Page 55 of Night’s Fall (The Four Realms #1)

To me, it said things didn’t have to be formal, overly worked and ornamented to denote luxury and class.

So, to me, it made a statement, and not just about my taste.

Of course, I’d happily wear whatever Aleksei gave me.

But I wished I’d never seen that ring (just in case he didn’t pick that one).

I focused on my costume and entering textiles.

“Is your comm done?” Aleksei asked.

“He disconnected me, yes,” I answered.

“Do you want me to get started on dinner?” he asked.

I kept my attention on what I was doing on my tablet, but answered, “ I have two more costumes to enter into the program. Then I’ll get to it. It’s my turn.”

“Darling, work. I can cook.”

At that, I looked down at him.

And dang.

Prince Aleksei , my heart’s desire, was lounged on a couch with his head on my leg.

I am so totally and completely and limitlessly and enormously falling in love with you .

This thought warmed me, toes to tendrils, as I gazed down at his male beauty, consumed by all I was feeling.

“I thought I’d make creamy garlic pasta,” I said softly.

A glow came from his dusky gaze.

He heard the words I spoke.

And the ones left unspoken.

Before I could react to that, my body jerked violently, and I rasped out a coarse breath.

Nova took a dash as Aleksei shot up to sitting.

My body caught fire.

“Alek—” I started.

He grabbed my hand, pulled me out of the couch and dragged me to the steps to the sunken room.

“Clothing, love,” he warned.

He let me go, and still moving, I whipped off my top.

He yanked off his shirt.

We were racing to the steps to the landing pad.

“Doors open!” he barked.

I pulled down my lounge pants, just as all that was happening became too much, thus I nearly fell over.

Aleksei swung me up in his arms and sprinted up the stairs.

I felt the night air coming in through the doorway above, but it was happening, and I couldn’t stop it.

Panic coursed through me.

There wasn’t going to be enough room.

“Aleksei,” I whispered urgently.

Two steps from the top, he hurled me bodily through the door.

My world burst in pearlescent pink stars.

And I landed on her clawed feet.

Her long neck turned just in time to see the ferocious black dragon explode from the stairwell, immediately taking flight.

He made a half circle and banked, coming back in.

Seeing him right there, with the excess of energy bounding through her, she hunched, then took to the skies.

He glided to her side.

He soared.

She rolled, spun and dipped.

When she dipped, he zoomed under her, his wingspan wide, his body powerful, guiding her to the airspace above the courses of crafts zipping around the city.

Mindlessly, finally free, she gloried in the movement, the wind whispering through the silken strands of her long, pearlescent pink fur, caressing the sheer coral and gold feathers that burst from the back of her head in the place of horns or spikes, the night breeze rustling through the opalescent feathers of her wings.

She played with the wind.

She played with him.

Swooping and gliding and climbing and bombing.

He kept her safe, away from tall buildings, out of the path of crafts.

She made flight a dance.

He made it a sentry.

She teased him, gliding below him, her wingspan half of his, she reached, twining their long necks, her silken fur tangling with his fearsome spikes.

At the touch, his dragon roared.

She detached on a delighted whinny and ascended toward the quarter moon.

He followed her.

Flight was a frolic. A scamper. A romp.

And he kept her safe through it, until he sensed her energy waning.

And then he guided her home.

They landed, and with a pretty sneeze, she became me again.

He shook his body and became Aleksei .

We looked at each other.

And then I was over his shoulder.

Down the steps, with the doors whooshing closed behind us.

Up the steps, with the door to our bedroom remaining open.

My hair flew as he tossed me on my back on the bed.

Then he fell to his knees on the floor, pulled my behind to the edge, opened my legs, buried his face between them, and his mouth was gorging on me.

I came on contact.

He still fed, and fed…and fed .

And I came…and came… and came .

Then, with a hungry gasp, I was off the bed, on my feet.

He turned me roughly, shoved my torso forward and my hands hit the mattress.

He entered from behind.

And I cried out as I came again.

His fucking was staggeringly brutal, totally complete.

It cemented in me then. Our bond. Our mating.

