She smiled. “Kekevir.”
“Will you ever forgive me,rixella?” he rasped, bringing his hands up to cup her cheeks. “For the lies, for the way I treated you when I first brought you to my base, for theMevirax? And for everything else in between?”
“I already have, Jaxor,” she said softly, truthfully.
He stilled.
“And will you forgive me?” she asked quietly.
“Forwhat?” he rasped.
“For believing Tavar,” she said, her lips pressed into a solemn line. “For doubting you, for thinking the worst.”
“Luxiva—”
“For not telling you about the baby. For making you think that…that I was giving up on you, onus. And for almost completely messing up your trial. There’s a lot I’m sorry for.”
“What are you talking about?” he asked softly. “You are the reason I got pardoned in the first place. Do you not realize that?”
Erin inhaled a slow, ragged breath. “Can you forgive me?”
“Tev,” he rasped. “Tev, rixella. Of course I forgive you.”
She let out a shuddering, relieved sigh, another weight lifting off her shoulders. Forgiveness was the only way they could move forward.Move on. Together.
“Thank you,” she whispered. He tilted her face up and she gave him a wobbly smile.
“I do not even know how to start making the past lunar cycle up to you,” he confessed to her. “I think about it constantly.”
She tightened her arms around his shoulders. “Then how about we make a deal?”
“Rebax?” he questioned, interest shining in his gaze.
“No more trying to make it up to one another. I propose that we start fresh. Everything wiped clean. All of it.”
Jaxor’s swallow was audible. “You…you would do that?”
“Absolutely,” she whispered. “Of course, we can remember all the good bits still. Like getting drunk on Otalian Brew during that storm—”
“Yougot drunk,rixella,” he murmured, his lips quirking.
“Or kissing you for the first time,” she continued, making him growl. “Or spending that night in the hot springs. Or those nights we spent around the fire just talking. You taking me to see theLopitaxSea…and that temple where all the orgies took place.”
He chuckled and Erin was glad to see that playful warmth in his eyes, especially when he murmured, “We still need to act out that sacrifice scene at the altar.”
Erin grinned even when she grew aroused at the memory. “Yes, you’re right. So we can remember all of those good things, but anything having to do with theMevirax, or the Jetutians, or the trial…let’s just forget those. All right?”
Jaxor dropped his forehead down to hers again and he rasped, “What did I do to deserve you,rixella?”
Erin smiled, her belly fluttering. “I was wondering the same thing. What did I do to deserve such a handsome, strong, protective, caring mate? One who makes the whole world disappear when he kisses me? One who loves me?”
His voice was ragged when he asked, “Real?”
They still hadsomuch to figure out together. Like where they’d settle down, when they’d perform their mating ceremony, how they would prepare for the child, what their lives would look like after that moment.
But Erin wasn’t afraid. How could she be when she had Jaxor by her side? How could she be when she had faith that everything would fall into place, just as it was meant to?
Erin grinned and then she kissed him. Against his lips, she whispered, “Kekevir.”
