had enough time and opportunity to test that. To search my feelings. I asked myself at least a thousand times. But it’s more than my body’s response. That painting you sent me is proof of it. We have something real. Something more than just a genetic match.”
“I am so glad that you feel the same,” he says in a rush. “I do not know how to express these emotions. Not even the courtship training has prepared me for this. You bring something out of me that I did not know existed before.
“It’s more than my sexual desire for you. More than the beautiful things you have helped me see in the world. It’s everything about you. If I were better with words, if I were a poet, maybe then I could express my love more eloquently. And I will spend the rest of my life searching for a way to show you what you mean to me.”
A tear slides down my cheek, and I wipe it away. I yearn deeply to fall into his arms, lay my head against his chest, to feel him wrap himself around me, holding me in his strength and protection. But something holds me back, that nagging sense of betrayal that brings up every other deception I’ve ever experienced from a man. No matter how much I want to forgive him, I can’t.
“I found out how the council meeting was leaked. It wasn’t any of the members. The press had bugged the antechamber outside the Council Hall. Which is, of course, an act of treason and punishable by life in prison, if not death.”
I gasp, covering my mouth with my hand. I shake my head, turning away and continuing down the beach. He hurries along beside me, and we walk in silence until we come to a pier. The day is fading, and the air is growing cold as the sun dips on the distant horizon.
Colors bleed into the sea—red, yellow, orange, and gold. I stare out at the beauty of the scene, feeling as if those colors bleed into my heart and my soul. I realize then that I want to forgive him. I want to just let it all go.
I want to forget that my father left me when I needed him the most. I want to forget that Ashton cheated on me with an internet hoe. And I want more than anything to forget that Jaxxo was pressured into revealing details of our intimate life.
I reach out to him and take his hand. He gazes at me with such tenderness and hope in his eyes that it breaks my heart that I ever doubted him. And then I let myself do what I wanted to since I first saw him on the doorstep of his house. I step into his embrace and let him envelop me in his arms.
25
She accepts my embrace, and I am overcome with joy. My love for her is as powerful and as vast as the ocean behind me. She stares up into my eyes, and I claim her mouth. She opens to me, her kiss sweet and yielding. I grow stiff with desire instantly, and I know I must have her.
I lift her from her feet, and she does not protest as I carry her down the shore to the pier house. This is all my estate, and the tiny house on the pier belongs to me as well.
I carry her through the narrow door into the small cabin and lay her on the bed. I tell the AI to light a fire in the hearth as I lay down beside her. Heat blooms in the chill air as our kisses deepen. She groans into my mouth as my hands roam her body. She is dressed in a pink-and-yellow wrap that I easily untie, revealing her pale curves.
My hungry eyes rove her flesh, feasting on the sight of her prone body before me. I inhale the scent of her arousal, knowing that she grows wet for me.
“Jaxxo,” she whispers as I kiss her cheeks and forehead, sliding my palms over her smooth skin. “Touch me, Jaxxo.” She moves my hand between her legs, and I flick my fingers between her wet folds. She quivers and gasps at the contact.
My cock is as hard as a saber for her, and I am throbbing to be inside her. I tap at her clit, and she gushes moisture over my fingers. She licks and nibbles at my ear.
Her hands reach