Page 99 of Sweet Venom

“What took you so long?” I breathed.

“It wasn’t the right time,” he said, eyes dark with emotion.

“And now it is?”

“Fuck yes.”

I smiled and rubbed my nose against his, needing that small touch like I needed air in my lungs. It was soft, almost innocent, a tender touch that a man who had lived what he had wasn’t used to. And just like that, the wildest plot twist of my life unfolded right in front of me. Deep down in my soul, I wished for it—but I never saw it coming. And yet, somehow... it found me. It foundus.

Azariel didn’t speak and he didn’t have to. The loud beating of his heart beneath my palm was all I needed to know that we were both in this. Together. It might not be how most romance stories start but it was ours and it was more than I could’ve ever dreamed of.

With a slow, tender motion, he lifted me off the ground as if I weighed nothing and like I was something precious, untouchable. And somehow, impossibly, my heart began to beat even harder.

As the storm above grew stronger, Azariel walked us toward a rose bush, his steps quiet but deliberate. His tattoos shimmeredfaintly beneath the moonlight, like silver secrets. He slowly reached out, his fingers brushing over the delicate petals before plucking a single blue rose. Then, with a tenderness that stole my breath away, he tucked it behind my ear.

With that sweet gesture, I felt like something fragile, something he cherished more than anything in this world.

And in that moment, I knew. This wasn’t fleeting. This wasn’t some sweet fairytale from beginning to end. No. Ours was kind of love that scars. That marks you. That owns you.

This was an obsession. Beautiful, brutal, and soul-consuming.

As I stared into harsh gray eyes, I knew this would last until one of us took our final breath and even then, I knew we wouldn’t be done with the other. We would follow each other into the dark, clawing through death itself just to find the other again.

Because what we had wasn’t just love.

I knew it from the moment my tiny heart recognized his broken one so long ago.

It was fate. It was destiny. It was written on every star in the sky.

And I would burn for it. I would burn for my ‘one day in the sun’ withhim.

Chapter

Twenty-Seven

MIDNIGHT BALLAD

Poe

“In his arms, I found safety—even if his soul was made of shadows.” – P

The early morning light streamed through the half-open velvet curtains, casting a soft glow over the dark room like it didn’t realize how rude it was being this damn early. I glanced at the clock on the nightstand and it read 7am. Ugh. Mornings. My mortal enemy. Especially when I’ve been up all night having a romantic meltdown over a certain gray-eyed menace.

Azariel.

Thoughts of his kiss and the gentle touch of his hands kept wide-eyed under the covers while the storm outside raged and then fizzled out. Not my heart, though. Because how do you calm a heart that’s finally being handed everything it ever quietly wished for? A heart that once felt like it would never find a home in him.

A thousand bats are doing aerial stunts in my stomach just thinking about the way his gray eyes locked on mine like he had been waiting for a thousand years for me.

God, I was whipped. There was no point in denying it any longer.

I sat at the edge of the bed, plot notebook in hand, as I stared out the window toward the blue and clear skies. The memory of his soft lips on mine was still fresh, tingling as if it just happened. His kiss had been nothing like I’d expected. It wasn’t desperate or fiery or movie-scene passionate. It was sweet, raw, and it made my heart race just thinking about it.

I’ve been kissed before. But never likethat. Kissing Azariel felt like kissing the stars. Like every other kiss before it was just a prequel and he was the actual story. The happy ever after.

Every word he whispered, every soft look— another chain snapped loose from my heart. I kept telling myself to slow down because, let’s be real, love in this era is fleeting. It’s shameful. But my heart had been tripping over Azariel since I was a child. Even when he pushed me away. Even when he treated me as if I didn’t exist, I loved him. If I’d known back then what he was hiding behind his cruel indifference, I might’ve fought harder for a place in his broken heart. Or at least kicked down a few emotional doors.

Maybe we needed to fall apart first. Maybe we had to lose those quiet kids reading their favorite book at night like the ugly world outside them was just loud noise to find our way back as something sweeter but most of all… braver.

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