Page 178 of His Forced Bride
Not the man who terrifies enemies and commands absolute loyalty, but simply the man who loves me.
"I dreamed about you last night," I tell him, my hands sliding down the hard planes of his back as I spread my knees and let him settle against my pelvis.
"What did you dream?"
"We were old. Gray-haired and wrinkled, sitting in the garden while our children played at our feet."
"Children? Plural?"
"Three of them. Two boys and a girl."
I can see them clearly even now—dark-haired children with Yuri's eyes and my stubborn chin.
"The girl was the youngest, and the most dangerous."
Yuri's smile is feral.
"She would have to be, to survive in our world."
Our world…
A year ago, I thought of it as his world, my father's world—a place of violence and power that I was forced to live in.
Now I understand it's ours because we make it ours.
We're partners and equals, and he makes me understand more every day.
"She'll be beautiful," I continue, lost in the vision.
"Beautiful and deadly, with men lining up to court her and you threatening to kill every one of them."
"I will kill every one of them."
"Even if she loves one?"
"Especially then."
His hand moves to my throat, fingers gentle but possessive around the column of my neck.
"No one will be good enough for our daughter."
"You weren't good enough for me, according to most people."
"Most people don't matter."
"No," I agree, pulling him down for another kiss.
"They don't."
His lips greedily crush my mouth as his hand applies soft pressure to my neck.
My nails rake across his skin as his hips grind into me.
It's so close to being perfect, but then if it were, how would he ever improve upon it?
And he does, every day.
Every moment with him is better than the last.
