Ansel couldn’t believe he was watching Nora pace around the sitting room. It almost didn’t seem real.

“You are making me queasy,” he informed her from his spot by the hearth. “It is done. He is not going anywhere.”

“I loathe that I cannot kill him,” Nora muttered.

“I can,” Ansel reminded her. “And I would be happy to do that for you.”

Nora paused her pacing to look at him, and her gaze softened. She must’ve been able to read the naked remorse in his eyes.

“You have nothing to feel guilty about,” she told him gently, covering the distance between them and sitting before him on the plush rug next to the crackling fire.

“You disappeared for ten years,” Ansel mumbled. “In seven centuries, you have never gone more than two months without coming back to me, no matter how angry you were. I should have known something was terribly wrong. I just never imagined that you could ever be in such danger.”

“I never imagined any of us could be,” Nora said. “He kept me drugged until he finally turned me into the woman he wanted me to be. Who knew beings as formidable as us could be so easily brainwashed.”

“You weren’t so easily brainwashed,” Ansel reminded her. “The second you saw that girl in trouble, you did everything in your power to save her. I am glad he did not get the chance to harm you any further.”

He carefully studied Nora’s face, going over the words he wanted to say to her. When he began to spoke, his voice caught in his throat.

“Nora. I… I don’t even know how I have gone on the last ten years without you,” he choked. “I thought you would eventually find your way back to me.”

Nora leaned forward to embrace him, cupping his face between her palms. “I would have if I could have,” she told him earnestly.

Ansel nodded his head at her.

“I have been banished from the kingdom,” he told her. “I refused to marry the last one, and I came looking for you.”

Nora chuckled lightly and looked around the room.

“You seem to be doing well for yourself,” she commented. “For a murderous boxer, anyway.”

Ansel groaned loudly and fell back onto his elbows. “Bollocks. I have to get to Nevada and release Titus. He’s going to have my balls on a skewer for this.”

Nora’s eyes widened.

“I am eager to hear all about that,” she told him, crawling toward his sprawled frame. “But first, I want to savor the moment I have been dreaming about since before the Great War.”

Ansel visibly relaxed, his body sagging comfortably as Nora straddled his body, stopping to strip off the too large t-shirt she had borrowed from him after her shower.

“I’ve missed you terribly,” she whispered, resting her lips against his. “Thank you for coming to my rescue.”

“I should have been there long ago,” he murmured, but she pressed her mouth against him harder to silence him. Ansel allowed his body to fall back against the softness of the rug, pulling Nora down with him as his palms explored the smoothness of her skin. Her fingers fumbled to undo his button-down shirt, her dark hair falling over his face as she moved her way down his body.

“I don’t know how I could have ever forgotten about you,” she purred.

“You didn’t,” he said. “I was always there. You will always find your way back to me.”

Nora’s teeth sank into the tender flesh of his nipple, and Ansel jumped, squealing slightly. She attacked the button of his jeans, roughly prying them off his legs while her tongue licked teasing circles across his belly.

“Never leave me again,” Nora whispered, releasing his solid shaft from his boxer shorts. “Promise me.”

“I swear it,” Ansel vowed. “I will never leave you, not even for a minute. We will always be together.”

Nora wrapped her mouth around him in one fluid movement, and Ansel groaned so loudly that it shook the floors beneath them. Hard but long strokes followed, her fingernails grating against the tight skin of his sack. His hands gripped her ebony hair and guided her smoothly against him as she increased the pace.

“Oh, Lord,” Ansel gasped. “You are going to make me—”

“No!” she snapped, whipping her head upward. “Don’t you dare. I haven’t had you in over ten years. You will not finish until I do.” She slithered her lithe naked form across his legs, rubbing her firm breasts against his throbbing erection until her hips squared his.

Their eyes locked, and Ansel jerked upward, wanting to feel the heat between her thighs like he had never wanted anything else before.

Nora leaned forward to press her index finger against his lips, sliding herself teasingly against his member as she sighed, seemingly relishing the sensation of him tensing against her. She finally lowered herself onto his huge, pulsating shaft, crying out as Ansel filled her.

“I had forgotten how big you are,” she moaned. Ansel’s fingers closed around her waist, and he began to guide her movements, fluidly and without mercy.

Nora’s breath caught in her throat as she was thrust forward, palms flat against the rug. Her nipples grazed against his parted mouth, and his tongue lashed to taste her as he pushed himself further and harder inside her.

Nora howled, and she almost collapsed against Ansel, but he kept her in place, his own grunts growing louder until the slapping of his sack against her smoldering rear stopped and hotness filled her center. She fell on top of him as he finished his climax.

“You have never been more in control that you are at this moment,” Ansel gasped, turning to her, his eyes filled with adoration. The words seemed to spark a great sense of relief in Nora, and she stared uncertainly at him.

“That is a strange thing to say,” she commented. “What do you mean?”

Ansel propped himself up and lovingly peered into her face.

“You have always been strong,” he told her. “But you have been at the mercy of others for far too long. I think, as much as I would like to flay the man alive, Jerome had no idea he was bringing out the inner beast in you when he kidnapped you. He deserves to be burned and strung up at the gates, but you are now stronger than you have ever been.”

Nora swallowed the lump in her throat. The rekindling of their bond meant that he could hear her thoughts if they were loud enough, and Ansel heard her admit to herself that something had changed in her. She had become stronger in some ways, despite feeling like he had been weak for so long.

Will I ever get over what he did to me? Ansel heard Nora wonder to herself. He sat up and brushed her dark hair away from her cheeks.

“You are already overcoming what he did to you,” he whispered. “I am here to help you remember that you had a full and wonderful life before that asshole stole all those years from you. We will recoup what we have lost. Don’t forget one valuable thing, love. We have a luxury no one else has.”

Nora looked at him curiously. “What is that?”

Ansel kissed her lips and smiled softly. “Time. We have all the time we need. And I intend to make good use of it.”

Nora allowed herself to fall back into his arms, pressing her ear to his chest.

“Nora?” Ansel asked, the warmth of Nora’s body against his starting to soothe him to sleep.

“Yes, love?”

“Do you think he heard us down there?”

Nora tensed in his arms. She sat up and glanced worriedly at him. “What are we going to do with him?”

Ansel pulled her back down toward him.

“We have another matter to worry about,” he sighed. “But I don’t want to think about either of them right now.”

“But Ansel,” Nora protested. “He could escape or—”

“He won’t escape,” he assured her. “Trust me. When you decide what you want to do, we will deal with him any which way you please.”

“I must also call about Adrienne tomorrow,” Nora muttered, but Ansel only squeezed her tighter.

“We will deal with Jerome and Adrienne tomorrow. Then we will go to the airport and fly to Las Vegas.”

Nora sat up and stared at him.

“You are going to rot in jail until your trial?” she demanded.

“Well,” Ansel said. “I can’t very well leave Titus sitting there, can I?”

“I can’t bear the thought of losing you again, though,” Nora protested. “And just after I have found you!”

“Shh,” Ansel mumbled. “No more talk about that. Tonight, it is just you and I rediscovering one another. Tomorrow we will deal with everything else.”

Nora sighed and snuggled into his chest. Ansel was about to succumb into a deep slumber when he heard her whisper, almost to herself, “I hope tomorrow never comes.”