Page 125 of When Hearts Surrender

The pleasure builds at a rapid speed, the sounds of him slamming against me mixing with my moans and his grunts.

“Oh God, I’m going to come, Maxwell. I’m going to come so hard,” I mewl, my legs tightening, clenching aroundhis backside.

“Come for me, little muse,” he pants in my ear. His hips snap in a punishing rhythm, his labored breaths loud. “I’m so addicted to you. You’re my other half, the one I never knew I was searching for.”

His words burn through me, adding to the fire racing down my spine and gathered deep in my abdomen. I’m standing on the precipice, the pleasure so intense I feel like I’ll die if I don’t get relief.

He presses his lips against my ear, his voice dipping down to a low whisper, as if he’s afraid someone else might hear, even though it’s only the two of us.

“I-I love you, Belle, so damn much.”

My eyes snap open as I hear the words I’ve been craving.

He loves me. He loves me. He loves me.

Tears run down my cheeks, washed away by the water as my heart swells and multiplies in size, the joy and relief pushing me toward euphoria.

He loves me.

“I never knew love until I met you,” he whispers urgently, like we’re running out of time. He thrusts harder against me, but at this second, it feels like we are moving as one.

Those words. I feel like I’ve waited my entire life to hear them. We’re two halves finally reunited.

He crushes his lips to mine again, his finger traveling between us to flick my clit and I explode into a thousand pieces.

“Maxwell,” I cry, the blinding pleasure bathing my body as I melt in his arms, every inch of me belonging to this man who has stolen my heart, my soul…my everything.

He roars his release, his dick throbbing inside me as I feel the heat of his cum coating my insides, prolonging my high.

We move our bodies in unison, our lips tangling, our hands touching, molding, grabbing each other like we don’t want this connection to end.

As we slowly come down from our high, he tips my head back, his stormy eyes staring intently at mine.

“I love you, Belle. Always, now, and forever,” he whispers. “Please remember that. Everything I do is for you, and I’ll do everything I can to protect you.”

My heart swoops and falls, and a shiver travels up my spine. The words are an ancient melody I’ve heard of but can’t place, haunting and achingly beautiful and true.

“Please remember that,” he repeats, his voice hitching.

He holds me tightly to him, our hearts thudding in unison, and suddenly I’m gripped with fear.

Why does this feel like a goodbye?

Chapter 46

I’m trying to delaythe inevitable.

Staring at the somber February skies outside the car window, the clouds hanging heavy, no sign of the sun to be seen, I think back to my confession to Belle two days ago in Austria.

When I told her I love her.

It was the most selfish thing I’ve ever done, but I couldn’t stop myself even if I wanted to.

Seeing her being vulnerable with me, sharing her fertility diagnosis, which was a wound that clearly pained her, realizing how she dealt with all of her troubles in stride, in positivity—it was too much for me.

She asked me if I’d leave her because of her so-called flaws. How could I? They weren’t flaws at all. They were the battle scars of a warrior. They only made her more beautiful in my eyes. And so, I let the vibrant colors inside me override the darkness in my soul. I couldn’t keep the sentiment inside me anymore, one that had been beating against my rib cage, dying to be let out.

I deluded myself—we were far away from the mansion, from the city, from the curse. In a small cabin near Innsbruck, Austria, it was just Silas and Anna again, two people desperately in love with each other. I tried blocking off the guilt for breaking or ignoring almost every stipulation regarding the curse that my father and grandfather put together—falling in love with your wife, confessing your love to each other, the random accidents happening to Belle, the branch shattering the windows.

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