Epilogue

Eight Months Later...

I stood on the beach, staring out at the ocean. The waves crashed against the shore and a breeze that tasted like the sea rushed past me, swirling my dress around my knees. With the sun slipping below the horizon, the Pacific looked like it had been set on fire. Shades of red and orange danced across the surface of the water, sparkling dazzlingly. Overhead, a seagull let out a long, plaintive cry.

As I stood there with my toes in the sand, I felt him step up next to me. I turned and smiled wide, taking his hand in mine. As I looked into his eyes, I reflected on the night I almost lost him. Remembered the thoughts that flashed through my mind – all the regrets I would have had if he'd died without me having told him how I felt.

Thankfully, it hadn't come to that.

“How are you feeling?” I asked.

“Getting stronger everyday.”

We stood in silence for a few moments, enjoying the scent of the sea and the beautiful sunset before us. It was a perfect night – in a honeymoon filled with them. Once Deyro had recovered from his wounds, we'd honored Shango's demand and had married. But we'd married not because Shango required it. But because we realized how much we meant to one another. We realized that despite our differences, we loved each other. Shango had been right all along – there was a spark between us. There was something deeper there.

It had simply taken Deyro nearly dying for that realization to hit the both of us.

“You still haven't told me how you got me out of there,” he said.

He was right. I hadn't. The how didn't seem important to me. And honestly, I preferred to not think about that night. The only thing that mattered was that I had. But he wanted to know. And I supposed he had a right to know.

“Honestly, I don't know,” I admitted. “I saw you lying there – saw you dying – and it just sort of gave me a super strength, I guess. Adrenaline probably. I was able to drag you through the Door – do you remember the Door?”

Deyro shook his head. “Honestly, I don't remember anything after seeing you put about a thousand arrows into Nepar.”

I shrugged. “Nepar had a Door in his chambers,” she said. “I was so panicked, I almost didn't see it at first. But I managed to drag you through it.”

“Super strength, huh?”

“Exactly,” I said. “Anyway, once I got you through the Door, I called for help. Nobody really believed you were going to make it, but they went to work on you anyway. You were out of it for a few weeks. I thought I was going to lose you.”

“But you didn't,” he said and squeezed my hand.

“No, I didn't,” I said and leaned my head on his shoulder. “And I'll be grateful every single day of my life for that.”

He planted a soft kiss on the top of my head. “And I'll be grateful every single day of my life for the fact that you saved me,” he said and looked into my eyes. “You saved me in more ways than one.”

We turned and walked back into the cottage we had rented for our honeymoon. It sat right on the beach and we both enjoyed the sound and scents of the sea.

When we stepped inside, Deyro picked me up and spun me around, kissing me gently. Slowly though, our kiss became more passionate. More urgent. He carried me to the bedroom and laid me down on the bed. He climbed on top of me and our kissing became more heated. I ran my hands through his long, dark hair and planted a line of kisses along his neck.

Deyro looked down at me, his face full of need. Desire. Ever since he'd recovered, we hadn't been able to get enough of each other. It was as if that brush with death had made us crave that life-affirming act of making love. It was as if we needed to remind each other that we were both still alive.

A soft moan escaped my lips as Deyro kissed my neck, sliding the tip of his tongue along my skin. His hands explored my body. He cupped and squeezed my breasts, before his hands traveled lower. He slid them up under my skirt, trailing his fingertips along my inner thighs. The fire inside of me exploded into life beneath his touch and I quickly unbuckled his belt.

He stood up and pulled his pants down for me. I watched as he slipped them down his legs and kicked them off, admiring how hard he was for me already. Deyro slipped his shirt off over his head and I winced as I looked at the scar on his belly. Though he could heal from most any wound because of his Dragonborn blood, the toxin Nepar had used on that dagger left Deyro permanently scared.

I sat up and planted a line of soft kisses along that scar, running my hands across his chest. Deyro gently pushed me back onto the bed and reached up under my skirt, pulling my panties down and tossing them aside. A mischievous smile crossed his lips as he crawled on top of me. I parted my thighs, wrapping them around his waist as he kissed me.

