Page 18 of Blade

Zane grins at him sourly then looks at me.“He’s not wrong though.”

“And I’ll be more than happy to fix them for you,” I say, then smile at the rest of them too.“And anyone else’s for that matter.”

The conversation takes off after that, the years we spent apart and the things holding us apart melting away the way they only can between people who have known each other for their whole lives.And I have known them all for that long, since before I can really remember.

We all attended the Sacred Heart Academy, some of us from the time we were babies.Raised by nuns, they were always more my family than any of my blood relatives.Maybe I didn’t have to stay away.Maybe I should’ve come home sooner.

Rogue suddenly claps his hands and stands up.“Well, this little reunion was nice.We’ll have to do it again some time.But I have places to be now.”

The beauty in the surgeon’s outfit is smiling at him, and he’s smiling right back, walking to her as though attached to an invisible rope she’s holding the ends of and using to reel him in.

“Rogue is in love again,” I whisper and wouldn’t even know I spoke aloud if everyone else at the table hadn’t laughed.

“I was beginning to think it would never happen,” Bianca says.“But it seems he finally managed to lay Angel to rest.”

“I’m so glad,” I say and look at Blade.

He reads my mind correctly, as he gives me a quick hug then announces we’ve had a long day and need some much-deserved rest now.

We still haven’t had sex, waiting for the perfect moment perhaps, or simply needing to go through all the motions of falling in love all over again before, but I think tonight might be the night.Seeing everyone—even Rogue—get their happily ever after makes me think that maybe I can finally reach for my own too.

Blade takes my hand and starts leading towards the back of the room, but I don’t follow, pulling him back until his lips are so close to mine it seems impossible not to kiss him.

“Take me for a ride,” I ask in a whisper.“I want to see the stars.”

There are very few places in LA where you can see stars, but we found all of them.And going by the smile he gives me, he remembers that as well as I do.

“Let’s go,” he says and pulls me in the other direction, back to the door and into the night.

The night that will be ours in all the ways all the nights of the last ten years weren’t.And maybe afterwards, I’ll ask him if we can just keep riding.

Because I’ve seen so much contentment here tonight, so many things having fallen into their proper place, that I’m afraid to stay.Afraid I’ll find a way to destroy it all like I always seem to.But that’s a conversation for later.A pain to deal with later.A truth to face later.After I get just a little taste of what could’ve been for all these years.To wash away what was.

9

Blade

I’ve had endless dreams about this very moment, so many I’ve long since lost count of them.Dreams of Bella and me just riding through the night, the darkness like a velvet cloak around us, the stars our only guide.Her arms around my waist, holding me tight, her scent woken by the night air and the wind of our passage.

All those dreams came back to me when she mentioned wanting to see the stars.Just the fact that she remembered that was priceless.And this ride as we search for them is already all those dreams coming true.

We finally find them atop one of the hills overlooking the vast, dark Pacific Ocean.Not in the best part of town—an openly Aryan MC has set up shop not far from here—but with her I am invincible.For her, I am invincible.That’s proven to be the truth many times.

And as I lay her down on the blanket that I’m now sure I kept in my saddle bags for exactly this night, I know that truth in every cell and fiber of my being.

“You’re so beautiful in starlight,” she says as she brushes her soft, warm fingers across my cheek.

“Nowhere near as beautiful as you,” I counter, wishing I could find something profound to say to her.But those words will come too.When they are needed.Because words are not needed now.

What I need now is to feel her, to touch and kiss her, to make her mine the way she’s always already been mine.In all ways, shapes, forms, in a way that knows no such limitations of time and space.In a way that is as right and perfect as drawing breath.

As our lips meet for the first kiss I feel like I’ve been holding my breath that I can finally release now.Finally let go of.Finally draw a fresh one.

But it’s not air I need.I need her and only her.

She kisses me back with a fire she’s been denying us until now.That fire that lives deep inside her and is bright enough to keep us both warm, hot, moving forward.

She’s tugging at my jacket, pulling up my shirt, silently urging me to take them both off.I oblige willingly.Continue by removing her jacket and shirt.Then her pants and mine.Then her bra and my boxers and finally her panties.It’s too dark here to see very clearly, but I see her perfectly anyway, in my mind.Under my touch and my kisses, she is perfectly formed, aglow in a light all her own, more beautiful than anything I’ve ever seen.Or will ever see.Or taste.Or touch.

---