Page 79 of Eternal

“You lost, and I want the last thing you see to be the pleasure she gets from me. Never from you. Ready, baby?” His face is inches away from me, the distance is closed when his ear is pressed against mine.

I wrap my hand around the knife’s hilt as Soren’s hand envelopes mine. “I’m ready.”

He tilts his face, lips pressed to my ear, “Together,” He murmurs.

“Eternally,” I reply.

Soren slashes the knife’s tip across his throat, blood spraying onto both our faces and my body. It takes me a moment to register that he’s choking on his blood. Not a single part of me cares that I have his blood on me or that a man is dying in front of me, and I don’t understand this side of myself either. Perhaps, it’s due to all the pain I’ve been through my whole life. Maybe, it just took loving Soren to draw this out of me. Either way. I’m okay with it. He deserved this. And I can feel the darkness in my trauma leave as life fades from his eyes. There’s still a way to go, but this is a start.

“Are you okay?” Soren asks.

I nod and turn to face him, who is now standing over me. We are bonded in blood, and I feel at peace for the first time in my life. Like my soul is finally at peace.

“I love you, Soren.”

He bends over, pulling my face into his hands, “What?”

I start to stand and repeat myself. “I love you, Soren. I have for a while. I was just struggling to say it.”

Soren smiles, resting his forehead on mine. “Come.” He pulls me back up the stairs, and blood trails through the house as we stumble into the bathroom. Kissing me with such passion, it would bring people to their knees. He pulls away for a moment to turn the shower on. I start to work on unbuttoning his shirt.

“Say it again,” He commands.

“I love you, Soren,” I say between breathy kisses.

He’s in a rush to get his clothes off as I step into the shower. Tristan’s blood flowed into the drain, and water cascaded over us. He lifts me, my legs wrapped around his waist and his cock at full attention. He lowers me just slightly, sinking into me. I cry out at the connection between our bodies. It hits the spot in me that makes me immediately see stars.

“Again!” He groans, burying his head into my neck, biting and sucking at my skin.

“I love you, Soren.”

“I love you, Freya,” He growls, picking up the pace.

At this rate, I know we won’t last much longer. I cry out as he thrusts one last time, sending me over the edge as he comes deep inside me.

“Fuck. I’ve been waiting so long for you to say that,” Soren says between kisses as he sets me back down on my feet.

Chapter thirty-three

Freya

OneYearLater

My shaky hands smooth out my dress as I draw in a deep breath and exhale. My nerves are entirely shot now, and I can’t help pacing back and forth. Serena sits on the sofa of the bridal suite watching me have a mini meltdown.

She huffs, “Freya, you need to calm the fuck down. You’ve already been married once. It’s just a vow renewal. Besides, wasn’t this your idea anyway?”

I stop for a moment, thinking back to when we decided we would renew our vows.

“No, it was Soren’s,” I whisper, a ghost of a smile on my face as I’m drawn into the memory.

I had just finished signing what I thought was my last book when Soren approached the table, clutching my newest release in his hands. Pride is evident on his face as he sets the book down on the table.

“I need your signature again, my darling,” Soren says, with a smile on his face.

It’s a tradition that he comes along at every book signing I go to and gets a copy of one of my books for me to sign. Each is dated with the location and strategically placed on his bookshelf in my library. This particular title is number two in his collection.

I smile down at the book and flip it open, but instead of it simply being the title page, a little note is left on the top.

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