Total pages in book: 25
Estimated words: 23329 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 117(@200wpm)___ 93(@250wpm)___ 78(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 23329 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 117(@200wpm)___ 93(@250wpm)___ 78(@300wpm)
I hesitate, my hand still around Brady's throat as he begins to lose consciousness. Everything in me screams for blood. It's what the motherfucker deserves. But I slowly pry my fingers from around his throat, allowing him to suck in a breath.
He deserves death. But Aurora deserves peace more.
She's still awake when I make it home. She meets me at the door, wrapped in a blanket. Her eyes are wide and haunted. It's obvious she's done nothing but stress and worry since I left the house.
I walk right up to her and pull the blanket loose before scooping her up into my arms. We don't speak as I carry her through the house to our bedroom and lay her in the bed.
We don't speak as I undress.
Neither of us says anything until I crawl into bed beside her and drag her into my arms.
"Is he…?"
"Alive."
The tension leaves her body all at once. She sinks into me, melting as if the weight of the world just left her delicate shoulders. That right there is all I need to know I made the right decision tonight. He didn't deserve mercy, but he got it anyway.
For her.
Always, for her.
"Thank you," she whispers.
I brush my lips across her crown, breathing her in. "He should be the one thanking you, starlight. He's alive because of you."
"Because of me?"
"You've lost enough because of that motherfucker. Killing him would have meant letting him take something else from you. You deserve peace."
"So do you."
I smile in the dark, rolling her beneath me. "Haven't you heard, starlight?" I seek her mouth with mine. "You are my peace."
Epilogue
Aurora
Five Years Later
"Fuck, starlight," Constantine growls, his fist wrapped around my hair as he thrusts into my mouth. His gorgeous eyes are at half-mast, locked on my face as he watches his cock disappear between my lips. "You're trying to kill me, aren't you?"
I shake my head around him, running my tongue all over his shaft. And then I hollow my cheeks, sucking hard just the way he likes.
He curses, falling from my lips.
Before I can even protest, I'm in his arms with my back against the shower wall as he thrusts into me. His mouth comes down on mine, swallowing my cry of ecstasy. I claw at his shoulders, sobbing his name as he pounds into me.
"Perfect," he groans as my body quickens around him and I fall over the edge, unable to hold off the orgasm. With him, I never can. He won't let me. He takes me to heaven over and over, filling my life with more pleasure than I know what to do with.
This is my sacrifice. This is my future.
I've never been happier. Neither has he. Our world isn't perfect. What happened to me five years ago changed a lot of things. I trust less now than I did then. My uncle and my father's oldest friend betrayed our family…they betrayed me. I may never entirely get over that.
But they've paid for their crimes. They were both sentenced to prison for their role in my kidnapping. Because of my uncle's history, he probably won't ever step foot outside of a prison again. The world inside hasn't exactly been kind to him. He's been beat up, stabbed, and targeted by cartels more than once on the inside.
I don't feel sorry for him. He made his bed. He can wallow in it alone. And he is alone. But I'm not. I spent two months locked in hell…and five years in heaven with the man who carried me out of there.
Constantine is my world now. He's the dark matter the makes up my entire universe, my knight. He's by my side through everything, and I'm by his. He is who he who is, and I love him fiercely. Exactly as he is.
He's learned to love himself too. I think the day he decided to let Brady live, he finally realized that he never needed redeeming. He may do bad things, but that will never make him evil. It will never make him bad. He faced the darkest part of his soul, and he didn't let it win.
"I love you." He drops his forehead against mine, his breath washing across my face as he releases inside me. "Fuck, I love you, starlight."
"Why are we here?" I whisper an hour later, clinging to his hand like it's a lifeline as he pulls up in front of the house where our story began five years ago. My stomach churns, anxiety clawing up my throat. I haven't been back here. I haven't even stepped foot in Copper Creek in the last five years.
"It's okay, starlight." He hooks his arm around my waist, hauling me up against him. His hand splays across my pregnant belly, cradling our baby girl. I still can't believe we're going to be parents again. Her big brothers are with my dad. "I promise this will be worth it."