Page 140

I loved him.

CHAPTER 38

BELLE

It’d been three days since our wedding. Arkane and I spent every moment of it together, simply enjoying each other’s presence, talking about everything and nothing, making out heavily like teens, or enjoying the silence. It was just us in an unknown location, floating away in the ocean with no care for the outside world.

We were both basking out on the deck, me in his arms, with just the dark blue ocean and perfect gray clouds that brought in the right amount of sunshine. It lulled my heavy eyes.

“Bella?”

“Hmm,” I mumbled, my lids almost drooping closed as I buried my face in his neck. His warmth, the sound of his heartbeat, and his familiar scent soon became my favorite drug.

“Are you sleeping again?” I heard his dry voice ask me.

“Hmm.” I burrowed deeper, already half lost to the word.

He simply sighed, his fingers flexing as they curled tightly over my waist.

Perfect.

I didn’t know how long I had dozed off, but when I came to, my eyes landed on a pair of gray eyes looking right at me.

“Do you know how beautiful you are, mia Bella?” Something like awe swept over his eyes as he took in every inch of me.

I bit my lips, a flush of heat spreading through my skin. I was only wearing a simple bathing suit, but I might as well be naked with the way he was looking at me.

“You don’t get to look at me like that,” he whispered, leaning in to trace soft kisses all over the side of my face.

“You don’t get to look at me like that,” I fired back, only it came out weak and breathless.

And he paused, his eyes on me.

Something heady and beautiful built between us at that moment as we both stared at each other in the way we both accused each other of.

One trembling breath out of my lips, and his lips closed in on mine. The kiss was sweet at first and soft even, but then became something ravenous and hungry; the more his tongue stroked along with mine, going deeper and deeper, the more the fire in me surged. Maybe my heart? My soul? Or me entirely? But wasn’t I already his anyway? And he was mine.

Arkane Stormhold was mine.

My chest burned for air. Not even a moan slipped out of me as Arkane devoured my lips, my mouth, and every inch of me. It felt like my heart exploded like the tiny crackles of fireworks, burning me alive.

“I want you, Bella,” he said, eyes on me. “Only if you’ll give me the honor of having you.” There was a certain softness and a promise in his tone. He looked at me like I was his entire life. How could I say no to that? I wanted him just the same, if not more.

I nodded.

He inhaled sharply. “Words, Bella.”

“Yes, Ark,” I managed in a shaky tone. “I want you.”

In the blink of an eye, his arms swooped around my thighs and lifted me. He put his mouth back on mine and didn’t stop until we reached the bedroom, and my back softly bounced on the bed.

“Fuck, Bella,” he groaned, his body all over me in an instant.

His lips left mine, only to continue their sweet torture along the rest of my face, jaw, neck, back, and forth over and over again. My core burned with need, but the feeling in my heart was incomparable. It was so full of love. For him.

“So beautiful,” he said, bringing his eyes back to me. “Beautiful,” he repeated, his lips touching mine once again, this time his hands descending along the curves of my body in all the right places with all the right pressure.

I clawed at his swim trunks, aching to feel the warmth of his skin on mine. Arkane got what I was aiming at and instead gripped the neck of my swimsuit and tore it open into shreds. The chill breeze escaping through the airy curtains touched my skin as I lay naked and bare under his gaze, breathing hard.