Unchained Beauty (The Deadly Beauties Live On 5)

This is why I couldn’t be strong any longer. Where the hell is my journal?

“I didn’t want you getting yourself killed for me,” I grumble, searching through all the damn ledgers that look like my journal.

Why the hell did I put them on the same table my journal is spelled to return to? They all look exactly like it, and it’s not popping into my hand with the summoning spell I’m using because I’m too drained from the double cross-continent trips.

“What are you looking for?” she asks just as I give up my quest to find my journal and walk toward her on the bed.

Her eyes bounce up to meet mine, and I shove her back before coming down on top of her. She wants to be mad at me, but she can’t be. It’s been the design flaw from the beginning, because she’s never hated me like I wanted her to.

And for the first time in too long, I’m thinking about the day after the war.

She kisses me. Hard. And I forget why we’re even bothering to talk when I’ve waited so long and fought so hard against her, only to finally have her right now.

When she moans into my mouth, I push her legs farther apart and slide into her, relishing that small hitch in her breath as she rakes those nails over me again.

For a little while longer, I forget there’s another world to even think about. We still have time left to worry about the war. We still have time left to worry about what happens next.

Right now, I just want to lose myself in her the way I’ve dreamed about for centuries.

Chapter 23

ELLA

A stupid smile is on my face when Slade kisses my shoulder from behind me, and I finish typing out yet another text to Chaz. Everyone is relocating for the night, and we’re setting a few magical bombs in the homes where Hannah will hopefully still attack.

I say we but I mean they. Because I haven’t moved out of Slade’s bed, and I won’t until this moment is shattered. It’s always shattered, so I’m waiting on the inevitable.

“I really should find my journal,” he grumbles, dragging his lips over my shoulder again until he’s kissing the bottom of my jaw.

I’m not really sure how long we’ve been in his cabin. The one time I raised the window, I heard the sounds of the camp all celebrating the day’s victory the same way.

“Why do you need your journal?”

He kisses the top of my head instead of answering me, and I turn in his arms, soaking in the moment while it lasts. I’m always waiting on him to push me away, but the fear is slowly passing the longer he lies here with me.

I don’t know if I’ve ever seen him still for this long, other than that time I spent all night healing him.

When our lips connect, he gives me a kiss that makes me wonder if it’s even the same man. It’s almost a reverent, worshipful kiss.

He breaks the kiss when someone knocks on the door, then opens it a crack. “What?” he asks.

“Just checking in to make sure you’re okay, since you hadn’t checked in on the group message,” Kya says quietly.

“I’m good. You?”

“All good. Chaz is staying here with me tonight, since the Lokie warned Ella,” she tells him, and I close my eyes as Slade stiffens next to me. “Some of the others may also crash here, since Hannah hasn’t been able to locate us.”

Slade is glaring at me. I can feel it without having to see it.

“That’s fine,” he says, his calm and cool tone complete bullshit, because I can feel the anger radiating off him.

Damn. Well, the sweet moment was fun while it lasted. No take-backs.

She shuts the door back, and I open my eyes to indeed find Slade glaring at me.

“To be fair, this was just getting good. You were going to tell me about all the ways you imagined fucking me,” I remind him, causing his lips to twitch, even as he fights to restrain the rare grin that wants to emerge.

“Talk,” he commands, propping up on his arm beside me.