Page 581 of The Luna Duet

My lips pulled back.

My breath turned to grunts.

I fucked her like she was my queen.

I made love to her like she was my ever after.

Because she was.

We were one.

One heart, one soul, one life.

And for the first time in my existence, I didn’t have the cold kiss of a guillotine pressed against my throat. I didn’t fear that she could be taken or horror that I could be stolen.

I was free.

Free in ways I’d never hoped or dreamed for, and I gave this woman everything.

I fucked her hard and deep.

I groaned as she came around my cock, fisting me, milking me, sending me spiralling into heaven.

And when I let go, I roared and quaked and marked her forever as mine.

My wife.

My soulmate.

My home.

* * * * *

“Wakey, wakey.”

I groaned and swatted at something soft poking my cheek.

Comprehension muddied with dreams, doing their best to keep me asleep.

I groaned as something heavy suddenly squashed against my belly followed by a worried whisper-hiss. “No, moonbeam. Don’t touch him when he’s sleeping. He might hurt—”

“Neri?” I blinked and looked down my chest where Nerida lay sprawled sideways over me, her hands locked around a tiny girl’s wrists. A girl with dark eyes, dark hair, pink nightgown, and a stern twist of her lips.

How long had I begged to wake to safety?

How many mornings had I longed to wake with Nerida in my arms only to find the stark, cold walls of a cave?

But now that it’d happened, I fought a dark chuckle.

I was free and back in Nerida’s bed, but this wasn’t quite what I expected.

“Hi.” Neri smiled shyly, still lying over my middle. “I, eh...Ayla tried to wake you up, and I panicked.” Letting her daughter’s—our daughter’s—fists go, she slowly sat up. “I’m used to you being a tad...violent when you wake.”

I sat higher in the sheets and reclined against the pillows. “It’s prudent to protect her from me, and obviously I can’t promise I won’t have another nightmare, but...I’ve lived them all. I have nothing left to haunt me. Nothing else to fear. I’ve let Emre, Jale, Afet, and Melike go. I truly don’t think I’ll wake with that sort of emotional pain again.”

Neri never took her eyes off me. A gleam of wonderful love lit up her blue gaze. “Have I told you I adore you this morning?”

I stretched and drank in my sleep-fuzzy wife. “Have I told you that this is the best morning of my life?”