“When did you know you loved me?” he asked.
“It took me longer.”
“I noticed,” he said with a knowing smile.
“Honestly, I don’t know when the exact moment was. It just happened. But I think I started to have feelings for you the same night. When I found out that you had protected me and Quynh, had saved me, it unlocked something inside me that I tried to keep shut for so long. And no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t lock it back up again.”
I leaned my head to the side, looking at him. How could I have ever thought that I hated him? That seemed unimaginable to me now.
“I’m going to be so furious if I just got this and I lose it because of Artemisia,” I said.
“You and I will stop her. It’s fated.”
His fingers moved over to my face, tracing my jaw, down the line of my neck, across my collarbone. “I am going to explore every inch of you. I want to know every curve, every hollow, every freckle, every scar.”
“That last one will take a long time,” I warned, and he laughed.
“When I explore your scars, you will give me the story of each one.”
I propped myself up and began running my fingers through the hair on his chest. “Do I get to do the same?”
“You may explore my body to your heart’s content. But perhaps now we should sleep. There will be much to do tomorrow.”
“Do you want to sleep?” I asked incredulously.
He nodded seriously. “I am very, very tired.”
“So much for that incredible stamina.”
I giggled when he poked my waist, and then I became aware of a delicious sensation. “The part of you that can’t lie? It says you’re not tired. And I thought you needed a few minutes.”
“So did I.”
It delighted me that I had that effect on him. “Good. Because I am owed many, many nights’ worth.”
He pulled me up to his lips. “I promise to spend the rest of this one making it up to you.”
Chapter Sixty
We made love twice more before finally succumbing to sleep, and then I woke him up early in the morning for another round. And every time I found completion, it felt like dying, but in the best possible way—as if I temporarily left my body. It was total bliss.
“Why don’t people spend all their time doing this?” I asked him after. I was again lying on his chest while he caressed my back in soothing, swirling patterns.
“Because they have to do silly things like eating and working,” he answered.
Both seemed entirely pointless at this moment. “I fear that you have created a monster. That I am going to become insatiable.”
I felt the laughter rumbling in his chest. “I am always here to satiate your needs, anytime that you would like. You really are the woman of my dreams.”
“More accurately, you’re the man I brought into my dreams.”
He laughed again. I propped my head up so that I could look at him and said, “It’s hard to believe that I used to be frightened of this. Letting someone have this much power over me.”
“If it helps, you have even more power over me.”
“I don’t think that’s possible.”
His eyes twinkled at me. “I promise you that it is.”
