After he’d allowed her to remember him, that was.
“Tell me,” she murmured. Even though she knew—
He pulled himself together. “We’re fine. And I can still fight and pull shifts at the Audience House. They’ve asked me to move out of the mansion, but I get that. It’s the First Family’s crib. The security risks are too great.” He took a deep breath. “My cousins can’t wait to spend some proper time with you. The Brothers and fighters as well—and their shellans, too. Wives, I mean.”
Erika blinked. “Wait… what—”
“Vishous, you know him—well, he does all the security, and he’s going to insist on coming here to upgrade your alarm system for the time being. And they are requiring us to move into a house that’s better equipped for my safety. You know, daytime shutters. A tunnel escape. A little more rural, to get away from a congestion of your kind. But you’d said you were open to relocating?”
She shook her head. “No. I mean, yes, of course. But I don’t understand. What went wrong then?”
Balthazar stared into space for a moment. “I love you with all that I am, all that I will ever be. And I don’t care what I have to give up to be with you and keep you happy and safe. It’s going to be my life’s work.”
Erika flushed, her heart warming inside the cage of her chest. Funny, she had waited a lifetime to hear those words, without being aware that they were what she’d wanted to hear. And now, sitting in a bedroom she had slept in for years… she was really and truly home.
But that was about him, wasn’t it. Not any street address.
“I love you, too.” She reached up and smoothed his hair. “I know this still must be hard for you. Moving out of—”
“Nah, that’s not the tough part.” His eyes searched her face. “I’d give up anything for you.”
When he leaned in a little farther, she lifted her lips for his kiss and they lingered in that suspended moment forever. Then again, love made everything an eternity, whether it was a gasp or a heartbeat… or decades of life together.
As he eased back, he looked down her body—and his eyebrows popped. “Um…”
“Oh, yeah.” She pulled at the bodice again. “It’s a little much.”
“Can I have a twirl? Just so I can see you properly.”
Standing up, she struck a pose in front of him and then spun on the ball of one foot, as close to a ballerina as a homicide detective with no dance training or innate talent could get.
Which was to say, she’d have had better luck pretending to be a linebacker.
Balthazar stroked his jaw. “Damn, woman. You are… a frickin’ smoke show in that dress.”
“I am? Really?” Okay, enough with the “pick-me girl” stuff. “I mean, of course I am.”
“I can ask Fritz to get me a suit? A proper one, with a tie and shoes that don’t have steel toes? And then I can take you out properly.”
Erika looked down at herself once again. Then she shook her head. “Actually, I think I’d like to just change into jeans? This is nice and all, and I guess I’ll keep it. But it doesn’t feel like me.”
Her man reached out and snagged her waist. Pulling her close, he lowered his lids and murmured, “So you want to take it off?”
“Yeah. Is that okay?”
Biting his lower lip with his fangs, he purred deep in his throat. “A-okay. And allow me to help you. Call me Mister Zipper, m’lady.”
When he stretched his arms up her back to the fastening, his face went right in between her breasts—and sure enough, the nuzzling and the licking left her liquid inside her skin.
“You’ve made all my wishes come true,” she whispered as the red dress fell to the floor.
“Just wait until I lay you down,” he vowed as he swept her off her feet.
Like only the man of her dreams could do.
As the male she loved did indeed lay her down and settle on top of her body, she smiled even though she wasn’t fooled. There was something else under his shift to a happier mood. But he’d tell her when he was ready, and whatever it was, they’d get through it.
Together, they could get through anything.
True love was like that.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
With so many thanks to the readers of the Black Dagger Brotherhood books! This has been a long, marvelous, exciting journey, and I can’t wait to see what happens next in this world we all love. I’d also like to thank Meg Ruley, Rebecca Scherer and everyone at JRA, and Hannah Braaten, Andrew Nguyên, Jennifer Bergstrom, Jennifer Long, and the entire family at Gallery Books and Simon & Schuster.