Page 141 of Monsters Carve Thrones
I lifted my head and turned to face him fully. “You weren’t,” I said. “You were right on time.”
He searched my face. Then he cupped it, fingers warm, thumb brushing away the tear. “I don’t deserve you,” he said.
“Maybe you didn’t,” I whispered. “But there’s no doubt in my mind that you do now.”
And then I kissed him. It was long, slow, and filled with a genuine kind of affection. When we pulled apart, he smiled, that dimple showing up on his cheek.
“We should light the fireplace inside,” I said, tucking myself against his chest again.
He wrapped both arms around me. “We should do a lot of things.”
“Like what?”
“Like, sleep in tomorrow. Like, make pancakes. Like, never leave this place unless it’s to fly to another beach.”
“Or a mountaintop.”
“Or a lakehouse. Somewhere quiet. Somewhere just for us.”
“You getting soft on me, Vaughan?”
“Never,” he said, kissing my hair.
***
RAFE
My heart wasn’t supposed to work like this.
Not after everything I’d done. Not after everything I’d lost.
But she touched something inside me that I didn’t know was still alive. Something that ached now with how goddamn much I loved her.
She moved through the villa with a kind of grace that I couldn’t get enough of. Her legs were bare beneath the hem of her robe, candlelight dancing on her skin.
She looked likehome.
We’d lit the fire ten minutes ago, and it crackled quietly beside us now, throwing golden shadows across the terracotta tile. The ocean crashed beyond the closed balcony doors. The world was finally still. And she was mine.
She turned toward me and smiled, curling up on the couch, wine in one hand, the other reaching for me.
God, I used to think I had everything. Power. Respect. Control. But it was all hollow without her. My place was here–beside this woman who had every reason to run and never look back. Instead, she reached for me.
“Come here,” she said softly.
I sank down next to her, pulling her into my lap. She giggled, setting the wine down. Her thighs straddled me, her robe parting just enough to reveal the skin I’d never get tired of. But I didn’t rush. Not this time.
I just held her.
“You okay?” she asked, tilting her head. Her voice was quiet, careful.
I nodded, my hand brushing her hair back from her face. “I’m better than okay,” I said. “You want to know something fucking insane?”
She smiled again, and I couldn’t help but stare. “Of course.”
“I’d give it all up,” I whispered. “The power. The money. The empire I bled to build. If you asked me to drop it all and walk away, I would. For you.”
She blinked, lips parting, breath catching just slightly.
