And for the first time, Erin sensed her mate’s exhaustion. Her brows pulled and she bit her lip, reaching up to stroke his hair. He’d been locked away since he’d arrived in the Golden City, seeking his brother’s help to rescue her from theMevirax. That was what the other women had told her, who’d learned it from their mates.
Even knowing that he’d be put on trial for returning, he still did because she’d been in danger.
There had always been the threat of death lingering over him. Erin couldn’t imagine the strain it must’ve put on him, especially considering that he believed their relationship was over. She remembered the way he’d asked her not to reveal their matehood, telling her it would make life difficult for her.
Always, he’d had her well-being in mind, and that knowledge cut her deeply. He’d been caring for her all along, though she’d perhaps not realized it…and now she only wanted to care forhim.
“Come,” she whispered. “You need rest.”
His grip loosened as she pulled him towards the bed she’d been sleeping on. She hadn’t had much sleep either. Most nights, she’d tossed restlessly without him beside her.
She drew him down beside her and he looked up at her, his eyes flickering over her features, as if he needed to memorize her all over again.
They lay side by side, the late afternoon sun gently drifting down the walls of the room as they stared at one another.
“Did you mean it?” he murmured finally.
She knew exactly what he was talking about.
“That I love you?” she whispered. She ran her hand through his hair. It didn’t look like it had grown at all since she’d cut it. That moment seemed so long ago now. “Yes. I love you, Jaxor.”
That intensity she loved in his gaze flared to life as she pressed closer, bringing their foreheads together because she knew it brought him comfort. Winding her arms around him, she felt his thigh come down over hers, tucking her in place.
Though their position was relaxed, her heartbeat was thumping wildly in her chest. She knew that Jaxor could feel it, that he could possibly evenhearit.
“Even if you’d been exiled,” she whispered, “I would have gone with you.”
His brows drew lower as his lips parted. “Tev?”
Leaning forward, she hesitantly pressed a small kiss to those lips, watching him as she did. He made a rough, startled sound in the back of his throat.
“I would have followed you anywhere, Jaxor,” she murmured. She took his large palm, trailed it up her pale blue dress—hearing his breath quicken as she did—and rested it on the flesh of her growing belly. “Wewould have. And we would have been happy anywhere, as long as it was with you. I know that.”
“Luxiva,” he rasped.
But she didn’t let him finish. She leaned forward to give him a proper kiss, a long overdue one, one that hopefully conveyed everything that went unspoken between them: her regret, her apology, her love, her hope for their future, her relief…her happiness.
Need was growing between them. Desperate, aching need. They’d been without one another for too long. That time was stretched between them and Erin wanted to make it disappear.
When Jaxor’s hands grew bold on her flesh, she slipped off her dress quickly as golden beams of sunlight slid across the bed. Jaxor groaned, moving over her between her spread thighs, undoing the laces on his pants, his cock springing forward from the confines.
And then Erin gasped when he drove inside. It was sublime pleasure, but it also felt likerelief, to feel him this way again. This moment was more about reconnecting than it was about sex.
“Yes,” she breathed, spreading her hands across his back. He still had a long-sleeved tunic on and all she wanted was to feel his skin, so she pulled it off, revealing scarred golden skin, every inch of which she’d already memorized.
He wasn’t close enough. Even plastered against her bodyanddeep inside her, he wasn’t close enough.
Jaxor tilted her head back and claimed her lips. His kiss, just like always, made her head spin, made the whole world seem to disappear. And Erin clung to him. Even now, even after he told her he’d been pardoned, that it wasover, she still felt anxious that she might lose him. But she figured that it would take time for that feeling to disappear. This time had marked both of them, but Erin was looking forward to their future, one they would fill with memories not related to theMevirax, the Jetutians, the trial—but rather memories of their family, their friends, their new life together.
Their mating was quick and filled with need. When Erin felt her body tighten around him, when she cried out softly—trying to hold back a scream—as her orgasm washed over her, she felt Jaxor jerk. His groan and ragged breaths followed as heat exploded inside her and when she looked up, her flushed lips parted, their eyes locked.
Like magnets, she remembered.
Jaxor collapsed, though he’d managed to roll before he crushed her with his bulk. His breath rustled her hair when Erin wedged her face into the space between his neck and his shoulder, one of her favorite places. Her hands were still gripped tightly around him, as if he would pull away.
“I love you too,rixella,” he whispered. “Always.”
And Erin knew they still had so much to discuss, so much more to talk through. But that afternoon, she fell asleep in his arms completely happy for the first time since…ever.
