“I do. That doesn’t mean I don’t need the words, Scar,” she said, looking up at me through her lashes. She seemed almost hesitant to admit it, as if needing that validation was a weakness she didn’t want to confess.
I hated that I’d missed it, that I’d neglected something she needed from me when I wanted to be her everything.
I took her hand in mine, shifting it until it rested directly over my heart. “It only beats for you,” I said, leaning down to murmur the words against her lips. “I don’t know if that’s love. I don’t know that love is a strong enough word for what I feel for you. All I do know is if you were ever gone from this world, it would stop beating altogether.”
She hummed against my mouth, leaning closer as if she craved the kiss hovering between us as much as I did.
“I never wanted this,” I admitted. “I was perfectly content in my misery, feeling like a monster. Then came you, fitting all your jagged edges against mine and reminding me what it was to be whole. So yes, Butterfly. I love you more than life itself.”
She stared up at me, reaching up to touch the side of my neck as tears stung her eyes. “And I love you more than death,” she whispered, the ragged sound of a sob catching in her throat making my heart skip a beat.
I dropped my lips to hers, taking her mouth in the way I wanted to take her body.
Slowly. Devastatingly. Until we were one person, fitted together where all the sharp edges once existed.
“I need a ring and a priest,” I said, pulling back from her mouth regretfully.
“Now?”she asked, turning to look back at the bedroom as if to tell me I’d lost my damn mind if I thought I would be able to leave her.
“The next time I’m inside you, I’ll be fucking my wife,” I said, kissing her briefly one last time. I moved toward the door to our suite, turning back to give her a broad grin as I stepped through.
Madison waited on the other side; some girl talk would comfort as well as distract Irina while I found the perfect ring for a woman who deserved nothing but the best the world had to offer.
“Soon,” I said to her before I darted down the hallway, a man on a mission.