“How the hell did you even know what I was thinking?”
Louis grinned, and it was a slow curling of his lips, which started a slow curling in my center as I squeezed my thighs together. “Because I know you. You were wild but empathetic. You always felt everything so strongly. I knew when you ignored my call that a part of you would be eaten up with guilt. Just like I know that that guilt hasn’t gone anywhere.”
We’d been apart for so many years, it was easy to forget how well he did actually know me. We’d basically grown into our fundamental personalities together. Louis knew me on a level that no one else ever could. But that still didn’t mean he got to boss me around.
“You might know me, but that doesn’t mean you get to tell me what to do. That’s not how this relationship works, mate, and you need to get with the program real quick.”
Years ago I would’ve stormed off at this point because I was all about the dramatic exit, but I was older and wiser now, and knew that talking through our issues was much better than simply giving in to my anger. Of course, Louis never made it easy for me.
He leaned in closer, his breath washing across my cheek as he murmured, “You love it when I boss you around, and you know better than to think that’s going to stop. I told you this on the dance floor, and then again after that: you belong to me.” He said those last four words slowly and deliberately, and each one sent me spiraling with need.
Fucker.
He was right, and that drove me crazy. But I loved the dominant side of him. It actually turned me on more than anything else.
Louis seemed satisfied with my response, despite the fact that I didn’t actually say anything. No doubt it was written right across my face.
“Come on, love.”
He started to move, only pausing when he realized that I wasn’t moving with him. Immediately, concern slid across his face. “What’s wrong?”
“You’ve never called melovebefore.”
And, yep, I was that girl, having to bring something up because I needed to know. He’d never called Regina love either. I’d never actually heard him tell her he even loved her. He just said she made him happy that he chose her, and that he was finally part of our family. I could only assume that he told her he loved her in private. So I never asked. But now I was asking.
He regarded me carefully for many long moments, supernaturals surrounding us, the noise so overwhelming that it almost felt like I’d been dropped into the middle of a rock concert. And yet I felt like we were alone, just the two of us, in our bubble.
“Trying to get me to admit I love you?” he finally asked, a stupid smirk back on his face.
I shoved him a little, because the asshole was starting to embarrass me. “No, that’s not what I’m doing at all. It just … took me by surprise, okay?”
Everything was taking me by surprise this week. The last month, actually.
I turned to leave, but he captured my face with both hands before I could. “I’ve already told you that you’re mine, that I will kill any man who touches you, that I choose you now and always, that I will risk the very darkness in my soul because I cannot stay away from you. I will risk the world, something that I have never done before, just for you.”
He had told me that, that and so much more. I knew I was an idiot. And I was too old to think that I needed to hear those three words from Louis. I mean, “I love you” was such an overused phrase that it barely had any meaning anymore. It was the other things he said, his actions, and the emotions running through our bond that told me everything I needed to know about how he felt.
I placed both of my hands against his chest. “I feel the same,” I whispered. “I choose you too.”
Turning again, I was once again walking, and once again I barely got two steps before Louis’s hands were on me. He swung me up and into his arms. His lips pressed into mine, hard and unyielding. Desire coursed through me as I tasted him. Against my mouth he said, “I love you. I have always loved you. I will always love you.”
Even though we had both agreed that those words weren’t necessary, he still gave them to me, and I almost embarrassed myself by crying like a little baby all over him. Somehow I managed to keep most of my emotions at bay as I said, “I’ve always loved you too.”
Regina’s face flashed in my mind, and I knew for a second she was there. But for the first time, she wasn’t between us.
We got back to business after that, but there was a newfound closeness between us. A comfort that told me some of the hurts from the past had finally washed away. Not forgotten, but no longer important.
The crowds parted for Louis, as usual, and he moved us toward the main platform where the council was waiting. “The official vote isn’t for a few hours still,” he said, “but I really should do the rounds, chat to some of these stubborn council members, and hopefully sway a few more to our side. I was pretty distracted yesterday and didn’t get to see most of them.”
I shot him a rueful smile, since I knew I had been that distraction. Despite his words, he didn’t move to the stage, and I could sense his reluctance to leave me alone. It was near impossible for him to do the job he needed to do with me hanging off him, though, so I waved him away.
“Go,” I said. “I’ll be fine. Have you forgotten who you’re talking to?”
I could more than hold my own, even with the ancients. He tilted my chin up with his fingertips, his eyes heating as he caressed my lips with his own. “I’ve never forgotten. You’re a little spitfire when cornered. I still have scars on my ass.”
I laughed. “Oh, I know.” His ass was too perfect not to stare at, and I’d had him very naked for an entire night. “I probably still owe you an apology for that. But, in my defense, it’s not very smart to scare a sleeping witch. Especially one who has just learned a fireworks charm.”
He narrowed his eyes on me. “Stay out of trouble, Tee. The fate of every supernatural in here rests on that fact. You get hurt….” He trailed off, but I felt the surge of hot energy along our bond. I felt the darkness.
