Page 70 of Veradel
I stare, but Lucan only chuckles as he slides his pants down and kicks them to the side.
“Werewolves have stamina,” he says, voice low, locking my knees around his hips. “And you make me want to do this for the rest of the eternity we have together.”
His fingers find the hem of the shirt I’m still wearing and slide it up as he plants a kiss on my bare skin with each new body part he exposes: belly button, breasts, sternum, collarbone.
The mood shifts from a lust-filled, desperate need to a lovingly soft caress, a content exhale, like the two pieces of our souls are calling for each other.
“I love you.” His breath skims across my shoulder. “How did I get so lucky that you fell into my arms?”
“And I love you,” I sigh, letting my head fall back as his lips pull my sensitive nipple into his mouth. “I love you because I want to. Because I choose to.”
His callused hands work over my breasts, then cup around my waist to lift me up and bring me down onto him. With adoration clouding his eyes, he kisses me, hard, a sound echoing in his throat as I slide down fully.
“Lucan,” I moan into his mouth, completely satiated.
Wrapping one hand around the back of my neck and the other around my ass cheek, he presses his forehead against mine.
My fingers lace through his hair before I lift myself, angling to hit the perfect spot, and come back down with a sigh. Lucan and I find the perfect pace as we work together.
With each up and down movement of my hips, our souls convergelike a whisper of unsaid words:I love you. I love you. I love you.
I’ve found my strength, my world, my own personal Wall that doesn’t lock me in but builds me up. And everything I can’t say in this second, I say with my eyes.
Nose to nose, we can’t look anywhere else but at each other as our breaths become labored. Two opposites, two natural-born mortal enemies, blending together as one.
When we’ve regained enough strength, Lucan gets to his feet, tinkers around at the water bucket, and comes back with a wet kitchen towel.
He swipes the warm cloth along my inner thighs as I watch silently, reveling in the softness that’s such a contrast to his rough nature.
“What?” he asks quietly.
I shake my head, biting back a smile. “Nothing.”
“Taking care of you is the bare minimum, even as a Monster,” he huffs playfully under his breath as my eyes wander to the oven.
The little black spiraled handle juts out from the tiny door, soot covering the now-opaque window.
“Will you teach me how to cook?” I ask suddenly.
Lucan arches a brow, smothering a smirk. “Is this a backgammon, poker, ‘men love to teach women things’ thing? What information are you trying to pry out of me?”
“No,” I laugh. “It’s a meals-through-a-door-slat-my-entire-life thing.”
His canines freeze in a grin as realization flickers over his face. I’m not human anymore, but just this once, I want to pretend to be one—to experience the things I should have had the opportunity to experience before the Guardians took that away from me. Not just the thrilling whirlwind of drinking and dancing, but simple moments like these. Cooking in a kitchen together, as if we’renottwo types of monsters trying to tear down a Wall...
And besides, he still needs to eat, even if I don’t.
“Okay,” Lucan says finally, pupils hardening in determination. “Then I’m going to teach you how to make the best damn breakfast in the world.”
After he tosses the towel in the washroom, we both scrub our hands with clean water before he starts pulling things out of a square container packed with snow and ice: a glass jug of milk, a dozen oval-shaped objects stacked carefully in a basket, and a yellow, waxy-looking substance on a platter.
One after the other, Lucan switches to the cabinet and plunks the remaining items down in a row on the counter.
“What are all these?” I ask, eyes wide.
He holds up the basket with a confused pinch of his brows. “Eggs?”
“Oh. Sothat’swhat they look like!” I’ve eaten eggs, of course, but I’ve always seen them as pale yellow scrambles. Not these delicate, oval objects, speckled and untouched and perfect. At the incredulous look on Lucan’s face, I point to the platter with a sly smile. “And what about that?”
