Page 60 of Haunted (Blackwood Brothers #1)

“I love you,” I whisper against his mouth, the words coming easily now after months of learning to voice my feelings without fear.

Xavier’s smile transforms his entire face, erasing the calculating mask he shows the world. Here in our sanctuary, with water surrounding us and my legs wrapped around his waist, he’s simply the man who holds my heart.

“I love you, too,” he responds, pressing his forehead to mine. “More than I ever thought possible. ”

He gently releases my ankles from the remaining chains, then lifts me effortlessly in his arms. Instead of the urgent fucking from before, his touch now speaks of safety, protection, and cherishing what we’ve built together.

Xavier carries me from the pool to the padded alcove beside the chamber, water still dripping from our bodies.

He sets me down gently on the soft cushions, then reaches for one of the plush towels always kept in these rooms. His touch is reverent as he dries my skin, each pass of the fabric a caress rather than a simple necessity.

“You’re trembling,” he observes, wrapping the towel around my shoulders before pulling me against his chest.

“Not from cold,” I admit, melting into his warmth.

His arms tighten around me, and I feel his lips press against the top of my head. “I know. I feel it, too.”

We sit in comfortable silence for several minutes, listening to the distant sounds echoing through the maze. Laughter, moans, the occasional sharp cry of pleasure—our friends and their lovers are enjoying their own reunions in the darkness.

“Do you ever regret it?” Xavier asks quietly, his fingers tracing lazy patterns on my exposed beck. “What you gave up for this?”

I consider his question seriously. The old Mira would have mourned the loss of her independence, her structured life. But that woman was drowning in loneliness; she didn’t even recognize it until Xavier pulled her under completely.

“Never.” I tilt my head to look at him. “I thought I was giving up everything, but really, I was finally becoming who I was meant to be.”

He searches my face, still looking for doubt even after twelve months of my complete surrender. It’s one of the things I love most about him—beneath all that calculating control lies a man terrified of losing what matters most.

“I was dead before you,” he confesses, his voice rough with emotion. “Going through the motions of living but feeling nothing. You brought me back to life, Mira.”

My heart clenches at the vulnerability in his admission. This is Xavier stripped of all masks, all pretense. Just a man who found salvation in the most unlikely place.

“Then we saved each other,” I murmur, pressing a soft kiss to his jaw. “Two broken people who fit together perfectly.”

His hand cups my face, thumb stroking across my cheekbone. “Twenty-four hours isn’t nearly enough time with you.”

I smile, settling more fully against his chest. “Good thing we have forever.”

A year ago, the word would have terrified me—forever bound to a man who rules Ravenwood’s underworld. Now, it feels like the only truth that matters.

The woman who walked into this maze as an investigative journalist, Mira Sullivan, is truly dead—and I’ve never felt more alive.

Thank you for reading Haunted !