I exhaled quickly with a short laugh. I stepped toward him and put my hands on his shoulder. "Do you promise to stay with me this time? No turning nasty and telling me to get out of your life. No waking up to find your key and a note telling me you are leaving me again. No more breaking my heart?"
Darius wrapped me in his arms and lowered his face towards mine. "I promise to love you, to be a good and worthy husband for you, to adore you. I promise to love and be here for our children, to be a good father to them, to take care of all of you. I promise I am never leaving you again, Mora. Not until the day I die, and even then, I'll haunt your fine ass, making love to you in ghost form every night until you join me in the afterlife."
I laughed. "I saw a movie about a woman being raped violently by a ghost over and over once. It was a bit scary."
Darius chuckled. "I said I'd make love to you, not rape you. You know I'm all about the slow seduction, baby." Darius's hand slowly curved around to fondle my breast. Things tightened down below and I winced, pulling his hand away.
"Slow seduction is not what got me pregnant with Willow, which is why I now have two stitches in my snatch, making any sexual stimulation very uncomfortable," I reminded him.
Darius smiled down at me, his hazel eyes filled with joy, but he moved his hands back to a safe place. "I promise to kiss her all better when you're ready, Mora."
I clenched, cringed, and smacked his chest. "Stop. That shit hurts, you know."
"Sorry," Darius murmured, threading his fingers into my hair. No, he wasn't. His eyes told me he was happy my body was reacting to him already. He kissed me gently, exploring my lips with his for several minutes before encouraging me to open my mouth and kissed me deeper. We kissed until we were breathless and then I stepped back, taking his hand and leading him back to the house.
Darius turned off the light and shut the door. "Steffen will be back tomorrow. I'll bring him over to show him the space and see if I need to organize anything to happen before he moves in."
"Okay," I replied, happy that we were finally together. Yes, a part of me worried and was still hurt, but I wanted to be loved, to be part of a loving family. "How long until you think you'll move in permanently?"
Darius stopped me and turned me to face him. "Baby, I moved in three days ago. I've just been waiting for you to realize." He kissed me again, gentle and tender, before I could react. "I meant it, Mora. I'm never leaving you again," he whispered against my lips.
"Except when you have to travel for work," I reminded him.
"Except then, but I'll be taking you with me when I can," he murmured. "You and the kids can sightsee while I work."
"And when I'm away performing?" I challenged.
"We'll be there too," Darius breathed, his lips brushing over my forehead. "Other than that first time I had Jacob, I've never missed a performance I knew about, Mora. Not even after you ran away. I saw you in Paris, Denmark, and even here in Edinburgh. I just didn't know where you were calling home. I tried to approach you after the concerts, but I couldn't get near you."
Darius lowered his mouth and kissed the tears descending my cheeks. "I've been an ass. I've hurt you every time I was hurting, unable to handle how you made me feel. That's never going to happen again, because I know exactly how I feel about you now, Mora. Even better, I know how I feel without you. Never again will I risk losing you."
I kissed him. Slow and deep and full of how much I loved him. "Let's go to bed, Mr. Rafal."
"Lead the way, Mrs. Rafal."