Ezra scoops me up in his arms and walks with purpose from the marquee. Behind him Rhain, Devin and Nostra leave and head back home to the hidden hamlet.

See you in a few days, Red, Devin says, and with it they are gone.

I look up at Ezra, at the sharp point of the incisors that have lowered from his gum. I do believe my vampire desires me. I press my lips against his collarbone, my tongue snaking a hot trail across the surface. A low rumble erupts from Ezra’s throat. I can’t help but giggle. He looks down at me and smiles.

“I will spend the rest of my Lights forsaken life making sure I hear that sound daily.” He places me gently to the floor, resting his hands on my hips. We are standing outside his cottage, under the newly formed archway covered in roses.

“I debated for a long time whether I should bring you here to my home I once shared with Thalia and Roseanna. It is filled with memories of them both. The walls are filled with the love we shared, and that love has shaped me into the man I am today. Thalia was a good woman. She would have wanted me to be happy. With you I am more than that. You have made me whole again, Accacia. A life was lived within these walls, a life that was lived a thousand years ago. I want to share my life now, with you, in a place that needs to be filled with laughter and love once more. It has been too long.”

I bite my lip, remembering Rhain and I making love here not so long ago. Did he know? I drop my head, not able to look him in the eye. It’s not something we’ve had the chance to discuss.

Ezra lifts my chin with his fingertips. “Rhain told me everything, Accacia. Your Claiming started all of this. I am not angry. Far from it. We have a bond, my brothers and I, it has been made stronger now we have you…” He takes my hand in his. “If you still need time, I can wait,” he starts, sudden doubt clouding his eyes.

“Take me inside, Ezra,” I whisper.

He doesn’t need to be told twice. He lifts me up into his arms once more, and pushes open the door, striding through the living room that is filled with sweet smelling candles and into the bedroom beyond. He places me on my feet at the foot of the bed. It has been stripped since the last time I was here. Crisp, white bedding adorns it and covering the bottom of the bed is a red silk throw. Behind me I hear the sound of Ezra removing his shirt. It falls to the ground at our feet. Then he steps closer and lightly runs his fingers across the open expanse of flesh across my shoulders, moving my long hair so that it falls over the front of my chest. The pads of his fingertips move across my bare back, followed by his knuckles and, lastly, his lips. My breathing becomes heavy as he drags the tips of his incisors across my skin. I want him to bite me. God, I want him to bite me. Liquid desire heats my sex at the thought.

“Ezra…” I start, but he pulls his hot mouth away, replacing it again with his fingers. I feel him pull at the lace of my bodice, slowly unwrapping me from its constraints. He is painfully slow, teasingly so. He wants to savour the moment, I understand that now. Ezra loves fiercely, but when he makes love it is slow, sensual, all-consuming. Already I know this, can sense this about him. Eventually all of the lace ties are undone, and my red dress falls to the floor, the chiffon sliding over the bare skin of my legs as it does so. I am entirely naked apart from a small slip of silk across my arse and my satin ballet pumps.

“Lights be damned, Accacia. You are more beautiful than I ever imagined.” His hands move over my shoulders, down my arms, across my back. I hear him kneel behind me as he drags his fingers over my hips, moving around to cup my arse in his hands. I let out a low moan as he massages me with strong, firm hands. They move lower, brushing my thighs, lowering to my calves, before one hand moves around to my shin. Ezra gently encourages me to bend my knee so that he can remove one of my shoes. I hear him chuck it into the corner of the room. He does the same with my other shoe. Then I feel the sleek wetness of his tongue as it slides up the back of my thigh, licking the underside of my arse. He presses his cheek against my roundness, then his fingers hook under my knickers and he pulls them free until I am completely naked. He stands, and the cold air between us tells me he has moved away. I turn around, wanting to know where he’s gone. He is standing a few paces away, his grey eyes wide, his chest heaving, his hands trembling. My heart aches for him, for the control he punishes himself with. I step from the pool of material beneath my feet and walk towards him. This time it’s my turn to undress Ezra. I reach for his belt, undo it and pull it free from the hoops. A smile twitches around his lips as I drop it to the floor with a flick of my wrist. Ezra’s smile fades and is replaced with a groan when my hand grazes over the firmness of his length. He sucks in a breath, his pupils dilating, the grey of his irises almost lost to the black as I rub him through the material. Leaning forward, I place a kiss against his broad chest whilst unfastening the hook of his trousers. They fall to the ground. He isn’t wearing any underwear and so the soft velvetiness of his cock settles into my hand. I curl my fingers around him, moving my hand slowly up and down the long shaft as I press hot kisses across the firm muscle of his chest.

