Nero thrust deeper into me, his face tight with concentration, pleasure, and emotion he was trying not to show.
A confession sat at the tip of my tongue, heavy as a stone.
I wanted to tell him so badly, to end his suffering, to erase the fear from his eyes, to let him see that I remembered everything—that the curse was broken, that this time was forever.
But I couldn’t.
My heart hardened. My resolve tightened like a fist.
I had to leave him in the dark, just as I’d been left for so long. He needed to think me vulnerable, still mortal, still in need of his protection, while I gathered my strength and plotted my revenge.
“I won’t let you go, love,” he vowed, embedding himself deep within me. “I’ll protect you with my black soul, every twisted piece of it.”
I gazed up at him through my lashes. “Will you still be with me if I betray you like Morrigan?”
“Even if you betray me a thousand times over, I’m still yours,” he said fiercely as he moved again, fucking me brutally. “That will never change.”
“And I’m yours.” I renewed my vow. “Forever.”
“And if I wronged you...” he started, his voice heavy with guilt.
I knew what he meant. The kidnapping. The forced marriage. Stealing me from the sunlit world into his darkness.
He couldn’t reveal the details directly, so he spoke in riddles, in implications.
And no matter how he had wronged me at the start, his love since had burned everything else away. Erased every grievance.
I’d died and escaped into oblivion, free of memory. But he’d remained. Had to watch me die, over and over. Had to carry the weight of every loss while I forgot. That kind of agony, stretched over millennia, would have broken any being. But for me, he endured.
What woman would not forgive him? Who would not love a man like that?
Our loyalty had survived time, death, rebirth, every tragedy.
And yet, I still had to keep my truth locked away.
It hurt. Like swallowing glass.
But it was necessary.
“All is forgiven,” I promised, framing his face with my hands. “Whatever you did, I forgive it all.”
I sealed his lips with my kiss, pouring everything I could not say into it.
He growled in gratitude, lust rolling off him. He pounded into me, hitting every right spot with brutal force, as if he was bringing me to war.
I threw my head back in ecstasy.
His rhythm turned frantic. I met him thrust for thrust, our bodies crashing together with burning need. Pleasure built to an unbearable peak.
“Come for me, baby,” he ordered.
I exploded and shattered and took him with me. As my pussy milked his hard shaft mercilessly, he roared my name while chasing his release.
Afterward, he cleaned us with a whisper of magic. Then he gathered me in his arms and carried me back to the tub.
The water was still warm, still scented with herbs. He settled us both in it, my back to his chest, his arms locked around my waist. His cock still rock hard.
I felt safe for the first time in days. Weeks. Lifetimes.