I would never take another cock. I would never have another lover. I’d never want another male.

We were four, and two, and only one.

Forever intertwined.

Forever the others.

He fucked me onto the bed, took me to my belly and fucked me into it.

He planted his hands in the cheeks of my behind, arched into his final thrust, burying his cock to the hilt, and roared his release.

I felt the erotic strain of his body through his immense orgasm, and at the power of it, I shuddered beneath him.

He fell to me, his weight in his forearms at my sides, his chest covering my back, my legs splayed, his hips between them, his cock still hard inside me.

“Fucking hell,” he grunted.

I smiled into the duvet.

“She’s a menace in the skies,” he groused.

My smile got bigger. “ Not usually. I had zero control over her.”

He slipped out gently, pushed up, turned me, then lowered himself to me again.

“She nearly flew straight into the Titian building,” he bitched.

I sucked my lips in and gave him big eyes.

He was genuinely disgruntled, because he’d clearly been alarmed.

But I was both elated and exhausted. I didn’t know how long we flew, but I did know it was for a while.

And let us not forget, I’d just orgasmed about fifteen times, so I was further seriously mellow.

“She’s also fucking gorgeous,” he went on. “ A million times more beautiful than the pic. Bloody fucking hell, all I could think, and he could think, was getting you back here so I could fuck you, and off she goes, divebombing a TrailLiner .”

“Sorry,” I whispered, trying not to laugh.

“Do you know how hard it is to stop a creature from crashing into a building when all you can think about is your cock?” he asked irritably.

“If it makes you feel better, you did an admirable job. We’re both here, safe and sound.”

“Fucking bloody hell,” he grouched.

I sucked my lips in again.

It took him a bit, but he got it together, his face softened, and he ran his knuckles along my hairline.

“Gods, bissi , she’s beyond stunning.”

That meant…it meant…

The whole wide world to me.

I smiled at him.

“And she’s back,” he whispered.

My eyes filled with tears.

“She’s back,” I whispered in return.

Then I lost it.

He held me as I cried.

She nestled contentedly in my chest.

He flapped off his lingering displeasure and settled in Aleksei’s .

Finally.

We were four.

We were two.

We were one.

* * *

The lightest touch on my chest woke me in the middle of the night.

“Shh, love, don’t move,” Aleksei murmured so low into my ear, I barely heard him.

I was on my back.

His long body was curled into my side.

What was happening filtered through my sleepy brain.

And I remained perfectly still while Jupiter got the courage to step fully onto my chest, whereupon he curled into a little cat ball.

My beast pulsed her warm welcome.

Jupiter started purring.

Aleksei started petting.

More tears filled my eyes (these I managed to control), as I whispered, “ Yes , baby. She’s home.”

* * *

“Darling, wake up.”

I pried my eyes open and squinted against the bright sun.

“Gluh,” I muttered, and I was surprised I could, because the rest of my body refused to move.

“Roll over, Laura . I have coffee,” Aleksei said.

“I can’t.”

I heard his chuckle.

“Seriously,” I mumbled into the pillow. “ I was there, but still, how hard did you fuck me?”

His chuckle turned into a laugh.

I heard two coffee cups hitting the nightstand, then I was moved, pillows were adjusted, fluffed, and I was positioned to partially upright but draped into Aleksei’s side as he rejoined me in bed, propped up on pillows.

With no other choice, I let him take my weight.

“Do you want your coffee?” he asked.

“In a minute,” I mumbled.

“You didn’t get your work done last night,” he reminded me.

“Ugh,” I moaned.

“I’ll go make you an energy lift smoothie in a minute,” he murmured.

That might help.

Might .

I felt him sip coffee.

Then he set the cup aside and the edge of a tablet came into view.

“ Beauty and the Beast ,” he said like he was reading something.

I put superhuman effort into tipping my head back to look at him, and yes.

He was reading.

“ Yesterday evening, as if they were intent to give us a preview of their upcoming engagement announcement but were determined to outdo themselves with their spectacular flight, His Royal Highness , the True Heir , Prince Aleksei took to the skies with his mate, Laura Makepeace .”

