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She did.

In her heart, in her bones, she felt it.

And the way he looked at her… Everything he felt shone in his eyes, but there was no expectation, no weight on her with the uttering of those words from his lips.

Only truth. Only love.

Her fingers curled in the fabric of his shirt. ‘Why didn’t you tell me before?’

‘Because I love just as I fight. Hard, with everything I have. And I was afraid to lose it all. To lose you.’

‘And now?’

Wilder was still as stone beneath her touch, as though he didn’t believe that she was still standing there, that they were here having this conversation.

‘Now?’ he breathed, wrapping his hand around hers, pressing it to his chest so she could feel his heart hammering beneath. ‘I’m terrified.’

Thea’s voice was raw when she asked: ‘Is that what it means to love me? To be terrified?’

‘I think that is what it means to love at all,’ he said, brushing his lips over hers, the whisper of a kiss. ‘But it’s more than that, Thea. To love you… is to be free.’

He claimed her mouth with his then, his kiss tender and thorough, causing a ripple of longing to move through her. But there was something else, something beyond desire that had settled deep in her chest.

She broke away, swiping at the tears that stung her eyes. ‘I wish we had met when we were younger, so we could have had more time together.’

Wilder smiled as he ran his thumb along the line of her jaw and seemed to stare into her soul. ‘When I was younger I didn’t know what it was to look at a woman and want to fall to my knees,’ he told her. ‘When I was younger I didn’t know a woman could make me feel powerful and powerless in the same breath. When I was younger, I didn’t know a woman could bring me back from the darkness.’

Thea exhaled shakily. ‘A woman can do all of that?’

‘Not any woman. There is only one. There has only ever been one.’

And then Wilder kissed her, fiercely this time. His hands slid down her back, cupping her backside as he lifted her to him, her thighs parting around him. Her Warsword carried her to the nearby spring. He didn’t break their kiss, not even as he stepped down into the spring, fully clothed.

Warm water surged around them and still they didn’t break apart.

Thea couldn’t get enough of him, couldn’t kiss or breathe him in fast enough. She was torn between wanting to devour him and wanting to savour this beautiful thing between them, her body turning to liquid beneath his touch.

Wilder was so hard against her, the pressure of his erection causing her heart to stutter as he ground against her.

She tangled her fingers in his hair and scraped her nails down the muscles of his tapered back, where beneath his shirt, the ancient language of the Furies spelt in ink:Glory in death, immortality in legend. A vow; a motto to live by.

Thea answered every stroke of his tongue with her own, moaning against his lips.

He lowered them both into the water, finding a ledge somewhere beneath the surface. The heat of the spring swallowed them, their messy clothes billowing around them before Wilder seized the hem of her shirt and peeled it over her head, tossing it onto the rocks beside them. His own followed.

‘We couldn’t have taken these off before getting in?’ she joked.

But Wilder’s eyes darkened at the sight of her hard nipples through the band around her chest. ‘Clothes needed washing anyway,’ he said roughly, and pulled the band down.

Cool air kissed her breasts, teasing her already aching nipples, and Wilder groaned at the sight before lowering his mouth, biting the soft flesh above and then taking one between his teeth.

Thea cried out, grinding her core against his cock through the layers of fabric between them. Wilder rose suddenly from the water, still clutching her to him as he stripped his pants down, holding her as though she weighed nothing.

The granite length of him sprang free.

‘Take off your pants,’ he told her, at last setting her down so they could remove the last of their clothes. He didn’t need to ask her twice, but she didn’t take her eyes off him as she rid herself of those final layers, and he did the same.

When he stood naked before her, the water surging around his thighs, Thea stared at him, her breasts heaving.