The fires of desire and need were burning out of control within me and I almost screamed when he thrust himself deep inside of me. I raked my fingernails across his back as he began to move his hips, moving inside of me.

Deyro pulled the straps of my dress down, exposing my breasts. Lowering his face, he licked and sucked on my nipples, sending bursts of electricity through my body. He kept moving inside of me as he traced the tip of his tongue around my nipples, heightening the pleasure coursing through me.

I put my hands on his shoulders to roll him over, but he gave me a salacious smile. Taking my hands in his, he pinned them to the bed above my head. I struggled to break free, but couldn't. His grip was like iron and he held me fast. I smiled at him as he quickened his pace, his cock sliding in and out of the hot, wet center of me.

I cried out and arched my back as he thrust himself deep. Our bodies moved together as one, each of us anticipating the moves of the other in perfect harmony. We fit together so perfectly, it was like our bodies were made for each other.

Deyro still held me down and kissed me hard as his body tightened as he moved within me. I moaned and called his name, feeling the pressure building up low within me. He gasped as I tightened my muscles around his cock, squeezing him.

“I love it when you do that,” he groaned. “I love being inside of you.”

“And I love having you inside of me.”

I thrust my hips, meeting his own thrusts, taking him deeper inside of me. With the sensation of absolute pleasure running through me, I knew I wasn't going to last much longer. Deyro kept pumping his hips, driving himself into me with long, steady strokes, and I relished in the feeling of taking every glorious inch of him into me.

As my body began to tremble, I cried out. My orgasm crashed down over me like the waves on the beach outside. My body spasmed hard and long, the pleasure cascading down on me, making my body feel like it was burning from the inside out.

Deyro grunted and then growled low. His body stiffened and he called out my name as he filled me with his warm, wet seed. He gritted his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut as he came for me. His cock pulsed within me, touching off another round of sensations that made me cry out.

Eventually, our breathing began to return to normal, the sensations slipped away like the sun slipping below the horizon. He rolled over and I laid my head on his chest. I trailed my fingertips across his body, running them over the scar on his abdomen – a permanent reminder of what I'd almost lost.

I kissed his stomach and reveled in the afterglow. It was hard for me to believe that we'd gone from where we'd been to where we were. Once upon a time, not all that long ago, it was difficult for us to even be in the same room. There was a time when I couldn't stand being around him.

But times had changed – and so had our feelings. We'd gone from hunting partners and rivals to a couple that was very truly and very deeply in love.

“Do you think this is what Shango and Quint had planned the whole time?” I asked.

Deyro laughed softly. “If it is, then they are both smarter and far more devious than we've been giving them credit for.”

“It just seems a little strange to me,” I said. “A little – coincidental.”

“How could he have known it would turn out this way?”

I shrugged. “He couldn't. Not with any certainty,” I said. “But he seemed to know there was something between us. And he knew it long before we did.”

“Maybe it was just a lucky guess,” Deyro laughed. “Quint did say he's a romantic. Maybe he saw a spark because he wanted to believe it.”

“And yet – here we are,” I countered. “We're married and in love. And Shango called it from the start.”

Deyro smiled at me. “Well, maybe he was on to something,” he said. “Either way though, it worked out pretty damn well, I think.”

I looked up at him and grinned. “It worked out very, very well.”

I closed my eyes and felt the warm, soft blanket of sleep starting to be pulled over me. I felt a little drowsy and comfortable. I was where I needed to be. Where I wanted to be – in Deyro's arms. And I knew he felt the same way.

It had taken some doing to get us to that point. But eventually, we got there. And the work we'd had to put in to get there seemed to make it all the more special. All the more worthwhile. And all the more worth fighting for. For the first time in my life, I was genuinely and deeply happy.

“I love you,” I murmured.

“I love you too, Alex.”

I smiled dreamily and let the soft embrace of sleep take hold and pull me under.

THE END