Beloved is fate. It’s destiny. I didn’t have a choice. Besides,” he reached up to brush a thumb across her lower lip. “You were worth it. Even more than that. I would have waited forever, so long as I knew you were coming.”
“You…” Too many things were happening at once for any single thing to be said. Her whole soul crowded into her throat at once and nothing was going to make it out. She had to sit up to make room for it all.
“It was tough at first, I’ll admit, but I just had to trust that eventually you would see me as more than a tutor. And thankfully, Rhys was too stupid to see what a miracle he had standing before him.” A single finger traced a line down her neck. “His loss is my gain.”
A part of Tiffany wanted to balk—to protest that her life was her own, and if there was a Beloved to be found, she would damn well have a voice in choosing him. To tell Nero that her fate would be determined by nobody but her.
That tiny fire died as soon as it had its first spark.
Because fate had chosen. And she knew it. The great expanse of man spread calmly beneath her was proof. There had always been a pull inside her toward him, and she had chalked it up to everything other than being his Beloved. Because she had been so sure of so many other things. Here, in the face of the truth, they all melted away.
From the pool of all that certainty, Nero rose. Calm, steady and present. Always with the right thing to say because his soul knew what hers needed to hear. The beauty of being a Beloved was that the words could never be false or calculated. They simply were. And besides, as a witch, she could reject him, leave him to spend eternity wandering around without a Beloved.
But in that instant, beyond any doubt her mind might offer, she knew she had what she wanted—Nero.
As improbable as it seemed, he wanted her too. He had already demonstrated it once, and it looked for all the world like they were about to surrender to it again.
“We’ve reached a crossroads, my love,” he said at last.
“What’s that?”
“We can either admit where we stand and what we are, or you can let me go.” He looked down, and her eyes followed his to her fingers wrapped tightly around the base of his ready and waiting member.
“I think we both know the answer to that.”
And she held on, knowing she would never have to let go.
Twenty-Three
The morning broke utterly stunning, the pale, bright sunlight caressing Tiffany’s shoulders as she walked up the wide pathway toward OCU’s main building. She looked up into the flawless blue of the sky, and took a deep breath, feeling as if she was part of that light and the clear, infinite azure.
Her hand was warm in Nero’s, enjoying his rough skin on her own soft palm as he gave her a warm squeeze. She turned to look at him, and the expression on his face struck her right in the chest. It was a golden glow, freedom made manifest.
There is nothing in the world like being in love.
She had to correct herself just a little. She had thought she was in love with Rhys, but love was only true if it went both ways. She was safe to throw her heart at Nero because he would catch it every time.
Just for the joy of it, she stopped right in the middle of the pathway and turned to her lover. Nero smiled, his gorgeous, deep brown eyes glittering as if the sky had fallen into them. He stroked her cheek, and she put her hands up on his shoulders so she could go up to her tiptoes and kiss him. His hands found her waist, and tugged her close to him, bending her like a reed as she pressed herself against him.
“Careful,” he whispered. “You don’t want to make a scene right here on the front lawns of the admin building.”
“Don’t I?” She tilted her head, putting an affected look of thought on her face while she rubbed her chin. Nero laughed and kissed her again.
She swung their hands gently as they resumed their walk. Her eyes were lifted back to the sky again, and she raised her free hand to caress the air with her fingertips.
Five birds appeared in a whirl of color. They