“Damn it, Accacia, you’re killing me.”

“Not again, I hope,” I laugh into his skin.

Ezra grabs at my wrists. “Too much, too soon, darling,” he says. My hand falls away. “I haven’t finished exploring you just yet,” he adds, his fingertips trailing fire over my breasts. He cups them gently in his hands, running the pad of his thumbs over my nipples. He is gentle, tender, loving. I am enchanted. Bending over, he draws my nipple into his mouth, twirling his tongue around and around until I almost come apart there and then. I am so turned on. The sensation has a direct connection to the slick warmth between my legs. He knows it. His vampire senses smell my desire. He pulls his mouth away, blowing hot air over my aching nipples as his hands slide down my back and over the roundness of my arse. He lowers his mouth further, his lips, his teeth, his tongue move over my skin until he is kneeling before me once again.

He looks up at me, his mouth parting, his fangs dropping further. Then he draws my leg up, placing my foot on his thigh, and turns his attention to the pulse of blood running just beneath the surface of my skin. He hesitates, waiting for my permission.

“Bite me, Ezra,” I whisper.

It is all he needs to hear. Gripping my hip steady with one hand, the other supporting the back of my leg, he buries his teeth deep in the sensitive flesh of my thigh. I throw my head back, letting out a scream of pain mixed with pleasure as he draws on my blood. He is like that for some time, drawing the red warmth into his mouth. It feels as though a thousand feathers are tracing across my skin, igniting my passion from the outside in. The feeling of Ezra feeding from me is so intense that my legs weaken at the onslaught and just when I think I am about to fall, Ezra pulls his teeth free, scoops me up and strides with me to the bed.

He lays me down gently against the soft pillows, his tongue snaking around his lips, lapping up my blood that blooms across his mouth.

“Your blood tastes like liquid gold, like starlight, like the dawn rising on a summer’s day,” Ezra says, bending over me. He grazes his teeth over my collarbone, over my breasts, my stomach, my hip bones until he is settled between my legs. “Now I wish to taste you.” He lowers his mouth, his tongue sliding against my wetness with one firm lick. “Lights damn it, you taste like sunshine too,” he murmurs before pushing his tongue deep into me. Ezra remains in that spot, stroking and teasing and tasting me with his tongue, his lips, his mouth. He is relentless, he doesn’t stop until my body liquifies and I am screaming his name over and over, riding the crescendo that is my orgasm.

Ezra chuckles from his spot between my legs and presses a light kiss on my swollen sex. I look at him with heavy-lidded eyes.

“Come here,” I murmur. He crawls above me, the muscles in his arms flexing. I pull him in for a deep kiss, my nails digging into the skin of his back. “Ezra, I need you inside me,” I say, breaking free from the kiss.

He sits back on his haunches, pulling me up with him so that I am sitting straddled across his lap. I wrap my legs around his waist as he moves with me to the edge of the bed. Sliding his hands from my hips upwards, he picks me up under my arms so that I am looking down at him, my long hair falling over his face. Then slowly, ever so slowly, he lowers me down. Ezra doesn’t move a muscle, he just allows me to settle around him. Allows my muscles to relax, to accommodate him. He feels so good, filling every inch of me.

Then with the upmost care, he rests his hands on my hips and lifts me up and down his thick shaft, his muscles flexing, his body trembling with the effort of not letting go. I squeeze my eyes shut and let out a deep moan, my own fingers curling into the flesh of his shoulders as stars, brighter than the ones that light the sky outside, begin to form behind my lids.

“Look at me, Accacia. Look at me, darling,” Ezra begs.

I do as he asks. I look at him. I look into his grey eyes that are no longer stormy but filled with happiness, with peace. As we move together, the gentle ebb and flow of our lovemaking mending the broken pieces of ourselves, I feel my own kind of peace in the arms of a man I have come to love.