Page 50 of High Stakes and Soulmates (Fanged Mistakes #3)

“The only reason you can forgive me is because you don’t remember all of it. But what happens if you remember someday? What happens when you realize how horrible a person I was for leaving you? How could I have left you?”

“I remember some things. I remember pieces. And I know what happened. I know, Ezio, and I still love you. How could you do this to yourself?”

“I left you. I don’t deserve you.”

Cyrus’s hands squeeze mine like he’s trying to do everything he can to hold on to me. “You were a human, you had no idea how vampires or werewolves worked or… hell, I still don’t even know how I work. How could you have possibly known?”

“I should have taken you with me.”

“I don’t remember much, but I remember how hurt you were. I remember so much blood. How the hell were you going to drag a dead body with you?”

“I had Valley. I could have put you on the horse.” But I know I lost consciousness the moment Valley leapt into the water. Would I have even been able to hold on to his body? What if he’d drowned because I’d dragged him after me?

“You think Louis would have stood there and waited for you to hoist a body onto a horse? Do you really think he would have? Ezio, please. How could you have known? And can you not blame me as well? Apparently, I was under the impression that you were dead as well. I don’t remember, but maybe someone else knows.

” He cups my face. “I’m yours. From the stories you’ve told me, it sounds like we went through hell and back for each other.

It took hundreds of years, but we found our way back to each other.

If that isn’t true love, I don’t know what is. ”

He swipes a tear off my cheek before kissing the next one.

“I’m so sorry loving me cost you so much, but I’m selfish, Ezio.

And if it means that I finally get to be with you, then I would go through all of it again.

Every day of suffering, I would repeat because it means that in the end, I get to have you.

Will you tell me everything? I want to know everything.

I want to know more about the first time we met, the first time you told me you loved me. I want to hear it all.”

“What if I just lie to make myself sound even better?” I whisper.

Cyrus laughs, and I love the sound of it so much. “I know when you’re lying.”

I tuck my head against his shoulder as I wrap my shaking arms around him.

It’s no wonder I was so drawn to him the first time I met him.

It’s no wonder he felt so comfortable to me.

It’s no wonder I was prepared to tear the world apart for him from the first day I met him as Cyrus and the first day I met him as Arturo.

“I’ve never stopped loving you for one moment since the day I met you,” I whisper.

His arms tighten. “I don’t know what I did to deserve such love and devotion.”

I close my eyes and simply feel him in my arms. If he let me, I would sit here for the rest of my life. As long as I could hold him, I could know that I would never lose him again.

“Stop crying so hard,” he says. “You’re crying harder than I can wipe the tears away.”

“I love you so much. I love you as Cyrus and then I get to love you as Arturo too.”

“You’re being ridiculous. I’m really not that exciting. And the Arturo you told me about was so sweet and nice. I don’t know if I can be that nice.”

“I don’t want you to change a single thing about you. You’re absolutely perfect.”

“You’re really love blind, you know that?” he asks. “I feel like I could be a hardened criminal and you’d still be like, ‘You’re perfect!’”

“You can murder anyone you want, and I will happily help you bury the body,” I assure him.

“I feel like you’re saying that in a romantic way and I’m hearing it in a concerning way.”

“Don’t be concerned.”

“I want to hear more. I want to see if any of it jogs my memory,” he says. “What if we start with the first time we made love? Tell me about that.”

I laugh, unable to stop myself. “That’s your pick?”

“Yes. And then we’ll go to the first time we made love for the second time.”

“But we haven’t… oh,” I say.

“Right? Go on now.”

“Yeah. Uh… you were like, ‘I’ve never seen such a magnificent dick!’”

“That’s what I said? Really? First time I saw it?”

“Word for word,” I tease.

“Oh wow. I really must not have seen too many dicks. Was I a virgin?”

“No… but I sure was.”

“Oh no.”

“Stop! Don’t act like you know how it happened!”

“I’m not! I’m just saying that sometimes… for someone’s first time… they get excited quickly.”

“I got excited really quickly,” I admit, and Cyrus laughs before hastily quieting himself.

“I’m sorry, I’m not laughing. Please, go on.”

“You told me I had the stamina of a workhorse.”

“Oh wow!”

“And that I pleasured you in ways you’d never seen.”

“I’m going to have to experience this firsthand to know.”

“Yeah, let’s do that,” I say, really happy I’ve had a few more years of experience so he’ll have no idea how much I fumbled that first time.

“Let’s take a shower first, yeah? You are quite… filthy. And are you even fully healed? Can you see alright?”

“I see the most beautiful man I’ve ever met sitting in front of me right now.”

“Evidently, you can’t,” he says. “Can you see out of your right eye?”

“It’s fine.”

“I’m not sure it is.”

“It’s healing.”

“You promise?”

“Let’s get that shower,” I say while I pick him up. “I’m never letting go of you again.”

“Never? It sure sounds like we’re going to have a lot of time left together.”

“Never.”

“Okay,” he agrees as he squeezes me back.