, I should let everyone know I’m nowhere near as good as my wife, but for her, I’m going to try.”

Collective sighs of awe go around the room.

But our locked gazes never stray.

It’s just me and him.

“I was a man who never believed in love. Until one day, I sneaked into a fiery and the most stunning girl’s bedroom. She had eyes that snared me and red lips that slayed me. With every barbed word, she cast me under a spell and I knew I had met my match. Like a boy crushing on a girl he didn’t want to admit his feelings for, I made her cry. Except, she wasn’t a girl you messed with.” He chuckles low, our mind traveling to the past. “And a week later, she taught me a lesson. In that moment, I decided she was going to be mine forever. For years, I secretly obsessed over her, I watched her, I ached to learn everything about her. The real her that she kept hidden.

“The world saw a hardened girl with a closed heart, I saw the daydreaming girl with her nose buried in a book. The emotionally scarred girl who was hurt by the ones who were supposed to protect her and yet she was still fierce. I saw the girl who wanted to be seen and loved. I saw my future. I thought I wanted to make her bow, instead she brought me to my knees. I fell in love even before I knew what love is. She just didn’t know it yet but, in her eyes, I saw she felt the same but was too stubborn to admit it. She called me her villain and for the longest time, I was. Little did she know, every time we were together, I felt like her hero who wanted to slay the demons for her. But nothing in our story had ever been conventional. In the end, it was my fiery Rose who fought and slayed mine.”

He pauses with a deep sigh, voice breaking as if it’s too much while his handsome face is blurry as tears fall down my cheeks.

“I am so glad you didn’t listen to me and said no when I stupidly asked you to call off our wedding, Rose. If you had, I would’ve missed out on the best thing to ever happen to me. I would’ve lost my single chance at love and a family. You’re my soulmate. I love you so much. Take me back because I can’t stay apart from you anymore. Please, Rose. Please.”

I run across the room.

He meets me halfway, catching me in his warm embrace.

I crush my lips against his and it’s like coming home. My tears mixing with his.

“I love you, baby. I was always coming back to you. You will only ever own my heart.”

He sighs, his strong arms a brand around my waist as he slants his mouth to kiss me deeper. I never want to come up for air.

Catcalls and hoots fill the room, but I pay them no mind as I gaze into Nova’s loving gaze. “Heroes never excited me. I want a villain. My villain. One who will ruthlessly fight the world by my side. One whose world begins and ends with me. One who loves every part of me, lifts me up and fucks me like there’s no tomorrow,” I whisper for his ears only. “Be my villain, Nova. Be mine.”

“I don’t want to be your villain anymore, Rose. I just want to be yours.”

“You’ve been mine since I was sixteen.”

One hand seizes the back of my neck, and he vows, “This—us—is forever.”

“Forever.”

Chapter Ninety-one

Nova

Rosalie and I cross the threshold of the hotel room and I’m pushing her against the wall before the door even slams shut.

Her sweet laughter teases my lips as I bend to ravage her mouth.

I haven’t stopped kissing her since we settled in the back of the cab. A whole fucking year without her taste, the shape of her curves against my body. I’ve been drowning without her and I can finally breathe after what feels like an eternity. Yet I wouldn’t change anything for the world because this has never felt more right and pure. We’re no longer bound by the shadows of our pasts and monsters hiding in the dark.

She’s mine again.

Because she chose me.

My gorgeous wife chose to come back to me. I’m going to spend the rest of our lives making her not regret it.

“I’ve been dying to have you like this in my arms again, Rose,” I roughly confess against her lips. Her greedy hands wandering and pulling at my clothes. “Dying to slide inside you, feel your heat surround my cock. Desperate to make love to my wife.”

“Me too,” she moans when I rip her silk dress in the middle. “I’ve missed you so much, Nova. Every innocent touch made me ache for you. Take me. Fuck me. Show me how much you love me, hubby. I’m going nowhere.”

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