“Answer the fucking question.”
“If that’s what you want, then yes.”
“Liar.”
“All you’ve known is a prison. Now that you’re free, I won’t put you in a different set of shackles.”
Rhys kisses my forehead. “Your brain has to hurt from the nonsense that swirls around in there.” He kisses the tip of my nose. “How can you see yourself as a shackle, Charlotte?”
“I’m giving you your freedom.”
Up goes that single brow. “You can’t gift me something that was never yours to give. Cupid owned my soul. I could have gone anywhere after he pulled me from the void.”
Confused, I say, “But you came here.”
“Curiosity compelled me to knock on your door.” He releases me to smooth his palms over my curls. Run them over my shoulder and down my sides, settling his hands on the curve of my hips. “I stayed because of you.”
I rise on my tiptoes and brush my lips over his. “Thank you for knocking on my door, Rhys, twice.”
“Thank you for loving me, Charlotte.”
“That was my pleasure.”
“Damn right, it is.” He sweeps me off my feet. “You know I love you.”
Laughing, I say, “Now I do.”
“I love the hell out of you, Charlotte. The void, the darkness, that wasn’t torture. Being separated from you was unbearable.”
I press my palm to his cheek. “I hated every second we were apart.”
He releases a long exhale, a scowl fixed on his face. “When you pieced me together, you did a hell of a job, sweetheart. You gave me some serious fucked up inclinations.”
“You’ve done fine so far.” I rise on my tiptoes and kiss him. “The rest, we’ll figure out.”
“That we will.” He sweeps me off my feet, literally. “I missed you.”
“I missed you, too.” I bite the inside of my cheek, then ask, “This is crazy. Like, what do we do now? What’s first?”
He nods at the top of the stairs, carrying me toward them. “First, I fuck you because I can’t wait much longer to get inside you.” We reach the top landing. “And tomorrow, we start the rest of our lives.”
“Sounds like the perfect plan to me.”
I wish my parents could have met Rhys. I wish they could see me happy. To see I’m loved and safe. After so many years, the details of them have faded from my mind, becoming a faded dream. But I think they would have liked him. Ihopethey would have liked him. My dad would have gotten a kick out of him because he is protective of me. And my mom… She would have loved how sweet he is beneath his ferocious exterior.
The same man who threatened to skin Jason is the same person who lays me on the bed and covers me with his body. He kissesevery inch of me, demanding nothing. Gives everything. Holds my heart as if it’s the most precious treasure in all the world. Allows me a level of control over him no one else on this earth will ever have. And when he roars my name, and I cry out his, I finally understand what ‘forever’ means. Because with Rhys, that’s what we have—a forever love…
Signed, sealed, and delivered by Cupid himself.
THE END…
…of this story, but Cupid’s work is never done.
