Page 64 of Married By Treachery

For a long moment, he didn’t move—didn’t seem to breathe. He simply sat there, his face turned toward the sun as a light breeze ruffled his hair, and Raquel couldn’t look away from him. There was color to his skin that had not been there before, a flush to his cheeks that made him even more striking—how that was possible, Raquel didn’t know.

And then those eyes snapped open and landed on her with such force, it knocked the breath from her lungs.

“You saved me,” he said so softly.

Raquel was speechless, trapped in his gaze, her heart feeling suddenly too large for her chest. Especially as he reached out with one hand, cupped her cheek, and threaded his fingers into her hair, gazing at her in the way that Dream Jake would have done.

“The heart I needed to claim was never yours. It was a mortal heart I needed to claim…for myself,” he said, putting the pieces together for both of them.

“So you are mortal now,” Raquel managed, struggling to follow but also entirely distracted by the warmth of his palm upon her cheek.

He pulled away to grab her hand instead, then pressed her palm to his bare chest, where his heart beat a strong and steady rhythm. “As mortal as they come, my bride.”

Raquel was caught somewhere between overwhelming joy and fear for him. “But what about your magik? How will you ever survive in your own kingdom?”

He glanced past her, at the trees above. “I do not think I am going back to Canna.” A beat passed, and his brow furrowed. “I do not…feel the veil anymore.”

“Does that mean the curse is broken?”

An errant breeze stirred his hair. “I do not know.”

“But what about Sienne, and the children—”

He squeezed her hand firmly, and he looked back at her. “Whatever has come of Canna’s curse, Sienne is strong, and she will do her best to help our people endure.”

Because King Issachar was gone. “I’m so sorry about your father,” she said.

Jake inhaled deeply as his thumb traced little circles inside her palm. “I am too, but he is finally at peace now. And my mother…well, she has always been adept at taking care of herself. Wherever she is.”

“She did not mend your coat?”

Jake shook his head. “Idid. I found the thread while we were searching her private residence, and mended the coat while I followed you and Edom to the palace. Though nothing I did made it appear like…this.”

They sat quietly, gazing upon this wondrous and iridescent fabric while his thumb continued tracing circles on her palm.

“You knew about Adina,” Raquel said at last.

“I stole her from Edom and hid her away at my mother’s in hopes of winning her affections, but she escaped into the forest and intercepted the Depraved.” He stopped tracing circles and looked at her. “Given how much you cared for her, I thought it a cruel thing to share.”

“I was right,” she whispered, and Jake arched a brow. “You did have a heart all along.”

His lips curled, that familiar mischief lit his eyes, and he released her hand to hold her chin instead.

Raquel stilled, held captive by his touch, and her heart drummed so hard and so fast, she thought it might beat right out of her chest.

“It seems you were right about me all along,” he said lowly, then leaned in close, his eyes hooded as his warm breath feathered across her lips. “You also mentioned we had a house in these woods.”

Raquel felt suddenly hot all over. “You heard that?”

His lips brushed hers. Teasing, taunting. “And I believe you were going to tell me you loved me back.”

Raquel pulled back an inch, bewildered that he had heard any of it, but then he smiled that mischievous smile she so loved, pulled her in, and kissed her mouth once. Twice. Just a touch, but not nearly enough, and yet it still sent shivers through her body.

“You’ve haunted me every moment of every day since I first laid eyes upon you,” he whispered upon her lips. “I figured I might as well let you have me and be done with it to end my misery.”

Raquel smiled. “Letmehaveyou—?”

Jake flipped her onto her back and positioned himself over her. He rested his weight upon his elbows, his hips upon hers. His face was a handsbreadth away, and his eyes were huge and dark as they bored into hers. “I had never known love, until I saw pieces of it in my dreams. Of you.” He brushed the hair back from her face, so tenderly. “My beloved bride.” His finger trailed her lips, and it took everything in her not to pull his lips down to hers right then, but he was not finished speaking. “You were right. Love is far more valuable than living, and so I traded my immortality for a heart.” His thumb pressed into her bottom lip, his gaze burned into hers, and suddenly she understood what he’d been trying to tell her about the curse. About his needing to claim a heart.

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