Blaze (Virtues & Lies 3)

I turn my back to him as he drapes it over my shoulders and picks me up again.

“Godparents are there for a reason,” he laughs as he carries me through the trees.

This side of the lake is a little more unkempt and wilder. The trees are thick, shielding us from the direct heat of the sun. The flowers aren’t fragile stems but hardy bushes dotted with berries.

Casper sets me down on my feet. The thick blanket laid out is soft, and as he stands to his full height, towering over me, I can’t help but smile.

I don’t understand it. How he can take my breath away and leave me speechless while stealing all my smiles.

“Oh, Trouble,” he breathes. “What I don’t want to do to you all the time.”

“Yeah? What do you want to do to me now?”

“Are you sure you want to know?” Although it’s a question, he’s already taking me down to the ground with him.

My heart is pounding and pounding. An excited current courses through me, bringing my every pore to life as his fingers stroke over my face. I sit on the blanket between his sprawled legs, crossing mine as he kisses me again. Nothing like the kiss we shared in the sun.

This one is hungry and desperate, full of a need that pulls at my insides. Fingers knot in my hair while I hold on to his thick, corded arms.

“Casper,” I beg as his hands fall from my hair and he pulls away. My body is already bereft by the insignificant distance between us.

When he pulls back, I look down at my lap to find his hands hovering over it, holding a smallish navy box.

“I never gave you a push present.” His chuckle takes me off guard.

“A push present?”

“Yeah, remember? You asked if your engagement ring was a push present, and I said no. I’ve done my research—now I know what they are.”

“I was joking.”

Casper knows I’m not into all those things. The only jewellery I wear are my rings and the necklace Lucian gave me on our wedding day. Not even my earrings are fancy.

“I know, but you’re my wife, and even if I am a dick for the most part, I want to spoil you.”

“Big man…”

When I don’t move to take it, he holds it up a bit higher, opening it himself.

“It’s a bracelet,” he tells me, pulling it out of the box.

His eyes hold mine as he dangles it in front of my face. It’s stunning, a silver crescent moon with a daisy on its tip. It’s jewelled like the one on my necklace, except one diamond petal is fluttering over the moon along with some etched ones.

Casper turns it over, and as I read the small inscription on the back of the moon he says, “I should’ve told you I love you that day. Like you needed to hear. It’s the only thing you’ve ever asked me for. The only thing.”

I read the inscription over again: He loves me. Always.

“You didn’t hate me, so…”

“You’re my moon, Trouble. Without you, nothing works. Nothing makes sense. And I have always loved you—every day I love you so much more than yesterday and nothing compared to tomorrow. Every day, Fleur. No matter what. I love you.”

Christ, he knows how to annihilate me. For someone of such few words, he knows how to spoil me with them. And if I couldn’t love him more, if it was impossible, the way I feel right now is nothing short of a miracle.

The truth is that as much as I desperately wanted someone to love me, he wanted someone to love too.

When I hold out my wrist, he clasps the thin chain keeping the pendant in place.

Twisting the moon round so I can read the inscription again, I murmur, “He loves me.”