The Heart's Ashes (91 page)

As the last
high note rang out into the echo of my mind, David closed the cover
on the keys and rested his hand over it, smiling.

“
What you smilin’ at?” I looked up.

“
We have a while until Mike and Emily get back from the
shop.”

“
And?”

“
And from what I hear, there’s supposed to a child somewhere
in our future.”

My eyes
narrowed, but my lips smiled. “You…you want to do that, now?”

Dust motes
danced in the white sun filtering through the window over the
piano, and David’s fingers swept the air slowly, coming to rest
along my cheeks as he planted the softest, sweetest kiss on my
lips. “Yes, now.”

My eyes opened
from their involuntary close, and I marvelled at the electric blue
David’s became with my lustful energy; the energy that filled my
veins, charging my touch with a shock that could be, at the same
time as dangerous, also very intimate.

“
I love that feeling,” he said, closing his eyes, savouring it
as if he’d tasted a sweet treat for the first time.

“
And I love this feeling.” I placed my hand over
his.

David’s whole
demeanour changed then; he lifted me suddenly, placing me on top of
the piano.

“
What are you doing?” I asked.

“
Showing you what it’s like to make love on a piano
top.”

With a hot,
shaky breath, I let my legs fall softly open as David traced the
inner curve of my thigh, all the way up—resting his fingertips
against my underwear.

“
Lay back,” he said with a half-smile, and slid his other hand
under my skirt.

Carefully, I
rolled backward, feeling each vertebra in my spine as it touched
the hard, glossy surface of the piano and the cold under me as he
removed my lacy delicates. “Do you really want our child to be
conceived on such an uncomfortable surface?”

“
Ara, my love, to have a child with you would be like filling
my soul with light. I don’t care where or how we conceive her, it
will be a miracle just to create life with you.”

Aw
. “I love you, David.”

“
I love you, too, Ara, my beautiful—” he kissed my nose,
“—delicate, rose.”

“
Forever?” I whispered.

He smiled as
he kissed my lips but didn’t answer.

And like a carefully choreographed dance, David pressed
himself between my legs, cradling my hips the way only
his
hands knew how. I
closed my eyes, breathing the warmth of the man I love, revelling
in the perfection of his vampire touch.

So many things
had been lost in our lives and yet, after all the heartache, after
all the chaos, so many new, great things had been discovered. We
found that, no matter what, our love is strong enough to overcome
torture, death, separation, and anything else fate can think of to
throw at us. And that for all the times the world tried to tear us
apart, we’d always find a way to come back to each other—to find
the warm embrace of eternal love, and never, ever let it go.

At last, I am
immortal.

At last, I am
in David’s arms.

And at last,
we have forever; his forever, and my forever.

Finally
the same.

^{Coming soon...}

Mark of Betrayal

Book IV of
Dark Secrets

“
Now
she wears the Mark of Betrayal; the cursed rune of one who will
eternally suffer the consequences of her own undoing.”

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