by Tessa Bailey
He huffed a sound, admiration warring with emotion in his voice. “I never doubted you.”
“And I’ll never doubt you again.”
“You didn’t, baby.” He gathered her face close to his. “That’s why you could never kill me.”
Salty tears rolled down her cheeks. “You remember the night we met.”
“Every. Beautiful. Second.” Sincerity and love radiated from his eyes. “And I’d do it all again this time tomorrow.”
EPILOGUE
One Week Later
Elias twisted his wife’s wet hair into a knot, holding it on the top of her head so he could kiss her neck. The ethereal glow of the Blue Lagoon worried around them in gentle eddies, rippling like whispers against their skin, the Icelandic moonlight fanning out around them like a wavy spider web. Roksana floated on her back in front of him, her toes peeking out of the water, her back against his chest. Though her body was already limp, it went even more boneless as Elias traced her tongue slowly up the slope of her shoulder, nuzzling her ear.
It was the middle of the night and the tourists had gone home, leaving the dark coves empty, the star-scattered sky seeming to light up just for them. There was no sound except for her sigh and the slide of two bodies through the lustrous water.
They’d spent their first week as a married vampire couple plotting places all over the world that were best explored at night. Between bouts of feverish lovemaking, they’d spread out a map between them on various hotel room beds, circling destinations and musing aloud about sample itineraries. There might be a war culminating back home, but they were anxious to plan for eternity together—and they weren’t wasting a single second.
Elias traced the shell of Roksana’s ear with his tongue and her back arched, bringing the peaks of her bare tits out of the water, moisture sluicing down the pretty mounds and turning his mouth dry. Between his legs, he turned to stone, his hands itching to mold her breasts in his hands, but he didn’t act, enjoying her relaxation. After the last few weeks—hell, the last three years—she deserved it. Not to mention, she was having a difficult time adjusting to her new abilities. Her new hunger. The emotions that came from being and having a mate.
Remembering the incident from that afternoon triggered an adamant throb low in his belly.
“You are thinking of my explosion earlier. Aren’t you, husband?”
His lips jumped. “Hard not to think about it, wife.”
She sniffed. “I am not ready to laugh about this,” she murmured, but there was humor in her tone.
Earlier that night, they’d gone walking through the small fishing village of Grindavík when someone had accidentally bumped into Elias. A totally innocent accident.
Roksana had reacted like someone was trying to shoot a wooden arrow through his heart, her fangs firing out of her gums, her body launching in the offender’s direction, an anguished sound splitting the peace of the night. He’d managed to drag her behind the stall of an open-air market, commanding her to feed. She’d sucked on his neck with such desperation, he’d ended up covering her mouth with one hand and unzipping with the other, fucking her silly against a concrete pillar until she hit a peak and the fight went out of her.
They trained constantly to acclimate Roksana to her new speed and strength. Many a hotel room between Iceland and Moscow had sustained damage. But she was coming along slowly but surely, her skills shifting to accommodate the major changes. With the potential for battle on the horizon, she wanted to be ready. And she would be.
They would be.
It was the emotional aspect of matehood that seemed to wind her at every turn. It killed him to watch her struggle with the amplified instincts to feed, protect, possess, because he could relate to it on every level. He’d lived with his obsession with Roksana for three years before being able to act on it and each day was a mixture of heaven and hell. Seeing her: heaven. Not touching her: hell.
There was no doubt in his mind that he’d fallen in love with her that night in the casino. They were fated from the beginning. Every cell in his body had known her before she even opened her mouth to speak. Their love was an incredible magic, but it had become even more than that. Loyalty, perseverance, trust, friendship.
He could only imagine what it was like for Roksana to plow through this heightened state of love and connection with her immortality thrown into the mix. He had a three-year head start on Roksana and still spent his every waking moment overwhelmed, nearly drowning in his feelings for her.
His wife turned in the water to face Elias and his heart started clamoring viciously in his chest, simply from the way the moonlight bathed her blonde hair, turning her into a seductive angel. His seductive angel. She looked at him with serious eyes, her arms lifting to wrap around his neck. “Tomorrow I will control myself better.”
Elias nodded. “You will.”
“Probably.”
Chuckling, he kissed her mouth softly. “Probably.”
“I understand now why you followed me every night in the shadows. When I would go hunting.” Her voice hitched on the final word. “It must have been excruciating to watch me fight all those times and not intervene.”
Elias said nothing, the residual fear of those evenings clamping around his windpipe.
A line formed between her light brows. “You didn’t merely give a year of your life in that prison for me, you gave the whole thing. Your humanity gone, just like that. And the life you were left with…you would have ended it to keep me from suffering. You have sacrificed so much for me, husband, and I burn—I burn to do the same for you.” Her thighs slipped around his hips, her fingertips tracing his jawline, trapping him in a maze of need. “That is where my…very sexy, very attractive aggression is coming from.”
