And I’d found that in Ursuline.
My chest squeezed tight, and the words leapt to my tongue again. Except this time, I didn’t hold them back.
“I love you,” I said. I didn’t expect to hear the words in return, even though I yearned. But in this moment, I needed them to know this truth of mine.
Ursuline stilled, and I lifted my head from their chest to look up at them. Their jaw had dropped, their dark deep-set eyes wide, and the surprise that painted their features broke my heart.
“You love me?” The hush in their tone told me everything.
I met their gaze. “I’ve never felt this way before about anyone. And I understand if you don’t feel the same, but I needed to tell you tonight.”
Ursuline’s hands settled on my hips, and they squeezed tight. “What do you think sunshine means, Elrich?”
My brows drew together. “A nickname. I figured it was because I like the sun so much.”
They shook their head. “I grew up in the deeps of New Atlantis, and we rarely made trips to the surface. I still remember the first time we traveled above. It wasn’t for a vacation or anything enjoyable—no, those sorts of trips were for the wealthy. We were following a school of fish, part of a fisherman’s crew that day.
“I’d never experienced the sun on my skin before,” they said. “And when I emerged from the sea, I thought I’d caught on fire. The golden rays were so hot, so dazzling, I didn’t think they could be real. Years of living in the deeps could never have prepared me for how it swept through me at once, filling me with this foreign sensation—a lightness, like zipping through the water. And when we returned below, I never forgot the sun. It was an elusive, farfetched idea that I’d ever have it in my future, and walking above the sea the way I do, it’s one thing I’ve never taken for granted. I might be more comfortable in the quiet of the dark, in the moonlight, but the sun, it challenges me.”
They met my gaze. “It fills me with hope I didn’t believe still existed.”
My chest squeezed tight as the impact of their words settled inside me.
“I love you, Elrich Durand. You’re the sunshine I’ve spent my life chasing, and I won’t let anyone tear us apart, the Triton family be damned.”
Tears burned my eyes, and I sucked back a sob. The fierceness in their gaze, the sheer love that poured from them in waves was what I’d dreamed of finding since I was a kid.
“I’ll fight for us too,” I promised, and then I leaned down to press my lips to theirs.
They kissed me with a fervent passion, one I lost myself in, and our limbs tangled together while we were buried in each other. A few silent tears streamed down my cheeks, the feelings that rose inside me far too massive to contain. Every tender look, every soft “sunshine” clarified in my mind, swirling there like pieces of a puzzle we’d completed together.
One that I’d do anything to protect.
I drew back and rested my cheek on their chest to listen to the steadythump, thump, thumpof their heart. It beat in time withmine, and I didn’t try to move from this spot, holding onto the sanctity of this moment for as long as possible.
Ursuline loved me.
No matter what we faced in the future, we would forever have this time here in the quiet night.
Chapter 28
“Fuck.”
Ursuline’s voice rang through the room, stirring me from slumber. I rubbed at my bleary eyes, my whole body aching after the intense fuck last night. My cock was hard as a rock, which felt foreign after having it caged up for so long. In a way, I missed being in chastity for them. Maybe we could explore it more if we found our way out of this mess.
They were sitting up beside me, hunched forward, their phone to their ear. Their face looked stricken, concerned. “We’ll be there as soon as possible.”
Panic shot through me.
“What’s going on?” I asked, pushing myself up from the comfort of the mattress. Ursuline radiated a nervous edge, which was unlike them.
“Jason called,” they said. “He said he’s got urgent information for me. Something he wasn’t able to share over the phone.”
I placed a hand over theirs and squeezed. Already I sensed what was at the heart of their concern. “About your family.”
“If he can’t tell me over the phone…” They worried their lower lip.
The news couldn’t be good. That much was true.
