Page 234 of Vexatious Queen

“I’m here, and I’m never going anywhere.” Ana wrapped her arms around my neck, her fingers running through my hair, exactly like she’d always done, and the last piece of my restraint was snapped.

Picking Ana up, her lips claimed mine as I walked across the room and laid her down on the bed. Hovering over her body, I stared into her eyes.

“You have always been my forever, Ana.”

“And you’ve always been mine, Eddie.”

Every scar, year of anguish, and lie told still couldn’t outweigh the truth that mattered most. I would choose her again, even knowing how much it would cost me, and how much it would hurt. No matter how many reasons I had to walk away, my heart and soul had made the decision long before I ever understood what that meant.

Yuliana Mikhailov was mine.

Yuliana

Time had no meaning. We’d earned the right to ignore it for a little while. When we finally slowed, it wasn’t because the fire had dimmed. It was because we were holding something fragile.

Panting hard, Eddie rolled onto his back and threw his arm over his eyes. I cuddled into his side with my head on his heart, clinging to him for dear life.

“We are not the same people we once were,” I whispered, fingers tracing my name tattooed on his chest as I’d done so many years ago.

“No, we are not,” Eddie agreed. “But we’re still us. Different, a little broken, but still us.”

I snuggled closer, but it still wasn’t enough. His touch was firm and grounding, as if he were afraid the world might try to take me again.

“I don’t know what this means for tomorrow. We have a lot to figure out,” he said, kissing the top of my head.

I closed my eyes, letting myself exist in this moment.

“Neither do I. But for now, until we leave this room…can we simply know that love survived.”

“That is easy because it did. We did, despite everything, we are still here and still breathing,” Eddie said.

I turned my head, laying my chin on my hands as I studied his face.

“I do need to ask you one thing, before anything else happens.”

His lip twitched.

“You want to know why your father was here, why he is still breathing, and why I’d even contemplate breaking bread with him,” he said, smiling.

“You still know me. Yes. I do.”

Eddie sighed and rubbed his eyes.

“Simple answer. Vadin did what he always does. He manipulated his way into the situation, and I let him get to me rather than thinking rationally.”

“Yes, well, I get that. My father has that effect on me, too. Just seeing him sitting at that table pushed me over the edge, and I almost did something that I couldn’t come back from.”

Eddie sat up, taking me with him. We faced each other, bodies still touching, my fingers linked with his.

“You don’t want him to die?”

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “That’s not what I meant. I want him to die. But our daughter was right, that was not the time or the place, and doing such a thing in front of a child…” I bit my lip to keep it from trembling. “I was lost in the moment. I’d finally found him, and all of the anger inside of me boiled over. I lost myself. I can’t believe Ren had to be the one to talk me down. I just…” I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. “I feel like I’m stepping out of a fog, like I’ve been living a life that wasn’t my own for the last two years. I hardly recognize who I became, and I’m terrified to slip back into that person.”

“Trauma will do that to you,” Eddie said.

Turning my head, I glanced at the word Lawrence had carved into my skin. I could only see the top of it, but felt it always pressing into me, reminding me of what I’d suffered at the hands of not just Lawrence but this fucked up world we inhabited.

“And let’s be honest, you’ve had a lot and pushed it down. It was bound to come back and haunt you,” he said.