Page 89 of Roses & Ruin

I slide my hands up the fronts of his thighs. God. He’s so perfect.

I realize, desperately, suddenly, I want to taste Hayden.

I finally believe it when Hayden tells me he’s never loved me more than he does now. I don’t feel as much of a stab of insecurity when he talks about our past, even when he admitted he thought I was especially charming with an Australian accent.

That might have a lot to do with one of his more recent confessions. In the heat of the moment last week, when we were too impatient to make it out of the kitchen, my back against the closed fridge door, his hands at my hips, his tongue had gone loose, saying all kinds of hot, dirty things against my ear.

“You’ve never been this insatiable,” he groaned. “You’re the insatiable one. How the fuck am I so lucky?”

It shot right through me, and I shattered around him in a surge of pride and hunger.

With the memory of his pained groan echoing in my ear, I slip my thumb beneath the silk of his boxers. I swallow a gasp when I brush a wiry tuft of hair.

A hand snatches my wrist before my thumb can go any farther.

“What have we here?” Hayden’s voice is low and rough with sleep. It makes me ache with want, clench my thighs together. He pulls me up his body so our faces are level. His eyes fall serious. “You don’t have to do that, you know,” he says quietly. “I don’t expect that.”

“I don’t care what you expect.” I writhe against him, already short of breath. “I want to do that.”

“Do you?” he murmurs. Hayden shifts against me, flashing me his fangs, a knowing glint in his eye. When I feel him press against my bare thigh, feel how ready he is for me, I gasp.

“Later.” I yank off my sports bra and kick off my panties. “Right now, I want…” I wrap my fingers around him, and with a snarl, Hayden rolls me onto my back. His hand slips between my legs, and his eyes get huge. He swallows a few times.

“There’s no way this is just from you kissing my leg.” Hayden’s voice is brutally rough. He swirls his fingers against me, and I cover my eyes, my cheeks flaming. “This from last night too?”

“Both,” I say in a shaky pant. “I’m— Please, Hayden? Please, please…” Hayden’s fingers disappear, and I whine from the loss. But then Hayden shifts on top of me, his hands in my hair, and there he is, poised right where I want him.

We kiss as he moves carefully, trying not to break the headboard again. He drops his mouth to my neck, and when I feel the points of his fangs graze my pulse, I suck in a sharp breath, tensing, pleasure ratcheting impossibly higher. Hayden’s head jerks up, his pupil-filled eyes huge with lust and shock.

“Really?” he pants. “Already?”

“Maybe,” I pant. “Maybe you should slow down?”

“Absolutely not,” Hayden grates out. His hips move deeper, more dedicatedly. “Wanna feel you, Rose. You’re so incredible, so perfect. I love you, I love you.”

“Hayden,” I plead, the word shattering as I start to break apart.

“Marry me,” Hayden gasps. “Marry me, Rose.”

Lightning bolts of ungodly pleasure shoot through my limbs. I anchor my hands in his hair and cling to him as my body quakes and explodes.

“Yes,” I grind out. “Yes, Hayden, I’ll marry you again.”

Now it’s Hayden’s turn to shatter, making the most beautiful, agonized noises in the back of his throat. We hold each other through the aftershocks, kissing whatever skin we can reach.

“Did you mean it?” he breathes, sounding a little scared. “I get if it was in the heat of the moment…We don’t have to…”

“I meant it,” I whisper. “I do, Hayden. Want to marry you. Maybe not anytime soon, but I figured…”

“We have time now.” Hayden kisses my mouth.

“Lots and lots of time.” I kiss him back.

—

“I think I know what did it. What broke the curse,” Hayden says on the way to Delia’s. The snow is soft and beautiful, crunching deliciously beneath our boots. “You were able to take charge of your own fate when you knew about your reincarnations. Instead of me protecting you, you protected yourself. I…” He rubs the back of his neck. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you the truth sooner.”

“I forgive you,” I say. Hayden smiles, kisses my knuckle. “You sure you’re not gonna want to hang out for a second before you go?”