Excerpt:
The car stopped.
[…] I couldn’t convince myself to step out. […] What if this was a freaking,
injection-induced hallucination? What if I was still back in the damn prison?
Besnik helped me
out. […]
The mansion’s
mammoth double doors eased open. The man illuminated in the doorway chased away
the numbness, pumped my heart so hard it might pound right out of my chest. He
opened his arms wide, calling me. My lips curled upward in the first true smile
I’d cracked since the last time he’d held me in his arms. That man, my man,
loved me more than any other on this whole damn planet.
“Alexander.”
I ran to him.
Alexander’s arms
closed around me, his hold so tight I could barely catch a breath. Tremors ran
through his hard body, again and again.
“Carina,” he
croaked, voice sandpaper rough. “Carina.”
Nuzzling his
neck, I planted fevered kisses along his tan, heated skin. He’d fed recently to
be this warm under my lips. Temptation had me licking his pounding pulse,
nipping at the vein. Couldn’t resist it. My fangs slid home.
Energy exploded
between us, our mate bond bursting to life and tearing away whatever magical
wall had separated us for far too long. My bite, the catalyst, his blood the
cure. Awash in the force of our reunion, Alexander staggered then clutched me
closer while I pulled out of his neck and laved the rapidly healing holes.
As our power
continued to bubble and stitch us back together, he whisked us into the grand
entryway, planted my ass on an ornate, antique cabinet, and devoured my mouth
like a starving man. His hands roamed everywhere, searching, cataloguing, as if
to reassure himself this wasn’t a hallucination, that I was really here, in his
arms, relatively unharmed.
The more he
kissed me, the more those wonderful, golden threads of our connection
resurrected inside me, around me, between us, and I felt like freaking Sleeping
Beauty awakened from her magical slumber by a kiss from her fated handsome
prince. The silly thought made me giggle against Alexander’s seeking mouth, and
then I was crying while my love cupped my face between his hands, wiped away my
tears with his thumbs, and pressed tender kisses to my forehead, my cheeks, the
tip of my nose…
“Alexander.” I
fisted his shirt tight. Please, God, let him be real. “I… I don’t want to wake
up.” Please, don’t let this end.
His smoky blue
eyes bored into mine, his brown hair spiked in every direction, a bit longer
than in my memory. It’s not a dream, baby. You’re here. You’re home.
Oh my God, I can
hear you. I swiped some willful bits of hair away from his forehead, touched
his full lips, ran my fingers along his strong jaw, taking in the whole
handsome, bad-boy package. You’re back in my head. I’d never been happier to
have someone inside my mind. Silence was seriously overrated.
And back in your
arms.
