“I know,” he says, tracing my lips with his tongue, then sucking on the bottom one. He rolls, pulls me on top, and I stare down at him, amazed. He grazes my jaw with his thumb. “Preacher says they’ll eventually turn back, but for now, I’m stuck with them.”
I throw my head back and laugh, and then fall into a long, sexy kiss with my fiancé. “I can’t believe we’re okay,” I breathe. “Eli, I’ve never been so scared in all my life.”
His hands are gripping my thighs, and trails up my back. “Me, too, baby,” he admits. He holds my jaw steady, threads his free hand through my hair. “I can’t stop looking at you.”
I shove my hands into his silky hair and kiss him softly, and he lies still while I explore his mouth. I suck his bottom lip, slowly, then trace his teeth with my tongue. The unshaven scruff on his jaw against my palm turns me on and makes me writhe against him. I slide my hand down his throat, and he runs his hands over my bared thighs and pulls me hard against him and deepens the kiss. My mind goes completely blank as his tongue slowly grazes mine, and his mouth moves erotically over my lips, and everywhere his hands touch makes me burn for him. On fire.
Then he stops.
“Riley.” He looks at me as I pull back, out of breath.
“Yeah?” I say.
“Can we get married now?”
The moonlight is dim, only a slice hanging low above the water, and it casts Eli’s face into sexy planes and shadows. His teeth gleam white as he grins.
I laugh. “Are you safe?” I inquire. “I mean, you were being guarded by vampires, root doctors, and . . . whatever Gabriel is.” I brush his bottom lip with my fingertip. “Are you . . . dangerous?”
“Nah,” he says. “They were just taking extra precautions. I want to get married. Soon. And get off this island.” He pulls my bottom harder against him, and I feel his arousal pushing against me. “I want you, every day.” He nuzzles me.
Suddenly, my eyes fill with tears. “Eli,” I say, and the thoughts of the recent past are choking me, making me hyperventilate. “Eli, oh my God, I thought you were dead.” I shake my head. “In Edinburgh. It was the most pain I’ve ever experienced. Then, with Carrine—”
“Ri, I’m . . . so sorry,” he says, and wipes away my tears. “In all of what’s happened, I remember two things. One.” He holds up one finger. “The hell I was stuck in after I left you at Waverly in Edinburgh.” He closes his eyes briefly, as if pushing aside horrifying memories. “Two, you, head-to-toe leather, the scatha, dragging me and Victorian Arcos down a gravelly street by our wrists.” He shakes his head. “I wasn’t able to speak, but I saw you, and all I could think was That’s my woman. She’s dared an alternative Hell, and has rescued me.” A smile tugs at his lips. “I’ve always thought you were badass, Riley, but Jesus.”
I sniff, and smile. “I’d die for you.”
“If I could, I’d die for you, too,” he answers me, and pulls me close. “I don’t remember what I did while in Inverness—only what Miles has told me. I have flashes, though—of you, trying to get through to me. And you did. Even if for a split second, I remembered.” His lips move over mine, frantic, desperate, and every fear he’s ever had, I feel, and I drink him in. He raises his head. “I’m sorry. For all the hell I’ve put you through. I have a pain inside that won’t stop, and I know it’s from the things I’ve done. I tried hard to fight it, not to drink human blood. I tried hard as hell.”
With my knuckles, I graze his jaw. The contempt and self-loathing I see in the depths of his red eyes nearly choke me. I can’t imagine his suffering. I look at him hard, long. “Yet look at us now.” I smile. “We survived all of that. And we’re here, together.” I kiss him. “Forever. And this is the last time you need ever mention apologies, Eli. You were not you. A freaking witchpire had you under her dark control.” I narrow my eyes. “I kicked her ass to Hell, by the way.”
One side of his sexy mouth lifts in a half grin. “So I’ve been told.”
For a few moments, we’re silent, just drinking each other in.
“When?” Eli breathes against my mouth. “You. Me. Nuptials.” His fingers lace through mine, and his brow lifts. “Where’s your engagement ring?”
“April,” I answer. “Best time of year in Savannah for a wedding. And I left it in Savannah, safe with your mom, so it wouldn’t get lost.”
Eli breaks the kiss. “We’ll have to remedy that, first thing. And April? That’s . . . weeks away.”
I grin, start to rise. “I know.”
“Whoa,” he says, and fastens his hands at my hips. “Where are you going, ma chère?”
“Well,” I say, and trust me when I say it, it is not easy, “we have to save something sacred for our wedding night.” I leap off him and stand, leaving Eli lying in the sand. “From now until our wedding night, consider yourself celibate.”
Eli’s mouth drops open. It makes his red eyes even more menacing. “What?” He leaps up, grasps my shoulders. “Ri, we’ve had . . . tons of sex!”
I grin. “Yeah, I remember. Every single time. A lot of it nasty.” I rise and brush my lips across his. “And now you’ll have to savor those memories until we’re married.”
“Okay, I changed my mind,” he says. “We don’t have to get married yet.”
I laugh and lace my fingers through his. “Too late. Won’t work.”
Eli’s face draws into a mask of pure agony. He pushes his hands through his tangled wet hair. “Oh, Jesus Christ. I’m going to die.”
I laugh. “You’re not going to die, Eli. Besides,” I say, experiencing a bit of agony myself, “it’ll be worth it. Trust me.”
Eli’s red eye peeks from between his fingers. “That alone makes it worth it.”
I laugh, and my fiancé pulls me into his embrace. He holds me, our bodies still soaked from our swim, and his chin rests on top of my head. “Are we going to be okay, Eli?” I ask. Uncertainty clouds my joy, and a worry starts in the pit of my stomach. “Are you going to be okay?”
“I’ve never felt more alive,” he whispers. “The one thing that was lacking in my detox was you.” He grasps both sides of my face with his hands and stares at me. “I don’t remember much, except the pain. But the one thing I do remember is thinking, What am I missing? Something’s not right, something is supposed to be here, and it’s not.” He smiles, and the moonlight glances off his jaw. He’s so sexy it hurts. “You. I felt empty, dead without you.”
Love and contentment spread through me, and I realize now that, no matter what else happens, we can handle it. We’ll be okay. I frown then, staring up at him. “Swear to God, Eli. If those creepy red eyes of yours aren’t changed back to that engaging cerulean blue by the wedding, you have to get contacts.”
He kisses me then, and I fall into his embrace. After the kiss starts to get heated, I pull back and peck him on the jaw. “Do you remember the first time we were together?”
Eli cocks a dark eyebrow. “Together together?”
I laugh. “Yes. That.”
He lowers his head and brushes his lips to mine. “Every last detail.”
I breathe him in, and the memory of it rocks me. . . .
The brush of his tongue against mine, his skin, my skin, bare and moving together. His hand caressing every inch of me, his mouth making love to mine. The way he completely filled me, rocked me to my core, and made me all but crawl with need. I couldn’t get enough. . . .
It takes me a few seconds to breathe, and when I do, my eyes flutter open and stare into Eli’s bloodred ones.
A grin lifts his mouth. “Damn, Poe.”