“I fell in love with you weeks ago.” I smiled into her confusion. “I dared not admit to myself. When I thought you’d died – I knew then how much I’d come to love, to need, you. In my life. To love me in return.”
Hayley’s returning smile heated my groin and my heart.
“I do love you, Alaric. My heart’s joy, my dragon. I love you.”
“I was so scared you’d still want your divorce.”
Leaning over, my dried gashes cracking open painfully, I kissed her. Delving my tongue into her mouth, I kissed her with all my adoring love, my enduring heart. I loved her, needed her, and not just in my bed. I calmed my raging hormones by realizing neither of us was in good shape for making love right now.
Hayley chuckled, resting her head on my shoulder. “You want your money back?”
Laughing hurt. I held her tightly, yet gently, conscious of her many bruises and aches. “Nah. Keep it. Buy yourself something nice.”
“How about a trip to Greece?”
“I’m up for that.”
Hayley sighed deeply, snuggling into my arms. “Our delayed honeymoon.”
“I like it.”
***
That night, we slept in my bed, true husband and wife. Finally. Only Willow’s grief and the menace of Fiona overshadowed my feelings of absolute happiness. I slept with my fated mate in my arms. Lanokota’s gift to us.
A most precious, extraordinary gift.
***
I woke with the sun shining on my face and Hayley in my arms. She continued to slumber when I stroked her silver gilt hair back from her face and kissed her neck. Breathing in her sweet feminine scent, I marveled at how truly easy it was to confess my feelings. How easy it was to say those three little wordsI love you.
Smiling to myself, at peace with myself, I lay against her while contemplating the vast changes made to my life lately. Damon was dead. He wanted what I have, and paid the cost with his life. Fiona had no other claim without him alive save that of forcing me to relinquish my authority. The only means of her disposal to accomplish this was Hayley.
Hayley was my only vulnerable spot.
I’ll protect her with my life. Fiona will never touch her again.
Laying in my bed, I realized how badly I stank. Dried blood and sticky sweat clung to me in a noisome combination. Wrinkling my nose, I climbed carefully from the bed, not willing to wake Hayley up just yet. She slept on, her lips slightly parted in an intriguing fashion. I craved to kiss them, but that would startle her awake.
I ran the shower, and, naked, examined my injuries from the battle with Damon. As usual, they’d healed quickly, already sealed shut with only fading red lines to show where I’d once had terrible gaping wounds. I stepped into the hot shower and seized the bar of soap.
“You didn’t invite me?”
Hayley, beautifully naked and still yawning, opened the shower door to step inside. Taking the soap from my hand, she lathered up to wash my chest and belly. My cock sprang to attention as she, while smiling up and into my eyes, stroked it to full hardness. The slippery soap slicked my dick up nicely.
I sucked in a sharp breath when she teased my balls with her nails. Kneeling, Hayley scrubbed my legs even as the force of the shower ran down her face and head. Her hair clung to her body as though she was a water nymph from Greek mythology.
“Rinse off,” she murmured, swiping water and her hair from her face.
I turned into the full brunt of the shower, washing away the soap. Dull scarlet swirled down the drain with the remaining lather. When I faced Hayley again, she took my cock into her mouth.
“Holy wow,” I muttered thickly as her tongue turned my dick into a hot, throbbing iron shaft.
Hayley sucked and licked, taking me deep into the back of her throat without gagging. I shut my eyes, my hand tangled in her wet hair, and bucked my hips forward and back in time to her sucking. I groaned as she fondled my balls, toying with them, scratching lightly with her fingernails. Only by my sheer force of will did I halt my approaching climax from spurting my seed into her mouth.
“No more,” I gasped, half choking as I pulled Hayley up. “I want to come inside you.”
Pushing her against the shower wall, I lifted her up with my hands under her buttocks. Instantly, Hayley wrapped her legs around my waist, and planted her tongue in my mouth. Fumbling a little, I inserted the tip of my cock into her pussy and thrust in.