I pushed up further, breathing, “ Oh my gods.”

I focused on the pic that accompanied the article.

A perfect telephoto shot, in color, of my beast gliding, neck intwined with his creature, against a backdrop of a gleaming crescent moon and the pinprick of stars in the night sky.

“ No two beasts could seem more incongruous, thus more perfectly matched, than the mightiest of all dragons, and the most uniquely stunning. Crafts ground to a halt. Beings stopped on the streets or ran to windows, Palms raised, as a fairytale played out in the skies. It is a surety that the words ‘ Long Live Prince Aleksei and his Future Queen were not only on this writer’s lips .”

“Stop reading,” I begged.

“They got the ‘ Beauty ’ part right, I’m a little stung by being the ‘ Beast .’”

I looked at his face and was relieved to see he was teasing.

“People saw us,” I said.

He was smiling when he replied, “ Of course they did, darling. You nearly ran into twenty buildings and about a hundred crafts.”

I buried my face in his neck.

My beast tittered.

His surged and settled.

Okay, those two reacting to each other took no time getting used to, not to mention understand completely.

It was easy.

And perfection.

Aleksei dropped the tablet to his lap and curled his fingers around the side of my neck.

“ Uniquely stunning ,” he said into the top of my hair. “ It’s not only me and my creature who think so. It’s all over the news, all over the tapes. I’d say you’re back in the nineties for your rating, darling. Germaine is probably doing back flips in the admin wing.”

“They like her.”

“Did you miss the ‘fairytale played out in the skies’ part?” he asked playfully.

“They like her,” I repeated.

His fingers tensed at my neck.

And his voice was vastly different when he vowed, “ I will tear them apart.”

I lifted my head.

And yeah.

His expression was vastly different too.

“Aleksei—”

“Not physically, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to.”

“I’ll get used to it,” I promised.

“Medical science bested the removal of scars over a hundred years ago,” he stated. “ The kind you have never disappears. Not unless you have your memories scrubbed.”

“I don’t… I can’t.” I shook my head. “ It made me me .”

“I don’t say that because I advise it, Laura . It should only be used for the most traumatic of traumas, because you’re right, any scrubbing alters a being, and I’ll take you any way you come, but the you I have in bed right now is perfect, and I want to keep her like she is.”

“Oh my gods!” I exploded, pushing away from him. “ Lancet’s perfect princess gown. Getting her back last night. The Jupiter thing. Stop it. I can’t take any more. Don’t make me cry again!”

His brows rose. “ Perfect princess gown?”

I slapped his chest.

He wrapped both arms around me and pulled me to it.

“First, you captivated a realm with your bravery,” he said. “ Then you set it alive with your compassion. And you’ve done it again with your beast’s beauty.”

“You’re not helping me not to cry,” I warned.

“How’s this? Your vid won’t have any costumes if you don’t get your ass in gear.”

“That’s better,” I mumbled.

“Drink your coffee. I’ll get your tablet. Work in bed while I make breakfast. I’ll bring it up.”

I was seriously down with this plan, and because I was, I reached beyond him to my coffee cup. “ You could also stop being so awesome, it’s giving me a complex.”

He pressed his lips to my temple before he said, “ You weren’t called the ‘ Beast .’”

He got out of bed.

I took a much-needed sip of coffee and asked his departing back. “ Is that really bothering you, drahko ?” When he turned to me, I added, “ Because I think he’s handsome. Scary as farg. But handsome.”

“He’s hideous and terrifying. Because he needs to be. Cretins like Arnaud wouldn’t quake in their boots if he wasn’t.” One side of his lips went up. “ I’m teasing, darling. I am gladly the Beast to your Beauty . We are a fairytale after all.”

Dropping that world-rocking nugget, he strolled out.

I am so totally and completely and limitlessly and enormously and endlessly falling in love with you , I thought.

My beast sighed.

Comet jumped up on the bed and shared Aleksei didn’t give him enough breakfast.

I set my coffee aside, reached, snatched him to my chest, shoved my face into his soft fur and decided it was good I lived a life with no dreams.

Because when they came true anyway, it sure was something.