“You love me?” I whisper, breathlessly.
“I fell in love with you before I even met you,” he says, tugging my robe open, I whimper when he traces his hand over my breasts, plucking my nipples between his fingers. “I wasn’t going to take this job, but the second I saw your face in that file, I knew you were mine to protect. I couldn’t make sense of it at the time, but it was love at first sight.”
I push up and slam my mouth against his, tightening my hold against his shoulder as I pour everything into the kiss. “I love you,” I say, emotions choking my throat. “Make love to me, Roarke. I want to feel you inside of me. All of you.”
There are no words traded between us as he strips, then his hands are on me, touching me everywhere. I can’t get enough of him. All those rugged muscles, firm and inked. Strong. Perfect. I’m panting and trembling for him when he slides histhickness into me, moving slowly and gently, holding me tightly against him as he rocks his length into me.
A chroí.
He murmurs the words against my skin as he moves inside me, and this time I need to know. “What does it mean?” I whisper breathlessly.
He pulls back to look at me, eyes blazing with emotion. "My heart," he says, his voice rough. “A chroímeans my heart. My beloved. That's what you are to me, Elena.”
The words break something open inside me. Tears blur my vision as he kisses me deeply, still moving inside me with slow, deliberate strokes.A chroí.
My climax tears through me, shooting through every nerve ending in my body. I bury my face into his neck as pleasure shudders through me, causing me to clench greedily around his cock. Moments later, he follows, painting my womb with his cum.
We fall into a comfortable silence, wrapped together as we stare at the park below and the bright city that surrounds it. His phone vibrates from the pants he just stripped off, so he reaches down to grab it, not bothering to hide the screen from me as he opens the message.
It’s from Matteo.
Why the fuck did I just get a message from Alexei Balshov telling me that he is the newpakhanand that I owe him a favor for saving both you and Elena’s lives? Call me right fucking now.
Roarke chuckles as he shoots back a message that he’ll call tomorrow to explain everything before tossing the phone on the nightstand, seemingly unbothered by my brother-in-law’sthreats. My heart twinges a bit from the trouble I have no doubt I brought the man.
“Are you sure you’re happy with me?” I ask, rubbing a hand over his pec and circling his nipple. “I’m not sure I’m worth all this trouble. I’m just a boring PhD student who spends most of her days buried in some book. I don’t do anything exciting, and I’m the least interesting of my sisters—”
His mouth crashes onto mine, cutting off my words and kissing me until I lose my train of thought. “You’re exactly what I want, Elena,” he rasps against my panting lips. “I love you for who you are, and I know for certain that life with you will never be boring. Not as long as we’re together. You’re mine,a chroí.You’re exactly what I need. Who I want.”
I nod, dropping my head back to his chest as my eyes move back to the window and the beauty of the night before closing them. And tonight, I finally allow myself to dream of a future I could have never imagined before him.
Epilogue
Five Years Later
Elena
“We’re late, aren’t we?”
I knew it was a bad idea to stop for candy, but the boys couldn’t stop asking for it on the way to the party. It was pretty awkward walking around the store in a cocktail dress and a tux but neither my husband nor I was willing to deal with fussy kids who didn’t get the treat we’d promised them.
“Relax, baby,” Roarke says calmly, sliding a hand around my waist as he carries our two-year-old son with the other. I hold our four-year-old son’s hand, who is too lost in the chocolate he’s eating to care that we’re arriving late to a party.
“The invitation said that the party starts at four, but it’s almost six,” I tell him as we walk to the front door of Sofia’s and Matteo’s mansion. It seems that everyone’s already here, judging from all the cars parked in the driveway. We’re the last ones to arrive. “Why did you insist on going to the store in the opposite direction, Roarke?”
He chuckles, leaning down and brushing his lips over my forehead. “I’ll tell them it was my fault and take all the blame,” he says, letting go of me to ring the doorbell.
“I’m not throwing you under the bus, even if it was kind of your fault.” I take in a deep breath and slowly let it out. I don’t like being late for anything, and the fact that we’re nearly two hours late has me nervous. “Everyone with kids knows you can never make it on time to a party.”
Yes, I’ll blame the kids. My big sister, Sofia, seems to have a soft spot for them and will not be upset if it’s their fault.
My heart jumps when the door opens since I’m expecting a butler. Instead, I’m met by my sister’s grinning face. “You made it!” she beams, throwing her arms around me. “Come on in. Everyone’s here already.”
“It’s the boys,” I blurt out as she pulls me inside. “They’re the reason we’re late.”
She stops to look at me and laughs. “Nicely played, Elena, but I’m not mad that you’re late.” She pulls me through the wide foyer and down the hallway, then stops in front of the ballroom door. “Close your eyes.”
I turn to stare at my sister with surprise before turning to glance at my husband. “W-what’s going on?”
