Page 139 of Bought for Blood

“Taking me back to Aurora while I slept. That’s the one I’m angry about. I wasn’t dying then. I was asleep in your bed, safe, and you had all night to wake me and ask. You didn’t, because you were afraid of what I’d say. One was saving my life. The other was deciding it. They’re not the same thing, and I’m only forgiving one of them tonight.”

“That’s fair.”

“Now think about what you just told me.” She pulls back far enough to look at my face. “Half an hour ago you stood in this room and said you couldn’t keep me because the years would take me and you’d have to watch me die. That was your last reason. And now you tell me your blood might give me four hundred years.” She shakes her head slowly. “Bastien. You just took apart your own argument. And you did it like you were confessing to a crime.”

I open my mouth. I can’t think of anything useful to say.

“That’s what you do,” she says, and her voice has gone gentle. “You saved those captives, and you hid on a ridge instead of letting anyone thank you. You set me free, and you did it in the middle of the night, with nobody watching. Now you might havegiven me centuries of life, and you’re apologizing for it. Every good thing you do, you treat like something to be ashamed of. I’m not letting you do that with me.”

“We don’t know that it’s four hundred years.”

“No. We don’t. Maybe it’s sixty. Maybe it’s four hundred. Maybe I get hit by a bus, and it’s one week. Nobody can tell us.” She says it simply, the same voice she uses for anything she’s already decided. “It doesn’t change what I want. However long I’ve got, I’m spending it with you. So we won’t know, and we’ll be together while we don’t know. Can you live like that?”

“Yes.”

“Then there’s only one thing left. What happens if Faine finds out?”

“I think she’s known since the quarry when she saw the wound you survived. I think she saw it and realized what I’d done. She’s had over a week to report me to the Court. Instead, she signed her name as a witness on your contract and left without saying a word about it.”

“Is that permission?”

“As close as she’d give to something unsanctioned. But it only works while the secret stays a secret. Your sister can’t know. Viktor can’t know. The moment it spreads, Faine can’t ignore it, and then we’d have to face it.”

“Then it stays a secret. I kept myself hidden my whole life. I can keep this.” She’s holding my shirt. “Now say the rest back to me, so I know you heard it. Don’t protect me by disappearing. Protect me by keeping me close and guarding me. Buy the walls. Hire the people. Just don’t leave the room.”

“I can do that.”

“Say it properly.”

“I will do that.”

Neither of us speaks. Outside, the light is in the tops of the trees.

She’s standing between the doorway and me, and she hasn’t looked behind her once.

“You don’t have to do that anymore,” I say.

“I know.” She doesn’t move. “I’m not doing it for you. I like the view from here.”

Say it. You know the words. Just say them.

“I love you.”

Serenity takes my face in both her hands, and that’s always been my weakness.

“You’ve taken your time,” she says. There’s a catch in her voice.

“I have.”

“Say it again.”

“I love you, Serenity.” My hands are not steady on her.

Then she turns around and walks backward into the dark of the house, pulling me after her. We get to the passage where there is no window, and she puts her back against the wall. I lean my forearms either side of her head and put my forehead against hers.

“You’re shaking,” she says.

“Yes.”