Page 120 of Villains Never Die

Sometimes villains never die. We’d sure tried and failed when it all started between us. We’d chased each other’s deaths almostas hard as I’d chased Death herself. I’d built an entire empire on lives that had escaped me and left little meaning in their wake.

Except for him. Always him.

Sometimes villains never die.

And sometimes they just live like everyone else, and that’s enough.

Epilogue

“I’m sunburned.Sunburned.” I gingerly rubbed the red patches on both my shoulders. “Do you know where I’ve never been sunburned? Literally anywhere I can wear a suit jacket.” I adjusted the ridiculous swim trunks that had bared my skin to this disaster.

“Six weeks,” Rook said. “I get my six-week honeymoon, and then we’ll go to London so I can try fish and chips and watchDoctor Whoand maybe learn what the hell context I’m actually supposed to use, ‘You alright?’ in.”

I snorted and rummaged about in the airy kitchen for cocktail ingredients. As I mixed fruity drinks for both of us, I stole glances at the stunning expanses of his exposed skin. Unlike me, he’d developed an attractive golden tan.

He picked up a bottle of aloe from the granite countertop and moved behind me to massage it into my burns.

“Ow. Gentle with that,” I said. When he lightened his touch, I relaxed and some of the sting faded. He turned me around with his sticky hands and smashed his mouth against mine, his lipsthrowing me off balance. I sloshed some of his cocktail over my fingers.

I pulled away and handed him his dripping drink. “Have that. We have weeks to fuck in the peace and quiet.”

Said swim trunks were growing itchy, so I pulled them down, arse to Rook because he deserved to be teased just a little, and a heap of sand poured out onto the floor.

He laughed uncontrollably behind me, tipping the rest of his drink and losing it in a great splash as it hit the floor.

“Oh lovely, now we have made two messes,” I grumbled as I rummaged around in a storage cupboard for a broom. When I finally found it, he was already mopping up the floor with paper towels.

“We’re my favorite mess,” he said. “I want to spend the rest of my life making messes with you.”

I crossed back to him and rubbed my finger over the ring on the hand that was grasping sodden paper towels and tacky with aloe.

“I will take all of your messes,” I told him, “as long as you’re mine.”

Awww.

You should go get a shower and let him scrub the rest of that sand off.

You two are so adorable I could die.

I growled and pinched the bridge of my nose. “You’re already dead.”

Rook chuckled. “Are the kids being brats again?”

“Stop calling them that!” I took the paper towels and the empty glass from him, set the glass in the sink, and tossed the rest of it in the bin. “You’re going to give them ideas.”

He turned around and addressed the room. “If you’re good and give us space on this vacation, I’ll binge-watchGame of Thronesfrom the beginning.”

AndHouse of the Dragontoo.

“They’re demanding a rewatch of the spin-off series.”

He gave them an easy grin. “Done.”

And you have to promise to watchHouse of the Dragonevery week next season so we don’t miss any.

“He’s not negotiating with you!” I snapped.

Rook stepped past me, ghosting his fingertips over my sandy arse and helping himself to my drink. “Are they asking about the new seasonHouse of the Dragonagain?”