…
Reyna awoke with an arm around her waist. She rolled over to find Beckham perfectly asleep behind her. A statue carved of stone. Adonis in the flesh.
She had always wondered if vampires slept. She had never seen Beckham do it. Of course, he had a bed in his room back at the penthouse, but beds could be used for multiple purposes. She was well aware. She traced the contours of his face, allowing herself to forget for this one moment the horrors of yesterday and the new nightmares she would face when she left this room.
“Keep doing that and we’re never leaving this bed.”
Reyna smiled. “Is that supposed to get me to stop?”
His eyes slowly opened, revealing their dark depths. He captured her hand in his, brought it to his lips, and kissed her.
“How are you?”
She shrugged. “You’re here.”
“Yes.”
“I didn’t know you slept.”
“Sometimes,” he admitted. “We don’t need to as much. Just like eating. It rejuvenates us, though we can go much longer without.”
“It’s not fair that you look exactly the same when you wake up, and I look like a bomb went off.”
He tugged her closer. “Does it matter what you look like when you still have a sharp mind, quick wit, and fragile human heart when you wake up?”
“And here I thought my heart was hardening.”
“I dread that day. Your struggle, emotion, and humanity are your best qualities. It makes you who you are.”
“It also makes all of this so hard,” she whispered. She hated admitting how she felt. That she knew she would have to face the day once they left this bed.
“Be glad you feel at all. For so long, I did not.” He frowned. “You asked me once what changed me. Why I decided not to continue on as I had as a lord. I didn’t give you the whole truth.”
Reyna frowned. “What do you mean?”
“The camera came second. The truth is that I know what you’re going through, because I lost a sister.”
“You had a sister?”
He nodded once. His eyes were very far away. “Bronwyn and I were very close. When I was changed, I changed her as well. Brought her into this world.” He paused with a sigh. “Made her my second.”
Reyna covered her mouth. Oh God.
“She was murdered in a turf war. I mourn her death every year. She was my only real family. On the fifteenth anniversary of her death, I went to the home we grew up in. I sat there and watched a new family on the property—a young brother and sister, playing together—and I remembered that innocence. I wanted to find that again.” His eyes bored into hers. She hardly breathed. “I started taking pictures soon after that, searching for it. I joined Elle hoping this rebellion would reveal it. But it wasn’t until you arrived that I knew you were everything I’d been seeking. You were then and you are now.
“I love you,” Beckham told her. “I have loved you since the first time I saw you, since you defiantly bared your neck to me while you trembled, and as you fought for the oppressed every way you could, and every moment you see me for who I am. I love you. I will always love you.”
“I love you, too,” she released on a breath, and then she kissed him. Because no other words could do justice to the way her heart expanded.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Telling Laura about Brian destroyed any lingering happy feelings. Drew had been the one to utter the words, but Reyna had held Laura’s hand. She’d been there when Laura fainted and collapsed backward. When Laura came to, Reyna sat with her while she sobbed and held her arms around her stomach, their child growing inside of her, oblivious to what might happen to their father.
She would have sat there all day if she wasn’t required to report to Sydney’s meeting.
“I’ll stay with her,” Drew promised, taking Reyna’s seat.
Not that Laura was responding to anyone. Still, he took her hand in his.
