The look in his eyes is so full of hurt and pain, and I wish I could take it all away.
“But I need to know,” he says, his forehead leaning against mine. “Did you mean it?”
What does he …? Oh.
My cheeks instantly turn red as a beet.
“I … I …” I can’t even say it out loud. I could say it in front of all those people. But when it’s just him?
“I understand if it was a lie to—”
“Kiss me,” I say.
It takes a few seconds to register, but when it does, he instantly smashes his lips on mine. An explosion of fireworks goes off in my heart, butterflies fluttering in my belly, making me feel like I have wings.
His kisses are sweet and tender but so dominant, like he wants to devour me whole, and I wouldn’t even mind.
When he stops for a moment of air, I know for sure, and I whisper, “I love you.”
His brows twitch. “No one has ever said those words to me,” he says, his voice low and gravelly, like he’s both utterly confused and intensely turned on by the idea. “I’m not a lover. I’m a fighter. Someone who hurts. Who tortures. No one loves me. I was born to kill.” He clutches my face with both hands. “Tell me why.”
It’s almost like he doesn’t believe me. Like he couldn’t fathom deserving love.
“You chose me. You chose my happiness over your own honor … your own life,” I reply. “And that … means everything.”
His face softens, and for the first time ever, I don’t see him as the man who stole my virginity or my heart.
I see him as the man who gave me his, willingly, knowing it would cost him everything.
I see him as the man I could die for because he did the same for me.
“I love you,” I say, letting the rain pour down on me without a care in the world. “And no matter how much I tried hating you, I can’t.”
A filthy smirk forms on his lips, and a short but raunchy grunt that pushes all my buttons spills out. He plants one hand firmly on the small of my back while grabbing my chin with the other, then smashes his lips on mine.
He only pulls away for a second, leaving me desperate for more. “Say it again.”
“I love you.” Every time I do, it becomes more natural, more like it was always supposed to be this way.
He grunts in a satisfied way, making goose bumps spread on my skin. “I like it, Kitten. I like it a lot.”
I bite my lip and purr against his beard. “I might grow to like you calling me Kitten.”
A devilish smirk forms on his face as he pulls me closer. “Good. Because you are … mine.”
Soren
After April’s taken care of my wounds with some supplies on board the ship, we sail back to the mainland, and with the last remaining money stuffed away in April’s bag, we got a shoddy flight back to her homeland. We were lucky the villagers handed her bag back to her.
I’m reluctant to be back on the soil where the House also stands. Tobias will not be happy with me being back here.
“What are you thinking about?” April asks as we sit on a bus together.
“The House,” I reply.
She looks up at me while twiddling her thumbs. “Do you want to go back there?”
Is she worried I might leave her?
I lift my hand and run my index finger across her cheek. “I go where you go.”
She puts her hand on top of mine. “I don’t want you to regret it.”
I lean in. “I do not regret anything when it comes to you.” I raise a mischievous brow, which makes her giggle in such an attractive way that it makes me want to eat her out right here on this very fucking bus.
So I lean in and plant possessive kisses on her cheek and neck until she pushes me away.
“Stop,” she whispers. “What if people notice?”
“I don’t care,” I groan into her ear, touching her between her legs.
She swats my hand away. “Wait until we get off the bus.”
I sigh out loud with frustration as my dick was already getting hard. I thought torturing people and fighting to the death was hard, but being denied the very thing I crave the most? That’s the hardest thing I’ve ever had to resist.
“When will the bus stop?” I ask.
“When we get to our destination,” she replies.
“And where is that?”
She looks up at me while rubbing her lips. “Home.”
I frown. “You mean your home.”
Her cheeks turn all rosy in the same way they do when I kiss her, and it makes my cock twitch. “Our home.”
I bite my lip as I wrap one arm around her shoulder. “Our home?”
“Where else are you going to live?”