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Maybe I’d confront him about it today. In general, we were good at talking, so there was no reason we should tiptoe around this issue.
I was lying draped over his chest once more, my naked body cooling down from the most recent pleasure sesh, when he said, “I’ve got something for you.”
I grinned. “Again? I mean, not that I’m complaining, but you are kind of insatiable.”
His chuckle warmed my heart. “Get your mind out of the gutter.”
“I tried,” I said with a sigh. “But it seems you can take the mind out of the gutter, but not the gutter out of the mind.”
He rubbed a hand over his face, the gesture belied by the fact that he was silently laughing underneath his palm.
“Before you get any other wayward ideas”—he produced a small object—“here.”
I lifted up onto my elbow beside him and blinked at the piece of jewelry he held out to me. “Are you—is that—are you giving me a ring?”
“No, I was thinking of using this diamond to cut through the glass of the Louvre and steal the Mona Lisa,” he countered in all earnestness. Then he sent me a look. “Yes, I’m giving you a ring.”
I stared at the incredibly beautiful piece, stunned speechless for a moment. The band was made of some silver metal, splitting into intricately woven tendrils that cradled a large jewel in the middle. Gorgeously cut, the gem seemed to be entirely black but, on closer inspection, harbored a riot of colors in its depths, as if the aurora borealis had splintered into the hues of the rainbow and had been caught inside this obsidian jewel.
The sight of it caused a rush of recognition, some deep knowing of having seen this before…likely in one of my visions. I couldn’t recall the context of the dream in which it had to have appeared, but I knew this ring.
The telltale headache following one of my visions coming true spread out from my temples with spindly fingers of pain.
Aziel grasped my hand and pushed the ring onto my finger, and my breath hitched.
“Don’t humans usually give these for proposals and weddings?” I whispered.
“That’s right.”
The devotion in his gaze as he regarded me made my heart ache. So much so that I couldn’t stand the gravity of the moment, of these big emotions that were welling up inside me.
“You know,” I said, forcing a casual lightness to my voice, “there really is no need to give me jewelry to butter me up for sleeping with you. I’m already buttered up. Head to toe dipped in delicious, golden, greasy?—”
His hand on my mouth effectively shut me up. His eyes lit by silver flashes, he pinned me with a look so intense it touched my soul. “I love you.”
He removed his hand from my mouth in favor of cupping my cheek, and I sucked in a breath, my eyes stinging, my chest full of bubbly warmth.
“You light up my life,” he went on, and the solemn vow in his voice struck a chord deep inside me. “You’re the best thing that’s happened to me in a tragically long time. When I’m around you, I’m the best version of myself I’ve ever been. You make me better.”
I closed my eyes against the surge of knowing, of recognition, of experiencing yet another piece of my visions coming true. His words rang with a truth taken from some deep place inside me, from where those dreams must have sprung, supplying me with snippets of the future. As with the ring, I couldn’t remember the entire dream surrounding this one detail, the rest of the vision remaining shrouded in mist, but I knew with utmost certainty that I’d heard Mysterious Stranger speak these words to me in a dream.
And right on cue, my head throbbed with a renewed headache, the painful price I apparently had to pay for channeling the future.
“Z—” Aziel began, only to break off as if he’d bitten his tongue.
When I opened my eyes, it was to find him staring at me with his features drawn tight, his eyes glowing in the dim light of the cave.
“Talk to me,” he said gently.
And with a shuddering breath, I laid my heart bare for him, too.
“I love you,” I whispered, voicing that heady, intimidating, wonderful feeling that had been growing in me for a while…for far longer, maybe, than this past week. I suspected I’d loved him as the stranger appearing in my dreams for years already, each vision building the certainty I’d needed to open my heart to him.
Making it less scary to admit to this deep emotion.
His breath left him on a rough exhale, and he closed his eyes for a moment. His power vibrated in the air, and despite the obvious relief on his face, there was a markedly darker note to his energy.
Opening his eyes again, he leaned in and caught my mouth in a kiss that was equal parts tender and passionate, confirming his claim and speaking to the love he’d confessed. My heart wide open, I melted into his caress, pouring everything I felt into the kiss.
