The studio was dark when I entered it after a day full of meetings. With the cool winter approaching, I sighed with relief at the warmth of our apartment.
I had told Lex I’d take her out to celebrate her finishing up her online courses and getting a degree in social services, but that was supposed to be hours ago. I braced myself for a pissed Lex.
Life here hadn’t been easier. Boston wasn’t easy to keep an iron fist around when some of the men still tried to see Ares be reborn. The only thing that made everything worthwhile was Lex and coming home to her each night. It felt natural, it felt like my soul had found a home inside of her and no matter where we ended up, no matter what life threw our way. This, her, us, it would always be enough.
As I shrugged out of my wool coat, draping it on the back of the couch, I noted Lex’s figure snuggled on the bed beneath our covers. Quietly, I moved to the bed and sat down, kicking off my boots.
“You’re late,” she whispered behind me, her voice groggy and breathless.
I licked my teeth, my chest tightening. Don’t fuck up. “The meetings ran longer than I expected.” I glanced at the flashing alarm clock. One in the morning. “We can still go grab something to eat or I can make you something.”
She hummed at that and her fingers caught the back of my slacks, tugging me toward her.
I obeyed, climbing into the bed beside her.
“Too sleepy,” she whispered, her leg hiked over my thigh. She was completely naked, besides my sweatshirt she liked to wear around the apartment.
My large hands slid up her thighs and over her wide hips, resting on her tiny nipped middle.
I watched her in the darkness, her lashes resting on her cheeks, her breathing slow and shallow.
Anxiety ran up my spine, remembering the object hidden in my pocket.
I had wanted to ask her for months, but it never seemed right. It was still new, we were still adjusting to life together in Boston and both of us were busy. But now…now it felt like the right time. She had my mark, she lived with me, she carried my heart in her palm.
“Alexandra,” I breathed out.
Her lashes fluttered, and her baby blues met mine in the darkness. She smiled at me, eyes looking sleepy. “What is it?”
The words sat heavy on my tongue and when the anxiety and fear clawed at my throat, I dove, taking her mouth slowly in a long kiss.
She moaned into my mouth and curled closer, her hands tugging at my belt.
When she unzipped me and fisted my hard cock, she lined it up with her opening. Already naked and ready for me under that shirt. Slowly, I sunk deep inside of her. With long strokes, we lost ourselves in each other.
Her hands clung to me as I tried to keep most of my weight off of her, stroking both of us to the high we loved.
I stared at my soul, my heart, my everything, and kissed her, gripping her hand as I slid the diamond on her left hand.
She came on a cry, her warmth clutching my length until I joined her.
I collapsed on top of her, my heart beating wildly against her skin.
Her eyes, unfocused, stared up at me and then slowly moved to her left hand. “Beau…”
Emotion choked her words and she lifted her hand, gazing at the diamond ring.
“You didn’t even ask,” she laughed, tears wetting her lashes. “Someone once told me never to get cocky after a successful offense,” she said, smirking at the memory.
Still inside of her, I shifted us so she lay on top. Her hands laid on my pecs, staring at the ring and then looking back at me. I slapped one of her ass cheeks playfully, then soothed the ache away in long, deep strokes. “A successful offense, huh?” I asked, punctuating the question with an upward stroke of my still hard cock inside her. “Is that a no then?”
She smacked my chest, but laughter followed after. “You idiot. You can’t just ask me like a normal man, can you?”
My hands ran down her sides and squeezed her ass cheeks, thrusting into her once again. “I’m no ordinary man, cucciola.”
She sighed, resting her forehead against mine, her lips inches from touching my own.
With a soft kiss to her temple, I whispered into the crook of her ear. “Will you be my wife, Alexandra Harvey?”
Her tears fell, touching my own cheeks as she shivered against me. “Yes.”
It was all I needed to hear, and I kissed her.
She had made me sin, she had been my sin and I had knelt for her.
I would spend the rest of my life kneeling, protecting, and caring for her.
She was my souleater, my heart, my everything.
LEX
SIX MONTHS LATER
“Where’s your veil?” Molly huffed, straightening out my lacy gown at the bottom.
“Uh…”
She glared at me and turned to Dolores who shrugged, nervously. I loved Molly with all my heart, but the last six months she had been organizing everything for our wedding. Everything had to be perfect and I could see her about to explode.
“I don’t need one,” I told her, trying to move toward the navel doors of the temple. The same cathedral church Beau had cleansed himself. He was the one who picked it and I found it fitting to be married at the place where he saved himself and us.
Molly huffed again, going back to fixing my hair.
Dolores cleared her throat beside me. “We should get going. The music’s starting.”
I heard the piano echoing in the cathedral and glanced at Molly. “Both Beau and your husband will be pissed if we keep them waiting.”
Molly smirked. “Tensley can wait a bit longer.”
I groaned, massaging my temples. “I do not need that image.”
“Okay, okay!” Molly fixed a few strands around my face and then stepped back as the doors opened.
I took a deep breath, straightening my back as everyone stood in the cathedral.
But all I saw was Beau Knight.
Standing at the end of the aisle, dressed in a black tailored suit that hugged every bulge of muscle packed into his body.
He didn’t smile, but he rarely did in public, but I saw his eyes drink me in, his nostrils flaring as I moved closer to the man that was still more beast.
And I loved him as he was now.
Loving and serious, tender and rough, honest and caring.
Molly went to my side and smiled at Tensley who stood beside my future husband.
When I reached Beau, he took my hand in his large one.
I barely heard anyone else or saw the other guests. All I could do was stare back at him. With thorns in our hands, we linked them together and someone tied a white ribbon around them.
Flexing my hand, I clasped his so the thorns dug deeper and he caught my gaze, darkening under my own.
“Mr. Knight,” the man before us said, gesturing to our hands. “Your vows.”
I eyed Beau’s mouth as his tongue licked low at his bottom lip.
“With this thorn of pain and power, I say the sacred oath of court—you are the blood of my blood,” he spoke, his bloody thumb stroking mine—so gently, no one would notice but me.
“The bone of my bone.
With this thorn between our palms,
Beneath the night of the gods,
Upon the eyes of the holy court of Fallen,
Plagues of my body,
Sin of my blood,
Strength of my bones,
I vow to shield you from all corruption but my own,
Kiss your wounds as a duty of your master,
And I vow with my hallowed heart of thorns, bone of steel, and blood of venom,
To wed thee
Unto the moment of our undying grace.”
Tears pricked the back of my eyes and I shook it back, my mouth trembling as I repeated the words.
“With this thorn between our palms,
Beneath the night of the gods,
Upon the eyes of the holy court of Fallen,
Plagues of my body,
Sin of my blood,
Strength of my bones,
I vow to honor my lord,
My night to my dawn,
The sun to my moon,
And to kiss each bruise, each wound as a duty to my master.
I am ready to bare my body to him
—his precious temple,
his soothing warmth of night,
and bitter bite of ice.
Obedience and patience will be my oath
—carrying the inferno of his power in my womb,
And I vow
To wed thee
Unto the moment of our undying grace.”
I gasped as the words left me and my chest felt lighter, warmer as I gazed upon the man and demon of my life.
We had fought for our love, for our futures and to let go of our demons and our past.
We had sin, we had kneeled, and we had conquered.
And as I kissed him once, I tasted just how holy and happy and sacred his soul was.
A soul I loved.