Page 112 of Princess Avenged

“I love you, Crusher.” Vulnerability flickers in her eyes. “I think I’ve loved you for a very long time, even if my stubborn nature wouldn’t allow me to see it, never mind admit it.”

I stare into her eyes, truly unable to speak, and unsure of my ears.

“All your talk of duty and rules…” She smiles. “Your code and your rules made me see you as nothing more than a rule-follower. Rigid. And I thought you were trying to control the others, to control me too.”

I absorb her criticism. It’s fair.

“But I was wrong,” she says. “Or at least wrong about your motives.”

Conflicting emotions swirl in my mind, as I fight to understand what she’s saying.

“Crusher, I see the truth now. All your actions are motivated by doing what’s right. Even if it’s not the popular choice, you always choose right over wrong, good over evil, and you will always protect those you love.” She slides to the edge of her seat, her legs moving breathlessly close to mine. If I drew mine together, I’d trap her thighs fully between mine.

“But that doesn’t make you rigid,” she says. “It makes you noble. It makes you a good leader. It makes you someone I admire. And it makes me love you very much.”

“What? Do you mean?” I can’t process this. “Does this mean you forgive me?” That was the best I was hoping for.

“Of course I do.” Her gaze drops. “The more important question is, can you forgive me?”

“Oh, Ana. There is nothing to forgive.” I pull her into my arms, sliding her ass onto my lap and cradling her, as I look into her eyes. I want to do a million things at the same time. I want to tell her how much I love her. I want to keep talking. I want to kiss her. I want to touch her everywhere. I want to show her the entire world. But most of all, I want to make love to her.

“But I am sorry.” She shakes her head. “I was the one who was rigid, and I treated you horribly. When you killed Timur, you thought you were saving my life. You thought you were doing what was right. And not telling me—you did that to protect me, too. To keep me from fearing you, hating you. To keep me from leaving Freetown, and exposing myself to Mariano, to Rasputin, to a demon.” Her hand strokes my cheek, setting off a million eruptions inside me.

“I know you thought Phil was dead when you left him on that rooftop. In fact, it now sounds like he was dead. When you left his body behind, you were thinking of me. If you’d died too—” her voice breaks “—not only would my heart have broken, we wouldn’t have ever known what happened. And the demon would have me.”

My heart expands with so much joy I fear it will literally explode. The reflected light from the pool flickers in her gorgeous eyes, and I see our future flickering there too. I want to ask her if she also sees it. If she will consider a lifetime with me and the others.

But then she licks her lips, and I see the promise of a much more immediate future.

Using one hand to draw her lips toward mine, I slide the other between her legs, stroking over her damp heat, every part of me desperate to get her out of these clothes.

Chapter

Forty-Eight

Ana

“Are you sure about this?” Crusher asks against my lips, between kisses.

After his initial, passionate, desperate kiss, his lips have turned tentative. So has the hand that’s stroking me through these infernal trousers. Although the light friction is driving me insane with need.

“Yes,” I say on a hiss. “Wait.” I lean back. “Am I sure about what?” We can’t afford to have more misunderstandings between us.

“About having sex.”

I nod, and then his eyes turn worried.

“Actually.” He shakes his head. “Are you sure that you love me?”

“Very sure.” I slide my fingers into his hair and look deep into his eyes. “I love you Crusher. I love you so much my heart wants to burst out of my chest so it can pump next to yours.”

Our lips crash together, and they spar and dance as we work to devour each other. I tug on his t-shirt, trying to remove it, but he’s so much stronger, so much bigger than I am, so I stop trying to direct the action.

As we kiss, as we touch, as we claw at each other’s garments, somehow Crusher’s talents remove every stitch of our clothing, leaving us both naked, me lying back against the partially reclined chaise.

One of his legs kneels between mine, and the other stays on the floor as he kisses me. Crusher’s being so careful, so tender, and as much as I want to feel his full weight crushing me, his thickness filling me, I also don’t want to rush this. I want to relish every second as we show each other what we’ve just verbalized—physically manifesting our declarations of love.

My hands explore the muscles of his back, delighting as they flex and stretch in response to my caress, while his hands seem to touch me everywhere at once.

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