Page 203 of Sweet Venom
She smacks my chest teasingly, laughing. “Jude!”
“What? I’m giving you different memories in the place that tried to break you but failed.”
She faces me, wrapping both her arms around my waist. The way she looks up at me with that trust and love and complete adoration makes me want to shield her from the world.
To go back to the past and slay all her demons. To reach into her nightmares and kill the monsters that make her grow smaller.
She doesn’t have them as often now, and she’s no longer self-conscious about me seeing her in the throes of one. If anything, she wants me to hold her after them, burying her head in my chest and falling back asleep like that.
Violet has the type of soft, kind, and sometimes fiery personality that keeps me on my toes. I honestly refuse to remember my life before her and can’t imagine it without her.
“Thank you.” She smiles. “I’m glad I don’t have to face that closet. Saved you a panic attack.”
“Don’t say that. I don’t only love you on your good days, sweetheart. I love you more when you feel safe to be vulnerable with me.”
“Who are you, and what have you done with my stalker who used to hate me to bits?”
“You turned that hate into love, sweetheart.”
“I did?”
“Yes. You seem to have a lot of power over me.”
“Do you hate that?”
“Not if it’s you, no.”
“Good. Because you have power over me, too, so we’re equal.”
“God, I love you.” I stroke her cheek. “I don’t know in which ditch I’d be in if you weren’t in my life.”
“I don’t know if I’d still be alive if you weren’t in mine, Jude.” She gets on her tiptoes and kisses my cheek. “I loved you when I thought people like me don’t deserve love.”
“I’ll spend the rest of my life showing you how much you of all people deserve that love.”
And then I’m kissing her. Because I can’t stop kissing her.
Looks like I need to marry her soon.
Make her my wife.
My partner.
And the light in my otherwise dark world.
THE END
