He works me through it, drawing out every tremor, and before I've fully recovered, he's rising over me, positioning himself at my entrance.
"Look at me," he says.
I open eyes I don't remember closing.
His face is inches from mine. Tender and fierce all at once. "I need you to know something before we do this again."
"What?"
"When you bit me..." He pauses, and I see him gathering courage. "You tasted what I feel. But I need to say it. Out loud. In words."
My breath catches.
"I never said it to Catherine," he continues. "I was working up the courage when she turned. When I had to... I never got to say the words. I've regretted it for three hundred years." His jaw tightens. "I've had lovers since. But never someone I actually loved. Not until you."
"Maximus..."
"Let me finish." He cups my face in his hands. "I love you. I love you, Celeste Moreau. I've loved you since you looked at me like Iwas worth saving when I'd stopped believing I was worth anything at all. I've loved you through every argument and every battle and every moment I pushed you away because I was too afraid to let you close."
Tears are streaming down my face now. Those impossible vampire tears.
"I love you," he continues, "and I'll spend the rest of eternity proving it if you'll let me. I'll fight beside you and protect you and drive you absolutely insane with my controlling tendencies, and I'll try every day to be worthy of what you've given me. Because you've given me something I thought I'd lost forever."
"What?" I whisper.
"Hope." He brushes a tear from my cheek. "You've given me hope."
I'm crying properly now. Tears streaming down my face, dripping onto the pillow beneath me. I didn't know I could feel this much. Didn't know there was room inside me for emotions this big.
"I love you too," I manage. "I think I've loved you since the training room, when you looked at me like I was actually worth something. I've just been too stubborn to say it first."
"Stubborn." He's smiling now, his own eyes bright. "I've noticed."
"You like it."
"I love it." He leans down, kisses me soft and deep. "I love everything about you. Even the things that drive me crazy."
"Good. Because I plan to keep driving you crazy."
"I'm counting on it."
He pushes inside me.
Slow. So slow. Inch by inch, giving me time to feel every moment of it. The stretch. The fullness. The intimacy of being joined with someone who just handed me his heart.
"Celeste." My name is a prayer on his lips. "You feel... I can't..."
"I know." I wrap my legs around him, pull him deeper. "I know."
He bottoms out and goes still.
For a moment, neither of us moves. We just exist in this moment, foreheads pressed together, bodies joined, connected in every way possible. The ring is caught between our chests, metal pressing into both our skins.
"Move," I whisper. "Please move."
He moves.
We find a rhythm together. Give and take. Push and pull. He rolls his hips against mine, and I rise to meet every thrust, our bodies speaking a language we're still learning. The pleasure builds slow, deep, amplified by everything we just shared.
