Page 86

I nod again, and I’m smiling so hard my face is beginning to hurt.

“You’re going to marry me,” he says again, processing it. “You’re going to bemy wife.” He lets out his own disbelieving laugh.

All at once, he stands, and my legs slip off his shoulders. He catches me halfway down his torso, and then he spins us, pressing me close.

Right now it feels like the two of us are in our own little universe. He’s my moon, my sun, my stars, my sky, and all that space in between them.

Des lays me down on the bed, moving up my body languidly. He takes my mouth, kissing it like he’s breathing life into me.

My hands rake up his back, brushing against his wings. His wings! I didn’t notice them before, but they must’ve emerged when I said yes. Mine are still locked away from his earlier magic.

This time, when Des enters me, it’s not nearly as carnal as it was minutes before. His wings splay out, shrouding the two of us as he fills me. He pulls out, the action an agony.

“Years I have waited for this,” he says, “anticipated it. Mywife.”

He thrusts back into me. Again and again, he moves out and in like the tide, each deep, rolling stroke a brand, as though he wants to make it known to everyone and everything that we are real, we are together, we are one.

This time, when Des relentlessly pushes me towards my orgasm, there’s nothing there to stop it.

“Des,” I breathe, and then I’m moaning, arching,coming.

I climax in his arms, staring into those light eyes of his as I feel myself come apart.

The Bargainer pounds into me, stretching out my orgasm until he pauses, his breathing stilling for an instant. Then I can feel him thickening. He groans against me.

“Callie—” he bites out. That’s all he manages to say before he gives himself over to sensation, pistoning in and out of me as he rides out his own orgasm.

Eventually, his strokes gentle. Even once he’s finished orgasming, he stays in me, brushing my hair back as he stares down at me. “Cherub … there’s something I’m forgetting …”

He snaps his fingers, and from the ether a ring appears between his thumb and forefinger. “I believe this is yours.”

The Bargainer’s wings are still out, and beyond them, the once bright room is now dark with the Night King’s magic.

Des slips off of me so that he can take my hand. Pressing a kiss to my ring finger, he begins to slide the piece of jewelry on.

The stone set into the band glows faintly; it’s no diamond. I’m not one to care about rings, but this one has me mesmerized.

“What is it?” I ask, staring at the glowing stone.

“I made a deal with the stars …”

A deal—of course he did. I smile a little.

“It’s captured starlight,” he explains, squeezing my hand. “I figured the Queen of the Night should carry a piece of her kingdom with her.”

Going to cry all over again.

“You already had the ring picked out …” It’s such a ridiculous statement.Obviouslyhe picked out the ring some time ago; it’s not like he interrupted sex to make a deal with the stars on the spot.

Des grins, and the sight of it just slays me. “Cherub, it would frighten you how long I’ve carried that ring around.”

Yeah, I’m surefrightenedis not the word I’d use.

“I’m going to marry you.” I get a little zing of excitement just saying the words.

“I’m going to marry theshitout of you,” he agrees.

As I stare at him, I think about that old vow, the one that got me into trouble. “From flame to ashes, dawn to dusk, for the rest of our lives, be mine always, Desmond Flynn.”