The Reaper (Dark Verse, #2)

by RuNyx

“Your body, your life, your heart – they’re all mine now. Trust me to keep all of them safe.”

He traced a finger gently over her shoulder, marveling at the softness of her unmarred skin, down to her stomach, his lips curving. He knew she sucked her stomach in sometimes, trying to flatten out the little belly she had. She didn’t know, didn’t understand that she could gain inches and she’d still be the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. And for such a smart woman, it still left him floundering that she’d chosen him over and over again. Him. She’d kissed his hands bathed in blood, touched his scars earned in pain, and looked at him to see only the man. She’d always been that way, his Morana. And though he’d never been able to give her anything, he tried every day. If she ever regretted her choice, he didn’t want to examine what he would do closely.

Not many people knew about how much he enjoyed cooking. There was something so satisfying about creating something delicious from simple raw ingredients. Feeding Morana though? It was almost a high he craved. He loved reading her face. From the very beginning, he had fed her and known exactly how she’d enjoyed his food. Seeing her eyes close and her breath catch, as she took that first bite, always got him a little hard. But more than that, it was the joy of connecting with her, knowing something he was doing was giving her happiness. He craved it.

The sound of footsteps made him look up at the woman who had been his reason for existence for so long he didn’t know where he began and she ended anymore.

Her hair in a messy bun on her head that was slightly lopsided, her rectangular glasses perched on her nose, her body in a simple flowy dress with flowers on it, she took his breath away.

“I don’t believe in marriages. I don’t believe in men who wear their rings with their wives only to take it off later. But I believe in loyalty. I believe in commitment.”

He saw her eyes shimmering, knew she’d already figured it out. He wasn’t surprised – sometimes she knew him better than he knew himself. She was his gift for a fucked up life, this woman of fire that warmed his chilled, lonely bones.

“I can’t marr...

he tol...

“not until I fulfill the promise I made ...

She nodded in under...

“But I never, ever want you to not walk into a room and know that every part of me, fucked up man and...

He could see the effect his words were having on her. Her lips trembled as she broke their gazes and looked down at his hand. Taking a deep breath in, one that pushed the bite he’d given her on her cleavage into stark relief, she traced the tape on his left ring finger with shaky hands. And then she peeled it off carefully, seeing the small tattoo he’d gotten two nights a...

“Oh s...

he heard her gasp before she looked up at him, openly crying now, her tears making her eyes squint in an adorable way. Though he was ...

“I’m so fucking in love with you, Tr...

she blubbered, attacking his chest with her face and pressing kisses against his pounding heart. He tamped down the immediate disbelief he felt at her words and breathed deeply, accepting that she – beautiful, smart Morana Vitalio who could do a million times better than him – loved his damaged ass. Too bad he was never going to let her realize that. She was fucking stuck with him now. He pressed a little kiss to the top of her head, enjoying how small she felt against him. He forgot sometimes, with how fierce she was, that she was tiny. He wanted to tell her he loved her too. ...

He ate the food, then took her to the bathroom and ate her out because she was too sore to take him and he couldn’t help himself.

She looked at him with this dopey smile that made something rumble in the hollow of his chest. He was going to keep her high on that shit just to keep getting that particular smile every day of his life.

the woman beside him jumped in excitement, giving him a smile so bright it fucking knocked his breath out.

Fuck, he really was the caveman she called him where she was concerned.

It never got old. The first time he’d leaned back against the wall and watched them together, that first night she had stayed in his territory, something had fluttered inside his chest, seeing her tiny form beside his. She looked just the same but she smiled more now. He didn’t think she even realized it but he caught her biting her lip more, talking more, moving her hands more as she talked. She was more alive and seeing her that way made him feel so fucking good. He knew he was damaged. He knew he would never completely be able to give her everything she deserved. But he liked to fucking try and every time she smiled, it was his reward.

She pat the space beside her, looking up at him with bright eyes. And he followed like the besotted moth he was, ready and willing to burn in the pits of hell as long as she looked at him like that.

Tristan stared into her eyes for a long minute, reading each fleck of olive over the light brown, her heart bared for him to see. Fuck anyone trying to take that light from him. He would rip them apart with his bare hands.

He wanted to tell her that love was too tame a word for everything that happened inside him where she was concerned. She had shifted him, realigned him from the inside out. Like a planet that suddenly pulls a moon into its orbit, she had bound him to her, given him direction for longer than she knew, gave him purpose to exist. She was his gravity, his fucking planet, and he was lost without her. With pasts bathed in death, with foundations bathed in blood, he had found something so precious he wondered sometimes if he wouldn’t go through all of it again just to find her.

And he would go through it all, over again, just for her.