Chapter 30
I WELCOME THE CHILL BETWEEN the cabin and the hot tub because Bastian putting a bathing suit on me has me completely wound up and on fire. I want to beg him to take me to the bedroom, but he wants special, and God love him for that.
Sitting in warm water with jets creating bubbles all around us in the middle of a forest was not how I pictured spending our last night in California.
“Come here,” he says, like it’s his anthem. Come here. Come for me. My legs slide along his thighs as I sit on his lap, our faces inches from each other. I clasp my hands behind his neck, the warmth of the water feeling sublime.
“This is beautiful. Thank you.”
“You deserve the world for everything you’ve given me.”
I scoff, shaking my head. “A mess. I’ve given you a mess. But I look at Aven and think it all has to be worth it, right?”
“Every step, good or bad, got us here. And we’ll go home and pray my memory comes through.” He looks down at the space between us then back at me, eyes vulnerable. “I’m worried about that. That it won’t work.”
I run a hand along his shoulder, shaking my head. “It’ll work, it has to.”
“Yeah,” he whispers, looking behind me.
I lift his chin with a finger, aware there’s still a battle waging inside my sunshine boy. There are so many changes, and he’s doing so well.
“It was only supposed to be just a taste,” I whisper, sliding my hands through his hair and grabbing it at the nape of his neck. “And look at us now.”
His fingers curl around the sides of my bikini, his teeth biting into his bottom lip. “It was never going to be just a taste for me. You silly, na?ve, little witch.”
He moves in slowly then, his head curving to my neck, planting wet kisses up to my ear, his tongue gliding along the sensitive skin, and he whispers into my neck.
“We are on the verge of walking into so many unknowns by going home. And I need you to know before we go back, how dedicated I am to you and Aven. That I will spend the rest of my life protecting you as much as a human can. I want you to know that I would die all over again for both of you, but I won’t let that happen.
Never again. You’ve made my dreams come true in every way possible, and I won’t fuck it up. ”
“Of course I know that, Bastian,” I say, a lump of emotion rising in my throat.
“You said something on the wharf the other day that I can’t let go.
That we are partners. Partners? Like a business transaction,” he scoffs, his hand entwined with mine.
“I don’t want to be called your partner.
I want to be called your husband. I want your soul tied to mine forever.
I want everything that’s mine to be yours. ”
My heart races under my wet skin, loving the words that come from his mouth but knowing that’s not the fortune of a witch.
I squeeze his face between my hands, kissing each cheek. “Witches aren’t really supposed to get married. It never ends well.”
He pulls his face back. “They can’t have sons either, but look at you.”
I laugh because he’s right, and I really can’t pretend. I love the idea of being his wife.
“Let’s just do it. A small ceremony, something between you and me. Our moms. Cousin, Cassius. I don’t want you left with nothing if something happens to me again.”
“I don’t have nothing. I have a paid-off house and my business. And Cassius gave me two of your houses. But nothing is going to happen to you,” I vow.
“You are the mother of my child. Even if you can’t take my last name,
I am bound to you forever. Your stupid legacy has kept you from doing so many things, but there’s a chain between our hearts forever, yours and mine.
We can’t be married, yet I can promise my heart and soul to you?
We’re going into an unknown, and I want you to know that I am happy to be growing old with you now.
My vampire life is over, and I thought that would kill me, but all I want is to live the rest of my days with you and our son. You should be my wife.”
His jaw tightens, eyes stern—almost wounded—and he pulls his pinky ring off and grabs my hand.
“Let’s just call it a promise ring because I will buy you the biggest fucking diamond you’ve ever seen when we get home,” he says, slipping his BD pinky ring onto my ring finger.
Everything seems to still, like I’m floating out of my body, his love pouring over me, the ring I kept around my neck for so long, now sitting on my ring finger.
A promise from my soulmate. Yet something still sinks inside me.
I don’t know one witch who has married a man and stayed married to that man. The prognosis is not good.
“There’re those overthinking eyes I fell in love with. Baby, let go.”
“I just—”
“That’s not the right answer, Aster Wildes. I came back from the dead for you, you should be my wife.”
“Technically I brought you back, so…” My hand rises to his cheek, thumb rubbing along his bottom lip. “Marriage was always something intangible, not something in my reality, so how can I even dare to dream of such a thing? The future is so unknown right now.”
