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She craved to bicker with him, expunge some of her hostility that had collected the past few days since he’d shut her out, but his touch ignited a fire beneath her skin, one she wanted to burn in with him.

“Do you know what it did to me?” His palm smoothed over her cheek and his fingers hooked beneath her jaw. “To watch you marry him.”

Her hands slid up his arms and into his hair, gathering strands between her fingers. “I was looking at you the entire time.”

Ronin’s pupils flared into black holes, swallowing the rich warmth of his irises.

He reached inside his pocket and lightly took one of her hands into his, slipping a band around her ring finger. “I promise you, when this is all over, we are going home with our son, and I am going to marry you in front of the whole goddamn city.”

Her first instinct was to protect herself and avoid envisioning such a beautiful future, but she shoved the reflex away. For now, she would grant herself that dream to hold on to.

The cool metal of the band around her finger was welcomed. In its center shone a scarlet jewel—the same as her bracelet. “Where did you get this?”

“It’s your bracelet,” he said. “Avi made it into a ring.”

Naia cupped his cheeks and kissed him deeply. A tethering of souls where she couldn’t tell where hers began and his ended.

She wrapped her arms around his neck, wanting more of him.

This was theirs.

He gripped her waist and hauled her up. Clumsily, they made their way into the house and down the hallway into his room. The backs of her legs hit the bed frame, and they toppled down on the mattress with him on top of her.

Ronin’s tongue entwined with hers. His fingertips marked the backs of her thighs. She was not in the mood for slow and meandering. It had been several days since they’d come together.

Her impatient hands moved down between them to unzip his pants. She cupped around all of him, quickly processing his size and hardness. His body tensed to her touch.

A thrill shot through her. Gods, she loved the effect she had on him.

She stroked.

Ronin broke apart their kiss, mending his forehead to hers. He sucked a breath in through his teeth. She continued running her grip up and down.

“Don’t shut me out again,” she whispered in his ear.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to,” he rasped. Her hand moved faster. “It’s just—” He groaned. “Fuck, Naia, you don’t know what you do to me.”

“It’s in your nature to do things alone,” she finished for him.

He jerked away from her grasp and tore the straps of her dress down her shoulders—a dress given to her by Yuki, barely long enough to cover her knees—scattering kisses down her neck. She arched her spine in response, chasing the pleasure winding at the bottom of her belly and furling between her legs.

“Just like it is yours.” He trailed kisses between her breasts. “Because there was no one for you to depend on.”

His name left her lips through a whimper. She lifted her hips to meet the hardness of him, cursing the layers between them. As if he could read her mind, Ronin reached underneath her dress and tugged her underwear down her legs.

“Promise me, Naia.” His voice gruff, demanding, as he teased her nipple with his tongue. “You won’t leave or do anything reckless.”

Her heart stuttered.

Ronin kissed up the base of her throat and paused beneath her chin, his breath washing over the most sensitive areas of her neck.

“Promise me.” He bunched the hem of her dress around her hips and coaxed her with the tip of his length. “You cannot make plans without me.”

In the end, whatever she chose to do, Ronin would be alive, and her child would be free.

“I won’t.” She bore deeply into his eyes. They were mesmerizing, endless as the starlight watering hole she used to swim in, with all his past lives carved into them. “I love you, Ronin.”

He gently cupped her cheek, kissing the tip of her nose. “I am going to show you what it’s supposed to be like. All of it.”