“Why?” Serena whispered as more tears slid down her cheeks.
“Because… I choose you.” I held her hand tightly. “Because you own my heart.” She started sobbing quietly. “Because as Ash said, we’re only given moments, and I’m choosing to live mine with the truth.”
The funeral ended with a prayer.
And I confidently wrapped an arm around Serena and walked her away from everyone.
She could ride with me back to her parents’ house for food.
She could hold my hand if she needed comfort.
And she would be kissing my mouth for sustenance.
I was hers.
She was mine.
“As long as we both shall live,” I swore.
“As long as we both shall live,” she repeated.
Amen.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Serena
We held hands the entire drive back to my house. Junior’s eyes were locked on the road, but his hand gripped mine so tight I could swear I felt the imprint of his ring on his finger.
The Nicolasi ring.
The crest.
The heaviness of the Nicolasi Kingdom resting on his shoulders as well as a fallen kingdom that he’d helped resurrect.
Who knew a few weeks ago, we would be in this position?
“His speech was beautiful.” I tried to keep the terror out of my voice, but it was nearly impossible. All I kept thinking was what happened if that was Junior, and how I wouldn’t live if it was.
I would never forgive the person who took him away from me.
Never.
“You’re beautiful.” Junior brought my hand to his lips and then turned down a dirt road outside the city. We were still miles from my house.
“We could go out like Romeo and Juliet,” I suggested.
Junior cursed and turned off the car; then his hands were in my hair as his mouth devoured mine, his tongue tasted like whiskey as it flicked and teased me, making promises we both knew he couldn’t keep.
Like forever.
We broke apart, panting.
“I love you.” Tears formed in my eyes as I crawled over the console and straddled him, I’d never been more thankful he had a stupid Maserati.
Junior’s mouth parted as he pressed hungry kisses to my chin and down my neck, his hands already lifting my form-fitting thankfully, stretchy, body con dress up to my hips.
He let out a curse when his hands hit bare ass.
I grinned down at him. “Well, you keep ripping them—”
“Fuck, I love you.” Our mouths crashed together as I worked the front of his black dress pants, pulling him free. He was always so ready for me, so hard, every huge inch of him… hard and throbbing for me.
We broke apart as he helped lift me onto him, and then I was taking him as slowly as I could, until I felt him in my soul, so deep I had to suck in a sharp breath to keep from tensing up.
“In another life…” He pressed a tender kiss to the corner of my mouth. “We had ten kids.”
“Ten?” I laughed through my tears. Through my pleasure. Through my heartache. “Why ten?”
“Because you can’t keep your hands off of me,” he growled against my mouth then nipped my lips before sucking them so hard that I cried out against him, the feeling of his mouth sucking, his body moving beneath me was almost too much to take.
“That’s true,” I panted.
“And in another life, your father wouldn’t kill me for loving you. I would have seen you pregnant with my children; I would have my ring on your finger. I would have your blood etched on my fucking soul, and I would give you my name.”
Tears dripped off my chin as I nodded my head. “Serena Nicolasi.” I gasped and then changed my mind. “No. Serena De Lange-Nicolasi. Because if I get to marry the king, I want him all. The bad parts, the good. I want the forbidden. I want the Phoenix.”
“I don’t want to let go,” Junior confessed. “I’m so close, always with you, so close to the edge.”
“I’ll jump with you,” I swore. “And Junior…” My body shook as he filled me harder as I took him deeper. “You aren’t alone.”
We both came apart, Junior whispering my name with reverence, me screaming his name like a claiming.
When I looked down, he had pulled the Nicolasi crest ring from his finger and slid it onto my left hand. “Just in case.”
“Don’t say that, please don’t—”
He kissed away my protests.
My fears.
I realized in that moment, I might have been kissing a Nicolasi heir, but it was the De Lange blood that had claimed me, over and over again, and it was that crest that I wanted pressed against my skin, that name I would shout over and over again until the world heard my outrage.
He was mine.
And if he went down.
I was going down right by his side.
“They’ll be waiting for us.” Junior sighed.
“Let them wait, just a little bit longer…” I kissed him softly. “Let them wait until we’re ready.”