Page 379 of The Black Trilogy

“Why’d you stop?”

“Back then, your first reaction when my lips touched yours was to run. Trust me, you weren’t ready.” He ran his fingers through my hair and bent his forehead down to mine. “I wanted you to want me as much as I wanted you.”

“I’m ready now,” I whispered.

“I’d noticed, Diamond.”

Before he made me lose my darn mind completely, I had one thing I needed to get off my chest.

“Black, I love you.”

My heart thumped as I said the words, and I could feel his answer before he spoke.

“I love you too, Diamond. Always have, always will.” His hand snaked around my back and pulled me tighter against him. “If we weren’t already married, right now, I’d be asking you to be my wife.”

“Just for the record, my answer would be yes.”

He traced my new tattoo with a finger, four words in curling black script on my left side.

“Always by my side,” he murmured.

“You were, you are, and I hope you always will be.”

“Always.”

There had been so many wasted years, and we’d never get that time back. But tonight, Black wrapped his arms around me as I lay next to him, my head resting on his chest. I may have been dead, but at least I’d gone to heaven.

“Diamond, we need to get some sleep. It’s been a long few days.”

His words made me yawn. “I know. I’m tired too.”

I tried to wriggle away so he could go back to his room, but his arms tightened.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“You need to go to your bed.”

“No, I do not. I’ve waited long enough to get you in my arms, and this is exactly where you’re staying.”

“But what if I hurt you?”

“I’ll be holding onto you so tightly you won’t be able to swing a punch. From now on, if we’re in the same house, we’re in the same bed. Understand?”

“Yes, I understand.”

His heart beat under my palm as my eyes closed. This was strange, so strange. But a good strange.

The best kind of strange.

CHAPTER 30

A SOFT KISS on my shoulder woke me from possibly the best night’s sleep of my life. Then another kiss, and another.

“You awake, Diamond?”

I turned so he could see my smile. “That’s the nicest thing I’ve ever woken up to.”

“Better than the time Dan hired a stripper to serve you breakfast in bed on your twenty-fifth birthday?”

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