Page 125 of Beautiful Forever
Syn loves me.
Holy shit, she said sheloves me.
This beautiful angel says she loves the killer with a black soul.
Needing her more than I need air, I strain to keep my touch reverent despite the savagery of longing pulsing through my blood. Palming her cheek, I gently brush my thumb over her plush lips, lips I want to kiss so fucking badly.
“Say it again.”
The most gorgeous smile blossoms across her beatific face, like the petals of a flower unfurling under the first rays of the sun. “I love you.”
Hearing her say it a second time is just as powerful and almost brings me to my knees.
Dropping my forehead to hers, I just breathe her in as a hot ball of emotion I have no way to process tries to strangle me. I know we can’t be together. I know her heart will always belong to them. But knowing she loves me, even a little, heals the missing piece of me that was stolen the night I found Mama; it stitches together the jagged wound in my heart that ripped open the day Aleksei died.
Not caring that my tears show my weakness—because I am weak when it comes to her—I let them fall. Syn owns me completely—heart, body, and soul.
“I should have told you a long time ago. Please don’t be sad.”
“Happy tears, Songbird. I promise I won’t ask for more or cause problems with Tristan, Hen, and Con. Just knowing is enough.”
And it is. Knowing you are loved, truly loved by the person who matters the most, is more than enough. If the Reaper came now to drag me to hell, I’d die with a smile on my face.
“I think you should read something.” She produces a balled-up wad of paper and uncrumples it.
We said we weren’t going to meddle, but it’s been three weeks. It’s time to tell him. We love you.
“Stay. With me. With us. Let us be your home.” Syn presses my hand flat over her pounding heart. “A part of it will always be yours, Aleksander. Please take it.”
The world stutters to a standstill. Literally stops revolving as time grinds to a halt. And then in slow motion, it starts up again and everything becomes more vibrant. More animated.
I want it. Her. Fénix. Tristan and Dierdre. Hendrix and Constantine, my adversaries, who became my friends. I want it all. Every crazy, chaotic part of this family I love.
“Fuck, I love you.”
“Never doubt for a second how much I love?—”
The dam of my restraint breaks, and the rest gets swallowed by her moan when I take what I have coveted for almost two decades.
First kisses are usually tentative and unsure. A test of boundaries or gentle exploration. The way Syn and I crash together is nothing like that. Our first kiss is all passion and fire, a frenzied collision of desperation and need. It’s a kiss of two people who repressed their feelings for each other for too long, and once the walls between them crumble, all hell breaks loose.
How many times had I fantasized about how she would taste? How she would feel in my arms? How soft her skin was? Nothing could have prepared me for the reality of her.
I love you. I love you so much. Thank you for loving me back.
Air expels out of her lungs when I roughly lift her onto the counter island, and her sexy-as-fuck dress climbs up her thighs when she wraps her toned legs around my waist.
“Don’t hurt your ribs.”
“If you think I’m going to let that stop me from kissing you again, you’re out of your goddamn mind.”
She pulls her bottom lip with her teeth and playfully shakes her head, her happiness brighter than sunshine. “I don’t know if you can top that first kiss.”
“No?”
She fists my shirt and reels me in. The heat of her pussy against my cock is like throwing gasoline on a lit ember. I’m so fucking hard, my dick juts out from under the waistband of my trousers.
“It was areallygreat kiss. You have your work cut out for you.”
