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When he finally enters me, it’s not just physical. It’s electric. Beyond words. Our bodies lock like puzzle pieces, and the bond howls between us fiercely.

We move together like a storm, each touch feeding the fire.

I cry out when his lips find the hollow of my throat, and he whispers my name over and over like it’s holy.

“You feel like heaven,” he groans, his voice strangled.

I dig my nails into his back, trying to anchor myself because I don’t want him to ever leave me.

“Don’t stop,” I pant. “Don’t let go.”

He doesn’t.

His hands grip my hips, holding me like he doesn’t want me to slip through his fingers. Our rhythm turns frenzied, each thrust pulling me closer to the edge, closer to my orgasm, and I want to fall. I want to lose myself in this feeling, in him, because for the first time in forever, I don’t feel alone.

“Lila,” he says, like a prayer. “I need you to know…it was never just one night. Never just lust.”

Tears prick at my eyes again, but they’re not from pain.

I cup his face, forcing him to see me. “Then show me. Right here. Right now.”

And he does.

We fall together, tangled in sweat and breath and sounds that are in no way comprehensible.

The bond erupts between us as I fall over the edge, my climax slamming into me like a freight train. Alaric follows with a groan, collapsing against me, his body just like mine.

For a long time, we have to stop to catch our breath.

Then, he presses a kiss to my shoulder and whispers, “You are mine.”

Chapter Fifteen

LILA WINTER

Light creeps up to my face, dragging me out of sleep against my will. My lashes flutter open, but the world is still too fuzzy around the edges.

The room I'm in is dim and quiet, and yet my head pounds like someone’s trying to split it open and take a peek inside my skull.

I sit up with a soft groan, the sheets slipping down my bare chest, but I don’t stop to think about that even for a minute. My limbs feel heavy as I try to move, and my brain remains foggy. It takes me a lot of effort just to swing my legs off the side of the bed.

Where am I?

The room’s unfamiliar. It’s not mine, I realize. Because this one is too expensive-looking. The air smells like cedar and dark musk and definitely not my cheap jasmine diffuser or Lina’s strawberry shampoo.

If that wasn’t enough, my mouth tastes like I slept by the beer keg all night.

I blink a few times, trying to shake this weird haze off. I need water. And a mirror. Something, anything to ground me in reality.

And as if the universe is more than happy to show me reality, I cock my head to the side, only for my voice to stay in my throat and my shocked gasp to almost choke me.

I see Alaric is in the same bed I am in, and I don’t waste a second in dragging my feet across the floor as quickly as I can, finding my dress, bra, and panties that are scattered on the floor and picking them up in silence as I pad toward the bathroom.

Once I’m there, I flick on the light, and the glow of said light immediately stings my eyes without mercy.

I drop my dress on the marble counter and rinse my face with cold water, my hands trembling slightly as I scrub the remnants of whatever might have happened from my skin.

It doesn’t work, though.