Page 144 of Monsters Carve Thrones

His hand curled tighter around me. “And I knew I’d never let anyone else have you. Not once I saw the fire in your eyes. I knew I was destined to marry you. Even if I was a man who had never felt love in the way that was required for marriage. I just… saw something in you. You were different. You remained standing even after I brought the entire goddamn house down.”

I turned toward him again, reaching up to brush a lock of black hair from his face. “We’ve been through hell, Rafe. Since the beginning. But I think because of that, we’ll love each other more fiercely than most.”

He smiled, then pulled me against his chest again. After a few minutes of peace, I sat up. I slipped one of Rafe’s oversized T-shirts over my head, tugged on underwear, and padded barefoot through the villa’s open glass doors. The stone floors were warm beneath my feet. Behind me, I heard his quiet footsteps and the soft shuffle of sweatpants.

When I stepped onto the back patio, the view knocked the breath out of me. The sea stretched forever, glittering under the soft blush of dawn. Pale gold light spilled over the balcony railing, illuminating the vines climbing the stone, the terracotta tiles still slick with dew. I glanced down and noticed a tray of orange juice, fruit, and pastries waiting for us. I smiled to myself.

His arms slid around my waist from behind, his bare chest pressing into my back as he kissed my shoulder, then my neck. “You happy, little doe?” he asked against my skin.

I smiled, my hands resting over his. “Very.”

He rocked us gently, kissing my temple and down my cheek.

“I could stay here forever,” I whispered.

His lips brushed my hairline. “We really can if you want. I was serious, you know.”

I turned in his arms to face him. He looked so different here, shirtless, sleep-tousled, no guns, no blood. Just a man in love, standing on a patio with the woman he crossed continents to save. There was a warmth and a calm in his eyes that nearly made my knees buckle. “As much as I’d love that, New York is my home.Ourhome.” I turned in his arms to face him.

His eyes traced my face. “We can visit whenever you want, then.”

I grinned, kissing his cheek softly.

He cupped my face gently. “I love you in a way that scares me, Adela. But it’s the most beautiful and exhilarating thing I’ve ever known.”

My eyes stung. I leaned in, resting my forehead to his. “When I opened that door and saw you standing there, covered in blood...” I swallowed hard. “I thought I had died, Rafe.”

He tilted his head, waiting for me to continue.

“I thought I had been shot, and seeing you was my first glimpse of a heaven I never entirely believed in. It sounds corny, but it was really my first thought.”

His eyes narrowed slightly, like I had struck something deep inside him. “Trust me, I know the feeling.” He reached down and brought a glass of orange juice to his lips. He then offered it to me.

I took it, savoring the crisp, cold taste. “So now we’ve got a lot to manage, huh? Between Sinclair Solutions and your ever-expanding empire?”

His smile was slow. “Monsters don’t just wear crowns, baby.”

I blinked up at him.

“They carve thrones. And ours happens to be made from blood, fire, and the most epic love imaginable.”

My chest ached at those words, not with pain, but with fullness. He kissed me before I could reply. It was deep and slow. I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him back with everything I had. Every scar. Every memory. Everypromise.

Because he was mine.

And I was his.

As his lips roved over mine and his arms pressed me against his muscular body, I realized that he was right. Wedidcarve our way to the fucking top. With blood, with bone, with every vow we made in the dark, and every kiss that pulled us back to the light. He was my ending and my beginning. My monster. My nightmare. My husband and my home. And if this was what came after the war…

Then I’d survive it all over again just to feel it twice. He saved me in every way a person could be saved. And I felt like I might have saved him, too.