“There’s always room for dreams,” he whispers, moving his mouth dangerously close to mine, the mouth he’s denied me kissing since we got here.
“Every second you’re here is like I’m home again. Like I’m safe, like everything has led to this moment. Like I can dream. Every kiss, every touch.” I swallow, the need for him pounding over every pore of my skin.
“Then kiss me like you mean it,” he commands into my mouth, and my legs could melt away from those words.
So I do. Pulling his lips onto mine, his tongue into my mouth, and I kiss him fully and deeply with everything I have.
The kind of kiss that makes you gasp for air when your lips part, the kind of kiss that makes you want to cry.
“You taste so good,” he growls, “I could feel you, feel you the entire time I was gone, my soul ticking like a clock, waiting to be brought back.” He presses his chest tightly against my breasts, his hands twisting and roaming over my back.
My legs clench outside of his thighs, his dick, thick in his swim shorts. I want him, all of him so badly that I find my pelvis rising against him, my tongue sliding out of my opened mouth, and he takes it, sucking, his hands grabbing my ass and squeezing.
Then his mouth falls down my chin, kissing slowly between my breasts as I pull my head back, staring at the grove of trees over my head, the sun peeking through them.
It’s such a beautiful sight, the enchanted forest around us, and I feel one side of the bikini top being slipped away as my hard nipple is adored by his hot mouth.
I bring my head up, running a hand through his thick waves, and use the other hand to free my other breast from the confines of the bikini top, demanding more.
“Needy girl.” He sighs, looking up, taking the other nipple in his mouth as electricity alights across my skin. The way he sucks, the intensity of his tongue has me grinding against his lap, craving the sweet friction his erection offers.
“That’s it!” he announces, gently sliding me off him and getting out of the hot tub. Pulling a towel from a bin, he tells me to stand, and I do, covering my chest with my hands as he pulls the towel around me.
He means business now, I can tell by the determination in his eyes, how his jaw clenches and I can’t help but smile as he guides me up the stairs of the tree house, and it’s like we’re in the clouds.
“Oh, Bastian,” I say my feet slowing, taking in the bird’s eye view before us.
The sun prepares to rest for the night, casting an amber blaze, like the whole forest is lit by candles. “Wow.”
He hurriedly pulls me into the treehouse, closing the sliding glass door behind him, the sun’s glow filling the small room as a floral scent hits me. My eyes take in bouquets and bouquets of ruby red flowers scattered around the room in vases, and my hand covers my mouth.
“Asters,” I say, recognizing the flower that shares my name.
I smile as he grabs a stem from a bouquet and places it over my ear. “How?” I laugh, and he just winks at me and walks closer to the bed where a white canopy is bolted in the ceiling, its netting draped over the bed to the ground.
Before I can say a word about the beauty surrounding me, he sits on the pristine white comforter at the canopy opening.
He pulls on my towel, and it falls into his hands, revealing my bare breasts.
Placing the towel on my stomach, he pulls it down my body, taking care to dry each thigh, each foot.
I balance myself by resting my hand on his wet, bare shoulder.
I sit before him, taking the towel from his hands, his eyebrow arching as I glide my teeth over my bottom lip and bring the towel to his chin, down his strong neck, over his pecs, and stroke down the ridges of his abs.
“May I?” I ask when I reach his shorts since he’s in charge tonight, and he nods, eyes alight, so I untie the top and slide them down. I drag the towel up the tops of his feet, up his toned calves, his thick thighs, his perfect dick.
With a sigh on his lips, his stomach clenches, mouth opens. “Get up here,” he says, and I stand, throwing the towel to the ground as he pulls me onto his lap. Wrapping his hands around my back, he unties the bikini top and pulls it over my head.
He stills, allowing me to take all of him in, allowing my mouth to press on his shoulder, kissing along his collarbone, down his neck, sliding my tongue down his chest, the salty taste of him, the same but warmer, dizzying.
I push him back on the bed, taking in his chiseled body, still so strong, even without vampire blood.
That V line any man would envy and every woman would die to run her fingers along calls to me, so I plant the tiniest of kisses along it as he hisses, the sensation intense, my mouth hot for him, his hands in my hair.