Laughter pained, Elias pressed their foreheads together. “Roksana.” His voice shook with intensity. “Compensate me with your happiness. That’s all I want. No more stakes to the stomach. No more guilt. Just your love. Please.” He kissed her hard. “I wouldn’t just get up and follow you in that casino, if I had to do it all over again. I would run. I would chase after you, get on my knees and beg to go through every second of suffering, just to reach this moment with you. Do you not think three years of torture is worth an eternity with you? Wife, I would have offered millenniums. I love you.”
“I love you…I’ve loved you so much it hurts.” Her eyes squeezed shut. “I worry sometimes it will tear me apart.”
“No. I won’t let it.” His hand traveled down her back to capture her backside roughly, guiding her heat to his erection. “You will tear me apart instead.”
Her head fell back on a moan and he kissed her wild pulse, willing it to calm, but knowing it wouldn’t until she’d been fed and pleasured. Repeatedly. Elias was caught between enjoyment of her unquenchable appetites and the desire for her to settle into her new skin. But above all, he wanted to be there for every step of her journey, supporting her, loving her beyond reason. Holding her hand and standing united against whatever fight came next.
They were forever. Bonded. Indestructible.
Elias was getting ready to swim them to shore, so he could lay his wife down somewhere sturdy and see to her needs—and his own rapidly growing ones—but she surprised him by lifting her head, smiling, her eyes sparkling with lust and humor. “You are very lucky I was not a vampire first. I would have been compelling your ass all over town.”
“Oh, yeah?” His deep laughter rang out on the surface of the lagoon. “What would you have compelled me to do?”
“Oh, innocent things, like making me coffee. In an apron and nothing else.” A smile spread across her lips. “Maybe I’d have compelled you to carry me on a silk pillow through the graveyards at night, feeding me grapes, spinning tales of my brave exploits. That would have been a good start.” She shrugged a moonlit shoulder. “And then maybe some motor boating.”
“Like this?” He yanked her naked body up higher against his own, burying his mouth between her tits and
blowing loudly, burrowing his face side to side until she was squealing, her laughter carefree and full of joy. That laughter quickly turned to gasps, though, Elias’s bristled jaw raking over her nipples, again and again.
Her hands started slapping at his shoulders, her neck losing power. “Now, husband. Now.”
Elias was already moving, grappling with his own desperation, cutting through the water to reach one of the coves so he’d have leverage. God knew he needed it the way she demanded a breakneck pace when she got worked up like this. But when they reached the spot where their discarded clothes lay, Elias heard his phone ringing. He started to ignore it, the need to be inside his wife flaying him alive, but the ringing wouldn’t stop.
“It could be important,” she whispered, pulling back and giving him a meaningful look.
Every call seemed to be important these days, the number of vampire slayings still on the rise and Inessa having gone to ground, no doubt plotting where her loyalties would lie if an immortal war broke out. She didn’t have the game piece—Jonas was in possession of that, thanks to Roksana’s cleverness—but with Tilda joining the fae forces together with the dark uprising, leaving the North American slayerhood open and vulnerable, Elias suspected Inessa was already scheming to take that coveted spot, while maintaining a stranglehold on her own.
Only time would tell.
Giving his wife’s tits a longing look, Elias climbed out of the water, earning him an appreciative whistle from Roksana. He dried a hand quickly on his jeans and recovered the cell phone from his pocket. Tucker’s name flashed on the screen.
Elias answered quickly. “Yeah?”
“Hey. Congrats on your nuptials, man. Hate to break up the party, but, uh…” Tucker’s voice was uncharacteristically tense. “It’s starting. How fast can you two get to Oklahoma?”
THE END
Don’t miss the first book in the Phenomenal Fate Series!
Reborn Yesterday is available now
A timeless love story with bite.
It was a night like any other for funeral home director Ginny Lynn, until the exceptionally handsome—and unfortunately deceased—young man on her embalming table sat up, opened his emerald eyes and changed the course of her life forever, making her feel quite fluttery while he was at it.
Humans aren’t supposed to know Jonas Cantrell, or any vampire, exists. It’s kind of a major rule. Despite his instantaneous bond with perfectly peculiar Ginny, he has no choice but to erase her memories of their one and only meeting.
That was the plan. Before a reluctant Jonas can wipe Ginny’s mind clean, she reveals a secret that brings their worlds crashing together. Human and vampire. Past and present. Darkness and light. And while their love is strictly forbidden, it might be the only thing that can save them…
Reborn Yesterday is a standalone novel.
Get it here:
www.tessabailey.com/reborn-yesterday-2
About Tessa Bailey
Tessa Bailey aspires to three things. Writing hot and unforgettable, character-driven romance, being a good mother and eventually sneaking onto the judging panel on a reality show baking competition. She lives on Long Island, New York with her husband and daughter, writing all day and rewarding herself with a cheese plate and Netflix binges in the evening. If you want sexy, heartfelt, humorous romance with a guaranteed happy ending, you’ve come to the right place. You can join her fun loving Facebook reader group, Bailey’s Babes, here:
facebook.com/groups/191945697620644
