Blaze (Virtues & Lies 3)

“He saw you come—” She reddens some more at my statement. “—so fucking what? It was fucking beautiful, and if anything, I’m tempted to rattle his brain so he forgets that part.” Big doe eyes peer up at me from behind her thick lashes. “It was magnificent, and we’re definitely trying that again. What did it?”

Fleur grimaces at my laugh.

“Come on, Trouble, thinking about it is making me hard all over again.”

“I don’t know,” she whispers, her hands covering her face. “I’ve never come like that before.”

“Can I tell you a secret?” I stand and turn the water off before I go back to her and help her into the warm water.

“What secret?”

Once she’s sitting in the tub, I strip and get in beside her, pulling her to sit between my legs.

“I’ve never made anyone squirt before,” I rumble. My dick hardens some more, pressing to the small of her back. “It’s hot as fuck. Next time, I’m having a taste.”

“Shut up!” She curls up into me with a cringing laugh. “We can laugh and move on, but it will never mean that I agree with what you did today. Ryan was loyal to you, and you cut him off over feelings he never acted on.”

“Maybe, but I’ll never regret it. My regrets are few and limited. I will never regret fighting for your heart. You will never be a regret.”

“My heart has always been yours…my soul…I’ve always been yours, even when you were gone.”

“Then be mine. Only mine.”

Silence befalls us again while I caress her belly, cleaning her skin. I’m not actually sure she’s awake anymore because her breathing is even, and her body is lax over mine.

I don’t think there’s anyone else in the world who

could be so calm in the middle of this storm. But Fleur really is perfect. She’s everything I could ever want or need. And I won’t part with her. Not ever.

Brushing my pruning fingers through her hair, I flip the hot water on a bit more. It’s starting to cool, and we should probably get out, but I don’t want to. Holding her and making up for lost time is the only need I haven’t sated.

“Everything stopped the moment I first saw you. Everything. It didn’t matter that Christopher had stolen my special-edition Pokémon card and that he was going to hide it. He was a cunt as a child. I used to hate him.”

“Pokémon? You’re showing your age now.” She giggles so lightly that it’s more of a musical lull. “And Christopher still is a dick, and I hate him too. Sometimes.”

“Yeah, sometimes.”

“So, everything stopped,” she says, sitting on my thigh and then turning to rest her ear over my heart. “Carry on.”

“Everything stopped. There was nothing but the need to look and get closer. Like a morbid curiosity.”

“Morbid?”

Her fingers stroke over my jaw, her breaths tickling across my chest.

“Yes, morbid, because I knew you would end me. It didn’t matter how hard I fought to stay away all those years, in the end, you’ve caught me.”

Her body stiffens over mine, and it’s only once I think over my words that I realise how that sounded.

“You never felt like a stranger to me. You felt like a part of me that had been lost, and then you walked in and my being recognised yours. It wasn’t seedy or anything like that. Fuck, this sounds weird.”

“Fate isn’t weird, big man. It just is.” A long, content sigh relaxes her body.

“It’s not fate, Fleur. I don’t know what it is, I only know that it’s not fate. It’s like you’re woven into the fabric of my being.”

Sitting up straight, she closes the water off and then straddles my thighs. Ever the wriggler. It’s her that our daughter takes after with all the moving around.

“That’s fate.”