Page 44 of Smoke

Epilogue

Alina

It wasn’tuntil the next morning, after we had showered and made love again—and again—that I remembered our conversation in the car. He wanted to see the real me. Would he still?

“Yes,” he breathed, taking my hand. “If you want me to, I want to.” I wondered how much of it was the need to know that I wasn’t a monster.

“Believe me, it’s not that impressive.” So why did my heart hammer out of my chest the way it did? Why did I feel slightly nauseated as I sat him in the chair by the lamp? I wished he had never asked, but lying about who I was would only build a wall between us and I couldn’t have that.

“I hope you don’t end up regretting this,” I whispered, standing naked in front of him.

“This is a pretty good start,” he said, looking me up and down with lust in his eyes. How could he still have the energy after hours of hot, breathless, sweaty sex?

“Bear with me, please.” I turned my back to him and prayed to whoever might be listening that he would still love me afterward.

It had been so long since I had dropped the glamour that I almost forgot how to do it—in reality, it was like opening a door. As simple as turning the knob and pushing.

When I turned back to him, I was the slight, skinny little elf I’d been born as. Shorter than my human self, with a long braid of white-blonde hair which touched the floor. My slightly pointed ears, nose, and chin. My body didn’t have the same lush curves.

“This is who you fell in love with,” I whispered, holding my arms out to my sides. I was offering up more than just my actual form. I was offering all of me.

And he was smiling. I couldn’t believe it.

“You’re still beautiful,” he whispered, awed. “I mean, yes, it’s a change—but you’re beautiful. You glow. Did you know that?”

“No. Do I?”

“Yes! I fell in love with you, the real you—smart, passionate, loving. You don’t ever have to be anybody you don’t feel like being around me. I mean it.” He did, too. I could hear it in his voice, see it in his eyes. He couldn’t lie to me any more than I could lie to him. And a peace settled over me as I had never known before.

* * *

“You’resure you’re ready for this?” he asked. One of his eyebrows arched, but he did his best not to laugh at my expression. I was sure I looked like I was rethinking every decision I had ever made up to that point, because that’s exactly what I was doing.

Even so, I nodded firmly. “Yes. I’m sure. If Jasmine can do it, so can I. Besides,” I added with an embarrassed little smile, “I’ve never seen this side of you. I know it’s there, but you’ve never let me see. And I did let you see me, so…” Even though I had chosen to put the glamour back up. I would let it drop in front of him, but only him. That was one thing that was ours alone.

“Right, right. But that’s not the same as going for a ride, and you know it. I can practically hear the way your heart’s racing.”

“No fair, listening in.” I chewed my lip, asking myself one more time if I was totally insane. Riding a dragon. Who rode dragons? My sister. I couldn’t let her be the only one, could I?

That decided me.

“All right. Let’s do this.” I shook my hands out, then my feet, hoping to shake out the nervousness. Smoke barely choked back a laugh as he stripped down. The site of his body was still new to me, and still enough to make my pulse pick up even more speed. I wondered if he heard that, too, and my cheeks flushed. At least his back was to me, so he couldn’t see.

But I could see him. I could watch the muscles of his broad back work as he bent at the waist, lowering his jeans to the cave floor. I swallowed hard to get rid of the saliva the flooded my mouth at the sight of his almost unbelievably firm, round butt.

He was beautiful, and mine. Another thing I hadn’t wrapped my head around yet. We belonged to each other. He would never treat me like a possession. He wouldn’t tell me what to do, when to do it. He loved me. He respected me. And he would always protect me—he already had, in fact, when he killed for me.

His smile was almost as bright as the sunlight shining through the mouth of the cave. “You’re ready?” he checked once more.

“One thing. Do you prefer Scott or Smoke?”

He smiled. “I didn’t know you knew.”

I nodded. Another story to share with him, sometime. “Which is it?”

“Smoke is fine.”

“Mmm-hmmm. Yes he is.”

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