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“Well then, my treasure, I’ll save you the trouble of showing me the door twice.”
Fuck off, dickhead. I know you got to sleep with her.”
kitchen. “All I want, Mon Trésor . . . is to build a bonfire the size of Texas and burn all these goddamn pajamas. It’s all I’m living for.”
“Remember when—” “Everything,” he says softly, flexing his fingers through my hair. “I remember everything, Cecelia. Every word you said, every look you gave me. Your three kinds of laughs, the details of your dreams, the way your nostrils flare when you’re starting to get pissed. The sting of your slaps, the salt in your tears, the fit of your breasts in my hand. The feel of your mouth, the taste of your pussy,” he murmurs, sliding his thumb along my jaw, “so which part do you need me to remind you of?”
“Live a little, man. Don’t you think we deserve it?” “I’ve got plans for later.” “Oh, yeah? Did you schedule your first smile?”
It was all worth it, just to see him thrive.
It’s a real-time picture of us, Dom laughing, me smiling at him.
Eyes burning, throat tightening, I unlock my car, get behind the wheel, turn the ignition, and put it into gear before racing out of the parking lot toward my broken king.
“You want to do Halloween with me?” He nods emphatically, turning back to me, a frown in place when he sees the tears in my eyes. “What’s wrong?” “I love you,” I blurt out. “I’m sorry I’ve made this so hard on you.” He searches my eyes. “No, Trésor, I deserv—” “To be happy. We both do.”
I haven’t spoken a word to my brother since he died. Every day I wonder if he waits for word from me. And even with the guilt that he might be waiting, I can’t find the words. I don’t know if I ever will.
“Okay, well, I love you, too, mouse.”
“No club talk of any kind, just you and me. Just us, Cecelia. That’s why I came here, for us. This isn’t about the fucking club or the part it plays with us. And that’s what we can’t seem to get past.” “For how long?” “We can take it day by day?”
“I think we’ll skip it next year,” he says as he runs the towel over his neck, and my heart warms at the idea of another year.
“Look at me,” he commands. I lift my eyes to his molten depths as he drives into me with one earth-shattering thrust.
My pussy. My body. My woman. My heart. My life.
I lost you,
I’m certain that if God granted me only one minute of life on this earth, I would want it to be this minute, this moment with him, where I know exactly why I’m alive and who for.
Gazing up at the love of my life, I accept him fully back into his place in my heart, giving in to the one thing I’ve never had control of, and never will as long as his own heart beats. Because it’s mine. “I love you,” I murmur. And with one last thrust and my whispered words, he comes.
“You’re an incredible man. You revealed your true colors when we were together before. In recent years, your actions were mostly due to pain, and you’re still in pain, my love. I’m not going to start pointing out all your flaws because fuck that, I have my
“You say you don’t like my perception of you, Frenchman, but my perception isn’t skewed. I love all parts, all sides of you, good and bad. This thing between us is still new. We aren’t going to come out perfect straight out of the gate. But all of you gets all of me, my stubborn King, always.”
Roman’s. Fucking. Daughter.
grunt out my release inside her, pressing my jaw to her heaving chest, as I come down, and I feel it, the recognition of a destination I never thought I would find again: home.
“I swear I just had a flash of the future, trying to feed a French brat, a little replica of you.”
“But there’s only one you . . . and—” his eyes flit with emotion—“I’ve been alone my whole goddamn life. I don’t want to be alone anymore.”
Because of love, I’ve made that declaration a lie. And I’m a man in. Fucking. Love. If it’s war this motherfucker is after, my peacekeeping days are long over. Decision made, I stalk toward the house, and twenty minutes later, I speed out of the driveway in the Camaro.
“Dom, I’m in love with her.” “Sounds familiar.”
“Those were moans that kept you awake, not objections.” “You smug bastard.” “Ton salaud.” Your bastard.
Though he’s denied it, he’s still every bit the arrogant King I fell in love with. The
him. This buzz is all him,
“You locked it.” “Yeah?” I stare up in confusion. “You locked it three times,” he rasps out, emotions swirling in his eyes. “You locked it three times, Trésor. You didn’t even realize it, did you?” He pushes me into the door and presses his forehead to mine before exhaling and looking down at me, swallowing repeatedly. “Tobias—” He shakes his head gently, running his nose along mine. “I’m . . . fuck, Cecelia. I asked you if you thought being happy was possible for me, but that wasn’t fair, and you couldn’t answer that,” he says softly. “But I can. I am. You make me happy.” The emotion in his
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“I’m glad that you loved him, and I’m glad he knew what it felt like to be loved by you before he died, and it’s because of the way you love, Cecelia.”
“I spent fifteen of those minutes spelling my name with my tongue, first, middle, and last,”
“Spoken like a true queen,” Tobias muses. “Please don’t do this for me,”
“Everything,” he says without hesitation. “But this isn’t about losing.” “Please don’t put this on me.” “Okay, I won’t.”
“Are you going to put a ring on this woman or what?”
“He’s barely managed to get through six weeks of domesticity, Tyler,” I smirk. “Let’s cut him a break.”
“Sure,” I say, glancing over to Tobias, who stares back at me like I’m the most important person in the room. I can see the clear “I love you” in his eyes and have to dart mine away when our connection gets to be too much for the situation.
“And five more after, so you have six replicas of me to deal with on the daily.”
“I see you. Even what you hide.” He pauses before kissing me briefly, eyeing Abe behind me. “As sexy as it may seem to christen the White House, and for a moment, Trésor, I briefly entertained it, there are far too many dead men with watchful eyes here.” I laugh and hug him to me as he whispers sweetly into my ear. “Let’s go home.” “Lead the way, my King.”
“Do you want me to beg for her? Because I’m not above it.” “Tobias, don’t,”
“If you take her, my wrath would be welcome, wouldn’t it? One last thrill, old man, before you go?” I lift the Glock to my temple and Cecelia gasps my name. “I won’t let you have the fucking satisfaction, and if you even so much as look at her again, I die, and you won’t get what you came for. Care to fucking test me?”
“It was worth it, Trésor. So worth it,”
“Fireflies,”
“That’s our outside force, Tobias. They were the ones that looked out for us.” Her eyes water as she studies the gun pressed to my head. “Wouldn’t you agree?” I nod, my own eyes stinging as I weigh her words.
“I love you, Ezekiel Tobias King, so fucking much,”
“He got it last night,” I say with a grin. “It’s the least I could do after the brain damage you nearly cost him. Julien has been a raven for almost six years.” Antoine curses and
“But the fact that you challenge me is probably one of the reasons I love you most. Knowing you, loving you, and understanding you helped shape me into the woman I am.”
“Yes. Antoine was never aware of me. Never. You covered your tracks, our tracks, perfectly. He would have never discovered us. But I didn’t care if Antoine was a threat at that point. I wanted him gone regardless because of the state you were in. So, when I found out about Greg, I fed him bits and pieces to lead him to Antoine. But Antoine came at my invitation. I brought the fight here.” He gapes down at me. “You fucking what?”
“A wife. Antoine’s wife, to be exact,”
“You’re exhausting. You know that? Between the secret meetings I held with David, Oz, and Julien, working with Sean and Tyler to get Greg to lure Antoine here, and persuading the rest of the boys to jump on board so they wouldn’t face your wrath, I’ve barely had a moment’s rest to make sure you got your vacation.” “Tyler, Russell, they all knew?” “We all agreed it was the only way you would ever fully trust me.” “All of this was a setup?”
